NYT Mini Crossword Answers and Hints for Friday, Oct. 30, 2026: A Vampire, a Ghost and a Skeleton

The New York Times (NYT) Mini Crossword for Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, is a five-by-five grid with 10 clues by Sam Ezersky. With Halloween one day away, three of the Across clues begin with a vampire, a ghost and a skeleton. Below is a hint for every clue, each one hidden until you open it, then the full answers in a marked spoiler section.

Hints for every clue

Across

• 1-Across (3 letters), Vampire ___ (flying mammal)

  a winged animal that sleeps hanging upside down; the same word names a baseball tool.
• 4-Across (4 letters), Ghost ___ (abandoned place)

  a settlement bigger than a village, here one everybody has left.
• 5-Across (5 letters), Land on the northern edge of Mount Everest

  a high plateau region of China whose capital is Lhasa.
• 6-Across (4 letters), Shapes of Whopper candies

  round balls, plural; a fancier word for spheres.
• 7-Across (3 letters), Skeleton ___ (super’s item)

  a building superintendent carries one that opens many locks.

Down

• 1-Down (5 letters), Celebrity chef Flay

  his first name, the familiar form of Robert.
• 2-Down (4 letters), Amazes

  fills with wonder; the verb ends in S.
• 3-Down (3 letters), Explosive material

  three capital letters that stand for a long chemical name.
• 4-Down (4 letters), Something attached to a rope for a tree swing

  an old rubber wheel cover from a car.
• 5-Down (3 letters), Tik___

  the end of a short-video app’s name, which repeats its first half with one letter changed.

Solving tips

Start with the three Halloween clues, 1-Across, 4-Across and 7-Across, since each is a fill-in-the-blank phrase. 5-Across, the middle row, crosses every Down answer, so a geography guess there checks the whole grid. Leave 1-Down for last: it is the only five-letter Down answer, and the Across words already give you most of its letters.

Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 printable calendar.

More of Friday’s puzzles: Wordle hints, Connections hints, Strands hints, Spelling Bee hints and Pips hints. Thursday’s grid is in our Mini answers for Oct. 29.

Today’s NYT Mini answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself. The answer to 3-Down is an abbreviation: Trinitrotoluene (TNT).

Clue	Answer
1-Across	Bat
4-Across	Town
5-Across	Tibet
6-Across	Orbs
7-Across	Key
1-Down	Bobby
2-Down	Awes
3-Down	TNT
4-Down	Tire
5-Down	Tok

Bobby Flay is the chef in 1-Down, and 5-Down completes TikTok. The answers come from the puzzle’s official data.