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Redactle, the daily ████████-█████ ████████ puzzle
- Thread starter DFalcon
- Start date
Do you include year in your generic guesses? I generally always do. It usually doesn't help much but in this case it allowed me to figure out the answer in 6 guesses.
I also often use world as one of my first guesses. I will use century later and I only use history if I feel like it's appropriate.
And here's a hint / PSA about today's item if you haven't solved it yet:
The inconsistent hyphenation issue rears it head in this article.
And here's a hint / PSA about today's item if you haven't solved it yet:
The inconsistent hyphenation issue rears it head in this article.
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I use History a lot, but also find it too general; it's almost always a header for a section that just says "history" which tells me almost nothing since it's so common. Lots of things have histories!
What are some other common starter or guess words? Year/s, century, world definitely. Some others I pull out not-infrequently are War, energy, state/s, and water.
What are some other common starter or guess words? Year/s, century, world definitely. Some others I pull out not-infrequently are War, energy, state/s, and water.
I use the names of the continents (but usually not Australia or Antarctica unless I'm getting nowhere with my other guesses).
I think VV mentioned that she often uses metal.
A lot of my other guesses depend on what I think the category might be or based on patterns I happen to see based on the shown and hidden words.
I often use popular and culture because I expect them to possibly show up at least once as a section heading.
I think VV mentioned that she often uses metal.
A lot of my other guesses depend on what I think the category might be or based on patterns I happen to see based on the shown and hidden words.
I often use popular and culture because I expect them to possibly show up at least once as a section heading.
Words I start with if the article isn't giving me any clues, in no particular order: state, body, country, city, water, time, government, science (physics, biology, chemistry), computer, medicine, building, art(s), world, war, metal, animal, plant, rock, religion...typically I won't need all of these, but some combination tends to put me on the right path.
Also, if I see something like the following in the article then I will try i, e, g, m, p, d, c or b (in roughly that order). These aren't necessarily always helpful but i can sometimes reveal if maybe the name of a king (or maybe pope) is in the article.
I don't use a because it's not allowed.
█.█.
I don't use a because it's not allowed.
█.█.
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I start History and World. History rarely gives me anything useful, but like today, it did manage to direct me away from using more historical words later. World can bring up organizations (world trade organization, etc) but also brings up war (world war II shows up just like that often). After that I decide where to go next.
Century works well if History shows up. Then I'll try a few century dates (20th, 18th, etc), as well as mid, late, early. Then if I don't see anything I go with my string of words that probably not be redacted:
this, that, had, has, were, be, now, not, any, all, can, may
Then First, End, Also, and Known. Then I'll look for the single letters like "i" which gives lots of options, including for i.e. as well as numbers for rulers and such. By then I usually have enough to figure it out. It does mean I don't actually get a lot of low guess solves, but I do constantly get hits with most words which keeps me moving toward an answer at least.
Century works well if History shows up. Then I'll try a few century dates (20th, 18th, etc), as well as mid, late, early. Then if I don't see anything I go with my string of words that probably not be redacted:
this, that, had, has, were, be, now, not, any, all, can, may
Then First, End, Also, and Known. Then I'll look for the single letters like "i" which gives lots of options, including for i.e. as well as numbers for rulers and such. By then I usually have enough to figure it out. It does mean I don't actually get a lot of low guess solves, but I do constantly get hits with most words which keeps me moving toward an answer at least.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Seeing most of the equations feels like cheating sometimes. Got a two-word one in four.
As I've gotten better at figuring out the general article topics I diverge earlier and earlier, but here's general approaches:
Common starters when I have no direction: state, light, water, air, wood, stone, metal, north, person, century, group, most, least, world, all, weapon, money
If I think it's a country/history/place/event: war, river, wall, sea, ocean, border, people, battle, (continent names)
If I think it's a person: he/she, lead, king/queen, died (if it looks like there's a death date in the intro), (country names)
General Science: rate, heat, (fields of science), law, mass, volume, pressure, temperature
Medical/health: safe, death, blood, disease, sick, cure, (body parts)
Math: time, sphere, circle, equation, theorem, angle
Arts and Culture ones are my weak points but: history, book, music, film, (colors), (languages)
State has become one of my powerhouse ones because it's used in so many different fields.
As I've gotten better at figuring out the general article topics I diverge earlier and earlier, but here's general approaches:
Common starters when I have no direction: state, light, water, air, wood, stone, metal, north, person, century, group, most, least, world, all, weapon, money
If I think it's a country/history/place/event: war, river, wall, sea, ocean, border, people, battle, (continent names)
If I think it's a person: he/she, lead, king/queen, died (if it looks like there's a death date in the intro), (country names)
General Science: rate, heat, (fields of science), law, mass, volume, pressure, temperature
Medical/health: safe, death, blood, disease, sick, cure, (body parts)
Math: time, sphere, circle, equation, theorem, angle
Arts and Culture ones are my weak points but: history, book, music, film, (colors), (languages)
Me too!
Like VV, I'll also change my starting guesses if I have an idea of what kind of thing I'm looking for based on the starting information. One thing I haven't seen anyone else mention is that if I see there's a foreign language in the first paragraph, I'll typically start with that to help me frame things.
Ugh... Guess-wise this was my worst performance to date. 
You solved it in 395 guesses
Your accuracy was 37.22%
You solved it in 395 guesses
Your accuracy was 37.22%
What was the name that you found? I sort of backed into the answer from a different path and got it in 32 guesses.
Today's was weird for sure. I use water as one of my starting words a lot so that sent me down a rabbit hole. Eventually I got the section heading "Water on Earth" and figured I had to broaden my approach, since it was just in the middle of some random place. Didn't expect the answer to be what it was, but I got there in 60.
Anybody still playing this? I am. And boy today's is a doozy.
You solved it in 51 guesses
Your accuracy was 47.06%
And that's better than both the median and the average...
You solved it in 51 guesses
Your accuracy was 47.06%
And that's better than both the median and the average...
You solved it in 63 guesses
Your accuracy was 50.79%
Another rough one today:
solved in 82 guesses with an accuracy of 24.39%.
solved in 82 guesses with an accuracy of 24.39%.
Well that was pretty simple.
You solved it in 4 guesses
Your accuracy was 100.00%
You solved it in 4 guesses
Your accuracy was 100.00%
And back to another quite hard one.
You solved it in 65 guesses
Your accuracy was 26.15%
(Better than both the median and the average.)
You solved it in 65 guesses
Your accuracy was 26.15%
(Better than both the median and the average.)