The Ultimate Guide to Mastering New York Times Connections Like a Pro!

How to Play Connections by the New York Times Games

The Connections puzzle game commences with a board comprising sixteen words. Each of these words falls into one of four different enigmatic categories. To participate, simply select four words that appear to belong to the same category and proceed to click on the submit button.

Complete the category by selecting the corresponding word for each type of bean: LIMA, PINTO, KIDNEY, and FAVA. Once you have chosen all four words, click submit to confirm your answer.

Incorrect answers will cause the game board to shake slightly and return to its original state. However, if the answer is correct, the relevant words will gather at the top and undergo a color change. The categories are distinguished by four different colors.

Yellow is the easiest grouping to guess.

Green is a medium difficulty grouping to guess.

Blue is a hard grouping.

Purple is the least straightforward, trickiest grouping.

Players are given a total of four chances to correctly guess all the categories. Once the game concludes, NYT Games offers a user-friendly board, which can be shared on social media without revealing any spoilers. The board resembles the following:

Some Tips and Tricks for Winning NYT Connections

Although the game called Connections by the New York Times is relatively uncomplicated, there exist a few clever techniques that can greatly aid in achieving victory on a daily basis. Unveiling these lesser-known insights about this straightforward puzzle game can prove to be incredibly beneficial for players.

In case the player is in close proximity to the correct answer, with only one of their words being incorrect, a discreet pop-up will appear in the upper middle section of the screen, indicating that the player was just "One Away" from accurately guessing the answer.

There is a Shuffle button available to players that can mix up the order of words, assisting those who may be struggling with their placement.

Connections groupings typically fall into one of the following categories:

1. A collection of items that share a common overarching category, such as CROPS (PEPPER, CORN, BEANS, WHEAT) or CITIES BEGINNING WITH AN L (LAGOS, LIMERICK, LINCOLN, LUXOR).

2. Groups of words that share the same prefix or suffix, for example FIRE ___ (SALE, ESCAPE, HYDRANT, PLACE) or ___ PAPER (BUTCHER, SCRAP, TOILET, WAX).

3. Groups of words that all have the same meaning, like four different words that all signify ORIGIN (GENESIS, GERM, SEED, SOURCE).

In this mobile puzzle game, players are not required to guess the categories from easiest to hardest; they can be attempted in any order.

Connections can be played in-browser on just about any device, but it can also be played through the NYT's iOS app.

Connections is available in-browser for Macs, mobile, and PC.