Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? That's not surprising. Today's puzzle — "Can you dig it?" — requires a specific kind of knowledge, and even with it, it's a toughie.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #65, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #65, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #65.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #65 is... "Can you dig it?".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: Element-ary, my dear Watson.
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- THREAT
- LIMIT
- NYLON
- CARGO
- MUSES
- HATER
- MELON
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'H' and ends with 'L'.
Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's HEAVYMETAL.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #65?
Drumroll, please...
- GOLD
- SILVER
- COPPER
- ANTIMONY
- ARSENIC
- BISMUTH
...and the spangram was HEAVYMETAL.
Clues used: 2.
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Hi Strands fans. This was the toughest puzzle since the infamous 'Staff Members' one last month. In short, if you don't know your metals off by heart, you may quickly run into trouble as I did.
In fact, after digging around for a while, I had to accept defeat and accept a hint. While I was looking for fruits and vegetables (I found 'melon'!), it was actually about heavy metals as GOLD revealed.
My heart sank: chemistry was never my strongest subject at school. Still, with GOLD on the board, my free associative mind jumped to SILVER which was directly underneath it. COPPER came next and that fortunately cordoned off a word I'd never have got in a million years otherwise: ANTIMONY.
I then spotted the word METAL and realized it probably was part of the spangram. I worked backwards from it, and was able to spell out HEAVYMETAL.
Usually at this point, it would be plain sailing, but I was really struggling with just two words left to find with 14 letters between them. After flailing around for a while I had to accept a hint for ARSENIC, which I definitely wouldn't have thought of. That left a straight line downwards for BISMUTH to complete the puzzle.
Whew, that was tough. If you found it easy, you're a better puzzler than I!
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #64 right here.
