Opening Pair Atlas
Score the two-word routine you really play
A pair can cover ten letters and still group answers badly. Test any ordered pair for joint information, average and worst-case shortlist size, overlap, and how often word two is actually legal in Hard Mode.
Pair calculator
Enter two accepted guesses
Order does not change joint information, but it does change whether the second word follows Hard Mode clues.
Calculated against the live pool
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- Joint information
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- Avg answers left
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- Worst case
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- Distinct outcomes
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Bounded benchmark
Featured memorable pairs
Ranked by average answers left, then worst case and joint information. This is an editorial comparison set, not all 110 million possible unordered pairs.
| # | Pair | Letters | Information | Avg left | Worst | Hard legal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 9.411 bits | 5.15 | 24 | 9.7% | |
| 2 | 10 | 9.470 bits | 5.15 | 28 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | 10 | 9.398 bits | 5.22 | 23 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | 10 | 9.397 bits | 5.23 | 25 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | 10 | 9.373 bits | 5.31 | 28 | 9.7% | |
| 6 | 10 | 9.366 bits | 5.47 | 25 | 9.7% | |
| 7 | 10 | 9.322 bits | 5.62 | 27 | 7.3% | |
| 8 | 10 | 9.341 bits | 5.84 | 33 | 10.7% | |
| 9 | 10 | 9.335 bits | 5.86 | 33 | 10.7% | |
| 10 | 10 | 9.229 bits | 6.18 | 27 | 9.7% | |
| 11 | 10 | 9.182 bits | 6.49 | 32 | 8.4% | |
| 12 | 10 | 9.248 bits | 6.55 | 43 | 10.7% | |
| 13 | 10 | 9.169 bits | 6.74 | 29 | 9.9% | |
| 14 | 10 | 9.237 bits | 6.91 | 41 | 11.5% | |
| 15 | 10 | 9.149 bits | 7.12 | 44 | 9.9% | |
| 16 | 10 | 9.079 bits | 7.27 | 36 | 7.0% | |
| 17 | 10 | 9.065 bits | 7.33 | 32 | 10.7% | |
| 18 | 10 | 9.058 bits | 7.37 | 32 | 10.7% | |
| 19 | 10 | 9.033 bits | 7.49 | 32 | 7.3% | |
| 20 | 10 | 9.003 bits | 8.31 | 42 | 8.1% | |
| 21 | 10 | 8.774 bits | 8.63 | 42 | 7.0% | |
| 22 | 10 | 8.928 bits | 8.70 | 45 | 8.1% |
What is being measured
A fixed pair, not an adaptive strategy
Both words are forced across all 2,358 equally weighted working answers, using the site’s 14,855-word captured accepted-guess list. Feedback signatures from both rows define each final shortlist.
A strong adaptive player changes word two after seeing row one. Use a second-guess playbook for that approach. The fixed-pair score instead answers whether a memorized routine is informative even when the first row points elsewhere.
“Hard legal” is the percentage of unsolved answers for which the second word reuses every green and yellow revealed by the first. It is order-sensitive. Read the data notes →