Absurdle
Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2022 7:27 pm
https://qntm.org/files/absurdle/absurdle.html
One of the many clones/variations of Wordle out there. Absurdle is like playing Wordle against a total asshole.
First off, for reference, did you know that there are only 13,000 legal words you can guess in Wordle, and of those, there are only 2,135 potential answers? Apparently it's written into the code of the game which is easily viewable. Weird.
So anyway, Absurdle uses that same set of potential words, but it doesn't actually pick a word at the start. Instead, when you make a guess, it examines all the possible responses it could give for color-coding your letters, compares those responses to potential answers to the puzzle, and then gives you the response that has the biggest pool of possible solutions. So every guess you make slowly narrows down the pool of possible answers it could give, until finally you corner it and it has no choice but to declare your guess correct. It's tough.
It's also completely deterministic, so of you repeat the same guesses in the same order, you will always arrive at the same answer. Apparently, the best anyone has managed is a set of guesses that box it in after four guesses. My personal best is six. Usually I'm at 7-9. It does give you the option to backup and try different words to see what happens, but I always play through and then start again with a totally different word.
I don't imagine I'll get more than a couple days out of this, but for the moment, I find it very interesting.
One of the many clones/variations of Wordle out there. Absurdle is like playing Wordle against a total asshole.
First off, for reference, did you know that there are only 13,000 legal words you can guess in Wordle, and of those, there are only 2,135 potential answers? Apparently it's written into the code of the game which is easily viewable. Weird.
So anyway, Absurdle uses that same set of potential words, but it doesn't actually pick a word at the start. Instead, when you make a guess, it examines all the possible responses it could give for color-coding your letters, compares those responses to potential answers to the puzzle, and then gives you the response that has the biggest pool of possible solutions. So every guess you make slowly narrows down the pool of possible answers it could give, until finally you corner it and it has no choice but to declare your guess correct. It's tough.
It's also completely deterministic, so of you repeat the same guesses in the same order, you will always arrive at the same answer. Apparently, the best anyone has managed is a set of guesses that box it in after four guesses. My personal best is six. Usually I'm at 7-9. It does give you the option to backup and try different words to see what happens, but I always play through and then start again with a totally different word.
I don't imagine I'll get more than a couple days out of this, but for the moment, I find it very interesting.
