Jottly strategy

Every game begins with a rules sheet. Look for three things: what the score reveals, whether the secret can change, and which constraints affect valid guesses. Those answers determine whether a broad opener, a controlled comparison, or a risky direct guess is useful.

During play, tap Rules to see the exact configuration again. Community games can combine familiar mechanics in unfamiliar ways, so their title alone is never the contract.

Green tells you a letter and its position. Yellow tells you a letter belongs somewhere else. Gray removes a possibility unless the game's duplicate rules leave room for another copy.

• Open broadly. Early words with common, distinct letters usually reveal more than repeated letters.
• Move yellows deliberately. Do not keep a known misplaced letter in the same slot.
• Respect duplicate rules. A game that must repeat letters asks for a different search than one that forbids them.

Cowpoke separates letters in the correct position from letters that belong elsewhere, but does not identify them. Compare guesses that change as little as possible. When one letter moves and the position score changes, you have isolated useful positional evidence.

The two scores describe different groups. Add them to learn the total number of matching letters in the guess.

Classic gives one number: how many letters your guess shares with the secret. Once some letters are known to be absent, use them as controls around one unknown letter. If only that unknown can change the score, the result answers one clean question.

When the score says every letter matches but the word is wrong, stop searching for letters and start arranging them. The confirmed row is there to help with exactly that transition.

The target may change after every guess, but every clue you have seen remains true. Think in terms of the remaining family of possible words instead of one imagined answer. Choose guesses that divide that family sharply, then lock down letters and positions until nowhere remains to move.

Gray letters stay eliminated. Yellow and green discoveries stay useful even when the eventual answer changes.

Required letters, excluded letters, delayed or disappearing feedback, shared openers, purchasable hints, clue boosts, and unusual ending rules all change the value of a guess. Identify the special rule first. If a game feels good, save it. If it sparks a better idea, remix it.