|
May 31, 2026 
|
|
|
In their constructor notes for today’s puzzle, Jeffrey Martinovic and Evan Park said: “We are good friends from school, bonding through activities like Frisbee, water polo, cards, outdoor adventures, and of course, crosswords. We are both graduating now. Jeffrey will be starting work soon, and Evan will be traveling the world for a year, volunteering along the way. What a nice graduation gift it is to have a puzzle together in The Times as we go our separate ways for a while.” Read more about their puzzle in the Wordplay column.
Puzzles You May Have Missed
Crossplay Tip
Make risky setups when losing by a lot: Toward the end of the game, think of ways you can eventually make a play that could be high-scoring enough to close a deficit gap if everything breaks right for you. For instance, consider a situation where you are down 100 points, and one S is left in the game and you do not have it. You could make a word just missing a triple word score such that if you drew the S, you could pluralize the word to hit the triple and make a word in another direction. Sometimes, making a play like this turns a 100-point loss into a 200-point loss. But other times, making a play like this turns a 100-point loss into a nail-biter that you eke out.
Connections Quandary
Here’s the hardest category from May 27. What connects these four things? See the answer in the P.S.
Strands
Last week’s hardest Strands puzzle was TALKING SCENTS, from Thursday, May 28 — 80.58 percent of solvers were able to complete it.
Last week’s easiest Strands puzzle was KETCHUP OR MUSTARD? from Wednesday, May 27 — 88.85 percent of solvers were able to complete it.
Strands puzzles last week — from May 22 to 28 — were a little bit harder than those from the week before.
Wordle Weekly Recap
Hardest word: STUFF, from Wednesday, May 27.
Average guesses: 4.56, with 13.22 percent of players solving in three or fewer.
Easiest word: CHUCK, from Saturday, May 23.
Average guesses: 4.11, with 19.71 percent of players solving in three or fewer.
The Wordle answers last week — from May 22 to 28 — were roughly equal in difficulty compared with those from the week before.
Spelling Bee Hive
Overall, the Spelling Bee hives last week — from May 22 to 28 — were a bit easier than those from the week before. Of our subscribers who played last week, 35.63 percent hit Genius at least once.
Last week’s hardest puzzle: Saturday, May 23 had the hardest pangram, with only 32.12 percent of users finding it.
Saturday’s pangram: CYANIDE
Letter set: A C D E I N Y
Relax With Us
I’ve noticed people using the term “side quest” lately more to refer to real-life adventures that diverge from “the path.” But sometimes even a side quest can feel over-involved, which is why games within video games exist. In real life, we call this “procrastination” or sometimes even “a hobby.”
You might achieve something here (i.e. make in-game money), but more often than not, these games won’t give you much insight into the main story. Take Gwent, the collectible trading card game in The Witcher 3, or Yakuza 0’s cabaret simulator, which had me running a Japanese hostess club and helping girls navigate their dramatic personal lives for a majority of lockdown.
Time is precious, and as I’ve grown older I’ve become very intentional about carving out time for play. Which is why after I log off from work and see to all my important chores, errands and social obligations, I make time for Henry of Skalitz. The protagonist of Kingdom Come Deliverance II, Henry is a lord’s bodyguard living through a Bohemian civil war set in the oppressive and stinky 15th century. To avoid burning out, I’ve spent the past month or so playing a dice game with villagers whom I wouldn’t interact with otherwise (read: gambling). There’s making money, sure, but you can also collect badges and find special dice out in the world — to cheat with, of course. I’ve completed maybe three of the game’s side quests in the past month, which, considering I have all the time in the world, is perfectly fine by me.
How are we doing?
We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to crosswordeditors@nytimes.com.
Thanks for playing! Subscribe to New York Times Games. If you like this newsletter, you can tell your friends to sign up here.
P.S. The answer to the Connections Quandary is that they are all words that end with the “Little Women” March sisters.
|
If you received this newsletter from someone else, subscribe here. Need help? Review our |
