Strands gives you a grid of letters, a short theme clue and no word list. Somewhere in the grid is the spangram, a word or phrase that names the theme and stretches across the whole board. Find it and the rest of the puzzle usually falls into place. Miss it and you are left tracing letters like a cat chasing a laser pointer.
This guide explains how Strands works, what you can deduce about the spangram before you find it, and a method for clearing a board. There are no answers here; any examples are made up for this guide.
How the game works
- The board is 6 letters wide and 8 letters tall, 48 letters in all.
- A theme clue sits above the board. It is often a pun or a hint rather than a plain description.
- You make a word by connecting letters that touch, in any direction, including diagonals. A word can turn corners as it goes.
- The theme words fill the board exactly: every letter belongs to one theme word or the spangram, and no letter is used twice.
- The spangram describes the theme and touches two opposite sides of the board, either left and right, or top and bottom.
- Words you find that are not theme words still count for something: every three of them earns you a hint, which highlights a theme word's letters.
What you know about the spangram before you find it
The board's shape tells you more than it seems to.
It has a minimum length. Each step in a word moves to a touching letter, so it can only move one column or one row at a time. To touch both the left and right sides of a 6-wide board, the spangram needs at least 6 letters. To touch the top and bottom of an 8-tall board, it needs at least 8. In practice it is often longer, because it winds around other words.
It is usually the longest answer. Theme words are often common words of four to eight letters. If you spot a long chain of letters that could stretch from one side to the other, that is your best spangram candidate.
It often names the category, not an example. If the clue hints at things you find in a kitchen, the theme words might be utensils while the spangram is something like a word for the whole set. Think "what would you call this group?" rather than "what is one of them?"
Where to look first
Start at the edges. The spangram has to touch two opposite sides, so scan the left and right columns, then the top and bottom rows, for letters that could begin or end a long word.
Use the corners. A corner letter touches only three other letters, so any word that passes through a corner has very few possible paths. Corners are the easiest place to trace a word with confidence.
Follow the rare letters. J, Q, X, Z, K and V do not combine easily. When one appears, the theme word that uses it is heavily constrained, which makes it a good early find even if it is not the spangram.
Read the clue three ways. Try it literally, as a pun, and as a category name. The clue that sounds like nonsense at first often makes sense as a pun once you find one theme word.
How to clear the rest of the board
Once you have the spangram, the theme is no longer a guess. From there:
- List what the theme suggests. Before you trace anything, think of five or six words that fit.
- Search for their first letters. Find each candidate's first letter on the board, then check whether the next letters touch.
- Let the leftovers guide you. Because every letter is used exactly once, each found word shrinks the space left. When only a small island of letters remains, it must form a theme word on its own.
- Watch for words that split the board. If a found word cuts off a corner region, the letters in that region have to make words among themselves.
Using hints well
Hints are earned, not given. Every three non-theme words you find fills the meter once. A few habits make that work for you:
- Find short non-theme words early if you are stuck. Common four-letter words are easy to trace and fill the meter fast.
- Save a hint for the spangram's neighbors. A hint that reveals a theme word next to the spangram often exposes part of its path too.
- Do not burn hints on words you almost have. If you can see most of a word, a little more tracing is cheaper than a hint.
When you see letters but not a word
Sometimes you can see a cluster of letters that clearly belong together but cannot find the word they spell. That is an anagram problem. Type the cluster into the anagram solver to see every word those letters can make, then check which one the board can actually trace.
A short checklist
- Read the clue literally, as a pun and as a category.
- Look for a long chain that touches two opposite sides: at least 6 letters across, or 8 top to bottom.
- Trace words through corners and rare letters first.
- Once the theme is clear, list candidates before you trace.
- Use the leftover islands of letters; every letter belongs to exactly one word.
- Earn hints with short non-theme words when you stall.
Find the spangram first and the board stops being a maze and starts being a map.
Written by Morty Leonid with AI assistance. Any examples are invented for this guide.