Opener Lab

BRAIN vs SLART

See which word leaves you with the easier game.

SLART leads in the previous complete six-turn benchmark

These game-length figures come from the previous complete opener benchmark against its 2,354-answer snapshot, ranked by average guesses among games solved within six. Its answer snapshot and continuation policy are separate from today's solver recommendations.

The same solver played from both openers. SLART has the lower average in games solved within six: 3.55 guesses to 3.60 for BRAIN.

Looking only at the opening row, SLART has higher entropy (5.63 bits versus 5.09). That describes first-guess separation, not the full solve on its own.

MetricBRAINSLART
Elimination94.6%96.3%
Information5.09 bits5.63 bits
Avg remaining128 words88 words
Avg turns3.603.55
Win rate99.9%100.0%
TierBA

What to expect from the first guess

OutcomeBRAINSLART
First-turn solve* 0.04% 0%
At least one green 36.1% 40.8%
Any green or yellow 85.8% 89.3%
Whole row gray 14.2% 10.7%
Worst case answers left 336 252

*Treating every word in the possible-answer list as equally likely.

A fully gray row is rarer with SLART: it happens 10.7% of the time, against 14.2% for BRAIN.

SLART is not on the possible-answer list, so it cannot solve the game on turn one here. It can still be a useful guess.

How these two openers fit together

BRAIN and SLART share 2 letters (A, R). Played as a pair they cover 8 distinct letters, which still gives the second word room to do useful work.

Played back to back, BRAIN then SLART earns 8.00 bits of information in total, 2.37 bits more than the better word manages alone.

Past Wordle answers

  • BRAIN: Answer to the puzzle on September 28, 2024.
  • SLART: Has not been a past Wordle answer in this site's history.