If you’re searching for hints and answers for the Strands puzzle on Friday, May 30, 2025, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, I’ll provide you with valuable clues and tips to help you solve today's puzzle, which revolves around the intriguing theme “And here’s the kicker ...” To easily return to our daily Strands hints, consider bookmarking this page. Additionally, you can browse through past hints if you want to catch up on any previous puzzles.
Below, you’ll find some subtle hints regarding today’s Strands answers. Make sure to scroll carefully and take only the hints you need!
The spangram for today’s Strands puzzle represents a sport that is known by a different name in other countries.
Today’s theme words are all related to positions on the field in a soccer context. Keep this in mind as you search for answers!
Warning: Spoilers for today’s Strands puzzle follow! If you want to preserve your puzzle-solving experience, you may want to skip this section.
The spangram for today’s puzzle is SOCCER.
Today's theme words include:
STRIKER GOALKEEPER MIDFIELDER DEFENDER FORWARDHere’s what the board looks like once the puzzle is successfully solved:
The phrase “here’s the kicker” often hints at a punchline, but in today's context, it may refer more literally to positions on a soccer team. While searching through the board, I noticed the words “FIELD” and “FIELDER,” although they didn’t match the theme. My first find was STRIKER, located in the upper right corner. Indeed, that’s a position in soccer!
Following that, I identified the spangram SOCCER. In the bottom right corner, I spotted FORWARD, and in the bottom left, I found DEFENDER. As I searched further, I saw “GOAL”—could it be GOALIE? No, but I quickly realized it was GOALKEEPER, which bordered the top of the spangram. Lastly, I found MIDFIELDER to complete the puzzle.
You can enjoy the Strands game on the New York Times website or through the NYT Games app. When you start playing, a game board filled with random letters appears, along with a clue hinting at the board’s theme, such as “Better with age.” Your task is to discover the hidden words that correspond to the theme.
The most crucial word to find is the spangram, which explicitly reflects the puzzle's theme. For instance, in a puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, which describes items that improve with time. The spangram spans the entire game board, either horizontally or vertically, and will be highlighted in yellow upon discovery. Once you find the spangram, completing the rest of the puzzle becomes significantly easier.
In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction—up, down, left, right, or even diagonally—and you cannot reuse letters. There is only one correct solution to the puzzle. When you correctly identify a word, it will be marked in blue.
Unlike other games such as Connections or Wordle, Strands allows you to play without the fear of failure. When submitting guesses, you will either correctly identify an answer, accumulate hints, or receive feedback indicating that your word is too short or invalid. You never run out of guesses, and there’s no time constraint. You achieve victory by correctly using all letters on the board, meaning you have identified both the spangram and all theme words.
Upon solving the puzzle, you’ll receive a shareable card displaying your performance for the day: blue dots 🔵 indicate the theme words you found, a yellow dot 🟡 shows when you discovered the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 signifies words for which you received hints.
