NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 15 (game #1222)

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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.

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

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…

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

PURPLE: LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED

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

The answers to today's Connections, game #1222, are…

YELLOW: WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD: CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE

GREEN: THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS: BASKET, GOAL, RUN, TOUCHDOWN

BLUE: LOWEST PART: BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION

PURPLE: LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED: CANNON, FORGE, RACINE, VOLLEY

Kudos if you were switched on enough to spot canyon, gorge, ravine and valley in the tiles that formed the purple group's LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED. This kind of clever letter altering trickery always foxes me.

Instead, I fell for today's most obvious trap and linked PICKLE, BASKET, FOOT and VOLLEY, thinking that "ball" was the connection (I could have included CANNON and BASE, too).

Fortunately, this was the end of my mistakes and I saw the real reason PICKLE and BASKET were in the game.

YELLOW: HINT: FLICKER, SUGGESTION, TRACE, WHIFF

GREEN: TENNIS SHOTS: SERVE, SLICE, SMASH, VOLLEY

BLUE: SUPERHEROES, WITH "THE": FLASH, HULK, PUNISHER, THING

PURPLE: STARTING WITH "FEE, FI, FO, FUM": FEED, FIERY, FOMENT, FUMBLE

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.