A method for every board.
Good players aren't luckier — they follow a routine. This guide walks through one, guess by guess, and shows how to escape the trap that costs most players their last two rows.
We simulated a careful player on every one of GuessWord's 5,028 possible answers: they open with a strong word, and from then on always guess one of the words that still fits the board, choosing the one that splits the remaining answers best.
| Opener | Average guesses | In 3 or fewer | In 4 or fewer | Not solved in 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TARES | 4.06 | 33.6% | 74.1% | 4.3% |
| CRANE | 4.06 | 31.9% | 75.2% | 4.2% |
| ADIEU | 4.28 | 26.0% | 68.5% | 6.3% |
So a realistic target is solving in four guesses about three times out of four, with an average just over four. Even a careful player misses around one word in 25 — usually because of the trap described below.
Your first guess should test the letters that appear most often, in the positions they usually take. For the Daily word that means openers such as IRATE, ARISE or RAISE; for guest play, which is full of plurals, TALES or TARES. The best starting words guide has the full scores.
Your second guess depends on how much the first one found:
- Zero or one coloured tile: play five fresh letters. You don't know enough yet to aim at the answer, so gather information — after TARES, words such as BLOND, COULD or LOGIN cover the next most common letters.
- Two or more coloured tiles: start using them. Keep each green in place, move each amber to a new spot, and fill the other slots with letters you haven't tested.
Moving an amber letter matters: an amber tile tells you the letter is in the word and that this spot is wrong. Guessing it in the same place again wastes the information.
- Green: right letter, right spot. Never move it.
- Amber: right letter, wrong spot. Note every spot it has already failed in.
- Gray: the letter isn't in the word — unless another copy of the same letter is coloured, in which case the answer just has fewer copies than you guessed.
The keyboard dims gray letters for you, but it can't track where each amber letter has already been tried. Keep that in your head, or glance back up the board before every guess. The word patterns guide explains repeated letters in detail.
The most common way to lose is to find four letters and still have several words that fit. Cycling through them one at a time can burn every remaining row. Here's an example of how to avoid it:
- raiseR and S are in the word but misplaced; E is last. A and I are out.
- storeFour greens: S_ORE. But SHORE, SNORE, SPORE, SWORE and SCORE all fit — five candidates and four rows left.
- punchInstead of guessing one candidate, play a word that tests P, N, C and H at once. It can't be the answer, but the amber H settles it.
- shoreSolved in four, guaranteed — cycling could have taken six or more.
The rule: when three or more candidates differ in just one letter, spend a guess on a word that contains as many of those differing letters as possible. It feels like wasting a row; it's the opposite.
Signed-in players get a hint after four guesses without a solve: a short clue about the word's meaning that never reveals the word itself. In Infinite mode hints are free in the Stone and Iron tiers, and cost 1,000 coins from Copper up. Hints aren't available when you play without logging in.
A hint is most useful exactly in the trap above — when several words fit the letters, a clue about meaning picks the right one instantly. If only one word fits, save it.
- Open with a high-frequency word suited to your mode.
- Few colours? Play five fresh letters. Several? Start using them.
- Keep greens fixed, move ambers, never reuse a gray letter.
- Three or more candidates left? Test their differing letters together.
- Stuck on the last letters? Check for a repeated letter and the common endings for your mode.