Pips January 26, 2026

Hints and answers for January 26, 2026

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.

About this date’s boards

Is the January 26, 2026 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 January 26, 2026 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 4 doubles (0-0, 3-3, 5-5, 2-2). 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.

Where the regions meet

6 pairs of regions share a boundary, so a fair number of tiles will straddle. Whenever you satisfy a region, check the one next to it immediately rather than at the end.

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 tiles you are dealt

The tray holds 4 doubles (0-0, 3-3, 5-5, 2-2), and the board has 3 regions governed by an equality rule. A double can never sit entirely inside an all-different region, so those tiles have to straddle a boundary — which usually pins them down before anything else on the board.

The heaviest tile on the hard board is the 6-5 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 this board was made

This board was not hand-designed and it was not copied from anywhere. The generator laid down a valid arrangement of 10 dominoes first, then divided the 20 squares into 6 regions and derived each region's rule from the values that had already landed in it. Because the solution existed before the constraints did, this board provably has one.

It was then loosened: rules were swapped for weaker ones, one at a time, keeping each swap only while the number of valid arrangements stayed inside the bound for this difficulty. That is why 4 of the hard board's 6 regions carry something other than an exact total.

Generation is seeded from the date, so January 26, 2026 produces this exact board on every device, permanently. Sharing this link always shows the same puzzle. More on the process in our editorial policy.

Where people get stuck

The all-different region is the one to watch. With 4 squares in the widest region on this board, an all-different rule quietly forbids far more arrangements than it looks like it does.

The all-different region is the one to watch. With 5 squares in the widest region on this board, an all-different rule quietly forbids far more arrangements than it looks like it does.

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

What each rule demands here

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

> 2

Requires every value above 2, leaving only 4 of the seven pip values legal in those 4 squares.

= 9

Spreads exactly 9 pips over 3 squares, an average of 3.0 each. Anything that pushes the running total past 9 is already lost, so this is the region to count before you commit.

≠

Forbids any repeat across its 3 squares. Note that this constrains values, not tiles — two different dominoes both contributing a 4 still breaks it.

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

Count the pips before you place

Your tray carries 56 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 18 across 7 squares. That leaves 38 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 43 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 21 across 8 squares. That leaves 22 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.