Strands is among the newest games to be released by the New York Times. Challenging games and the New York Times have been linked together since 1942, when the legendary newspaper first launched its now world-renowned crossword puzzle like Connections and Wordle.
NYT Strands fits well into this demographic, as it both challenges your brain while delivering the usual standard of the New York Times that your knowledge of language will be a significant factor in enjoying success while playing this game. Strands is a word search game played by a single player. It is contained within a 6×8 grid of letters which you use to uncover words falling under a theme.
Strands is the type of game that will prove popular with people who enjoy figuring out anagrams, or playing word-creation games such as Boggle and Scrabble.
Every day at 12 midnight ET, a new strands puzzle game is released and made available to play. Strands is accessible for you to play on both desktop and mobile web at nytimes.com/games/strands and in the New York Times Games app. It’s free to play Strands on all of these platforms.
When they are developing new games at the New York Times, they factor into play certain standards that the game must meet in order to be given approval for launch. The game must be approachable and easy to learn when it comes to the methods of play. At the same time, it must also be very demanding to solve. Most importantly, game play should be an enjoyable experience, to ensure that you’ll want to be coming back to play on a regular basis.
History of New York Times Strands Game
Strands was first released in the New York Times game library as a beta launch on March 4, 2024. On June 26, 2024, Strands was added to the New York Times games portfolio on a permanent basis.
The game is the creation of Juliette Seive, a research editor on the New York Times games team, who made the original pitch for Strands during the New York Times annual game jam hackathon. Seive indicated that they were hearing from regular players of the New York Times word search that it was too easy. They wanted something that would be giving them more of a challenge to complete.
The Strands puzzles are written and edited by Tracy Bennett. Bennett is also the editor responsible for the popular New York Times Wordle puzzles.
How To Play New York Times Strands Game
While Strands is a word search puzzle, it literally bends the rules of traditional word search games. Unlike those old-school word search puzzles in which solutions can be found up, down, across or diagonally about the grid, with Strands, the words contained in the puzzle can snake around the grid and bend in any direction. While playing Strands, you can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally. It’s even allowable to switch directions in the middle of a word.
This novel take on an old standby of puzzling is proving to be quite popular with New York Times games players.
You are tasked with filling the entire board in order to complete the puzzle. No words will overlap and no letter in the grid will be used more than once. Proper names are not permitted to be theme words.
Every game does include a challenge word or phrase called the spangram. This is either a word, or a two-word phrase that touches across to the two opposite sides of the grid. The key words in Strands all have a connection to the theme, while the spangram describes what exactly it is that these words share in common.
In essence, the spangram is summing up what you are pursuing while seeking to solve that day’s Strands puzzle. And unlike a theme word, a spangram can be a proper name.
There’s a theme to every Strands puzzle. You’ll be given a clue to the theme of the game at the outset of play, as well as the total number of words that must be found to complete the puzzle.
Not all words in a Strands puzzle factor into the theme. Words that do relate to the theme of the puzzle will highlight in blue once you’ve found them. The spangram will highlight in yellow once it is revealed.
Strategies For NYT Strands Game
With a traditional word search game, you are given the words ahead of time. Your task is to locate them on the grid. When playing Strands, you must find the words on the grid and then decipher what the connection is, the common theme is among these words.
In this respect, it’s helpful to train your mind to be thinking like a wordsmith. Seek to incorporate elements of clever wordplay into your puzzle solving.
You will be given a clue to start out on your hunt. It’s categorized as “today’s theme.” For instance, a recent Strands offered “make waves” as the theme of that day’s puzzle. Words discovered en route to the solution included dinghy, kayak, canoe and paddle board. The spangram revealed the answer to that day’s Strands was Watercraft.
One strategy that people often employ when playing Strands is to go for the gusto right off the hop. Instead of seeking out words that may or may not be part of the theme, try and open up by hunting down the spangram. Since it must touch opposite sides of the grid, it can be easier to locate than you might think. Once you’ve got the spangram nailed down, finding the theme words would become a much easier process.
Playing the four corners of the grid is another popular Strands strategy. Corner letters only have three possible directions to head to form a word, compared to eight for letters in the middle of the board. Think of it like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. You always start by building the outside frame before venturing into the middle assembly.
Make use of the hints you’ll be given. With every three non-theme words you locate, the game will drop a hint for you. Any word you find of four or more letters that doesn’t prove to be part of the theme words is eligible to unlock hints. And you can reuse these non-theme words to unleash even more hints if you can find a corresponding letter to change the word, such as adding letters like S or ES to the end of any word to make it a plural.
NYT Strands Hints For Playing The Game
While the non-theme words in Strands don’t directly impact the solving of the puzzle, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be of help in your game play. Every three words that you locate while playing Strands is going to result in you being offered a hint to help you unlock the theme of the puzzle.
There are several sites that are also looking to help you out in pursuit of each day’s Strands solution. Search the internet and you will find no shortage of sites providing helpful hints designed to enhance your ability to solve that day’s puzzle.
These hint droppers range from simple bloggers who delve into the realm of puzzle solving, to game playing sites such as Game Rant, Lifehacker and TechRadar, to major media players such as Forbes and Mashable.
You’ll get tips on some of today’s words, clues to the theme and if you hit a wall and simply can’t come up with a solution to that day’s Strands, there are even sites that will reveal the answers to you.
If you like the NYT Strands, you may also want to learn more about the very popular game NYT Connections. You can also try to play casino games for free at these social casinos available in New York.
How do I start playing the NYT Strands game?
To start playing, simply visit the New York Times Games section or download the NYT Games app. Look for the Strands game. The game is free, and a new puzzle is released daily at midnight ET. You don’t need a subscription to access the daily puzzle, though other features may require one.
- Visit NYT Games: Head to NYT Games or use the NYT Games app.
- Daily Puzzle: A new Strands puzzle is available every day at midnight ET. It’s free to play, no subscription needed.
- How to Play: The objective is to find all the words within a 6×8 letter grid. Words can bend and twist, moving in any direction across the grid.
- Hints and Help: As you find non-theme words, you’ll unlock hints. Use these hints to help decipher tricky theme-related words.
What is a spangram in the NYT Strands game?
The spangram is a special word or phrase that connects two opposite sides of the grid. It’s the key to unlocking the theme of the puzzle. For example, in a puzzle with a “make waves” theme, the spangram might be “Watercraft,” with theme words like dinghy and kayak.
What strategies can help solve NYT Strands faster?
Start by looking for the spangram, which often touches opposite edges of the grid. Also, focus on the corners first, as those letters have fewer directions to connect. Using non-theme words to unlock hints after every three words can further aid in solving the puzzle.
