Spoilers ahead. This guide is for the Thursday, October 16, 2025 NYT Pips hard puzzle, #60. Start with the hints below if you want to solve it yourself; the region-grouped placement list follows a clear spoiler break.
Hints for the October 16 hard puzzle
Hint 1: Start with the smallest exact-sum region
EnergyPips’ archive recommends beginning with the two-cell “= 2” region. Its two values must total exactly 2, so it is one of the board’s tightest constraints. The archive also flags the 6-6 and 0-0 doubles as useful extremes.
Hint 2: Check what doubles can and cannot do
The hard board includes 6-6, 4-4, 2-2 and 0-0. An all-different region cannot contain a double entirely within itself, so any double used on the board must cross a region boundary. Use that restriction alongside the exact-sum clues.
Hint 3: Track remaining pips and boundary crossings
After narrowing down the exact-sum regions, keep track of the values still available in the tray. Look for narrow arms of the irregular board and dominoes that have to span adjacent regions. The archive suggests considering neighboring regions in pairs rather than treating each clue in isolation.
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What the hard board asks you to solve
For this dated puzzle, EnergyPips records a 20-square board filled by 10 dominoes, divided into seven regions: four exact-sum regions and three all-different regions. In Pips, each colored region follows its displayed rule; a tile may be rotated to fit, and uncolored squares have no special number condition, though the dominoes still must fit the board outline. The hard-mode tray includes the four doubles listed above.
“Equal” means the values in that region must match; “less than” means the region’s total must stay below its threshold. “Horizontal” and “vertical” below describe the orientation reported in the answer guide, not cell coordinates.
Full solution: October 16, 2025 hard Pips
The following is the answer guide’s documented placement list, grouped by region. Its text does not provide board-cell coordinates, so this is not a coordinate-by-coordinate map. It also does not establish which particular copy of a repeated tile belongs in a specific region; use the region and orientation descriptions as reported.
- Less than 4, orange region: 6-2, horizontal.
- Equal 5, red region: 5-6, vertical; 5-5, horizontal.
- Equal 6, light-blue region: 5-6, vertical; 6-2, horizontal.
- Exact sum 5: 3-5, horizontal; 0-0, vertical; 0-2, horizontal.
- Exact sum 2: 6-1, vertical; 5-1, horizontal.
- Equal 4, light-blue region: 3-4, horizontal; 4-4, vertical.
- Less than 4, green region: 3-4, horizontal.
Playing or practicing Pips
The puzzle is played digitally through NYT Games online or in the app, according to the how-to guide. A physical domino set is optional practice equipment, not a requirement for the digital game; it does not reproduce the board’s regional constraints.
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