Waffle Method
Waffle gives you a scrambled grid of six overlapping words and 15 swaps to fix it, but the star rating rewards solving in 10 or fewer. The trick is planning swaps that fix two letters at once, working from the green anchors outward.
Read the anchors first
Green tiles are already correct. Because the grid overlaps, each intersection tile belongs to two words, so a locked green at a crossing constrains both the row and column. Start by mapping which letters are fixed.
Yellow tiles belong elsewhere in the grid, not just the current word, which is the difference from Wordle. A yellow could need to move across the grid entirely.
Plan double-fix swaps
Get two greens per swap
- Look for two tiles that are each in the other's correct spot, then swap them for two greens at once.
- Prioritize the center intersections; they affect the most words.
- Solve the corners last, since they only belong to two words and are easy to place once the middle is set.
- Count your swaps: 10 or fewer keeps the full star rating.
Protecting the star rating
The Waffle solver on this site computes the minimum-swap solution, so you can check whether your plan hits the 10-swap target before you commit.
Every wasted swap costs a star
You have 15 swaps but only 10 for a perfect score. Never swap a tile into a non-final position just to see what happens; plan the whole sequence before touching a tile.
Reading a scrambled grid, state by state
Waffle uses a smaller colour vocabulary than Wordle, and the difference matters. Green means the tile is already in its final position. Yellow means the letter belongs somewhere else in the grid — not simply elsewhere in the word you are looking at, which is where most of the confusion comes from.
The rows below show what that looks like in practice. The first row is mostly yellow, which is the ordinary starting state: the letters exist in the puzzle, they are simply in the wrong cells. The second row is mostly green, which is what a nearly finished grid looks like.
Because green tiles are fixed and each lies at the crossing of a word across and a word down, a single green constrains two words at once. Reading the greens first, before looking at any yellow, is what keeps a swap plan coherent.
- Mostly yellow: these letters belong elsewhere in the grid.
- Four greens: the word is nearly in place.
Green means the tile is already correct. Yellow means the letter belongs in a different cell somewhere in the grid, which may be a different row or column entirely.
Swapping for two greens at a time
The difference between a 15-swap solve and a 10-swap solve is almost entirely about how many tiles each swap fixes. A swap moves two tiles, so the best possible swap turns two yellows into two greens — and those are the swaps you should be hunting for before anything else.
The second best class of swap fixes one tile and moves another into a cell where it will be correct after one more swap. Worse than that, a swap that fixes one tile and displaces another is usually a swap you should not make yet.
The steps below are the plan for a board where you cannot see any double-fix swaps immediately, which is the normal case.
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Map every green before moving anything
Write down which cells are already correct. Each green cell belongs to two words, so it constrains both of them and cannot be moved.
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Find swaps where two tiles are in each other's correct cells
Those swaps turn two yellows into two greens at once. They are the highest-value moves on the board and should be taken first.
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Work the crossings before the edges
A cell at a crossing belongs to two words, so fixing it helps twice. Cells at the ends belong to one word only and are cheapest to leave until last.
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Move a letter toward its crossing, not its word
A yellow letter may need to reach a different row entirely. Trace where it belongs in the grid rather than where it belongs in the word you spotted it in.
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Count swaps before you commit
You have 15 swaps and a star for each one you have left, so a 10-swap solve is full marks. If a plan needs more than 10, look for a swap that fixes two tiles instead.
The swap arithmetic
Waffle is scored by what you have left, which turns the puzzle into a small optimisation problem rather than a pure word puzzle. The allowance is 15 swaps and the guaranteed solution length is 10, so the gap between those two numbers is exactly the margin you are protecting.
That margin is five swaps, which is also the number of stars available. Framing it as a budget makes the planning habit feel natural: you are not trying to solve the grid, you are trying to solve it inside a fixed number of moves.
The numbers below come from the game's own rules. There is no hidden scoring beyond them.
- Swaps allowed
- 15
- The hard limit for a puzzle.
- Swaps in a minimum solution
- 10
- Every Waffle can be solved within this many.
- Swaps of margin
- 5
- Fifteen minus ten — the room a plan has to spare.
- Stars available
- 5
- You earn a star for every swap remaining, so ten swaps leaves all five.
Waffle questions
How many swaps do you get in Waffle?
Fifteen swaps total, but solving in 10 or fewer earns the full five-star rating. Efficient double-fix swaps are how you stay under the limit.
What do yellow tiles mean in Waffle?
The letter belongs somewhere else in the grid, not necessarily the same word. Because words overlap, a yellow may need to move to a different row or column entirely.
How many swaps do you need for five stars in Waffle?
Ten or fewer. You are given 15 swaps and earn one star per swap remaining, and every puzzle has a solution within 10 swaps, so a planned 10-swap solve earns all five stars.
What does a yellow tile mean in Waffle?
The letter belongs somewhere else in the grid, not just elsewhere in the word where you found it. Because the words cross, a yellow tile may need to move to a different row or column entirely.
Is it ever worth making a swap that fixes nothing?
Only as part of a planned sequence where a later swap fixes two tiles. A swap made purely to see what happens costs a star and cannot be undone, which is why the plan should be complete before the first move.