dailygames

Roughly, it grades you by how much you reduce the pool of possible answers with each guess. The total pool of Wordle words is somewhere around 2300, so to get the answer in 4 guesses, each guess needs to average removing 85% of the pool, something like 2300 > 345 > 52 > 8 > 1.

Side note: This is related to why I refuse to play hard mode. Sure it's technically more difficult, but it removes a huge strategic element of the game.

Let's say you have _OUND where _ could be any of BFHMPRSW. In hard mode, you just have to guess one at a time and hope you get lucky. In normal mode, you can guess something like BRUSH or WHOMP and knock 4 words out of the pool at once.

Here's my game today using this strategy for guess 2:

#Wordle1727 3/6 Grade: A

🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨 B
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ A
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 A+

https://gradle.app/#SP83VvGPfG9wTrV9

In hindsight, I should have done

spoiler

MORPH instead of OOMPH

, but I was in a rush at the time and got the same information anyway.

Edit to add: I suspect the optimal strategy for hard mode involves trying to get as many yellows as possible without hitting greens. I may test this the next time I don't have a streak to lose.