Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's theme -- "Beast mode" -- is quite tough to decode, and is actually quite a broad topic when you finish it out.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #226, 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 #226, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #226.
Today's NYT Strands answer -- Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #226 is... "Beast mode".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Non-human elements."
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'C' and ends with 'E'.
Hi Strands fans. Well, I really struggled with today's puzzle. "Beast mode" as a theme had me thinking of Halloween monsters, which certainly didn't help, but even without that distraction, I found the answers to be pretty removed from each other.
It probably didn't help that the first answer I got on the board, via a clue, was HAIR. That obviously doesn't narrow down what the topic might be, but I still gamely made a start of it, picking up words here and there: SHELL, SCALE, TAIL and HORN from across the board.
Well, it all sounded quite monstrous, but I couldn't think of any critters that combined the lot, so I had to use another clue. This revealed WING which... didn't clear up anything, so I had to use yet another. FEATHER.
What do these have in common? Very little it turns out. With just the spangram left, I was able to decode it via trial and error: CREATUREFEATURE.
In other words, these are all things that different kinds of mammals, reptiles and birds might have, I guess? Not my favorite puzzle to date, as you've probably guessed.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #225 right here.