NerdleBuddy

Data-backed Nerdle strategy

Nerdle Strategy Guide

Make each guess tell you something useful. Start with the four habits below, then use the focused guides to understand your next move. The statistics come from NerdleBuddy’s 17,723 generated candidate answer forms.

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Play Today’s Classic Nerdle

Play today’s NerdleToday's NerdleBuddy Daily Puzzle

Quick Start Tips#

  1. 1Start with 52-34=18 — It leads our simulated opener ranking and uses eight distinct characters. Compare the full opener rankings to find an opener you can enter reliably; the leading choices finish very close together in our model.
  2. 2Make your second guess earn new information — Use the exact feedback from your first row to decide what to test. Move purple characters when you reuse them, and compare recommended second guesses for common opening patterns.
  3. 3Trust purple tiles — Purple means the character belongs in the answer, but this position is ruled out. Keep both parts of that clue in mind. New to the tile colors? How to Play Nerdle covers them with worked examples.
  4. 4Remember: = is always there — Every equation has exactly one equals sign, and its position tells you the answer’s whole structure. If you know where it isn’t, you narrow down where it must be.

For help with the board in front of you, enter your guesses in the solver and set each tile’s color. It will recommend a next move based on those clues (see how the recommendations work).

Best Starting Equations#

We ranked all 17,723 answer-form openers by the average number of guesses needed to finish under a simulated follow-up strategy. The leaders are close: each averages about three guesses across the model.

RankEquationAvg. RemainingExpected Total Guesses
#152-34=18~33 answers3.0
#248-32=16~31 answers3.0
#352-38=14~33 answers3.0
#454-36=18~33 answers3.0
#562-43=19~33 answers3.0

An opener that leaves fewer possibilities after one turn does not always finish sooner. In our simulation, 48-32=16 leaves about 31 answer forms after the first guess, while 52-34=18 leaves about 33 but finishes slightly earlier. The full rankings explain the method and its limits.

The top openers all follow one recipe: two-digit minus (or plus) two-digit equals two-digit, eight distinct characters drawn from the common digits, and the equals sign in its most common position. 78 of the top 100 are subtractions — subtraction appears in 44.1% of modeled answers, more than any other operator.

Compare the full opener rankings and methodology to see the complete table and how addition, subtraction, and division openers perform.

Digit Statistics#

Not all digits appear equally. Each bar counts how many of the 17,723 modeled answers contain the digit at least once:

0
4,464 · 25.2%
1
10,768 · 60.8%
2
9,274 · 52.3%
3
8,225 · 46.4%
4
8,368 · 47.2%
5
7,678 · 43.3%
6
7,992 · 45.1%
7
7,274 · 41.0%
8
7,588 · 42.8%
9
7,198 · 40.6%
Key insight: An answer is more likely than not to contain a 1 (60.8%) — no other digit clears 53% — while 0 appears in barely a quarter of modeled answers.

Common digits are useful starting clues because either presence or absence can rule out many possibilities. Once you have feedback, use the remaining candidates to choose your next digits; the full-pool frequencies are a starting point, not a reason to ignore a confirmed zero.

Read the full digit statistics to see how often each digit appears and why the model favors lower leading digits.

Operator Statistics#

Subtraction dominates and division is the rarest operator — which makes a confirmed ÷ unusually informative, since so few answers contain one. Each bar counts answers containing the operator; a two-operator answer counts toward both:

Subtraction (−)
7,810 · 44.1%
Addition (+)
6,839 · 38.6%
Multiplication (×)
5,574 · 31.5%
Division (÷)
4,024 · 22.7%
51.4%
of equations use exactly one operator
48.6%
use two or more operators

Use the full operator statistics to understand how an operator’s color changes the possibilities.

Where Does the Equals Sign Go?#

The equals-sign position tells you the equation’s whole shape:

Pos. 5
1,318 · 7.4%

4-character expression, 3-digit result

Pos. 6
10,515 · 59.3%

5-char expression, 2-digit result

Pos. 7
5,890 · 33.2%

6-char expression, 1-digit result

Pro tip: Position 6 is most common (59.3%): a 5-character expression and a 2-digit result. If your first guess pins down the = position, you’ve already narrowed the pool dramatically.

Use the equals-sign position guide to connect the tile’s position with the result’s length.

Nerdle’s Hidden Rules#

The generated model distinguishes equations you can guess from equations it includes as candidate answers:

Left-side lone zeros never appear in answers

Equations like 0+10-1=9 are valid guesses but never answers — the model excludes any standalone zero left of the equals sign. A result of exactly 0 is fine: 367 modeled answers end in =0.

67,346 guess forms vs 17,723 candidate answers

Nearly 4× more strings are legal to guess than can ever win. Lone-zero equations account for every one of the 49,623 modeled guess-only forms — useful probes that can never be the answer.

Read the guide to zeros, probes, and commutative answers before ruling out a guess just because it cannot be the answer.

Guide Topics#

Each topic is a focused page you can read in a few minutes. New to Nerdle? Start with the openers, then work down in order.

1. Best Starting Equations

Every opener ranked by expected total guesses under real Nerdle rules, and how our ranking differs from other guides.

Read guide
2. Digit Statistics

How many of the 17,723 modeled answer forms contain each digit, and why popular digits make faster guesses.

Read guide
3. Operator Statistics

Which operators dominate the answer pool, and the single- versus multi-operator split.

Read guide
4. Equals Sign Position

Where the equals sign lands, and what each position tells you about the answer's structure.

Read guide
5. Nerdle's Hidden Rules

Lone zeros, guess-only equations, probe guesses, and commutative wins — the rules most players never learn.

Read guide
6. Nerdle Strategy FAQ

Quick answers to the most common Nerdle strategy questions.

Read guide

Work through your current board

Enter your guesses and tile colors to compare the next moves that fit your feedback.

Find my next guess

Today's Nerdle answer#

Strategy is for the boards you want to win yourself. When you would rather just know — or you are checking a finished board — today's Nerdle answer is published here every day, verified against Nerdle's own archive before it goes up.

Stuck but not ready to see it? The hints page narrows today's answer one step at a time and never shows the equation.

Today's Nerdle answerToday's Nerdle hintsYesterday's Nerdle answer

Practice Your Strategy#

Try one habit on a puzzle, then review which guess helped most. NerdleBuddy’s original games include optional hints and a comparison with the saved strategy.

Play today’s NerdleBuddy puzzle

Play our original daily equation

Random Puzzle

Practice on another original equation

Puzzle Archive

Choose an original puzzle by date

Nerdle Solver

Get model-ranked suggestions

Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best Nerdle strategy?

Start with a reliable opener, use the exact row-one feedback to plan your second guess, and treat a purple tile as both a confirmed character and a ruled-out position. A probe can help when several possible answers are hard to distinguish.

How long does it take to get better at Nerdle?

Start with two habits you can practice today: use a consistent opener and decide what each follow-up guess is meant to test. Review a finished game to see which clue changed your plan.

Does this guide spoil today's Nerdle answer?

No — nothing on this page shows an answer. Today's Nerdle answer has its own page, published once the puzzle is verified, and the spoiler-free hints sit between the two.