Hints and Solutions for Strands Puzzle – January 29, 2025
Searching for clues and solutions for the Strands puzzle dated January 29, 2025? You’ve come to the right place! This post will provide you with valuable hints, insights, and ultimately, the solution to today’s riddle, themed “Show of Hands.”
For easy access to our daily hints for Strands, be sure to bookmark this page. You’ll also find previous hints listed here if you’re curious about what you might have overlooked in earlier puzzles.
This section will offer subtle clues regarding today’s Strands answers, followed by the full solution and the spangram further down. Take your time and extract only the hints you require!
Clue for Today’s Spangram in Strands
It describes a person who orchestrates everything behind the scenes.
Clue for the Thematic Words in Strands
Methods to create small characters for a performance and expressing with your hands.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands Puzzle!
The solutions to today’s Strands puzzle are about to be unveiled.
What is Today’s Spangram?
The spangram for today is PUPPETMASTER.
What are the Theme Words Today?
The theme words include: MARIONETTE, SOCK, SHADOW, FINGER, STICK, and GLOVE.
Here’s how the board appears upon completion of the puzzle:
Approach to Solving Today’s Strands
The initial thought was that the puzzle might involve hand signals, perhaps gestures like “peace.”
A non-themed word LOVE caught my eye, but the nearby G sparked the creation of GLOVE. 🔵
Unfortunately, MITTEN didn’t appear, nor could I recall anything else associated with hands. Subsequently, I stumbled across the word PUPPET; although it isn’t thematic, it might connect to the overarching idea of the puzzle’s theme.
Indeed, the word SOCK emerged. 🔵 This suggests the types of puppets on display.
SHADOW revealed itself in the bottom left corner. 🔵
FINGER was located in the bottom right corner. 🔵
STICK was conveniently above FINGER. 🔵
Next up was the spangram—was it PUPPETEER? Negative. Ah, the correct term is PUPPETMASTER. 🟡
Lastly, MARIONETTE completed my search. 🔵
Strands #332 “Show of hands” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡🔵
Guide to Playing Strands
The Strands game can be accessed via the New York Times website or through the NYT Games app.
When first entered, players will encounter a board filled with various letters, accompanied by a clue that denotes the theme of the board; this typically manifests as a phrase, for instance, “Better with age.” The task is to unearth the hidden words that relate to the puzzle’s theme.
A Fusion of Crossword and Word Search
The primary goal is to discern the spangram—a word that encapsulates the puzzle’s theme more directly. (As an example, for the theme “Better with age,” the spangram would be FERMENTED, denoting products that improve with time.) The spangram will traverse the board, either horizontally or vertically. Upon locating it, it will be highlighted in yellow, significantly aiding puzzle completion.
In Strands, words can be positioned in any direction (vertically, horizontally, diagonally), and each letter may only be utilized once. There exists only one correct resolution. If one identifies a word correctly (such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will light up in blue.
For those encountering difficulties, any non-themed words of four letters or more can be submitted to earn a hint. Submit three such words, and the “Hint” button will activate, illuminating letters in one of the theme words. It’s important to link these highlighted letters coherently to form a theme word. Should a hint already be active on the board, using another before solving that word will reveal the order of the letters.
Winning Strategies for Strands
Unlike other games like Connections or Wordle, failing Strands is not an option. Each submission will either confirm a word, award hints, or shake the text if the submitted word is invalid or too brief. There’s no limit on guesses or time pressure.
Victory is achieved once all letters have been utilized, indicating the spangram and all theme words have been located. As is customary with NYT games, a summary card displaying the results of the day’s efforts will appear: blue dots 🔵 signify the theme words identified, the yellow dot 🟡 flags the spangram discovery, and the lightbulb 💡 marks words that received hints.
