Today’s Strands answers and Spangram hints for #174 on August 24

Strands is the latest word game from the New York Timesand is rapidly building a player base to rival for-today-3171240″>Wordle.

The free-to-play daily game challenges players to find a series of words from a jumbled up grid of letters. As well as horizontal and vertical chains of letters, though, Strands allows players to link a letter with any of the nine other letters that surround it, giving players plenty to think about.

Strands is currently available to play via the New York Times app, as well as on mobile and PC. Check it out here.

There are a number of different themed words to be found per daily game, linked together by a cryptic clue. None of these words will overlap and they’ll fill the entire game board. There’s also something known as a Spangram, one or two words that describes the puzzle’s theme and touches at least two different sides of the board.

For every three non-themed words a player finds, they’ll be rewarded with a hint to help them complete the board. This hint will highlight which letters make up one of the words, while using a second hint will tell players the order of the letters. Hints can be stacked, but words must be longer than three letters.

The different themes mean that, on some days, Strands will be playing to your strengths while at other times you’ll undoubtedly be left scratching your head. Don’t worry though, NME is here to help. Below you’ll find the answers for today’s edition of Strands, alongside some helpful hints to assist you in solving the Spangram.

Strands hint and clues for today (#174, August 24)

Yesterday’s Strands theme was “The nose knows” and the themed words had to do with familiar distinct sounds, such as ‘musk’, ‘rose’ and ‘cedar’.

Because of this, the Spangram was ‘Common scents’.

Today’s theme is “Crumby theme”.

Your hint for today’s Strands is: types of thin biscuits

For a clue about today’s Spangram, it begins with a ‘C’, ends with a ‘S’ and is one word.

Today’s Spangram (August 24)

Want something to kick off your Strands discovery for the day?

Today’s Spangram is ‘Crackers’ which starts with the ‘C’ on the left, and ends with the ‘S’ near the bottom right.

Today’s Strands answers (August 24)

As well as ‘Crackers’, today’s theme of “Crumby theme” gives us the following theme words:

‘Saltine’ – starting with the ‘S’ in the top right
‘Goldfish’ – starting with the ‘G’ near the bottom right
‘Rice’ – starting with the ‘R’ in the last row
‘Soda’ – starting with the ‘S’ in the middle
‘Water’ – starting with the ‘W’ in the bottom left
‘Animal’ – starting with the ‘A’ near the top left
‘Oyster’ – starting with the ‘O’ approaching the bottom right

Past Strands Spangram answers

To help you get in the correct mindset to solve Strands, it might be useful to look back and see how the different themes have lined up with the Spangram. Here are some recent examples:

#173 Theme: “The nose knows” – Spangram: ‘Common scents’
#172 Theme: “Smoothie moves” – Spangram: ‘Blender setting’
#171 Theme: “One for the ages” – Spangram: ‘Happy Birthday’
#170 Theme: “I think we’re covered” – Spangram: ‘Rain Gear’
#169 Theme: “Hear me roar!” – Spangram: ‘Big Cat’
#168 Theme: “What do you make of this?” – Spangram: ‘Art Class’
#167 Theme: “Carle classic” – Spangram: ‘Hungry Caterpillar’
#166 Theme: “This or that” – Spangram: ‘Options’

We’ll update this page each day to ensure it’s got the latest Strands answer, as well as clues to help you figure out the Spangram.

Strands is currently a beta release for the New York Times, so don’t be surprised if things change over the coming weeks and months for the game. “During this testing period we aim to learn whether our customers are interested in the game and what improvements could be made before it can be released more broadly,” said the New York Times.