Poople #510 started at TACO on January 6, 2027. Its narrow opening changes letters in the sequence O>K, T>L, A>O, C>O, 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 T-A-C-O. Change position 4 and keep positions 1, 2, 3 fixed. Look for a vowel-to-consonant change. Only one first move preserves the shortest length.
Tile 4 changes O to K; the move is sideways by letter shape. TACK has 16 legal neighbors, 4 shortest continuations, and 5 moves remaining. Other legal exits from TACO include TACT.
Step 2TACK -> LACK
Tile 1 changes T to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. LACK has 15 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 4 moves remaining. Other legal exits from TACK include BACK, HACK, TOCK, TALK.
Step 3LACK -> LOCK
Tile 2 changes A to O; the move is closer by letter shape. LOCK has 18 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from LACK include BACK, LUCK, HACK, LICK.
Step 4LOCK -> LOOK
Tile 3 changes C to O; the move is closer by letter shape. LOOK has 13 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 2 moves remaining. Other legal exits from LOCK include COCK, BOCK, HOCK, ROCK.
Step 5LOOK -> 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 6LOOP -> 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?
TACO has 2 legal one-letter neighbors, but only TACK keeps the route at 6 moves. Nearby detours begin TACT (+1).
Compare 2 calculated first moves
Move
Changed tile
Total
Verdict
Shortest continuations
TACK
4: O -> K
6
Keeps par
12
TACT
4: O -> T
7
Adds 1 move
26
TACO opening fingerprint
TACO groups its legal first moves as tile 4: TACK, TACT. Two moves from the start, 18 off-route words are reachable; the nearest sampled frontier is BACK, HACK, TOCK, JACK, PACK, RACK, SACK, TALK, TANK, TART, TAUT, TICK, TUCK, WACK, FACT, PACT, TACT, TASK.
Your route
Compare a path you played
Your route stays in this browser; it is not submitted.
Graph reading
LOOP is the narrowest displayed bridge
After LOOK becomes LOOP, only 1 move preserves the shortest remaining distance. At the prior row, alternatives such as BOOK, COOK, HOOK, LOOM 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: liveGraph synced: 2026-08-20 09:14 UTCPuzzle date: January 6, 2027