NYT Pips Hints and Answers for Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026: Easy, Medium and Hard Domino Placements

Thursday’s Pips from The New York Times (NYT), for Oct. 29, 2026, has an Easy board by Ian Livengood and Medium and Hard boards by Rodolfo Kurchan; two hints for each come first, and every domino placement is at the end. The solutions come from the puzzle data the Times publishes for the game and were checked against every region’s rule. The boards go live at midnight in your time zone.

How Pips works

You place every domino so that each colored region meets its condition. A number means the pips in the region add up to it; = means every half shows the same value; ≠ means all are different; > and < set a total above or below a number; a region with no condition takes anything. Rows are counted from the top and columns from the left, so R2C5 is the second row, fifth column.

Thursday’s Pips hints, Oct. 29, 2026

Easy (five dominoes: 0-4, 0-5, 4-5, 3-6, 1-6)

• Hint 1

  R1C2 and R3C2 must each be less than 1, so both are blanks. The 0-4 and 0-5 dominoes supply them.
• Hint 2

  R4C3 must be more than 5, so it holds a 6. The 3-6 domino fills it, with its 3 in R4C2.

Medium (seven dominoes: 6-3, 5-0, 6-6, 1-6, 2-0, 1-2, 6-4)

• Hint 1

  R2C3, R3C2, R3C3 and R4C3 are equal. Only the 6 appears on enough dominoes to fill four cells, with five 6 halves in all.
• Hint 2

  R4C4 must be less than 1, so it is a blank. The 5-0 domino fills it, with its 5 above in R3C4.

Hard (fourteen dominoes on a nine-row board)

• Hint 1

  R2C9 must add up to 6. The 6-0 domino sits there, with its 0 in R2C8.
• Hint 2

  R6C4 must add up to 2. The 3-2 domino sits there, with its 3 in R6C5.

Solving tips

Look for single cells with a limit: a cell that must be less than 1 can only hold a blank, and one that must add up to 6 can only hold a 6. An “equal” region shrinks your options fast once you count the halves; with four cells, as in Thursday’s Medium and Hard boards, you need four matching halves, and a double can supply two of them. On the Hard board, count the blanks: there are five 0 halves among the 14 dominoes.

More of Thursday’s puzzles: Wordle hints, Connections hints and Spelling Bee hints. Track your solve times on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 calendar.

Thursday’s Pips answers, Oct. 29, 2026 (spoilers)

Stop here if you want to solve the boards yourself.

Some dominoes on the Medium and Hard boards can be flipped without breaking a rule. The values below are one arrangement that fits the placements in the puzzle data and every region’s condition.

Easy, by Ian Livengood. Regions: R1C2 is less than 1; R2C1 is more than 4; R2C4 is less than 3; R3C2 is less than 1; R3C3 and R3C4 add up to 10; R4C3 is more than 5; R1C3, R3C1 and R4C2 take any value.

• 0-4: R3C2 = 0, R3C3 = 4
• 0-5: R1C2 = 0, R1C3 = 5
• 4-5: R3C1 = 4, R2C1 = 5
• 3-6: R4C2 = 3, R4C3 = 6
• 1-6: R2C4 = 1, R3C4 = 6

Medium, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R2C1, R3C1 and R4C1 add up to 3; R2C2 is more than 3; R2C3, R3C2, R3C3 and R4C3 are equal; R4C2 and R5C2 total less than 5; R4C4 is less than 1; R1C1, R2C4 and R3C4 take any value.

• 6-3: R2C3 = 6, R2C4 = 3
• 5-0: R3C4 = 5, R4C4 = 0
• 6-6: R3C3 = 6, R4C3 = 6
• 1-6: R2C1 = 1, R1C1 = 6
• 2-0: R4C1 = 2, R3C1 = 0
• 1-2: R5C2 = 1, R4C2 = 2
• 6-4: R3C2 = 6, R2C2 = 4

Hard, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R1C7, R1C8, R2C7 and R2C8 add up to 8; R2C6 is less than 3; R2C9 adds up to 6; R3C1 and R4C1 total more than 5; R3C2 and R3C3 total more than 7; R3C7, R4C7, R5C6 and R5C7 are equal; R3C8 is more than 1; R4C3, R5C3 and R6C3 are all different; R4C4 and R5C4 add up to 7; R5C5, R6C5 and R6C6 are equal; R6C4 adds up to 2; R7C4 and R8C4 add up to 3; R9C4 and R9C5 take any value.

• 0-3: R7C4 = 0, R8C4 = 3
• 6-0: R2C9 = 6, R2C8 = 0
• 3-2: R6C5 = 3, R6C4 = 2
• 4-3: R5C4 = 4, R5C5 = 3
• 6-6: R4C7 = 6, R5C7 = 6
• 0-1: R9C4 = 0, R9C5 = 1
• 0-5: R6C3 = 0, R5C3 = 5
• 1-5: R3C1 = 1, R4C1 = 5
• 2-6: R3C8 = 2, R3C7 = 6
• 3-6: R6C6 = 3, R5C6 = 6
• 3-5: R3C2 = 3, R3C3 = 5
• 2-4: R2C6 = 2, R2C7 = 4
• 1-3: R4C3 = 1, R4C4 = 3
• 4-0: R1C8 = 4, R1C7 = 0

The four-cell equal region on the Hard board is all 6s, from the 6-6, 2-6 and 3-6 dominoes. Friday’s boards arrive at midnight.