Answers · Puzzle #183 · Tuesday 10 November 2026
K-9 and Odo: 22 wrong guesses across Blue and Purple
Answers for all four groups in puzzle #183, plus a look at why Pure Robots and Shapeshifters kept getting mixed together.
Of 64 players who finished Tuesday's puzzle, 61 solved the board, a 95% solve rate. Three ran out of guesses. Average wrong guesses came to 2.52, against 4.85 in the previous puzzle, whose solve rate was 87.2%. The median time was 1:39, and 26 players (41%) made no mistakes at all.
The answer board
Each puzzle has one group per colour. Yellow is the most direct connection and purple the most abstract.
The four groups
Hill Valley Residents
- Marty McFly
- Doc
- Biff Tannen
- Lorraine McFly
Marty McFly, Doc, Biff Tannen and Lorraine McFly all come from Hill Valley, the town at the centre of the Back to the Future films. It was the easiest group.
Marty is the guitarist stranded in 1955, and Lorraine is his mother, who falls for him as a teenager. Biff bullies the McFlys in every era.
Bebop Crew
- Spike Spiegel
- Jet Black
- Faye Valentine
- Edward
Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Edward are the Bebop crew from Cowboy Bebop. All four are bounty hunters sharing the one spaceship.
Jet is the ex-cop with a cybernetic arm who captains the ship. Faye is an amnesiac gambler who joins while deep in debt. Edward is the young hacker who moves in. Spike leads the show.
Pure Robots
- R2-D2
- K-9
- TARS
- Sonny
R2-D2, K-9, TARS and Sonny are fully mechanical robots. None is a cyborg or a human in disguise, and each is a machine companion.
R2-D2 is the astromech droid that smuggles the Death Star plans. K-9 is Doctor Who's robot dog, with a laser in his nose. TARS is the slab-like ex-Marine from Interstellar, and Sonny is the metal-bodied NS-5 with a mind of his own. This was the hardest group.
Shapeshifters
- Mystique
- Odo
- Loki
- Q
Mystique, Odo, Loki and Q can all change their form, and they use it for deception or trickery. Mystique copies anyone's appearance and voice.
Odo is the Deep Space Nine security chief and a changeling. Loki uses illusion and shapeshifting magic. Q, from the Star Trek Continuum, reshapes himself and reality at whim. Q is the one that doesn't fit the usual idea of a shapeshifter.
Wrong guesses per group solved
Each wrong guess counts against the group it came closest to, divided by how many times that group was solved. Higher means harder.
Dashed line: one wrong guess per group solved.
View data as a table
| Group | Wrong guesses nearest | Times solved | Per solve | One tile away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pure Robots | 75 | 64 | 1.2 | 54 |
| Bebop Crew | 46 | 58 | 0.8 | 30 |
| Shapeshifters | 40 | 66 | 0.6 | 34 |
| Hill Valley Residents | 15 | 74 | 0.2 | 15 |
Blue and Purple kept getting swapped
Pure Robots cost the most guesses. R2-D2 and K-9 each appeared in 71 of the 176 wrong guesses (40%), and TARS in 66 (38%). Loki and Mystique, both from Shapeshifters, were close behind at 61 and 59.
The most common mixed pair was K-9 with Odo, guessed together 22 times. The most common single wrong guess was K-9, Q, R2-D2 and TARS, 12 times, which puts three genuine robots beside one shapeshifter. For Blue's wrong guesses, Odo (25), Q (21) and Loki (14) were the intruders most often tried. Overall, 76% of wrong guesses were one tile away. We can't tell why players reached for Odo and Q in particular.
Which tiles ended up in wrong guesses
How many of the 176 wrong guesses included each tile.
- Hill Valley Residents
- Bebop Crew
- Pure Robots
- Shapeshifters
View data as a table
| Tile | Group | Wrong guesses containing it | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| R2-D2 | Pure Robots | 71 | 40% |
| K-9 | Pure Robots | 71 | 40% |
| TARS | Pure Robots | 66 | 38% |
| Loki | Shapeshifters | 61 | 35% |
| Mystique | Shapeshifters | 59 | 34% |
| Faye Valentine | Bebop Crew | 54 | 31% |
| Odo | Shapeshifters | 54 | 31% |
| Spike Spiegel | Bebop Crew | 53 | 30% |
| Jet Black | Bebop Crew | 51 | 29% |
| Q | Shapeshifters | 45 | 26% |
| Sonny | Pure Robots | 43 | 24% |
| Edward | Bebop Crew | 29 | 16% |
| Marty McFly | Hill Valley Residents | 15 | 9% |
| Lorraine McFly | Hill Valley Residents | 14 | 8% |
| Doc | Hill Valley Residents | 9 | 5% |
| Biff Tannen | Hill Valley Residents | 9 | 5% |
By the numbers
Play it yourself
Stargrid is a daily sci-fi connections puzzle: sixteen characters, ships and worlds, four hidden groups, ten wrong guesses before it ends. Every puzzle goes into the archive once its day is over, so #183 is still playable there.