Connections tips: how to beat the red herrings
Updated October 22, 2026 · 2 min read
Connections looks like a vocabulary test, but most failed boards are lost to the decoys, not to words you don't know. These tips start with exactly how the game treats your guesses, then give you a method that holds up on hard days.
How the game counts
- Sixteen tiles hide four groups of four. Tiles are usually words, sometimes phrases, numbers or symbols.
- Only submitting a wrong group costs a mistake. Selecting, deselecting and shuffling tiles are free.
- You have four mistakes; the fourth ends the game and reveals the groups.
- One away means three of your four tiles belong together. It does not say which tile is wrong, and it still counts as a mistake.
- Each puzzle has one group of each colour: yellow is meant to be the most straightforward, then green, blue and purple, the trickiest. The editor has said difficulty is subjective, so treat the colours as a guide.
A method that works on hard days
- Read all sixteen before touching anything. Note every possible category, including ones you think are silly.
- Count the candidates. If five tiles fit a category, one of them belongs somewhere else; that is how the red herrings are built.
- Shuffle when you are stuck. Tiles that sit next to each other suggest groups that are not there. Shuffling is free.
- Solve the group you are surest of, not the easiest-looking one. A confident group shrinks the board and often exposes the decoy.
- Treat one away as information. Swap out the tile that could also fit another group you have noticed, not a random one.
- Look for wordplay when meanings fail. Purple groups are often about the words rather than what they mean: hidden words, homophones, words that take the same prefix or suffix, anagrams or palindromes.
- Say the words out loud. Sound-alike groups are much easier to hear than to see.
Practise with these
Endless grids to practise on, and because many are user-made with trivia twists, they train you to keep more than one possible category in mind.
Built around decoys: every puzzle has four tiles that fit nowhere, which is the best training there is for spotting the tile that does not belong.
One category a day to name in as few clues as possible, good practice for putting a label on a group before you commit to it.
Questions people ask
Does one away count as a mistake?
Yes. It tells you three of your four tiles belong together, but you still lose one of your four mistakes.
Should I solve the purple group first?
Only if you are certain. Solving any group you are sure of removes tiles from the board, and the purple group is often easier to see once the decoys are gone.
More from Games Like Connections
- 12 games like Connections for people who see patterns everywhere
Word-grouping puzzles for Connections fans: PuzzGrid, the Sports Edition, Red Herring, Codenames Daily and more, with what each costs and how long it takes. - Unlimited Connections: the archive and endless grouping puzzles
Where to play more than one Connections a day: what the New York Times archive costs, plus grid puzzles you can play for as long as you like.