Historical route lab

Poople #624 DEAD Answer

Poople #624 started at DEAD on April 30, 2027. Its flexible opening changes letters in the sequence D>L, A>L, E>O, D>P, L>O, L>P, with 8 par-preserving first moves.

Replay DEAD Scores & notes Browse archive

Archive value: this is not a copied daily page. Its tables are calculated for DEAD, including 11 legal openings and route signature 4-3-2-1-3-4.

Calculated from the current word graph

DEAD route profile

Par6 moves7 words including start and target

Shortest routes24Exact routes in the current accepted graph

Legal first moves118 keep par

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

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 D-E-A-D. Change position 4 and keep positions 1, 2, 3 fixed. Look for a consonant-to-consonant change. 8 different first moves preserve the shortest length.

Reveal the complete 6-move answer

DEAD -> DEAL -> DELL -> DOLL -> POLL -> POOL -> POOP

Step 0DEADStart

Step 1DEALBridge

Step 2DELLBridge

Step 3DOLLBridge

Step 4POLLBridge

Step 5POOLBridge

Step 6POOPTarget

Route anatomy

What changes at every step

Step 1DEAD -> DEAL

Tile 4 changes D to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. DEAL has 16 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 5 moves remaining. Other legal exits from DEAD include READ, HEAD, LEAD, DEAN.
Step 2DEAL -> DELL

Tile 3 changes A to L; the move is sideways by letter shape. DELL has 14 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 4 moves remaining. Other legal exits from DEAL include DUAL, DEAN, DEAR, DIAL.
Step 3DELL -> DOLL

Tile 2 changes E to O; the move is closer by letter shape. DOLL has 10 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from DELL include TELL, BELL, DULL, DILL.
Step 4DOLL -> POLL

Tile 1 changes D to P; the move is closer by letter shape. POLL has 12 legal neighbors, 1 shortest continuation, and 2 moves remaining. Other legal exits from DOLL include ROLL, TOLL, BOLL, LOLL.
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, PULL, PILL.
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?

DEAD has 11 legal one-letter neighbors. READ, HEAD, LEAD, DEAL, DEAN, DEAR, BEAD, DEED keep the route at 6 moves, while sampled detours begin DEAF (+1), MEAD (+1), DYAD (+1).

Compare 11 calculated first moves

Move	Changed tile	Total	Verdict	Shortest continuations
READ	1: D -> R	6	Keeps par	4
HEAD	1: D -> H	6	Keeps par	2
LEAD	1: D -> L	6	Keeps par	5
DEAL	4: D -> L	6	Keeps par	1
DEAN	4: D -> N	6	Keeps par	1
DEAR	4: D -> R	6	Keeps par	3
BEAD	1: D -> B	6	Keeps par	3
DEED	3: A -> E	6	Keeps par	5
DEAF	4: D -> F	7	Adds 1 move	9
MEAD	1: D -> M	7	Adds 1 move	37
DYAD	2: E -> Y	7	Adds 1 move	1

DEAD opening fingerprint

DEAD groups its legal first moves as tile 1: READ, HEAD, LEAD, BEAD, MEAD; tile 2: DYAD; tile 3: DEED; tile 4: DEAL, DEAN, DEAR, DEAF. Two moves from the start, 71 off-route words are reachable; the nearest sampled frontier is BEAR, BEAT, DEEP, DEER, HEED, HELD, LEAM, LEAN, LOAD, PEED, ROAD, BEAD, BEAK, BEAM, BEAN, BEAU, BEND, DEAN, DEAR, DEEM, DIAL, DIED, DUAL, DYED.

Your route

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Graph reading

POOL is the narrowest displayed bridge

After POLL becomes POOL, only 1 move preserves the shortest remaining distance. At the prior row, alternatives such as ROLL, TOLL, PULL, PILL 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: 2026-08-25 04:37 UTC Puzzle date: April 30, 2027