Today’s NYT Pips puzzle is live for March 17, 2026, and if you’re stuck on any difficulty level, this guide has you covered with piecemeal hints and full answers for Easy, Medium, and Hard.
What Is NYT Pips?
NYT Pips is a domino-based daily puzzle from the New York Times Games catalog, released in August 2025. Unlike a traditional multiplayer game of dominoes, Pips is a single-player logic puzzle where you place tiles vertically or horizontally across a grid while satisfying color-coded conditions in designated spaces.
The key condition types you’ll encounter:
- Number: All pips within this colored space must add up to the stated number.
- Equal: Every domino half inside this space must show the same pip count.
- Not Equal: Every domino half inside this space 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.
Spaces with no color coding have no conditions — you can place tiles there freely. When the game gets stuck, it only offers a full puzzle reveal, forcing you to skip to the next difficulty. That’s exactly why this guide exists: to give you targeted help without spoiling the whole board.
Easy Difficulty — March 17, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. → Answer: 0-1, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. → Answer: 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. → Answer: 0-1, placed vertically; 2-4, placed horizontally.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. → Answer: 0-5, placed vertically; 1-5, placed vertically.
Medium Difficulty — March 17, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. → Answer: 6-3, placed vertically.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. → Answer: 2-6, placed horizontally.
Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. → Answer: 2-6, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically.
Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. → Answer: 6-5, placed vertically.
Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. → Answer: 1-1, placed vertically.
**Less Than (3): 0-3, placed horizontally.
Less Than (3) — purple space: Everything in this space must be less than 3. → Answer: 0-6, placed horizontally.
Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. → Answer: 0-6, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed vertically.
Hard Difficulty — March 17, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers
The Hard puzzle today is the most tile-dense of the three. Work methodically through the constrained zones first before placing tiles in open areas.
Number (6): → 2-2, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed horizontally.
Number (3): → 2-1, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed horizontally.
Less Than (2): → 0-5, placed horizontally.
Number (6): → 0-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (2): → 3-6, placed horizontally.
Number (2): → 6-2, placed horizontally.
Equal (5): → 0-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally.
Less Than (2): → 0-6, placed horizontally.
Number (18): → 3-6, placed horizontally; 6-2, placed horizontally; 0-6, placed horizontally.
Number (8): → 5-4, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed vertically.
Number (6): → 5-3, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed vertically.
Number (2): → 2-5, placed horizontally.
Number (10): → 2-5, placed horizontally; 5-4, placed horizontally.
Number (1): → 4-1, placed vertically.
Greater Than (9): → 6-6, placed horizontally.
Tips for Solving Today’s Hard Puzzle
Today’s Hard board packs in a high number of constrained zones with overlapping tiles, which is where most players get tripped up. A few strategies for March 17’s layout:
First, tackle the Number (18) zone early — it requires three specific tiles (3-6, 6-2, 0-6) and its placement locks down a large portion of the board. Second, the Equal (5) condition shares tiles with the Number (6) zone, so solving one immediately constrains the other. Third, the Greater Than (9) condition is solved by a single tile, 6-6 placed horizontally — place this last once surrounding zones are resolved to avoid orientation conflicts.
More NYT Pips Answers
Catch up on recent Pips puzzles below:
- March 16, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
- March 15, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
- March 12, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard
More Daily Puzzle Help
- March 16, 2026 Wordle #1731 Hint and Answer
- March 16, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
- March 16, 2026 NYT Connections Sports Edition #539 Hints and Answers
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