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Spoiler warning: This guide starts with hints for the January 12, 2026 NYT Pips puzzles, then gives the listed domino placements for Easy, Medium, and Hard. Stop before the answer section for your difficulty if you want to solve it yourself.
Hints before the answers
The independent NYT Pips Hint archive recommends looking first for scarce pip values and regions with tightly constrained sums or inequalities. Equal regions can serve as anchors; after placing the more constrained dominoes, check that every remaining tile satisfies all its regions. These are general suggestions from the archive, not a verified reconstruction of the boards.
- Easy: Use the equal regions as anchors: the Light Blue region takes 5s, while the Red region takes 4s. The 1 belongs in Green <3, and a 6 enters Purple >5.
- Medium: The Green 2 region is filled by 0+2+0. The Yellow equal region uses 5, and the Red equal region uses 1s. A 5 enters Light Blue <6; a 3 enters Blue <5.
- Hard: Begin with Red 4 (2+2) and Purple 2 (0+0+1+1). Other target regions include Green 10, Light Blue equal, Purple 4, Yellow 10, and Red 12.
The archive identifies the date as Monday, January 12, 2026, and lists Easy puzzle ID 525, Medium ID 549, and Hard ID 569. Its Easy constructor is Ian Livengood; Medium and Hard are attributed to Rodolfo Kurchan. A Forbes search result called the date Tuesday, but its article was inaccessible, so that weekday conflict is unresolved. The placements below are transcribed from the archive’s written walkthrough; the boards were not independently reconstructed or played through. NYT Pips Hint archive
Full answers and listed placements
Continue only to the section for your difficulty to avoid seeing the other solutions.
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Easy — puzzle ID 525
The archive lists these dominoes: 6-4, 5-5, 5-4, 5-2, and 1-0.
- Place 2-5 horizontally, with the 5 in the Light Blue equal region.
- Place 5-4 horizontally, with the 5 in Light Blue and the 4 in Red equal.
- Place 4-6 horizontally, with the 4 in Red equal and the 6 in Purple >5.
- Place 1-0 horizontally, with the 1 in Green <3.
- Place 5-5 horizontally, with one 5 completing Blue 5.
Medium — puzzle ID 549
The listed dominoes are 6-0, 5-3, 5-2, 5-1, 5-0, 2-0, and 1-1.
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- Use 0+2+0 to complete Green 2.
- Place a 5 in Yellow equal and 1s in Red equal.
- Place 2-5 with the 5 entering Light Blue <6.
- Place 0-6 with the 6 in the blank.
- Place 5-3 with the 3 entering Blue <5.
Hard — puzzle ID 569
The archive lists 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, 5-3, 5-2, 5-0, 4-4, 4-3, 3-2, 2-0, and 1-1.
- Complete Red 4 with 2+2.
- Complete Purple 2 with 0+0+1+1.
- Place 5+5 in Green 10.
- Put 3s in Light Blue equal.
- Complete Purple 4 with 2+2.
- Place 5+5 in Yellow 10.
- Place 6+6 in Red 12.
- Place 4-4 horizontally in the bottom blank.
These are the sequence and placements given in the archive’s written solution, rather than an independently checked layout. The archive’s linked official game is NYT Pips.
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