Are you feeling stuck while playing NYT Connections puzzle?
Well, you are not alone—don’t worry! What if you could solve even the trickiest puzzles quickly while having the time of your life?
Today, in this guide, we’ll reveal 9 expert tips that are super easy to follow. These amazing tips and tricks will help you sharpen your skills, enhance your brain power, save your time, and turn you into a puzzle-solving expert in no time. So here we go!
1. Identify Obvious Groups First
Whenever you start solving a puzzle, always look for words that are closely related to each other before trying to form more complex connections. For example, if the words include colors like Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, then it’s obvious they belong to the Colors group.
Starting from obvious groups makes the puzzle easier to solve because the trickier parts—like the Blue and Purple groups—require more effort and thought. By removing the easy words first, you make the puzzle a bit easier for the more challenging parts.
Example:
Word List: Red, Dog, Blue, Soccer, Yellow, Tennis, Green, Basketball
Obvious Group: Colors (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow)
2. Focus on a Single Word and Its Associations
Imagine you’re trying to do several tasks at once and end up failing to complete even one due to divided attention. Similarly, focus on one word and connect it to others to create a group. This approach helps you uncover hidden connections that might not be obvious at first and speeds up the puzzle-solving process.
Example:
Word List: Apple, Tennis, Orange, Soccer, Banana, Basketball, Grape, Hockey
If you start with Apple, you’ll notice it connects with Orange, Banana, and Grape to form a Fruits group.
This trick works like a charm because narrowing your focus helps you see smaller patterns that lead to the big picture.
3. Be Mindful of Spelling and Consistency
Connections daily challenges are designed to trick your mind, so paying attention to spelling or writing patterns can help. Some puzzles have groups that follow specific spelling patterns. Keeping an eye on these details will help you avoid mistakes and solve puzzles more efficiently.
Example:
Word List: Theater, Color, Neighbor, Honour, Center, Favour, Favourite, Centre
You’ll notice that some words use American spelling (Color, Theater, Center) while others use British spelling (Colour, Theatre, Centre). These can form two separate groups based on spelling.
Tip:
Look for consistent patterns in how words are written such as small first letters, first words starting from the same word etc.—this can be a quick way to identify groups!
4. Reflect on Connections Completed Puzzles Archives
As a daily puzzle solver you should look at the archives of the solved puzzles so you can guess how groups were formed in previous puzzles and practice them. Solve the puzzles again that troubled you the most to learn from them. Understand what makes it hard to spot the correct connections and adapt to future Connections puzzles.
Example:
In a previous puzzle, you grouped Lion, Tiger, Bear, and Wolf under “Animals,” but missed connecting Eagle, Sparrow, and Parrot under “Birds.” By analyzing this, you’ll remember to think of specific subcategories like birds in future puzzles.
Tip:
Save, screenshot or look at our Connections archive for solved puzzles so you can review them later. Each puzzle is different and has a lesson of its own.
5. Utilize Process of Elimination
As you create a group, simply scroll the page or cross out created group words and start thinking about the remaining words. This approach is quite amazing as I tried it myself and was shocked to see the results. As we narrow down the words the connections become predictable and hidden connections become visible because we are left with less words.
Example:
- Word List: Apple, Dog, Orange, Cat, Grape, Basketball, Tennis, Soccer
- Step 1: Group the Fruits (Apple, Orange, Grape).
- Step 2: Cross them out, leaving only Dog, Cat, Basketball, Tennis, and Soccer.
- Step 3: Now, focus on creating groups like Pets (Dog, Cat) or Sports (Basketball, Tennis, Soccer).
This technique clears the clutter and keeps you on track as the puzzle progresses.
6. Look for Hyper-Specific Categories
As we learned above about the most obvious words technique now this is completely opposite to that technique. In this technique we use the most challenging words to find unique categories but I recommend you use it after you have created at least one group successfully.
These hyper-specific groups become easier to identify when you are left with less words, and start to stand out on their own. Look for words that are forming a niche of their own such as Singers, painters, bands and trivia questions. This will help you solve the most hard Connections faster than ever.
Example:
Word List: Picasso, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Mozart, Monet, Rembrandt, Bach, Chopin.
At first,, they might seem random, but there’s a clear connection. All of these words are Famous Artists and Composers.
Hyper-Specific Category: Group Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, and Rembrandt under Artists. Then, group Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and Chopin under Composers.
By focusing on these specific categories, you can quickly form groups and make solving easier.
7. Use Multiple Techniques Combined
We have discussed a lot of puzzle-solving techniques till now but people try to stick to one strategy and it doesn’t go well for them. Players should vary their strategies to reveal new connections. If one method is not working its best to try another instead of wasting time. This approach is helpful to spot new connections faster.
Example:
Word List: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, Uranus
You might start by grouping the planets based on their size—large and small. But if this doesn’t work, try grouping them by their order from the sun instead.
- Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
- Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto
By switching your approach from size to order, you can solve the puzzle faster and find the correct groups.
8. Practice Regularly
Being a gamer means that you have to play the game consistently so that you can become better at the game and same goes for Connections players. As you practice regularly you will become familiar with puzzle themes, word patterns, game designer mindset and types of connections. Making you a better player day by day.
Example:
If you practice solving puzzles daily, you’ll start understanding common word groups like Colors, Animals, or Countries. Over time, you will start to understand groupings based on the words in the list. For example, if you see Dog, Cat, Lion, and Elephant together, you’ll instantly think Animals.
Tip:
Start with easier puzzles and gradually increase the difficulty to build your skills and confidence.
9. Manage Your Time Effectively
After understanding the game and being able to complete the puzzle daily you should move to solving the puzzle in limited time. Players should set a time limit when they start solving the puzzle starting from 20 minutes to keep decreasing to 5-10 minutes based on your gameplay skills. This helps create urgency so you can think faster.
Example:
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes when solving each puzzle. If you find that you’re stuck on a particular group for too long, move on to the next one and come back to it later.
For instance, if you can’t figure out the grouping for Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, skip it and solve the other groups first. When you come back, you might spot the connection faster.
Tip:
- Don’t be too hard on yourself from the start. Start from at least 20 minutes so you know how fast you can solve at day one and then keep decreasing the time to improve your critical thinking.
- Try to gradually reduce the time you spend on each puzzle as you get better. Over time, this will help you solve puzzles faster without feeling rushed.
Conclusion
Now you have learned all these expert tips, so now it’s time to start practicing them and making them a part of your gameplay. Remember, solving the puzzles faster will come with time and if you can’t complete it on the first go it’s ok try again and again till you succeed.
Remember the learning journey never ends so even if you think you are a pro there is always something new to learn. Experiment with what you have learned and find new tricks to solving the puzzle even faster and with more ease.
So go ahead, apply these tips and enjoy solving the next Connections puzzle! You’ve got this!