Wimple research notebook
Clue Lab
This is the data behind the deduction. The lab tests every possible opening character against every possible answer in Wimple’s current 60-character roster, using the same Role, Hair, Age, Outfit, Circle, and Name rules as the live game. It also lets players compare any two reviewed records without exposing the daily answer.
What the current roster shows
The roster is deliberately uneven because the underlying cast is uneven. Twenty characters use the broad Student role, while 23 use the Middle school age band. That makes a common green tile less decisive than a rare one. For example, a matching Student cell keeps a much larger branch alive than a matching Pet or Great-grandparent cell.
Best information starters in this snapshot
“Average left” is the mean number of still-possible answers after the first row, with an immediate solve counted as zero. “Worst case” is the largest branch that any one feedback pattern can leave. Lower is better. These are game-data results, not claims about which character is easiest to recognize from artwork.
| Opening guess | Average left | Worst case | Distinct patterns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greg Heffley | 7.88 | 14 | 14 |
| Rowley Jefferson | 8.15 | 17 | 17 |
| Collin Lee | 8.48 | 18 | 19 |
| Chirag Gupta | 8.82 | 19 | 19 |
| Aunt Gretchen | 8.98 | 12 | 12 |
Greg’s advantage comes from combining several common values with two Circle memberships whose specific shared labels remain visible in the feedback row. Aunt Gretchen produces fewer distinct patterns, but her worst outcome is smaller because her Adult, long-haired family record divides the roster differently. The interactive version of this page recalculates the table from the shipped roster, so it changes when a reviewed character is added or corrected.
How the benchmark is calculated
- Choose one roster character as the hypothetical opening guess.
- Compare that guess with every possible answer using Wimple’s production feedback function. Role, Hair, Age, and Outfit require exact equality; Circle is green when the two records share at least one group.
- Group answers that would return the same five-tile feedback pattern. Those groups are the branches a player could still face after the first row.
- Average the surviving branch sizes across all 60 answers. A correct first guess contributes zero unresolved candidates. Repeat the process for all 60 possible openers and sort from lowest average to highest.
What this analysis does not do: it does not use popularity, image recognizability, search behavior, or tomorrow’s schedule. It measures only the deduction value of the reviewed clue labels. Artwork-specific Hair and Outfit overrides apply in the daily puzzle and can make an individual date behave differently from the base-record benchmark.
Reviewed source ledger
The interactive lab includes a collapsible ledger for all 60 answer-eligible Wimple records. Each entry publishes the normalized clue labels used by the benchmark, the reviewed character page, and the exact image reference. Raw research excerpts are not republished as page copy; the displayed explanations are concise project-written summaries tied to those sources.
Greg Heffley
Student · Three-strand hair · Middle school · T-shirt · Heffley family and Greg’s school
Aunt Gretchen
Aunt · Long hair · Adult · T-shirt · Heffley family
Sweetie
Pet · Fur · Animal · No outfit · Heffley family
Review and source policy
The game records a character-page source, exact image source, and evidence for every clue field. The interactive comparison shows the recorded source for the selected characters so a player can audit a surprising label or report a correction. Wimple’s comparison model, ranking calculation, schedule, and puzzle-specific overrides are original project work; franchise characters and source artwork remain the property of their respective rights holders.
Use the interactive lab to compare characters and inspect the current full ranking. For an incorrect clue, broken source, attribution concern, or rights request, use the Wimple contact page. Methodology reviewed August 30, 2026.