Redactle, the daily ████████-█████ ████████ puzzle

[DFalcon]

From the site:

Redactle is a daily browser game where the user tries to determine the subject of a random obfuscated Wikipedia article, chosen from Wikipedia's 10,000 Vital Articles (Level 4).

Each puzzle starts with all but some common words (basically articles and prepositions) and most punctuation redacted. As you guess a word, any instances of that word in the article are revealed. Guess each word in the title and you've won, it'll reveal the whole article.

I feel like that description probably either hooks you or it doesn't and there's not a whole lot more to say, but anyway here's a picture from early in one puzzle:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1515040399290781702

I've been playing for a couple weeks and enjoying it.

 

[lincolnic]

I tried this and went "how are you supposed to figure this out?" for about five minutes, then suddenly I'd solved it. I'll try some more of this.

 

[Yimothy]

I gave it a shot and got it in 85 guesses, which felt like a lot. Definite “how am I supposed to figure this out” going on right up through guess 84, then the realisation dawned on me and I got it.

It’s kind of frustrating that you have to do the exact word - like guessing “horse” won’t reveal “horses”. Today’s was Autumn, and my eleventh guess was season. If I’d guessed seasons, it would have shown up in the first sentence in a way that I’m pretty sure would have let me get it on guess twelve.

Also something is wrong with the thread title - I keep clicking the spoiler but it won’t reveal.

 

[Olli]

It's definitely one of those things that seem impossible to solve right up until it becomes obvious.

 

[Violentvixen]

I feel like that description probably either hooks you or it doesn't

Hooked. What a great idea.

 

[Mogri]

This has that "this feels impossible" energy from Semantle, but not the "this is impossible" energy from Semantle. A+, would declassify again

 

[Dark Medusa]

that took me way too long for what it was lol

I had an idea, but completely missed the obvious next step for many, many words

 

[Torzelbaum]

I had to look something up to find today's answer but I was already on the right track - just needed help narrowing things down.

And I sure waste a lot of gueses...

"You solved it in 193 guesses
Your accuracy was 34.72%

Global Median: 105.00 Guesses; 54.06% Accuracy
Global Average: 128.01 Guesses; 54.55% Accuracy"

 

[JBear]

This was fun to do once, but a little too involved for what I'm looking for in a daily time-waster, I think.

 

[muteKi]

I am not afraid to use references for this more elaborate stuff. I was able to get today's in 103, which is at least below average.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I did today's and found it a little overwhelming, in that you can put just about any dang word in there. Got it in 80-something guesses, which at the time was above the median but below the average. I'll probably try to do a few more in the coming days, because I'm curious to see what kind of strategies shake out over time.

 

[Mogri]

Today's: much harder than yesterday's. Got it in a whopping 416 to yesterday's 54.

 

[Torzelbaum]

What was your accuracy?

 

[Mogri]

51.92% today, 62.96% yesterday.

 

[muteKi]

43.69% accuracy, for the record

 

[Violentvixen]

It’s kind of frustrating that you have to do the exact word - like guessing “horse” won’t reveal “horses”. Today’s was Autumn, and my eleventh guess was season. If I’d guessed seasons, it would have shown up in the first sentence in a way that I’m pretty sure would have let me get it on guess twelve.

There is a singular/plural toggle in the settings which I didn't notice this morning. Counts as double the guess though so meh.

And I haven't tried this but it's in the Info page:

Shift+Enter will attempt to automatically pluralize or singularize your guess. There are certain edge cases (e.g. guessing a nonsense word like "asdf") where this will submit nonsense guesses.

 

[DFalcon]

I also found today to be relatively hard. Lately I've been playing pretty open-book ("ok, I need a nine-letter insect order also somehow known as two four-letter words" was the least of it) so it wasn't so much that I made a ton of guesses, but I spent quite some time.

On the easiest ones it's surprising just how much you can get from the initial text.

Also something is wrong with the thread title - I keep clicking the spoiler but it won’t reveal.

It wouldn't be much of a redaction if you could reveal it just by clicking! Like Redactle, the thread title uses a block character.

 

[muteKi]

32 guesses, 56.25%. I found the title of a book and let that be my guide.

 

[Dark Medusa]

oh my GOD I should have had that guesses ago.

 

[Mogri]

89 guesses, 77.53%.

I spend a lot of my guesses revealing common but less-helpful words (that, more, not, some, many, they, were, have, been). This is great for my accuracy but terrible for my guess count.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I'm kind of mad, because I had been working on one since yesterday and the page auto-updated to the new puzzle after like 200 guesses. What the hell was yesterday's answer?? I made it as far as finding references to Journey to the West and The Tale of Genji, but I couldn't figure it out.

 

[Dark Medusa]

I'm kind of mad, because I had been working on one since yesterday and the page auto-updated to the new puzzle after like 200 guesses. What the hell was yesterday's answer?? I made it as far as finding references to Journey to the West and The Tale of Genji, but I couldn't figure it out.

It was cicadas.

 

[Rosewood]

I'm finding this very awkward to negotiate on my phone. I'll give it another try once I get home.

ETA: yes, it's way easier to negotiate on a computer screen than a phone screen, for me. 64 guesses in and I've swung from thinking it's about military hardware or war to some kind of cultural thing whether music or writing but still don't have a clear line toward what the topic actually is. I've spent nearly an hour on it as is, so this is not something that's going to be practical, or fun for that matter, to do every day.

 

[Violentvixen]

Argh I knew it was a dog breed 100 guesses before I got it, and thought I'd already guessed the answer 50 before but just had a brain fart. Come on you moron the FDA part was obvious you and your coworkers talk all the time about how you'll never have one of these because it makes you sad.

I'm loving this, but still devising the best plan of attack. I'm inclined to start with these words going forward: animal plant person metal water time color

 

[Olli]

Argh I knew it was a dog breed 100 guesses before I got it, and thought I'd already guessed the answer 50 before but just had a brain fart. Come on you moron the FDA part was obvious you and your coworkers talk all the time about how you'll never have one of these because it makes you sad.

I'm loving this, but still devising the best plan of attack. I'm inclined to start with these words going forward: animal plant person metal water time color

I ran out of steam after 200 guesses or so; I figured put the same thing as in the spoiler, but couldn't find the specific term.

 

[RT-55J]

I enjoy playing this game, but I can't bring myself to play it every day just because of how long it can take sometimes.

 

[Olli]

I ran out of steam after 200 guesses or so; I figured put the same thing as in the spoiler, but couldn't find the specific term.

Oh dang, it turned out to be one I was certain I tried, but didn't! The app filters out duplicates, so double-checking is key.

 

[Violentvixen]

I enjoy playing this game, but I can't bring myself to play it every day just because of how long it can take sometimes.

Yeah, this is definitely an evening game for me rather than a morning one.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Maybe an easy one today (if you don't go off in the wrong direction).

"You solved it in 30 guesses
Your accuracy was 73.33%"

 

[Dark Medusa]

Ok, ok, finally got the hang of it a bit.

"You solved it in 50 guesses
Your accuracy was 78.00%"

Spoiler

Once I revealed the South China Sea I only had a few directions I could go with that.