NYT Strands Hints November 12: Puzzle #984 Rated Moderate
The New York Times rates Strands puzzle #984, released Thursday, November 12, as moderate. Its Strands Sidekick column offers hints that reveal a first letter or a direction of travel, plus a guide to the daily numbering for players in other time zones.
The New York Times rated Strands puzzle #984, released Thursday, November 12, 2026, as moderate. The rating appears in the paper's daily Strands Sidekick column, which publishes hints for the word game. Anyone searching for NYT Strands hints in November can use it to nudge a stuck puzzle along.
Strands is released at midnight in your own time zone. The Times publishes two Sidekick posts each day, based on Eastern Standard Time, to cover players around the world.
How the hints work
The Sidekick does not hand over the answers at the top. Readers click or tap each hint to reveal either the first letter or the direction of travel of up to three theme words in the day's game.
The column warns that its hints and reader comments may contain spoilers. Its advice is to solve Strands first, or scroll at your own risk.
Check your puzzle number
Players who land on the wrong day's post should check the number of their puzzle. The Sidekick links to a page that lists the post matching each number.
Recent numbering runs in order. Puzzle #982 fell on Tuesday, November 10, and #983 on Wednesday, November 11, so #984 is Thursday's game.
How difficulty is set
The Times says it averages ratings from paid testers to set each puzzle's difficulty. Testers choose from three levels: easy, moderate and challenging. Thursday's puzzle landed in the middle.
The column invites readers whose experience differs to say so in the comments. It asks commenters to follow community guidelines, and says comments are moderated for civility.
Players who hit a technical problem in the game can open the Settings menu and tap "Report a bug." Feedback on the puzzle itself goes to [email protected]. The Times Games team also posts solving tips and behind-the-scenes content from its editors on Instagram.
Other Times puzzles on November 12
Thursday's other daily games are numbered too. Wordle is #1972, and Connections is No. 1,250. The Connections: Sports Edition puzzle is #780.
The Connections grid leans on Back to the Future. One of its four groups is the exclamation theme "Gadzooks!", and another is words that start with variations on a change of state, such as change and shift.
In Connections, players sort a 16-word grid into four groups of four. Times puzzle editor Wyna Liu picks words that can fit more than one group, so the obvious first guess is often wrong.
