Pips Answer for Thursday, January 29, 2026
Complete NYT Pips puzzle solution with interactive board and expert analysis.
Click a domino below or a cell on the board to reveal
Expert Puzzle Analysis
Deep insights from puzzle experts
Nyt Pips easy answer for 2026-01-29
Answer for 2026-01-29
Solving this set of Pips puzzles felt like a nice progression from a quick morning warm-up to a real brain-burner. I started with the Easy puzzle by Ian Livengood. The 'Sum 2' region was my immediate go-to.
With three cells needing to total just 2, and knowing dominoes like (1,1) and (0,5) were in the mix, it was pretty clear it had to be a combination of 1s and 0s. Once I placed the (1,1) domino and the (0,5) domino to satisfy that sum and the 'Greater than 3' rule, the rest of the 3x4 grid just snapped into place. The
Nyt Pips medium answer for 2026-01-29
Answer for 2026-01-29
Medium puzzle by Rodolfo Kurchan was all about those 'Sum 8' blocks. I spent a minute scanning the dominoes for pairs that could hit 8.
Seeing (2,6), (4,4), and (3,5) equivalents made me realize I had to be careful with overlap. I used the 'Equals' region at the bottom right as an anchor; once I figured out those two cells had to be the same, it narrowed down my options for the middle sum regions. The
Nyt Pips hard answer for 2026-01-29
Answer for 2026-01-29
Hard puzzle was a different beast entirely. With 16 dominoes to place, I couldn't just guess. I looked for the most restrictive rules first.
The 'Equals' regions that spanned four cells, like the one at (6,3) to (6,6), are huge clues because they force a single value to repeat. I combined that with the 'Sum 10' constraint. Since the maximum pips on any half-domino is 6, a sum of 10 is very restrictive—it's almost always a 4 and a 6 or two 5s. Mapping out the (2,4) and (3,4) cells allowed me to chain the logic through the rest of the board, using the 'Empty' cells as breathers where I didn't have to worry about math, just fitting the remaining domino shapes.
What I Learned
This session really reinforced how powerful 'Equals' constraints are in larger puzzles. They act like a virus; once you know one cell, it spreads to three or four others, which usually conflicts with nearby sums unless it's the right number.
I also learned to pay closer attention to the domino inventory early on. In the Hard puzzle, I almost tried to use a 6-4 combo for a sum, but then realized I'd already earmarked the 6 for a different 'Equals' chain. It's a constant balancing act between the local math of a region and the global supply of pips available in your tray.