Last checked: 24 September 2026
Updated daily — hints for September 24, 2026 (#1201).
Looking for Forbes Connections hints today? You’ve found the right page. Stuck on puzzle #1201, for Thursday, September 24, 2026 — which looks friendly at first glance, then the purple category ruins your morning. Below you’ll find gentle, spoiler-free hints for each color group, followed by the full answers if you’d rather just see them. Come back tomorrow morning for the next puzzle.
Connections Hints Today — September 24, 2026 (#1201)
Start here if you want help without giving the game away. Read one hint at a time, glance back at your grid, and stop the moment something clicks.
🟡 Yellow hint: “I vant to drink your blood!” Four things you’d put on — or in your mouth — for a vampire costume. This is the gimme group today. If one item goes around your neck and another goes over your teeth, you’re on the right track.
🟢 Green hint: “Coily.” Four things that bounce, wobble, or spring back at you. Think playground, car dashboard, prank shop, and backyard.
🔵 Blue hint: “Finger gesture.” Four things famous for pointing at you — a hand in a Renaissance painting, a foam novelty, a novelty T-shirt, and the most famous recruitment poster in American history.
🟣 Purple hint: “Same letters, mixed up.” All four answers are built from the exact same seven letters, just rearranged. Say the longer phrases out loud and the letters start to shuffle themselves. One is something you drink, one is something you do, one is an animal, and one is novelty headwear.
⚠️ Spoilers ahead — Connections answers for September 24, 2026
Last chance to look away. Below are all four groups for puzzle #1201, with every word in each.
🟡 Yellow — PARTS OF A VAMPIRE COSTUME: Cape, Face Paint, Fake Blood, Fangs
🟢 Green — THINGS WITH SPRINGS: Bobblehead, Pogo Stick, Snakes in a Can, Trampoline
🔵 Blue — FEATURING POINTING: Creation of Adam, Foam Finger, I’m With Stupid Shirt, Uncle Sam
🟣 Purple — ANAGRAMS OF EACH OTHER: Beer Hat, Breathe, Herb Tea, The Bear
The purple group is the one worth admiring: BEER HAT, BREATHE, HERB TEA, and THE BEAR all use the same seven letters — A, B, E, E, H, R, T. If you spotted that before submitting, give yourself full credit. And the blue group is a nice piece of misdirection: “Creation of Adam” doesn’t sound like it belongs with foam fingers until you picture the two famous pointing hands.
How NYT Connections Works
Connections gives you sixteen words in a grid. Your job is to sort them into four groups of four, where each group shares something in common. You get four mistakes before the game ends — use them carefully, because wrong guesses are the only thing standing between you and a broken streak.
Select four words you think belong together and hit submit. Get it right and the group locks in with its color. Get it wrong and it counts as a mistake. If you’re one word off, the game tells you so — that “one away” message is genuinely useful, not a taunt.
A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, and your streak carries over as long as you keep solving. That’s the whole game. Simple to learn, surprisingly hard to master.
What the Colors Mean
The four groups are color-coded by difficulty, and the order never changes:
- Yellow — the easiest group. Usually a straightforward category like “things that are red” or, today, vampire costume parts.
- Green — easy-medium. Still concrete, but the connection takes a beat longer to see.
- Blue — medium-hard. This is where the trickery starts: answers that seem to fit two groups, or categories with an unusual angle.
- Purple — the hardest. Almost always wordplay: anagrams, homophones, words that precede or follow the same word, or fill-in-the-blank phrases.
Knowing this order helps. If you’ve found yellow and green but blue and purple are fighting you, that’s normal — the game is designed that way.
What “Forbes Connections Hints” Means
If you’re wondering why so many people search for “Forbes Connections hints” specifically: Forbes runs a popular daily NYT Connections column that publishes hints and answers for every new puzzle. The phrase has become shorthand among players for “today’s Connections hints” in general — which is exactly what this page provides, refreshed every morning with the new puzzle.
Strategy Tips That Actually Help
Find yellow first. Scan the grid for the most obvious set of four and lock it in. Clearing the easy group removes clutter and makes the harder patterns easier to spot.
Shuffle the board. The game scrambles word order for a reason — your brain keeps seeing the same false groupings when words sit still. Hit shuffle a few times and fresh connections appear.
Distrust the obvious pair. Connections loves red herrings: two or three words that clearly go together but don’t make a group of four. If you can only find three, the fourth word you want probably belongs somewhere else.
Say the words out loud. Purple categories are often about sound or spelling, not meaning. Anagrams, rhymes, and homophones reveal themselves much faster when you hear the words instead of just reading them.
Respect the “one away” message. When the game tells you you’re one word off, don’t just swap in a random word. Figure out which three are solid, then test each remaining candidate against those three deliberately.
Save your guesses. With only four mistakes allowed, never submit a group you’re unsure about just to “see what happens.” If you’re torn between two possibilities for the fourth word, look at the other unsolved words first — the answer is often clearer by elimination.
Where to Play Connections
The official game lives on the New York Times Games site and in the NYT Games app. It’s free to play, and a new puzzle drops daily at midnight in your time zone. If you want the archive of past puzzles, that requires a Games subscription — but today’s puzzle is always free.
For daily hints and full answers with explanations, this page updates every morning. Bookmark it if Connections is part of your routine.
FAQs About Connections Hints
What time does the Connections puzzle reset?
Midnight in your local time zone. The hints and answers on this page update the same morning, so check back daily.
Do hints ruin the puzzle?
Only if you read more than you need. The hints above are written in layers — take the first nudge, go back to the grid, and only read further if you’re still stuck. Most players find that one small push is enough.
Why is purple always so hard?
Because purple is the wordplay category by design. While yellow through blue are usually about meaning, purple plays with the words themselves — anagrams like today’s BEER HAT / BREATHE / HERB TEA / THE BEAR, homophones, or words that share a hidden structure. Reading the words aloud is the single best trick for cracking it.
What happens if I run out of guesses?
The game ends and reveals all four groups. Your streak resets, but you can still study the answers — honestly, reviewing the groups you missed is one of the fastest ways to get better.
Can I play yesterday’s puzzle?
The NYT Games archive includes past Connections puzzles for subscribers. Non-subscribers can only play the current day’s puzzle, which is why daily hint pages like this one exist.
Where can I find Forbes Connections hints every day?
Right here — this page is updated every morning with the new day’s puzzle hints and answers, following the same daily format as Forbes’ own Connections column. Bookmark it if Connections is part of your daily routine.
Is Connections free to play?
Yes, today’s puzzle is always free on the NYT Games site and app. Accessing the archive of past puzzles requires a Games subscription.
What is the best strategy for the purple category?
Stop thinking about meaning and start looking at the words themselves. Purple categories are built on anagrams (like today’s BEER HAT / BREATHE / HERB TEA / THE BEAR), homophones, hidden words, or shared prefixes and suffixes. Saying the words out loud often reveals what reading silently hides.
More Daily Puzzle Help
- NYT Connections Answers: Hints, Clues and Answers — our companion answers hub for daily Connections coverage
- Forbes Connections Today: Hints, Clues and Answers — another daily Connections hints page on this site
- Guardian Quick Crossword — a second daily word puzzle to keep your streak habit going
That’s puzzle #1201 done. See you tomorrow for #1202 — and if today’s purple took you down, you’re in good company.