Today's NYT Pips Answers
Pips deals you a rack of dominoes and a board of regions, each with its own rule. All three difficulties for September 1, 2026 are solved below, from the friendly Easy board to the Hard one. Nothing spoils until you tap.
Hints, one at a time
Pips for September 1, 2026 is live with its usual three boards. Place every domino so each shaded region obeys its rule: sums must hit their number, equals regions must match, and the comparison cells cap a single pip.
The hints below stay one step short of the answer. Every solution further down keeps its pip values blurred inside the olive box until you press the button, so scroll freely.
Easy board first, Hard board last. Stop as soon as one region locks.
Easy: 6 dominoes, 8 regions
Your easy rack today: 6-4, 2-5, 3-1, 2-3, 6-3, 0-1. Constructed by Ian Livengood.
Easy solution
Spoiler below · tap to revealShaded blocks are the board's regions. The small corner mark is each region's rule: a number is the sum its pips must reach, = means all pips match, and < or > cap a single cell.
6 dominoes placed. The pip values stay blurred until you press the button.
Medium: 7 dominoes, 9 regions
Your medium rack today: 5-2, 2-2, 0-5, 2-6, 1-1, 2-0, 3-4. Constructed by Rodolfo Kurchan.
Medium solution
Spoiler below · tap to revealShaded blocks are the board's regions. The small corner mark is each region's rule: a number is the sum its pips must reach, = means all pips match, and < or > cap a single cell.
7 dominoes placed. The pip values stay blurred until you press the button.
Hard: 14 dominoes, 14 regions
Your hard rack today: 4-0, 1-3, 4-2, 3-6, 0-0, 3-5, 4-4, 5-2, 1-1, 2-0, 5-1, 3-2, 4-6, 2-1. Constructed by Rodolfo Kurchan.
Hard solution
Spoiler below · tap to revealShaded blocks are the board's regions. The small corner mark is each region's rule: a number is the sum its pips must reach, = means all pips match, and < or > cap a single cell.
14 dominoes placed. The pip values stay blurred until you press the button.
Pips strategy that actually helps
Habits that carry over from board to board.
Read every region's rule before placing anything. The board is a set of constraints wearing a grid costume.
Cells demanding a 0 or a 6, or capped by a comparison, accept very few domino halves. Lock them in early.
If a region needs a sum of 12 from two cells, you need two sixes. Check whether your rack even has them before committing elsewhere.
A cell with one open neighbor can only be covered one way. Corners and corridors give free placements.
How to play NYT Pips
The rules in full, for anyone arriving without them.
Pips is a domino logic puzzle from The New York Times. You place a set of dominoes onto a board carved into regions, and every region prints a rule that its covered halves have to satisfy.
- 1 Read every region rule first
A region can demand a sum, ask for all halves to be equal, ask for all of them to differ, or set a greater-than or less-than limit.
- 2 Start where the rule is strictest
A one-cell sum region names its pip outright. An equals region and an extreme sum both cut your options down fast.
- 3 Place a domino, then recheck the neighbors
Every placement changes what the surrounding regions can still hold. Pips is a chain of eliminations, not a set of independent puzzles.
- 4 Cover the whole board
The puzzle is solved when every cell is covered and every region rule holds at once. Each day ships three separate boards.
The New York Times
Three boards daily: Easy, Medium, Hard
No limit, you can undo freely
Midnight in your local timezone
Doubles are the most valuable tiles to place early. A double reads the same whichever way you rotate it, so committing one inside an equals region can never be the reason your board fails later.
Pips, answered
Do I have to use every domino?
Yes. The rack is exact: every domino has a home, and every cell on the board has to end up covered. That is why a leftover tile means an error earlier rather than a puzzle you can finish anyway, and why counting your high halves against the big sum regions is worth doing before you place anything.
What is NYT Pips?
Pips is the New York Times' dominoes logic puzzle. You place a given set of dominoes on a board so that every region satisfies its rule: reaching a sum, matching pips, or staying under or over a value. Each day brings an Easy, Medium, and Hard board.
When does a new Pips come out?
Pips resets daily along with the other NYT games. All three boards turn over together, so Easy, Medium and Hard are always from the same day.
Is there only one solution?
The boards are constructed to have a unique solution. The grids shown here are the official ones from the puzzle data.
Do the three boards share dominoes?
No. Each difficulty is its own board with its own rack, which is why we list all three separately with their own reveal.
Today's hints for every game
Same spoiler-safe format, for each daily puzzle we cover.