Wordle finally has a maths-based alternative for people who favour numbers over letters. The latest game to capitalise on the Wordle craze, Nerdle challenges players to figure out an entire 8-character calculation in just six guesses. Similar to Wordle, you start with a completely blank grid. Tiles turn green if you guess a number or symbol in the correct position; purple if the number or symbol appears in the calculation but in a different position; or black if it doesn’t feature at all.
Each guess has to be mathematically accurate, so you can’t just throw out random numbers and symbols.
It’s definitely a little trickier than Wordle, especially if you completely fudge your first guess. You can try it out for yourself by visiting the Nerdle website.
The game was created by data scientist Richard Mann, who came up with the idea during a conversation with his daughter.
“The idea came about chatting about the Wordle craze with my 14 year old daughter,” Mann explains.
“We agreed there must be an equivalent for us maths fans (she’s one too) and a few minutes later we had decided on the rules of the game and the name.
“My son (also a maths fan) worked out the full list of valid calculations (tens of thousands of them!) and we launched it to the world with some help from friends and colleagues.”
If you’re finding the regular version too tricky, there’s also an easy mode containing fewer characters called Mini Nerdle (below).
As for the game that started it all, Wordle is a daily puzzle that’s taken the internet by storm.
The game tasks players with working out a five-letter word in six guesses or less.
The only drawback is that it’s fairly hard to fail, especially if you’ve been using Express Online’s tips and tricks to make things easier.
Fortunately, there is a way to make Wordle harder, which is perfect if you’re looking for more of a challenge.
To enable hard mode, simply click the settings icon in the top-right part of the screen. Here you’ll be presented with a list of options, including the hard mode setting.
