NYT Pips Hints and Answers for Friday, Nov. 6, 2026: Easy, Medium and Hard

Friday’s Pips from The New York Times (NYT), Nov. 6, 2026, starts with an Easy board built almost entirely from equal pairs. Ian Livengood made Easy, and Rodolfo Kurchan made Medium and a 14-domino Hard. Three of Easy’s five regions use the equal sign, which our Pips page explains along with the other symbols. The placements at the end come from the Times’ data and were checked against every region.

Where each Pips board starts on Nov. 6

Cell names count rows down and columns across, starting from the top-left cell.

Easy. R1C3 must be more than 4, so 5 or 6. Try a 6: the nine halves left would be 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5 and 6, and the three equal pairs need three matched values, which can only be the 0s, the 1s and the 3s. The leftover 2, 5 and 6 would then have to add up to 4 in the top-left region. They can’t, so R1C3 is a 5, and the 5-3 is the only domino with one.

Medium. R4C5 must be more than 4, and the 5-0 holds the board’s only 5. Its 0 goes to a neighbor of R4C5: R3C5 or R4C4. A 0 in R3C5 would ask R3C4 for a 5 to reach the total of 5, and no 5 is left. So the 0 sits in R4C4, the cell with no condition.

Hard. R1C5 touches only R2C5. R1C5 must be more than 4 and R2C5 less than 2, so the domino needs a 5 or 6 on one end and a 0 or 1 on the other. Only the 5-1 qualifies.

Friday’s three Pips boards side by side

Level	Dominoes	Regions	Sum	Equal	Not equal	Less or more than	No condition
Easy	5	5	1	3	0	1	0
Medium	7	6	1	1	1	2	1
Hard	14	18	9	2	2	5	0

Counts come from the Times’ data for Nov. 6. Easy has no sum region that covers a single cell, while six of Hard’s nine sums do.

Friday’s Pips hints, Nov. 6, 2026

Easy (five dominoes: 5-3, 2-6, 6-3, 0-0, 1-1)

• Hint 1

  R1C1, R1C2 and R2C1 must add up to 4, which keeps every 5 and 6 out of them.
• Hint 2

  R3C1 and R3C2 must match. The set has two 6s, and they sit on different dominoes.

Medium (seven dominoes: 2-4, 5-0, 4-1, 4-3, 2-0, 2-2, 4-4)

• Hint 1

  R3C2, R3C3, R4C2 and R4C3 form a square of one value. Only 2 and 4 appear on four or more halves.
• Hint 2

  R1C3 touches only R2C3, and both are in the region where every value differs, so that domino is not a double.

Hard (fourteen dominoes on a six-row board)

• Hint 1

  R2C3 must be a 6, and only the 6-4 and the 6-3 carry one.
• Hint 2

  R6C4, R6C5 and R6C6 must match along the bottom row. Three halves show a 0, two of them on the 0-0.

Easy, region by region. Each rule is listed; tap a region to see one value in it.

• R1C1, R1C2 and R2C1 add up to 4 (three cells)

  R1C1 holds a 1, on the 1-1 domino.
• R1C3 is more than 4 (one cell)

  R1C3 holds a 5, on the 5-3 domino.
• R2C3 and R3C3 are equal (two cells)

  R2C3 holds a 3, on the 5-3 domino.
• R3C1 and R3C2 are equal (two cells)

  R3C1 holds a 6, on the 2-6 domino.
• R4C2 and R4C3 are equal (two cells)

  R4C2 holds a 0, on the 0-0 domino.

Medium, region by region. Each rule is listed; tap a region to see one value in it.

• R1C3, R2C2 and R2C3 are all different (three cells)

  R1C3 holds a 2, on the 2-0 domino.
• R2C1, R3C1 and R4C1 total less than 10 (three cells)

  R2C1 holds a 2, on the 2-2 domino.
• R3C2, R3C3, R4C2 and R4C3 are equal (four cells)

  R3C2 holds a 4, on the 4-3 domino.
• R3C4 and R3C5 add up to 5 (two cells)

  R3C4 holds a 4, on the 4-1 domino.
• R4C4 takes any value (one cell)

  R4C4 holds a 0, on the 5-0 domino.
• R4C5 is more than 4 (one cell)

  R4C5 holds a 5, on the 5-0 domino.

Hard, region by region. Each rule is listed; tap a region to see one value in it.

• R1C1 adds up to 2 (one cell)

  The 2 comes from the 2-1 domino; its other half sits at R2C1.
• R1C2 and R1C3 are all different (two cells)

  R1C2 holds a 6, on the 6-3 domino.
• R1C5 is more than 4 (one cell)

  R1C5 holds a 5, on the 5-1 domino.
• R2C1 and R3C1 are equal (two cells)

  R2C1 holds a 1, on the 2-1 domino.
• R2C2 adds up to 4 (one cell)

  The 4 comes from the 4-3 domino; its other half sits at R3C2.
• R2C3 adds up to 6 (one cell)

  The 6 comes from the 6-4 domino; its other half sits at R2C4.
• R2C4 and R3C4 add up to 6 (two cells)

  R2C4 holds a 4, on the 6-4 domino.
• R2C5 is less than 2 (one cell)

  R2C5 holds a 1, on the 5-1 domino.
• R2C6 adds up to 4 (one cell)

  The 4 comes from the 4-4 domino; its other half sits at R3C6.
• R3C2 is less than 4 (one cell)

  R3C2 holds a 3, on the 4-3 domino.
• R3C5 and R3C6 are all different (two cells)

  R3C5 holds a 2, on the 2-2 domino.
• R4C1 and R5C1 add up to 3 (two cells)

  R4C1 holds a 1, on the 1-1 domino.
• R4C2 adds up to 5 (one cell)

  The 5 comes from the 5-4 domino; its other half sits at R5C2.
• R4C5, R4C6 and R5C6 total more than 9 (three cells)

  R4C5 holds a 2, on the 2-5 domino.
• R5C2 is more than 2 (one cell)

  R5C2 holds a 4, on the 5-4 domino.
• R6C1 adds up to 3 (one cell)

  The 3 comes from the 2-3 domino; its other half sits at R5C1.
• R6C2 and R6C3 add up to 5 (two cells)

  R6C2 holds a 1, on the 1-4 domino.
• R6C4, R6C5 and R6C6 are equal (three cells)

  R6C4 holds a 0, on the 0-0 domino.

Reading the boards before you check

Six single-cell sums on Hard give you six fixed values before any thinking: R1C1, R2C2, R2C3, R2C6, R4C2 and R6C1. Start with whichever has the fewest dominoes to offer. On Medium, R4C4 is the only cell without a rule. Hard carries four doubles today, 2-2, 1-1, 4-4 and 0-0, which makes the equal regions easier to fill.

More from Friday: Wordle hints, Connections hints and Spelling Bee hints. Our printable weekly calendar and the November 2026 calendar have room to note how long each board took.

Friday’s Pips answers, Nov. 6, 2026 (spoilers)

The solution follows. Each line gives a domino and the cell holding each of its halves.

Easy, by Ian Livengood. Regions: R3C2 and R3C1 are equal; R2C3 and R3C3 are equal; R4C2 and R4C3 are equal; R1C1, R1C2 and R2C1 add up to 4; R1C3 is more than 4.

• 5-3: R1C3 = 5, R2C3 = 3
• 2-6: R2C1 = 2, R3C1 = 6
• 6-3: R3C2 = 6, R3C3 = 3
• 0-0: R4C2 = 0, R4C3 = 0
• 1-1: R1C1 = 1, R1C2 = 1

Medium, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R1C3, R2C2 and R2C3 are different; R2C1, R3C1 and R4C1 total less than 10; R3C2, R3C3, R4C2 and R4C3 are equal; R3C4 and R3C5 add up to 5; R4C5 is more than 4; R4C4 takes any value.

• 2-4: R4C1 = 2, R4C2 = 4
• 5-0: R4C5 = 5, R4C4 = 0
• 4-1: R3C4 = 4, R3C5 = 1
• 4-3: R3C2 = 4, R2C2 = 3
• 2-0: R1C3 = 2, R2C3 = 0
• 2-2: R2C1 = 2, R3C1 = 2
• 4-4: R3C3 = 4, R4C3 = 4

Hard, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R1C1 adds up to 2; R1C2 and R1C3 are different; R2C1 and R3C1 are equal; R4C1 and R5C1 add up to 3; R6C1 adds up to 3; R2C2 adds up to 4; R3C2 is less than 4; R4C2 adds up to 5; R5C2 is more than 2; R6C2 and R6C3 add up to 5; R6C4, R6C5 and R6C6 are equal; R4C5, R4C6 and R5C6 total more than 9; R2C3 adds up to 6; R2C4 and R3C4 add up to 6; R3C5 and R3C6 are different; R2C6 adds up to 4; R1C5 is more than 4; R2C5 is less than 2.

• 1-4: R6C2 = 1, R6C3 = 4
• 2-2: R3C4 = 2, R3C5 = 2
• 5-4: R4C2 = 5, R5C2 = 4
• 1-1: R3C1 = 1, R4C1 = 1
• 2-1: R1C1 = 2, R2C1 = 1
• 5-1: R1C5 = 5, R2C5 = 1
• 6-4: R2C3 = 6, R2C4 = 4
• 6-3: R1C2 = 6, R1C3 = 3
• 4-4: R2C6 = 4, R3C6 = 4
• 2-5: R4C5 = 2, R4C6 = 5
• 3-0: R5C6 = 3, R6C6 = 0
• 2-3: R5C1 = 2, R6C1 = 3
• 4-3: R2C2 = 4, R3C2 = 3
• 0-0: R6C4 = 0, R6C5 = 0

No Easy domino flips. On Medium, the 4-1 and the 2-0 can be turned around, and on Hard the 1-4, 6-3 and 2-5 can, without breaking a rule. Saturday’s puzzles arrive at midnight.