March 18, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers — Easy, Medium, and Hard

Today’s NYT Pips puzzle is live for March 18, 2026, and all three difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, and Hard — are ready to tackle. If you’ve hit a wall on any of them, you’re in the right place. Below you’ll find spoiler-free hints first, followed by full domino placement answers for every color-coded condition in today’s puzzle.

What Is NYT Pips?

NYT Pips is a daily domino-placement puzzle from the New York Times, released in August 2025. Unlike traditional dominoes where matching numbers connect tiles, Pips adds a layer of logic: each color-coded region on the board comes with a specific mathematical condition that the domino halves inside it must satisfy.

Tiles can be placed horizontally or vertically, and it’s common for only one half of a tile to fall within a colored zone — meaning both halves don’t need to meet the same condition. When you’re stuck, the game only offers a full reveal, forcing you to skip to the next difficulty level. These hints let you work through it at your own pace.

Here’s a quick reference for the condition types you’ll encounter:

Number (N): All pip values in this space must sum to N.
Equal: Every domino half in this space must show the same pip count.
Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must show a different pip count.
Less Than (N): Every domino half must be fewer than N pips.
Greater Than (N): Every domino half must exceed N pips.
No color: No condition applies to that area.

Easy Difficulty — March 18, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers

The Easy board for March 18 uses a mix of Equal and Number conditions, all with horizontal placements.

Equal (4): Every domino half in this zone must equal 4. → Answer: 4-4, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (4): Every domino half must be greater than 4. → Answer: 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (3): The pip values in this space must total 3. → Answer: 3-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (6): Every domino half must equal 6. → Answer: 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed horizontally.

Number (3): The pip values in this space must total 3. → Answer: 6-3, placed horizontally.

Medium Difficulty — March 18, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers

Medium introduces vertical placements and more overlapping conditions. Several tiles satisfy two constraints at once — pay attention to which half lands in which zone.

Number (3): Pips in this space must total 3. → Answer: 3-0, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Every domino half must exceed 3. → Answer: 4-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Every domino half must equal 1. → Answer: 1-1, placed vertically.

Equal (5): Every domino half must equal 5. →ically.

Number (3): Pips in this space must total 3. → Answer: 3-4, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Every domino half must equal 0. → Answer: 0-0, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed vertically; 0-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Every domino half must equal 4. → Answer: 0-4, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed vertically.

Notice that the 5-0 tile and the 3-4 tile each appear in two different conditions — this shared placement is the key to solving the Medium grid without conflicts.

Hard Difficulty — March 18, 2026 Pips Hints and Answers

Today’s Hard puzzle is dense, with eleven separate conditions including two distinct zones both labeled Number (10) — one light blue and one orange. Keep track of which colored region you’re working in.

Number (5): Pips must total 5. → Answer: 5-1, placed vertically.

Number (3): Pips must total 3. → Answer: 1-3, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Pips must total 10. → Answer: 5-2, placed vertically; 5-4, placed horizontally.

Number (11): Pips must total 11. (Note: the label reads “11” — the source lists 10 by error.) → Answer: 2-4, placed vertically; 5-4, placed horizontally; 3-6, placed vertically.

Number (4): Pips must total 4. → Answer: 5-1, placed vertically; 1-3, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed vertically.

Number (9): Pips must total 9. → Answer: 5-6, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed horizontally.

Number (24): Pips must total 24. → Answer: 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed vertically; 3-6, placed vertically.

Number (10) — Light Blue Zone: Pips in this specific light blue space must total 10. → Answer: 3-4, placed horizontally; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10) — Orange Zone: Pips in this specific orange space must total 10. → Answer: 3-5, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Pips must total 0. → Answer: 4-0, placed vertically; 0-0, placed vertically; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Pips must total 3. → Answer: 2-3, placed vertically.

The trickiest element on the Hard board today is the overlap between the Number (10) light blue and orange zones — the 3-5 tile is shared between both, and getting its orientation right unlocks the rest of the bottom half of the grid.

Tips for Solving NYT Pips

Start with the most constrained zones first. Conditions like Equal (0) or Number (0) leave almost no room for variation — solve those before tackling the wider numerical zones.

Track shared tiles. On Hard especially, the same tile often satisfies two conditions at once. If a tile appears in your answer for one zone, check whether it overlaps into an adjacent zone before moving on.

Work difficulty level by difficulty level. Each level’s solution is completely independent. Don’t try to carry answers between Easy, Medium, and Hard — the boards reset between levels.

More Daily Puzzle Help

Looking for hints and answers to other NYT games today? Check out these recent guides on dotwordle.com:

Shahid Maqsood

Shahid Maqsood is a digital entrepreneur and SEO specialist focused on building engaging web experiences. He is the creator of DotWordle, combining creativity with smart, user-friendly design.