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NYT Connections gives you 16 words and asks you to divide them into four groups of four. The challenge is that several words can appear to belong together, while only one complete arrangement is correct. Yellow marks the easiest category and purple the most difficult.
This guide explains where hints come from, what each statistics label means, when the daily puzzle resets, why a streak can disappear, and how archive play affects your record. The rules and access details below come from the New York Times Help Center.
How NYT Connections works
Each daily board contains 16 words. Your job is to identify four sets, with four words in every set, that share a meaningful connection. A connection might be a category, a phrase pattern, a word that can follow or precede another term, or another relationship selected by the editors.
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Categories carry four colors that indicate relative difficulty:
| Color | Relative difficulty | How to use that information |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Easiest | Look for the most direct, familiar relationship first. |
| Green | More difficult than yellow | Consider less obvious but still fairly accessible connections. |
| Blue | More difficult than green | Check wordplay, specialized knowledge, or a narrower theme. |
| Purple | Trickiest | Expect the most indirect pattern or the strongest deliberate misdirection. |
The colors describe the intended difficulty of the groups; they do not tell you which four words to select. Editors curate the words and categories using the Oxford Dictionary, according to the official help page.
Where to get hints without spoiling the puzzle
Use the official Connections Companion as a separate support page
The official Connections Companion is a community forum for puzzle support. NYT says that anyone can read hints, leave comments, and view the community difficulty score. It is not documented as an in-game hint button, so treat it as a separate web destination rather than a control inside the board.
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A spoiler-conscious hint routine
- Open the Companion only after you have made your own first pass through all 16 words.
- Read the headline, introductory hint, or difficulty information without scrolling through the discussion.
- Hide or leave the page when you have enough direction to continue independently.
- Return only if you have accepted that comments may reveal categories, words, or the complete solution.
If you want a completely spoiler-free experience, do not use the Companion while the puzzle is still unsolved. The official help material does not promise a graduated, built-in hint system inside the game.
What mistakes mean and how the statistics are calculated
NYT’s statistics panel separates several ideas that are easy to confuse. A completed puzzle, a win, a perfect solve, and a current streak are different measurements.
| Statistic | Official meaning | What archive play does |
|---|---|---|
| Puzzles Completed | The total number of puzzles you have completed. | Archive completions are included. |
| Win Rate | The percentage of puzzles won by completing them in under four mistakes, calculated across all puzzles played. | Archive results are included in the aggregate. |
| Current Streak | Consecutive wins on the daily puzzle sequence. | Archive play does not extend it. |
| Max Streak | Your longest run of consecutive daily wins. | Archive play does not increase it. |
| Perfect Puzzles | Puzzles solved with zero mistakes. | Archive perfect solves are included. |
| Mistake Histogram | A distribution showing puzzles solved with zero, one, two, three, or four mistakes. | Archive results contribute to the distribution. |
Interpreting “under four mistakes”
The official Win Rate definition says a puzzle counts as a win when it is completed in fewer than four mistakes. In practical terms, the qualifying range is zero through three mistakes. The separate histogram displays bins from zero through four mistakes, so the histogram can show a four-mistake result even though the Win Rate wording uses “under four.” Do not treat the histogram’s labels as a different Win Rate formula.
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The help page does not fully document the response after every incorrect submission or describe the exact end-state at the final allowed mistake. It is therefore safer not to assume that a particular animation, warning, or board behavior always occurs. The reliable information is the statistics definition above: NYT records mistakes and distinguishes results with zero through four mistakes.
When the daily puzzle releases and resets
The New York Times states: “The daily Connections game is released daily at midnight in your timezone.” Your local timezone, rather than a single worldwide clock, determines when the new board becomes available.
That creates a simple 24-hour rhythm. A board released at the start of your local date remains the daily puzzle for that date, and the next board appears at the next local midnight. If you are playing close to the boundary, check the date and finish before your local midnight if preserving a streak matters.
How midnight affects a streak
NYT explicitly warns: “If you finish a puzzle after midnight local time, your streak will be broken and a new streak will begin.” Solving the board before the local date changes allows the win to count toward the current sequence. Finishing after the change does not preserve the previous run.
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Connections streaks cannot be reset once they are broken, according to the same help page. There is no documented recovery procedure that restores the old number, so the practical safeguard is to leave enough time to submit your final group before midnight.
Playing across timezones
Because release and streak language is tied to “your timezone,” travelers and people whose devices use different timezone settings should pay attention to the local date shown by the game. Do not rely on a friend’s midnight, a server time displayed elsewhere, or the timezone of a previous trip. The rule that matters for the streak is the local midnight applied to your play session.
Archive games, accounts, and subscriptions
The daily puzzle is free to play on all platforms. Historical play is a separate access case: the official page says the Connections archive reaches back to June 12, 2023 and is available to All Access and Games subscribers. Subscription names and access terms can change, so verify the current offer on the NYT Games pages before relying on an older description.
An NYT account is required for archive progress and history. Signing in matters if you want completed archive boards and their results associated with your statistics rather than treating the session as anonymous play.
| Activity | Access stated by NYT | Counts toward current or max streak? | Effect on other statistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Today’s Connections puzzle | Free on all platforms | Yes, when solved before local midnight | Contributes to the normal statistics record. |
| Connections archive | All Access and Games subscribers; NYT account required for progress and history | No | Affects Puzzles Completed, Win Rate, Perfect Puzzles, and Mistake Distribution. |
| Connections Bot | Limited to All Access, Home Delivery, and Games subscribers | Not part of the daily streak sequence | Access is subscription-dependent; the cited help page does not define it as a streak activity. |
Archive limitations
Archive boards can help you practice older constructions and build aggregate statistics, but they do not rewrite the daily sequence. They cannot extend Current Streak or Max Streak, even when solved perfectly. The official page also says that a completed archive puzzle cannot be replayed.
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If an archive board or history does not appear, first confirm that you are signed in to the NYT account associated with your subscription. Access rules can change, so the current account and subscription page remains the authority for eligibility.
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The following workflow is designed for players who want to reduce avoidable errors without relying on spoilers. It does not assume that the game reveals extra information after a wrong submission.
- Scan all 16 words. Read every entry before selecting anything. Note obvious pairs, phrases, proper names, abbreviations, and words with multiple meanings.
- Mark the strongest four-word relationship. Prefer a category in which all four entries fit naturally, rather than one based on a loose association.
- Test for deliberate overlap. Ask whether one of your candidates also belongs to another apparent group. If it does, look for a fourth word that makes one category exact and the other incomplete.
- Submit only when the set is coherent. A category should explain all four words with the same rule. Avoid submitting four words simply because they share a broad topic.
- Re-read the remaining board. Removing a correct group often exposes a phrase pattern or a narrower definition that was hidden by the full list.
- Reserve time near midnight. If a streak is important, stop experimenting early enough to finish before the local date changes.
- Use the Companion only at your chosen spoiler level. A light hint may be useful, but comments can reveal the solution.
Troubleshooting common situations
“I finished after midnight and lost my streak.”
This is the documented behavior, not a temporary display error: completing after local midnight breaks the streak and starts a new one. NYT says a broken Connections streak cannot be reset. Continue with the new sequence and use an earlier personal cutoff on future days.
“My archive solve changed my totals but not my streak.”
That combination is expected. Archive play affects Puzzles Completed, Win Rate, Perfect Puzzles, and Mistake Distribution, while Current Streak and Max Streak depend on the daily puzzle released for that day.
“I cannot find an old puzzle.”
The stated archive coverage begins on June 12, 2023. A board outside that range may not be available. Also check that you have the subscription level required for archive access and that you are signed in if you need progress or history.
“I want to replay a completed archive board.”
The official help page says completed archive puzzles cannot be replayed. You may review the record that your account retained, but the documented rules do not provide a second playable attempt for a completed board.
“I need a hint, but I do not want the answer.”
The Connections Companion is the documented support option, but its comments may contain spoilers. Read only the initial hint or difficulty information, avoid scrolling through replies, and leave as soon as you have enough direction to continue.
Quick Recap
Key rules at a glance
- Find four groups of four in a 16-word board.
- Yellow is the easiest category; purple is the trickiest.
- Every puzzle has one complete solution, even when words appear to overlap.
- Win Rate uses puzzles completed in fewer than four mistakes; the histogram shows zero through four mistakes.
- The daily board releases at midnight in your timezone.
- Finishing after local midnight breaks the streak, and NYT says the streak cannot be reset.
- The archive reaches back to June 12, 2023, requires the stated subscriber access, and needs an NYT account for progress and history.
- Archive play changes several aggregate statistics but does not count toward Current Streak or Max Streak.
- Completed archive puzzles cannot be replayed.
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