NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, October 13 (game #1220)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, October 12 (game #1219).

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.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1220) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• EYE
• LASH
• LIPS
• JACKET
• TIE
• SENSE
• CHANGE
• BELT
• RING
• TASTE
• CUP
• HITCH
• CANNON
• TETHER
• FLAIR
• ENDS

NYT Connections today (game #1220) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Very particular
• GREEN: Put together
• BLUE: What winners get
• PURPLE: Begin with the opposite of tight

Need more clues?

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 #1220) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: DISCERNMENT
• GREEN: FASTEN
• BLUE: SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZES
• PURPLE: LOOSE_____

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1220) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1220, are…

• YELLOW: DISCERNMENT: EYE, FLAIR, SENSE, TASTE
• GREEN: FASTEN: HITCH, LASH, TETHER, TIE
• BLUE: SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZES: BELT, CUP, JACKET, RING
• PURPLE: LOOSE_____: CANNON, CHANGE, ENDS, LIPS

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

Seeing LIPS, LASH and EYE on the top line of the grid immediately made me think about makeup, but I resisted the temptation to cobble a group together and instead waited to see if I could find anything more concrete.

I stumbled on a Purple First after trying to think about what possible group could contain CANNON and could only come up with weaponry and the phrase “loose cannon”, which chimed with CHANGE, ENDS, and LIPS.

Sadly I ruined my clean run with eight tiles left, as I thought we were looking for ways of strapping items of clothing, so I had BELT instead of TETHER in the group that became FASTEN.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, October 12, 2026, game #1219)

• YELLOW: STATUS: CONDITION, SHAPE, SITUATION, STATE
• GREEN: TOLERATE: BEAR, HANDLE, STAND, WEATHER
• BLUE: WORD SHORTENINGS, OFTEN: ABBREVIATION, CONTRACTION, ELISION, NICKNAME
• PURPLE: WORDS MADE USING U.S. POSTAL ABBREVIATIONS: ALKYLAMIDE, CALAMARI, MANDARIN, MELAMINE

What is NYT Connections?

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.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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The WoW: Forever team says it learned a lot from Classic: Season of Discovery, including managing the in-game economy and RMT — but Blizzard will be 'more careful and cautious' with class changes as it 'knew we were going too far'

• Blizzard Entertainment says it learned plenty of lessons from World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery
• It acknowledged that "we were going too far" with class changes in Season of Discovery and "Forever will be a lot more careful and cautious with slower class changes"
• The studio also learned "what levers we could create to help us manage the in-game economy" in Forever

Blizzard Entertainment has learned a lot from World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery, but it's taking care not to overindulge in class experimentation for World of Warcraft: Forever.

In the same lengthy interview with TechRadar Gaming, where Blizzard confirmed it doesn't plan to modernize Forever's classes, as it wants to preserve the Classic experience, the team shared what it learned from Season of Discovery, a seasonal release for Classic that reimagines progression systems, adds new abilities, unconventional class roles, and redesigned instances, and how it will apply those lessons to Forever.

The team said that it had fun exploring class changes, but admitted it went "too far" and is taking steps to be more considerate with how it applies updates in Forever.

"We pushed every class to the limit and explored every power fantasy on every class," Blizzard said. "But we knew we were going too far. It’s like eating all your Halloween candy on October 31. It’s fun and amazing, but afterward you are sick to your stomach.

"Forever will be a lot more careful and cautious with slower class changes."

Another lesson it learned from Season of Discovery was "what levers we could create to help us manage the in-game economy," something that sometimes suffers from botting and real-money trading (RMT).

It told us that it's actively working to combat RMT in Forever and has already devised penalties that, depending on the terms of service infraction, could result in permanent bans.

Blizzard continued, saying, "We built several systems both under the hood and player-facing that allowed us to control the inflow and outflow of key resources, which led to a much healthier economy, with much less problematic behavior such as RMT."

RMT has always been a huge issue in WoW, whether it's retail or Classic, and Blizzard confirmed it has "a number of new systems in place" to support detection.

"It’s a cat and mouse game, so talking too much about our plans here could tip our hand," it said. "Suffice to say, we are watching very closely, and engaging in RMT is not worth putting your account at risk."

Blizzard has also addressed WoW: Forever's controversial Skyborne race and explained why the Elf race is available to both Alliance and Horde. It's also shared why Summoning Stones won't be in the upcoming game.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, October 12 (game #1219)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, October 11 (game #1218).

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.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1219) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CALAMARI
• MANDARIN
• STATE
• ABBREVIATION
• NICKNAME
• HANDLE
• SHAPE
• WEATHER
• CONDITION
• CONTRACTION
• SITUATION
• BEAR
• ALKYLAMIDE
• STAND
• ELISION
• MELAMINE

NYT Connections today (game #1219) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Where we’re at
• GREEN: Put up or shut up
• BLUE: Brief words
• PURPLE: As seen on letters and packages

Need more clues?

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 #1219) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: STATUS
• GREEN: TOLERATE
• BLUE: WORD SHORTENINGS, OFTEN
• PURPLE: WORDS MADE USING U.S. POSTAL ABBREVIATIONS

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1219) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1219, are…

• YELLOW: STATUS: CONDITION, SHAPE, SITUATION, STATE
• GREEN: TOLERATE: BEAR, HANDLE, STAND, WEATHER
• BLUE: WORD SHORTENINGS, OFTEN: ABBREVIATION, CONTRACTION, ELISION, NICKNAME
• PURPLE: WORDS MADE USING U.S. POSTAL ABBREVIATIONS: ALKYLAMIDE, CALAMARI, MANDARIN, MELAMINE

• My rating: Hard
• My score: Perfect

Living and growing up outside of the US put me at a disadvantage for today’s purple group — although I am still not sure I would have seen it even if I was based in the States. Kudos if you did.

I managed to get through without making any mistakes, but this was one of those games where I got by on hunches and luck and never had a strong hold on what the group categories might be.

ELISION was a word that I had not heard of before, but ABBREVIATION, CONTRACTION and NICKNAME all seemed to go together, so I took a chance. I have since discovered that it means “omission of one or more sounds, vowels, consonants, or whole syllables from a word or phrase to make speech faster and easier". Yes folks, it’s a good ‘un.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, October 11, 2026, game #1218)

• YELLOW: PUT TO USE: APPLY, HARNESS, UTILIZE, WIELD
• GREEN: MONTHLY BILLS: CABLE, ELECTRICITY, INTERNET, PHONE
• BLUE: THINGS YOU MIGHT FIND IN A GLOVE COMPARTMENT: GLOVES, ICE SCRAPER, MAP, REGISTRATION
• PURPLE: ENDING IN GAMBITS: EMPLOY, PATRICK, PERUSE, SYNTACTIC

What is NYT Connections?

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.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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Can fans expect Goblins or Vulpera in WoW: Forever? Blizzard says it has 'no plans' to add modern WoW races to the game — 'Our main focus for the game is to build off the foundational lore of Warcraft'

• World of Warcraft: Forever won't receive any new races from retail World of Warcraft
• Blizzard says its "main focus" is to "build off the foundational lore of Warcraft," since Forever exists in its own "continuity"
• It confirms that the stakes won't be as high as retail WoW to begin with, as "You aren’t THE hero in WoW: Forever, you are just A hero"

Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed that it doesn't plan to add any modern World of Warcraft races to World of Warcraft: Forever, since the game exists in its own timeline.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, where the WoW: Forever team discussed adding the controversial dual-faction Skyborne race and its plans for the game's future, Blizzard said it doesn't plan to reintroduce any races from Azeroth-based expansions, such as Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, or Midnight.

"We have no plans to add races from WoW’s expansions at this time," Blizzard said, meaning fans shouldn't expect new races like Vulpera, Goblins, or Haranir.

And Blizzard's reasoning for avoiding the newer additions to retail WoW? It explained that it wants to build on the original Warcraft game because WoW: Forever essentially exists within its own timeline.

"Our main focus for the game is to build off the foundational lore of Warcraft," it said. "This means first and foremost the RTS [real-time strategy ] games, and we’ve hit on this right from the start with our content that picks up after the events of the new Warcraft 3: Forsaken Kingdom campaign.

"One of the liberating things about this game existing in its own continuity is that we can forge our own path forward and tell stories that serve the world of WoW: Forever first and foremost. It wouldn’t be fair to WoW: Forever and the players who want to see where this world is going for us to spend a ton of time trying to further flesh stories that have already been told extensively in the modern game."

Blizzard added that it plans to "keep our stories very grounded," explaining that while the stakes of modern WoW are "so vast" and "have that gravity and weight because of how far our characters have gone in that world," WoW: Forever will start "in a very different place."

"We may be a part of larger narratives and events, but how we interact with those narratives will be more subtle and grounded, just as was the case in original WoW," the team said, emphasising that "You aren’t THE hero in WoW: Forever, you are just A hero."

It continued, teasing, "That isn’t to say we’ll never go to some of the places that came in later WoW expansions, but we are fairly committed at this time to doing the WoW: Forever version of those places, not simply retreading the versions of these places that we’ve already seen."

Elsewhere in the same interview, Blizzard confirmed that it's actively working to combat real-money trading (RMT) in WoW: Forever.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, October 11 (game #1218)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, October 10 (game #1217).

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.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1218) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• HARNESS
• MAP
• PERUSE
• PHONE
• GLOVES
• CABLE
• APPLY
• PATRICK
• ELECTRICITY
• WIELD
• ICE SCRAPER
• UTILIZE
• EMPLOY
• REGISTRATION
• SYNTACTIC
• INTERNET

NYT Connections today (game #1218) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Deploy
• GREEN: Paid off 12 times a year
• BLUE: Hidden in your car
• PURPLE: Final risks

Need more clues?

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 #1218) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: PUT TO USE
• GREEN: MONTHLY BILLS
• BLUE: THINGS YOU MIGHT FIND IN A GLOVE COMPARTMENT
• PURPLE: ENDING IN GAMBITS

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1218) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1218, are…

• YELLOW: PUT TO USE: APPLY, HARNESS, UTILIZE, WIELD
• GREEN: MONTHLY BILLS: CABLE, ELECTRICITY, INTERNET, PHONE
• BLUE: THINGS YOU MIGHT FIND IN A GLOVE COMPARTMENT: GLOVES, ICE SCRAPER, MAP, REGISTRATION
• PURPLE: ENDING IN GAMBITS: EMPLOY, PATRICK, PERUSE, SYNTACTIC

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 mistakes

Congratulations if you saw ploy, trick, ruse, and tactic at the end of the four purple tiles.

This wasn’t the only thing that passed me by today.

After successfully getting the four utilities that made up MONTHLY BILLS and the THINGS YOU MIGHT FIND IN A GLOVE COMPARTMENT (I’d add a pack of mints, cheap sunglasses and a scrap of paper with an unknown phone number on it) I floundered over the yellow group, as I was convinced EMPLOY was one of the four.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, October 10, 2026, game #1217)

• YELLOW: USEFUL WHEN WRITING A PAPER: DRAFT, NOTES, OUTLINE, THESIS
• GREEN: PRESUME: FIGURE, GATHER, IMAGINE, SUPPOSE
• BLUE: SOCIAL MEDIA SECTIONS: FEED, MESSAGES, NOTIFICATIONS, PROFILE
• PURPLE: ___BOXING: BEAT, KICK, SHADOW, UN

What is NYT Connections?

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.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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WoW: Forever's classes won't be modernized, but Blizzard has added some new mechanics for 'engaging depth' as 'some classes' in World of Warcraft Classic 'were too simple'

• World of Warcraft: Forever's classes won't be modernized, Blizzard says
• However, they will receive more "engaging depth" since some Classic classes felt "too simple"
• Blizzard wants to serve the "Classic" ethos, while also "adding things to freshen up the vanilla experience"

Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed it won't modernize World of Warcraft: Forever's classes, as it wants to align with the "Classic" experience, but some will receive more "engaging depth."

World of Warcraft has undergone many class and balance changes over the years, in both 'retail' and Classic, and with WoW: Forever launching next month, players can expect similar updates.

However, in an interview with TechRadar Gaming, the WoW: Forever team doesn't plan to dramatically alter vanilla classes fans are familiar with; instead, it wants to build on them to make them more engaging as part of its design framework.

Blizzard wants to make a "Classic Plus" experience centered around four design pillars (Nurture and Protect Social Experiences, Approachable and Familiar, World as the Main Character, and Journey before destination), which will help the team build on the vanilla experience while staying true to the game's established "core design, pacing, and tone."

With this in mind, Blizzard plans "to err on the side of simpler classes, but with engaging depth,". The company further explained that "some classes in the Classic era were too simple, so those have gained a few mechanics."

How many? "The level of mechanical complexity found in the beta classes is indicative of our intentions," the team said. "When considering encounter design, we want to align those with our core values. Namely Approachable and Familiar."

It explained that its encounter team played a lot of Classic dungeon and raid content "to truly get an understanding of how the Classic game felt," and it discovered that "encounters that were very approachable and systems that encouraged players to go out into the world, adventure, prepare, and come back ready to take on any sort of challenge ahead of them."

But when it comes to specific mechanics, "we want to empower the team to be creative and surprise the player, but we always want everything we do to point back to our core pillars."

Blizzard touched on the "complexity" of class combat, saying that it likes the pacing "the pacing and combat speed of original WoW, and that all the changes it makes to classes or raid content "need to still serve that" while also "adding things to freshen up the vanilla experience."

"Particularly in terms of classes," the team said, "as some classes or specs had wild power swings and/or sometimes uninteresting gameplay. That’s something we want to improve upon without drastically speeding up the game or making it overly complex or unapproachable."

As for specialization changes and multi-specs, the game already has Dual Specialization, which can be learned at level 40 for a cost, but there are "no plans to go past that."

"We do not want to have cheap respecs," Blizzard continued. "The first re-spec every hour is temporarily cheap in the beta. When the game goes live, the price of re-spec will climb quickly and only decrease once per week. We want players’ talent decisions to be meaningful. There is the possibility, however, of some increased re-spec utility coming to the Legacy talents in the future."

However, Blizzard does plan to incorporate "a lot of class changes in beta" with a rather ambitious update schedule. "When we do make changes, they will be batched up to all happen at the same time, rather than trickle in."

The company added that it anticipates frequent balance changes in the first six months, as it will be able to gather class performance data during this time. Blizzard said, "Initially, we plan this to be once per week."

However, the aim remains to make "very few design changes once the game goes live" on November 4.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, October 10 (game #1217)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, October 9 (game #1216).

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.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1217) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• OUTLINE
• SHADOW
• FEED
• FIGURE
• DRAFT
• IMAGINE
• KICK
• NOTIFICATIONS
• GATHER
• NOTES
• UN
• MESSAGES
• BEAT
• SUPPOSE
• PROFILE
• THESIS

NYT Connections today (game #1217) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Steps to creating written work
• GREEN: Dr Livingstone, I…
• BLUE: Online life
• PURPLE: Add a fighting word

Need more clues?

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 #1217) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: USEFUL WHEN WRITING A PAPER
• GREEN: PRESUME
• BLUE: SOCIAL MEDIA SECTIONS
• PURPLE: ___BOXING

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1217) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1217, are…

• YELLOW: USEFUL WHEN WRITING A PAPER: DRAFT, NOTES, OUTLINE, THESIS
• GREEN: PRESUME: FIGURE, GATHER, IMAGINE, SUPPOSE
• BLUE: SOCIAL MEDIA SECTIONS: FEED, MESSAGES, NOTIFICATIONS, PROFILE
• PURPLE: ___BOXING: BEAT, KICK, SHADOW, UN

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t — and in my case I nearly always don’t — but today I saw the Purple First within seconds of surveying all of the tiles.

Having said that, it did take me a little while to get to the 'UN' of UNBOXING, as I was reading it as the abbreviation of the United Nations.

From here, the next two groups felt pretty straightforward. Today, it was the green quartet that went over my head.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, October 9, 2026, game #1216)

• YELLOW: DECISIVE VICTORY: BLOWOUT, ROMP, ROUT, SWEEP
• GREEN: CONTROLLED BY A TV REMOTE: CHANNEL, INPUT, POWER, VOLUME
• BLUE: FEATURES OF A SPORTS SHOW: HIGHLIGHTS, RECAP, SCORES, STATS
• PURPLE: AIR ____: CONDITIONER, GUITAR, KISS, QUOTES

What is NYT Connections?

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.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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via TECHNICAL SAFEER

NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, October 9 (game #1216)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 8 (game #1215).

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.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1216) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• POWER
• GUITAR
• CONDITIONER
• VOLUME
• BLOWOUT
• KISS
• SWEEP
• HIGHLIGHTS
• SCORES
• QUOTES
• INPUT
• STATS
• CHANNEL
• ROMP
• RECAP
• ROUT

NYT Connections today (game #1216) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Overwhelming triumph
• GREEN: Zapper buttons
• BLUE: As seen during big game coverage
• PURPLE: Begin with a word that rhymes with “fair”

Need more clues?

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 #1216) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: DECISIVE VICTORY
• GREEN: CONTROLLED BY A TV REMOTE
• BLUE: FEATURES OF A SPORTS SHOW
• PURPLE: AIR ____

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1216) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1216, are…

• YELLOW: DECISIVE VICTORY: BLOWOUT, ROMP, ROUT, SWEEP
• GREEN: CONTROLLED BY A TV REMOTE: CHANNEL, INPUT, POWER, VOLUME
• BLUE: FEATURES OF A SPORTS SHOW: HIGHLIGHTS, RECAP, SCORES, STATS
• PURPLE: AIR ____: CONDITIONER, GUITAR, KISS, QUOTES

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

The words HIGHLIGHTS, VOLUME, CONDITIONER and BLOWOUT immediately made me think of hair, so with little thought I bundled them together.

My second mistake was less reckless and on the right track for FEATURES OF A SPORTS SHOW — I had QUOTES instead of RECAP, I was thinking about interviews with athletes and coaches.

From here, I got home without difficulty, although I did kick myself that I’d missed AIR ______ which on review of all four categories post-game seemed the most gettable despite being the so-called hardest.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, October 8, 2026, game #1215)

• YELLOW: FOLLOWS, AS RULES: HEEDS, MINDS, REGARDS, RESPECTS
• GREEN: OUTDO: BEST, ECLIPSE, SURPASS, TOP
• BLUE: THINGS THAT COME IN THREES: CHEERS, STOOGES, STRIKES, WISHES
• PURPLE: ENDING IN ACTORS NAMED TOM: AUTOCRUISE, FOOLHARDY, MULHOLLAND, THANKS

What is NYT Connections?

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.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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You can now play Doom on a SQL database in one of the most astonishing porting projects we've ever seen

• Vogel ported Doom to run entirely inside a SQL database
• The port draws 640×480 full-color frames from about 1,300 lines of SQL
• Missing BSP-tree traversal in DoomQL prompted Vogel to start a second version

Developer Lukas Vogel has ported Doom to run entirely inside a SQL database, with both the game logic and rendering handled through queries.

The project, called SQLDoom, stores level geometry and game state in CedarDB tables, while a lightweight Python script handles timing, input, and display output.

The result produces 35 full-color frames per second at 640×480 resolution, using roughly 1,300 lines of SQL code divided across 89 query blocks.

An earlier attempt fell short of real Doom

An earlier effort called DoomQL was launched last year and relied on raycasting with grayscale text characters, so it resembled Wolfenstein 3D more than Doom.

The raycasting skipped the BSP-tree traversal that helped distinguish Doom’s rendering approach, prompting Vogel to develop a second version.

For SQLDoom, the developer required both the rendering system and game loop to operate entirely through SQL, with output limited to exact-color tables or bitmaps.

“Rendering Doom in a database is obviously a bad idea,” Vogel said in a blog post about the project.

Building the new version meant recreating key parts of Doom’s rendering process using database operations rather than conventional game-engine code.

Handling the level geometry was relatively straightforward because a sort key calculated when each map loads lets a single ordering clause determine which wall sections are drawn.

Floors and ceilings presented a tougher problem. Doom’s original engine uses visplanes and state changes, neither of which translates neatly to column-by-column SQL rendering.

Vogel replaced that system with what he called a “pretty hacky” approach, looping through a sequence of sorted panels to fill those surfaces.

Speed figures and server tests give mixed results

Vogel reports about 60 fps on a laptop with a Ryzen 7 7840U chip, though busy scenes can fall to 35 fps.

He said table overhead was substantial, yet the port still ran faster than his simpler DoomQL effort from last year.

"I intended it as a tech demo, but it just feels like the real Doom, even though it doesn't share a single line of code with any existing Doom port,” Vogel said.

The port also supports deathmatch play, with public online servers hosted in Europe and the United States open for multiplayer matches.

Reviewers who tried the online demos described sluggish performance, with one outlet suggesting the servers rather than the port itself were responsible.

Vogel argues a database keeps one steady record of game state, with “no partially applied updates, physics bugs, or disagreements over whether the rocket actually hit”

The Register noted the work doubles as a showcase for CedarDB, a database system that compiles complex queries into machine code.

Anyone wanting to try it can run the GitHub code locally with CedarDB and Doom's original WAD data, or join a free hosted match online.

Via The Register

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