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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →These are the hints and published walkthrough for the New York Times Pips puzzle dated Monday, December 8, 2025. The Hard board’s solution is below, with a spoiler warning before the placements. The accessible Forbes guide shows Easy and Medium answer images but does not provide their tile placements in text, so those solutions cannot be reliably listed here.
How to approach the December 8 Pips puzzle
Pips is a domino-based logic puzzle: place every available tile on the board so each colored region satisfies its rule. Tiles can be rotated. Depending on the region, its cells may need matching or different values, meet a greater-than or less-than threshold, add to an exact total, or have no additional restriction. You must track both where each domino goes and which half contributes to each region.
The date-specific guide was published by Erik Kain at Forbes on December 7, 2025, for the Monday, December 8 boards: Forbes: NYT Pips hints, answers, and walkthrough. The puzzle date matters: this is the 2025 board, not a puzzle from another year that happens to fall on December 8.
Easy and Medium hints and answers
The Forbes page includes answer screenshots for Easy and Medium, but its accessible text does not spell out the placements. A Yahoo Tech search snippet mentions a 0–3 domino placed vertically, but it does not establish which difficulty that placement belongs to or provide enough information to reconstruct either solution. For that reason, no Easy or Medium placement is attributed here.
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Hard board hints
Spoiler-light hint: The Hard board has two shapes, a capital “O” and a smaller “o.” Start with the most restrictive clues: put the available fives and sixes into the purple groups labeled 21 and 12, use twos in the pink equal group, and reserve zeroes for Orange 0. The published walkthrough works through the small “o” first, then fills the capital “O.”
Hard board walkthrough and answer
Spoiler warning: The placements below disclose the Hard solution published in the Forbes guide.
- Fill the small “o.” Put the 0/0 domino in the upper-left Orange 0 group. Place 0/4 vertically from Orange 0 into Dark Blue equal. Place 4/2 from Dark Blue equal into Pink equal, then put 2/2 in the next two Pink equal cells.
- Start the capital “O” at Purple 21. Place 2/5 from the free cell into Purple 21, then place 5/5 in the next two Purple 21 cells. Put 6/3 from Purple 21 down into Blue greater-than-2.
- Continue through Purple 12. Place 2/6 in the next free cell down into Purple 12, then lay 6/0 across Purple 12 into Blue equal.
- Connect the remaining equal and total groups. Place 0/1 from Blue equal into Green equal, then 1/4 from Green equal up into Pink 7. Place 3/0 from Pink 7 into the second-to-last free cell.
- Close the small shape. Return to the small “o” and place 2/1 from Pink equal into the final free cell.
This is the published walkthrough, not a verified claim that the board has only one solution. Kain notes uncertainty about whether another valid Hard arrangement exists.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Play the New York Times Pips game
Open NYT Pips to play. The placements above are specific to the December 8, 2025 puzzle.
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