The Citadel

I really enjoy this daily game. It has some of the qualities of cryptic crosswords with added spacial challenges.

The objective is to find all themed words hidden in a 6×8 letter grid. Each puzzle has a theme, and all valid words (4+ letters) relate to that theme. The key to the puzzle is identifying the SpanGram — a special word or phrase that links opposite sides of the board and captures the theme (e.g., if the theme is “green,” the SpanGram might be “PLANTS”). The words typically zig-zag around (always in adjacent squares).

How to Play:
• Connect adjacent letters (in any direction) to form words.
• Every correct themed word is highlighted in blue; non-themed words give you hints.
• When you find enough non-themed words (3), the game reveals one theme word automatically.
• The puzzle ends when you’ve found all themed words and the SpanGram.

My personal objectives are to solve the puzzle without taking any hints, and for extra amounts of difficulty, solving the SpanGram first AND never choosing a non-solution word.

https://www.nytimes.com/games/strands/

EDIT: -
From the archives, an example...
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I played strands a while back, but I ultimately lost focus on it. I still play connections daily though. Maybe I'l make a connections thread.

I love all the NYT games and do my daily rotation through them. My favorite will always be the crossword though.
I'm not a fan of some of the themes with Strands, though, and I hate when they put in words that aren't really all that familiar to people. Like today, RAGOUT and TAGINE were iffy at best. I know what they are, but I can't imagine the average person would.

Danoff wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 3:47 pm I played strands a while back, but I ultimately lost focus on it. I still play connections daily though. Maybe I'l make a connections thread.

I really want to be good at Connections, however I fail repeatedly. Only once have a got a 5/5 game solved and that was due to a lucky thought which gave me the purple one as the first group.

A while back, having failed utterly at a 5/5 difficulty Connections puzzle, I gave the words to ChatGPT as an experiment to see if it could unravel them. And boy, it was amazing. It explained its logic along the way, and the recursive thinking steps it used. Later I tried again a couple more times to see if it was a fluke and each time it nailed it.

To be clear, I'm not advocating using AI to "cheat" at a game, just interested to see if it was up to the challenge.

EDIT: Here's evidence of my pathetic obsession with Strands: -
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GBO Possum wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 4:27 pm

Danoff wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 3:47 pm I played strands a while back, but I ultimately lost focus on it. I still play connections daily though. Maybe I'l make a connections thread.

I really want to be good at Connections, however I fail repeatedly. Only once have a got a 5/5 game solved and that was due to a lucky thought which gave me the purple one as the first group.

A while back, having failed utterly at a 5/5 difficulty Connections puzzle, I gave the words to ChatGPT as an experiment to see if it could unravel them. And boy, it was amazing. It explained its logic along the way, and the recursive thinking steps it used. Later I tried again a couple more times to see if it was a fluke and each time it nailed it.

To be clear, I'm not advocating using AI to "cheat" at a game, just interested to see if it was up to the challenge.

EDIT: Here's evidence of my pathetic obsession with Strands: -
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.Screenshot 2025-10-10 at 12.29.51 PM.png

I think I'm pretty good at connections (I started a thread). Was today's 5/5? In the connections bot it says 5/5 but the companion says 2.8/5 which feels more accurate.

A thread to cover NYT games is probably enough.

But anyway, I'm too cheap to susbcribe so am still salty they paywalled the mini. I generally play wordle and strands over breakfast. Play connections on and off, but sometimes the categories are so obscure. The worst are 'change a letter' ones IMO.

For anyone interested, The Athletic hosts a sports connections too. That can be hit or miss depending on your depth of knowledge on US sports. Probably wouldn't recommend to folks outside North America.

Easier one for me.

Strands #587
“That's branding”

Because Strands tracks the "SpanGram First" count, I have become obsessive with achieving that goal.

I now make markings on a screenshot to see if I can track down where it's hiding.

Strands #587
“That's branding”

GBO Possum wrote: Sat Oct 11, 2025 4:34 pm Because Strands tracks the "SpanGram First" count, I have become obsessive with achieving that goal.

Seems the statistics have been removed including length of streak

EDIT: Good news, the stats icon is back

I tried but I needed all the hints.

Strands #598
“Catch all”

Only two hints this time.

Strands #605
“"Nevermore!"”

This was awful...

Strands #605
“"Nevermore!"”




EDIT: -

Strands #605
“"Nevermore!"”



That top left word too me a while.

Strands #606
“"If I'm being picky ..."”

#606 was not "picky", it was extremely "tricky".

Today's was a welcome relief, with a fun change to the graphics (for today only I suspect )
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Strands #607
“Good bones”

Strands #608
“It's not polite to lick your plate”

Today's puzzle was kind of tough until I realised my tablet wasn't scrolled down far enough and I was missing the bottom row of letters.

Strands #610
“Wee wee wee!”

Strands #610
“Wee wee wee!”



Took a bit longer than it should have but once I was awake for more than 3 minutes, it was pretty easy.

The Spangram was near impossible today. Good luck, everyone.

I just discovered you can link letters diagonally. That helped a bit.

Strands #611
“F-I-L-M”