Connectionsis my favorite puzzle in The New York Times' online game stable.
And don’t get me started on that purple category, usually the toughest in the game.
You do this four times, until all 16 words in the puzzle are grouped.
The tough part is thatTimes associate puzzle editor Wyna Liuchooses words that could fit in multiple groups.
The obvious guess – hey!
those are four animals!
– is almost always going to be wrong.
There are four different difficulty levels in each game – each group of four fits in one.
If you make four mistakes, you lose, and the game shows you the answers.
And Connections indeed loves to trick you.
All of themwent in separate groups.
If you saw that one coming, you’re a better Connections player than I. Yep, that’s pretty much my life.
My top tip
Here’s my absolute favorite tip for playing Connections.
See what word your mind fills in.
For example, say “litter” is one of the words.
As a cat owner, I say “litter” and my mind automatically fills in “box.”
Butter" might not just be a dairy product.
This tip could solve a whole category for you.
Connections as copycat?
Note that Connections is pretty much the same game as Connecting Wall from the BBC quiz show Only Connect.
Even the show’s hostpointed that out on X. I’ve written a lot about Wordle – frombest starter wordstoa helpful two-step strategytocontroversial word changes.
I’ve even rounded upwhat I learned playing the hit online word puzzle for a full year.
But Connections plays on a different part of your brain.
Wordle pits you against the dictionary.
Connections pits you against your ability to see possible relationships.
Shuffle prior to beginning…
Connections wants to draw your eyes to easy matches.
Hit the “Shuffle” button a few times before you make a run at group the words.
Shuffling kills that soft hint and makes you solve from a chaos board."
Leave the starting board unshuffled, then look at the bottom right immediately.
Then, he looks up row by row, to see if any groupings make sense.
So if that seems to work for you, it’s another option.
There’s a good chance the game is trying to trick you.
Break down big words
Here’s a companion tip to the compound-word advice.
If the puzzle has a lot of long words, look for a connection between parts of the word.
Learn from past games
Connections games can really get creative.
The more you play, the more you learn how the editor thinks.
It’s super tempting to just eliminate one of those four and grab another one.
That usually helps me eliminate one of the words I had in my original group.
