Crack The Atlantic Games Today: Complete Solutions for October 1, 2025

Midweek brain food time. It’s Wednesday, October 1, 2025, and The Atlantic Games dropped a fresh batch. If you got stuck anywhere (no shame), I’ve got clean, spoiler-y solutions below with just enough commentary to keep it moving.

• Fluxis (Oct 1, 2025)
  Today’s chain is all about hopping between categories while staying connected to a base word. The starter is: ENCOUNTER.
  
  - Category: 6 letters — ERODED, built by pulling 'ER' off ENCOUNTER and completing from there.
  - Category: Double letters — DAGGERLIKE, leaning on that twin 'G'.
  - Category: Exactly 1 vowel — KEN, taken by grabbing 'KE' from DAGGERLIKE and finishing the circuit with 'EN' back from ENCOUNTER. It’s a neat little loop once you see the path.
• Crossword (Oct 1, 2025)
  A compact 7x7 grid — quick but with a few eyebrow-raisers. The fill leans playful and a bit nerdy, with one or two clues that feel intentionally oddball (hi, Toledo-set Office spin-off).
  
  Across:
  1A, putting two and two together — ADD
  4A, scarce — FEW
  7A, elite — QUALITY
  9A, words from someone who’s beat — IMTIRED
  10A, the The Office spin-off set in Toledo — PAPER
  11A, gives up one’s seat — RESIGNS
  13A, ingredient type MAHA avoids — SEEDOIL
  14A, supersonic aircraft abbr. — SST
  15A, "'Look, a new _ has begun' (Memory)" — DAY
  
  Down:
  1D, pollution measure — AQI
  2D, casually, the broken-up — DUMPEES
  3D, what some tables are made of — DATASET
  4D, Vulcan or Agni, say — FIREGOD
  5D, He-Man’s home planet — ETERNIA
  6D, "'u up?'" shorthand — WYD
  8D, fatty acid, for one — LIPID
  11D, blog-friendly feed — RSS
  12D, sneaky — SLY
  
  Inside baseball corner: 'PAPER' as a Toledo-set Office spin-off is a cheeky clue, not a real show. Also, 'MAHA' ducking seed oils is a very specific reference — if you know, you know.
• Bracket City (Oct 1, 2025)
  This one’s a spelling-and-association sprint. The chain that ties the whole thing together goes like this:
  
  - Word that pairs with both 'sales' and 'black' — PITCH
  - First thing Caesar did (as in came, saw, conquered) — CAME
  - Expectorate, camel or ballplayer style — SPIT
  - Hospital hookup, briefly — IV
  - Red bureaucratic adhesive — TAPE
  - Scene with yellow tape — CRIME
  - Weather you only get above a certain temp — RAIN
  - Corporate 'brain' event — STORM
  - Word that can precede pitch, crime, or storm — PERFECT
  - Letter a perfectionist fusses over — T
  - UFC sport, short — MMA
  - The last commandment (covers coveting) — TENTH
  - What truth can be stranger than — FICTION
  - Thurman from 'Pulp Fiction' — UMA
  - Tenth month abbr. (not the Roman-eighth one, thanks Numa) — OCT
  - Sides of an octagon — 8
• Stacks (Oct 1, 2025)
  Final stack, read from bottom to top: UMBRELLA, PEACHY, MAMBO, LIVED.
  
  How to land it, step by step:
  - Drop MERELY down the middle first so the bottom row reads: _MBRELL_
  - Then place MACHO in the center lanes, making sure none of its letters fall to the very bottom line.
  - Next, shove LAMBDA as far right as possible.
  - Finish by pouring UPRIVER into the remaining gaps. Everything locks if your placements were clean.

That’s the lot. If you cruised, congrats. If you cursed at 'RESIGNS' or the Toledo gag, also fair. Tell me where you face-planted — or flex your time — in the comments.