What if 1 wasn't the second number in the set of possible solutions?

[nholden]

I LOVE NERDLE. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

It seems like 1 comes up as the second number in a whole lot of my games. I'm guessing that's because it can have a valid solution no matter the first number and the operator (other than 0-1, I think).

Games with 1 as the second number tend to be the least interesting games for me, too, since...

• x * 1 = x
• x / 1 = x
• x ^ 1 = x
• x % 1 = 0

What might gameplay feel like if no games had 1 as the second number? If that's too bold of a move, what might gameplay feel like if 1 were the second number less often, or if 1 as a second number with a "boring" operator were reduced/eliminated?

1 as a second number feels to me like s as the last letter in a Wordle game. There are lots of possible solutions, but most of them aren't very interesting.

[iancanderson]

I like all of this.

Some more "not fun" answers:

• 1 ^ ? = 1
• ? ^ 0 = 1

Adding a validation step to reject un-fun answers seems good to me 👍

We can hack on it during our coffee chat today 😄

[robertnopickle]

I wonder also if solvable puzzles are waaay more likely to be generated with a 1 in the mix due to the limitation of only having a single digit answer. If less 1s in puzzles, then far more 2s and 3s

[iancanderson]

I'm trying to address this in #9

[nholden]

SWEET! 🎉 👏 🤙