Poople #31: ARCH 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 ARCH.

Moves

9

Difficulty

Brutal

Shortest paths

8

The dictionary has 8 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: ARCH → ARCS — change the 4th letter from H to S.
2. Move 2: ARCS → ARKS — change the 3rd letter from C to K.
3. Move 3: ARKS → IRKS — change the 1st letter from A to I.
4. Move 4: IRKS → IRIS — change the 3rd letter from K to I.
5. Move 5: IRIS → BRIS — change the 1st letter from I to B.
6. Move 6: BRIS → BROS — change the 3rd letter from I to O.
7. Move 7: BROS → PROS — change the 1st letter from B to P.
8. Move 8: PROS → PROP — change the 4th letter from S to P.
9. Move 9: PROP → POOP — change the 2nd letter from R to O.