The New York Times’ daily puzzle Connections served up a fresh grid on Thursday, and for solvers chasing a perfect streak the final category can be the trickiest to unpick. Below is a concise guide, hints in order of difficulty, full answers for Puzzle #872, and quick-play tips to help you finish the wall with confidence.

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is a word-association game that places 16 words on a 4×4 grid. Players must sort those words into four thematic groups — colour-coded from easiest (yellow) to hardest (purple). Each category contains four related words; guess wrong and you lose one of your four attempts, so strategy and restraint matter.

Today’s categories and private hints

The game labels categories by colour; here are the brief hints for Oct 30 presented from easiest (Yellow) to hardest (Purple), the way the puzzle itself categorises difficulty:

• Yellow (easiest) — Love nicknames
  
• Green — Fiction genres
  
• Blue — Groups of different birds
  
• Purple (hardest) — First names that are U.S. cities
  

If you prefer only nudges: for purple, think of surnames whose first names are also major U.S. cities (for example, a person named “Austin” as a first name might clue something similar).

NYT Connections Answers — October 30, 2025 (Puzzle #872)

For players who want the outright solution, here are the groups for today’s puzzle:

• Yellow — TERMS OF ENDEARMENT: ANGEL, LOVE, PUMPKIN, SUGAR
  
• Green — FICTION GENRES: FANTASY, HORROR, MYSTERY, ROMANCE
  
• Blue — COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR BIRDS: CHARM, GAGGLE, MURDER, PARLIAMENT
  
• Purple — PEOPLE WHOSE FIRST NAMES ARE U.S. CITIES: BLOOM, BUTLER, GUTHRIE, LEVY
  

(If one or two of these felt odd, the purple category depends on a pattern: these surnames are borne by notable people whose first names match U.S. cities — a lateral link that often stumps players.)

NYT Connections: Difficulty rating and quick tips

On a simple 1–5 scale of solver difficulty (1 is easiest), today’s puzzle ranks about 2 out of 5. The trick is less about obscure vocabulary and more about spotting theme types fast. A few practical tips:

• Start with the Yellow group: terms of endearment and simple lexical families are usually the low-hanging fruit the puzzle designers expect you to find first.
  
• Use process of elimination for the central grid words; shuffle the board if the first clue is a red herring.
  
• For the Blue category (collective nouns), think classic flock names — “murder” for crows and “gaggle” for geese are common Connections answers.
  
• The Purple category often requires a lateral or cultural leap — if you’re stuck, read the candidate words aloud and ask whether any surname could sensibly match a first name that is also a U.S. city.

NYT Connections: How to play smarter

Connections only gives four attempts per puzzle, so each guess counts. Resist the impulse to blaze through categories , confirm at least two or three words you’re certain of and then test the remaining possibilities. The shuffle button can be a strong ally: it breaks visual anchoring that the grid’s original layout sometimes exploits.

FAQs

Where can I play NYT Connections?

Connections is available for free on The New York Times Games page and via the NYT Games app on mobile and desktop browsers.

How are categories ordered by difficulty?

The game orders categories from easiest (yellow) to hardest (purple). Designers place simpler, more obvious links in yellow and increasingly abstract or lateral connections in purple.