Total character hints for each first guess (across the set of all possible answers):
arose24,791 hintssoare24,791aeros24,791serai24,469reais24,469raise24,469arise24,469aesir24,469aloes23,996seral23,994
- ...
adieu19,358
- ...
gyppy5,459fuffy5,457xylyl5,432
Determined using the official word list (below). Duplicate hints are ignored (e.g. p in apple counts as 1 hint). You get similar results if you sort by median-case hints.
I then use the following words as a second guess based on the number of matches (0 - 5)
minty minty until lamps rages final