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NASA’s Escapade Mission May Finally Reveal How the Martian Atmosphere Works

NASA, Blue Origin and UC Berkeley combined efforts for NASA’s lowest-cost mission to Mars.

Sending anything to Mars is a much more difficult process than it seems. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union tried (and failed) in its first nine consecutive attempts, and the US was only able to succeed in quick flybys. The losing streak came to an end in 1971 with the success of the Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. 

More than 50 years later, Mars is still tough to get to, with only seven functional orbiters and two on-surface rovers still operating, most of which are run by NASA. 

On Sunday, NASA’s Escapade, a collaborative effort among the space agency, UC Berkeley and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, will launch and attempt to add two more orbiters to the elusive club of successful missions to Mars. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET.

The mission is simple on paper: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will launch two Escapade orbiters into space on Nov. 9, depending on the weather and other factors.

Once there, the orbiters — nicknamed Blue and Gold after UC Berkeley’s school colors — will separate. This is where things get a little complicated. Blue and Gold will hang out at the L2 Earth-Sun Lagrange point, a part of space behind the Earth when viewed from the sun, where the orbiters can quite literally hang out without getting lost in space. They’ll stay there for a year before doing a quick flyby of Earth and departing for Mars. The twin orbiters are expected to arrive at the Red Planet by November 2027. 

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Space agencies launch missions all the time but few of them have the subtext of Escapade, which has not one but three underlying storylines to pay attention to. 

New Glenn’s official debut

NASA has tapped Blue Origin’s large New Glenn rocket for the launch. New Glenn is the proverbial new kid on the block, and the Escapade mission will be the company’s first official mission into space. The rocket’s role will be to launch Escapade into orbit and then return to Earth.

Blue Origin sent New Glenn into orbit for the first time in January 2025. That mission, dubbed NG-1 by Blue Origin, showed that the rocket could launch and make it to space while demonstrating the company’s Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle. Things didn’t exactly go as planned, however. Upon reentry, New Glenn’s first stage was unable to stick its landing, missing its target and plunging into the Atlantic Ocean, prompting an FAA investigation. 

For the Escapade mission, all eyes will be on whether Blue Origin will do better this time in the landing phase. Not only is this the first NASA mission for the space company, owned by the CEO of online retail giant Amazon, but it will also make its second attempt to land New Glenn’s first-stage rockets without incident. 

Should the company succeed, Blue Origin will join Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the only commercial vendors with reusable space launch vehicles. This could help reduce the cost and increase the frequency of space launches. 

The 13 lives of Escapade

One of the challenges of the Escapade mission is its budget. Missions to Mars are usually expensive. The Mars Exploration Rover mission started in 2003 and launched a year later cost a hair over $1 billion, with $744 million of it going to vehicle design and launch. Even less expensive initiatives, like the failed 1999 Mars Polar Lander, still cost well north of $100 million. 

Escapade didn’t have that budget. It’s part of NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program. Its budget was less than $80 million, and to build the two orbiters, UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab were allocated $55 million of that total. 

«Building two interplanetary spacecraft for $55 million was never going to be simple,» Dr. Robert Lillis, associate director for Planetary Science at UC Berkeley and the Escapade mission, tells CNET. «They say ‘space is hard’ and they’re right. For us and our spacecraft partners at Rocket Lab, it was tough to build robust, well-instrumented interplanetary probes on a low budget, so challenges were many.»

Researchers at Berkeley began work on Blue and Gold in 2016, and over the years, they dealt with myriad roadblocks, including budgetary concerns, the COVID-19 pandemic, supply issues from suppliers and even personal illnesses. 

«I’ll put it this way, we have a slide deck called ‘The Nine Lives of Escapade’ and I think we’re up to 13 now,» Lillis says. «I could write a book on all the things that could’ve doomed the mission.»

The cost of admission

In 2013, the Indian Space Research Organization launched its Mars Orbital Mission, a successful attempt to put a satellite on the Red Planet. The total cost of the mission was $74 million, which undercut all other missions to Mars by a fairly significant margin when adjusting for inflation. 

Escapade’s budget is roughly the same, with NASA paying Blue Origin $20 million for use of the New Glenn rocket in addition to the $55 million given to UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab for the creation of the two orbiters. Should the mission be a success, it’ll be NASA’s first low-cost mission to go as far as Mars, and the second such mission to succeed.

Reducing the cost of admission is an important milestone for NASA. It would open up more opportunities for future Mars missions, which could help pave the way for human exploration someday, although there are many other milestones that need to be hit before that can happen.

UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab successfully developed two orbiters that will spend their lifetimes scanning Mars’ magnetic field to gain a deeper understanding of its history, all while operating within a budget that may make future missions to Mars more frequent and affordable. 

The Martian magnetosphere

Despite being one of Earth’s closest neighbors, there are still a lot of question marks surrounding Mars. It’s pretty well established that the planet had water at some point. Over the span of its history, the Martian magnetosphere started getting stripped away by solar winds, making it nearly impossible for water to continue to exist. 

Science has a limited set of data that comes from single orbiters over the span of decades and Escapade hopes to fix that by having two orbiters that follow each other so that researchers can get more consistent measurements of the Martian magnetosphere. As Lillis says, the magnetosphere on Mars changes by the minute, so waiting for a single orbiter to circle back around leaves a lot of those changes unmeasured. 

«With a single orbiter, we could measure conditions in the upstream solar wind, but then have to wait a couple of hours before the spacecraft orbit brought us into the upper atmosphere to measure the rates of atmospheric escape,» Lillis said. «That’s too long: We know the space weather propagates through the system in only one or two minutes.»

The ultimate purpose of the mission is to measure and observe how solar weather interacts with the Martian magnetosphere. Per Lillis, solar winds have been eroding the magnetosphere on Mars, similar to how water erodes rock in a river. Escapade will help science determine how fast and how much of the magnetosphere has eroded under the sun’s constant onslaught. 

Because space weather can be so unpredictable and the existing data is spread out too far in terms of time, researchers aren’t quite sure what they’re going to find when they get there. Berkeley has simulation models that can predict things over the span of hours. Lillis says that the data from Escapade’s two-orbiter setup will help fill in a lot of those gaps.

«With Escapade, we can measure cause and effect at the same time, i.e., the solar wind and upper atmosphere simultaneously,» says Lillis. «To start to understand this highly dynamic system, we need that cause and effect perspective.» 

You can watch the livestream of the Escapade mission launch on Sunday, at Blue Origin’s website.

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Technologies

Octopath Traveler 0 Review: A Solid JRPG Dragged Down by Forgettable Characters

The Octopath Traveler prequel is so close to being a fantastic RPG.

When Octopath Traveler launched in 2019, it was something that looked similar to yet ended up being totally different from the traditional turn-based Japanese role-playing game Square Enix was known for. The series made some innovative changes to the formula, from the roster of eight playable characters to the Boost system. But with Octopath Traveler 0, it feels like the prequel didn’t move forward, and if anything, took a tiny step backwards. 

Octopath Traveler 0 acts as a prequel to the series’ first two entries, and instead of playing as one of eight unique characters with their own storylines, you step into the role of a silent protagonist who is seeking revenge. If that sounds boring, well, it kind of is. 

If there’s a saving grace to the game, it’s its class and combat systems, which offer a good mix of standard RPG fare with enough novelty — including some deliciously evil villains — to keep you playing.

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Players can pick one of eight jobs for the protagonist: warrior, hunter, merchant, apothecary, cleric, scholar, dancer or thief. As expected, each class has its own unique traits, and classes like the warrior, cleric, hunter, scholar (black mage) and thief have the standard fare that RPG fans should expect. It’s the other classes that are unique to the game. I started off as a merchant who could use weapons with powerful attacks, along with skills that earned a little more money from battles. Then there’s the apothecary, a unique class that heals and cures the ailments of their teammates while also being able to do heavy damage with an axe. 

As you progress and unlock more job skills and level up, there will be an option to obtain another job. This means the hero can take skills from one job — such as spells and physical attacks — and use them with a class that wouldn’t normally have them. This can result in a warrior, for example, being able to use the powerful spells of the scholar class to create a unique battle mage. With eight jobs to choose from, there are plenty of options available to create different combinations to use in battle. 

But for all the new ground that the class system covers, the plot is pretty generic territory.

Boring Traveler

The real selling point of the Octopath Traveler series is, well, the travelers. The first two games featured eight playable characters, each with their own background story to learn. That was the selling point of the game that made it stand out from the sea of traditional JRPGs.

This time around, Square Enix decided to do something a little different and a little dull, making the hero a silent protagonist. Not only is the hero quiet throughout every conversation in the game, but get this, they’re on a revenge mission, as if that’s never been done before in a JRPG (snark intended). 

Yes, the hero is a silent protagonist whose village was wiped out by this evil duo in search of a magical trinket. The hero survives and is trained in secret until it’s time to exact revenge on the three people who doomed his home: Tytos and Auguste, who were responsible for the attack on the village, and Lady Hermina, a wealthy heiress who gave the two the info on the location of the trinket. 

This lackluster origin story of the hero and their motivations really dampens any interest I had in playing as the character. The same goes for the allies that join the hero throughout the game. They have their stories, some a little sad, but for much of the game, they’re just a member of the team. 

Thankfully, the real heroes of the game’s story are the bad guys. Following the drawn-out intro sequence, once the hero sets out on their revenge quest, players can choose to go after any one of the three previously mentioned villains. Each has its own story arc, and they’re just deliciously dark. The characters are truly evil, with the most interesting background and developments, giving an almost Game of Thrones vibe. My favorite was Auguste the Playwright, referred to as the Master of Fame. When completing his story arc, there is just a series of these seemingly regular people who show their utter devotion to him by sacrificing their own family members and themselves to Auguste’s delight.

There is something refreshing in seeing true villains. There is no moral quandary or philosophical debate on whether the people you’re fighting against are horrible people or if they are simply misguided with good intentions. No, these people are horrible and need to be stopped. It’s just a shame it’s the boring, silent protagonist that has to do the heavy lifting to defeat them. 

Octo-Mazing

Where Octopath Traveler 0 really excels is the combat. It’s turn-based, but to liven things up, the series has the «Break and Boost» system. 

Every enemy has a shield number that depletes when attacked, and once it reaches zero, that enemy is «broken» and unable to attack for multiple rounds. To help speed up this process, characters have Boost Points that increase with each round of a fight. When a character has three BPs, they can use powerful attacks or simply do multiple attacks at once. As every enemy has multiple weaknesses to certain weapons and spells, this system adds an extra layer of strategy to determine whether you bide your time to beat them down or rush them down. Occasionally, you’ll end up in a situation where a tough enemy gets broken and you notice that all of your characters are loaded up with BP, which leads to a satisfying beatdown on the bad guy, raining down powerful attack after powerful attack. 

And yet, the depth of strategy doesn’t end there. New in Octopath Traveler 0 is a whole second row of characters on the team. These backup fighters can be tagged in throughout combat to provide a bit of a mix-up in strategy. You can keep your physical warriors up front while having the mages hang out in back and switch when needed. Or rotate in the same character type when needed, so when a healer gets low on health, they can swap out with another healer. Couple this dynamic of switching out characters on the fly with the «Break and Boost» system, and you have a very active turn-based combat. 

Obtaining these extra characters on the team comes with rebuilding the hero’s village, Wishvale. The burned down town starts off with one home, but as you progress, you’re given more options to expand. Other towns have people looking for new places to live or adventures to partake in, and those choices can be explored via Path Actions, a recurring feature from earlier games in the series. 

When talking to particular NPCs, there is an option to learn a bit more about them by inquiring using a Path Action, which is just a matter of pressing a certain button (the X button for the Xbox version, Square for PlayStation and Y for Nintendo Switch). Doing this will then give you some background on the character and some options. Some NPCs will gladly join your team to fight with you for a price, while others will have items to give you by selecting the Entreat option and a success rate will be shown for each item they possess, with the lower success rate set for the more valuable items. There’s also the Contend option to battle the NPC, which isn’t wise to do early on, as it seems all the townsfolk have been battling dragons for generations, so fight them early on at your peril. Fail to obtain an item from an NPC or lose to them in a fight, and your reputation takes a hit. Take too many hits to your reputation while in a town, and none of the NPCs will offer these Path Actions anymore until you visit the tavern and pay a fine to restore it. 

The presentation of Octopath Traveler 0 is not much different than the previous games. The graphics are the HD-2D art style Square Enix has been using for this series and the Dragon Quest remakes, a retro mix of 2D sprites amid 3D backgrounds that evokes nostalgia for the games of yesteryear with some modern polish. Octopath Traveler 0’s soundtrack and voice acting are also on par with the higher quality the series has been known for. 

Like other games in the series, Octopath Traveler 0 can easily take players 100 hours to complete, especially if they delve deep into the town-building aspect. While I wish there were more interesting heroes to embody, once players get past the generic plot premise and delve into the meaty combat, there is no question that this game is a worthy entry into the franchise and a pick for those looking for a new JRPG to spend all their time with. 

Octopath Traveler 0 is now available on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. 

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Galaxy Z TriFold vs. Huawei Mate XT: One Is the Most Versatile Phone I’ve Ever Used

Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold and Huawei’s Mate XT, part of a new category of phones called «trifolds,» offer diverging experiences when it comes to using them.

Huawei introduced the world’s first «trifold» phone, the Mate XT Ultimate, last year and launched it outside of China in February 2025. Despite only actually folding in two places, the phone was called a trifold because its 10.2-inch display divides into three sections.

I’ve been using it on and off since February and I liked the Mate XT so much that it made me skeptical about the Galaxy Z TriFold‘s design when Samsung first showcased it at the APEC CEO Summit in October. But after trying Samsung’s first trifold for myself, during a brief hands-on test at a Samsung store in Dubai, I changed my mind.

As foldable phone sales are expected to rise 30% year over year in 2026, according to analysts at IDC, it’s important for both Samsung and Huawei to find their own hook for customers. Each of these foldable phones has their place in the market and offers a different appeal. One is a tablet that folds into a phone, while the other is a three-in-one and the most versatile smartphone I’ve ever used. One of them has «Z TriFold» in its name but the other actually folds in a «Z» shape.

Here’s how the newly-launched Samsung trifold phone compares to the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate — the phone that pioneered this category.

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold vs. Huawei Mate XT design

Both the Galaxy Z TriFold and Mate XT have large screens that divide into three panels (hence the name) and have two hinges to connect them. And yet, they’re vastly different.

The Huawei trifold phone has a single screen that folds in a Z shape to allow for three different forms. You can use it as a phone (fully folded), a mini-tablet (half-open), as well as a wide-screen tablet (fully opened). I’ve mostly used the Mate XT either in mini-tablet mode (one fold) or fully unfolded. And I found myself using it in phone mode (fully closed) only when I made calls.

In comparison, the Galaxy Z TriFold folds in a U shape as both panels fold inwards. You can only use it fully folded as a phone or fully opened as a wide-screen tablet, without the added ability to use it as a mini tablet.

Samsung’s Z Trifold uses two different-sized hinges and three panels of varying thickness, allowing the device’s flaps to fold on top of one another. The left hinge is like the one on the Fold 7 and comparatively tighter than the right hinge (the wider one), which springs open after you push it to a certain angle. On the back of the phone is a second display that occupies the «middle» section to use when the phone is fully closed.

When fully folded, its lowermost panel has a protruding edge, giving it a solid lip to grab onto while unfolding. It’s a nice addition to the flat-sided design, which doesn’t leave much space between panels. I found it easier to unfold than its sibling, the flat-sided Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The Huawei Mate XT has curved sides and a single screen, but because of that Z shape, it gives you three ways to use it. The right hinge unfolds like the Galaxy Z TriFold — you pull it out — but you don’t need to unfold the other side. With just one panel unfolded, it becomes a usable mini-tablet.

You can unfold the third section, at the back of the left panel, to open it fully and use it as a wide-screen tablet. Because it uses a single flexible screen, part of the soft folding display is always exposed to the elements when the device is folded shut in phone mode. So far, I haven’t noticed any scratches on the display but it is definitely less protected than Samsung’s inner screen. However, Huawei bundles a case with an extended lip to protect the always-exposed right side of the screen.

Both of these trifold phones have minimal screen creases but Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold feels better when I run my finger over the folding parts. While Huawei’s creases are deeper, they don’t bother me in day-to-day use. The creases on both phones are visible under direct artificial light and at an extreme angle.

The Huawei Mate XT is slimmer than the Galaxy Z TriFold. It’s just 3.6mm thick at its thinnest part when fully unfolded and 12.8mm when folded. In comparison, the Samsung phone is 3.9mm thick at its thinnest part and goes up to 12.9mm when fully unfolded. At 309 grams, the Z TriFold is also slightly heavier than the 298g Mate XT.

The Huawei trifold phone feels more premium than the Galaxy Z TriFold — probably because of its faux leather back, curved sides and gold accents. Samsung’s foldable has a carbon-fiber finish, which feels durable but not as premium.

The Mate XT has an IPX8 rating, while the Galaxy Z TriFold is rated IP48 for dust and water resistance. The «4» in IP48 means it’s protected against dust particles measuring over 1mm but not against everyday dust and pocket lint. Neither of these phones is truly dust-proof, but both are rated for water resistance, just like a standard smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold vs. Huawei Mate XT displays

The Galaxy Z TriFold has two screens: a Galaxy Z Fold 7-like 6.5-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz variable refresh rate and a 422ppi pixel density. It unfolds to a 10-inch tablet-sized screen with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate with a lower 269ppi pixel density.

The Huawei Mate XT has a single 10.2-inch OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and 382ppi pixel density. It has a lower refresh rate but a higher resolution and slimmer bezels. You can use it as a 6.4-inch phone, a 7.9-inch mini-tablet or a 10.2-inch widescreen tablet which makes it a more versatile design than Samsung’s trifold phone. The Mate XT’s display when folded down into «cover screen» has a wider aspect ratio with slimmer bezels than the TriFold’s cover display. 

I haven’t watched videos on the Galaxy Z TriFold, but I assume the experience would be better on the Huawei since the main screen has a wider aspect ratio (when fully unfolded). It has less letterboxing (thick borders on top and bottom) than the Galaxy Z TriFold, which provides a slightly narrower aspect ratio when fully unfolded. However, it could be better for multitasking, especially when running three apps side by side, but I’ll need more time with the Samsung phone to come to a conclusion.

Galaxy Z TriFold vs. Huawei Mate XT performance and battery

The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip, the same processor that powers its other 2025 flagship smartphones including the OnePlus 15. The chip is tuned for efficiency and I expect it to handle multitasking on a standalone DeX with ease. The TriFold also comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB or 1TB of storage.

In contrast, the Huawei Mate XT runs on an in-house Kirin 9010 chip and is paired with 16GB of RAM and 512GB or 1TB of storage. It runs EMUI 14.2 operating system on global variants, which doesn’t have preinstalled Google apps. Despite the ban on US companies working with Huawei — including Google, the company behind Android — there are workarounds for installing the Play Store. You won’t encounter these kinds of hurdles on the Galaxy Z Trifold.

The Samsung trifold phone runs on One UI 8, based on Android 16. You get fast animations, smooth multitasking, a multitude of customization options and a better overall experience. The Galaxy Z TriFold will also get seven years of OS and security updates.

Both phones pack a 5,600-mAh battery but it remains to be seen how they fare against each other. I haven’t pushed the Mate XT to its limits and it delivers an entire day of use on a single charge. When I need to top up the battery, I use the bundled 66-watt charger or use wireless charging at up to 55 watts. The Galaxy Z TriFold supports 45-watt fast charging and Qi wireless charging.

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold vs. Huawei Mate XT cameras

Both phones have three rear cameras that are identical to those found in the Galaxy Z Fold 7. The Galaxy Z TriFold has:

  • a 200-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) and a f/1.7 aperture
  • a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view
  • a 10-megapixel 3x optical zoom telephoto camera with OIS and support for 30x digital zoom
  • two 10-megapixel front-facing cameras — one inside the cover display and the other inside the folding screen 

In comparison, the Huawei Mate XT has:

  • a 50-megapixel main camera with OIS and a variable aperture (f/1.4 — f/4.0)
  • a 12-megapixel 5.5x optical zoom telephoto camera with OIS
  • a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view
  • a 8-megapixel selfie shooter

Based on my experience with the Fold 7, you can expect vibrant colors, good dynamic range and balanced processing in low-light photos on the Samsung trifold phone. Images from the Huawei tend to have an over-processed look and it doesn’t do well with certain skin tones. But the Mate XT captures better portraits than my Fold 7. I’ll be able to test the photography chops from both phones once I have the Galaxy Z TriFold.

Here’s how the two foldable phones specs compare:

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold specs vs. Huawei Mate XT Ultimate

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
Cover display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate 6.5-inch AMOLED, 2,520×1,080 pixels, 1-120 Hz refresh rate none
Internal display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate 10.0 AMOLED, 2,160×1,584 pixels, 1-120 Hz refresh rate 10.2-inch AMOLED, 3,184×2,232 pixels, 90Hz refresh rate
Pixel density Cover: 422 ppi; Internal display: 269 ppi 382 ppi
Dimensions (inches) Open: 6.27×8.43×0.15 inches (leftmost panel) / 0.17 inches (center panel) / 0.16 inches (rightmost panel with the side button); Closed: 6.27×2.95×0.50 inches Open: 6.17×8.62×0.14-0.19 inches; Half-open: 6.17×8.62×0.19-0.29 inches; Closed: 6.17×2.89×0.50 inches
Dimensions (millimeters) Open: 159.2×214.1×3.9mm (leftmost panel) / 4.2mm (center panel) / 4.0mm (rightmost panel with the side button) Closed: 159.2×75.0x12.9mm Open: 156.7x219x3.6-4.75mm; Half-open: 156.7x219x4.75-7.45mm; Closed: 156.7×73.5×12.8mm
Weight (grams, ounces) 309g (10.9 oz.) 298g (10.51 oz)
Mobile software Android 16 with One UI 8 HarmonyOS 4.2 / EMUI 14.2
Cameras 200-megapixel (main), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 10-megapixel (telephoto), 10-megapixel (cover screen, selfie) 50-megapixel (main), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (periscope telephoto), 8-megapixel (front-facing)
Internal screen camera 10-megapixel 10-megapixel
Video capture 8K 4K
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy Kirin 9010
RAM/storage 16GB + 512GB, 1TB 16GB + 512GB, 1TB
Expandable storage No No
Battery 5,600 mAh 5,600 mAh
Fingerprint sensor Yes Yes
Connector USB-C USB-C
Headphone jack No No
IP rating for dust and water resistance IP48 None
Special features 45W wired charging speed, Qi wireless charging, Galaxy AI, NFC, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 66W wired charging speed, 50W wireless charging, NFC, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2

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Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 24, #927

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Dec. 24 #927

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. Ooh, that purple category! Once again, you’ll need to look inside words for hidden words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Cash out.

Green group hint: Chomp

Blue group hint: Walleye and salmon.

Purple group hint: Make a musical sound, with a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Slang for money.

Green group: Masticate.

Blue group: Fish.

Purple group: Ways to vocalize musically plus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is slang for money. The four answers are bacon, bread, cheese and paper.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is masticate. The four answers are bite, champ, chew and munch.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is fish. The four answers are char, pollock, sole and tang.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ways to vocalize musically plus a letter. The four answers are hump (hum), rapt (rap), singe (sing) and whistler (whistle).

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Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

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