Looking for answers to today's Connections? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 2.5 out of 5.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't 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, #495.

There are spoilers for connection #496. Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection.

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, 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 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.

A bigger hint is to avoid the sting of the prompt by playing video games while relaxing in the bath.

Now, what is the answer to the connection in today's game #496?

Drum roll please.

The purple category is one of the easiest I've played Connections.

I saw Metroid first, but was quick to grab Halo, Civilization, and Madden. I've reviewed the current Madden 25 and am irresistibly excited about Civilization 7, which will be released next year. I'm curious about video games

Well, when I put down the controller and opened the first puzzle I saw candles and incense, I thought of the relaxing bath category. So it was a pleasant filling to add lotions and soaps to that list.

The last two were coin flips, but since inspire, prompt, and provoke were overlapping, grabbing generate led to a group with a fast yellow.

That left the blue category with insult, jellyfish, nettle, and wasp as emotional and physical assassins.

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.8 out of 5.

We got things going with clunkers in the yellow category. First we saw a flop and a miss, which led to a bust and a dud.

It took a little while for the rest of the group to click. Just didn't see it today. I was going back and forth between the charge and the plastic. But eventually I got to credit and card.

From there I grabbed the green by chance, shot, time, and turn.

I had a Kindle and Rainforest at one point, but never considered Amazon Prime. I don't know why. I'm glad this is memorization stuffing.

It was during the third grouping that I realized the Texas Hold'em trap of card, river, flop, bust, or turn. Probably a good thing for me. Not to fall into that trap.