

The October 31 NYT Connections puzzle celebrates Halloween with visual, character-based clues from pop culture.
Each color group connects to a familiar story or figure - Goldilocks, Cinderella, Popeye, and Ms. Pac-Man.
The doodle-style clues replace words, creating a fun mix of nostalgia, logic, and pattern recognition.
Happy Halloween to all the puzzle solvers out there! The NYT Connections puzzle for today looks like a jolly concoction of fairy tales and contemporary famous personalities. Instead of the regular words, the October 31 grid is buzzing with nostalgia and smart character allusions, as a set of doodle-based hints takes the place of traditional words. This puzzle is packed with snacks, and the count of the tricks is minimal, as it has bears from bedtime to spinach cans.
NYT Connections is a word association puzzle from The New York Times that challenges players to group 16 items into four connected sets. Each color - yellow, green, blue, and purple - represents a different level of difficulty. Yellow is usually the easiest, while purple tends to demand lateral thinking or pop culture recall. The objective is to identify the four hidden themes before making four wrong guesses.
Ghost
Pumpkin
Bow
Bed
Anchor
Bear
Mouse
Cherry
Chair
PELLETS
Slipper
Cap
Pipe
PORRIDGE
Spinach
Magic wand
Yellow Group - A home invader who encountered three of each of these and found one “just right.”
Green Group - The heroine of a rags-to-riches story who raced the clock at midnight.
Blue Group - A sailor who wins fights and love triangles after eating his greens.
Purple Group - A star from a legendary arcade maze-chase game.
Goldilocks
Cinderella
Popeye
Ms. Pac-Man
Yellow Group - Goldilocks: BEAR, BED, CHAIR, PORRIDGE
Green Group - Cinderella: MOUSE, PUMPKIN, SLIPPER, WAND
Blue Group - Popeye: ANCHOR, CAP, PIPE, SPINACH
Purple Group - Ms. Pac-Man: BOW, CHERRIES, GHOST, PELLETS
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle relies entirely on visual clues instead of words, which makes it both challenging and entertaining. The Goldilocks gang came to light without any delay as a result of the warm mixture of bears, beds, and porridge. The fairytale thread went on with the recognizable things from Cinderella; the glass slipper and pumpkin were instant indications.
The rest of the clues turned toward famous people in the music world. The anchor, cap, and pipe pointed to Popeye, with the “can of greens” being a smart allusion to spinach. Lastly, the dots, ghost, bow, and cherries gave the Ms. Pac-Man theme as a signal. The use of visual associations instead of word-based clues made this puzzle feel both fresh and merry.
The puzzle of October 31 is an equal mix of nostalgic feelings and creative thinking, making it one of the most whimsical contenders this month. Every group has an association with a classic character, and at the same time, it gives a challenge to the players’ memory of the culture and their observation skills. Halloween celebration brings in more appeal to this puzzle since the characters are very compatible with the day.
To sum up, the NYT Connections of today is the one that gets noticed because of its beautiful visuals and smart thematic links. The ones who imagine or reason their way through the grid will be the ones to get rewarded with the recognition of the stories and symbols from their beloved childhood ones.
