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Variety Puzzle FAQ

Questions about Second Sunday puzzles in XWord Info

What are variety puzzles?

Every week, the NYT Sunday Magazine publishes a large crossword and one or more variety puzzles. Acrostics alternate weeks with cryptics and various other special puzzles.

Why have they been added to XWord Info?

There is some brilliant work here that I want to organize and surface for others to see. Many of the best clues have been in acrostics or other variety puzzles.

Which variety puzzles are included in XWord Info?

Acrostics are included back to mid-1999. Other puzzles similar to crosswords going back to 1997, including cryptic, diagramless, and panda (Puns and Anagram) puzzles, can be solved here online. More unusual variety puzzles like Split Decisions and Marching Bands can be downloaded as PDFs for you to print out and solve on paper.

Can I co-solve these on-line with a friend?

Yes! See the Collaboration Mode FAQ. Collaboration mode is not supported for Acrostics.

Is variety data integrated with data from normal puzzles? Does it "count" in the stats?

Mostly yes. Finder searches can show Variety results separately.

What happened to the Variety puzzles on nytimes.com?

In early 2023, the New York Times stopped supporting digital versions of all Variety puzzles. I'm including as many as I can here. Most are hand-digitized just for this site.

You must be signed in with your XWord Info account to view or solve the Variety puzzles. As of now, any account level will do, although that requirement might increase in the future.

PDF-only puzzles must, of course, be printed out to solve. Acrostics can be solved on a computer or a tablet. Phones don't work well because there's too much information on the screen. For now, other puzzle types like Cryptics require a mouse and keyboard.

There's also a combined list of all Variety puzzles you can solve with your XWord Info account.

Are these the same Variety puzzles printed in the Sunday magazine?

Yes.

At least the main Variety puzzles. There are other smaller puzzles like KenKen that I don't include.

Why do I have to pay XWord Info when I already have an NYT account?

Yeah, sorry about that.

Although I get early access to the puzzles, XWord Info is independent of the Times. It's an expensive site to run. New Variety puzzles are hand-digitized — a cumbersome manual process.

If I'm not happy with what I get for my payment, can I get a refund?

Of course! No questions asked.

Click here for the main XWord Info FAQ.

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