Strands is the latest word game from the New York Times and is rapidly building a player base to rival Wordle.
The free-to-play daily game challenges players to find a series of words from a jumbled up grid of letters. As well as horizontal and vertical chains of letters, though, Strands allows players to link a letter with any of the nine other letters that surround it, giving players plenty to think about.
Strands is currently available to play via the New York Times app, as well as on mobile and PC. Check it out here.
There are a number of different themed words to be found per daily game, linked together by a cryptic clue. None of these words will overlap and they’ll fill the entire game board. There’s also something known as a Spangram, one or two words that describes the puzzle’s theme and touches at least two different sides of the board.
For every three non-themed words a player finds, they’ll be rewarded with a hint to help them complete the board. This hint will highlight which letters make up one of the words, while using a second hint will tell players the order of the letters. Hints can be stacked, but words must be longer than three letters.
The different themes mean that, on some days, Strands will be playing to your strengths while at other times you’ll undoubtedly be left scratching your head. Don’t worry though, NME is here to help. Below you’ll find the answers for today’s edition of Strands, alongside some helpful hints to assist you in solving the Spangram.
Strands hint and clues for today (#212, October 1)
Yesterday’s Strands theme was “words with weight” and the themed words had to do with the term weighing in before settling it in the ring, such as ‘feather’, ‘heavy’ and ‘bantam’.
Because of this, the Spangram was ‘boxing’.
Today’s theme is “Channel surfing”.
