Happy birthday to Shutters! The New York Times Stands Game, which is a bit like a search for words where you are not given the list of words to find, celebrated its 365th puzzle on Monday and marked its full birthday with a puzzle on the theme of the strands on Tuesday. (Spoilers to come, then look away if you have not yet resolved the puzzle today.)
Find out more: Puzzle daily answers for strands, losts, connections, connections: sports edition and mini crossword
The puzzle proudly boasts “it’s our game game” as the theme of the puzzle, but the players could be surprised when they discover that the theme does not include words like “puzzle” or “words” or “celebrate” or “birthday”. Instead, the answers, which means that the words that a player must find, are all synonyms for words words.
Find out more: Rules explained, no more advice for the daily puzzle of the NYT strands
The players will have to find the words to complete, wisp, thong, ribbon, thread, spinning and filament, plus the spangram – a word that extends from one side of the puzzle to the other – which is simply strands. And of course, all these words, from Curl to Filament, are another way of defining the game title, Strons. (I admit that I did not establish the link at the beginning and I thought it was just a hairdressing theme. Oh!)
My best tips for solving strands
I have been playing shutters almost since its launch, and I have developed solid strategies. Here are my three favorites.
Indicate
To get more words, see if you can change the words you have already found, adding an “S” or other variants. And if you find a word like Will, see if other letters are close enough to help you make threshold or invoice.
Chasing related themed words
Once you get a theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.
Here’s how to spell the word theme
If you have received the letters for a theme word, but you cannot understand it, guess three other words of index, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.
Most difficult recent strands
Here are some of the subjects of the strands that I have found the most difficult in recent weeks.
# 1: dated slang, January 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this jargon when it was cool. The most difficult word: Phat.
# 2: Thar she blows! January 15. I guess marine biologists could suck this one. The most difficult word: Baleen or on the right.
# 3: Off the Hook, January 9. Similar to the puzzle of January 15 in that it helps to know a lot about marine creatures. Sorry, Charlie. The most difficult word: bigeye or skipjack
