It grades you by how much you reduce the pool of possible answers with each guess. The total pool of Wordle words is somewhere around 2300, so to finish in 4 guesses, each guess needs to average removing 85% of the pool, something like 2300 > 345 > 52 > 8 > 1.

Side note: This is related to why I refuse to play hard mode. Sure it’s technically more difficult, but it removes a huge strategic element of the game.

Let’s say you have _OUND where _ could be any of BFHMPRSW. In hard mode, you just have to guess one at a time and hope you get lucky. In normal mode, you can guess something like BRUSH or WHOMP and knock 4 words out of the pool at once.

Here’s my game today using this strategy for guess 2:

Wordle 1,727 3/6

🟩🟨⬛⬛🟨 ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩