NYT Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle: cover every board square exactly once with the supplied tiles, while making the pip values in each colored region obey its badge. The key is to count each domino half in the cell it occupies—not to treat a tile crossing a boundary as belonging to one region.
What you do in Pips
Each board is a grid of cells, some grouped into colored regions. Place the supplied dominoes so every cell is covered once. A tile covers two adjacent cells and can be rotated to fit horizontally or vertically. Uncolored cells still need tiles, but have no additional pip condition. The New York Times introduced Pips as a logic game in August 2025; its announcement is available from The New York Times Company announcement republished by Publicnow.
What the region symbols mean
Read the badge attached to a colored region before placing tiles. A numbered equals sign is a sum target; a bare equals sign is a different rule about matching values.
| Badge | Rule |
|---|---|
| = 9 | The pips in all cells of the region must add up to exactly 9. The number shown is the target, not a per-cell value. |
| = | Every cell value in the region must be the same. This does not mean that the values add to a target. |
| ≠ | Every cell value in the region must be different; any repeated value breaks the rule. |
| < n | The sum of all pips in the region must be less than n. |
| > n | The sum of all pips in the region must be greater than n. |
| No badge | No extra pip-value rule applies to those cells. |
How to count a domino that crosses regions
Apply the rule to cells, not whole tiles. If a domino covers one cell in a region marked = 9 and one cell in a neighboring region marked ≠, the first half contributes its pips to the sum of 9 and the second half must be distinct from the other values in the second region. The tile does not belong exclusively to either region. This boundary rule is a frequent source of mistaken deductions; EnergyPips explains the symbols and region behavior in its Pips rules guide.
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A reliable way to solve a board
- Map the constraints. Identify each region’s cells and badge. Separate rules about sums from rules about individual values, and note any uncolored cells that still need covering.
- Start with the most restrictive regions. For an exact sum, compare the target with the number of cells and the available pip values. Rule out combinations that cannot reach the target, and look for combinations that leave only one viable option.
- Include tile geometry in the arithmetic. A candidate value must come from an available domino half, and the domino must fit the neighboring cells. Check both orientations where possible; a half placed across a boundary is counted in the region containing that cell.
- Test bare equals and not-equals rules against the tray. For a bare-equal region, all cells need one shared value, so eliminate a candidate if there are not enough remaining halves of that value. For a not-equal region, track every value already placed there so a later half cannot repeat it.
- Delay broad inequalities when they do not yet narrow the board. A
<or>badge may allow several totals early on. Revisit it after neighboring placements determine more of the region’s contents, then calculate the total. - Keep the board tileable after each placement. Every uncovered cell must still have at least one uncovered adjacent cell. If a placement leaves a cell with no empty neighbor, that cell can no longer be covered by a domino; undo the placement or reconsider an earlier assumption.
- Use trials to learn, then backtrack promptly. If a candidate placement is not forced, record what it implies for the regions and neighboring cells. Reverse it as soon as those implications conflict with a rule or make coverage impossible.
Why harder boards can feel less obvious
EnergyPips reports that, in its analysis of 392 days of published boards, hard boards averaged 26.2 squares versus 9.9 on easy boards. It also reports that loose regions accounted for 40% of regions on easy boards and 29% on hard boards. These are EnergyPips’ own figures, published in 2026, not independently audited measurements; see its rules and difficulty guide.
A 2025 paper by Alessandro Giovanni Alberti, Flavio Chierichetti, Mirko Giacchini, Daniele Muscillo, Alessandro Panconesi, and Erasmo Tani states: “The problem of deciding whether a Pips puzzle is solvable is NP-Complete.” That is a theoretical complexity result for the generalized puzzle problem, including a stated restricted class—not a claim that a daily board is impractical for a person to solve. The paper is available on arXiv.
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Do you need physical dominoes?
No. Pips is played digitally and supplies its tiles on screen. A double-six domino set can be an optional tactile aid for practicing pip recognition, but it is neither required nor a replacement for the game. The optional use is described by the author of the brianberns Pips solver repository.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Daily boards and archive access
A September 2026 guide describes Easy, Medium, and Hard daily boards, limited free access, and archive access through a NYT Games subscription. Access terms can change, so check the current NYT Games Pips page for the availability and subscription conditions that apply now.
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