How to Play NYT Strands (With Tips & Tricks)

The New York Times has a collection of puzzles to play under its “Games” library. Many of you might already be familiar with the NYT Connections and Wordle. But if these two don’t suffice, there’s another NYT game called Strands. It’s a free-to-play word guessing puzzle that brings some creative thinking and wordplay to the mix for a challenging experience every day. If this is your first time with Strands or recently started playing, the following post will tell you what it is like and how to play NYT Strands.

What is Strands, NYT’s Word Game?

Most of us are probably exposed to the frustration of solving “words” with Scrabble since we were young. Well, think of Scrabble with a touch of mystery to it and you get Strands. It uses the popular word search formula and builds on it by adding unique elements to make it more interesting.

Players start with a daily theme card on the left and a six-by-eight grid that contains a random assortment of letters on the right. The aim of the game is to find the list of “theme” words that share some relevance to this theme. When you find enough words in the grid, you’ll start to see the motif for the puzzle – Spangram.

The Spangram is a unique word or phrase in Strands that acts as the base of the theme. What all the words in Strands have in common is described by the Spangram, which is the actual answer of every day’s puzzle. Once connected, a Spangram is marked in yellow letters.

The Spangram spans the length of the grid in many different ways. It can connect the top and bottom or the left and right edges. On some days, it can take up the grid diagonally or start and end on the same edge by travelling all across the board. Once you find all the other words, including the Spangram, you complete NYT Strands for the day.

NYT Strands provides hints to help you along your path. Guessing any unrelated four-letter or more words will fill up the hint bar. Find three non-theme words, and the hint bar will turn black. The game is now ready to help you find a word. The hint will encircle the relevant letters you’ll need for one of the main words.

Now that we have a good idea of NYT Strands, let’s begin learning how to play it.

How to Play NYT Strands

While the game is in beta, you can play it for free on NYT Strands (website) or the NYT Games app. Here’s how you can play it:

1. When you start a puzzle, you’ll see today’s theme on the left and the letter grid on the right.
2. Begin by using your mouse to connect a bunch of letters (at least 4) together to form a word. You can do this by clicking the letters in order to make a word or by dragging through the letters. If on mobile, simply use your finger to tap or drag.

3. To submit a word (theme or non-theme), click on the last letter of the work. If you successfully found the theme word, it will appear in Blue. Non-theme words won’t be highlighted but will be counted as one of the three hints you need to crack to get the theme word.

4. Now that you know how to connect the letters, begin by connecting more of them together. As mentioned, you must look for theme-centric words on the board and connect them. For instance, CANYON for the current theme makes sense, and I’ll be looking for more like those. As you uncover more words, you’ll see the word list add up, and the grid fills up.

5. If, at any point, you can’t find any more theme words, start to look for unrelated ones to fill up the hint bar. Once done, click on Hint, and the letters will be encircled with a dashed blue outlines. You can use any number of hints across a puzzle, but to get them every time, you will need to find three non-theme words. When you can’t solve a theme word with a hint, the next hint you get will tell you the correct order of letters to choose.

6. Keep using the hints and your own wits to find all the connected words. As you start cracking the theme words, the NYT Strands grid will narrow down. We are reaching the Spangram.

7. At this point, I can see that the Spangram for Strands is related to a big theme. Nearing the journey, I saw a tight spot of letters that told me I had my target. I trace them all together and get the Spangram for NYT Strands.

8. Once done, the word is highlighted in yellow, and I win!

9. Once you solve an NYT Strands puzzle, you can also tap on the View Results button to get some additional details, like how many hints you used. Alternatively, you can Share your Results by clicking on the dedicated button, and an emoji-style result, similar to Wordle, will be copied.

And that is how you play NYT Strands. Sound easy enough? Well, it’s not. Make your life easier by sticking around and checking out the best tips and tricks for NYT Strands below:

Tips and Tricks to Play NYT Strands

While solving NYT Strands may seem like a walk in the park, it’s not that easy. To help you along, I have gathered a collection of the best tips and tricks that you can use. With that, here we go.

1. There Is No Right Path

As I mentioned before, a Strands board does not limit you like Sudoku, Scrabble, or similar word search games. There are no specific paths you must trace to get to a word.

While I was confused about how to go about it at first, I realized you can drag the letters along both horizontally and vertically or even zig-zag your way through. Once you get a hang of it, every corner features a word you couldn’t spot before. So keep this in mind.

2. Always Start at the Corners

Like the puzzles you get every day, the answers to them will also be different, with some weird shapes on some days. Since Spangrams for the most part extend from one to side to another, your best bet to get started is to look up for theme words at all four corners of the grid.

This will help you narrow down the remaining letters on the grid and get you to the Spangram easily. Starting from the corners can also come to aid for days when the Spangram takes up one of the corners.

3. Spangram for the Win

While the daily theme for NYT Strands is something that might confuse you, the Spangram is your friend here. Figuring out this handy word early on will not only get you ahead but will give you a hint for the other theme words.

When trying to detect the Spangram, remember that it spans the entire length of the board. So feel free to drag your cursor from top-bottom and side to side, and you might uncover the theme as opposed to a word.

4. It’s Okay to Use Hints

As someone with an ego the size of Mt. Everest, I fully understand if you might not want to use any hints. However, unlike other puzzles, NYT Strands will give you a run for its money. So, if you find yourself at your wit’s end, tap that hint button and get some extra help.

As mentioned, hints will highlight one of the main theme words in blue. So, keep guessing unrelated words and getting hints to get to the Spangram the fastest!

5. Don’t Overthink It

So, my editor and I were solving a game of Strands one fine day, and he figured out the Spangram way earlier than I did. As soon as he told me not to overthink it and that it was right there staring at my face I simplified my thoughts, and there it was.

Moral of this small story? Most of the theme words and the Spangram itself are not overly complex and, oftentimes, are the most commonly used words of all time. Hence, overthinking can definitely be your worst enemy in Strands.

6. Be Consistent

As with everything in life, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Fortunately, this applies to NYT Strands too. As such, I suggest you play NYT Strands every day and keep coming back to it to build a solid understanding of the game. Once you’ve played it enough, you’ll start using fewer and fewer hints, and before you know it, the puzzle will become clockwork.

Now, if you like the game like I do, I’d definitely recommend telling your friends about it. As always, you can check out our daily Strands answers to give yourself a little help. That’s everything you need to know about NYT Strands. What do you think about the game? Let us know in the comments!