SALET scraped a single yellow A — somewhere in the word, not position two. DRAIN confirmed the A’s position at three with a green, everything else gray. The solver had narrowed the field to 38 candidates but the path was murky.

CHAYA tried to exploit what we knew about the A, yielding a yellow C (in the word, wrong spot) and confirming the A stayed green at three. Down to 3 candidates.

GUACO was a smart probe: yellow Q (it exists!), green U, green A, green C — the Q-U pairing locked in, the answer just needed its final letter. With positions 2-4 confirmed as U-A-C and a Q lurking at position one, only one word fits.

QUACK. Five rounds — tougher than average, but the Q-U trap had to be earned.