Absurdle: the machiavellian version of Wordle - The Guardian

‘Absurdle is an experiment to find the most difficult possible variant of Wordle,’ says its creator.

Absurdle, on the other hand, never picks a specific answer, and instead pares down the list of potential solutions as little as possible with each entry.

The goal is to back Absurdle into a corner, where, through all of your guesses and potential letter arrangements, there is only one word in the dictionary that fits the algorithm that you and the game have created.

That game puts you in front of a cursed Tetris board that consistently serves up the worst possible piece.

“In the same way that Hatetris was an experiment to find the most difficult possible variant of Tetris, Absurdle is an experiment to find the most difficult possible variant of Wordle,” explains qntm.

“In both cases, I’m taking a seemingly single-player game and turning it into an adversarial, asymmetric two-player game; turning a passive computer into an opponent which is playing to win.

Already, a small contingency of obsessives have become consumed with the idea of Solving Wordle – breaking down this game to its core fundamentals through the raw power of coding and identifying the science-sealed ideal strategy to crush the puzzles, consistently, on the second or third try.

Achieving ideal Wordle strategy is one thing, ideal Absurdle strategy is quite another.

But qntm also balks at the idea that Absurdle somehow represents a more diabolical interpretation of our tranquil word game – one where we are engaged in an eternal duel with our smartphones.