Today's NYT Strands Notes, Answers and Help for October 5th #216

Looking for that Latest Strand's answer? Click here for our daily Strands tips, as well as our daily answers and clues for the New York Times Mini Crosswords, Word Puzzles and Connecting Puzzles.

Strands doesn't get as much attention as its New York Times brethren Wordle and Connections, but it can be just as challenging and entertaining. Strands has just come out of beta and is now available on the official New York Times gaming app, which could potentially bring it more fans. I go into detail about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you are looking for today's word, connect and mini crossword puzzle answers, you can visit CNET's NYT Puzzle Clues page.

Read more: NYT Connections turns 1: These are the 5 most difficult puzzles so far

How to play NYT Strands

1. Use today's topic to search for words related to this topic. Do you see one? Drag or click the letters in sequence. Click twice on the last letter to submit your guess. When you find a topic word, it lights up blue and stays that way.

2. Other words you find are considered clue words, which give you clues about the topic words. Find three clue words (each must be at least four letters) and the game rewards you by displaying a theme word. However, if you can't decipher it, you'll find three more clue words and the game will highlight the letters of the theme word in turn.

3. Hunt for that Spangrama special theme word that spans the entire puzzle, although it can run across or from top to bottom. It summarizes the puzzle theme.

4. When you're done, you'll have used each letter on the board in either a topic word or Spangram. Topic words fill the entire board and do not overlap.

Clue for today's Strands puzzle

Today's Strands topic is: Absolutely not!

If that doesn't help you, here's a hint: False.

Clue words to unlock clues in the game

Your goal is to find hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you get stuck, find all the words you can. Every time you find three words with four or more letters, Strands reveals one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get these clues, but any words with four or more letters that you find will work:

• BUGS, CART, GUST, PLAY, PLAYER, MARE, CANT, TUGS, SCAR, CARE, SCARE, SCARY, RACK, RACKS, MACK, CATS, HUTS

Answers for today's Strands puzzle

These are the answers that fit the topic. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that extends from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you have all of them (I originally thought it would always be eight, but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board is used. Here are the non-Spangram answers:

• Forgery, hoax, fraud, forgery, quack, humbug, charlatan

Today's Strands Spangram

Today's Strands Spangram is THIS IS UNREAL. To find it, start with the T that starts on the left top row and turn it down.