NYT “Connections” November 26: Hints and answers for game #534

Connections is a popular game that people have their own strategies for solving, but we decided to go straight to the source for the best tips on ensuring a long winning streak.

Newsweek spoke to Wyna Liu, the Connections editor, and she told us her best tip was to avoid doing a “rage solve,” which involves quickly inputting guesses. “My best piece of advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing,” she said.

“You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category,” Liu said. “Don’t try to guess the four words in that category because even though you know what the fifth member is, you won’t know which of the four it might not be,” which would ultimately waste a turn.

How to Play ‘Connections’

The categories vary in difficulty from yellow to green to blue to purple, with yellow considered the easiest category and purple the trickiest.

For example, a recent game linked the words “braid,” “bun,” “pony” and “twist” under the category: “Ways to wear your hair up.” This was a blue category.

Once you have selected four words, you click the “submit” button. If your choices are correct, they will appear in the category color and disappear from the grid. If they are incorrect, however, they will remain gray and stay on the board.

If you are stuck, try selecting the “shuffle” button to move the words to a different place on the grid.

Newsweek has put together some clues on how to play, as well as hints and the answers for Tuesday’s game, so be careful scrolling down if you want to solve it by yourself.