Do You Like Wordle?

by Jeck Lim, Joseph Lubars, and Ursula Gartz

Answer:
GUTTURALS

Solvers are presented with 30 wordle boards they can solve simultaneously. However, it's impossible to win all of them, since there are only 6 attempts in total. The only option left after using those up is to restart, which resets the boards with all new words, which are randomly generated.

A line across the top of the page reads 1 to 30, which keeps track of which boards are solved. When a board is solved, the corresponding color on this board changes. The color of a solved board changes to either green or blue.

While words get reset randomly at the start of every new game, there is an underlying "secret" letter that corresponds to each board that does NOT change when the puzzle resets. If the secret letter was used at all during the solve attempt of a correct board, it will make the solved board number turn blue. If the secret letter was NOT used, once solved, the corresponding board number will turn green. When the game resets, the secret letter doesn't change, but the coloring does reset (the default for unsolved boards is white).

After playing several games, we may develop an understanding for what’s triggering the change in color to blue and try cataloging the missing numbers. They spell out BRING HQ X SMALL TOKEN OF TEAM'S EMOJI.

Once the team brings the small gift to HQ, we offer them the real puzzle's answer, GUTTURALS.

Interpretation of the colors in the first three solved boards, which correspond to the extracted "B" "R" and "I".

  1. First board was solved, but the letter B was not used throughout its solution, flashing green on the dashboard at the top.
  2. Second board was solved, the letter R was used in the guessing attempts (regardless of whether they're in the specific board's solution), flashing blue on the dashboard.
  3. Third board was solved, using the letter I.
  4. Fourth board (and all others remaining) were not solved, remaining white regardless of whether the right letters are used or not.