Pokénnection is the Pokémon-themed Connections clone that actually tests your Pokédex knowledge

Pokénnection is a free daily browser puzzle that takes the NYT Connections format — 16 items, four hidden groups — and replaces the words with Pokémon. It's been around for a while, but a recent update added enough new content to make it worth a fresh look.

The base game works exactly like Connections: find four groups of 16 Pokémon that share something in common. On Normal difficulty, those categories stay approachable — same type, same generation, baby Pokémon, legendaries. Flip it to Hard or Hard+, though, and the game starts asking things like which four Pokémon share a 4x weakness to a specific type, which ones have split evolutions, or which share an aesthetic trait like body shape or number of limbs. The most recent update is the big one: an Adventure Mode that walks you through the entire Kanto region via thematic puzzles. Route 1 eases you in with straightforward categories — Pokémon found on Routes 1 and 2, the four starters — but the difficulty climbs fast. Later puzzles ask you to recall which Pokémon appear in Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town, the exact four-Pokémon teams of every gym leader, or which Pokémon were available as Game Corner prizes. Johto is confirmed as the next region coming to Adventure Mode.

Pokénnection sits in a growing genre of Pokémon-flavored daily puzzles that have exploded alongside the NYT Games boom. Connections itself launched in 2023 and quickly became one of the Times' most-played games, which inevitably spawned fan-made variants across dozens of fandoms. The Pokémon series, with its 1,000-plus Pokémon and decades of regional lore, is an unusually deep well for this format — the trivia ceiling is essentially unlimited, which is what makes Hard+ feel genuinely punishing rather than arbitrary.

If you've burned through your daily Wordle and Connections fix and want something that rewards actual franchise knowledge rather than wordplay, Pokénnection is worth bookmarking. Adventure Mode in particular gives it replay value well beyond the daily puzzle format.