Since launching back in October 2021, Wordle has quickly become the go-to game for hundreds of thousands of eager players around the world.
The daily word game gives players six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given after each guess in the form of coloured tiles – green indicating a letter is correct and in the right position, and yellow indicating a letter is correct but in the wrong position.
Now, the New York Times, which bought Wordle in January, has launched a new tool called WordleBot.
The bot will pick apart your Wordle strategy and offer you patronising advice about what you should have done differently.
‘We hope the bot’s advice will help you think about Wordle more analytically, which will help you get better at solving the puzzles in the long run,’ the New York Times said.
The New York Times, which bought Wordle in January, has launched a new tool called WordleBot
The WordleBot was announced last night and is described as a ‘companion’ for the daily word game.
‘WordleBot is a tool that will take your completed Wordle and analyze it for you,’ the New York Times explained.
‘It will give you overall scores for luck and skill on a scale from 0 to 99 and tell you at each turn what, if anything, you could have done differently — if solving Wordles in as few steps as possible is your goal.’
To use the tool, simply play Wordle as usual, before visiting the WordleBot here, where your answer will automatically be assessed.
Firstly, the bot will give you a score out of 99 for your skill and luck, alongside the average of players that day.
It will also show how the number of steps you took compares to the average.
Next, the bot analyses your guesses step by step, revealing what you should have done to reach the solution more quickly.
‘Every Wordle game starts with one of 2,309 possible solutions as the hidden word,’ the New York Times explained.
‘At each turn, WordleBot chooses the word that will allow it to solve the game in as few steps as possible, assuming any of the remaining solutions are equally likely.
‘It keeps doing this until only one solution remains — the right answer.’
Finally, the tool will compare your solution with its own, which seems rather unfair, given it’s a bot.
Aside from helping to improve your technique, the New York Times hopes the bot will help to resolve any arguments about the game.
Firstly, the bot will give you a score out of 99 for your skill and luck, alongside the average of players that day
Finally, the tool will compare your solution with its own, which seems rather unfair, given it’s a bot
‘It may serve as a tiebreaker of sorts for those of you involved in competitive text chains with friends and family,’ it said.
‘If a Wordle took you five turns but you answered more efficiently than your friends, WordleBot may provide some bragging rights.
‘If you did everything right and were simply unlucky, it will tell you that too.’
Since Wordle launched last year, one of the most contentious issues among players has been the best starting word.
A computer scientist in the US analysed the frequency of letters in the game, and claimed ‘LATER’ is the best term to start with.
Meanwhile, other players have claimed that ‘ADIEU’ is the best option, as it uses so many vowels.
However, WordleBot claims that neither of these words are the best option.
‘WordleBot solves the 2,309 possible Wordles using the fewest number of guesses when it starts with CRANE in normal mode and DEALT in hard mode,’ the New York Times said.
The launch of the WordleBot has had mixed reviews among players on Twitter.
One user wrote: ‘Very smart to add another hook to an already addictive game.’
Another added: ‘I don’t need your wordle bot. I think I am good at playing the wordle game “on my own way.”‘
And one joked: ‘I don’t need another robot judging me.’
Wordle is deceptively simple; you have six chances to guess a five-letter word.
While an estimated 300,000 people play the game daily, many are unaware of a secret ‘hard mode’.
Activating this mode means that ‘any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses’.
Wordle’s Hard Mode can be toggled on via the Settings, which can be found by tapping or clicking on the cog icon in the top right of the screen.
Activating it essentially means that players cannot put in a word with a completely different set of letters in order to uncover more letters.
If any green or yellow letters show up, they must be chosen in the next guess.
This is a tactic that many Wordle players have already been using, and can actually make it easier to complete the game.
