Opener Lab

RAINE vs SLANT

See which word leaves you with the easier game.

SLANT leads in the current bounded six-turn policy

Both words are in the current screen of 182 openers, tested against 2,358 answers. Exact misses rank first; average guesses among wins break ties.

The same solver played from both openers. SLANT has the lower average in games solved within six: 3.45 guesses to 3.48 for RAINE.

Looking only at the opening row, RAINE has higher entropy (5.78 bits versus 5.49). That describes first-guess separation, not the full solve on its own.

One thing RAINE does better is damage control. Its worst feedback pattern leaves 199 possible answers, while SLANT can be left staring at 326.

MetricRAINESLANT
Elimination97.1%95.7%
Information5.78 bits5.49 bits
Avg remaining68 words101 words
Avg turns3.483.45
Missed in six00
Win rate100.0%100.0%
TierAA

What to expect from the first guess

OutcomeRAINESLANT
First-turn solve* 0% 0.04%
At least one green 43.9% 41.4%
Any green or yellow 91.6% 86.2%
Whole row gray 8.4% 13.8%
Worst case answers left 199 326

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

A fully gray row is rarer with RAINE: it happens 8.4% of the time, against 13.8% for SLANT.

RAINE 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

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

Played back to back, RAINE then SLANT earns 8.63 bits of information in total, 2.85 bits more than the better word manages alone.

Past Wordle answers

  • RAINE: Has not been a past Wordle answer in this site's history.
  • SLANT: Has not been a past Wordle answer in this site's history.