Reading the colors
Each color carries two kinds of information: what the answer contains, and what it rules out. Solvers who read both halves finish much faster.
Green: a fixed letter
A green letter is certain. Write it into its position and stop thinking about it. One subtle point: a green letter doesn't mean that letter appears only once. The answer could contain a second copy somewhere else, unless the clue itself tells you otherwise.
Yellow: present, but not here
A yellow letter tells you two things at once. The letter is in the answer, and it is not in the position where the clue shows it. Players often use only the first half. The second half is just as valuable: every yellow tile eliminates one position for that letter.
Here the answer starts S _ O R _, contains a T, and has no H. T is yellow in the fifth position, so it can't be fifth; the only open slot left is second. That gives S T O R _, with one letter to find. The clue alone doesn't settle it: STORE, STORK, STORM and STORY all fit.
Gray: ruled out
A gray letter (when it appears only once in the clue) isn't anywhere in the answer. Gray letters are easy to overlook because they don't place anything, but they're what separates the last few candidates. In the example above, a second clue with gray E, K and Y would leave STORM.
A clue with no greens
An all-yellow clue can feel like it gives you little, but it's really a list of letters plus a list of banned positions. Here the answer contains M, O, S and T, none of them where MOIST puts them, and no I. M can't be first, O can't be second, S can't be fourth and T can't be fifth. Put that together with SHORT above and the only common word left is STORM.
A checklist for every clue
- Write in every green letter.
- For each yellow letter, note that it's in the word, and cross off the position it's shown in.
- For each gray letter, cross it off the alphabet (after checking for repeats).
- Fill the open positions using the letters you know are present, then try the remaining alphabet in whatever gaps are left.