[paxys]

I don't like the "exploration" strategy of playing Wordle. Once you have a start word, work onwards from there (aka "hard mode") rather than enter another random guess to narrow down more letters. I know it is a valid strategy, but idk just feels like cheating to me.

[brianpan]

A few days ago I got 4 of 5 letters then lost with 3 wrong guesses at the last letter. I should have spent one turn getting 5 guesses at the last letter instead of spending 3 turns guessing 3 letters.

It's not cheating, it's the better way. If you don't like it, you can turn on hard mode!

[peeters]

It's too bad hard mode only requires that you use positive clues, not negative. I've been trying to push "true hard mode" with my work colleagues. Where every guess must be a potential winner given the information revealed thus far.

So, hard mode, plus no reusing grey letters, plus no using yellow letters in the same incorrect slot.

[alkonaut]

What, one can re-use a gray letter in hard mode? That's not hard enough!. I find the fun challenge isn't finding the final word but finding valid guesses (i.e. words that exist and aren't using any grays) along the way.

[albert_e]

this is my default approach unless really out of options i can think of

but i do slip up at times and jump to punch in a word that i later realize violates one of those yellow rules for instance

[reificator]

Go to the gear in the top right, and enable `Hard Mode - Any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses`.

[duderific]

I was playing hard mode accidentally. I didn't realize there was a more optimal way to play.

[kzrdude]

Without exploring, I just can't see any words that fit the known letters. I might not have that great imagination of words, or be that good to fit them to fixed clues.

[jsmeaton]

Agree. I used one of the strategies over a couple of days and it took all of the fun out of the game. Switching to hard mode brought all of that fun right back.

If you're going to write a program to optimise your guesses then why not just go to the source and pull the answer straight from the encoded answer list? I know people derive fun from these things in different ways but that's kind of where I landed.

[jackson1442]

Agreed. That strategy hasn't failed me yet, and it definitely makes me think a little harder.