NYT Pips is the New York Times’ domino-based daily puzzle, and today’s April 16 edition brings a fresh set of color-coded challenges across all three difficulty levels. Whether you’re breezing through Easy or grinding through Hard, the hints and full answers below are organized so you can take as little or as much help as you need — no full reveal required.
What Is NYT Pips?
Pips launched in August 2025 as part of the New York Times Games suite. Unlike classic dominoes — where matching tile ends is the goal — Pips is a single-player puzzle that asks you to place domino tiles on a grid while satisfying color-coded zone conditions. Each colored region carries a rule: a target sum, an equality condition, a “greater than” or “less than” threshold, or a “not equal” requirement. Only the pips that fall inside a colored zone count toward its condition, and a single tile can straddle two zones at once.
The five condition types you’ll encounter:
- Number (X): All pips inside this zone must add up to X.
- Equal (X): Every domino half inside this zone must individually show X pips.
- Not Equal: Every domino half inside this zone must show a different pip count from every other half.
- Less Than (X): Every domino half inside this zone must show fewer than X pips.
- Greater Than (X): Every domino half inside this zone must show more than X pips.
Uncolored grid spaces have no conditions, so tiles placed there can show any value.
Easy Difficulty — April 16, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Try to work through the colored zones one at a time, starting with the most constrained (Equal conditions are usually the easiest to lock in first).
Purple — Number (6): All pips in this space must total 6.
Answer: 1-0, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
Red — Number (4): The domino half in this space must show 4 pips.
Answer: 4-3, placed horizontally.
Light Blue — Equal (3): Every domino half in this zone must individually show 3 pips.
Answer: 4-3, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
Yellow — Number (1): The domino half in this space must show 1 pip.
Answer: 1-4, placed horizontally.
Dark Blue — Equal (4): Every domino half in this zone must individually show 4 pips.
Answer: 1-4, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.
Medium Difficulty — April 16, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
The Medium grid introduces more overlapping zones and tiles that split across multiple conditions. Work outward from zones with the fewest valid tile options.
Purple — Number (6): All pips in this space must total 6.
Answer: 0-4, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally.
Red — Number (6): All pips in this space must total 6.
Answer: 0-4, placed horizontally; 2-3, placed horizontally.
Light Blue — Greater Than (0): The domino half in this space must show more than 0 pips.
Answer: 5-6, placed horizontally.
Yellow — Equal (3): Every domino half in this zone must show 3 pips.
Answer: 2-3, placed horizontally; 3-5, placed vertically.
Dark Blue — Number (6): The domino half in this space must show 6 pips.
Answer: 6-4, placed vertically.
Green — Equal (4): Every domino half in this zone must show 4 pips.
Answer: 6-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally.
Purple (second) — Number (10): All pips in this space must total 10.
Answer: 4-5, placed horizontally; 3-5, placed vertically.
Hard Difficulty — April 16, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Hard packs the most zones onto the grid, and many tiles must simultaneously satisfy two conditions at once. Start with Equal zones — they eliminate the most uncertainty.
Purple — Equal (5): Every domino half in this zone must show 5 pips.
Answer: 5-4, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally.
Red — Equal (6): Every domino half in this zone must show 6 pips.
Answer: 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed vertically.
Light Blue — Number (4): The domino half in this space must show 4 pips.
Answer: 5-4, placed vertically.
Yellow — Equal (1): Every domino half in this zone must show 1 pip.
Answer: 1-1, placed vertically; 1-3, placed vertically.
Dark Blue — Number (8): All pips in this space must total 8.
Answer: 5-3, placed vertically.
Green — Equal (4): Every domino half in this zone must show 4 pips.
Answer: 6-4, placed vertically; 4-4, placed vertically; 1-4, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed vertically.
Purple (second) — Number (8): All pips in this space must total 8.
Answer: 1-3, placed vertically; 5-0, placed vertically.
Red (second) — Equal (1): Every domino half in this zone must show 1 pip.
Answer: 1-0, placed vertically; 1-4, placed horizontally.
Light Blue (second) — Equal (0): Every domino half in this zone must show 0 pips.
Answer: 5-0, placed vertically; 0-0, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed vertically; 0-2, placed vertically.
Yellow (second) — Number (5): All pips in this space must total 5.
Answer: 0-2, placed vertically; 4-3, placed vertically.
Tips for Solving NYT Pips Faster
Lock in Equal zones first. Equal conditions allow only one pip value per tile half, which dramatically cuts down the number of valid tiles. Solve these before tackling Number or Greater Than zones.
Track tile reuse carefully. Each domino tile (e.g., 5-3) appears only once in the set. If you’ve placed a 5-3 in one zone, you can’t use it again — and on Hard, this constraint is what makes or breaks the puzzle.
Work from corners and edges inward. Tiles at the edge of the grid have fewer placement orientations, which makes them easier to lock in and lets you build the solution outward from fixed anchors.
More Daily Puzzle Help
Looking for hints and answers from recent Pips puzzles or other NYT games? Here are the most useful pages from our archive:
- April 15, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
- April 14, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
- April 13, 2026 NYT Pips Puzzle Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, Hard
- April 15, 2026 Wordle #1761 Hint and Answer
- “Gift of the Month” — April 15, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
- April 15, 2026 NYT Connections Sports Edition #569 Hints and Answers
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