NYT Pips is back with another set of color-coded domino puzzles for April 19, 2026. Whether you’re breezing through Easy or completely stumped on Hard, this guide walks you through every zone, condition, and tile placement — in order, with hints before answers so you can choose how much help you get.
What Is NYT Pips?
NYT Pips is a daily single-player domino puzzle from the New York Times, released in August 2025. Unlike traditional dominoes where matching numbers matter, Pips revolves around color-coded zones on the board, each with its own mathematical condition. You must place domino tiles — either horizontally or vertically — so that the pip values in each colored region satisfy that region’s rule.
The most common conditions you’ll encounter are:
- Number (X): All pip values within the space must sum to X.
- Equal (X): Every domino half inside the space must show exactly X pips.
- Less Than (X): All pip values in the space must total less than X.
- Greater Than (X): The pip value in the space must exceed X.
- Not Equal: Every domino half in the space must show a different number of pips.
Areas with no color coding have no conditions — those tiles can be placed freely. It’s also common for only half a domino to fall inside a colored zone, so placement direction matters a lot.
Easy Difficulty — April 19, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Today’s Easy puzzle uses five colored zones. Work through the simpler constraints first to open up your options for the rest of the board.
Red Zone — Equal (0) Every domino half here must show 0 pips. Two tiles are involved. Answer: 6-0 placed horizontally; 0-2 placed vertically.
Purple Zone — Equal (3) Every domino half must show exactly 3 pips. Only one tile fits here. Answer: 3-3 placed vertically.
Light Blue Zone — Number (1) The single domino half in this space must total 1 pip. Answer: 1-4 placed vertically (the 1-side falls in the zone).
Yellow Zone — Equal (4) Every domino half in the yellow space must show 4 pips. Answer: 1-4 placed vertically; 2-4 placed horizontally.
Dark Blue Zone — Equal (2) Every domino half must show 2 pips. Answer: 0-2 placed vertically; 2-4 placed horizontally.
Medium Difficulty — April 19, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
The Medium puzzle introduces more zones and tighter constraints. Several tiles are shared across two colored regions, so order of reasoning matters.
Purple Zone — Number (7) The pip values in this space must add up to 7. Answer: 3-0 placed horizontally; 5-4 placed horizontally.
Red Zone — Equal (0) Every domino half must show 0 pips. Answer: 3-0 placed horizontally; 0-5 placed vertically.
Light Blue Zone — Equal (5) Every domino half must show exactly 5 pips. Answer: 5-4 placed horizontally; 5-1 placed horizontally.
Yellow Zone — Less Than (7) All pip values here must total less than 7. Answer: 1-6 placed vertically; 0-5 placed vertically.
Dark Blue Zone — Number (7) Pips in this zone must add up to exactly 7. Answer: 5-1 placed horizontally; 1-6 placed vertically.
Green Zone — Equal (6) Every domino half must show 6 pips. Answer: 6-6 placed horizontally; 6-5 placed vertically.
Second Purple Zone — Greater Than (1) The domino half in this space must show more than 1 pip. Answer: 6-5 placed vertically (the 6-side satisfies the condition).
Hard Difficulty — April 19, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Hard introduces nine conditions across the board and requires careful sequencing. Several tiles span multiple zones — solving the tightly constrained zones first (especially Less Than (2) and the Equal (3) green space) gives you firm anchors to work outward from.
Purple Zone — Number (2) Pip values must sum to 2. Answer: 1-0 placed horizontally; 1-2 placed vertically.
Red Zone — Less Than (2) All pip values must total less than 2 — meaning only 0s and 1s can appear here. Answer: 1-0 placed horizontally; 0-2 placed horizontally; 0-0 placed vertically.
Light Blue Zone — Number (5) Pip values must sum to 5. Answer: 0-2 placed horizontally; 3-4 placed vertically.
Yellow Zone — Number (5) Pip values must also sum to 5. Answer: 3-4 placed vertically; 1-6 placed vertically.
Dark Blue Zone — Number (2) Pip values must sum to 2. Answer: 1-2 placed vertically; 0-6 placed vertically.
Green Zone — Equal (3) Every domino half must show 3 pips. Answer: 3-3 placed vertically.
Second Purple Zone — Number (9) Pip values must sum to 9. Answer: 1-6 placed vertically; 3-6 placed vertically.
Second Red Zone — Number (8) Pip values must sum to 8. Answer: 6-4 placed vertically; 4-2 placed horizontally.
Second Light Blue Zone — Number (4) Pip values must sum to 4. Answer: 4-2 placed horizontally; 2-6 placed horizontally.
More Daily Puzzle Help
Looking for more puzzle solutions? Here are recent NYT Pips guides and today’s other puzzle answers:
Recent NYT Pips:
- April 18, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers – Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 16, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers – Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 15, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers – Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
More puzzles from April 18, 2026:
- April 18, 2026 Wordle #1764 Hint and Answer
- April 18, 2026 Hurdle Hints and Answers
- “On the Cheap” April 18, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
- April 18, 2026 NYT Connections Sports Edition #572 Hints and Answers
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