Opening Pair Atlas
Score a two-word opening routine
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
Selected opening 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 | 9.413 bits | 5.18 | 25 | 9.7% | |
| 2 | 10 | 9.474 bits | 5.18 | 28 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | 10 | 9.401 bits | 5.24 | 23 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | 10 | 9.402 bits | 5.25 | 25 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | 10 | 9.376 bits | 5.33 | 28 | 9.7% | |
| 6 | 10 | 9.371 bits | 5.49 | 25 | 9.7% | |
| 7 | 10 | 9.323 bits | 5.66 | 27 | 7.3% | |
| 8 | 10 | 9.341 bits | 5.90 | 34 | 10.7% | |
| 9 | 10 | 9.336 bits | 5.92 | 34 | 10.7% | |
| 10 | 10 | 9.231 bits | 6.24 | 28 | 9.6% | |
| 11 | 10 | 9.184 bits | 6.53 | 32 | 8.5% | |
| 12 | 10 | 9.249 bits | 6.58 | 43 | 10.7% | |
| 13 | 10 | 9.171 bits | 6.79 | 29 | 9.9% | |
| 14 | 10 | 9.241 bits | 6.97 | 42 | 11.5% | |
| 15 | 10 | 9.148 bits | 7.20 | 44 | 9.9% | |
| 16 | 10 | 9.088 bits | 7.27 | 36 | 7.0% | |
| 17 | 10 | 9.064 bits | 7.41 | 33 | 10.7% | |
| 18 | 10 | 9.057 bits | 7.43 | 33 | 10.7% | |
| 19 | 10 | 9.037 bits | 7.52 | 32 | 7.3% | |
| 20 | 10 | 9.002 bits | 8.40 | 42 | 8.1% | |
| 21 | 10 | 8.778 bits | 8.67 | 42 | 7.0% | |
| 22 | 10 | 8.935 bits | 8.70 | 45 | 8.1% |
What is being measured
A fixed pair, not an adaptive strategy
Both words are forced across all 2,374 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 →