Separate three kinds of evidence
Treat confirmed positions, present-but-misplaced letters, and excluded letters as different data. If A is green in position two, lock it there. If R is yellow, keep R but ban its tested position. Mixing these facts mentally causes repeated guesses that teach you nothing.
Choose information-rich guesses
An early guess should test common letters without unnecessary duplication. SLATE samples five frequent letters; MUMMY repeats M and offers much less information unless duplicates are already suspected. The best second guess depends on the first result, so no universal starter word is automatically optimal.
Handle repeated letters carefully
A gray letter can still occur when the guess used that letter more times than the answer. If LEVEL produces one confirmed E and one gray E, the answer may contain exactly one E. Record letter counts, not only presence. This is the same multiset logic used by a reliable unscrambler.
Finish with constraints, not intuition
Before submitting, read the pattern aloud as a template: _ A _ E R, contains T, excludes S/L/N. Generate only words that satisfy every condition, then choose the candidate that either solves or separates the remaining possibilities. A disciplined final check prevents attractive but impossible guesses.
Quick review
The strongest habit is to separate hard constraints—letter counts, length, fixed positions—from helpful clues such as frequency and familiar patterns. Use the tool to narrow possibilities, then use meaning and context to choose.