Wordle Strategy That Actually Gets You 3/6 (Not Just Lucky Guesses)

My Wordle average was 4.2 guesses for the first six months I played. Not bad, but not great. Then I started tracking patterns and thinking about letter frequency instead of just guessing words I liked. Within a month my average dropped to 3.4. Here is everything I learned.

Your First Guess Matters More Than You Think

The internet argues endlessly about the “best” starting word. CRANE, SLATE, ARISE, ADIEU, ROATE – everyone has their favorite. But the data from information theory tells a clear story: the best openers test the most common letters in the most common positions.

E, A, R, O, T are the five most frequent letters in 5-letter English words. S, L, I, N, C round out the top 10. Any starting word that covers 4-5 of the top 10 is a strong choice. SLATE hits S, L, A, T, E – all top 10. CRANE hits C, R, A, N, E – also all top 10. You really cannot go wrong with either one.

What does matter: do not start with a word that has repeated letters (like SPEED or HELLO). You are wasting information. Every letter in your first guess should be unique.

The Second Guess Is Where Games Are Won

Most Wordle advice focuses on the opener. But your second guess is where skilled players separate from average ones. After guess 1, you have 5 pieces of information (green, yellow, or gray for each letter). Use all of them.

If your first guess was SLATE and everything came back gray, you just eliminated 5 common letters. Your second guess should test 5 completely different letters. PRION or CHURN would cover new ground. Do not repeat any gray letters – that is the single most common beginner mistake.

If you got a green or two yellows, resist the temptation to immediately guess a word that fits. Instead, consider using your second guess to gather more information. A “diagnostic” guess that tests new letters while keeping your greens in place gives you a much better shot at solving on guess 3.

Hard Mode vs. Normal Mode

Hard mode forces you to use confirmed letters in every subsequent guess. Normal mode lets you guess anything. Counterintuitively, normal mode players often solve faster because they can make purely diagnostic guesses.

In normal mode, if you know the word has R and E but nothing else, you can guess a word like DOING that ignores R and E completely but tests 5 new letters. That is 10 letters tested in 2 guesses. Hard mode players cannot do this.

That said, hard mode forces better pattern recognition over time. If you want to get genuinely better at word games, play hard mode. If you want the best daily score, play normal.

Common Patterns the NYT Loves

After tracking answers for over a year, I have noticed the NYT tends to favor everyday English words over obscure ones. They rarely use proper nouns (never, actually – they are not valid). They occasionally use words with repeated letters (ABBEY, LLAMA) but less often than random chance would predict.

Double letters trip people up because most strategies assume 5 unique letters. If you are on guess 4 and nothing fits with unique letters, consider that one letter might appear twice.

The Endgame: Guesses 4, 5, and 6

By guess 4, you should have most of the word figured out. If you do not, something went wrong earlier – probably testing too few unique letters or repeating eliminated letters.

When you are down to 2-3 possibilities and running low on guesses, go with the most common English word. The NYT picks words that regular people would know. PLANE beats PLANA every time.

Stuck? Our Wordle Solver shows every valid possibility based on your known letters. The 5-Letter Words page is another good reference.