If you’re looking for the October 8 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here:

Hey there, Connectors! The weekend is almost upon us. Let’s make sure you get there with your Connections streak in one piece.

One of the things I enjoy most about video games is that they can offer such a broad range of experiences. This week alone, I’ve bounced between magnificent high-octane racing in Star Wars: Galactic Racer , a heart wrenching story about grief in Forever Ago and chaotic action in Overwatch .

I’m excited to check out a ton of different things during an event called Next Fest on Steam later this month. It features thousands of demos and it’s always fun to download a bunch and try them out for 10 minutes each. Like Forrest Gump once said (I’m paraphrasing), you never know what you’re gonna get. There’s always the chance of stumbling on something truly great before everyone finds out about it.

Before we start, we’ve got a lovely community on Discord , where we chat about Connections , the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of things. You’re more than welcome to join us!

Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes . I sometimes write about other things that are on my mind there as well.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, October 9 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!

Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT ’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.

Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.

There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by green, blue and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.

As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.

Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.

Today’s NYT Connections Word List

After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.

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

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

The hints for today’s Connections categories are:

  • 🟨 Yellow group — easy peasy
  • 🟩 Green group — *click*
  • 🟦 Blue group — from a look at how things went at home or on the road
  • 🟪 Purple group — like cushion, taxi and supply

One Answer For Each NYT Connections Group

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.

  • 🟨 Yellow group — ROUT
  • 🟩 Green group — POWER
  • 🟦 Blue group — HIGHLIGHTS
  • 🟪 Purple group — GUITAR

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — decisive victory
  • 🟩 Green group — controlled by a TV remote
  • 🟦 Blue group — features of a sports show
  • 🟪 Purple group — air ____

Today’s NYT Connections Answer

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your last chance to look away.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — decisive victory (BLOWOUT, ROMP, ROUT, SWEEP)
  • 🟩 Green group — controlled by a TV remote (CHANNEL, INPUT, POWER, VOLUME)
  • 🟦 Blue group — features of a sports show (HIGHLIGHTS, RECAP, SCORES, STATS)
  • 🟪 Purple group — air ____ (CONDITIONER, GUITAR, KISS, QUOTES)

This all fell into place very quickly for me once I avoided the hair/salon red herring (BLOWOUT, VOLUME, HIGHLIGHTS, CONDITIONER). That was out of contention after SWEEP made the yellows clear to me.

The greens were up next thanks to CHANNEL and VOLUME. Being a bit of a sports person, I had no trouble with the blues this time. CONDITIONER and GUITAR then helped me figure out the purples to wrap up my 586th consecutive win with a regular rainbow.

How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:

That wraps up my current weekday run of this column. I’ll hopefully see you fine folks back here on Monday. In the meantime, you can read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes .

P.S. After I included an Air Supply reference in the purple hint, I have no choice but to recommend this classic POWER ballad today. I feel like my brain is full of cheddar every time I listen to “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All,” such is its level of cheesiness. It’s still a good song, though:

Have a great day and a gorgeous weekend! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too.