Strands, the word puzzle game from The New York Times, is back for the weekend with a new challenge for players. The game is a twist on the classic word search and is currently in beta, meaning it will only continue if enough people play it daily. Each day, players are presented with a six by eight grid of letters and are tasked with finding a group of words that have a common theme, with clues provided. When a theme word is found, it is highlighted in blue, and when the special word called a spangram is found, it is highlighted in yellow. The goal is to use every letter once in a theme word or the spangram, connecting them vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Players are encouraged to be on their toes as the difficulty of the game varies each day, with some days focusing on filling in missing words in a phrase, while others may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The puzzle creators aim to surprise players with each new challenge. Once players find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, they unlock the Hint button, which highlights the letters that make up one of the theme words.
Today’s official Strands hint from The New York Times is “Part of the Equation,” with a clue hinting at the word “equations.” The spangram for the day is “MATHEMATICS,” a word that links two opposite sides of the board and reveals the common theme of the words. The remaining answers to fill up the board include words like DIVIDE, CALCULATE, MULTIPLY, SUBTRACT, and DERIVE, with some being straightforward mathematical terms and others requiring a bit more thought to uncover.
Despite the overall ease of the puzzle, one word, DERIVE, provided some challenge for the player, requiring the use of a word unscrambler to solve. The absence of the word ADDITION in the list of answers was a surprise, but the constraints of the puzzle limit the available choices in the grid. Overall, the player enjoyed the challenge of the puzzle and hopes others had fun playing as well. For more updates and content from the player, they can be followed on various social media platforms and can explore their sci-fi novel series.
