本文聚焦于《纽约时报》推出的文字解谜游戏Strands，它以独特的玩法和挑战性吸引了众多玩家。Strands不同于传统的单词搜索，允许单词在网格中改变方向，增加了游戏的复杂性。文章提供了关于Strands游戏的基本规则、解题技巧，以及针对特定谜题的提示，帮助玩家更好地理解游戏机制，并提供线索以解决每日谜题。此外，文章还分享了关于游戏主题、Spangram的线索，以及其他在线游戏的推荐。

⛵️ **游戏规则解析**: Strands 是一款基于单词搜索的游戏，但增加了创新元素。玩家需要在网格中找到单词，这些单词可以沿上下左右或对角线方向连接字母，并且允许改变方向。所有字母都会构成答案，每个谜题都有一个主题和Spangram（一个总结主题的特殊词或短语）。

💡 **解题技巧**: Strands 游戏的难度在于其不提供单词列表和模糊的提示。文章建议玩家可以利用提示来推进游戏，例如今天的谜题主题是“Riding the wind”，相关的单词都与水上旅行有关。Spangram通常是横向或纵向排列，有助于玩家找到关键线索。

🧩 **Spangram的重要性**: Spangram是Strands谜题的核心，它概括了当日的主题，并贯穿整个网格。今天的Spangram是“Sailboat”，横向排列。理解Spangram可以帮助玩家更好地理解谜题的核心概念，并更容易找到其他单词。

🌐 **游戏资源推荐**: 除了Strands，文章还推荐了其他在线游戏资源，例如Mashable的Games页面，提供了Mahjong、Sudoku、免费填字游戏等。这为喜欢解谜游戏的玩家提供了更多选择。

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Riding the wind

The words are water-related.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words are things used to travel on water.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Sailboat

NYT Strands word list for May 18

Mast

Rigging

Helm

Sailboat

Keel

Hull

Rudder

Stern

Tiller

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.