Here are the hints and reported solutions for the NYT Pips puzzles dated Wednesday, September 16, 2026. There are three separate boards—easy, medium, and hard. Start with a nudge for the board you’re playing, then open its full tile placements only if you want the spoiler.
How to use these hints
Each difficulty is its own board. The hints below reveal one starting point per board; the solution sections that follow reveal region values and tile placements. Coordinates count rows and columns from the top-left, beginning at 1.
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What the Pips rules mean
Pips is a single-player domino logic puzzle in the New York Times Games catalog. You place dominoes so the pip values in each colored region meet that region’s rule. A number such as =7 calls for a total of seven; an equals region without a number requires matching values; ≠ means values must differ; and > or < sets a bound. Uncolored spaces have no condition. This rules summary comes from Mashable’s guide syndicated by Yahoo Tech; its guide points players to the NYT Pips game.
Hints for September 16, 2026
Easy hint
Start at the bottom-left single square marked <1. Its value has to be 0. The tray includes a 4-4 double.
Medium hint
The middle-left single square marked =3 must contain 3. The tray includes 5-5 and 4-4 doubles.
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Hard hint
The top-centre single square marked =4 must contain 4. The tray includes 2-2, 5-5, 4-4, and 0-0 doubles. In the all-different region, a double placed wholly inside that region would repeat a value, so use exclusions as you work out placements.
Full answers for September 16, 2026
Spoilers below. EnergyPips reports the region values and the following valid tile placements for each board.
Easy: 10 squares, 5 dominoes
| Region | Location | Values |
|---|---|---|
| No rule | Top-left single square | 1 |
| No rule | Top-right single square | 1 |
| >4 | Middle-left single square | 6 |
| <4 | Middle-right single square | 0 |
| = | Middle-centre row of 2 | 4, 4 |
| <1 | Bottom-left single square | 0 |
| = | Bottom-centre row of 2 | 3, 3 |
| <6 | Bottom-right single square | 5 |
- 0-1: row 2, column 4, and row 1, column 4
- 4-4: row 4, columns 2–3
- 5-3: row 6, columns 4–3
- 3-0: row 6, columns 2–1
- 6-1: row 2, column 1, and row 1, column 1
Medium: 14 squares, 7 dominoes
| Region | Location | Values |
|---|---|---|
| >3 | Top-centre single square | 6 |
| = | Middle-centre 3-square block | 1, 1, 1 |
| = | Middle-centre 3-square block | 5, 5, 5 |
| =3 | Middle-left single square | 3 |
| <3 | Middle-right single square | 0 |
| = | Bottom-left row of 3 | 4, 4, 4 |
| = | Bottom-centre row of 2 | 1, 1 |
- 4-1: row 4, columns 3–4
- 3-1: row 3, columns 1–2
- 5-5: row 3, columns 3–4
- 6-1: row 1, column 2, and row 2, column 2
- 5-1: row 2, columns 4–3
- 4-4: row 4, columns 1–2
- 1-0: row 4, column 5, and row 3, column 5
Hard: 26 squares, 13 dominoes
| Region | Location | Values |
|---|---|---|
| ≠ | Top-centre 4-square block | 3, 2, 1, 5 |
| =7 | Top-centre column of 3 | 2, 2, 3 |
| =4 | Top-centre single square | 4 |
| =10 | Top-centre column of 2 | 5, 5 |
| =11 | Middle-centre row of 2 | 5, 6 |
| =15 | Middle-centre 3-square block | 5, 5, 5 |
| <5 | Middle-centre single square | 4 |
| =2 | Middle-centre row of 4 | 1, 1, 0, 0 |
| =14 | Middle-centre column of 3 | 6, 4, 4 |
| =4 | Middle-centre column of 2 | 2, 2 |
| =4 | Bottom-left single square | 4 |
- 2-4: row 8, columns 2–1
- 5-6: row 2, column 8, and row 3, column 8
- 2-2: row 1, column 6, and row 2, column 6
- 5-4: row 1, columns 8–7
- 3-2: row 1, column 3, and row 2, column 3
- 5-5: row 5, columns 2–3
- 4-1: row 5, columns 5–6
- 5-2: row 6, column 2, and row 7, column 2
- 4-4: row 7, column 7, and row 8, column 7
- 1-6: row 5, column 7, and row 6, column 7
- 5-3: row 3, columns 7–6
- 0-0: row 5, columns 8–9
- 5-1: row 3, columns 4–3
How these boards compare
EnergyPips’ 2026 guide reports 75% of easy regions as “loose,” compared with its 40% norm; for medium it reports 29% against a 41% norm, and for hard 18% against a 28% norm. Those are EnergyPips’ guide statistics, not NYT-wide figures. The same guide lists 10, 14, and 26 squares for today’s easy, medium, and hard boards, respectively, compared with its difficulty averages of 9.9, 14.8, and 26.2 squares. The figures describe board structure; they do not establish a universal difficulty ranking.
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