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Spoiler warning: This page contains the full solutions to all three NYT Pips boards dated April 16, 2026: Easy, Medium and Hard. If you want to solve them yourself, stop here. The date is historical, not today’s date.
April 16, 2026 answers at a glance
The three boards use different layouts and tile sets. EnergyPips’ dated answer guide reports 5 dominoes for Easy, 7 for Medium and 14 for Hard. The same guide identifies Ian Livengood as Easy’s constructor and editor, and Rodolfo Kurchan as constructor of Medium and Hard. EnergyPips’ April 16 answer guide.
| Board | Squares | Dominoes | Opening clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 10 | 5 | Use the marked sums and equality regions to determine values. |
| Medium | 14 | 7 | Check the 6-sum regions and the single-cell 6. |
| Hard | 28 | 14 | Start with the single-cell sum-4 region; the board has four doubles. |
How to read the solutions
Each region entry below gives the values that must occupy its cells; the order is not a placement map. “Sum” means the values in that region total the stated number, “equal” means every cell in it has the same value, and an unrestricted cell has no additional regional condition. Domino locations are listed separately as row-column pairs, counted from the board’s top-left with rows and columns starting at 1. The general rules are also summarized by Tom’s Guide’s Pips explainer.
Easy board solution
Region values
- Sum 6: 1 and 5.
- Unrestricted cell: 0.
- Sum 4: 4.
- Equal region: 3 and 3.
- Unrestricted cell: 2.
- Sum 1: 1.
- Equal region: 4 and 4.
Domino placements
- 2–4: r3c4 / r4c4
- 4–1: r4c3 / r4c2
- 3–5: r3c3 / r2c3
- 3–4: r3c2 / r3c1
- 0–1: r1c4 / r1c3
Medium board solution
Region values
- Sum 6: 0 and 6.
- Sum 6: 4 and 2.
- Greater-than-zero region: 5.
- Equal region: 3 and 3.
- Single-cell sum 6: 6.
- Equal three-cell region: 4, 4 and 4.
- Sum 10: 5 and 5.
- Unrestricted cell: 3.
Domino placements
- 4–6: r4c1 / r3c1
- 3–5: r3c4 / r4c4
- 0–4: r1c2 / r1c3
- 5–6: r2c1 / r2c2
- 3–2: r2c4 / r2c3
- 5–4: r4c3 / r4c2
- 3–4: r5c3 / r5c2
Hard board solution
Region values
- Equal four-cell region: 5, 5, 5 and 5.
- Equal two-cell region: 6 and 6.
- Single-cell sum 4: 4.
- Equal three-cell region: 1, 1 and 1.
- Sum 8: 5 and 3.
- Equal five-cell region: 4, 4, 4, 4 and 4.
- Sum 8: 3 and 5.
- Equal two-cell region: 1 and 1.
- Equal five-cell region: 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0.
- Sum 5: 2 and 3.
Domino placements
- 1–1: r3c1 / r4c1
- 5–6: r1c4 / r1c5
- 4–1: r6c5 / r6c4
- 5–5: r1c2 / r1c3
- 1–0: r6c3 / r7c3
- 4–5: r2c1 / r1c1
- 3–1: r6c1 / r5c1
- 0–5: r8c1 / r7c1
- 4–4: r4c5 / r5c5
- 3–5: r4c3 / r3c3
- 0–0: r8c2 / r8c3
- 3–4: r8c5 / r7c5
- 2–0: r8c4 / r7c4
- 4–6: r3c5 / r2c5
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The answer guide is independent of The New York Times. To open the puzzle, visit NYT Games’ Pips page. This article does not establish current access prices or subscription requirements.
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