Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #428 from August 12, a little harder than yesterday's answer, this puzzle from Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 24 out of 5

We update our Connections clues and hints daily And if the hints are not enough, see the four answers below, along with the category title and related words In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #427

Connection #428 contains a spoiler Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection

Alternatively, see the NYT Connections How to Play Guide

While the Wordle of the Day answer guide recommends the best wordle starting word as a strategy, the Connections answer depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

If you read these hints, you should at least find the answer to today's connection If not, please continue reading for larger hints Also, if you only want the answer, scroll down further

There is a bigger clue Today's puzzle is about the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, and the Periodic Table?

Now, what is the answer to today's game #428 Connection?

Drum roll, please

The Connection Crew really confused me with today's clue Bowie, Queen, and John got me thinking about my father's favorite musicians, but as it turns out, it meant something a little more familiar

I first found the yellow category when I realized that Mercury could mean the elements, not Freddie Mercury After that, it was easy to sniff out gold and lead

Then came the green category I shuffled the puzzle back and Full and Twin appeared close together King and Queen were not royalty, of course, but mattress sizes!

With a straighter screw in my head, I decided that the Butcher was either an occupation or a knife Pulling on that thread, Butter and Butterfly began to make sense, and I finally remembered that Bowie was more than a rock star

Blue (Kang, Head, John, Sloan) came after that as a fill-in by rote, but I managed to guess that category before the results were revealed

Are you reading this late in the day? According to the Connections Companion, the Connections answer to game #427, which had a difficulty score of 20 out of 5, is as follows

Yellow was an easy win yesterday Growing up near the largest naval base in the world, I had heard most of the ship names and Ship, Vessel, Craft, and Barge were easy connections

Next on the list was Green I had my eye on gold medals due to the Olympics now being held in Paris, so Best and Champ came to mind Next came Legend, and then GOAT, an acronym for Greatest of All Time, instead of four legs

Then I tried to unpack the blue category I wondered if there might be some connection with "about" or "on" Maybe a part-of-speech connection? But on my second guess, I folded in Concerned and Toward and got the correct answer

Purple was then filled in by rote, so I couldn't guess the category, but I appreciated the play on words