The Strands Thread - Another puzzle game from NYT, makers of Wordle and Connections

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Pee Cola

Pee Cola

"Teflon piss king" - Grok 2026
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Jan 27, 2020
Strands, like Wordle and Connections, is yet another word puzzle game from the New York Times.

To play Strands, find theme words by dragging letters on the grid to form them, with the goal of filling the board without overlap.

You'll also need to find the spangram, a yellow-highlighted word describing the theme that touches two opposite sides of the board. Note that the spangram isn't necessarily a single word; in some cases it is several words joined together.

Finding three non-theme words (words of four or more letters that don't fit the theme) will give you a hint revealing the letters of a theme word. If you still need a hint, find another three non-theme words and the next hint will show the currently-hinted at word, only with each letter highlighted in order.

The puzzle is complete when you've found all the theme words and the spangram, using every letter on the board.

Example:

Strands #546
“Up the hill”
💡🔵💡🔵
🔵🟡🔵🔵
🔵🔵

The yellow dot is the spangram, the blue dots are other theme words, the light bulbs are hints.
 
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I love the crossword, I can tolerate Wordle, but connections is annoying and this I despise. It's not for me, but I imagine it's nice for people who like word searches.
 
0 0 said:
I love the crossword, I can tolerate Wordle, but connections is annoying and this I despise. It's not for me, but I imagine it's nice for people who like word searches.
Click to expand...
I've seen Strands enjoyers in the Wordle and Connections threads, but I understand it's not for everyone. tbh I struggle with Sudoku, you need a fucking Math degree to work that shit out.

Oh, and I'm still a bit salty over NYT putting the Mini behind a paywall. The crossword is a bit too much for me, but the Mini is fun and I love the little piano sting that plays once I've finished it.
 
I like how it doesn’t feel like a contest to finish. Wordle and especially connections brutalize me when I get them wrong.

I’ve been enjoying pips since they TOOK MY MINI CROSSWORD AWAY
 
Strands #547
“Be my guest”
🔵💡💡🔵
🔵🟡🔵🔵
🔵

I had a massive brain fart this morning.
 
Strands #548
“Things are starting to take shape”
🔵🔵🔵🔵
🟡🔵🔵🔵
 
[meta]

Can the subheading be changed on this thread? I usually search the General Discussion page for puzzle threads and inevitably hit this one as a tertiary result before others as primary results, which is mildly inconvenient.

It also reminds me of when I was looking for work and the brilliant minds in each HR department would spam listings with unrelated terms to boost engagement, which is pretty frustrating and unnecessary. Let's not be like HR, eh?

An alternative subheading might just be the url to the NYT Strands page. Users should be able to deduce in short order that Strands is closely associated with other popular word games.
 
Strands #549
“That's so sweet!”
🔵🔵🟡🔵
🔵🔵💡💡
🔵

I never would have got that last one without the two hints.

ChompChomp said:
[meta]

Can the subheading be changed on this thread? I usually search the General Discussion page for puzzle threads and inevitably hit this one as a tertiary result before others as primary results, which is mildly inconvenient.
Click to expand...
Fair point. It might help this thread gain traction among fellow NYT puzzle autists. I can't edit it myself, but I can ask one of the jannies to add an NYT reference to the subtitle. Do you think something like "another puzzle game from NYT, makers of Wordle and Connections" would work?
 
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