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From time to time, Wordle throws at us one of its most difficult types of games. And today is one of those days.
In fact, Wordle #749 is one of the hardest games we’ve played so far this year. Harder than Borax, harder than Hound, harder than Cocoa and Kayak and even harder than Maize. So hard that #Wordle749 is trending on Twitter and people are losing their streak.
So what is it that makes it so difficult – and how can you make sure you solve a puzzle like today’s without turning to Wordle hints for help?
To explain, I have to discuss the game in detail – which means Spoilers for The World #749, Saturday, July 8, 2023, Follow After This Point, If you haven’t played yet, don’t read any further!
How hard is today’s Wordle?
There are several ways to assess the difficulty of a Wordle answer, and some of them live on on Twitter. A sure sign thatWordle 749X‘ is already trending high on the platform, with a long line of people posting that they’ve lost their rhythm today.
Such hateful words.8 July 2023
Annoying! #wordle7498 July 2023
One of those words where it could have been anything Good luck fellow Wordlers and have a nice day Wordle 749 🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 pic.twitter.com/DSMrLIJTcQ7 July 2023
Wordle 749 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩😡😤🤬 Good luck! 🍀🤞🏼#Wordle749#WordleWonderLeague pic.twitter.com/KYkv9bfMvd7 July 2023
Wordle 749 words!!!8 July 2023
want to see another wordal statistics Twitter account, which records the number of people who fail each puzzle. However, it doesn’t update until the next day, so we can’t use it to evaluate Wordle #749.
We can look to Wordlebot, the AI assistant tool for The New York Times. It samples thousands of games each day and records the average score for each one – and right now, the average is at 5.0.
Yes, 5.0.
I don’t know the average score for each Wordle yet, partly because Wordlebot launched only halfway through the game’s lifetime. But I have about 350 or so listed on a spreadsheet, including all due in 2023 so far. And by that measure, today’s answer is the 6th hardest answer of the year and the 11th hardest answer of all time.
To put this into context, the overall average is around 4.0 – so a 5.0 is considerably more difficult and dangerously close to violating the game’s six-guess-and-you’re-out rule.
I’ll assume that if you’re still reading, you’ve finished playing, so let’s talk about today’s answer: COWER.
It’s not a very difficult word, is it? Well, problem is, it ends up in the ER.
lots of options
These kinds of wordles – let’s call them the ER game – have a particular problem, identified by the repeated cries of ‘too many options’ from those crying their luck on Twitter.
The problem is that there are too many possible combinations. Obviously the number of options open to you will depend on which of the best Wordle opening words you use – or indeed, if you use any words at all – but either way, there will be many. .
Early last year, shortly after Wordle exploded in popularity, I spent a few hours analyzing letter data from the original 2,309 replies to Tom’s Guide, a companion site to TechRadar. My Wordle analysis found that there are 141 answers that end in ER, a total that is far more than any other ending combination. The next most common ending combo, CH, occurs only 56 times.
The greater danger lies in the fact that once you figure out that it ends in ER, and it has an O in the second place, there are still 16 possible starting letters and 16 that could be the third letter. That’s pretty much it to be able to easily limit things in the rest of your estimations.
Let’s take my game today as an example:
I highlight the e and r on the first guess, and by the end of the second I’ve ruled out the two vowels, a and i, as well as the five most common consonants: s, t, l, n and d.
However, according to WordleBot, I still had at least 38 possible solutions open. These include Boxer, Cover, Cower, Fever, Foyer, Gopher, Hover, Joker, Mover, Power, Roger, Referer, and Upper – or in other words, almost all the remaining letters of the alphabet!
If you play Wordle on hard mode it can be almost impossible to win this kind of game unless you plan for the possibility and play very, very carefully. Even then, you’ll probably need some luck along the way.
If you don’t play on hard mode, you can at least limit things by playing ‘throwaway’ words that use as many remaining letters as possible.
However, getting it right can be challenging enough in itself. I went with CHOMP to in/out C, M, H and P, and (hopefully) confirm that the second tone was O.
I was lucky: If none of those letters had been included, I’d still have had the choice of buyer, less, feverish, queer, referer, freer, or fryer, according to Wordlebot — and with only three guesses left. , I would have In Trouble.
Even if the O turned yellow, I could still have a choice between Foyer, Offer, Boxer, Rover, Joker, Rover, Gopher, Bower, and Roger.
Anyway, I got lucky: with the C on the green, I now had a straightforward choice between cower, cover and the less likely corer, and finished home with 5/6.
But many others today will not be so lucky. If you are one of them, the tips given below can help you perform better next time.
Tips to solve Wordle like today
1. Use a Good Opening Word
I’ll repeat this mantra whenever I give advice about Wordle, because it’s the single most important step you can take to extend your streak. Many people like to use a different word every day, and that’s fine – but you have to accept that your chances of failing will go up on average.
Read my guide to the best Wordle opening words, pick one you like, then stick with it. it’s the only way.
2. Recognize ER Patterns Early
Given that there are so many possible solutions in ER terms, it is important that you recognize the pitfalls as early as possible. Obviously you have an advantage if your opening word includes those two letters; Mine is the same as that of crate, crane and trace. You’ll want to play both of those letters until the end of the second guess, unless you know for sure it’s not an ER word (because, for example, you already got a green Y at the end. Is).
3. Find the Second Tone
The next step is to find out whether it is a -A-ER, -E-ER, -I-ER, -O-ER or -U-ER word. You should be able to combine this with step 4…
4. Narrow down those recipes
Once you know the puzzle ends with ER, at least on normal mode, you can forget about those two letters and put the others in those places to limit things as quickly as possible. can start playing. No, you won’t be able to score a 3/6 – but that’s not going to happen anyway. Your objective is to escape while keeping your streak intact.
5. List Your Options
On days like these, I find it really helpful to write down as many options as I can think of. This helps me identify which letters can still be included and therefore which words I should play on my third, fourth, and fifth guesses to narrow things down. Look through all the words you listed and see which consonants they have in common. If V appears in six of them and K appears in only one, try to include V first, and so on.
After that, it’s just a matter of crossing your fingers and hoping that things work out. And if they don’t? Well, take comfort in the fact that you will not be the only one to fail on a day like today.
