Looking for a clue to today's Connections answer for puzzle #569 on December 31, a little easier than yesterday's puzzle, the Connections companion rated this puzzle 2.8 out of 5 for difficulty.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, see the four answers below, along with the category name 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, #568.

There is a spoiler for connection 569. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

Or 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.

Today's connecting words are: Ball, Drop, Dart, Game, Attention, Dear, Brand, Names, Thrill, For, Fly, Blast, Bolt, Kick, To, Dash

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

These hints should help you 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! We intend to have fun. But read the invitation addressed to you and think about what comes after your name.

Now, what's the answer to today's game #569 Connection?

Drum roll please.

Today's puzzle was super hard, but after some shuffling, I put together the speed factor for the yellow clue.

The second one was a bit of a snag, piecing together the fun stuff; I'd seen Ball, Blast, and Thrill, but had never considered that the word Kick meant having a good time. Luckily, after the mistake, I guessed Kick and fixed the green category.

With eight choices and two categories left, I had to rack my brain to find the connection. After some shuffling, I found the connection to the beginning of the letter, which was the correct answer, leaving only the last four.

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connection Companion, the difficulty level was 3.3 out of 5.

I was hungry when I started today's puzzle, so I quickly put the sandwich in with hero, melt, wrap, and first the grinder. Strike one. replaced the wrap with a club.33]

Finally, I looked around some more and connected to coffee with beans, filter, grinder, and water. Then went back for sandwiches.

Then I looked at the ante and the saylette and thought poker. I thought of ponies and was stuck for a minute or so until I figured out what the cough was.

This left the last group of those with “!” in their names. in the name: Airplane, Jeopardy, P!nk, and Yahoo. Actually, all four had the right idea, but they didn't have the punctuation associated with them.