Historical route lab

Poople #483 MEAD Answer

Poople #483 started at MEAD on December 10, 2026. Its flexible opening changes letters in the sequence M>H, A>L, E>O, L>O, D>P, H>P, with 7 par-preserving first moves.

Replay MEAD Scores & notes Browse archive

Archive value: this is not a copied daily page. Its tables are calculated for MEAD, including 10 legal openings and route signature 1-3-2-3-4-1.

Calculated from the current word graph

MEAD route profile

Par6 moves7 words including start and target

Shortest routes37Exact routes in the current accepted graph

Legal first moves107 keep par

Route shapeflexible openingLetter positions 1-3-2-3-4-1

Spoiler controls

Choose how much to reveal

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 M-E-A-D. Change position 1 and keep positions 2, 3, 4 fixed. Look for a consonant-to-consonant change. 7 different first moves preserve the shortest length.

Reveal the complete 6-move answer

MEAD -> HEAD -> HELD -> HOLD -> HOOD -> HOOP -> POOP

Step 0MEADStart

Step 1HEADBridge

Step 2HELDBridge

Step 3HOLDBridge

Step 4HOODBridge

Step 5HOOPBridge

Step 6POOPTarget

Route anatomy

What changes at every step

Step 1MEAD -> HEAD

Tile 1 changes M to H; the move is sideways by letter shape. HEAD has 12 legal neighbors, 2 shortest continuations, and 5 moves remaining. Other legal exits from MEAD include READ, MEAN, LEAD, MEAT.
Step 2HEAD -> HELD

Tile 3 changes A to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. HELD has 11 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 4 moves remaining. Other legal exits from HEAD include HEED, READ, LEAD, HEAR.
Step 3HELD -> HOLD

Tile 2 changes E to O; the move is closer by letter shape. HOLD has 14 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from HELD include HEED, GELD, HELP, HELL.
Step 4HOLD -> HOOD

Tile 3 changes L to O; the move is closer by letter shape. HOOD has 11 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 2 moves remaining. Other legal exits from HOLD include GOLD, HOLT, HOED, TOLD.
Step 5HOOD -> HOOP

Tile 4 changes D to P; the move is closer by letter shape. HOOP has 9 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 1 move remaining. Other legal exits from HOOD include GOOD, HOOK, HOOF, HOOT.
Step 6HOOP -> POOP

Tile 1 changes H to P; the move is closer by letter shape. POOP has 11 legal neighbors, target reached, and 0 moves remaining. Other legal exits from HOOP include LOOP, COOP, BOOP, GOOP.

Opening decision

Which first moves preserve par?

MEAD has 10 legal one-letter neighbors. READ, HEAD, MEAN, LEAD, MEAT, BEAD, MELD keep the route at 6 moves, while sampled detours begin DEAD (+1), MEAL (+1), MEND (+1).

Compare 10 calculated first moves

Move	Changed tile	Total	Verdict	Shortest continuations
READ	1: M -> R	6	Keeps par	4
HEAD	1: M -> H	6	Keeps par	2
MEAN	4: D -> N	6	Keeps par	6
LEAD	1: M -> L	6	Keeps par	5
MEAT	4: D -> T	6	Keeps par	10
BEAD	1: M -> B	6	Keeps par	3
MELD	3: A -> L	6	Keeps par	7
DEAD	1: M -> D	7	Adds 1 move	24
MEAL	4: D -> L	7	Adds 1 move	22
MEND	3: A -> N	7	Adds 1 move	13

MEAD opening fingerprint

MEAD groups its legal first moves as tile 1: READ, HEAD, LEAD, BEAD, DEAD; tile 3: MELD, MEND; tile 4: MEAN, MEAT, MEAL. Two moves from the start, 73 off-route words are reachable; the nearest sampled frontier is BEAR, BEAT, GELD, HEED, LEAM, LEAN, LOAD, MOAN, MOAT, MOLD, PEAT, ROAD, BEAD, BEAK, BEAM, BEAN, BEAU, BEND, DEAL, DEAN, DEAR, DEED, FEAT, FEND.

Your route

Compare a path you played

Your route stays in this browser; it is not submitted.

Graph reading

HOOP is the narrowest displayed bridge

After HOOD becomes HOOP, only 1 move preserves the shortest remaining distance. At the prior row, alternatives such as GOOD, HOOK, HOOF, HOOT show what the route declined.

Direct-shape gains: 4
Sideways steps: 2
Temporary shape detours: 0
Steps touching a vowel: 3

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: live Graph synced: 2026-08-19 06:37 UTC Puzzle date: December 10, 2026