# How to play Clusters

Clusters hides four categories of four words in a 4×4 grid, and Unlimited can push that to five or six groups. Select a set of four and submit it. A wrong submit costs a strike and you have only a few, so the words that could belong to two groups are the ones to leave until last.

## Rules

- **Submit four words that share a category** — Tap four tiles, then Submit. A correct group locks with a color banner. Daily boards hide four groups of four.
- **Four mistakes max on a daily** — You cannot keep guessing forever. Each wrong submit costs a strike. Four strikes ends the daily and reveals what is left.
- **Read “one away” as a warning** — Three correct plus one impostor is the classic trap. Break the set instead of donating another strike.
- **Do not force a leftover purple early** — You cannot treat every strong theme as the hard group. Yellow is usually unique vocabulary; purple often uses a second meaning.

## Tips

- **Yellow first** — The straightforward group is usually unique vocabulary. Lock it to shrink the leftover soup.
- **Beware the trap overlap** — Three words that feel like a theme plus one impostor is the classic purple bait. If you’re “one away,” break the set.
- **Save purple** — The trickiest group often uses a second meaning. Solve the other three, then reread what’s left.
- **Don’t donate mistakes** — Four strikes is the whole budget. Skip a shaky four and look for a cleaner yellow/green lock.

## Where it comes from

The connecting wall from BBC’s Only Connect, first aired in 2008, asked players to sort sixteen clues into four groups against the clock. Turning that into a daily word grid with a fixed strike limit and colour-coded difficulty is what made the format stick. Clusters is Coronet Arcade’s take on it.

## How it differs from similar puzzles

The daily uses sixteen words, four groups, and a strike limit. Clusters Unlimited adds five- and six-group boards, which change the maths considerably — more overlap between categories and far less room to guess. Broadcast connecting walls allow more cryptic groupings than a daily can fairly ask for.

## Also known as

Also known as a connecting wall, word grouping, quartets, or four groups of four. Clusters is the arcade title.

- Connecting wall
- Word grouping
- Quartets
- Four groups of four
- Category sort

Play: https://coronet.one/
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