NYT Strands #985 Hints and Answers: The ROTTENLUCK Spangram for November 13

Today's theme gives the game away before you've found a single word. "Not a good sign" is a hint about tone, and it points toward the superstitions that the spangram then spells out. Game #985 is an easy one once the pattern clicks, but the first few words don't hint at it at all.

How the hint ladder works

Strands gives you four stages of help, and the first two are the gentlest. The theme comes first. For this puzzle it reads "Not a good sign," which is a mood more than a category, so it's worth holding onto while you hunt for words.

The second stage is a set of clue words. Finding any of them unlocks the in-game hint system. For game #985 those words are TORN, THEN, PILL, DEEP, MORE and LISTEN. You don't need to find them all, just one of them to open the next level of help. Solving for one clue word is often quicker than working through the grid cold, and it costs you nothing in terms of the final answer.

The third and fourth stages are about the spangram, the long word that runs edge to edge and ties the theme together. Here the spangram is 10 letters long. It touches the left side of the board in the fourth row and the right side in the eighth row. That gives you a clear path to hunt for, and it's usually the point where a stuck solver can see the outline of the puzzle.

The answers for game #985

The non-spangram words are FLOOR, SALT, MIRROR, BROKEN, SPILLED and THIRTEENTH. The spangram is ROTTENLUCK.

Strands spangrams often explain the grid's logic, and this one is no exception. ROTTEN and LUCK are both words you'd hear in a superstition conversation, and together they describe the bad fortune that the theme hints at. The non-spangram words sit in the same mood: a broken mirror, spilled salt, a thirteenth floor. Each one is a folk belief about misfortune. That's the thread that makes the grid feel cohesive once the spangram is placed.

The obstacle for most solvers is that FLOOR, SALT and MIRROR don't obviously belong together. One solver who rated the puzzle easy and finished with a perfect score said the same thing: those three looked unconnected until LUCK and then ROTTEN surfaced. Once the spangram appeared, the rest of the grid fell into place. That's a common Strands experience. The early words feel random, and the spangram reorganises them.

Why the thirteenth floor is a fun detail

The thirteenth floor is the most literal superstition in the set. Many buildings skip that number in their floor labelling, and the reason is a long-standing belief about bad luck rather than any structural rule. The puzzle leans into that idea, and it's a nice example of how Strands uses everyday sayings and beliefs as a theme engine. Word games built on idioms and folk beliefs tend to work well because most players already know the material and only need the right angle to see it.

Yesterday's puzzle for comparison

Game #984, from Thursday, November 12, used a different theme entirely. Its answers were PATRON, VIEWER, CONCERTGOER, LISTENER and SPECTATOR, with the spangram AUDIENCE. That set is a clean example of a category puzzle: every word names someone watching or attending something. It's a useful contrast with today's grid, where the connection is an attitude rather than a shared category. If you struggled with the previous day, the lesson is that the theme sometimes sits in the mood of the words, not only in their meaning.

What to take from it

Strands rewards a specific habit. Find the theme first, then look for a long word that touches two opposite sides of the board. Those two checks cover most of the puzzle's logic, and they're cheap to run. For solvers who want a gradual path, the clue-word system lets you open hints without spoiling the whole grid.

Strands runs on the NYT Games site, and it can be played on desktop or mobile. The game is newer than Wordle and Connections, but it has become a regular part of the same daily routine for many players. If you're using it as a benchmark for word-puzzle design, today's grid shows how a single spangram can recast a set of unrelated-looking words into one idea. That's the piece to watch in future puzzles: whether the theme-to-spangram connection stays this tight as the designers keep finding new ways to hide the link.