Six Shots

How to play Six Shots

Six Shots gives you one NBA surname a day and six guesses to find it. The board is exactly as wide as today's name - four letters some days, nine on others - and that width is the only clue you get for free. Type a guess and submit it, and the row resolves left to right: a filled lime tile means that letter is in the right spot, an amber outline means the letter is in the name but somewhere else, and a dark tile means it is not in the name at all. Repeated letters are scored honestly, so if the name holds one R and you guess three, only one of them lights up. Your guesses do not have to be real players - a probe word that burns a row to test five new letters is a legitimate move. Everyone in the world gets the same name each day, and no name is ever used twice.

Six Shots strategy and tips

  • Open with vowels and common consonants. Names like ROSE or CURRY tell you far more on guess one than a wild stab at a name you already suspect.
  • Read the length before you type. A four-letter board and a nine-letter board are completely different pools - KEMP and MUTOMBO are not on the same shortlist.
  • An amber tile is worth more than it looks. Knowing a letter is present but misplaced usually kills more candidates than a lime tile does.
  • Watch for doubles. Plenty of NBA surnames carry a repeated letter, and the board tells you honestly how many of a letter the name holds.
  • Spend a row on information when you are stuck. Six guesses is generous - a deliberate probe on guess three often beats a hopeful name.
  • Think in eras. If the letters are not resolving toward a current star, the answer is often someone from the 80s or 90s.

About Six Shots

Six Shots is airball.gg's daily NBA name game - an NBA-flavoured word puzzle in the shape people know, built on our own player database rather than a dictionary. The answer is always a surname drawn from the eligible player pool, filtered so every name belongs to a player a fan can actually picture, and surnames that are also ordinary English words are excluded on purpose: solving GREEN or KING is a word game, not a basketball one. Length varies day to day, which is why the board's width is stated up front. Duplicate surnames are harmless here because the answer is a WORD, not a person - the reveal simply credits the name to its most recognisable owner. Every player worldwide gets the same puzzle, and the never-repeat rule means a name that has been used is retired for good.

FAQ

Is Six Shots the same as Wordle?

It shares the six-guess, coloured-tile shape that many daily word games use, but the answers are NBA surnames rather than dictionary words, and the length changes from day to day instead of being fixed at five. Six Shots is not affiliated with Wordle or The New York Times.

Do my guesses have to be real NBA players?

No. Any run of letters the right length is accepted. Rejecting non-players would quietly tell you which letter combinations belong to somebody, and spending a row on a probe word is a normal part of the game.

Why is the answer only a surname?

A full name is around thirteen characters across two words, which makes the grid unwieldy and breaks the per-letter feedback across the space. A surname keeps the board readable and the puzzle fair.

Can the same name come up twice?

No. Six Shots never repeats an answer - the same rule Who Am I and Scouting Report follow. Once a name has been the answer, it is retired permanently.

Player stats, rosters, and career data reflect the most recently completed NBA season until the new season is underway.

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airball.gg is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed by the NBA, the NBPA, or any of their teams. Player names and statistics are historical public record, used for informational and entertainment purposes only. Simulated games, results, and stat lines are fictional.