Today's Connections Hints & Answers For November 18, 2024 (Puzzle #526)

screenrant.com:

Putting together a puzzle like today’s can feel like you are trying to set up an elaborate dominoes trap with intricacies and details you do not yet know. Figuring out what those pieces are will be the hardest part comparatively, as you at least know where the pieces are supposed to go when you are setting up a row of dominoes. Once the pieces are in place, you will be able to solve the puzzle and watch the dominoes fall.

If you like putting pieces together, the NYT’s puzzle has you collecting a different set of clues. Like any crossword puzzle, you will be getting a set of cultural clues that will lead you to the right words. However, unlike most crossword puzzles,this version is just a 5x5 square. This lets you finish it in a shorter amount of time and experience a little less frustration if you happen to get stuck. It also means you know the words all have to be short, which is a plus side of a smaller puzzle.

If you want some hints for today’s puzzle, we have you covered. This one is harder to say what difficulty level it rests at, as it could be quite easy or it might be hard, depending on your familiarity with the subject matter. In fact, each category is full of nouns, and you will have to figure out how they are all related — or not — to each other in order to finish the puzzle. To help you, here are four clues:

The Tiles game for the New York Times mobile app asks you to use various strategies to pair matching visual patterns together to build huge combos.

Getting those last two categories is often the hardest part, as you are left with the words you didn’t immediately recognize. If that is you today, here are the category names to help you figure it out.

USED IN HAIR CARE

MONTHLY EXPENSES

THINGS WITH SPOTS

___ CRAB

USED IN HAIR CARE

COMB

DRYER

HAIRSPRAY

ROLLERS

I actually did not get this one right away and nearly got it last. However, I think this is because I got fixated on a later category first, but this one is not super difficult. These are