First NYT Pips Anniversary: How to Solve Tuesday's Hard Puzzle

The New York Times Pips puzzle turned one year old Tuesday, and the Hard tier celebrated with a word grid: YEAR. The first Pips set dropped on Aug. 18, 2025. Here is how to solve all three of Tuesday's puzzles, with a full walkthrough for the Hard tier.

In Pips, you fill a grid with rotated dominoes. Each colored block carries a condition: tiles in that zone must sum to a target, stay under a limit, match each other, or differ. You must place every domino and satisfy every condition. Easy and Medium tiers finish in a few minutes. Hard takes longer.

Easy and Medium answers

For the Easy puzzle, the key was matching the two-tile purple zones. Place the 0/2 domino in the top-left purple block and the 1/1 domino in the lower-right purple block. The pink zone of three tiles sums to 3; use 1/2 and 0/0. The blue zone of four tiles sums to 6; use 0/3 and 1/2. The orange "> 11" zone takes the 6/6 domino in its two remaining spots. Verify all dominoes are placed and all conditions met.

For the Medium puzzle, the pink "= 0" zone takes the 0/0 domino in its two leftmost tiles. The blue "≠" zone of three tiles takes 1/2, 2/0 and 1/1, each different. The green zone sums to 5; use 2/3. The yellow "> 1" zone of three tiles sums to 7 or more; 1/6 and 3/4 work. The purple zone of two tiles sums to 9; use 4/5. The remaining orange tile draws the leftover domino.

Hard Pips walkthrough: the 'YEAR' grid

The Hard puzzle spells YEAR across four connected letter-shaped zones. Each letter contains sub-zones with conditions. The domino bag has 15 tiles.

Start with the letter A. Place the 0/0 domino in the pink zone that reads "≠". Tile values in that zone must all differ, so 0/0 gives you two zeros inside a three-tile group; the third tile will come later. Place the 1/6 domino so that 1 sits in the pink zone and 6 crosses into a blue zone labeled 11. Place the 1/1 domino from the purple zone (labeled 1) into the adjacent blue zone labeled 1. Place the 6/6 domino in the orange zone labeled "> 11". The sum of the orange zone's two tiles must exceed 11; 6 + 6 = 12 does it.

Move to the letter r. Place the 0/6 domino so that 0 sits in a free tile and 6 lands in the orange "> 11" zone. The orange zone now has 6/6 and 0/6 = total 18, which clears. Place the 6/2 domino from the orange zone into a dark blue "> 1" zone. The dark blue zone's sum must exceed 1, which it does.

Move to the letter Y. Place the 1/4 domino from the purple zone labeled 1 into a dark blue zone labeled 11. Place the 1/5 domino from the pink zone labeled 1 into that same dark blue zone. The dark blue 11 zone now has 4 + 5 = 9; one tile remains. Place the 2/2 domino from the dark blue 11 zone into a purple zone labeled "> 1". The purple zone sum exceeds 1.

Move to the letter E. Place the 5/3 domino from a green zone labeled 11 into a pink zone labeled "> 1". Place the 0/1 domino from a dark blue "=" zone into a green zone labeled 1. The green zone now sums to 1. Place the 5/5 domino in the green "=" zone. Both tiles equal each other, satisfying the condition.

Back to the letter A. Place the 5/0 domino from a blue zone labeled 11 into the second free tile in A. The free tiles now hold 0 and 0. Return to E. Place the 0/4 domino from the dark blue "=" zone into a green zone labeled 11. Place the 2/0 domino from a green zone labeled 11 into a blue "=" zone. The blue "=" zone now holds 2 and 2. Finish with the 0/3 domino from the blue "=" zone into an orange "> 1" zone. Every domino is placed, every condition met. The grid spells YEAR.

Friday will bring a new set. The one-year milestone means more word puzzles could appear with any theme.