For September 23, 2026, the NYT Pips archive lists Easy #1297, Medium #1300 and Hard #1306. Use the spoiler-light clues below first; full placements follow for each board. The walkthroughs come from an independent solution guide, not an independently checked NYT game board.
How to use these Pips hints
Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle: place the available dominoes so each colored region meets its mathematical constraint. The archive lists five dominoes and five regions for Easy, seven dominoes and eight regions for Medium, and 15 dominoes and 19 regions for Hard. Start by anchoring the tightest regions, keep track of the remaining dominoes, and check both halves of every tile against the regions they enter. The date-specific guide provides the placement walkthroughs; the separate puzzle archive lists the puzzle numbers and counts.
Easy #1297
Hints
- Resolve the four single-cell sum regions first: each cell’s value is fixed by its target.
- The teal two-cell region totals 12, so it needs both sixes.
- When placing a tile, account for the other half too; several halves go into zero regions.
Full placement walkthrough
Place the 6/0 horizontally with the six in the upper teal cell and the zero in the top-left pink zero cell. Put the 6/3 horizontally below it, with six in the lower teal cell and three in the orange sum-8 column. Stand the 5/0 vertically to put five in orange and zero in the top purple zero cell. The 4/0 spans the upper blue sum-7 cell and the top-right green zero cell. Place the 3/0 below it, with three in blue and zero in the bottom-right purple zero cell.
Medium #1300
Hints
- Begin with the three equality pairs: matching cells must have the same value.
- The left-side orange sum-3 pair is a bottleneck because it needs low values.
- Before committing a tile to that region, trace where its other half must go and check the adjacent constraints.
Placement clues
The guide’s walkthrough identifies a vertical 6/0 on the left edge, a 3/5 across the middle row, and a 5/0 beside it. Later placements include 3/0 and 0/4 at the right edge to satisfy neighboring constraints. The guide describes additional placements, but its text does not establish the exact orientation of every remaining domino; consult its board images for the complete arrangement.
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Hard #1306
Hints
- The three-cell equality column near the top-left is the key lock: use it to narrow the placement choices before working outward.
- Propagate each placement through neighboring sum, comparison and equality regions, rather than treating each region in isolation.
- Track the remaining tiles as the board fills; the guide describes a 15-domino board with 19 regions.
Placement walkthrough
The guide starts with 6/4 vertically in the three-cell equality column, followed by the 6/6 double. It then places 5/2 across the top-left corner, 6/3 and 5/3 vertically in neighboring sum regions, 3/1 across the next row, and 0/0 in the less-than-2 region. At the top right, it places 0/4 vertically, 4/5 horizontally and 3/0 horizontally; the centre blue equality pair takes 1/1. Along the bottom, the guide lists 1/6, 6/0, 6/2 and 5/1 vertically, assigning their halves to the teal equal run and adjoining comparison or free cells. See the full guide for its board images and exact placement details.
How to approach a difficult region
- Find regions with the fewest possible values or placements, such as single-cell sums or a tight equality run.
- Use those fixed values to test the dominoes that can fit there.
- For each candidate tile, check where its other half must land before placing it.
- Update the available domino inventory after each placement, then verify the resulting regions against their constraints.
The detailed arrangements here are attributed to an independent fan-made guide that says it is not affiliated with The New York Times. The linked NYT game board was not accessible during preparation, so these are secondary-source solutions rather than first-hand verified boards.
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