Historical route lab

Poople #670 TANK Answer

Poople #670 started at TANK on June 15, 2027. Its selective opening changes letters in the sequence A>O, N>O, T>L, K>P, L>P, with 3 par-preserving first moves.

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Archive value: this is not a copied daily page. Its tables are calculated for TANK, including 15 legal openings and route signature 2-3-1-4-1.

Calculated from the current word graph

TANK route profile

Par5 moves6 words including start and target

Shortest routes10Exact routes in the current accepted graph

Legal first moves153 keep par

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

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 T-A-N-K. Change position 2 and keep positions 1, 3, 4 fixed. Look for a vowel-to-vowel change. 3 different first moves preserve the shortest length.

Reveal the complete 5-move answer

TANK -> TONK -> TOOK -> LOOK -> LOOP -> POOP

Step 0TANKStart

Step 1TONKBridge

Step 2TOOKBridge

Step 3LOOKBridge

Step 4LOOPBridge

Step 5POOPTarget

Route anatomy

What changes at every step

Step 1TANK -> TONK

Tile 2 changes A to O; the move is closer by letter shape. TONK has 12 legal neighbors, 4 shortest continuations, and 4 moves remaining. Other legal exits from TANK include BANK, HANK, TALK, RANK.
Step 2TONK -> TOOK

Tile 3 changes N to O; the move is closer by letter shape. TOOK has 13 legal neighbors, 5 shortest continuations, and 3 moves remaining. Other legal exits from TONK include HONK, BONK, CONK, TONE.
Step 3TOOK -> LOOK

Tile 1 changes T 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 TOOK include BOOK, TOOL, COOK, HOOK.
Step 4LOOK -> 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 5LOOP -> 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?

TANK has 15 legal one-letter neighbors. BANK, HANK, TONK keep the route at 5 moves, while sampled detours begin TALK (+1), RANK (+1), TACK (+1), SANK (+1).

Compare 8 calculated first moves

Move	Changed tile	Total	Verdict	Shortest continuations
BANK	1: T -> B	5	Keeps par	1
HANK	1: T -> H	5	Keeps par	1
TONK	2: A -> O	5	Keeps par	8
TALK	3: N -> L	6	Adds 1 move	3
RANK	1: T -> R	6	Adds 1 move	2
TACK	3: N -> C	6	Adds 1 move	12
SANK	1: T -> S	6	Adds 1 move	2
WANK	1: T -> W	6	Adds 1 move	2

TANK opening fingerprint

TANK groups its legal first moves as tile 1: BANK, HANK, RANK, SANK, WANK, YANK, DANK, LANK; tile 2: TONK, TINK; tile 3: TALK, TACK, TASK; tile 4: TANS, TANG. Two moves from the start, 101 off-route words are reachable; the nearest sampled frontier is BONK, CONK, HONK, BACK, BANK, BUNK, CANS, HACK, HANK, HUNK, LACK, MONK, TALL, TOCK, TONE, TONS, ZONK, BALK, BAND, BANE, BANG, BANS, BARK, BASK.

Your route

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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: 1
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: live Graph synced: 2026-08-27 03:17 UTC Puzzle date: June 15, 2027