Connections Hint May 4 No. 1,058: Puzzle Turns on Letter Swap
connections hint may 4 for No. 1,058 turns on a purple-group word swap that forces players to rethink familiar planet names. The May 4, 2026 puzzle also sorted cleanly into three other themes, giving solvers a full answer set rather than just a partial nudge.
May 4, 2026 Groups
The yellow group came first with qualities of overcooked meat: chewy, dry, stringy and tough. That set was the easiest of the four, while the puzzle’s wordplay moved up in difficulty from there.
The green group played on electric guitar actions: jam, noodle, shred and solo. The blue group used ingredients in bubble tea: boba, milk, sugar and tea.
Bluto, Cars, Darth, Genus
The purple group was the hardest and asked players to think in terms of planets or a dwarf planet with the first letter changed. The answers were Bluto, cars, Darth and genus, each pointing back to Pluto, Mars, Earth and Venus.
That kind of letter twist is the piece most likely to slow down a solver who moves quickly through the easier categories first. It rewards pattern recognition over vocabulary, which is why the purple row often separates a tidy solve from a messy one.
Times Games Progress
The Times also has a Connections Bot, and registered players in the Times Games section can track their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, perfect scores and win streak. For regular solvers, that turns a daily puzzle into a record of consistency instead of a single right answer.
#5 among the toughest Connections puzzles so far used things you can set — mood, record, table and volleyball — as the comparison point. May 4’s puzzle was not in that class, but the purple group still carried enough friction to make the solve feel earned rather than automatic.
