diff --git a/src/solve/naive/mod.rs b/src/solve/naive/mod.rs
index 13203b0..c4410ac 100644
--- a/src/solve/naive/mod.rs
+++ b/src/solve/naive/mod.rs
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ impl<'wl, WL: WordList> Solver<'wl, WL> for NaiveSolver<'wl, WL> {
     /// * Discard all words that don't have the chars that we know from the last guess are in the
     ///   word, but don't know the position of.
     fn guess_for(&self, game: &crate::game::Game<WL>) -> WResult<Word> {
+        if game.responses().is_empty() {
+            // TODO: come up with a proper way to make the first guess
+            return Ok(Word::from("which"));
+        }
+
         let mut pattern: String = ".".repeat(game.length());
         // indexes we tried for that char and the number of occurences
         let mut state: SolverState = SolverState::new();
@@ -43,24 +48,33 @@ impl<'wl, WL: WordList> Solver<'wl, WL> for NaiveSolver<'wl, WL> {
                     Status::Matched => {
                         pattern.replace_range(idx..idx + 1, &p.0.to_string());
 
-                        state.char_map_mut().entry(p.0).or_default().found_at(idx);
+                        state
+                            .char_map_mut()
+                            .entry(p.0)
+                            .or_insert(CharInfo::new(game.length()))
+                            .found_at(idx);
                     }
-                    Status::Exists => state
-                        .char_map_mut()
-                        .entry(p.0)
-                        .or_default()
-                        .at_least_n_occurences(
+                    Status::Exists => {
+                        let cinfo = state
+                            .char_map_mut()
+                            .entry(p.0)
+                            .or_insert(CharInfo::new(game.length()));
+                        cinfo.tried_but_failed(idx);
+                        cinfo.at_least_n_occurences(
                             response.guess().chars().filter(|c| *c == p.0).count(),
-                        ),
+                        )
+                    }
                     Status::None => state
                         .char_map_mut()
                         .entry(p.0)
-                        .or_default()
+                        .or_insert(CharInfo::new(game.length()))
                         .not_in_solution(),
                 }
             }
         }
 
+        debug!("built state from responses: {state:#?}");
+
         // get all words that have the correct chars on the same positions
         let mut matches: Vec<WordData> = game.wordlist().get_words_matching(&pattern)?;
         if matches.is_empty() {
@@ -72,11 +86,13 @@ impl<'wl, WL: WordList> Solver<'wl, WL> for NaiveSolver<'wl, WL> {
             .filter(|p| !game.made_guesses().contains(&&p.0))
             .filter(|solution_candidate| {
                 for (idx, c) in solution_candidate.0.char_indices() {
-                    let cinfo = state.char_map_mut().entry(c).or_default();
-                    // bad word if it uses a char thats not in the solution
+                    let cinfo = state
+                        .char_map_mut()
+                        .entry(c)
+                        .or_insert(CharInfo::new(game.length()));
                     if !cinfo.part_of_solution()
                         || cinfo.has_been_tried(idx)
-                        || cinfo.occurences_of_char_possible(&solution_candidate.0, c)
+                        || !cinfo.occurences_of_char_possible(&solution_candidate.0, c)
                     {
                         return false;
                     }
diff --git a/src/solve/naive/states.rs b/src/solve/naive/states.rs
index a69b535..0d512e6 100644
--- a/src/solve/naive/states.rs
+++ b/src/solve/naive/states.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 use std::collections::{HashMap, HashSet};
+use std::fmt::Debug;
 use std::ops::{Range, RangeBounds};
 
 use crate::error::WResult;
 
 pub(crate) type CharMap = HashMap<char, CharInfo>;
 
-#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Default)]
+#[derive(Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub(crate) struct CharInfo {
     confirmed_indexes: HashSet<usize>,
     tried_indexes: HashSet<usize>,
@@ -34,8 +35,12 @@ impl SolverState {
 }
 
 impl CharInfo {
-    pub fn new() -> Self {
-        Self::default()
+    pub fn new(word_length: usize) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            confirmed_indexes: HashSet::new(),
+            tried_indexes: HashSet::new(),
+            occurences_amount: 0..word_length,
+        }
     }
 
     pub fn found_at(&mut self, idx: usize) {
@@ -108,3 +113,17 @@ impl CharInfo {
         )
     }
 }
+
+impl Debug for CharInfo {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        if self.part_of_solution() {
+            f.debug_struct("CharInfo")
+                .field("indexes", &self.confirmed_indexes)
+                .field("amnt_occ", &self.occurences_amount)
+                .field("tried", &self.tried_indexes)
+                .finish()
+        } else {
+            write!(f, "(not in solution)")
+        }
+    }
+}