How to solve Bokdle: a tile-by-tile strategy
Bokdle gives you ten guesses to find the day's mystery Springbok. Most players get there in five to seven. The ones who get there in three or four aren't luckier: they choose each guess to split the field, not to hit the answer. This guide explains how.
If you're brand new, read How to play first for the basic rules. This page is about playing well.
Know who can be the answer
You can guess any Springbok since 1891, but the mystery player comes from a smaller group of established Test players. How to play always shows the current rule.
That changes how you should play:
- A guess from far outside that group still gives you tiles, but its Debut and Born tiles will be grey and far away. You've used a guess to learn almost nothing.
- Big names are common answers, but so are solid squad players who were never household names. Don't only think of the famous ones.
Your first guess
The best opener sits in the middle of the field on as many tiles as possible, so that whatever comes back, you can rule out half of the candidates. That means a player from the middle of the era the answers come from, with a middling number of caps, and close to the typical Springbok height of about 188 cm.
For the modern game, that's a player who debuted in the mid-2000s with around 50 to 70 caps. A guess close to the centre on almost every number means each arrow tells you straight away whether to look earlier or later, older or younger, taller or shorter.
A player with extreme numbers, like a 2-metre lock with well over 100 caps, is a weak opener: the Caps and Height arrows will almost always point the same way, and you learn less.
Reading the tiles
Each guess shows seven tiles. Green is a match, gold is close, grey is not close, and an arrow tells you which way to go. Tap any tile to see it in words.
Position
Green means the answer has played in the same unit: front row, locks, loose forwards, halfbacks, centres or the back three. Gold means the same half of the team (both forwards or both backs). Grey means the other half.
This is the most powerful tile early on. One guess tells you forward or back. Pick your second guess from the other unit in that half, and you'll usually know the unit by guess three. The positions guide explains each unit.
Born and Debut
Green is the same year; gold is within three years. These two tiles together tell you which era the answer belongs to. A gold Debut with an up arrow means the answer debuted one to three years after your guess.
Debut is usually more useful than Born, because squads are picked in waves. Think of the 2007 World Cup group, the 2019 group, or the players who arrived around 2012 to 2014.
Caps
Green is within 3 caps; gold is within 10. Caps is the best tile for telling apart players from the same era: a 2010s loose forward with 30 caps is a very different player from one with 100.
Tries
Green needs the exact number; gold is within 2. Most forwards score few tries, so a low number with a down arrow often points at the tight five. Wings and centres sit much higher: the average modern Springbok wing has scored more than 20.
Height
Green is within 2 cm; gold is within 6 cm. Height is a great tie-breaker inside a unit. Locks are usually around 2 metres, scrum-halves are often the shortest players on the field, and back-rowers sit in between.
Club
Green means the same current club, or last club for a retired player. Gold means the answer played for that club at some point, but it isn't their last one. This tile has a few surprises, like the Stormers and Western Province counting as different clubs, so it has its own guide.
When to take a hint
There are two hints: the answer's position after 5 guesses, and their top 3 clubs by appearances after 7. Each hint adds one to your score, the same as a guess.
That makes the decision simple. Take a hint when it's worth more than a guess would be:
- Take the position hint if you still don't know the unit after five guesses. It does exactly what a well-chosen guess would, and often more, because it names the exact position.
- Skip it if your tiles already show the unit. The hint will tell you nothing new.
- The clubs hint is strongest when you've narrowed it to one era and unit but there are still several candidates. Three clubs with appearance counts usually point to one player.
Hints show as 💡 in your shared result, so use them when you need them and don't worry about it otherwise.
Habits of good players
- Don't guess what you already know. If Position is green for loose forwards, don't guess another loose forward just because you can't think of anyone else. Use the guess to test a debut year or a club.
- Write a shortlist. By guess four, you should be able to name three or four players who fit every tile. Pick the guess that splits them, even if it can't be the answer.
- Use gold tiles as ranges. A gold Caps tile with an up arrow means 4 to 10 more caps than your guess. That's a narrow window.
- Watch for dashed tiles. A dashed tile means one of the two players is missing that fact, so it tells you nothing. Don't read it as grey.
- Learn from the archive. Every finished day has its own page with the answer and how everyone did. Going through past answers is the quickest way to get a feel for the kind of player who comes up.
Scoring
Your score for the day is your guesses plus any hints. Missing on all ten counts as 12. On the leaderboard, the lowest average over the week or month wins, and a day you skip counts as a miss. Playing every day matters more than one perfect solve.
Ready? Play today's puzzle.