Back in January we reported on Wordle, the puzzle craze that was taking the world by storm. Eight months on and many people – myself included – are still staying up until the clock strikes midnight so we can try to nut out the five-letter word of the day.
In the intervening period, Wordle was bought out by The New York Times, and a host of other puzzle-based games have popped up. One of those is Quordle, which is like Wordle on steroids and requires you to unlock four different words at once.
Others include Heardle, where you try to guess a song after being played a one-second snippet, Framed, which challenges you to guess the movie title based on stills from the film, and Actorle, which focuses on how much you know about actors. There’s even Worldle, a game that gives you six tries at guessing a country based on the silhouette of its map.
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I have steadfastly avoided them all, not because I wouldn’t enjoy playing them, but more because I already have enough trouble focusing on the productive things I should be doing.
There is, however, one new game that I might not be able to resist. It’s called Nerdle, which has immediate appeal for a self-professed nerd like me. What’s more, it’s a maths-based game, and I, as well as being a number nerd, am allegedly good at maths. At least I should be, coming from a science and maths-based family and having a brother who is a high school maths teacher.
How do you play Nerdle?
Just like Wordle, the object of Nerdle is to correctly fill in the blank squares. But instead of letters, the squares must be filled with numbers and what are known as ‘operators’. Though they sound like they belong in a hospital theatre, operators in this case are the four basic maths tools, plus (+), minus (–), multiplied by (*) and divided by (/). The ‘equals’ sign (=) is also required in each answer.
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While Wordle requires you to fill five squares, Nerdle calls for eight squares to be completed, and rather than make a word, a correctly completed Nerdle puzzle will display a simple mathematical equation, such as 12 x 9 = 108 or 90 – 60 = 30.
Similar to Wordle, numbers or symbols in their correct position will be displayed in green, those that belong in the solution but are in an incorrect position are displayed in purple and those that don’t belong at all are shown in black.
While each Wordle guess must be a genuine English word, each Nerdle guess must be mathematically correct. While 90 – 60 = 30 is an acceptable guess, 90 – 60 = 14 would not be.
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If Nerdle seems a bit daunting, there’s mini Nerdle to get you going. The rules are the same but mini Nerdle uses only six squares. I had a practice shot at the mini version and managed to not bring shame to my family name, as can be seen below.
Nerdle, Wordle, Quordle – they’re all harmless fun (so long as you get other things done!) and, as we know, can be very effective in helping to ward off dementia.
Now that I’ve discovered Nerdle, will I be tempted to tackle it each day? You bet I will, but there are only so many waking hours in a day. Maybe I can knock another 10 minutes off my sleep!
Are you a Wordle fiend? What other online puzzles have you discovered? Why not share your suggestions in the comments section below?
