The Citadel

For connections, I try very hard to put purple first. I don't always. The order that I place the results in represents whether I was able to figure it out. If I have purple or blue last, it usually means I did process of elimination (or that I just couldn't figure out which one was blue or purple because they all felt the same).

I usually try to do connections before I get out of bed. I give myself about 5-10 minutes. This morning I think it was well under 5 min.

Connections
Puzzle #852

I have no idea why this one threw me today.

Connections
Puzzle #852

Oops, fat fingered one.

Connections
Puzzle #853

Connections
Puzzle #853





Purple last today because I did it by process of elimination.

Danoff wrote: Sat Oct 11, 2025 1:41 pm Connections
Puzzle #853





Purple last today because I did it by process of elimination.

I did too, but having identified the , I delivered the first.
(The bot gives more points for getting harder ones first and for some reason, that seems important )

Connections
Puzzle #853





Skill 96/99
Uniqueness 1 in 69

Connections
Puzzle #854

Connections
Puzzle #855

I also try to get purple first.

Connections
Puzzle #855





Lifetime stats:

That's impressive. How does one know which one is purple? I know there's a hints page that tells you one word in each group.

Most of my games come down to guessing. I'm at a 53% win rate

Never played this before seeing this thread, even though i try to play NYT's Wordle every day. I'm familiar with the concept of the game, there's a UK game show called Only Connect which uses this as one of the rounds. I did yesterdays with a minute. Made me think it was simple... didn't get a single line completed today

Connections
Puzzle #856





I didn't care for this one.

road_dogg33j wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:15 pm How does one know which one is purple?

Personally, I get all 4 groups figured out then pick the one I this is most "difficult". Which has a tendency to be the first one I get.

Sometimes it's the last one through process of elimination and even when I'm looking at the words that have to go together, I don't have the slightest idea why.

Which is also a good indication that it's probably the purple one.

road_dogg33j wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:15 pm How does one know which one is purple?

T.B. wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:46 pm Personally, I get all 4 groups figured out then pick the one I this is most "difficult". Which has a tendency to be the first one I get.

I should have mentioned earlier I never use hints. I've never even seen what the hints option looks like.

As for figuring out which one is purple, it's usually divorced from the straight meaning of the word. So like, for example, if the word is potato, but the category is "hot _" then that's purple. If the word was potato and another word was turnip, that's not purple, because it's based on the plain meaning of the word. Purple can also be interior words or reverse spelling or rhyming words or words with colors in them or anything "meta" like that. Because the category is not derived from the meaning of the word. Purple can also be when the word is a name, like if Timberwolf is used as a team rather than an animal, that's probably purple. Sometimes that's blue though.

Blue is harder. It's often a rare or odd use of the term. It's almost never a straightforward use of the word. Slang, or pop-culture is often blue. Blue is essentially never a fill-in-the-blank style word. So hot _ will never (as far as I can tell) be a blue category.

Danoff wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 8:56 pmBlue is essentially never a fill-in-the-blank style word. So hot _ will never (as far as I can tell) be a blue category.

I can only remember once when all four groups were ___ (word).

T.B. wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 9:39 pm I can only remember once when all four groups were ___ (word).

Oh yea, I remember that one.

Strands #591
“Going up?”



That might be the longest spangram I've ever seen.

Connections
Puzzle #857





Purple took me a little time.

Connections
Puzzle #857







Skill 82/99
Uniqueness 1 in a Million

The power of guesswork

Connections
Puzzle #858







I did not care for the purple/blue combo here. Lots of options.

I got fixated on a connection i saw almost straight away, but was scuppered by a north american creature i had no knowledge of.

I'll have to work out how to post those colour blocks.