Poople #359: LAVA to POOP

Path analysis

This route reaches POOP in 6 moves. Breadth-first search reaches every route with fewer moves first, so POOP cannot be reached in fewer than 6 moves from LAVA.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

8

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

1. Move 1: LAVA → LAMA — change the 3rd letter from V to M.
2. Move 2: LAMA → LIMA — change the 2nd letter from A to I.
3. Move 3: LIMA → LIMP — change the 4th letter from A to P.
4. Move 4: LIMP → PIMP — change the 1st letter from L to P.
5. Move 5: PIMP → POMP — change the 2nd letter from I to O.
6. Move 6: POMP → POOP — change the 3rd letter from M to O.