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There are three Pips boards for March 18, 2026: easy, medium and hard. Start with the spoiler-free clues below; the full region values and domino placements follow in a clearly marked solution section. These are independently reported solutions, not answers published by The New York Times.
Hints for March 18
Try these clues before scrolling to the full placements. Board coordinates in the solutions count rows and columns from the top-left, starting at 1.
Easy
- The bottom-left and bottom-right exact-3 cells must each contain 3.
- The central four-cell equal region is all 6s; the top-left equal pair is 4,4.
Medium
- The top-centre and middle-right exact-3 cells each contain 3.
- The four-cell equal region at bottom left is all zeroes.
Hard
- The top-centre exact-5 cell contains 5.
- The four-cell exact-0 region is all zeroes, while the four-cell exact-24 region is all sixes.
Full solutions
Stop here if you want to solve the boards yourself. The following values and tile placements are reported by the independent EnergyPips archive, which says it is not affiliated with The New York Times.
Easy — 12 squares, 6 dominoes
| Region | Values |
|---|---|
| Top-left row of 2, all equal | 4, 4 |
| Top-centre single cell, unrestricted | 3 |
| Top-right single cell, greater than 4 | 5 |
| Middle-centre single cell, unrestricted | 5 |
| Middle-centre four-cell all-equal region | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
| Bottom-left single cell, exact 3 | 3 |
| Bottom-centre single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Bottom-right single cell, exact 3 | 3 |
Domino placements:
- 6-5: row 2, columns 3 and 2
- 6-6: row 2, columns 4 and 5
- 2-3: row 3, columns 2 and 1
- 4-4: row 1, columns 1 and 2
- 6-3: row 3, columns 5 and 6
- 3-5: row 1, columns 5 and 6
Medium — 16 squares, 8 dominoes
| Region | Values |
|---|---|
| Top-centre single cell, exact 3 | 3 |
| Middle-centre column of 2, all equal | 1, 1 |
| Middle-centre single cell, unrestricted | 0 |
| Middle-centre three-cell all-equal region | 5, 5, 5 |
| Middle-centre single cell, greater than 3 | 4 |
| Middle-right single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Middle-right single cell, exact 3 | 3 |
| Bottom-left row of 4, all equal | 0, 0, 0, 0 |
| Bottom-centre row of 2, all equal | 4, 4 |
Domino placements:
- 4-3: row 4, column 6 and row 3, column 6
- 3-0: row 1, column 3 and row 2, column 3
- 1-1: row 2, column 2 and row 3, column 2
- 4-0: row 4, columns 5 and 4
- 0-0: row 4, columns 1 and 2
- 0-5: row 4, column 3 and row 3, column 3
- 4-2: row 2, columns 5 and 6
- 5-5: row 2, column 4 and row 3, column 4
Hard — 32 squares, 16 dominoes
| Region | Values |
|---|---|
| Top-centre single cell, exact 5 | 5 |
| Top-right single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Middle-centre column of 4, exact 4 | 1, 1, 1, 1 |
| Middle-right column of 3, exact 11 | 4, 4, 3 |
| Middle-centre single cell, exact 3 | 3 |
| Middle-centre row of 2, exact 10 | 5, 5 |
| Middle-centre single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Middle-centre column of 2, exact 9 | 5, 4 |
| Middle-centre four-cell block, exact 24 | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
| Middle-centre column of 4, exact 0 | 0, 0, 0, 0 |
| Middle-left single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Middle-centre three-cell block, exact 10 | 3, 3, 4 |
| Middle-centre column of 2, exact 10 | 5, 5 |
| Middle-centre single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Bottom-left single cell, unrestricted | 2 |
| Bottom-centre single cell, exact 3 | 3 |
Domino placements:
- 3-1: row 3, columns 4 and 3
- 6-5: row 5, columns 5 and 4
- 1-1: row 4, column 3 and row 5, column 3
- 4-0: row 6, columns 4 and 5
- 5-3: row 8, columns 4 and 3
- 2-2: row 8, column 1 and row 9, column 1
- 1-5: row 2, column 3 and row 1, column 3
- 6-6: row 5, column 6 and row 6, column 6
- 4-2: row 2, column 7 and row 1, column 7
- 6-3: row 5, column 7 and row 4, column 7
- 4-5: row 3, columns 7 and 6
- 3-2: row 9, column 6 and row 8, column 6
- 5-0: row 9, columns 4 and 5
- 4-3: row 9, columns 3 and 2
- 0-0: row 7, column 5 and row 8, column 5
- 5-2: row 3, column 5 and row 4, column 5
How to read the clues
Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle. Place every tile across the board so the pip values in each colored region satisfy its rule. Depending on the region, that may mean reaching an exact total, matching values, staying above or below a threshold, or using distinct values; some cells have no rule. Begin with small regions and exact totals, then use the remaining dominoes to satisfy the larger or less constrained areas.
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About this date’s puzzle set
The March 18 set has easy, medium and hard boards. EnergyPips credits Ian Livengood with constructing the easy and medium boards, Rodolfo Kurchan with the hard board, and Ian Livengood as editor. The board sizes and tile counts above are specific to this date, not general measures of difficulty. A Reddit community thread identifies the puzzle as #213, but that number was not confirmed against a directly accessible NYT source.
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