If you are struggling to find the connections in today’s New York Times puzzle, you aren’t alone. Today’s edition (#1044) features a particularly challenging set of categories, including a somewhat jarring reference to “cannibalism” that has caught many players off guard.
Below, we provide progressive hints and the full solution to help you navigate the grid.
🧩 Hints for Today’s Groups
If you want to solve the puzzle yourself but need a gentle nudge, use these hints. They are ordered from the most straightforward category (Yellow) to the most abstract (Purple).
- Yellow Hint: Think about things you see rising from a fire or a chimney. 💨
- Green Hint: Items you would find in a tackle box. 🎣
- Blue Hint: Elements related to a specific, dangerous arachnid. 🕷️
- Purple Hint: These words all precede a specific day of the week. 🗓️
✅ Today’s Full Answers
If you are stuck and need the complete solution, here are the four groupings for April 20:
Yellow: Mass of Smoke
- Billow
- Cloud
- Plume
- Puff
Green: Fishing Gear
- Bait
- Hook
- Net
- Rod
Blue: Associated with Black Widow Spiders
- Cannibalism
- Hourglass
- Venom
- Web
Purple: ____ Monday
- Blue
- Cyber
- Manic
- Meatless
📈 Analyzing the Difficulty
The NYT Connections puzzle relies on lateral thinking, often using words that fit into multiple categories to mislead the player. Today’s difficulty stems from the Blue group, where “cannibalism” serves as a high-level conceptual link to the Black Widow spider, rather than a literal or common descriptor.
For those looking to improve their strategy, it is helpful to study previous “tough” puzzles. Historically, the hardest puzzles often use:
– Wordplay/Phrases: Such as “Power ____” (nap, plant, Ranger, trip).
– Contextual Shifts: Such as “Things that can run” (candidate, faucet, mascara, nose).
– Hidden Connections: Such as “One in a dozen” (egg, juror, month, rose).
Pro Tip: After completing your puzzle, registered NYT Games users can utilize the Connections Bot to receive a numeric score and analyze their performance, including win rates and streaks.
Summary: Today’s puzzle requires moving from literal objects (fishing gear) to more abstract biological and linguistic connections, making it a challenging session for even seasoned players.
