Poople #581 started at SURF on March 18, 2027. Its narrow opening changes letters in the sequence F>E, U>O, R>M, S>P, E>P, M>O, 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 S-U-R-F. Change position 4 and keep positions 1, 2, 3 fixed. Look for a consonant-to-vowel change. Only one first move preserves the shortest length.
Tile 4 changes F to E; the move is sideways by letter shape. SURE has 8 legal neighbors, 2 shortest continuations, and 5 moves remaining. Other legal exits from SURF include TURF, SERF.
Step 2SURE -> SORE
Tile 2 changes U to O; the move is closer by letter shape. SORE has 16 legal neighbors, 2 shortest continuations, and 4 moves remaining. Other legal exits from SURE include PURE, CURE, LURE, SIRE.
Step 3SORE -> SOME
Tile 3 changes R to M; the move is sideways by letter shape. SOME has 9 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from SORE include PORE, MORE, SORT, CORE.
Step 4SOME -> POME
Tile 1 changes S to P; the move is closer by letter shape. POME has 11 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 2 moves remaining. Other legal exits from SOME include HOME, COME, DOME, TOME.
Step 5POME -> POMP
Tile 4 changes E to P; the move is closer by letter shape. POMP has 6 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 1 move remaining. Other legal exits from POME include HOME, COME, POLE, POPE.
Step 6POMP -> POOP
Tile 3 changes M to O; the move is closer by letter shape. POOP has 11 legal neighbors, target reached, and 0 moves remaining. Other legal exits from POMP include PUMP, COMP, PIMP, ROMP.
Opening decision
Which first moves preserve par?
SURF has 3 legal one-letter neighbors, but only SURE keeps the route at 6 moves. Nearby detours begin TURF (+1), SERF (+1).
Compare 3 calculated first moves
Move
Changed tile
Total
Verdict
Shortest continuations
SURE
4: F -> E
6
Keeps par
3
TURF
1: S -> T
7
Adds 1 move
6
SERF
2: U -> E
7
Adds 1 move
2
SURF opening fingerprint
SURF groups its legal first moves as tile 1: TURF; tile 2: SERF; tile 4: SURE. Two moves from the start, 11 off-route words are reachable; the nearest sampled frontier is PURE, CURE, JURE, LURE, SERE, SIRE, TURN, SELF, SERA, TUFF, TURD.
Your route
Compare a path you played
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Graph reading
POMP is the narrowest displayed bridge
After POME becomes POMP, only 1 move preserves the shortest remaining distance. At the prior row, alternatives such as HOME, COME, POLE, POPE show what the route declined.
Direct-shape gains
4
Sideways steps
2
Temporary shape detours
0
Steps touching a vowel
4
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: 2026-08-23 07:07 UTCPuzzle date: March 18, 2027