NYT Connections today – my hints and answers for October 31 (#873)

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #873) – the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #873, are…

YELLOW: GOLDILOCKS BEAR, BED, CHAIR, PORRIDGE
GREEN: CINDERELLA MOUSE, PUMPKIN, SLIPPER, WAND
BLUE: POPEYE ANCHOR, CAP, PIPE, SPINACH
PURPLE: MS. PAC-MAN BOW, CHERRIES, GHOST, PELLETS

My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect

After the initial shock of having to work with 16 visual tiles, I quickly calmed my senses and started to see some common themes.

Two of these groups I got through latent Connections knowledge, thanks to MS. PAC MAN and POPEYE both having appeared in Connections groups in the past; the vintage SPINACH-guzzling sailor was a purple group back in January when “forearm” featured instead of CAP.

Meanwhile, MS. PAC-MAN popped up in August in a baffling purple group of “words after the letters MS”.

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You’ve had your fun, Connections, can we go back to words now please.

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.