NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #180 (Friday, August 30 2024)

1. Today's hints

2. Today's answer

3. Yesterday's answer

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle theme — "Let's play" — isn't too hard to decode, but you will need to know the topic to complete the puzzle easily.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #180, 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 #180, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #180.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #180 is... "Let's play".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Ready, player one?"

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

• DICE
• TOLL
• FARCE
• HATCH
• WHAT
• WATER
• CARE

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'V' and ends in 'S'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's VIDEOGAMES.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #180?

Drumroll, please...

• FALLOUT
• MINECRAFT
• OVERWATCH
• HALO
• UNCHARTED

..and the spangram was VIDEOGAMES.

Strands #180

“Let's play”

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Hi Strands fans. While I wasn't much use on recent puzzles that required knowledge of American snacks or perfumes and fragrances , today's gaming topic is much more in my wheelhouse (both professionally and personally).

As such, I breezed through Strands today, but feel for anyone who has never picked up a controller. I was pretty sure the theme - "Let's play" - was going to be about gaming, and that was confirmed when I saw VIDEOGAMES spelt across the middle of the board from left to right.

The double 'L' in the top left-hand corner set me onto Fallout, which I imagine non-gamers might also pick up on, given the success of the recent Amazon series . MINECRAFT immediately below the spangram is also likely well known outside of gaming circles, as it's such a global phenomenon.

After that it gets a bit more obscure. OVERWATCH was the only title I haven't played, tucked away in the bottom right-hand corner, which left HALO to complete the south side of the grid.

That left one answer to find up top, and even though it was a matter of decoding an anagram, it took me a while. When I realized it had to start with "UN" I finally figured it out: UNCHARTED!

I had a lot of fun with today's puzzle. My sympathies if you didn't know anything about the topic - believe me, I've been there!

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #179 right here .