Wordle isn't quite the draw for me it once was. I still play most days, but I'm not hitting it first thing in the morning and I don't care about preserving a streak anymore. If you are on the hunt for a new daily puzzle game, you should look at Hunch, which is essentially the Dark Souls of Wordle-likes. It features Wordle-style gameplay but is significantly more difficult; expect to take much more than six guesses to find the answer.

The Brutal Mechanics of Hunch

In Hunch, you use a familiar 5-letter grid to guess a secret word. After your first guess (mine is always SOUPY, what's yours?), you see which letters are in the right place, tallied in green, and which are in the wrong place but still in the word, tallied in yellow.

However, there is a punishing twist: Hunch doesn's tell you which specific letters are in the correct positions. If SOUPY results in a green tally of one, all you know is that one letter is in the right spot.

The difficulty spikes when you try to narrow it down. For example:

  • If you try STAKE to test the 'S' and receive zero greens and one yellow, you only know that 'S' wasn't in the right place.
  • That single yellow tally could mean the letters T, A, K, or E are in the word.
  • If you then try POSTS and find none of those letters are present, you have effectively burned three guesses just to eliminate that 'S'.

Why Hunch is the Dark Souls of Wordle-likes

The game is essentially Mastermind meets Wordle. It is very easy to blow through a dozen or so guesses before you even get a handle on what the word could be. Unlike Wordle, there is no limit on the number of guesses, so you simply keep going until you figure it out. I have had some incredibly long runs that were far too long to share.

Beyond the standard daily challenge, Hunch offers several ways to engage with the game:

  • Cascade Mode: A mode that requires you to solve three words consecutively.
  • Multiplayer Mode: Available if you create an account, allowing you to challenge friends to see who has better hunches.

Created by designer Bennette Sebastian, Hunch is a must-play for anyone looking for a much more intense cognitive challenge. It truly earns its reputation as the Dark Souls of Wordle-likes.