Pips Today: Hints and Answers for September 23
Three boards a day. Place every domino so each outlined region satisfies its rule. The hints give approach and opening region per difficulty; placements wait until the bottom.
Today's three boards
The tray and each region's rule — board data, no solutions.
Easy board · 5 dominoes · 7 regions
Dominoes: 6–36–05–04–03–0
- 4 ×one cell: exactly 0.
- two cells: exactly 12.
- two cells: exactly 8.
- two cells: exactly 7.
This board is relatively simple due to the small number of dominoes and straightforward constraints.
Medium board · 7 dominoes · 8 regions
Dominoes: 3–56–55–06–05–13–05–2
- 3 ×two cells: all matching.
- two cells: under 3.
- two cells: exactly 3.
- two cells: under 6.
- one cell: left uncovered.
- one cell: exactly 5.
This board has a moderate level of difficulty due to the mix of constraint types.
Hard board · 15 dominoes · 19 regions
Dominoes: 1–16–43–01–64–50–05–26–05–16–25–36–63–10–46–3
- two cells: exactly 11.
- one cell: exactly 2.
- one cell: exactly 4.
- two cells: exactly 0.
- one cell: under 4.
- two cells: exactly 8.
- 2 ×three cells: all matching.
- 3 ×two cells: all matching.
- one cell: exactly 5.
- one cell: exactly 1.
- two cells: under 2.
- one cell: left uncovered.
- one cell: under 3.
- one cell: more than 3.
- one cell: more than 0.
- one cell: more than 1.
This board is challenging due to the large number of dominoes and complex constraints.
Pips hints, one rung at a time
Six rungs, easy board first. This page remembers which ones you opened while these boards are current.
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Hint 1: How the three boards compare today
Dominoes to place: 5 easy, 7 medium, 15 hard.
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Hint 2: Easy board: how to approach it
Method only — no placements.
Start by identifying regions with limited possibilities, such as those with a sum of 0 or a small target sum.
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Hint 3: Easy board: where to start
Begin with a region that has a sum of 0 over 1 cell.
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Hint 4: Medium board: approach and first region
Look for regions with equality constraints and try to match domino values accordingly.
Start with a region that requires two cells to be equal.
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Hint 5: Hard board: how to approach it
Focus on regions with specific sum constraints and try to combine dominoes to meet these targets.
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Hint 6: Hard board: where to start
Last rung before the walkthroughs.
Begin with a region that has a sum constraint over 2 cells.
Today's Pips walkthroughs
Spoilers below: each places every domino.
Easy board · 5 dominoes
Easy walkthrough
Place the 6/3 domino to satisfy the sum 12 over 2 cells region. Then, place the 6/0 domino in a region with a sum of 0 over 1 cell. Next, place the 5/0 domino in another region with a sum of 0 over 1 cell. Place the 4/0 and 3/0 dominoes to satisfy the remaining sum constraints.
Medium board · 7 dominoes
Medium walkthrough
Place the 6/5 domino to satisfy an equality constraint. Then, place the 5/0 domino in a region with a sum constraint. Next, place the 3/0 domino to satisfy a less than constraint. Continue placing dominoes to satisfy the remaining constraints.
Hard board · 15 dominoes
Hard walkthrough
Start by placing the 6/6 domino to satisfy a sum constraint. Then, place the 6/0 and 5/0 dominoes in regions with sum constraints. Next, place the 5/2 and 6/2 dominoes to satisfy inequality constraints. Continue placing dominoes to satisfy the remaining constraints, using a process of elimination and careful consideration of the domino values and region constraints. Place the 1/1, 6/4, and 3/0 dominoes to satisfy additional sum and inequality constraints. Finally, place the remaining dominoes to satisfy the emptiness and equality constraints.
Today's boards by the numbers
Constructed by Ian Livengood, Ian Livengood, Rodolfo Kurchan, edited by Ian Livengood.
- Date
- Wednesday, September 23, 2026
- Boards
- 3 — easy, medium, hard
- Dominoes in play
- 27 across the three boards
- Regions in play
- 34
The last board we archived
The newest archived page is Pips answers for Tuesday, September 22, 2026, created once its date stopped being current everywhere on Earth.
More puzzles today
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Today's NYT Wordle hints and answer
Letter shape, vowels and meaning, with the answer kept last.
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Today's NYT Spelling Bee hints, pangram and answers
Counts by first letter and two-letter start, then every word.
How Pips works, in short
Each domino covers two adjacent cells, one pip count per half. Every domino must be placed and no cell covered twice. Work the tightest region first. Our full Pips guide covers the constraint types.
NYT Pips questions we get asked
When does a new NYT Pips puzzle appear?
Three boards a day, rolling over at midnight in your own time zone.
How do the Pips region rules work?
One rule per region: an exact total, a threshold, all-equal or all-different pips, or uncovered.
What is on the Pips boards for September 23?
Easy: 5 dominoes, 7 regions. Hard: 15 dominoes, 19 regions. Every domino has to be placed.
Why does this page not show the Pips board?
The public data lists each region's cells but not the grid they sit on, so any board we drew would be a guess.
How hard is the Pips hard board today?
This board is challenging due to the large number of dominoes and complex constraints.
Is TodayHint affiliated with The New York Times?
No — TodayHint is independent. Strands, Connections, Pips and NYT are trademarks of The New York Times Company. Board data is reported as fact; the hints around it are written for this site.