So far, all of my favorite Wordle versions have used the same game board shape as the original: Each estimate is represented by a new row in a grid of five letters. You may check what you guessed before, as well as how many guesses you still have left. Waffle alters the game in various ways, which piques my attention.
Waffle Gameplay
You solve six for words at once in Waffle Game, but you don't have to guess the letters—the letters are already there. All you have to do is arrange the letters correctly. It appears like a crossword puzzle but functions more like a Rubik's cube: The only way to play is to move squares around the board.
The green and yellow color coding works similarly to Wordle: green indicates that a letter is in the correct location, while yellow indicates that the letter goes somewhere else in the word. However, because of the crisscross pattern, yellows at corners bring uncertainty. Is the yellow letter in the horizontal or vertical word? It might be either, and you won't know which until you exchange.
According to the designer, each problem may be completed in 10 swaps or less. You have 15 swaps to work with. Your score is determined by the number of budgeted swaps you did not utilize; for example, if it took you 11 turns, you earn four stars. The maximum rating is five stars. You'll also get a handy grid to post on social media, complete with green squares for properly positioned letters. This way, even if you don't finish the problem before time runs out, you'll have something to show for it.
How to Succeed at Waffle
Keep in mind that your exchanges are restricted. If you make a mistake in certain tile-swapping games, it's frequently not too costly to move things back to where they were. Who cares if you receive a 71 instead of a 70 on I Love Hue? In this case, a bad exchange drops you from 15 to 14. You're down to 13 if you want to exchange it back. Spend your money wisely.
When you see a yellow letter, don't leap to conclusions. Remember that if it's on a corner, the yellow might be a hint for one of the words. You'll probably have a "aha, it's in this horizontal word!" moment before realizing it might be in the vertical word instead.
For this reason, the squares that don’t have any intersections are strategically valuable. If a yellow isn’t in an intersection, you know exactly which word it belongs in. (By contrast, I don’t like to play crosswords that don’t have intersections for every letter; that’s just lazy puzzle-making.)