Poople #177: ETCH to POOP

Path analysis

This route reaches POOP in 9 moves. Breadth-first search reaches every route with fewer moves first, so POOP cannot be reached in fewer than 9 moves from ETCH.

Moves

9

Difficulty

Brutal

Shortest paths

64

The dictionary has 64 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: ETCH → EACH — change the 2nd letter from T to A.
2. Move 2: EACH → MACH — change the 1st letter from E to M.
3. Move 3: MACH → MUCH — change the 2nd letter from A to U.
4. Move 4: MUCH → MUCK — change the 4th letter from H to K.
5. Move 5: MUCK → BUCK — change the 1st letter from M to B.
6. Move 6: BUCK → BOCK — change the 2nd letter from U to O.
7. Move 7: BOCK → BOOK — change the 3rd letter from C to O.
8. Move 8: BOOK → BOOP — change the 4th letter from K to P.
9. Move 9: BOOP → POOP — change the 1st letter from B to P.