Absurdle

[Mike]

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.

[Mike]

Absurdle 6/∞








Six guesses. I started with the word adieu. Ended on jazzy.

[Phoebe]

WILL BE PLAYING THIS SOON, like... give me 8 minutes. Love the idea. Want to game the game and see what happens.

[Kyle]

Absurdle 7/∞

[Eliahad]

Absurdle 6/∞

[poorpete]

Absurdle 5/∞







My Trek:
Nerds
Plait
Cough
Bobby
Woozy
.

[Mike]

I am impressed.

[Mike]

Absurdle 5/∞







I also got five, but I actually got stuck at four, so I made a guess I knew was wrong just to narrow down letters. I got the right answer in six, but then backed it up and found I could use the answer at five.

Not a perfectly clean success, but I'm getting there.

My path:
FLING
ABORT
SPEAK
HEADY
MAUVE

[Eliahad]

Lofty to Scrum

Absurdle 5/∞

[Phoebe]

I played this while I was having to sit waiting in the car, and I played it six ways to Sunday until I satisfied myself about all the ways you can use or eliminate an x or a q and the same consonant repeated three times with one vowel and a y or two vowels, the depths were plumbed and now I am done. Good journey, rode this camel across every word desert.

[poorpete]

Tried to get as many letters as I could, while maintaining hard rules. missed out on F, G, and J.

Absurdle 8/∞










QUEUE
WOOZY
CHICK
VIVAS
PLAIT
MAXIM
NADIR
RABID

[Phoebe]

I have run across Maxim a couple different times in this particular game, lol! I had to start taking account of it and doing different things to get rid of it early.