NYT Pips is one of the newer additions to the New York Times games lineup, bringing a fresh domino-based puzzle experience to daily players. Released in August 2025, it challenges you to place domino tiles within a grid while satisfying color-coded conditions for each zone. Unlike traditional dominoes, the tiles don’t need to match at the touching ends — what matters is meeting the numerical conditions tied to each colored region.
If you’re stuck and don’t want to forfeit the whole puzzle just to see the answer, you’re in the right place. Below you’ll find hints and full solutions for all three difficulty levels on April 12, 2026 — broken down condition by condition so you can take as much or as little help as you need.
How to Play NYT Pips
Pips tiles are placed either vertically or horizontally on the board. Each tile is split into two halves, and portions of a tile can fall into different color-coded zones. Each zone carries a condition that governs the pip values within it:
- Number: All pips within the zone must add up to the stated number.
- Equal: Every domino half in the zone must show the same pip count.
- Not Equal: Every domino half in the zone must show a different pip count.
- Less Than: Every domino half in the zone must total less than the stated number.
- Greater Than: Every domino half in the zone must total more than the stated number.
Zones without any color coding have no conditions — you can place tiles freely in those areas.
Easy Difficulty — April 12, 2026 Pips Answers
Number (22) — Purple space: All pips here must total 22. Tiles: 6-6 placed horizontally; 5-0 placed vertically; 5-4 placed horizontally.
Number (4) — Red space: The domino half here must show exactly 4 pips. Tile: 5-4 placed horizontally.
Number (4) — Light blue space: All pips here must add up to 4. Tile: 2-2 placed horizontally.
Equal (4) — Unlabeled color space: Every domino half in this zone must show 4 pips. Tiles: 4-1 placed vertically; 4-2 placed horizontally.
Medium Difficulty — April 12, 2026 Pips Answers
Less Than (3) — Purple space: The domino half here must show fewer than 3 pips. Tile: 2-4 placed vertically.
Greater Than (5) — Red space: The domino half here must show more than 5 pips. Tile: 6-4 placed horizontally.
Equal (4) — Light blue space: Every domino half must show exactly 4 pips. Tiles: 6-4 placed horizontally; 2-4 placed vertically.
Equal (6) — Yellow space: Every domino half must show 6 pips. Tile: 6-6 placed vertically.
Less Than (3) — Purple space (second): The domino half here must show fewer than 3 pips. Tile: 2-5 placed horizontally.
Equal (5) — Dark blue space: Every domino half must show 5 pips. Tiles: 2-5 placed horizontally; 5-5 placed horizontally.
Number (1) — Red space: All pips here must total 1. Tiles: 1-3 placed vertically; 0-5 placed horizontally.
Number (10) — Green space: All pips here must total 10. Tiles: 4-5 placed horizontally; 0-5 placed horizontally.
Hard Difficulty — April 12, 2026 Pips Answers
Number (6) — Purple space: All pips must total 6. Tiles: 2-2 placed horizontally; 3-6 placed horizontally.
Number (0) — Red space: All pips must total 0. Tiles: 0-3 placed horizontally; 0-6 placed vertically.
Less Than (6) — Light blue space: The domino half must show fewer than 6 pips. Tiles: 0-3 placed horizontally; 2-1 placed vertically.
Number (0) — Dark blue space: All pips must equal 0. Tile: 2-0 placed vertically.
Number (6) — Yellow space: All pips must total 6. Tiles: 2-1 placed vertically; 5-0 placed vertically.
Equal (4) — Purple space (second): Every domino half must show 4 pips. Tiles: 2-4 placed vertically; 4-4 placed vertically; 4-6 placed horizontally.
Number (6) — Red space (second): All pips must total 6. Tile: 3-3 placed vertically.
Equal (6) — Yellow space (second): Every domino half must show 6 pips. Tiles: 4-6 placed horizontally; 6-5 placed horizontally.
Number (0) — Green space: All pips must total 0. Tiles: 5-0 placed vertically; 0-1 placed vertically.
Number (6) — Light blue space (second): All pips must total 6. Tiles: 6-5 placed horizontally; 0-1 placed vertically.
More Daily Puzzle Answers
If you’re looking for today’s solutions to other NYT games, check out these recent guides:
- April 11, 2026 NYT Pips Puzzle Hints and Answers
- April 10, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 8, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 11, 2026 Wordle #1757 Hint and Answer
- April 11, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1035 Hints and Answers
- “You’re Putting Me On” — April 11, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
- April 11, 2026 Hurdle Hints and Answers
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