I play Wordbox essentially every day and am crestfallen if I'm not deep on the left side of the score chart. My strategies continue to develop. For a while I gamed answers on a worksheet I printed out but found that it consumed a lot of time but didn't do much to improve my score. Now I've settled into a fully mental game. The occasional use of odd words adds a lot to the fun.
Echoing some others in this thread, I'd like to see some comparative and cumulative scoring.
Bottom line, Wordbox is a terrific game. Thanks for adding it.
spruce -- yeah letter frequency is not that useful with cryptograms as they're usually short rather unique pieces of text that don't normally conform to English letter frequency. wordbox words however do appear to somewhat conform. wordbox tends to slightly favor some words that have vowels on both ends as those help it build the grid, e.g. ALAMO or ALOHA or EDGE.
When trying to solve wordbox, if I have no idea about the word I'll look for two letters that both show in the same row/column and that conform to ideas of common letter placement and try swapping them. On a good day I'll first make sure I can think of one or more actual words that work with those letters.
But until the very end of the game I'm not able to consider multiple solved words and how they fit together.
And those elusive doubles... still no idea how to find 'em early on. It's just luck if I get a couple of those. Towards the end when I can spot multiple words I can think a bit about how to set 'em up, but that usually only nets me one or two at best.
Once I get a couple failed swaps on a board I'll tend to play the rest of it rather quickly but someday when we get persistent scoring on this stuff I'll need to still at least try so as to not damage my averages.
MrFixit
Have played on and off but starting to play everyday. I don't have much of a strategy yet but sometimes get pretty good results. I think the arrows are usually helpful but sometimes misleading.
WHOO HOO!!!! Personal best today: Puzzle B, 17 swaps, only 1 more swap than the best player(s)! My standards are based on how I did compared to everyone else, and usually there's some genius with a score of 14 (no idea how they do so well!) making me jealous. BUT TODAY I AM GENIUS!!!
@Jandar - the arrows give you a vague hint and can help you find a place to start, but as you said, they can make you think in the wrong direction. In the beginning it's just a lot of guesswork, really.
Jandar- the only way the arrows can make you think in the wrong direction is if you misinterpret them. Follow the logic. It's like MasterMind.
Contrats W@nnish- yeah, so far as I can tell the only realistic way to get those early doubles is pretty much pure luck. I might pick up a couple of more-or-less intentional doubles very near the end of solving the board when I can see what the remaining words are going to be. And of course the last one.
MrFixit
Enjoying wordbox. Got one in 14 and was thrilled
Usually takes more
Fun game
Please don't change the arrows. They're essential, I think, and it only takes a minute to see what they're saying. In some cases, they work together to confirm a move (e.g., if an E says it will move across and another E in the row below it says it can move up or down, you can zero in on the box the E should be in.)
Loving it! It's become part of my morning routine along with Wordle, the Quordles, and the Octordles.
https://wordbox.game
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9 Dec 2024 : 21 swaps
thanks for the fun game. I am playing every morning now - wordle, quordle, wordbox, connections. Keep the arrows. And my preference is NOT to time it. I think my times would be long.
I play it every day and love it! Yet oddly, I don't improve much over time.
Funny how this game goes: Yesterday, I was blazing hot from the outset, but fizzled and finished one out of the top score. Today was a constant struggle to find double-swaps, and I finished one out of the top score.
I swear, I don't understand my own mind. Today I started off cold with 27 swaps, then picked up my game with 17, then tanked again with 26, then finished hot with 15 swaps in the #1 position! Usually if I start cold I warm up by the last one, but this was all over the place! That #1 spot is mighty sweet though, gotta say (and yes, it will probably change by the end of the day). :)
@BuzzClik - I hear you. My game today was a perfect illustration of what you're talking about!
Started off the main board today with two doubles; then cooled off (with just one more double); then finished with three more doubles. Seemed like that should be an awesome score but it was only 20. Well behind a crowd at 17. Sigh.
https://wordbox.game
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20 Dec 2024 B: 14 swaps
I was happy with this until I looked at the score and saw several people got 12 and 13.
Yeah I think Eric "shuffles" by doing 12 swaps so I believe that's the theoretical limit for restoring to original order. Eric?
12 swaps? No.
Although I've experimented with that approach, it has never been deployed that way. The current shuffle code is more random than that, and does not result in a predictable minimum for a given puzzle, but this is likely to change when I get around to it.
Since getting another shot at the puzzle is just a matter of switching browsers, I've a mind that a lot of those low scores are reverse engineered.
@nancyleeeric Same! I eat breakfast, drink coffee, and swap letters. The Holy Morning Trinity!
@redberet SERIOUSLY??? Well, that makes me feel better. I've been noticing the 12 swap scores lately and wondering how they did it! The usual high score used to be 14 and above.
@redberet -- SERIOUSLY?!?? Who thinks like that?!? Who would try to game such a system?? I think we can be quite sure it must be someone accessing the game through some other pathway. We don't have *anybody* here who would do such a thing. Imagine! SERIOUSLY?!?
Even looking at a completely solved board it would be hard to find the optimal path for maximizing your doubles.
Merry Christmas, fellow WordBoxers!!! I made myself a nice Christmas present today: 20 swaps on the first puzzle, one more swap than the best score. I sucked so bad yesterday I thought I'd lost my skills, so this is a Christmas miracle! (Ok, spoke too soon - just got the #1 position with 15 swaps on Puzzle A. The miracle continues!)
Final report: Puzzle B was 17 swaps, 3 from the top, and Puzzle C was an abysmal 23, 8 from the top. After all that original glory, the only place to go was down! :D
https://wordbox.game
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25 Dec 2024 : 20 swaps
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2 Jan 2025 A: 15 swaps
Clue-rich grid.
Even better
https://wordbox.game
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2 Jan 2025 B: 14 swaps
Nicely done.
https://wordbox.game
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2 Jan 2025 B: 15 swaps
Ok everyone stop playing wordbox immediately. My score is the far column for 3 out of 4 games. Need to be able to share the histogram which should say something like «god amoung men» or «level: extreme studmuffin»
@MrFixit DAMN DUDE!!!! I am blinded by your brilliance!!! Where's the screenshot??? Please tell me you took some screenshots!!!
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Almost forgot why I was posting: I didn't do that well today, but all of my scores were in the column directly under the "a" in "tap" in the sentence "Tap here to play today's extra puzzles". That has to count for something!
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AND ANOTHER THING: why did the maker of this puzzle bother to capitalize the "T" in "Tap here" when they didn't bother to put a period at the end of the sentence? All or nothing, brother; don't go all half-assed on us!
Never let it be said that this site isn't populated good folks from all over the spectrum. ;)
If a spectrum excludes bad folks, is it still a spectrum?
Yes. Just as an obvious analogy..................IF one were to term X-rays "bad" (for the sake of discussion only), the "spectra" of UV light, or visible light, or gamma rays, could and would still be considered spectra in their own right.
So let's say, again for this discussion................that we label ___________, ________________, and __________________ as "bad folks". Those of us (or of you all) remaining, would still constitute a spectrum, just not *quite* so broad. Or bad.
firenze's posts are so fantastic because they are covered with fishhooks and stickem -- if you even get near them, you are instantly ensnared.
Rather than make some foolish attempt to explain or (god help me) respond in kind, may I simply say, "Well played, sir."
https://wordbox.game
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15 Jan 2025 C: 14 swaps
Skuck = skill + luck
plus I play a lot
"The more I play, the skuckier I get" (apologies to, well........several):
The Harder I Practice, the Luckier I Get – Quote Investigator®
https://wordbox.game
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17 Jan 2025 B: 14 swaps
Yay! First time having the best score (at least temporarily). And yes, there was a healthy portion of luck involved.
Nice! Grid A was the one that out foxed me today. Not many clues. And my guesses were bad. I don't even want to say the number, it's that bad.
The main grid went fairly well in spite of the fact I didn't know that word across the top at all (hope that's not a spoiler). And the definition for the word is the word itself.
MrFixit
https://wordbox.game
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24 Jan 2025 A: 13 swaps
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29 Jan 2025 B: 16 swaps
I like how the whole left side is blue. :)
@MrFixit
Congrats on your 13-swap win! Although now I can't console myself that those really amazing scores are all cheaters. XD
Sucking today tho.
https://wordbox.game
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7 Feb 2025 A: 21 swaps
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9 Feb 2025 C: 15 swaps
Clues made 1st column easy. After that off to the races.
We are preparing to release Word Box for the iOS App Store and the Android Google Play Store. Anybody want to help test it out before the release?
Send me an email: eric@sourcegear.com
and tell me:
(1) what kind of device you have
(2) what version of iOS/Android you have.
(3) your Apple ID or Google login
I promise not to do anything with your personal information except give you access to the early release.
For iOS, you'll end up needing to install an extra app called TestFlight, which is from Apple. Think of TestFlight as another App Store, except it's for pre-release software.
FWIW, the app versions are currently identical to the web version. No different features, same puzzles.
I'm pretty certain this will fall on deaf ears...................but I would encourage you to (hopefully) find some other way(s) to spread the word. Google and Apple are 'evil' in how they aggregate personal info of anyone who "signs up" for their services. At least as I understand it, one has to first "sign up" in order to download things from the Apple and/or Play stores. Once one has done that...............they've given either/or company the "rights" to fully aggregate and sell an individual's data trail, etc. - which I'm sure you're well aware. Congrats on making a good game, but we've just GOT to stop feeding the monsters somehow.
Usual KoC paranoia.
Who hasn't downloaded an app before?
i don't see a problem. He's only asking for login id, not password
I didn't do that well today, no scores under 20. I was feeling bad until I noticed that the first three games I played were all exactly 7 swaps up from the highest score, and consoled myself that maybe ALL my scores would be 7 swaps up from the highest score! That would be cool, right? NOPE. The last one was 6 swaps away. I will now stew in my own juices for the rest of the day, don't try to stop me.
Far more benefits to participating than being paranoid. I can click Unsubscribe or Delete.
Eric: I’ll email you shortly.
@ cellmate -- **I** have NEVER downloaded an app before. There are others of us. Gee, man, wake up and smell the coffee. This is a real problem.
@ MrFixit -- Yes, you can "unsubscribe", but the horses have already left the barn well before then.