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Need help with the NYT Pips puzzles for Thursday, August 27, 2026? This page gives progressive hints for the easy, medium, and hard boards, followed by the full placements. Stop before a board’s answer list if you want to keep solving.
How to use these Pips hints
Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle: place each tile on the grid so the pip values in every colored region meet that region’s constraint. Constraints can call for an exact sum, equal or all-different values, or values above or below a threshold. Start with regions that permit the fewest values, then track each tile’s other half: placing one end can constrain a separate region. Check both squares occupied by every domino.
The three boards and placements below are reported by the independent solution pages NYT Game Solver and EnergyPips; they are not presented as a firsthand solve. The boards are easy #1221, medium #1234, and hard #1242. EnergyPips credits Ian Livengood with constructing easy and Rodolfo Kurchan with constructing medium and hard.
Easy board: 5 dominoes, 10 squares, 5 regions
Progressive hints
- Begin with the top-centre single square marked = 4. It must contain 4.
- The tray’s only double is 5-5. It cannot fit the all-different region, so use it in the equal-value pair.
- The other forced single-square regions are = 3 and > 5; they take 3 and 6, respectively.
Full placements
Coordinates below use rows and columns counted from 1, starting at the top-left. The placements are reported by EnergyPips.
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| Domino | Squares |
|---|---|
| 3-6 | r2c1 and r2c2 |
| 5-3 | r3c2 and r3c3 |
| 2-6 | r2c3 and r2c4 |
| 5-5 | r3c4 and r3c5 |
| 1-4 | r1c2 and r1c3 |
The all-different region reads 1, 6, 2, 5, 3; the single-square sums are 4 and 3; the > 5 square is 6; and the equal pair is 5, 5.
Medium board: 7 dominoes, 14 squares, 8 regions
Progressive hints
- Start at the top-centre single square marked > 4. Of the possible values, it resolves to 6.
- The tray contains 5-5 and 2-2 doubles. Three regions require equal values, so account for the doubles as you work through those regions.
Full placements
Coordinates are counted from the top-left. Placements and region values are reported by EnergyPips.
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| Domino | Squares |
|---|---|
| 5-5 | r3c5 and r4c5 |
| 2-2 | r3c3 and r3c4 |
| 3-1 | r1c3 and r1c4 |
| 2-6 | r2c2 and r1c2 |
| 1-5 | r1c5 and r2c5 |
| 2-4 | r3c2 and r3c1 |
| 5-3 | r2c4 and r2c3 |
Reported region values include 6 in the > 4 single square, 3 and 3 in the = 6 pair, and 1 and 1 in the < 4 pair. Equal-value regions include 2, 2 and 5, 5; an unrestricted single square takes 4; and the > 6 pair is reported as 5, 5.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Hard board: 15 dominoes, 30 squares, 13 regions
Progressive hints
- Start with the central single square marked = 5.
- The tray has four doubles: 5-5, 4-4, 6-6, and 3-3. The board has six equal-value regions, so keep those doubles in mind as you assign values.
- The bottom-left two-square = 0 region must contain two zeroes. Keep the tiles with zeroes available until their positions are constrained.
Full placements
Coordinates are counted from the top-left. These placements are reported by EnergyPips.
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| Domino | Squares |
|---|---|
| 2-0 | r5c1 and r6c1 |
| 3-6 | r1c4 and r1c5 |
| 5-5 | r1c1 and r2c1 |
| 4-4 | r1c2 and r1c3 |
| 6-6 | r4c5 and r5c5 |
| 5-1 | r2c6 and r1c6 |
| 3-3 | r2c5 and r3c5 |
| 5-4 | r3c1 and r4c1 |
| 3-1 | r3c4 and r3c3 |
| 5-6 | r3c6 and r4c6 |
| 3-5 | r2c4 and r2c3 |
| 2-4 | r5c6 and r6c6 |
| 6-1 | r4c4 and r4c3 |
| 2-1 | r6c5 and r6c4 |
| 3-0 | r6c3 and r6c2 |
The reported hard-board regions include an equal triple of 5s at top left, an equal pair of 4s near top centre, and a five-cell equal region of 3s. Other reported regions are the single-square = 5, the two-square = 0 region containing 0 and 0, and exact-sum regions: = 7 (6 and 1), = 8 (6 and 2), = 4 (3 and 1), and two = 6 regions (4 and 2; 2 and 4).
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