The Best Starting Words for Every Word Length

Your first guess in Cipher Core is the only one you make with zero information, so it is the one guess you can plan in advance. A good opener does one job: it splits the list of possible answers into as many small groups as possible, so that whatever colours come back, you are left with a short list. We tested openers against every answer the game can give you, for every word length from 4 to 8 letters.

The short answer

“Answers left” is the average number of words still possible after you see the feedback from that opener. For 5-letter puzzles there are 4,458 possible answers; after opening with TARES you are down to about 101 on average. That is a 97% cut with a single guess.

Why these words work

Every top opener is built from the same handful of letters: E, S, A, R, T, L and I. These are the letters that appear in the largest share of answers, so testing them gives you the most information whether they hit or miss. A miss on E in a 6-letter puzzle is huge news, because 64.8% of 6-letter answers contain an E.

Two other properties matter. First, no repeated letters: a duplicate letter tests one letter twice and wastes a slot. Second, letters in their likely positions. S is the most common last letter at every length, and E is the most common second-to-last letter in 6, 7 and 8-letter words, which is why words like SALTER and SALTIER beat anagrams that put those letters elsewhere.

Top six openers by length

4-letter puzzles (2,349 possible answers)

5-letter puzzles (4,458 possible answers)

6-letter puzzles (7,058 possible answers)

7-letter puzzles (9,620 possible answers)

8-letter puzzles (10,147 possible answers)

“Distinct feedback patterns” counts how many different colour combinations the opener can produce. More patterns usually means smaller groups, but not always: a pattern that covers hundreds of words still hurts. That is why we rank by average answers left, which accounts for both.

Longer words are easier to open

It feels backwards, but long puzzles collapse faster. An 8-letter opener like LATRINES leaves about 18 candidates on average, while the best 4-letter opener leaves about 156. Long words share more letters with any given answer, so each guess returns more coloured tiles. The catch is that long puzzles appear at harder tiers with time limits, so you need to turn that information into a guess quickly.

Should you always use the same opener?

For Arcade and Castle Sieges, yes. The answer pool does not change between puzzles, so a fixed opener costs you nothing and saves thinking time, which matters in Castle Sieges, where every tier above Page has a time limit per word (60 seconds at Squire up to 240 at Emperor). In Battle Royale, where everyone races the same puzzle, a fixed opener also lets you type your first guess the moment the round starts.

The second guess

After the opener, stop thinking about “good words” and start thinking about the remaining list. If your opener found two letters, your second guess should test five new common letters while placing the found letters somewhere new. Only switch to guessing likely answers once you can name three or fewer candidates. Our Cipher Core strategy guide walks through this step by step.

How we measured: all numbers come from the word list Cipher Siege uses for Knight and Paladin puzzles (33,632 words of 4–8 letters, proper nouns and offensive words removed). For the opener rankings we scored each candidate against every possible answer of that length and measured how many answers, on average, are still possible after its feedback. Lower is better.