Poople #428 started at DOJO on October 16, 2026. Its narrow opening changes letters in the sequence D>M, J>N, O>K, N>O, M>L, K>P, 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-O-J-O. Change position 1 and keep positions 2, 3, 4 fixed. Look for a consonant-to-consonant change. Only one first move preserves the shortest length.
Tile 1 changes D to M; the move is sideways by letter shape. MOJO has 2 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 6 moves remaining. Other legal exits from DOJO include DODO.
Step 2MOJO -> MONO
Tile 3 changes J to N; the move is sideways by letter shape. MONO has 4 legal neighbors, 2 shortest continuations, and 5 moves remaining. MOJO has no additional off-route exit in the sampled branch set.
Step 3MONO -> MONK
Tile 4 changes O to K; the move is sideways by letter shape. MONK has 10 legal neighbors, 4 shortest continuations, and 4 moves remaining. Other legal exits from MONO include MONS, MANO.
Step 4MONK -> MOOK
Tile 3 changes N to O; the move is closer by letter shape. MOOK has 15 legal neighbors, 5 shortest continuations, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from MONK include HONK, BONK, CONK, MOCK.
Step 5MOOK -> LOOK
Tile 1 changes M to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. LOOK has 13 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 2 moves remaining. Other legal exits from MOOK include BOOK, COOK, HOOK, MOOR.
Step 6LOOK -> LOOP
Tile 4 changes K to P; the move is closer by letter shape. LOOP has 9 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 1 move remaining. Other legal exits from LOOK include BOOK, COOK, HOOK, LOOM.
Step 7LOOP -> POOP
Tile 1 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 LOOP include COOP, HOOP, BOOP, GOOP.
Opening decision
Which first moves preserve par?
DOJO has 2 legal one-letter neighbors, but only MOJO keeps the route at 7 moves. Nearby detours begin DODO (+2).
Compare 2 calculated first moves
Move
Changed tile
Total
Verdict
Shortest continuations
MOJO
1: D -> M
7
Keeps par
12
DODO
3: J -> D
9
Adds 2 moves
12
DOJO opening fingerprint
DOJO groups its legal first moves as tile 1: MOJO; tile 3: DODO. 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
MOJO is the narrowest displayed bridge
After DOJO becomes MOJO, only 1 move preserves the shortest remaining distance. At the prior row, alternatives such as DODO show what the route declined.
Direct-shape gains
3
Sideways steps
4
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: 2026-08-17 01:11 UTCPuzzle date: October 16, 2026