One feature exists in Wordle that allows activating hard mode. The developers' idea behind this is that hard mode would naturally follow the original game if you feel that the original game was too easy. The essence of hard mode is pretty straightforward: all found letters must be used in your next guess. Green letters remain green, and orange letters must be in the word somewhere.



The less well-known thing is that hard mode not only makes the game harder but changes the way of thinking you need to find the solution to the problem. Moreover, sometimes it hinders you in achieving your goal. It is essential to understand in what cases this game mode helps you.



<h2>What the rule does</h2>


In the regular mode, you have freedom of choice to ignore any information you got in the process of playing. Knowing that the word you have to find contains both R and E, you can take any word that does not contain them. Thus, you will be able to check five new letters at once. Such an approach is mathematically optimal.



However, in the hard mode, you lose this ability. Every guess in this mode brings you closer to your goal and increases your knowledge base. Your choice in the hard mode is limited to words that are potential solutions.



<h2>When hard mode helps you</h2>


<ul>
<li>It makes you avoid mistakes. Many players waste their guesses checking the letters they have already known that they will not be used in the word or an orange letter you had to find two moves ago. Such things are not possible in the hard mode. Disciplined playing style will remain even if you will not use this option for weeks of playing.</li>
<li>It pushes you to expand your vocabulary under difficult circumstances. You have to find a word that includes a green letter O on third place and an orange letter T on other places &ndash; it is a serious test for your vocabulary. You will have to guess words that are not widely used. That is exactly what people are trying to achieve in language games.</li>
<li>It allows you to win the game in your unique way that is not possible in the regular mode.</li>
</ul>


<h2>When hard mode hinders you</h2>


The point is that the difficulty appears sooner or later. You have a green pattern with a lot of possibilities and only a difference in one letter left. For example, there is a word ending with ATCH, where B, C, H, L, M, P and W can be used. Or notorious letter families OUND, IGHT and ILLY.



In the regular mode, you can solve this problem easily. You use one of your guesses to check four consonants that can be used in the word you are looking for and see your solution.



In hard mode, you cannot use exactly this move. You have to guess a candidate word, having seven possible options and hoping that your guess was right. You can guess the correct answer immediately. Or you can spend four guesses and lose a game you could solve in three turns.



This is the price you have to pay for using hard mode. It increases your average score a little bit and the number of losses, since it takes away your only protection from letter families.



<h2>So who should use hard mode?</h2>


<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Your goal</th>
<th>Hard mode?</th>
<th>Reason</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Keeping the streak alive</td>
<td>Off</td>
<td>It removes your protection against letter families</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Developing your skills</td>
<td>On</td>
<td>Every guess must be purposeful</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Daily puzzle</td>
<td>Off</td>
<td>One loss costs you the streak</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unlimited practice</td>
<td>On</td>
<td>A loss costs you nothing</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


If your goal is keeping the streak, hard mode hinders you. However, if your goal is developing your skills, hard mode is one of the best training tools, because it pushes you to think thoroughly about your guess.



The compromise would be using hard mode for unlimited games and turning it off for daily puzzles. You can use hard mode to train yourself, losing nothing, and give yourself more chances to win in the game where you can lose.



<h2>How to train hard mode effectively</h2>


The point is that it is difficult to learn hard mode by playing the regular game. Hard situations occur not very often, and you can play for two weeks without meeting such situation and forgetting about your plans.



Unlimited play will help you to overcome this problem of the sample size. At wordleunlimited.dev, you can activate the hard mode option in the game settings and play many rounds. You will face the letter families often enough to get the necessary experience. Besides, you will notice which words are bad openers in hard mode, since a word giving you two oranges in inconvenient positions may significantly reduce your options.



Playing this game with an increased word length is also a good idea. Hard mode with six or seven letters is completely another thing, since the restrictions will come much faster and the number of possible guesses will decrease quickly.



<h2>Conclusion</h2>


Hard mode is a training instrument, not the difficulty instrument. Use it if you want to develop yourself, turn it off if you want to keep the streak and never listen to those who say that playing without it is an easy option. Ability to sacrifice a guess to ensure your victory is a good skill, and hard mode is the only mode that does not allow you to use it.