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Spoilers ahead: This guide gives the January 4, 2026 solutions for all three NYT Pips boards—Easy, Medium, and Hard—plus the key deductions behind them. The detailed placements come from an independent fan-made walkthrough, not an official New York Times solution page.
How to use these Pips answers
NYT Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle: place dominoes on a grid so that each region meets its condition. Try Hard Guides describes three new puzzles daily, at Easy, Medium, and Hard (Try Hard Guides, January 3, 2026). The placements below identify domino pip values and whether each is horizontal or vertical. They do not give cell coordinates, so consult the January 4 walkthrough and board for exact grid locations. The archive is fan-made and says it is not affiliated with The New York Times.
Easy Pips answer for January 4
The walkthrough lists five horizontal domino placements:
- 0–6
- 6–1
- 5–5
- 3–4
- 4–2
The first 0 enters the Purple Less Than 1 region. The 6–1 placement extends from the red equal-value region, and 5–5 fills the light-blue equal-value region. The remaining placements connect 3–4 to the Blue Greater Than 2 region and 4–2 to the Yellow equal-value region.
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A separate Mashable hint list, surfaced through Yahoo Tech, organizes the Easy answer by region rather than as the same five-move walkthrough. It reports Less Than (1): 0–6; Equal (6): 0–6 and 6–1; Equal (5): 5–5; Equal (4): 2–4 and 4–3; and Greater Than (2): 4–3, all horizontally (Mashable via Yahoo Tech, January 4, 2026). Because this is a different presentation, use the board image to verify region-by-region placement rather than merging the lists into one move sequence.
Medium Pips answer for January 4
The walkthrough’s eight placements are all vertical:
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- 0–0
- 0–3
- 0–1
- 3–1
- 1–1
- 2–2
- 0–2
- 2–1
The deduction starts with scarce pip values and restrictive regions. The Green Less Than 1 region needs zeros, while the Blue Greater Than 2 region needs threes, making 0–0 and 0–3 useful anchors. Then 0–1 serves the Light Blue Less Than 1 and Purple Less Than 2 regions. The Red Greater Than 2 and Light Blue Equal regions use 3–1 and 1–1; Purple Equal takes 2–2. Finally, 0–2 enters Red Less Than 1, and 2–1 completes Yellow Greater Than 3.
Mashable’s separate region-based hint list reports Equal (2): 2–2; Less Than (1): 0–2; Equal (1): 1–1 and 1–3; Greater Than (3): 2–1 and 0–2; Greater Than (2): 3–0; Less Than (2): 1–0; another Less Than (1): 3–0 and 0–0; Greater Than (2): 1–3; and a final Less Than (1): 1–0. Those placements are vertical. Since the regional listing differs from the walkthrough’s sequence, refer to the Mashable hints and board layout for that presentation rather than treating it as identical to the move order above.
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Hard Pips answer for January 4
The Hard walkthrough gives this sequence of 15 placements:
- 6–1, horizontal
- 6–2, vertical
- 1–1, vertical
- 1–3, vertical
- 1–5, vertical
- 5–5, horizontal
- 5–6, vertical
- 5–0, vertical
- 5–3, vertical
- 3–3, horizontal
- 6–6, horizontal
- 4–1, vertical
- 3–2, vertical
- 2–4, horizontal
- 3–4, vertical
The starting inventory in the walkthrough is 6–6, 6–5, 6–2, 6–1, 5–5, 5–3, 5–1, 5–0, 4–3, 4–2, 4–1, 3–3, 3–2, 3–1, and 1–1. Its deduction notes say Blue 12 must total 6+6, fixing Green Equal to 1; Light Blue Equal is 5; Red Equal is 3; and Yellow 12 must total 6+6. The walkthrough then places 3–2 across the boundary between Yellow 4 and Purple 4, and finishes Red Equal with 3–4. Use the board in the full Hard solution for exact cell positions; the text sequence alone does not specify the grid coordinates.
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How to reason through the January 4 boards
The walkthrough’s approach is constraint-based, not a guarantee that every solver must follow one unique move order. Apply the checks in a practical sequence:
- Count scarce pip values. Identify regions that require very low or high totals, then see which available dominoes can satisfy them.
- Prioritize tight region rules. A strict equality or narrow inequality often constrains placements more than a broad condition.
- Use equal-value regions as anchors. A fixed total can establish which pips must occupy that region, reducing options elsewhere.
- Check shared boundaries. A domino crossing two regions must work for both conditions, not just one.
- Eliminate remaining inventory. Once the constrained areas are settled, use the dominoes left to complete the open regions.
The January 4 pages provide different ways to present some regional hints and move sequences. Treat the board conditions as the decisive check when those presentations do not line up one-for-one. The detailed walkthrough is from an independent archive; the Try Hard Guides page confirms the date and three-difficulty format, while its extracted answer headings do not provide placement details.
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