You’re staring at a grid of letters that looks like a word search but feels like a fever dream. You found the word "STARE," and the letters light up blue. Cool. But then you see "COFFEE" and try to drag your finger across the letters, only to realize the path zig-zags like a drunk toddler’s drawing. Welcome to the Strands NYT game, the New York Times' most chaotic addition to its puzzle empire.
If you think this is just Wordle in a bigger box, you’re in for a rough morning.
Honestly, the New York Times Strands game is the first time I've felt like I needed a PhD in spatial reasoning just to find a six-letter word about breakfast. It’s a word search where the words don't stay in lines. They bend. They twist. They double back on themselves. It’s basically Boggle’s more sophisticated, slightly meaner cousin.
The Weird Rules of the Strands NYT Game
Most people jump into Strands and treat it like a standard word hunt. Big mistake.
First off, there is no word list. You’re flying blind. The only thing you get is a cryptic theme title at the top—something like "That's putting it mildly" or "Mark my words." These themes are notoriously cheeky. If the theme is "In Your Feed," don't just look for "TikTok." You might be looking for "CHICKEN" because, you know, animal feed.
Every single letter in the $6 \times 8$ grid must be used exactly once. This is the "Aha!" moment most players miss. If you have three letters left in a corner that don't seem to make sense, you’ve probably messed up a word somewhere else.
The Spangram: The Holy Grail
Then there’s the Spangram. This is a special word (or phrase) that describes the entire theme and—this is the important bit—it physically touches two opposite sides of the board. It can go left-to-right or top-to-bottom. When you find it, it turns yellow instead of blue.
Getting the Spangram early is basically a cheat code. It splits the board in two and gives you a massive clue for the remaining words.
Stop Fighting the Hint System
Let’s be real: sometimes the theme makes zero sense.
If you find a word that is a real English word but isn't part of the daily theme, the game doesn't just ignore you. It counts it. For every three "non-theme" words you find (they must be at least four letters long), you earn a hint.
- One hint circles the letters of a theme word.
- Two hints on the same word actually show you the sequence.
A lot of "puzzle purists" think using hints is cheating. I say life is too short to be angry at a grid of letters before your first coffee. If you're stuck, find "CATS," "DOGS," and "BEAR" just to get that hint lightbulb to glow.
Strategies for People Who Actually Want to Win
If you want to beat the Strands NYT game without pulling your hair out, start at the corners. Corner letters are the most constrained; they can only connect to a few neighbors. Central letters are a mess because they have eight possible directions to go.
Look for "orphan" letters. If you see a "Q," there is almost certainly a "U" next to it. If you see a "Z" or an "X," focus there immediately.
- Read the theme, then ignore it. Seriously. Sometimes the theme is so metaphorical it’s useless until you’ve found at least two words.
- Hunt for common suffixes. Scan for "TION," "ING," or "ED." These often form the "tails" of longer words that snake across the grid.
- Trace the Spangram first. It has to cross the whole board. Look for a long path that bisects the grid.
Why Strands is Different from Wordle or Connections
Wordle is about deduction and elimination. Connections is about lateral thinking and avoiding red herrings.
Strands is about visual patterns.
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It’s much more tactile. You’re literally drawing shapes on your screen. It’s also "fail-proof" in a way the others aren't. You can't "lose" Strands. You don't run out of guesses. You just stay there until you finish it or give up in a fit of rage. That makes it more relaxing for some, but way more frustrating for people who like the high stakes of a "1/6" Wordle score.
The game launched in beta in March 2024 and was eventually moved into the main NYT Games app because everyone obsessed over it. It hits that sweet spot of feeling impossible for three minutes and then suddenly feeling like you’re the smartest person on Earth.
The Math of the Grid
If you're curious about the technical side, the $6 \times 8$ grid contains exactly 48 letters. Because every letter is used, the game is essentially a perfect tiling puzzle. If the daily theme has 6 words and a 10-letter Spangram, the average length of the theme words is about 6 letters. Knowing this helps you stop looking for tiny three-letter words that aren't there.
Common Misconceptions
People think you can't reuse letters. You can't. Once a letter is part of a blue or yellow word, it’s "locked."
Another one? Thinking the Spangram has to be a single word. It doesn't. It can be two words joined together, like "SOCIALMEDIA" or "TEXTILEART." This usually trips people up because they’re looking for a single dictionary entry when it’s actually a compound phrase.
Actionable Next Steps
To actually get better at the Strands NYT game, try these three things tomorrow:
- Don't click the hint button immediately. Instead, purposefully hunt for three random 4-letter words to "bank" a hint for later when you're down to the last two words.
- Visualize the path. Before you drag your finger, try to trace the word with your eyes. The "snake" pathing means you can easily box yourself into a corner if you pick the wrong "S" or "T" in a cluster.
- Check the letter count. If a section of the board has 8 letters left and you found a 4-letter word, there’s exactly one more 4-letter word (or a 3 and 5) waiting there. Use the remaining space to narrow down your guesses.
Stop treating it like a word search and start treating it like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces are made of the alphabet.