The Overall Theme and Set Breakdown

Connect Master Level 345 is a delightful carnival puzzle centered entirely around clowns and face-painted characters—but with surprising depth in how you need to categorize them. When you first look at the board, you'll see 24 tiles split across six distinct sets, each with a very specific visual trait that ties four characters together. The puzzle mixes obvious groupings with sneaky overlaps that'll make you second-guess yourself if you're not paying close attention to the finer details like facial expressions, accessories, and color patterns.

The Six Sets in Connect Master Level 345

Here's how the board breaks down once you understand the logic:

Clowns with Mustache groups together four clown characters who all sport prominent facial hair—that bold, defining mustache that gives them their classic circus look. These characters share not just the mustache but a certain stern or dignified expression.

Face Painted Kids pulls together four younger characters with face paint rather than full clown costumes. They've got colorful designs on their faces but lack the exaggerated clown props and oversized clothing that define the adult clowns.

Face Painted Elderly brings together four older characters with painted faces—think grandparent-aged clowns with white or gray hair, wrinkles, and distinctive age markers combined with playful face paint.

Clowns with Bowties and Glasses features four clown characters dressed up in formal accessories: each one wears glasses and a bowtie, giving them an oddly sophisticated clown aesthetic that's genuinely funny.

Sad Clowns captures four clowns with melancholic or downturned expressions—their makeup and face paint emphasize sadness rather than joy, which is the whole ironic twist of this category.

Clowns with Bananas groups together four clowns that all hold bananas, whether in their hands, as part of their outfit, or prominently displayed in their accessories. This is your most literal, prop-based set.

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Why Connect Master Level 345 Feels So Tricky

The Most Confusing Set: Clowns with Bowties and Glasses

I'll be honest—the Clowns with Bowties and Glasses set gave me pause for longer than I'd like to admit. The challenge here is that several other clowns on the board also wear glasses or have bowties visible, but this specific set requires both accessories on the same character. You can't just grab any clown with glasses and any clown with a bowtie; you need to find the four where both are present simultaneously. That's where the real filtering happens, and it's easy to miscount or swap out one of these four for a similar-looking clown who only has one of the two traits.

The Subtle Overlaps That Cause Confusion

Face Painted Kids vs. Clowns with Mustache: This is where the devil lives in the details. At first glance, some of the younger characters might look like they could have mustaches or could be early versions of the mustached clowns. The key difference? The Face Painted Kids are genuinely younger—no facial hair, no wrinkles, and their face paint is decorative rather than transformative. The Clowns with Mustache, by contrast, have that visible facial hair as their defining feature and tend to have more adult or mature face structure. Compare the eyes, the cheekbones, and the overall proportions.

Sad Clowns vs. regular clowns: This overlap is psychological more than visual. All clowns look a bit odd, but Sad Clowns specifically have downturned mouths, droopy eyes, or other markers of genuine sadness. It's not just a clown with a quirky expression—it's intentional melancholy painted into their face. When you're scanning the board, you need to ask yourself: "Is this character trying to be sad, or are they just being a regular clown?" That distinction is crucial.

Clowns with Bananas as a false grouping: Here's where I stumbled. Some clowns wear yellow clothing or have yellow accessories that might look like bananas from a distance. But in Clowns with Bananas, the banana is explicit and unmistakable—held in hand, part of the prop arsenal, or visibly integrated into their outfit in a clear way. Don't confuse yellow jackets or yellow hair with actual banana props.

My "Finally Saw It!" Moment

After my first attempt at Connect Master Level 345, I realized I'd been trying to force a clown with blue hair into the Face Painted Elderly set because of the aging markers, but that clown actually belonged with the Sad Clowns group based on the expression. Once I stopped assuming and started looking at all the traits systematically, the board opened up. Sometimes the most obvious trait isn't the only one that matters.

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Step-by-Step Solution for Connect Master Level 345

Opening: Lock In the Obvious Sets First

Start with Clowns with Bananas because it's the most literal and easiest to verify. Scan the board and identify every banana. There's no ambiguity here—either a character is holding or displaying a banana, or they're not. Lock in those four tiles immediately. This removes 25% of the board and gives you psychological momentum.

Next, tackle Face Painted Kids. These characters are visibly younger, often with softer features and fewer exaggerated clown costumes. Their face paint is colorful but not grotesquely overdone. Find the four youngest-looking characters on the board and lock them in. This further simplifies your workspace.

Mid-Game: Narrow Down with Process of Elimination

Now you've got 16 tiles left, and this is where Connect Master Level 345 requires you to zoom in. Look at Face Painted Elderly next—the white or gray hair is your visual anchor. These characters have clear age markers: wrinkles, older face shapes, thinner hair. Match them carefully by comparing each elderly face to ensure you're getting the right four.

At this point, you've claimed three sets (12 tiles), leaving you with Clowns with Mustache, Clowns with Bowties and Glasses, and Sad Clowns as your remaining three groups. Now the filtering becomes granular. For Clowns with Mustache, look at facial hair first—which four have the most prominent mustaches? Then cross-reference: do any of those characters also wear bowties and glasses? If yes, move them into the mental pile for that set instead.

End-Game: The Final Three Sets and Their Exact Traits

Clowns with Bowties and Glasses requires both accessories on the same character. Don't settle for three with both; you need all four to have both. Look at each remaining candidate tile and ask: "Does this clown have visible glasses? Does it have a bowtie?" If the answer to either question is no, it doesn't belong in this set.

Clowns with Mustache is actually cleaner once you've removed the bow-tie-and-glasses clowns. You're left with four that clearly have mustaches as their signature feature. These clowns might have other traits, but the mustache is primary and obvious.

Sad Clowns, your final group, should be identifiable by expression alone. The remaining four clowns on the board will all share that melancholic quality—drooping mouths, sad eyes, downturned features. By elimination, these four are what's left, but verify them by expression to be sure.

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The Logic Behind This Connect Master Level 345 Solution

From Obvious to Specific

The genius of Connect Master Level 345 is that it trains you to move systematically from broad traits (yellow hair, older faces, young faces) to increasingly specific details (mustache and adult face structure, bowties and glasses, banana and clown costume). If you try to solve it by hunting for one tiny detail at a time, you'll get lost. Instead, start with what jumps out, eliminate those tiles, and repeat.

Why Naming Each Set Keeps You Sane

I can't stress this enough: the moment you internally label a group—Clowns with Bananas, Face Painted Elderly, whatever—your brain locks in the shared trait, and you stop accidentally mixing up tiles. When you look at the board and think "Which four have bananas?" instead of just scanning randomly, you're forcing yourself to compare tiles with purpose. This is what separates a successful run of Connect Master Level 345 from a frustrating one.

Once you've named each set in your head, you develop a mental checklist. Every tile either fits or it doesn't. There's no gray zone. That clarity is what solves the puzzle.