Looking for the answer to today's Connections puzzle, puzzle #531 for November 23 is a little harder than yesterday's puzzle and has a difficulty level of 3 out of 5 for Connections Companion.

Each day we update with clues and hints to help you find the 4 answers. And if the hints are not 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, we have included a discussion of yesterday's puzzle #530.

There are spoilers for connection 531. Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection.

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.

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

These hints should at least help you find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

The bigger clues are “tell the story,” “watch out for the stick tree,” “check the sticks,” and “bet on red.”

Now for the answer to today's game #531 connection.

Drum roll please.

Well guys, it's been a rough day. We got three strikes almost immediately and held onto our nails until we finished the puzzle with the last strike. I usually use strikes when I want to try a wilder grouping or stubbornly push through a category.

Today I was forcing a dental category, but was left frustrated by the lack of categories.

Otherwise, I knocked out the yellows with Accounts, Chronicles, Descriptions, and Stories. I then took three consecutive strikes forcing the dentist group.

Eventually, I got to what I thought was the gooey category: gum, latex, resin, and sap. I had forgotten that latex comes from trees. Oh well.

Long story short, I was looking for a gaming group with checkers, balls-in-cups, and roulette. That didn't work, but it did lead me to the purple category where I was looking at black stuff.

Thus, checkers, licorice, roulette, and balance sheet.

And we wrapped this in sticks. Ball-in-a-cup, corn dogs, cotton swabs, lollipops.

A sigh of relief and a visit to the spirit factory to see why it wasn't working.

Reading this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.8 out of 5.

I don't know if other people's grids are the same as mine. This is because my approach is to look at only the first row and then look around to see what jumps out at me.

Fantasy was in the first frame, and as I looked around the grid, treasures jumped out at me, and I headed for the island. Love (Island) was also in the first row. It took me a while to find the last, but the shutters were hiding in the second row for me.

From there I quickly plunged into the blue category of work communication platforms. I start my day by listening to Google Meet, and I use Slack every day. Of course, there's Zoom, and there's Microsoft Teams, but I've never met anyone who actually uses them. Is it a good thing?

And here I was stuck because of my own mental thoughts. I was so engrossed in the camera that I tried to piece something together with exposure, lens, angle, and perspective. No, this is a strike. However, I finally got there by swapping exposures and positions. To be fair, I should have known better, since the shutter was already taken in the island category. No traps were visible.

As a result, the yellow category was my final selection. Publicity included Attention, Coverage, Exposure, and Press.