NYT Pips is the New York Times’ domino-inspired daily puzzle that challenges you to place tiles across color-coded zones, each with its own numeric condition. Unlike traditional dominoes, the tiles here don’t need to match — they need to satisfy constraints like Equal, Less Than, Greater Than, Not Equal, or a specific pip total. Released in August 2025, Pips has quickly become a staple of the NYT Games lineup.
One frustrating quirk: when you get stuck, the game only lets you reveal the full puzzle — meaning you lose all progress for that difficulty level. That’s where this guide comes in. Below are step-by-step hints and full answers for every zone in today’s Easy, Medium, and Hard puzzles.
How to Play NYT Pips
Pips tiles work just like dominoes — each tile has two halves, and you place them horizontally or vertically on the board. The board contains color-coded zones with conditions that must be satisfied:
- Number (X): All pips within this zone must add up to X.
- Equal: Every domino half in this zone must show the same number of pips.
- Not Equal: Every domino half in this zone must show a different number of pips.
- Less Than (X): Every domino half in this zone must have fewer than X pips.
- Greater Than (X): Every domino half in this zone must have more than X pips.
Uncolored spaces have no conditions. Only part of a tile may fall within a colored zone, so read conditions carefully before placing.
Easy Difficulty – April 23, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Zone 1 — Equal (3), Purple: Every domino half in this purple space must show exactly 3 pips. Answer: 6-3, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed vertically.
Zone 2 — Less Than (5), Red: The domino half in this red space must have fewer than 5 pips. Answer: 3-4, placed vertically.
Zone 3 — Equal (3), Light Blue: Every domino half in this light blue space must show exactly 3 pips. Answer: 3-3, placed vertically.
Zone 4 — Greater Than (3), Yellow: The domino half in this yellow space must show more than 3 pips. Answer: 5-1, placed vertically.
Zone 5 — Number (2), Yellow: Everything in this yellow space must add up to 2. Answer: 5-1, placed vertically; 1-0, placed horizontally.
Medium Difficulty – April 23, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Zone 1 — Number (10), Purple: Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. Answer: 6-4, placed vertically; 4-3, placed horizontally.
Zone 2 — Equal (3), Red: Every domino half in this red space must show exactly 3 pips. Answer: 4-3, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically; 5-3, placed horizontally.
Zone 3 — Greater Than (3), Light Blue: The domino half in this light blue space must show more than 3 pips. Answer: 6-4, placed vertically.
Zone 4 — Greater Than (4), Yellow: The domino half in this yellow space must show more than 4 pips. Answer: 5-3, placed horizontally.
Zone 5 — Equal (4), Dark Blue: Every domino half in this dark blue space must show exactly 4 pips. Answer: 2-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.
Zone 6 — Number (3), Green: Everything in this green space must add up to 3. Answer: 1-1, placed vertically; 1-3, placed horizontally.
Zone 7 — Number (4), Purple: Everything in this purple space must add up to 4. Answer: 1-3, placed horizontally.
Hard Difficulty – April 23, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
The Hard puzzle today is the most complex of the three, with 14 distinct colored zones to satisfy. Work through each one carefully.
Zone 1 — Number (2), Purple: Everything in this purple space must add up to 2. Answer: 0-2, placed vertically; 0-5, placed vertically.
Zone 2 — Less Than (5), Red: The domino half in this red space must have fewer than 5 pips. Answer: 3-5, placed horizontally.
Zone 3 — Number (10), Light Blue: Everything in this light blue space must add up to 10. Answer: 3-5, placed horizontally; 5-4, placed vertically.
Zone 4 — Equal (1), Yellow: Every domino half in this yellow space must show exactly 1 pip. Answer: 5-1, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed horizontally.
Zone 5 — Number (4), Dark Blue: The portion of this domino in the dark blue space must show 4 pips. Answer: 5-4, placed vertically.
Zone 6 — Greater Than (2), Green: The domino half in this green space must show more than 2 pips. Answer: 0-5, placed vertically.
Zone 7 — Greater Than (3), Purple: The domino half in this purple space must show more than 3 pips. Answer: 6-4, placed horizontally.
Zone 8 — Does Not Equal, Red: Every domino half in this red space must show a different number of pips from each other. Answer: 6-4, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed horizontally.
Zone 9 — Number (5), Light Blue: The domino half in this light blue space must show exactly 5 pips. Answer: 5-6, placed vertically.
Zone 10 — Less Than (4), Yellow: The domino half in this yellow space must have fewer than 4 pips. Answer: 3-6, placed vertically.
Zone 11 — Greater Than (3), Dark Blue: The domino half in this dark blue space must show more than 3 pips. Answer: 6-6, placed horizontally.
Zone 12 — Number (17), Green: Everything in this green space must add up to 17. Answer: 5-6, placed vertically; 5-2, placed vertically; 3-6, placed vertically.
Zone 13 — Less Than (3), Purple: The domino half in this purple space must have fewer than 3 pips. Answer: 2-3, placed horizontally.
Zone 14 — Less Than (3), Red: The domino half in this red space must have fewer than 3 pips. Answer: 5-2, placed vertically.
More Daily Puzzle Answers
Looking for help with other NYT puzzles today? Check out these recent guides:
- April 20, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers – Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 19, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers – Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 18, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers – Easy, Medium, and Hard Solutions
- April 20, 2026 Wordle #1766 Hint and Answer
- April 20, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1044 Hints and Answers
- “Catch the Light” April 20, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
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