What is NYT Pips?
Pips is a daily logic puzzle from The New York Times. You place dominoes onto a grid split into coloured regions so that each region satisfies its rule — a target sum, “all equal”, “not equal”, or greater/less-than. There is a new puzzle every day in three difficulties.
How do the Easy, Medium and Hard versions differ?
They share the same rules but scale up the grid and the number of dominoes, with tighter and more overlapping constraints as you climb. Our hints page splits hints by difficulty so you only see the one you are playing.
Where do I find today's Pips hint?
On our home page. Pick your difficulty, read a nudge or two, and reveal the full answer only if you want it. We update every morning and show a “last checked” time.
Will the hints spoil the puzzle?
No — that is the point. Hints unlock one at a time and stop short of the answer. The full solution sits behind a separate reveal, so you stay in control of how much help you get.
How does the Pips Solver work?
The solver places dominoes using a backtracking search: it tries a tile, checks the affected region, and undoes it the moment a rule breaks. It then shows the finished board along with the reasoning for each step. It runs entirely in your browser.
What do the colours and symbols mean?
Each colour marks one region, and its corner label is the rule: “= N” is a target sum, “=” means every cell equal, “≠” means no repeats, and “> N” / “< N” are totals above or below N. Full breakdown on the how to play page.
Are your hints written by a person or generated?
They are generated from our own solver output. That is why a hint can tell you exactly which rule forces a tile into place — it knows which constraint eliminated every other option. Each board is solved and verified before its hints are published.
Does every Pips board have only one solution?
No. Many boards have several valid arrangements, and some have thousands. Our solver stops at the first valid one, which is all you need to finish the puzzle.
Are the unlimited games the same as the official puzzle?
No. Our unlimited games are our own practice versions with randomised boards. The official daily puzzle lives on the NYT Games site.
Are you affiliated with The New York Times?
No. This is an independent, fan-made resource. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The New York Times. We provide original hints, explanations and tools only.
Still stuck on today’s board? Jump straight totoday’s hints or let thesolver work it out.