NYT Strands hints today for #686: Clues and answers for Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026

End your weekend with today’s New York Times Strands puzzle. If you need a few extra hints, you are in the right place. I’m here to offer clues (and spoilers) to Sunday’s puzzle #686. I don’t consider peeking at one or two hints to be cheating. The game is supposed to be challenging.

Since I’m a daily Strands player, I’ll also share how I did each day. Today’s puzzle contains six hidden words, excluding the spangram.

If you're new to NYT Strands, we’ll show you how to get started. Also, check out today's Wordle hints and answer, and today’s Connections hints and answers.

What is Strands?

Strands is a free word game created by The New York Times. Once a day, players are given a theme and must find hidden words, similar to a word search. The game is designed to keep you on your toes, as some puzzles are harder than others.

How to play NYT Strands

The player is presented with a grid of seemingly random letters, six across and eight down. There are around seven words hidden within the board, and the goal is to hunt them down. Letters to the right, left, below, above or diagonal can be connected, so be prepared to see some funky shapes. Every single letter will be used in the puzzle.

Your job is to find all the hidden words and the final “spangram,” which refers to the overall theme connecting all the words. For instance, in one recent puzzle, the theme was “That’s so sweet!” and the spanagram was “sugary.” Each of the hidden words had to do with a type of sugar.

If you get stuck, Strands lets you unlock in-game hints. For each four-letter word that you find that is not an answer to the puzzle, you earn progress towards a clue. Every three words you find illuminates a Hint icon in the bottom left corner of your screen. Click on it, and the puzzle will highlight which letters make up the next answer — just not how they connect. Still stuck? Unlock another hint, and the game will walk you through the word letter by letter. However, be aware that the number of hints you use will be reflected in your final score.

Even if you find yourself obsessed with this game after just one puzzle, you can only play once a day. Just like Wordle and Connections, the timer resets each night at midnight.

Previous Strands answers

Before today's Strands hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed:

Yesterday's Strands answers for Saturday, January 17 — FOILEDAGAIN (FIDDLESTICKS, DRAT, CURSES, PHOOEY, TARNATION)

Friday, January 16 — BATMAN (ROBIN, JOKER, CAPE, MANOR, JUSTICE, PENGUIN, VENGEANCE)

Thursday, January 15 — HEARHEAR (LOBE, CARTILAGE, STIRRUP, HAMMER, ANVIL, DRUM, CANAL)

Wednesday, January 14 — LETSDOTHIS (FERVENT, EAGER, ZEALOUS, EXCITED, ENTHUSIASTIC )

Tuesday, January 13 — FROZENFOOD (PIZZA, POPSICLES, SHERBET, WAFFLES, VEGETABLES)

Today’s NYT Strands theme: Soft skills

The theme for today’s puzzle is soft skills.

If that doesn’t help, here’s another: yarn and thread.

Non-theme words for clues

If you need a few extra hints for hidden words, you can always find other non-theme four-letter words within the puzzle. The game will give you a hint for every three words with four or more letters. Here are some you can use:

• MART, QUAIL, CHOP, HOPE, TEXT, TINK, LINK, TILE, HELP

How many letters are in today’s spangram?

Another helpful hint is knowing the length of the spangram. Today’s spangram is long with 10 letters.

Today's NYT Strands answers (spoilers)

Here are the words you can find in today’s puzzle:

• QUILT, KNIT, CROCHET, EMBROIDER, WEAVE, APPLIQUE

Today's NYT Strands spangram (spoilers)

Today's spangram is TEXTILEART. It starts with T in the third row and snakes down and over to the T in the seventh row.

My results today

I’m familiar with all of these activities except for APPLIQUE. I needed one hint for today’s puzzle.

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How did you do? Let me know in the comments.