Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.
Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There’s no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you’re stuck and need to know the answers to today’s Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.
How to play Strands
You start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the “theme words” hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.
If you find a word that isn’t a theme word, it still helps! For every three non-theme words you find that are at least four letters long, you’ll get a hint — the letters of one of the theme words will be revealed and you’ll just have to unscramble it.
Every single letter on the grid is used to spell out the theme words and there is no overlap. Every letter will be used once, and only once.
Each puzzle contains one “spangram,” a special theme word (or words) that describe the puzzle’s theme and touches two opposite sides of the board. When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted yellow.
The goal should be to complete the puzzle quickly without using too many hints.
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s theme is “It’s way over your head”
Here’s a hint that might help you: out of this world even.
Today’s Strand answers
NYT
Today’s spanagram
We’ll start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:
We have the solution to Wordle on June 23, as well as some helpful hints to help you figure out the answer yourself, right here. We’ve placed the answer at the bottom of the page, so we don’t ruin the surprise before you’ve had a chance to work through the clues. So let’s dive in, starting with a reminder of yesterday’s answer.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer
Let’s start by first reminding ourselves of yesterday’s Wordle answer for those new to the game or who don’t play it daily, which was “EDICT.” So we can say that the Wordle answer today definitely isn’t that. Now, with that in mind, perhaps take another stab at it using one of these Wordle starting words and circle back if you have no luck.
Hints for today’s Wordle
Still can’t figure it out? We have today’s Wordle answer right here, below. But first, one more thing: Let’s take a look at three hints that could help you find the solution, without giving it away, so there’s no need to feel guilty about keeping your streak alive — you put in some work, after all! Or just keep scrolling for the answer.
Today’s Wordle includes the letter L.
Today’s Wordle uses two vowels.
Today’s Wordle is often associated with military signals and calls, such as reveille and taps.
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Today’s Wordle answer
No luck? Don’t sweat it — you can’t get them all! If you just want to see today’s Wordle answer to continue your streak, you can find it below.
The answer to today’s Wordle is …
BUGLE
Today’s Wordle definition
And here’s what it means, according to our good friend ChatGPT:
A bugle is a simple brass musical instrument typically used in military and marching bands. It is similar to a trumpet but lacks valves, meaning the player must control the pitch entirely through their embouchure (the way they use their lips and facial muscles). The bugle is often associated with military signals and calls, such as reveille and taps. Its design usually includes a coiled tube and a flared bell, producing a bright, penetrating sound. The instrument has a limited range of notes but is effective for its intended purposes due to its simplicity and the distinct clarity of its tone.
Tips for tomorrow’s Wordle
It might seem like Wordle is all luck, but there are a few good practices you can use to help get as many clues as possible in just a few guesses, making it that much more likely you can figure out the final word before you run out of tries. The most important guess is your first, and the trick is to load up on vowels (A, E, I, O, and U).
Some popular starting words people have had good luck with are “adieu,” “media,” “arise,” and “radio.” Just make sure not to pick a word with double letters, or you’re wasting precious guesses. The aim here is to try to figure out which vowels the mystery word contains, then layer in common consonants and close in from there.
Your second word, assuming that the first one gave you a good jumping-off point, should begin to lean more heavily on common consonants like R, S, and T. More good ones here we’ve seen are “stern,” “irate,” and “atone.” You never want to reuse any letters from a prior round that showed up as gray — you know they aren’t in the word.
Now that’s all solved and the definition is taken care of, and you’re armed with some tips to crush tomorrow’s Wordle, here are some games like Wordle you can try today.
It seems like no world — physical nor digital — is immune to the girly pop flair of NewJeans. The globally famous K-pop group made its debut in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as part of the 30.1 update on Wednesday. The collaboration adds each member of the group as a playable character, adorable accessories to dress up your characters, emotes for popular dances set to songs like “OMG,” and more. Equal parts bizarre and wonderful, the PUBG update has already captured the fascination of fans online.
Krafton released the NewJeans x PUBG: Battlegrounds collaboration on Wednesday to Windows PC users and will release it to console users on June 20. The PC patch has introduced some environmental changes as well. For example, the Taego School has been transformed into a sparkly rainbow wonderland and there’s now a pink and purple truck stage on the starting island of every 8 km map. You can play as any member of NewJeans — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, or Hyein — and dress your character up in adorable pastel accessories. You can view all the details on the PUBG site.
The collaboration brings a vibrant pop of color to the gritty world of PUBG. Just like other live-service games, PUBG is no stranger to surprising collaborations. PUBG has featured collaborations with the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion and other games like Angry Birds. Despite that, the NewJeans collab manages to stick out from previous events and now people online are sharing videos showing the girls emoting in the game. The dances just look that good. Here is a video of Minji from NewJeans doing several dances from songs like “Super Shy” and “OMG.”
It’s only been a day, but people have already started to make memes of the girl group in the game. This video features several moments, including one where Haerin dances on a knocked out played and then shoots them at point blank range.
I personally can’t get this video of several characters joining in on dancing the choreo for “Hype Boy” out of my head.
There’s a lot to check out, so if a ton of Bunnies suddenly found themselves interested in trying out PUBG, I wouldn’t blame them.
Thrasher, which its developers describe as a “mind-melting arcade action odyssey,” will be available for the Meta Quest and the Apple Vision Pro on July 25. The SteamVR version will follow at a later date. Thrasher was first announced at The Game Awards last year as a new project by Brian Gibson, who was the artist and composer behind the nightmare-inducing rhythm game Thumper. For Thrasher, Gibson teamed up with Mike Mandel, known for working on games like Rock Band VR and Fuser, who took charge of the coding and research and development.
The player takes control of a space eel in Thrasher, which they have to guide with “fast-paced gesture controls” through unsettling landscapes, so that it can evolve and defeat a cosmic baby god by the end of their journey. Based on the images and teasers the developers have released so far, the game’s environments truly do look mind-bending with their psychedelic neon colors and their geometric patterns. Even the eel’s powers sound trippy: Players can fight bosses with a rainbow spray of bullets or bulldoze environment elements in a blaze of color and light.
The developers said that Thrasher’s “music, visuals, and gameplay mesh into one transcendent experience” for the player. While the virtual reality version offers the most immersive option for gamers, Thrasher is also expected to be available for consoles and PC in the future
Wildermyth is an incredible procedurally generated RPG that leads players through a series of narrative quests. As you build bases, battle foes, and learn more about the world, you’re able to build up your cast with new decisions and sacrifices. A hero might die, marry another party member and have children, or turn into an increasingly feral beast. It’s a tremendously cozy, satisfying RPG experience.
Wildermyth has a core campaign, and additional adventurers that introduce new stories and new enemy factions. The game’s first DLC pack was focused around new cosmetic skins and armors for heroes, whereas the upcoming Omenroad expansion includes a roguelike-style challenge mode and a new story campaign called Walk in the Unlight. While Omenroad brings lots of new bosses and challenging fights, it also represents an end to development for Wildermyth. Worldwalker Games announced the conclusion on May 29 on the game’s official X account.
“We will continue to support the game and fix critical bugs, but don’t expect new content going forward,” co-owner Nate Austin wrote. “We will be saying farewell to many of our team members. Worldwalker Games is going into hibernation for now.”
Austin clarifies that the team still intends to port Wildermyth to other platforms, and the hibernation does not affect that “in any way.” He also commits to continuing a Kickstarter that will record the game’s music live and integrate it into the game, French and Spanish translations for Omenroad, and to maintain the game’s Discord, wiki, support email, merch store, and social media.
“Wildermyth has been wonderful, but nothing goes on forever,” wrote Austin. “We wanted to ship Omenroad, and having done that, we’re ready to move on. This was the plan, and it doesn’t have anything to do with how well Omenroad is doing. (It’s doing well! We’re extremely proud of it.)”
He added, “I’m pretty sure we’ll eventually find something else to pour our passion into, and we’ll let you know about it when the time comes.”
It’s sad to see an end to Wildermyth, which has become one of my staples when I want to play a narrative RPG adventure. But it’s also a tremendous game, and it’s good to see the studio end on a high note and walk away from the project of their own choice. While we may never see another title from the Worldwalker team, I’ll treasure Wildermyth and the stories it effortlessly spins for years to come.
Atari just announced that , along with more than 200 games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. This puts an end to the very first console war, as Atari and Intellivison were bitter rivals going all the way back to 1979. The original Intellivision console, released by Mattel, went up against the Atari VCS (later named the 2600) a full decade before Nintendo and Sega started their beef.
“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest-running console war in history,” said Mike Mika, the studio head at Atari-owned Digital Eclipse.
The deal doesn’t include the retro console. Intellivision Entertainment LLC will continue working on the Amico as a separate and rebranded company and will use a license provided by Atari to release Intellivision games on it. The company has had a difficult time getting the console funded after originally announcing it back in 2018. It did manage, however, to release a truly bizarre app for iOS and Android devices that requires two smartphones or tablets to work. One device displays the game and the other acts as a controller. It’s a weird idea and, , “one janky piece of crap.”
As for Atari, it’s already making use of the Intellivision brand by adding items like . Atari CEO and chairman that the acquisition presented a “very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision and the golden age of gaming.” The ColecoVision, , was also part of this golden age of gaming, but has yet to be snatched up by Atari.
Amazon is currently discounting a handsome collection of core curriculum and supplementary adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. Whether you’re trying to rope your friends into your next tabletop session or need an ample supply of one-shot adventures to kill time while we all wait for D&D’s revised fifth edition, you’ll want to check out this modest selection of discounted tomes.
For instance, if you or a small band of adventurers are looking to test the waters of Dungeons & Dragons, the D&D Essentials Kit is currently discounted to $20.31 (was $24.99). However, if you need a more substantial introduction to the world of D&D, you can also find the Player’s Handbook on sale for $37.21, and the Monster Manual discounted to $28.86.
An abridged rulebook, modestly-sized one-shot adventure, six character sheets, 11 dice, and a wealth of supplementary material round out the D&D Essentials Kit.
The essential rulebook for playing Dungeons & Dragons 5e. Includes rules and errata for players to create their own characters and also features references for spells, equipment, and other items.
A guide detailing D&D monsters from Aarakocra to Zombie. The essential Monster Manual for D&D 5e includes over 150 creatures, complete with lore, illustrations, and stat blocks to populate your next campaign.
Amazon also has discounts on an impressive selection of one-shot adventures and campaign settings to spice up your next tabletop session. Become a space pirate with the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space bundle for just $34.99 (was $69.99). Or, perhaps you’d like to mull over a collection of 17 mystery-themed adventures in one of our personal favorites, Candlekeep Mysteries, which is on sale for $26.10 (was $49.95).
Regardless of your level of experience with the legendary tabletop franchise, you’re bound to find at least one tome that would make a fine addition to your armory of D&D texts.
This bundle includes the Astral Adventurer’s Guide, Light of Xaryxis adventure, and Boo’s Astral Menagerie monster manual. The box set also includes a DM screen and a double-sided map of the Rock of Bral campaign setting.
This anthology of 17 different one-shot adventures only requires Dungeon Masters to place a library somewhere in their world. Well, that and 3-5 hardy adventurers to find it.
This new campaign for the original role-playing game takes fans to the coldest reaches of the Forgotten Realms, as well as taking them from level one through level 12.
No matter what perks or skills your character has in Fallout 4, hacking will always come down to your ability as a player. There’s no way to cheat the system here, and if you don’t grasp what the game is asking you to do, you’re mostly out of luck. Terminals will hide great loot behind their cryptic puzzles, as well as allow you to take over certain controls to turn your enemy’s security against them. Some have very interesting logs about certain characters or events for all you lore junkies out there. Hacking has tons of uses, so let’s brush up on your computer skills and give you a refresher on how to hack in Fallout 4.
How to hack in Fallout 4
When you first interact with a terminal to hack in Fallout 4, it will be a little overwhelming. As long as you have a high enough hacking skill to attempt a hack, you can go right into the minigame.
The basic idea of hacking is to find words hidden in that jumble of letters and symbols. Your goal is to find the correct word to crack the terminal before you run out of attempts. Once you find any word and select it, the terminal will tell you how close that word is to the correct one based on how many letters it has in the same space as the answer in the form of a likeness rating. The higher the rating, the more letters it has in common. It is somewhat similar to Wordle, only you don’t type in the words yourself.
If you’re running low on attempts, or want to make it easier from the start, you can look for any symbol or character within two of the same type of brackets, such as (,[.{. or <. Hitting these special characters will either return an attempt or remove an incorrect word from the screen.
If you run out of attempts, you will need to wait a short time before you can try again. However, if you get to rank 4 in the Hacking skill, then you can never be locked out and can keep trying right away.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will send players on a new journey this summer to the Land of Shadow, where they will learn more about one of the game’s most mysterious demigods, Miquella of the Haligtree.
Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki says that players will track Miquella on their journey through the Land of Shadow, “tracing his path and following in his footsteps, trying to see what he’s going to do there,” similar to how players followed the light of grace in the base game. Players will also discover what compelled Queen Marika, who shattered the Elden Ring in the game’s story, to visit the Land of Shadow.
Elden Ring players who haven’t pored over the bits of lore scattered throughout the game’s dialogue and item descriptions may not know much about Miquella, and about his role in the game’s story. We’re here to tell you what you need to know so you don’t have to watch an hourlong lore video that unpacks it all.
Who is Miquella in Elden Ring?
A statue depicting Malenia and MiquellaImage: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Miquella of the Haligtree is a demigod in the world of Elden Ring and a being known as an Empyrean. That means he is a candidate to succeed Queen Marika as the vessel for the Elden Ring.
We don’t really see Miquella in the game, but he’s the older twin brother of Malenia, the fearsome, rot-afflicted boss who resides at the base of the Haligtree. An offspring of the game’s penultimate boss, Radagon, and Marika (who are, uh, the same person), Miquella only appears in withered cocoon form in the main game’s story. As teased in Shadow of the Erdtree’s reveal trailer, Miquella’s cocoon will be the doorway to the Land of Shadow when the DLC launches.
Malenia and Miquella were both born with terrible afflictions: Malenia with rot that would consume her limbs and sight, and Miquella with eternal childhood. Statues of the brother-sister duo are scattered throughout the Haligtree, showing full-grown Malenia embracing her twin, who is stuck in the body of a young boy. Other statues show the twins at a younger age being embraced by their older sibling, Godwyn the Golden.
Malenia calls Miqeulla “the most fearsome Empyrean of all,” with the wisdom and the allure of a god. Miquella is also said to be beloved by many, and can compel the affections of others.
What’s Miquella’s relationship to Malenia? And Mohg?
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Malenia and Miquella were close. The former fought to protect her brother, earning her the name Malenia, Blade of Miquella. Miquella was similarly protective, and worked unsuccessfully to develop a remedy for Malenia’s rot affliction. One of Miquella’s inventions was an unalloyed golden needle, which players can use to undo the Flame of Frenzy. (Miquella strived to “ward away the meddling of Outer Gods,” according to the description of Miquella’s Needle; an Outer God appears to be responsible for the spread of rot, too.)
As part of his work to cure his sister and after leaving the faith known as the Golden Order, Miquella sought to create a new Erdtree, nurturing a sapling with his own blood. This endeavor would fail and produce the Haligtree, which would become a haven for the meek and afflicted. Miquella ultimately embedded himself within the Haligtree to grow it, residing in the cocoon, but he was kidnapped by Mohg, the Lord of Blood, who sought to become Miquella’s consort.
That’s why Mohg has Miquella’s cocoon in his chambers. Mohg essentially stole Miquella from his Haligtree womb, in which the Empyrean now appears to have grown older compared to his previous boylike form.
If Miquella’s stuck in that cocoon, how is he also in the Land of Shadow?
Miquella’s arm juts from his cracked cocoon in Mohg’s palaceImage: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Miquella is said to have “divest[ed] himself of his flesh, his strength, and his lineage,” according to Shadow of the Erdtree’s official description. Miquella may not be a purely physical being in the DLC, and the Land of Shadow may not be a purely physical space; FromSoftware has a history of sending players to alternate time periods and dreamlike spaces in its expansions for games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
Furthermore, there’s well-supported speculation that Miquella is connected to a character named St. Trina, who is also unseen in Elden Ring. Trina is said to be a mysterious character of ambiguous gender who has close associations with sleep and dreams, according to a few in-game item descriptions. Followers of St. Trina are said to look for her while they sleep, and we know that Miquella has been slumbering for some time.
Both Trina and Miquella are also associated with nearly identical in-game items — Trina’s Lily and Miquella’s Lilly — that may connect them in still-unclear ways. However, in content that was discovered to have been cut from Elden Ring, it’s hinted that Miquella and St. Trina are actually the same person. That connection could be explained or confirmed in Shadow of the Erdtree, insofar as things ever get “explained” in FromSoftware games.
We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t . Nintendo shut down the online servers for both the Wii U and 3DS today. This means the end of online multiplayer gaming for both consoles, turning Mario Kart 7 for 3DS and the original Splatoon for the Wii U into single player or couch co-op experiences. The first Super Mario Maker is also effectively dead, as there’s no way to browse for and download player-created levels.
Both consoles are relatively controversial. The 3DS was originally considered a , though it eventually . This was thanks to a glut of incredible titles, from Super Mario 3D Land and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds to more niche fare like Kid Icarus: Uprising and Fire Emblem Awakening. The portable console also had a robust lineup of online exclusive titles, like Pushmo and BoxBoy!.
The Wii U, on the other hand, never quite found a significant audience and is largely considered one of Nintendo’s biggest missteps. It was the next home console after the culture-defining Wii, so it had large shoes to fill. However, the company went with a name that was an absolute nightmare for the Wii’s core audience of casual gamers. Was it an accessory to the original Wii? A new console? A crappy iPad? Those of us glued to gaming media knew the answer, but the casuals never stood a chance.
There was also the console itself. The company never delivered a compelling use case for the “asymmetric gameplay” offered by the device. Simply put, the Wii U gave you two screens. There was the TV, of course, but also a touchscreen tablet. This was supposed to lead to unique gameplay mechanics that gave the person holding the tablet a different task than those holding traditional controllers, but only a few titles truly explored this concept.
Just like the 3DS, however, the Wii U was buoyed by a robust selection of first-party classics. I found the first-party offerings of the Wii era to be mostly underwhelming, with desperate attempts to shoehorn in finicky and gimmicky waggle. I still get panicked when remembering just how horrible it felt to fly Link around in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Wii U, on the other hand, brought Nintendo back to a novel concept called “just make good games.”
The console brought us Mario Kart 8, which is still the gold standard for digital kart racing, and the underrated Super Mario 3D World. There was also Super Mario Maker, a great Super Smash Bros. title, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, among many others.
Even if you never owned a Wii U, you’ve probably played some of these games. Nintendo knew the console itself was a flop, but the games were good. This led to numerous re-releases on the Switch. It’s worth noting that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Also, it had Miiverse! Nintendo, for the love of Bowser, . It was the only pure social network.
Of course, there’s a strong case to be made that both the design of the Wii U and its failure led to the Switch. Both devices allow for portable play, but the Wii U required people to be tethered to a bulky console. The Switch, on the other hand, is the (not bulky) console. Nintendo’s smash hybrid , as of December. The Wii U sold under 14 million devices throughout its lifespan.
Nintendo already for the 3DS and Wii U last year, so this is the final goodbye. Luckily, speedrunners a Super Mario Maker level that was long thought to be impossible just a few days ago. Life always finds a way. Sleep well, my two old friends.
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