Don't Wordle
Don’t Wordle is a free daily puzzle with similar appearance and gameplay as Wordle. In Wordle, the goal is to guess the 5 letter hidden word. In Don’t Wordle, the goal is to **not** guess the hidden word. Just like Wordle, after each guess, each letter is labeled as either green (correct letter, correct spot), yellow (correct letter, incorrect spot), or gray (letter not in the word). However, the strategy and feel of the game is completely different to Wordle, and many users find it frustrating. The full rules are explained here.
Wordle is calibrated so that it’s hard to win on the first guess, but the clues usually nudge you toward the answer before you run out of guesses. It’s surprisingly tough to _lose_ Wordle if you’re making an honest attempt to try to win. By the same virtue, it is surprisingly difficult to win at Don’t Wordle, because the game forces you to respect the information you have learned in previous guesses (i.e. you must re-use green letters in the same spot, and re-use yellow letters in a new spot) while still avoiding the hidden word. The **valid words remaining** shows at the top of the page to clue you in on how many words you can still play. It’s quite surprising just how quickly the number decreases. If the number gets uncomfortably low, you can use an undo to reverse course.
There are many different strategies for playing Don’t Wordle. The most basic strategy is to make a few guesses to derive the hidden word without accidentally guessing it, then undoing to reset the game and then you can intentionally avoid letters in the hidden word. It’s also very popular to use words with less common and repeat letters to save as many useful letters as possible for the later guesses. However, the "Purist" strategy is to start with a random word, not use any undos, and only use "common" words—that’s closest to the spirit of the game of trying to make an honest attempt to lose at Wordle.