NYT Pips Hints, Answers and Walkthrough for Saturday, November 14, 2026

Saturday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Easy and Medium offer compact opening challenges before Hard spreads across a broken-up board with several separate islands. The shift rewards a fresh look at the board's shape before you start matching numbers. We've got quick hints and full solutions for Easy, Medium, and Hard.

How to Play Pips

Pips is a domino placement puzzle where you fill a grid of condition zones. Each zone has a rule you must satisfy using the pip values on your dominoes. The twist: you must use every domino and meet every condition to win.

Zone Conditions:

• = All pips in this zone must show the same number
• Not Equal All pips must be different numbers
• > Pips must be greater than the listed number
• < Pips must be less than the listed number
• Exact Number Pips must total that exact value
• No Condition Free space, any domino value works

Click or tap dominoes to rotate them. Each puzzle has one or more valid solutions. When two zones share the same rule, we number them in reading order, top to bottom.

Today's Easy Pips

The Easy board runs five rows by three columns, with ten open cells and five dominoes to place. Its condition zones: a three-cell zone that must total 8, a two-cell zone that must total 8, a two-cell zone where every pip must match, a single cell that must total 4, a single cell that must show more than 2. Any other open cell is a free space.

Quick Hint: Start with the two-cell equality zone on the lower left. There are no doubles in the pool, so its matching values must come from separate dominoes.

Today's Medium Pips

The Medium board runs four rows by five columns, with 14 open cells and seven dominoes to place. Its condition zones: a three-cell zone where every pip must match, a three-cell zone that must total less than 8, a single cell that must show less than 3, a single cell that must show more than 4, a single cell that must total 0, a three-cell zone where every pip must differ, a single cell that must total 2, a single cell that must total 3. Any other open cell is a free space.

Quick Hint: Begin with the single cell in the second row that must exceed 4, and inspect the pool for an end that qualifies. Check its partner against the three-cell zone directly below, whose total must stay below 8.

Today's Hard Pips

The Hard board runs nine rows by seven columns, with 32 open cells and 16 dominoes to place. Its condition zones: a three-cell zone that must total 18, two single cells that must total 5, a two-cell zone that must total less than 4, a three-cell zone that must total 12, a three-cell zone that must total 6, three single cells that must total 0, a two-cell zone that must total 9, a single cell that must show more than 3, a two-cell zone where every pip must differ, a two-cell zone that must total 5, a three-cell zone where every pip must match, a four-cell zone that must total 5, a single cell that must show more than 5. Any other open cell is a free space.

Quick Hint: Start with the three-cell zone totaling 18 at the top left. Compare that target with the largest value in the pool, and you'll find that none of those cells can fall below that maximum.

Pips Solutions

Last chance to solve independently: full solutions below

---

---

---

---

---

Easy Pips Solution

1. 1.Place the 2-4 domino horizontally across the equals zone and the first sum-8 zone, with the 2 in the equals zone.
2. 2.Place the 2-0 domino horizontally across the equals zone and the second sum-8 zone, with the 2 in the equals zone.
3. 3.Place the 2-6 domino vertically in the second sum-8 zone.
4. 4.Place the 4-1 domino vertically with the 4 in the sum-4 cell and the 1 on a free cell.
5. 5.Place the 4-3 domino horizontally across the first sum-8 zone and the more-than-2 cell, with the 4 in the first sum-8 zone.

Medium Pips Solution

1. 1.Place the 3-2 domino vertically across the less-than-8 zone and the less-than-3 cell, with the 3 in the less-than-8 zone.
2. 2.Place the 2-2 domino vertically across the sum-2 cell and the unequal zone, with the 2 in the sum-2 cell.
3. 3.Place the 0-4 domino vertically across the sum-0 cell and the unequal zone, with the 0 in the sum-0 cell.
4. 4.Place the 6-3 domino vertically across the more-than-4 cell and the less-than-8 zone, with the 6 in the more-than-4 cell.
5. 5.Place the 4-1 domino vertically across the equals zone and the less-than-8 zone, with the 4 in the equals zone.
6. 6.Place the 4-4 domino horizontally in the equals zone.
7. 7.Place the 3-3 domino vertically across the unequal zone and the sum-3 cell, with the 3 in the unequal zone.

Hard Pips Solution

1. 1.Place the 4-5 domino horizontally across the first sum-5 zone and the second sum-5 cell, with the 4 in the first sum-5 zone.
2. 2.Place the 2-2 domino horizontally in the sum-6 zone.
3. 3.Place the 6-2 domino horizontally in the unequal zone.
4. 4.Place the 0-1 domino horizontally across the second sum-5 zone and the equals zone, with the 0 in the second sum-5 zone.
5. 5.Place the 1-1 domino vertically in the equals zone.
6. 6.Place the 0-3 domino vertically with the 0 in the first sum-0 cell and the 3 on a free cell.
7. 7.Place the 2-1 domino horizontally in the less-than-4 zone.
8. 8.Place the 3-6 domino vertically in the sum-9 zone.
9. 9.Place the 2-3 domino horizontally in the second sum-5 zone.
10. 10.Place the 0-0 domino vertically across the third sum-0 cell and the second sum-5 zone, with the 0 in the third sum-0 cell.
11. 11.Place the 4-6 domino vertically across the sum-12 zone and the sum-18 zone, with the 4 in the sum-12 zone.
12. 12.Place the 4-0 domino vertically across the more-than-3 cell and the second sum-0 cell, with the 4 in the more-than-3 cell.
13. 13.Place the 6-1 domino vertically across the more-than-5 cell and the first sum-5 zone, with the 6 in the more-than-5 cell.
14. 14.Place the 5-2 domino vertically across the first sum-5 cell and the sum-6 zone, with the 5 in the first sum-5 cell.
15. 15.Place the 4-4 domino horizontally in the sum-12 zone.
16. 16.Place the 6-6 domino horizontally in the sum-18 zone.

Puzzle Debrief

Overall Difficulty: This set builds from an approachable Easy into a more demanding Medium, then makes its biggest jump at Hard. The pool grows from five dominoes to seven to sixteen, giving the final board substantially more pieces to keep track of.

Our Take: Our take is that Hard delivers the strongest contrast, with three sixes filling the top-left total of 18 while two blanks help keep the four-cell zone near the bottom at just 5. Those opposite demands make both ends of a domino worth checking.

Until Tomorrow

See you for the next set, with a fresh eye for tight totals and useful blanks.

Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.