Credit: Strands/NYT

Credit: Strands/NYT

Approach for Today’s Puzzle

Curiosity struck—could today’s puzzle showcase typical food fillings such as cheese or jelly? Let’s dive in.

PUMPKIN appears prominently on the left side. 🔵 Clearly, this could be promising.

BLUEBERRY is situated in the upper left corner. 🔵

Noticing the word CLASSIC nestled between these two clues, it seems likely that this signifies the beginning of our spangram, confirming it as CLASSICPIES. 🟡

PECAN is positioned at the top right. 🔵

APPLE shows up in the bottom left section. 🔵

To the right of APPLE, CHERRY can be found. 🔵

The last identifiable word is CHERRY. 🔵

Strands #376
“Fillin' good!”
🔵🔵🟡🔵
🔵🔵🔵

Playing Strands

The Strands game is accessible directly via the New York Times website and through the NYT Games app.

Upon initiating a game, players are greeted with a board filled with letters alongside a clue hinting at the thematic concept—typically a phrase, such as “Better with age.” The goal is to identify the concealed words in the board that resonate with the puzzle’s theme.

A Blend of Crossword and Word Search

The focal point is the “spangram,” which more clearly articulates the theme of the puzzle. (For instance, in a puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram would be FERMENTED, referring to products that indeed improve over time.) The spangram spans the entire board, either horizontally or vertically (hence its name). Locating the spangram generally simplifies the completion of the remaining puzzle.

In Strands, words can be found in various orientations (up, down, sideways, or diagonal), and each letter is utilized solely once. There exists one definitive solution. When a valid word is correctly identified (for example, KOMBUCHA or KIMCHI), the solution is highlighted in blue.

If difficulties arise during gameplay, players have the option to submit any non-theme words they encounter (four letters or longer) to earn a hint. Submitting three non-theme words enables the “Hint” button, which, when clicked, reveals the letters of a randomly chosen theme word. Players must then sequentially connect the highlighted letters to formulate a theme word. If a hint has already been given and another is requested, the letter order for that word will be revealed.

Winning at Strands

Strands does not feature a fail condition unlike other games like Connections or Wordle. Inputting incorrect guesses will result in either a correct identification, a credit toward a hint, or a shaking error indicating the submitted word is either too short or invalid. There are no limits on guesses and no time constraints.

Victory is achieved once all letters on the board are utilized, confirming the finding of both the spangram and all theme words. Upon successfully solving the puzzle, a sharable summary card will display the player’s performance: blue dots 🔵 indicate the theme words discovered, the yellow dot 🟡 represents the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 designates words that received hints.