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by magneticnorth 3 hours ago
> The game quickly lost any challenge.

I only play on hard mode for this reason. My next guess must always be a possible answer based on my current information, and that varies the puzzle enough from day to day that I still find it enjoyable to play occasionally.
2 comments
dieselgate 2 hours ago
I haven't played wordle much since it was purchased but NYTimes ran a story in the last couple days saying how "Hard mode" is actually easier based on their research. Just throwing it out there as food for thought not in a "gotcha" sort of way.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/upshot/wordle-hard-mode.h...

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calfuris 1 hour ago
Hard mode forces most people to play smarter than they usually would. I'm not sure if that's the same as being easier. Hard mode is certainly harder for a skilled player, because that player could play normal mode as if it were hard mode but without having to worry about avoiding hard mode traps like _IGHT or SHA_E--if they encounter such a scenario they can just play known-bad words that check several possible solutions at once (e.g. FIRES for _IGHT to check FIGHT/RIGHT/EIGHT/SIGHT).
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empath75 2 hours ago
It's not "easier", it just forces a more guess-efficient strategy.
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drivers99 3 hours ago
Does that not lead you to situations where you have to guess the last letter on each round? Or do you choose words to avoid getting trapped in that situation in the first place?
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copypasterepeat 2 hours ago
I try to avoid the common traps, but it can be tricky.

I also impose this additional constraint on myself, which the game doesn't enforce, that I can't reuse letters that have been marked gray. Sometimes you just can't think of the next word, or might be tempted to use a gray letter because that way you could get more information from other letters, but I avoid using them.

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magneticnorth 2 hours ago
yes, I do the same thing. I wish there was a way to get the implementation to enforce that rule too so I never accidentally try a word that I already know can't be the answer.
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magneticnorth 2 hours ago
Yes, that does happen occasionally, and it's part of the game for me to try and avoid getting trapped like that.
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