The latest New York Times puzzle game Strands is a mix of a traditional word search and a topic-focused puzzle like Connections. We're here to offer as much or as little help you need to help you solve the latest puzzle.
How to Play Strands
Strands presents you with a 6 x 8 grid of letters and a daily theme clue. You have to find words, but unlike a traditional word search, the flow of each word can travel in different directions. The "strands" of letters pivot all over the place, providing an extra challenge.
Each day's theme functions a bit like a crossword clue. It's not always literal and usually only becomes clear once you've discovered a few on-theme words on the board. There's also a way to receive hints in-game: if you submit three words unrelated to the theme, all of the letters used for an on-theme word will be circled. Note that all words must be at least four letters long, whether on theme or not.
It'll then be up to you to guess the flow of that particular strand. As you unlock official guesses, they'll be highlighted in blue. Eventually, you'll uncover the theme's name in gold — called a Spangram! — as it bisects the rest of the puzzle and touches two opposite sides of the board.
The April 14 puzzle presented above had the theme "Join the club!" but actually referred to sandwich ingredients like bacon, lettuce, and tomato.
April 15 Puzzle Hints
"This and that" is the April 15 theme, so could all the words be random objects? Maybe!
Today's Non-Theme Words for Strands
Once you submit three off-theme words of at least four letters, you'll get a hint that circles all the letters used in an on-theme word. And even after successfully submitting on-theme words, you can still use any letter on the board to make new words. A good strategy is to use pieces of the on-theme words. If BARKS is a word, then definitely submit BARK as well to make progress towards unlocking a new clue. Here's an assortment of off-theme words we found that helped us get hints for the latest puzzle.
- LEAP
- LAKE
- LEAM
- POKE
- TOKE
- MASE
- MAKE
- SKATE
- TEER
- TRIP
- RENT
- TENT
- ROUT
- MORT
- SEAM
- PACE
- SPAM
- ROTE
- QUITE
- COKE
- COTE
- MOKE
- PARE
- SEAR
- MIRROR
- RITE
- MITE
- MAPLE
- TRIKE
- PIKE
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Today's On-Theme Words for Strands
Today's first hint exposed GIVE, immediately making us think that TAKE must also be on the board. Four pairs were among the nine theme words and the Spangram word of PARTNERS.
- GIVE
- TAKE
- TRIAL
- ERROR
- PEACE
- QUIET
- SMOKE
- MIRRORS
- PARTNERS (Spangram)
