Working through today’s Connections board and stuck on the last one? Below are concise hints to nudge you along, followed by the complete solutions for October 2 (game #844). If you’d rather play first, you can find Connections on the NYT Games site at nytimes.com/games/connections.

Today’s 16 words (game #844)

  • STAY
  • UP
  • SET
  • FLOW
  • DOWN
  • PUT
  • JUST
  • RIGHT
  • DUE
  • LEFT
  • COME
  • BRAVE
  • PLACED
  • HEEL
  • FROZEN
  • FAIR

Light clues for each group

  • Yellow: Common dog training cues.
  • Green: Words meaning merited or rightful.
  • Blue: Terms for being in position.
  • Purple: Animated feature titles that won the Oscar.

Today’s Connections answers

Color Theme Words
Yellow Dog commands COME, DOWN, HEEL, STAY
Green Deserved DUE, FAIR, JUST, RIGHT
Blue Situated LEFT, PLACED, PUT, SET
Purple Best Animated Feature Oscar winners BRAVE, FLOW, FROZEN, UP

Why these sets work

  • Dog commands: These are standard verbal cues you’d give a dog. Each can be barked in a training session and stands alone as an imperative.
  • Deserved: Each word can describe something warranted or merited (a “just” outcome, a “fair” result, “right” or “due” recognition).
  • Situated: These all signal being set or placed somewhere; they’re about position rather than motion.
  • Animated winners: Each is the title of an animated feature that took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Common traps on this board

  • Locked-in misread: It’s easy to lump FROZEN with SET or PLACED as “fixed,” but FROZEN belongs with the film titles.
  • Directions decoy: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT look like a clean set; only LEFT is used here, with PUT/SET/PLACED for “situated.”
  • HEEL ambiguity: HEEL as a noun (shoe/foot) is tempting, but here it’s the dog command.
  • FLOW outlier: FLOW may not scream “film” at a glance, but it aligns with the Oscar-winning animated titles.

That’s today’s grid solved. If a category felt opaque at first pass, shuffle the board next time and watch for words that naturally form a single part of speech (all imperatives, all adjectives, all titles). It cuts through a lot of the noise.