About Mini #385
Mini #385 is the daily 5×5 for Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Its grid has two black squares, laid out as single squares in the top-right and bottom-left corners, which leaves 23 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's six five-letter and four four-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 1-Across, “Forbids”, at one word; the longest is 5-Across, “Burst forth, as a volcano”, at five words. None of the ten clues is a fill-in-the-blank, a quotation, a question-mark clue or a marked short form.
There's no fill-in-the-blank this time, so a good first stop is the shortest slot: 1-Across has only four letters. For more ways in, see the solving tips.
How this grid compares
This layout appears in 84 of the 331 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to October 20, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. That's four black squares fewer than the day before (October 19, 2026), which had six.
Like every daily 5×5 in our library, it was generated at our “easy” difficulty setting. The same date also has a 6×6 with 12 clues and a 7×7 with 14 clues.
More for October 20, 2026
Stuck? The hints for October 20, 2026 give three hints per clue, the answer key reveals one answer at a time, and there's a printable copy for solving on paper. The day before, Mini #384 (October 19, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “24-hour period”.