The problem with answer lists
Most Strands pages give you one option: the whole solution. That ends the puzzle. What you usually wanted was to be moved one step, not carried to the end.
The ladder
- 1Theme. Often enough on its own. Costs you nothing you would not have worked out.
- 2Structure. How many words, how many letters. Reframes the board without naming anything.
- 3First letters. Turns recall into recognition.
- 4Position. Where a word sits, roughly. Use when you know the word but cannot see it.
- 5The answer. Last rung. There is no rung below it.
Which rung to take
If you are missing one word, take position — you almost certainly know the word. If you are missing four, take the theme. Taking answers when you needed a theme is what makes people say the puzzle was boring.
Where this is built in
Every card on our daily hints page follows exactly this ladder, in this order, and nothing reveals itself until you tap it.
The board and the answers are present in the page for search engines to read, but folded away visually until you ask. That is deliberate — see the theme notes for why.