Pips September 1, 2025

Hints and answers for September 1, 2025

Stuck? Take it in stages. A nudge costs less than the full answer, and the answer is here if you want it — each diagram below is the verified solution our generator built this board from, using tiles drawn from the standard double-six domino set. On the looser boards other valid arrangements can exist too; any filling that covers every square and satisfies every region counts as solved.

Boundaries, not regions

There are 9 distinct region-to-region boundaries on this board, which is a lot for 6 regions. Almost every tile you place is going to land half in one region and half in another, so treating regions as separate sub-puzzles will not work here — think in pairs.

A domino can straddle two regions, and each half only has to satisfy the region it lands in. That is the single most common misreading of the format — people assume a tile must sit inside one region, which makes perfectly solvable boards look impossible. The rules page works through it with examples.

The shape of the grid

This is a distinctly irregular outline, filling only 67% of its 5×6 bounding box. Narrow arms are the danger: a square at the end of a one-wide corridor has exactly one possible partner, so if that partner gets covered the board becomes unsolvable regardless of what else you do.

The tiles you are dealt

The tray holds 2 doubles (0-0, 3-3). Doubles contribute the same value twice, so they are the quickest way to overshoot an exact sum — place them where the arithmetic has room, not where it is tight.

The heaviest tile on the hard board is the 6-2 and the lightest is the 0-0. Those two are worth locating first: the heavy tile can only go where a sum has room, and the light one is often the only thing that fits a tight region.

How the three boards differ

These are three separate boards, not one board with hints removed, so playing all three on September 1, 2025 gives you three genuine attempts rather than three views of the same solution.

easy

8 squares, 4 dominoes, 3 regions, 2 region boundaries. 33% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 3 squares.

medium

14 squares, 7 dominoes, 5 regions, 7 region boundaries. 40% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 4 squares.

hard

20 squares, 10 dominoes, 6 regions, 9 region boundaries. 50% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 5 squares.

Questions about this puzzle

Is the September 1, 2025 pips puzzle free to play?

Yes. All three boards for this date are free, with no account and no subscription, and they stay available permanently.

How many dominoes does the September 1, 2025 hard board use?

10 dominoes across 20 squares. Every tile in the tray must be used, and the count is always exactly half the number of squares.

Where do the doubles go on this board?

This tray holds 2 doubles (0-0, 3-3). A double puts the same value on both of its squares, so it cannot sit inside an all-different region and it is the fastest way to overshoot a tight sum. Place them where the arithmetic has slack.

Can I replay this puzzle later?

Yes. Boards are generated deterministically from the date, so this URL always shows this exact puzzle. Your progress saves in your own browser, and Reset clears it whenever you want a fresh attempt.

Pip budget

Your tray carries 46 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 32 across 11 squares. That leaves 14 pips to absorb elsewhere. Running that subtraction before you place anything tells you whether the unconstrained squares are going to be a dumping ground or a tight squeeze.

The same check on the medium board: your tray carries 47 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 22 across 8 squares. That leaves 25 pips to absorb elsewhere. Running that subtraction before you place anything tells you whether the unconstrained squares are going to be a dumping ground or a tight squeeze.

What each rule demands here

The hard board uses 3 of the six possible region rules. What each one is actually demanding here:

= 13

Spreads exactly 13 pips over 3 squares, an average of 4.3 each. Anything that pushes the running total past 13 is already lost, so this is the region to count before you commit.

< 3

Caps every individual value below 3, which rules out roughly 57% of the pip values outright. It says nothing about the total.

> 0

Requires every value above 0, leaving only 6 of the seven pip values legal in those 4 squares.

The full badge vocabulary, including the ones this board happens not to use, is on the pips rules page.

The usual dead end

With 3 of 6 regions only loosely bounded, this board resists arithmetic and rewards elimination. Work out where each tile cannot go before deciding where it should.

With 3 exact sums on the board, there is usually a square that only one tile in your tray can legally fill. Find that square first and the rest tends to cascade.

If you have genuinely stalled, undo back to the last tile you were confident about rather than reshuffling everything. Most dead ends on a board this size trace to one early placement made on a guess, and everything after it inherits the mistake.

Board by board