NYT Pips hints, answers for September 12, 2026

Today's New York Times Pips challenge for September 12, 2026 offers players a variety of difficulty levels, each with unique color-coded conditions to guide the placement of domino-like tiles. Here are some hints to help navigate through the puzzles:

For the Easy level, if a space has the condition "Less Than (4):", the tiles must all add up to less than 4. The solution is a vertical 3-1. Another example under the same difficulty is "Less Than (1):", allowing tiles with a sum less than 1, solved with a horizontal 0-5.

In the Medium difficulty, an "Equal (0):" condition requires each tile half to have zero pips, with the answer being 0-0 vertically and 0-2 horizontally. Another Medium challenge is "Number (4):", where the sum of pips in a space must equal 4, solved by placing 0-2 horizontally and 1-1 vertically.

For the Hard difficulty, a "Greater Than (4):" condition mandates tiles have pips summing to more than 4, solved with a vertical 6-1. Similarly, "Greater Than (9):" requires tiles to sum to more than 9, with the answer being 6-4 horizontally. Lastly, an "Equal (3):" condition asks for tiles with identical pips, solved by placing 4-3 horizontally and 3-5 vertically.