Waffle solver
Waffle hides six five-letter words in a waffle-shaped grid of 21 scrambled letters. Type the letters row by row, tap each tile until it matches the grey, yellow or green colour in your game, and press Solve. You get the finished grid, the six words, and an ordered list of swaps.
Solution
Words: LOWER, LOVER, VAULT, WOUND, RADIO, RATIO
Swap plan (10 swaps)
- Swap R (row 1, column 2) with O (row 1, column 5)
- Swap I (row 4, column 3) with N (row 4, column 5)
- Swap A (row 1, column 3) with W (row 2, column 3)
- Swap A (row 2, column 3) with O (row 5, column 2)
- Swap R (row 2, column 1) with O (row 5, column 4)
- Swap I (row 3, column 1) with V (row 3, column 2)
- Swap I (row 3, column 2) with A (row 3, column 3)
- Swap I (row 3, column 3) with U (row 5, column 3)
- Swap D (row 5, column 1) with R (row 5, column 4)
- Swap I (row 5, column 3) with D (row 5, column 4)
Worked example: the board above, step by step
The board loaded on this page is our own puzzle, scrambled the way a real Waffle is. It starts with 7 green, 8 yellow and 6 grey tiles. The solver reads each of the six lines, works out which word fits it, and then plans the swaps.
| Line | Letters now | Green tiles | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 1 (across) | LRAEO | 2 of 5 | LOWER |
| Column 1 (down) | LRIED | 2 of 5 | LOVER |
| Row 3 (across) | IVALT | 2 of 5 | VAULT |
| Column 3 (down) | AWAIU | 0 of 5 | WOUND |
| Row 5 (across) | DOUOO | 1 of 5 | RADIO |
| Column 5 (down) | OATNO | 3 of 5 | RATIO |
The swap plan above finishes the board in 10 swaps. 4 of them put two letters in place at once, because each of those two tiles was sitting in the other's spot. The rest fix one tile and set up later double fixes. In the game this result leaves 5 of your 15 swaps unused.
How the Waffle solver works
Using it
- Type the 21 letters on your board, reading each row left to right from the top. The rows have 5, 3, 5, 3 and 5 letters because of the four holes. The tiles fill in as you type.
- Tap each tile until it shows the colour from your game. Greens stay put; yellows and greys need moving.
- Press Solve, then make the swaps in the order listed.
The rules it relies on
A Waffle has three words across (rows 1, 3 and 5) and three down (columns 1, 3 and 5), and every letter on the board is used exactly once. Green means the letter is in its final spot. Yellow means the letter belongs somewhere else in that row or column. Grey means it is not needed anywhere else in that line, although it can still belong in a different word. You get 15 swaps. Each puzzle can be solved in 10, and every swap you have left at the end is a star, up to five.
Finding the words
For each of the six lines, the solver lists five-letter words that keep the green letters, use only letters that are on the board, and never put a non-green letter back where it already is (if it were right there, it would be green). It then fits the across and down words together so the crossing letters agree and the whole grid uses exactly your 21 letters. If more than one grid fits, it picks the one whose colours match your board best, then the one with the most common words.
Planning the swaps
With the answer known, the solver compares it with your board. It first looks for pairs of tiles that are in each other's spots, because one swap turns both green. When there are none, it makes the single fix that creates the most of those pairs for the next move. On a normal puzzle this usually gives the 10-swap minimum. If your plan is longer, a tile colour is probably off, or repeated letters let the solver choose a less efficient order; try the double swaps first.
Tips for solving by hand
Start with the corner and centre tiles. Each sits in both an across and a down word, so a yellow there is ambiguous: the letter belongs to at least one of the two words. A line with three or four greens has far fewer possible words than one with none, so solve those lines first and work outward. Before every swap, check both words it touches.
Limits
The solver handles the standard 5×5 daily board only. Words come from the public-domain ENABLE list (172,823 words), which is close to Waffle's own word list but not identical. If no grid fits, check the letters and especially the green tiles, since greens are treated as fixed.
Frequently asked questions
How many swaps does Waffle give you?
You get 15 swaps. Every daily puzzle can be solved in 10, and each swap left over at the end is worth one star, up to five.
Why is my swap plan longer than 10?
Usually one tile colour is wrong, which changes the answer. If the colours are right, repeated letters can make two tiles look interchangeable; do the swaps that turn two tiles green at once first.
What does a yellow tile on a corner mean?
Corners and the centre belong to an across word and a down word. A yellow there means the letter is needed elsewhere in at least one of those two words, not necessarily both.
Can a grey letter still be in the puzzle?
Yes. Grey only means the letter is not needed elsewhere in that row or column. Every letter on the board ends up in the final grid, so a grey letter belongs to a different word.
Does it solve Deluxe Waffle?
No. It is built for the daily 5×5 board with 21 letters and six words.