Poople #399 started at DUTY on September 17, 2026. Its narrow opening changes letters in the sequence T>L, Y>L, D>P, U>O, L>O, L>P, with 1 par-preserving first moves.
The hint describes the move without naming the word. The full route stays closed until you ask for it.
Reveal a direction, not a word
The current row reads D-U-T-Y. Change position 3 and keep positions 1, 2, 4 fixed. Look for a consonant-to-consonant change. Only one first move preserves the shortest length.
Tile 3 changes T to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. DULY has 2 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 5 moves remaining. DUTY has no additional off-route exit in the sampled branch set.
Step 2DULY -> DULL
Tile 4 changes Y to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. DULL has 15 legal neighbors, 2 shortest continuations, and 4 moves remaining. DULY has no additional off-route exit in the sampled branch set.
Step 3DULL -> PULL
Tile 1 changes D to P; the move is closer by letter shape. PULL has 15 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from DULL include DOLL, FULL, NULL, DELL.
Step 4PULL -> POLL
Tile 2 changes U to O; the move is closer by letter shape. POLL has 12 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 2 moves remaining. Other legal exits from PULL include PILL, PULP, PALL, FULL.
Step 5POLL -> POOL
Tile 3 changes L to O; the move is closer by letter shape. POOL has 8 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 1 move remaining. Other legal exits from POLL include ROLL, TOLL, PILL, DOLL.
Step 6POOL -> POOP
Tile 4 changes L to P; the move is closer by letter shape. POOP has 11 legal neighbors, target reached, and 0 moves remaining. Other legal exits from POOL include POOR, POOF, TOOL, COOL.
Opening decision
Which first moves preserve par?
DUTY has 1 legal one-letter neighbors, but only DULY keeps the route at 6 moves. Nearby detours begin outside the sampled opening set.
Compare 1 calculated first moves
Move
Changed tile
Total
Verdict
Shortest continuations
DULY
3: T -> L
6
Keeps par
2
DUTY opening fingerprint
DUTY groups its legal first moves as tile 3: DULY. Two moves from the start, 0 off-route words are reachable; the nearest sampled frontier is empty.
Your route
Compare a path you played
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Graph reading
DULY is the narrowest displayed bridge
After DUTY becomes DULY, only 1 move preserves the shortest remaining distance. At the prior row, alternatives such as no sampled off-route word show what the route declined.
Direct-shape gains
4
Sideways steps
2
Temporary shape detours
0
Steps touching a vowel
2
How these figures were calculated
Poople recomputes adjacency and distance from the accepted 2,398-word graph. "Shortest routes" counts every path that lowers the remaining distance by one at each move; it is not a guess based on page text or player scores.
The displayed answer is one shortest route selected from that graph. Community scores and notes are kept separate because they describe player activity, not the mathematical route.
Data mode: liveGraph synced: 2026-08-16 00:42 UTCPuzzle date: September 17, 2026