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Spoiler warning: The Hard board’s published walkthrough spells COOL. If you want to solve it yourself first, use the rules and partial Easy hints below before opening the Hard placements. The complete Easy and Medium layouts could not be verified, so they are not filled in here.
Hints for the January 3, 2026 NYT Pips puzzle
Pips is a domino-based logic puzzle: place every supplied domino in the grid, rotating pieces when needed, and make each colored region satisfy its displayed condition. A clue may require equal or different pip values, a greater-than or less-than relationship, or a particular total; some cells may have no additional restriction. Read the clue on the board, since the rule’s exact meaning depends on its displayed wording.
Easy
The accessible excerpt of Mashable’s syndicated answer coverage, surfaced through Yahoo, verifies two placements: 6–4 horizontally and 3–1 horizontally. Those two placements are only partial hints; they do not establish the rest of the board.
Medium
No complete Medium placement list could be verified. There is not enough evidence here to give a reliable layout.
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Hard
Forbes’ January 2, 2026 walkthrough for the Saturday, January 3 puzzle gives the Hard solution as COOL. The placements below follow the walkthrough’s sequence. Match the named regions and values to your board, and rotate dominoes as needed to fit.
- First O: Place 6/2 from Dark Blue 10 into Blue 10. Put 4/4 in the remaining Blue 10 cells. Place 1/1 in the next two Green 2 cells, then place 0/4 from Green 2 into Dark Blue 10.
- Second O: Place 6/3 from Dark Blue 10 into Pink 5. Place 2/3 from Pink 5 into Blue 5. Put 2/1 from Blue 5 down into Purple 2, then place 1/4 from Purple 2 into Dark Blue 10.
- C: Place 0/5 from Purple 0 into Orange 10. Put 5/4 from Orange 10 into Purple 10, then place 6/1 from Purple 10 into Pink > 0.
- Finish the L: Place 3/1 from Orange > 2 into Green ≠, then put 0/1 from Green ≠ into the single unrestricted cell.
This is the solution shown in the published walkthrough; it should not be read as proof that the board has only one valid solution. The available date-specific evidence does not establish the complete Easy or Medium answers.
Quick Recap
How to use the clues without spoiling the board
- Check the region’s displayed condition before placing a domino; do not assume every symbol works the same way across boards.
- Keep track of both halves of each domino. A piece may need to be rotated to satisfy neighboring region conditions while still fitting the grid.
- Use every provided domino to fill the board, and verify the completed regions against their clues rather than relying only on the shape formed by the placements.
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