NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Friday, July 26 (#411)

1. Today's hints

2. Today's answer

3. Yesterday's answer

Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on July 26 for puzzle #411 are the same difficulty as yesterday's answers, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.6 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #411, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #411. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer , where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

• 🟨 Yellow : Basic directions
• 🟩 Green : Advocate for
• 🟦 Blue : Drawback
• 🟪 Purple : Instrument homophones

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Here's a larger hint: Tap that d-pad while campaigning for a musical score but don't let it become a flaw.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #411?

Drumroll, please...

• 🟨 Basic directions: Down, left, right, up
• 🟩 Advocate for: Back, champion, endorse, support
• 🟦 Drawback: Con, ding, minus, strike
• 🟪 Instrument homophones: Base, liar, loot, symbol

Despite being the same difficulty rating as yesterday's puzzle, this one was easier to crack.

Perhaps because of the political noise of the presidential race that feels like it's been ongoing since 2020, but I had the green category pegged immediately with back, champion, endorse and support.

I thought the yellow category might be a trap with down, left, right and up, but I rolled the dice just in case and was rewarded.

For some reason I got stuck on the word ding and it through off my thinking for the last two categories. It took longer than I care to admit to actually put con, ding, minus and strike together for the blue category.

Purple became a rote fill with base (bass), liar (lyre), loot (lute) and symbol (cymbal). I liked this one but it is a type of purple category that I tend to struggle with. I think I look for narrative connections versus lingual connections. If I can tell myself a story  of sorts, it makes it easier for my mind to see the connections

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #410, which had a difficulty rating of 2.6 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion .

Yesterday's puzzle was full of trap words and while easier, today's puzzle has a couple and one that has me peeved.

There isn't really a trap for the yellow category to kick things off. Clay, papyrus, parchment and wax are all forms of writing surfaces.

I did briefly fall for the gift/present trap but nothing else really matches with those. Before I filled up the green category with anchor, host, moderate and present I was spending my time getting strikes around blue category. I had gift with flair, instinct and talent which in my mind works far better than faculty. Yes, faculty makes sense but screw that. Gift is the more relevant word, especially in a game that regularly uses colloquialisms.

After taking strikes for the blue category and becoming more and more annoying, I switched over to Purple and snagged burrito, gift, mummy and sprain. It worked they are indeed all things that are wrapped up.

I am writing today's guide an hour or so after solving and I find myself still annoyed by faculty. Rather watch that Josh Hartnett and Usher horror movie than deal with that word for that category.