Looking for today's Connections answer for Connections 474, which was released on September 27, the difficulty level of this puzzle has increased dramatically compared to yesterday's answer, with the Connections companion rating this puzzle a 36 out of 5 for difficulty

We update our Connections hints and tips daily And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four solutions along with the category title and related words In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #473

There are spoilers for Connections #474 Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections should read on

Alternatively, see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution 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 help you 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 to know the answer, scroll down further

There is a bigger clue Get your popcorn ready, watch the movie, and scroll down to the losing fantasy team to think deeper about the Hills

Now for the answer to today's Round 474 connection

Drum roll, please

Looking at today's grid, I'm wondering how the puzzle weights are determined Yesterday's 26 was a huge struggle for me, but I could see that others were sloshing through it

Today I beat it and even went backwards; is it 36 because I don't know sci-fi movies, or is it tricksy words together that could fall into different categories? I'm not sure

I saw Matrix, Dune, and Gravity right away; I knew there was something of science fiction in there The Abyss, The Fly, The Matrix, and The Thing were all great films

I didn't strike out, but I did see banks, bills, and import trade as candidates for the banking category It didn't feel right and seemed a bit forced But then I noticed the mound and thought about baseball, and the bench and the starters were next to each other, leading to trades and drafts Thus fantasy sports were born I was thinking of regular sports, let's call it that

Then the green category fit nicely with gravity, imports, substance, and weight

Finally, I ended up with the “upland areas” of banks, dunes, hills, and mounds

It was a relief not to have to stare at the grid today

I'm reading this late in the day According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 26 out of 5

Not going to lie, I stared at this grid for a long time before I found the answer

I rarely use the shuffle function Today it helped

Shuffle dropped theory and beans next to each other That led me to (String) Theory and (String) bean Bikini was nearby, so he had to find cheese from there

At one point I had dry, neat, and virgin, but for some reason had never looked straight at it This time I found it and beat the blue

Then I stared again Today it didn't click

I hit it a few times trying to get the trim, fringe, wax, and ruffle together before finally admitting border, ruffle, fringe, and trim

Then the green grow, mount, swell, and wax remained I hit on a definition here, forgetting that technically, waxing means growing or increasing Thus, it is a waxing moon

Some days the puzzle flows like spices in Dune Today I was banging my head against the wall waiting for my brain to make the invisible connections