Are you looking for a different day?
A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight every day for your time zone, which means some people are always playing “today’s game” while others play “yesterday’s game.” If instead you are looking for the Sunday puzzle then click here: NYT Connections Tips & Answers for Sunday, October 19 (Game #861).
Good day! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into various categories. It can be difficult, so read on if you need Connections tips.
What should you do once you’re done? Well, play more word games, of course. I also have daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle’s current page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Game #862): Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- k
- POP
- DEVIL
- HUNTER
- COMPLEX
- AS
- CENTAUR
- BE
- BIG BEAR
- NIGHTMARE
- UNI
- HANG
- LIRA
- CAPRI
NYT Connections Today (Game #862) – Clue #1 – Group Hints
What are some leads for current NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: upset about something
- GREEN: in the stars
- BLUE: chemical elements
- PURPLE: Add a word that rhymes with “torn”
Do you need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the answers are to the four topics for today’s NYT Connections riddles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #862) – Clue #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for current NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: AFFLICTION
- GREEN: REPRESENTED BY THE CONSTELLATIONS
- BLUE: SYMBOLS OF THE PERIODIC TABLE
- PURPLE: ____CORN
Well, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #862): The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game #862 are…
- YELLOW: AFFLICTION BUGBEAR, COMPLEX, DEMON, HANG
- GREEN: REPRESENTED BY THE CONSTELLATIONS BIG BEAR, CENTAURUS, HUNTER, LYRA
- BLUE: SYMBOLS OF THE PERIODIC TABLE AS, BE, I, K
- PURPLE: ____CORN A, CAPRI, POP, UNI
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 1 error
It was extraordinarily tempting to connect K, POP, DEMON and HUNTER (Connections have done groups like this before where you think it’s too obvious) but I stopped myself before taking the plunge.
I was surprised to get all four tiles that made up AFFLICTION, but I immediately thought: if that’s the yellow/easiest group, what chance do I have of passing this round?
Seeing no connections between the remaining 12 tiles and puzzled by the short words, I shuffled the tiles until something made sense. Since they all sounded vaguely mythical, I put together CENTAUR, CAPRI, LYRE and HUNTER, which gave me an error, but also a “one away”.
Not really knowing what I was doing, I pulled out CAPRI and replaced it with BIG BEAR. Then, in the recesses of my memory I remembered that K (potassium) and AS (arsenic) were symbols on the periodic table and assumed that I and BE were too.
And so, I somehow stumbled my way into this game and then kicked myself after the purple reveal. Congratulations if everything was obvious to you.
Answers from yesterday’s NYT Connections (Sunday, October 19, game #861)
- YELLOW: KNOCKED DOWN FALL, SPILL, FALL, THROWING
- GREEN: PARTS OF A BOOK COVER, JACKET, LEAVES, BACK
- BLUE: LOSE IT, WITH “OUT” BUG, FLIP, FREAK, WIG
- PURPLE: CHOCOLATE BARS PLUS ONE LETTER CRISPY, DOVER, MARSH, SKIN
What are NYT connections?
NYT Connections is one of the increasingly popular word games created by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four elements that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow is a little harder, blue is usually quite difficult, and purple is usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final question since you’ll be able to answer it through a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little breathing room.
However, it’s a little more complicated than something like Wordle and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For example, be careful with homophones and other puns that could disguise answers.
It can be played for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile devices.
