← Back to today’s gamePUZZLE #196 · FEB 26, 2026
WEST to POOP.
5 moves. 2 equally short routes. Here is one way through.
- STARTwestYour starting word
- 01hestW → H
- 02hostE → O
- 03hootS → O
- 04hoopT → P
- 05poopH → P · Made it!
The first move matters.
WEST has 16 valid one-letter neighbors in this dictionary. 2 of them can begin a shortest path:
HESTLEST
Each of these leaves 4 moves to POOP. The other 14 neighbors are valid moves too, but cannot reach the target in the minimum from this starting word.
Follow the changes
The highlighted letter beside each step shows exactly which position changed. This historical solution uses the original puzzle’s dictionary and minimum move count. Other shortest routes can take different intermediate words.
Explore more past puzzles →Explore shortest alternatives (2 total)
Showing 2 of 2 paths.
WEST → HEST → HOST → HOOT → HOOP → POOP
WEST → LEST → LOST → LOOT → LOOP → POOP