Looking for answers to today's Connections? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 2.8 out of 5.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers 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, #523.

There are spoilers for connection 524. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection 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 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.

Here's a bigger clue: Take a little look at college football.

Now, what's the answer to today's 523rd game connection?

Drumroll, please.

I was pressed for time today, so I jumped on the Marvel character group candidates. Strike one.

Moving on from there, I figured out that Snapback and Pillbox were hats, so I found Beret and Derby to complete the green quartet.

As for college mascots, Gator (Florida) and Suna (Oklahoma) came up empty, leading me to Wolverine (Michigan) and Volunteer (Tennessee) I tried to put Bananas before Volunteer, but UC Santa Cruz's I was thinking of Banana Slugs.

I wasn't looking for the purple group, but as I was reading the remaining eight words I said to myself “go rogue” and that group clicked. From there it went on to “Go bananas,” “Go commando,” and “Go Figure.”

The yellow category of caps, covers, plugs, and seals to prevent leaks remained.

Are you reading this later in the hour? According to the Connections Companion, this is the Connections solution to game #523, which had a difficulty level of 3 out of 5.

Maybe it's because it's Friday, or maybe it's because the weather has been so bad this week, but I'm pretty cold on today's puzzle.

I write for a living, so phrases, sentences, and words stuck as grammar, not just elements of a sentence. Nothing else fit the bill, so the letter was put in the green group.

From there I nicked holes, leaks, and perforations and took strikes on the yellow “cracks” instead of the correct cracks. Ugh. None of the first three words are cracks. Neither is nick, but they are close to the meaning of the other three. Also, when searching for the exact definition, don't just Google “fissure” without a dictionary next to it.

Anyway, jugs, pipes, recorders, and whistles stick in my mind as what you play.

That left the nick of time, passage of time, sands of time, and waste of time for the final fill. Today's puzzle felt like a waste of time. There was no joy. Some days are like that.