NYT Pips Hints and Answers for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026: Easy, Medium and Hard Domino Placements

Saturday’s Pips from The New York Times (NYT), for Oct. 31, 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.

Saturday’s Pips hints, Oct. 31, 2026

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

• Hint 1

  R2C1 and R2C2 must add up to 12, so both hold 6s. The 2-6 and 3-6 dominoes supply them.
• Hint 2

  R1C2, R1C3 and R2C3 are equal. They hold 3s, one each from the 3-2, 3-5 and 3-6 dominoes.

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

• Hint 1

  R3C3 must add up to 6. The 2-6 domino lies across it, with its 2 in R3C4.
• Hint 2

  R2C6 must be more than 4. The only 6 is already used in R3C3, so R2C6 is a 5, from the 5-4 domino.

Hard (fourteen dominoes on an eight-row board)

• Hint 1

  R3C3 and R4C3 add up to 0, so both are blanks. The 0-0 domino fills them.
• Hint 2

  R4C5, R4C6, R5C5 and R6C5 are equal and all hold 4s. They come from the 3-4, 4-4, 1-4 and 4-5 dominoes.

Solving tips

Look for single cells with a sum target: a cell that must add up to 1, 2, 3 or 6 can only hold that value. An “equal” region shrinks your options fast once one value is known; with four cells, as in Saturday’s Hard board, you need four matching halves, and a double can supply two of them. On the Hard board, count the blanks: there are three 0 halves among the 14 dominoes.

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

Saturday’s Pips answers, Oct. 31, 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: R1C1 adds up to 2; R1C2, R1C3 and R2C3 are equal; R1C4 and R1C5 total more than 5; R2C1 and R2C2 add up to 12; R2C4 is less than 3; R2C5 is more than 5.

• 2-6: R1C1 = 2, R2C1 = 6
• 3-2: R2C3 = 3, R2C4 = 2
• 3-5: R1C3 = 3, R1C4 = 5
• 1-6: R1C5 = 1, R2C5 = 6
• 3-6: R1C2 = 3, R2C2 = 6

Medium, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R1C2, R2C1 and R2C2 are all different; R1C3 and R2C3 total more than 3; R2C4, R2C5 and R3C4 are equal; R2C6 is more than 4; R3C1 and R3C2 add up to 5; R3C3 adds up to 6; R3C5 and R3C6 total more than 5.

• 2-6: R3C4 = 2, R3C3 = 6
• 2-0: R2C4 = 2, R2C3 = 0
• 5-4: R2C6 = 5, R3C6 = 4
• 2-3: R3C1 = 2, R3C2 = 3
• 1-0: R2C1 = 1, R2C2 = 0
• 4-3: R1C3 = 4, R1C2 = 3
• 2-2: R2C5 = 2, R3C5 = 2

Hard, by Rodolfo Kurchan. Regions: R1C3 and R2C3 add up to 3; R2C1 and R2C2 add up to 5; R3C3 and R4C3 add up to 0; R3C8 and R4C8 are different; R4C2 adds up to 3; R4C4 adds up to 3; R4C5, R4C6, R5C5 and R6C5 are equal; R4C7 and R5C7 total more than 8; R5C3 is more than 4; R5C4 and R6C4 add up to 7; R5C6 adds up to 1; R6C6 and R6C7 are equal; R7C5, R7C6 and R8C5 add up to 3; R3C2, R5C8 and R8C4 take any value.

• 5-5: R5C7 = 5, R5C8 = 5
• 4-4: R4C6 = 4, R4C7 = 4
• 5-2: R5C3 = 5, R5C4 = 2
• 1-4: R5C6 = 1, R5C5 = 4
• 2-0: R7C5 = 2, R7C6 = 0
• 0-0: R3C3 = 0, R4C3 = 0
• 1-3: R8C5 = 1, R8C4 = 3
• 2-3: R2C1 = 2, R2C2 = 3
• 3-6: R4C2 = 3, R3C2 = 6
• 4-6: R4C8 = 4, R3C8 = 6
• 1-2: R1C3 = 1, R2C3 = 2
• 4-5: R6C5 = 4, R6C4 = 5
• 3-4: R4C4 = 3, R4C5 = 4
• 2-2: R6C6 = 2, R6C7 = 2

The four-cell equal region on the Hard board is all 4s, from the 3-4, 4-4, 1-4 and 4-5 dominoes. Sunday’s boards arrive at midnight.