The NYT Pips puzzle for Thursday, January 1, 2026, has three difficulty tiers. The date-specific walkthrough available for this edition gives the Hard puzzle’s placements below; it shows the Easy and Medium solutions as images, but their exact domino values and placements are not available in its text. The Hard board is identified as puzzle No. 26.
How Pips works
Pips is a domino-placement logic puzzle: use every domino to fill the board, placing each half in a cell while satisfying the rule shown for that cell or colored region. A domino’s orientation matters because its two values go into different cells.
- = means the pips in the marked region must be equal.
- ≠ means the pips must be different.
- > and < indicate a greater-than or less-than condition.
- An exact-value region must meet the displayed total or value condition.
- Unrestricted cells have no additional marked condition.
For a general explanation of the game, Kaycee Hill’s Tom’s Guide overview, published August 31, 2025, describes the objective, regional constraints, and rotation.
Hard puzzle walkthrough
The following placement sequence is from Erik Kain’s Forbes guide for this date, published December 31, 2025. Follow the indicated region transitions and orientation; the dominoes listed are the values placed at each step.
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- Place 1/2 from Purple 1 into Pink 2.
- Place 6/2 from Blue 6 into Orange =. Put 2/2 in each of the next two Orange = cells.
- From the final Orange = cell, place 2/5 into the first free tile.
- Place 5/5 in the two right-hand Pink = cells. From Pink =, place 5/0 into the second free tile.
- Place 1/0 from Green 1 into Dark Blue =. Put 0/0 in each of the next two Dark Blue = cells.
- From Dark Blue =, place 0/4 into Blue =. Place 4/4 beside it.
- Finish Blue = with 4/6 oriented up into Purple =. Place 6/1 from Purple = into the third and final free tile.
Kain describes the Hard board as relatively easy; that is his subjective assessment, not an official difficulty rating.
What is available for Easy and Medium
| Tier | What the date-specific guide provides | What can be stated here |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | Solution shown as an image | Exact domino values and placements are not stated in the guide’s accessible text. |
| Medium | Solution shown as an image | Exact domino values and placements are not stated in the guide’s accessible text. |
| Hard | Placement walkthrough in text | The sequence above gives the listed placements. |
Because the Easy and Medium arrangements are image-based in the cited guide, their moves are not reproduced here from inference. Consult the original solution images or the relevant board if you need those exact placements.
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Sources and scope
The date and Hard sequence above follow Erik Kain’s Forbes article, “NYT Pips Today: Hints, Answers And Full Solution For Thursday, January 1,” published December 31, 2025. The rules explanation is consistent with Kaycee Hill’s Tom’s Guide article, “The New York Times has dropped a new puzzle game — here’s how to play Pips,” published August 31, 2025. The Hard placements are reported from that publisher walkthrough and have not been independently verified here. The sources identify NYT Games as the digital home of Pips but do not establish current access terms.
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