How to Win at ‘Strands,’ the NYT’s Latest Word Game

Strands, the New York Cases’ still-in-beta phrase search recreation, is now on its tenth puzzle. The first two or three puzzles had been comparatively tame, with solvers complaining that the hint gave an extreme quantity of away and the game wasn’t very tough. Nonetheless you and I do know greater, correct? As I pointed out last week, the puzzle’s creators have dropped hints that it’s going to get fairly a bit trickier. That’s begun, and hoo boy, people are mad. 

Sooner than you be taught any further, know that this textual content consists of spoilers and outright options for the March 13, 2024 recreation of Strands. Here is the link to play today’s game, so that you probably can bear along with the rest of us. Then come once more and we’ll deal with what you merely expert. (And for many who’re catching up later, here’s a fan-created archive where you can play the March 13 game even in case you might be finding out this from the long term.) 

Strands #10
“One thousand followers”
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Alright, mates. Now we have to deal with a lot of points about how the puzzles are constructed, and what expectations and assumptions are inbuilt. This puzzle is new, so it’s okay for many who haven’t figured all of the items out however! We’re finding out collectively. 

Think about the “theme” like a crossword clue

In case you resolve crosswords, significantly NYT crosswords, you’ll have an unlimited head start over everyone else when it comes to understanding tough Strands themes. Keep in mind, in Strands, “at the moment’s theme” is the clue you get everytime you open the net web page. I take into account it as being the title of the puzzle.

Proper right here’s what you may wish to know: the theme is a clue for the spangram (the yellow phrase or phrase). The spangram, in flip, describes what the blue phrases have in frequent.

Sometimes the theme is a fairly easy clue: as an example, 

• “Mark my phrases” went with the spangram PUNCTUATION. (Blue phrases: COMMA, APOSTROPHE…)

• “She’ll have a ball” went with the spangram CINDERELLA. (Blue phrases: PUMPKIN, SLIPPER…)

• “I gotta dip!” went with the spangram GUACAMOLE. (Blue phrases: AVOCADO, JALAPENO…)

Straightforward, correct? That’s on account of they’re starting us off easy. There have been some trickier ones: 

• “To put it mildly” was EUPHEMISMS.

• “Ruler’s decree” was MEASUREMENTS. (That’s “ruler” as in a yardstick, not a king)

I’m happy that it’s a phrase search designed for crossword aficionados. Personally, I’m proper right here for it: I actually like NYT crosswords, significantly ones like Thursdays and Sundays that are full of clever themes and wordplay. As an illustration, listed below are some crossword clues that I’ve chuckled at beforehand week: 

This is what’s occurring when “One thousand followers” turns into GRAND FINALE, as throughout the March 13 Strands theme. A grand is one thousand, and a finale is an ending. The puzzle asks us to hunt out endings for the phrase “GRAND ____.”

Anticipate fill-in-the-blank courses

Now that we’re getting the grasp of it, the blue phrases are usually wordplay based totally on the theme/spangram. Merely as in Connections, phrases aren’t always grouped collectively for being members of a category or synonyms for each other. We’ve seen each form of tough mixtures there, along with homophones and anagrams. (Keep in mind ATE, FOR, TOO, WON as homophones of the numbers 8, 4, 2, 1?)

So what kind of wordplay can we anticipate in Strands? (Fortunately, anagrams gained’t truly work.) Recall that the NYT hinted we’d see “fill-in-the-blanks” someday. That’s occurred twice already. Just a few days previously, we had this puzzle: 

• Theme: “FRAGILE: Cope with with care” 

• Spangram: BREAKABLE

• Phrases: HEART, SILENCE, PROMISE, BREAD, MOLD, SWEAT, RECORD.

Get it? All of them examine with idioms the place we “break” one factor: you probably can break bread with any particular person, or break their coronary coronary heart, otherwise you probably can sound like a broken file. 

The reason March 13’s puzzle is so tough is that it makes use of every a crossword-style clue for the spangram, and Connections-style fill-in-the-blanks for the blue phrases. I’m going to spoil all of it proper right here, since you had been already warned: 

• Theme: “One thousand followers” 

• Spangram: GRAND FINALE

• Phrases: [grand] PRIZE, [grand] JURY, [Grand] CENTRAL, [Grand] CANYON, [grand] SLAM, [Grand] RAPIDS, [grand] PIANO.

Get it? Get it??? I’m sorry, I was tickled by this as quickly as I figured it out. It moreover took me an excellent prolonged whereas to get it, on account of it’s a highly effective puzzle! It takes a lot of leaps of logic to get these “aha!” moments.

Anyway, people who had been anticipating a straightforward phrase search are mad. Here’s a Reddit thread full of complaints that the spangram doesn’t match the theme, or that “finale” must have been a phrase by itself. (It might have been, nevertheless you then don’t get the lovable constructing of GRAND + [synonym for ending].) 

Plenty of the complaints on this and totally different laborious puzzles are from people who aren’t native English audio system, and that’s a really authentic criticism. (A variety of folks had been stumped by GADZOOKS the other day—you type of wanted to be taught a certain interval of comic books for that to even register as a phrase.) Onerous phrase puzzles shouldn’t always accessible to everyone, which is every a problem and your complete stage of the puzzle. In case you resolve one factor by reaching into your thoughts for some obscure information or by connecting two concepts in an outside-the-box type of strategy, that’s an unbelievable feeling, and makes your complete puzzle worth it!

I’m impressed with Strands (and have extreme hopes for it graduating from beta) on account of it might properly run that total gamut from easy to devilish, counting on how sadistic the constructor is feeling that day. Getting the “aha” second on a tough one is the type of thrill I reside for (I don’t reside a very thrilling life). Bottom line: That’s not a easy puzzle. In case you acknowledge and love the wordplay suggestions of every Crosswords and Connections, you’ll be into Strands. Merely don’t anticipate it to be easy.