Wordle’s Wordlebot will analyze how badly you played

Everyone has their own approach to playing Wordle. Some methods are arguably better than others. But what if a computer could help players perfect their gameplay? The New York Times just unveiled WordleBot, an optional feature that breaks down a completed game and reveals what players could have done to play more efficiently. We’ve all had rounds of Wordle where we’ve finally landed the winning word on the fifth try or were stumped completely. For those less than stellar attempts, WordleBot is likely to be a useful post-mortem.

Players also receive a score between 0 to 100 on luck and efficiency. This will likely up the ante amongst families or friend groups who compete to solve each game in the fewest tries possible. WordleBot also reveals how each player's score stacks up against others. Given the annoying Twitter craze of players posting Wordle scores in order to see how they measure up against others (or humblebrag), there’s no doubt a need for this. WordleBot's ratings are also a useful measure of whether a game was particularly hard, run-of-the-mill or unusually easy.

In a Q&A, the NYT gave a simple explanation of how WordleBot works: “Every Wordle game starts with one of 2,309 possible solutions as the hidden word. At each turn, WordleBot chooses the word that will allow it to solve the game in as few steps as possible, assuming any of the remaining solutions are equally likely."

For many players, WordleBot may simply be more information than they need. Especially if Wordle is just meant to be a fun distraction. But hardcore Wordle players or those who feel their gameplay has stagnated are likely to welcome the new feature. WordleBot could also bring back former players who want to know how much of their success was due to good gameplay — or just a lot of luck.