NYT Connections Puzzle #816: A Festive Challenge with Mixed Difficulty Levels

Today’s NYT Connections Challenge

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle (#816) presents players with 16 words to sort: Honeycomb, Pain, Candy Cane, Airbrush, Organism, Pamplemousse, Solar Panel, Angel, Fix, Spreadsheet, Tinsel, Vinaigrette, String Lights, Touch Up, Cornichon, and Photoshop.

Puzzle Difficulty and Structure

According to the Connections Companion rating, today’s puzzle ranks at 2.3 out of 5 in difficulty, making it relatively accessible for most players. Players must identify four groups of words that share common threads, while being careful not to make more than four incorrect guesses.

Category Overview

Today’s puzzle features four distinct categories:
– Yellow (Easiest): Christmas tree-themed items
– Green: Words related to correcting images
– Blue: Fancy food names
– Purple (Hardest): Things with cells.

Game Mechanics and Strategy

The game presents 16 random words in a 4 x 4 grid. Players must identify connections among these words and sort them into four categories, with difficulty levels indicated by colors – yellow, green, blue, and purple. When players get a ‘One Away’ notification, it means they’ve correctly identified three out of four words in a group, with just one word misplaced.

Daily Challenge Format

The puzzle refreshes at midnight in each time zone, ensuring a fresh challenge every day for players worldwide. NYT launched Connections as part of their strategy to build on the success of their popular puzzle game, Wordle.