Daily word puzzle strategy: solve it in fewer guesses

How the clues work

Type any real five letter word. Each letter then lights up one of three ways. In Letter Lantern the lanterns glow gold for the right letter in the right spot, teal for a letter that's in the word somewhere else, and stay dark for a letter that isn't in the word at all. The keyboard keeps track too, so you can see at a glance what's left.

Double letters follow the usual rule. If you guess two of a letter and the answer has only one, only one of your copies lights up. A dark second copy doesn't mean the letter is missing. It means there's only one.

The best starting words

A first guess has one job: find as many letters as possible. That means five different common letters, no repeats. We counted the letters in our own answer list to see which ones really come up:

• The most common letters are E, R, A, T, I, S, O, L and N, roughly in that order. E is in about half of all answers.
• S is the most common first letter by a wide margin, but very few answers end in S, because plurals are rare.
• E is by far the most common last letter, followed by T, R and Y.

That points to openers like STARE, IRATE, RAISE, ARISE and LATER. On average each one lights up close to two of the answer's letters on the first guess. STARE is our pick: it puts S first, where S usually sits, and E last, where E usually sits, so it has the best chance of a gold on row one.

Avoid openers that end in S. You spend a whole guess testing a spot that is almost never S.

A two word opening

If you like a fixed plan, follow STARE with CLOUD whatever the first row shows. Together they test ten different letters, including four of the five vowels, and you'll usually have three or four letters found before you start guessing for real.

The trade off: a fixed second word ignores what row one told you. If STARE lit up three letters, you're often better off using them right away. Use the two word opening when row one comes back mostly dark.

The middle rows: guess to learn

The classic trap is a word with one missing letter and lots of answers that fit. Say you've found _OUND. That could be BOUND, FOUND, HOUND, MOUND, ROUND, SOUND or WOUND. Guessing them one at a time can burn every row you have left.

Instead, guess a word that tests several of those first letters at once, even though it can't be the answer. A word containing F, H, M and R tells you in one row which of those four it is. That one sacrificed guess often saves two.

• Move teal letters. A teal T in the first spot means T is in the word but not first. Put it somewhere new next time to find its real home.
• Think in endings. If the last spot is gold E, Y or R, run through common endings like -ER, -LY, -NE and -SE before trying random letters.
• Remember doubles. About three answers in ten in our list repeat a letter. If nothing fits late in the game, try a double: words like ALLOW, AGREE and APPLE catch lots of people.

Hard mode changes the plan

In hard mode, every clue you find has to be used. A gold letter must stay in its spot and a teal letter must appear somewhere in later guesses. That rules out the guess to learn trick above, and it rules out the fixed STARE then CLOUD opening too.

So in hard mode, slow down on row two. Pick a word that keeps your clues and adds the most common untested letters. When you're down to a pattern like _OUND, try to reach it with as many untried first letters already used up as you can. In Letter Lantern, a hard mode win adds a star to your share grid and a bonus to your score.

More words, more practice

The Daily is the same word for everyone, new each day at midnight UTC, and it comes with a spoiler free share grid. If one word a day isn't enough, Lantern Run keeps going word after word until one beats you, and solving a word in three guesses or fewer earns a firefly that reveals a letter later. Big Lantern is the same game with six letters, which is noticeably harder.

For scoring and the Lantern Book, see our Letter Lantern guide. For a different daily word puzzle, try Word Huddle, where you sort words into hidden groups, or the word ladder in Step Stones.

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