Games like Strands: daily themed word grids to play next

Start with the themed grids that copy the Strands format most closely. Entre Letras from La Nación gives a Spanish letter grid each day with theme words and a linking phrase that runs across the board, and Zlepka from Amaniec does the same in Polish, spangram included. If you play Strands in English only, Wordrop is the nearest English cousin: themed words hide in a grid, and each find drops the letters above into the gap, so the board changes as you go.

The part of Strands many players like most is that every letter belongs to a word. Wend, LinkedIn's daily, is built on exactly that: trace the hidden words through neighbouring letters so that every tile is used once. Ribbit on Puzzmo asks you to keep tracing words until every tile has turned into a frog, and Gridogram uses traced words to fill in a hidden quote, so the theme is a sentence instead of a category.

If you want more tracing and less theme, Squaredle is the long-running choice: one small square of letters a day with a list of words to find, plus a Word of the Day. Pathwords changes how letters connect, using bridges instead of plain neighbours, and Word Snake turns clue answers into paths that wind through the grid. SpellTower on Puzzmo makes the letters you use vanish, so the order you find words in matters.

For a gentle start, play Wend and Squaredle beside Strands: both take a few minutes. For something closer to the Strands theme hunt, add Wordrop, or Entre Letras if you read Spanish.