Understanding the New York Times’ ‘Strands’ Puzzle

The Strands puzzle, a new word game by The New York Times, has been sparking interest among puzzle enthusiasts. As reported, the game is currently in its beta phase, requiring a substantial daily player base to ensure its continuation.

Strands combines elements of classic word search games with a daily evolving challenge. Players face a six-by-eight grid of letters, where the goal is to find a set of words sharing a common theme. A hint is provided to help identify this theme. Notably, when a word meeting the theme is discovered, it turns blue in the puzzle.

A unique aspect of Strands is the ‘spangram,’ a special word that links two opposite sides of the board and shares the thematic commonality with the other words. While the theme words are not proper names, the spangram may be. This word appears highlighted in yellow once found. Each letter is used once in either a theme word or the spangram, and players can connect letters in any direction, even changing direction mid-word. A touchscreen interface allows for submission by double-tapping the last letter of the guessed word.

A feature of the game enables players to unlock additional hints by discovering three valid four-letter words not part of the theme. These hints highlight letters forming one of the theme words in the grid.

The game’s difficulty varies, challenging players to fill in missing words from phrases or find synonyms and homophones on different days. According to the feedback from players, the creators aim to vary the difficulty and introduce surprise elements.

The spangram for a recent edition of the puzzle was ‘LITTLE’, with associated words including ‘LEAGUE’, ‘DEVIL’, ‘RASCALS’, ‘DIPPER’, ‘SPOON’, ‘WOMEN’, ‘FOOT’, and ‘ROCK’. Some players, while finding the puzzle challenging, inferred connections once more than half of the theme words were identified.

Marc McLaren, a TechRadar editor, has extensively covered word games including the popular Wordle and Connections. He describes the Strands puzzle as among the most difficult experienced in weeks. McLaren remarked the challenge of today’s puzzle lay in its abstract nature compared to recent themes categorized under specific lists.