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 2.4 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 2.0 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.