NYT Pips Hints, Answers and Walkthrough for Saturday, March 21, 2026

Saturday brings a recent set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today’s set options a mixture of easy placement challenges and some intelligent domino distribution puzzles that take a look at your spatial reasoning. We’ve bought hints, step-by-step walkthroughs, and full options for Easy, Medium, and Hard issue ranges.

How to Play Pips

Pips is a domino placement puzzle the place you fill a grid of color-coded zones. Each zone has a situation you should fulfill utilizing the pip values ​​in your domains. The twist: you should use each domino and meet each situation to win.

Zone Conditions:

• = All pips on this zone should equal the identical quantity
• Not Equal All pips have to be completely different numbers
• > Pips have to be higher than the listed quantity
• < Pips have to be lower than the listed quantity
• Exact Number Pips should whole that precise worth
• No Color Free house, any domino worth works

Click or faucet dominoes to rotate them. Each puzzle has a number of legitimate options.

Today’s Easy Pips

Quick Hints (No Spoilers)

Starting Point: Look on the pink zone requiring precisely 12 pips whole – it will want a number of dominoes.

Key Insight: The orange and navy zones each require 0 pips, that means they will solely comprise dominoes with 0 on a minimum of one aspect.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

1. 1.Start with the pink zone requiring precisely 12 pips. You’ll want to position dominoes that sum to 12.
2. 2.The orange and navy zones each require 0 pips, so they need to comprise dominoes with 0 on a minimum of one aspect.
3. 3.The purple and teal zones require all pips to be equal, so every domino positioned there should have equivalent numbers on each side.
4. 4.Place the 4/4 domino within the pink zone to contribute 8 pips towards the 12 whole.
5. 5.Add the 4/0 domino to the pink zone to succeed in precisely 12 pips whole.
6. 6.Place the two/2 domino within the purple zone to fulfill the “all equal” situation.
7. 7.Place the three/1 domino within the teal zone – notice that 3 and 1 are usually not equal, so this zone’s situation have to be happy otherwise.
8. 8.Use the 0/1 domino within the orange zone and the two/0 domino within the navy zone to fulfill the 0-pip necessities.

Easy Pips Solution

Scroll previous if you wish to maintain attempting

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1. 1.Place the two/2 domino horizontally within the purple (=) zone
2. 2.Place the three/1 domino vertically within the teal (=) zone
3. 3.Place the 0/1 domino horizontally within the orange (0) zone
4. 4.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally within the pink (12) zone
5. 5.Place the 4/0 domino vertically within the pink (12) zone
6. 6.Place the two/0 domino horizontally within the navy (0) zone

Today’s Medium Pips

Quick Hints (No Spoilers)

Starting Point: The pink zone requires all pips to be equal – this can be a key constraint.

Key Insight: The teal zone wants precisely 5 pips whole, which is a selected quantity to work towards.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

1. 1.The pink zone requires all pips to be equal, so the one domino that matches is 0/0.
2. 2.The teal zone precisely wants 5 pips whole – look for domino mixtures that sum to five.
3. 3.The orange zone requires all pips to be lower than 3, so solely dominoes with values ​​0, 1, or 2 can go there.
4. 4.The navy zone wants precisely 1 pip whole – that is very particular.
5. 5.The inexperienced zone requires precisely 4 pips whole.
6. 6.The purple zones have two situations: >0 and >1, that means they want dominoes with values ​​higher than these thresholds.
7. 7.Place the 0/0 domino within the pink zone first to fulfill the equal situation.
8. 8.Use the 0/4 domino within the teal zone to contribute towards the 5-pip whole.
9. 9.Place the 0/2 domino within the orange zone since each values ​​are lower than 3.
10. 10.The 0/1 domino matches completely within the navy zone for precisely 1 pip whole.
11. 11.The 2/2 domino works within the inexperienced zone for precisely 4 pips whole.
12. 12.Use the 4/4 domino within the purple (>0) zone and the 1/2 domino within the purple (>1) zone.

Medium Pips Solution

Scroll previous if you wish to maintain attempting

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1. 1.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally within the purple (>0) zone
2. 2.Place the 0/0 domino horizontally within the pink (=) zone
3. 3.Place the 0/4 domino vertically within the teal (5) zone
4. 4.Place the 0/2 domino vertically within the orange (<3) zone
5. 5.Place the 1/2 domino vertically within the purple (>1) zone
6. 6.Place the 0/1 domino vertically within the navy (1) zone
7. 7.Place the two/2 domino vertically within the inexperienced (4) zone

Today’s Hard Pips

Quick Hints (No Spoilers)

Starting Point: Look on the a number of zones requiring precisely 5 pips – that is the central theme.

Key Insight: The orange (>5) and teal (>5) zones require values ​​higher than 5, so you may want dominoes with 6s.

Watch Out For: The pink (=) zone requires all equal pips, and there’s one uncolored zone with no situations that provides you flexibility.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

1. 1.Notice that 7 completely different zones require precisely 5 pips whole – it will dictate most of your placements.
2. 2.The orange (>5) and teal (>5) zones want values ​​higher than 5, so you should use dominoes containing 6s.
3. 3.The pink (=) zone requires all equal pips – look for dominoes with equivalent numbers on each side.
4. 4.There’s one uncolored zone with no situations – use this for a domino that does not match different constraints.
5. 5.Start with the 5/5 domino – it is excellent for any 5-pip zone because it totals 10, however must be positioned throughout two zones.
6. 6.Place the 6/3 domino within the orange (>5) zone to fulfill the greater-than-5 requirement.
7. 7.Use the 6/1 domino within the teal (>5) zone for the opposite greater-than-5 requirement.
8. 8.The 0/0 domino matches completely within the uncolored zone because it has no constraints.
9. 9.For the 5-pip zones, you want domino mixtures that sum to five: 3/2, 1/1, 3/1, 1/0, 2/1, 2/5, 0/5, 5/1, 4/1.
10. 10.Place the three/2 domino in a purple (5) zone for precisely 5 pips.
11. 11.Use the 1/1 domino in a navy (5) zone for 2 pips, however keep in mind you want to pair it with different dominoes to succeed in 5.
12. 12.The 5/5 domino spans two zones – place it horizontally throughout teal (5) and orange (5) zones.
13. 13.Continue putting dominoes within the remaining 5-pip zones, guaranteeing every zone totals precisely 5 pips.
14. 14.Place the 4/1 domino within the pink (=) zone – notice that 4 and 1 are usually not equal, so test if this satisfies the situation.

Hard Pips Solution

Last likelihood to resolve independently

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1. 1.Place the three/2 domino horizontally within the purple (5) zone
2. 2.Place the 0/0 domino vertically within the uncolored (no situation) zone
3. 3.Place the 6/3 domino horizontally within the orange (>5) zone
4. 4.Place the 1/1 domino vertically within the navy (5) zone
5. 5.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally within the teal (5) zone and orange (5) zone
6. 6.Place the three/1 domino horizontally within the pink (5) zone
7. 7.Place the 1/0 domino vertically within the pink (5) zone
8. 8.Place the two/1 domino horizontally within the inexperienced (5) zone
9. 9.Place the two/5 domino vertically within the pink (5) zone
10. 10.Place the 0/5 domino horizontally within the navy (5) zone
11. 11.Place the 5/1 domino horizontally within the inexperienced (5) zone
12. 12.Place the 4/1 domino vertically within the pink (=) zone
13. 13.Place the 6/1 domino vertically within the teal (>5) zone

Puzzle Debrief

Overall Difficulty: Moderate problem with a transparent development from easy to advanced.

Trickiest Puzzle: Hard – The a number of 5-pip zones create a decent constraint system that requires cautious domino distribution and the strategic use of the 6-value dominoes for the greater-than-5 zones.

Our Take: Today’s puzzles showcase the class of Pips’ constraint system. The Hard puzzle’s theme of a number of equivalent necessities (5 pips) forces artistic domino placement and highlights how dominoes can span a number of zones. The development from Easy to Hard demonstrates how including extra constraints exponentially will increase the puzzle’s complexity.

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