NYT “Connections” October 13: Clues and answers for game #490

As the weekend wraps up, the popular game Connections is still going strong.

Since its launch in June 2023 by The New York Times, Connections has quickly built a large fanbase, challenging players to group words based on hidden links like homophones, synonyms, and clever wordplay. Combining logic with language skills, it’s now the second-most popular game just behind Wordle.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to play Connections, share strategies to boost your puzzle-solving abilities, and provide hints for Sunday’s challenge.

Be mindful—Sunday’s answers are included later on in this article, so avoid spoilers if you want to solve it on your own!

How to Play Connections

Connections challenges players to categorize 16 words into four groups based on their associations.

Each group is color-coded to reflect its difficulty: Yellow for the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. The puzzles are rarely straightforward, often featuring homophones, wordplay, and other techniques to keep players challenged. If players get stuck, they can use the shuffle button to rearrange the words on the screen.

Wyna Liu, a crossword editor at the Times who developed Connections, recently shared her tips for playing the game with Newsweek.

“My best piece of advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing,” Liu said. “You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category,” she continued. “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.” This would ultimately waste a turn.

“Don’t do what I do, which is ‘rage solve,'” Liu added.