The principle: one name, six tries
Each game hides the name of one Pokémon. The MYSTERY row shows one tile per letter, and if the name is made of several words, the tiles are grouped by word: that is already a first clue. You get six tries to find it, and the fewer you use, the higher your score climbs.
Unlike classic Wordle, you do not type random letters: you enter your guess in the search field and pick a real Pokémon name from the list. Every try is therefore a full name, and you cannot guess the same one twice. Accents, hyphens, spaces and digits do not count: the game compares names in their simplified form, where é equals E and the hyphen in Ho-Oh takes up no tile.
Reading the tiles: green, yellow, gray
After each try, every letter of your guess gets colored:
- Green: the letter is in the mystery name, at exactly that position. It is also revealed permanently in the MYSTERY row.
- Yellow: the letter is in the name, but at another position.
- Gray: the letter is not in the name.
Two important subtleties. First, doubled letters: a letter is only marked yellow as many times as it actually appears in the mystery name. If your guess has two A's and the mystery only contains one, only one of your A's gets colored. Second, your guess can be longer or shorter than the mystery: the comparison runs position by position, and any extra letters are still evaluated as present or absent.
Below the grid, a keyboard sums up the status of every letter you have tested. Check it before each try: it is the fastest way to see which letters remain unexplored.
Which Pokémon to guess first and why
The opening guess is not meant to be right, it is meant to gather information. Pick a name with varied letters: different vowels and frequent consonants such as R, S, T, L or N. A fairly long name tests more letters at once: Charmeleon, for instance, covers C, H, A, R, M, E, L, O and N in a single guess.
Aim at the right category too. The mystery name is always a base species: never a Mega Evolution, a Gigantamax form or a regional form, and its simplified name never exceeds 15 letters. Guessing an alternative form in the early tries therefore wastes ammunition. In Common mode, the daily pick also leans toward well-known Pokémon: start with the big classics before considering obscure species.
The elimination method
From the second try onward, every guess must respect three rules at once:
- Place the green letters at exactly their confirmed positions.
- Contain the yellow letters, but at another position.
- Completely avoid the gray letters.
A candidate that breaks even one of these rules is already out: do not spend a try on it. Cross those constraints with the letter count and the word groups of the MYSTERY row, and the list of candidates collapses fast.
Think in families too: evolution lines often share a chunk of their name (Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur all end in "saur"). If the green letters sketch a familiar name ending, test the members of that family first. And when you hesitate between two equally compatible candidates, choose the one that also tests new letters: even if it fails, it leaves you more information for the next try.
The mistakes that waste tries
The most frequent slip-ups are always the same, and all of them can be avoided with ten seconds of re-reading:
- Replaying a gray letter: the classic mistake. The colored keyboard exists precisely to prevent it.
- Contradicting a green: guessing a name that does not place an already confirmed letter at its position is a try lost in advance.
- Forgetting the length: the MYSTERY row gives you the exact number of letters. A candidate that is too short or too long is rarely the right lead.
- Guessing alternative forms: the mystery is always a base species. Save the Megas and regional forms for other quizzes.
- Rushing: speed earns a bonus, but a wasted try costs more than a few seconds of thought. Re-read the grid before submitting.
Game modes and scoring
Pokémon Wordle is played in Common mode (one mystery name per day, the same for every player in your language, renewed at midnight Paris time) and in Replay mode (a personal daily game, reserved for signed-in accounts). Once the game ends, you can share your grid as an image without spoiling the answer.
A winning score is made of one base point, plus one point per unused try, plus a speed bonus: +3 under 10 seconds, +2 under 30 seconds, +1 under one minute. A streak bonus stacks on top for regular players. Reaching a streak of seven wins on the Wordle unlocks the Jolteon avatar.
The Wordle also appears in the Sprint, the Daily Challenge and PVP multiplayer, where its rounds get the longest time of all formats, up to 90 seconds.