NEW ‘Connections’ November 30: Hints and answers for game #538

To hold one Connections win streak going can be quite a trying task so if you need some helpful hints and tips then Newsweek have your back.

The brain tension was launched by New York Times in June 2023 and has gone on to become the newspaper’s second most played match afterwards Wordleanother word based puzzle game.

Connections challenges players to uncover threads that connect a series of words. Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and the answers to today’s puzzle are towards the end of the article.

How to play ‘Connections’

Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, Friday’s match linked the words “Endeavour”, “Enterprise”, “Project” and “Venture” under the “Endeavour” category.

Each of the four categories is marked with a color which also indicates their degree of difficulty. Yellow is the easiest category followed by green, blue and purple. The puzzles are rarely straightforward and use homophones and puns to keep the players challenged.

The familiarity of the words used and how often they appear in modern life are also factors of difficulty, although less common words are not only used in the more difficult categories. “Overlap”, where a word can be linked to multiple categories, is another way Connections testing players.

If stuck, players can press the shuffle button, which will shuffle where the words appear on the screen.

Wyna Liu, a crossword editor at New York Times which was asked to develop Connectionstold Newsweek about her recommended tips for playing the game.

“My best advice is to wait as long as you can before you guess,” she said.

“You might look at the board and have completely identified the category, and see five words that could fit into that category,” Liu continued. “Don’t try to guess the four words in that category, because even if 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.

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

The answers for today Connections puzzles will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll with caution if you want to figure them out yourself.

‘Connections’ #538 Clues for Saturday November 30th

Newsweek have some tips to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.

Yellow: These words describe different styles you can see on the dance floor.

Green: Each of these answers is a term that could be used to describe theft.

Blue: For these answers, think about how you might describe someone doing well.

Purple: These words become something else entirely when they precede “ball”.

‘Connections’ #538 Reply for Saturday, November 30th

Yellow Category: DANCE STYLES

Yellow words: Jazz, Modern, Swing, Tap

Green Category: STEAL

Green words: Lift, Palm, Pocket, Swipe

Blue Category: PERFORM WELL ON

Blue words: Ace, Crush, Nail, Rock

Purple Category: ___BALL BANDS

Purple words: Curve, quick, knuckle, screw

Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to beat the puzzle tomorrow.

Connections published at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek returns with another round of hints and tips for each new game.