Today’s NYT Pips puzzle is live, and whether you’re breezing through Easy or hitting a wall on Hard, this guide covers every condition and tile placement for March 16, 2026.
What Is NYT Pips?
NYT Pips is a domino-based logic puzzle from the New York Times, released in August 2025. Each puzzle presents a grid where you must place dom either vertically or horizontally — so that their pip values satisfy color-coded conditions in each zone.
Unlike classic dominoes, adjacent tiles in Pips don’t need to match. What matters is whether the pips in each colored region meet the stated requirement. A tile can straddle two zones, meaning only one half needs to satisfy a given condition.
Here are the condition types you’ll encounter:
- Number: All pips in the zone must add up to the stated number.
- Equal: Every domino half within 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 must be less than the stated number.
- Greater Than: Every domino half must be greater than the stated number.
If a region has no color coding, there are no restrictions on what goes there.
One thing to note: the game’s built-in hint system only reveals the entire puzzle at once. This guide gives you section-by-section help so you can keep solving on your own terms.
Easy Difficulty — March 16, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
The Easy puzzle for today uses four color-coded zones. Here are the conditions and their solutions:
Number (2): All pips in this space must total 2. Answer: 2-5, placed vertically.
Number (18): All pips in this space must total 18. Answer: 0-5 (vertical), 6-3 (vertical), 6-6 (horizontal).
Number (8): All pips in this space must total 8. Answer: 0-5 (vertical), 6-3 (vertical).
Equal (0): Every domino half in this space must equal 0. Answer: 0-0, placed horizontally.
The Easy puzzle rewards methodical play. Start with the most constrained zones — the Number (2) space only has one viable solution — and use those anchors to lock in the rest.
Medium Difficulty — March 16, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Medium adds more zones and introduces Greater Than and Less Than conditions alongside the Equal and Number types. Work through them in order of how restricted they are.
Greater Than (4): Every domino half must be greater than 4. Answer: 5-5, placed horizontally.
Equal (5): Every domino half must equal 5. Answer: 5-5 (horizontal), 5-4 (horizontal).
Equal (4): Every domino half must equal 4. Answer: 4-4, placed vertically.
Number (6): All pips must total 6. Answer: 4-4 (vertical), 2-2 (vertical).
Equal (2): Every domino half must equal 2. Answer: 2-2 (vertical), 0-2 (horizontal).
Equal (0): Every domino half must equal 0. Answer: 0-2 (horizontal), 6-0 (horizontal).
Equal (6): Every domino half must equal 6. Answer: 6-0 (horizontal), 3-6 (vertical).
Equal (3): Every domino half must equal 3. Answer: 3-6 (vertical), 3-1 (horizontal).
Less Than (2): Every domino half must be less than 2. (Note: the source this “Less Than (2)” but contextually means values under 2.) Answer: 3-1, placed horizontally.
The Medium puzzle chains tiles through multiple Equal zones — notice how 5-5, 0-2, 6-0, 3-6, and 3-1 each serve double duty, satisfying two adjacent conditions simultaneously.
Hard Difficulty — March 16, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Hard is the most complex puzzle today, with numerous Number, Equal, and a Not Equal zone requiring careful coordination across the entire board.
Number (9): Total must equal 9. Answer: 6-3, placed vertically.
Number (0): Total must equal 0. Answer: 1-0, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Total must equal 3. Answer: 3-2, placed vertically.
Number (2): Total must equal 2. Answer: 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Total must equal 0. Answer: 0-0, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Total must equal 4. Answer: 1-4, placed vertically.
Equal (1): Every half must equal 1. Answer: 1-0 (horizontal), 1-1 (horizontal), 1-4 (vertical), 1-5 (vertical), 1-2 (horizontal).
Equal (2): Every half must equal 2. Answer: 1-2 (horizontal), 3-2 (vertical), 2-5 (vertical).
Not Equal: Every domino half in this zone must show a different pip value from the others. Answer: 2-2 (horizontal), 5-6 (vertical), 1-1 (horizontal), 0-0 (horizontal), 4-4 (vertical), 3-3 (vertical).
Number (4): Total must equal 4. Answer: 4-4, placed vertically.
Number (3): Total must equal 3. Answer: 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (15): Total must equal 15. Answer: 1-5 (vertical), 2-5 (vertical), 5-4 (horizontal), 5-4 (horizontal), 4-6 (horizontal).
Number (6): Total must equal 6. Answer: 6-0, placed horizontally.
Number (8): Total must equal 8. Answer: 5-4 (horizontal), 4-6 (horizontal).
Number (6): Total must equal 6. Answer: 4-6, placed horizontally.
The Not Equal zone in today’s Hard puzzle is the trickiest section — six tiles must all present unique pip halves within that region. Solve this zone last, once your other tiles are locked in, since it has the most flexibility.
Tips for Solving NYT Pips
Start with the most constrained zones. A Number (2) zone or an Equal (0) zone has very few possible tile combinations. Nail those first and use them to eliminate options in neighboring regions.
Track which tiles are already used. Pips uses a standard double-six domino set, so each tile appears only once. If 6-6 is placed in the Easy grid, it can’t appear elsewhere in that puzzle.
Work the edges of color zones. When a tile straddles two zones, one half satisfies each condition independently. Place these bridging tiles early — they often unlock both regions at once.
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