FOURSURE
October 28, 2026 Puzzle Breakdown
Four groups, four words each — here's the connections between today's words.
How everyone did today
European Capitals
Paris, London, Rome, Madrid
Consider this a gentle handshake to start the puzzle, as Paris, London, Rome, and Madrid are all major European capitals. If you found yourself hesitating here, you were almost certainly overthinking it. Take the free win and save your energy for whatever lies ahead.
Popular Sushi Fish
Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, Eel
If your first instinct was to call up your favorite Japanese takeout spot, you were already halfway home. Salmon, tuna, yellowtail, and eel are standard fixtures on nearly any sushi menu you care to look at. Holding down the second spot today, this group is straightforward enough, provided you did not let eel slide into a different seafood bucket.
PLACES in "The lord of the rings"
The Shire, Gondor, Rohan, Mordor
If you spent any part of the early 2000s in a cinema, this penultimate group probably did not stay hidden for long. The Shire, Gondor, Rohan, and Mordor are all major geographic regions of Middle-earth featured in The Lord of the Rings. It is essentially an itinerary of Frodo and company's very long, very exhausting walking tour.
Dragonball Z characters
Goku, Bulma, Krillin, Piccolo
If your Saturday mornings in the late nineties involved a lot of screaming and glowing hair, the hardest group of the day probably felt surprisingly trivial. Goku, Bulma, Krillin, and Piccolo are all central figures from the Dragon Ball Z universe, ranging from alien saviors of Earth to the green guy standing stoically in the corner. Unless you grew up on a steady diet of anime, though, you likely mistook these proper nouns for obscure musical instruments or regional pasta shapes.
Why these four groups
Paris, London, Rome, and Madrid establish an airtight baseline, functioning as unshakeable anchors with zero real competition on the board. The friction enters quietly through Piccolo, whose musical and Italian veneer might distract near Rome, while Paris occasionally flirts with classical mythology before settling into geography. The difficulty curve holds steady because European capitals refuse to budge, forcing players to separate Middle-earth geography like Rohan and Mordor from Japanese pop culture. Once you isolate the straightforward sushi staples, victory simply hinges on recognizing whether Bulma and Krillin belong in a scouter or a tavern.