Pips July 27, 2026
Puzzle #344 · Monday
This is the pips puzzle for July 27, 2026 — all three boards, free to play, with no subscription and no account. The easy board has 8 squares, 4 dominoes and 4 regions — 2 exact-sum and 2 all-different regions.
By Sukie · Puzzle editor
Hints and answers for July 27, 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.
easy board — reveal the solution
Start with the "= 1" region. It spreads 1 pips across 2 squares, averaging 0.5 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
medium board — reveal the solution
Start with the "= 2" region. It spreads 2 pips across 2 squares, averaging 1.0 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
hard board — reveal the solution
Start with the "= 3" region. It spreads 3 pips across 2 squares, averaging 1.5 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
Where the information is on today's boards
Each board's regions, ordered from most constraining to least — which is the order worth working them in. Nothing here gives a value away, only how much each region can tell you before the rest of the board does.
easy
- = 1 — 2 squares that must total exactly 1. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 15 — 3 squares that must total exactly 15. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- ≠ — 1 square that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
- ≠ — 2 squares that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
medium
- = 4 — 1 square that must total exactly 4. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 6, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 2 — 2 squares that must total exactly 2. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = — 2 squares that must all show the same value. Only a double can lie wholly inside it, and the whole region resolves to one number — so your only real decision is which.
- = — 2 squares that must all show the same value. Only a double can lie wholly inside it, and the whole region resolves to one number — so your only real decision is which.
- ≠ — 2 squares that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
- = 16 — 5 squares that must total exactly 16. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 30, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
hard
- = 11 — 2 squares that must total exactly 11. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 3 — 2 squares that must total exactly 3. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 5 — 3 squares that must total exactly 5. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 8 — 4 squares that must total exactly 8. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 24, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- ≠ — 1 square that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
- > 4 — 4 squares totalling more than 4. Like the less-than badge it constrains without pinning, which is why it is worth leaving until later.
- no rule — 4 squares with no rule at all — somewhere to put a value nothing else will take.
How this set compares with the rest of the archive
The easy board runs 50% loose regions against a typical 38%, so it is vaguer than most — fewer regions hand you a number outright and more of the work is deciding where tiles cannot go.
The medium board runs 50% loose regions against a typical 40%, so it is vaguer than most — fewer regions hand you a number outright and more of the work is deciding where tiles cannot go.
Its tightest sum target is 3, against a median of 8 across every board published here. A target that low forces blanks and ones into a small space, and is almost always the quickest way into the board.
Reading the tray first
The tray holds 3 doubles (0-0, 6-6, 1-1), and the board has 1 region 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 6-6 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.
The badges on this board
The hard board uses 4 of the six possible region rules. What each one is actually demanding here:
- = 11
- Spreads exactly 11 pips over 2 squares, an average of 5.5 each. Anything that pushes the running total past 11 is already lost, so this is the region to count before you commit.
- > 4
- Requires every value above 4, leaving only 2 of the seven pip values legal in those 4 squares.
- ≠
- Forbids any repeat across its 1 squares. Note that this constrains values, not tiles — two different dominoes both contributing a 4 still breaks it.
- any
- No constraint — these 4 squares just need covering. Fill them last; they absorb whatever the constrained regions reject.
The full badge vocabulary, including the ones this board happens not to use, is on the pips rules page.
What goes wrong on this one
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.
How much the regions overlap
There are 7 distinct region-to-region boundaries on this board, which is a lot for 7 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.
How the three boards differ
These are three separate boards, not one board with hints removed, so playing all three on July 27, 2026 gives you three genuine attempts rather than three views of the same solution.
- easy
- 8 squares, 4 dominoes, 4 regions, 5 region boundaries. 50% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 3 squares.
- medium
- 14 squares, 7 dominoes, 6 regions, 7 region boundaries. 50% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 5 squares.
- hard
- 20 squares, 10 dominoes, 7 regions, 7 region boundaries. 43% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 4 squares.
Why the shape matters here
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 easy board is a different animal: the shape fills about 89% of its 3×3 bounding box, so there are a few notches in the outline. Squares along those notches have fewer neighbours than they look like they do — check them before you commit tiles elsewhere.
About this date’s boards
- Is the July 27, 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 July 27, 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 3 doubles (0-0, 6-6, 1-1). 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.
- What do the regions with no badge mean?
- 1 region on the hard board carry no rule at all. Those squares still have to be covered, but any values may sit there — so fill them last rather than first.
- 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.
What's on these boards
easy
The easy board has 8 squares, 4 dominoes and 4 regions — 2 exact-sum and 2 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 1" region. It spreads 1 pips across 2 squares, averaging 0.5 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
medium
The medium board has 14 squares, 7 dominoes and 6 regions — 3 exact-sum, 2 all-equal and 1 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 2" region. It spreads 2 pips across 2 squares, averaging 1.0 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
hard
The hard board has 20 squares, 10 dominoes and 7 regions — 4 exact-sum, 1 greater-than, 1 all-different and 1 unconstrained regions.
Start with the "= 3" region. It spreads 3 pips across 2 squares, averaging 1.5 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
More pips
- Pips archive — every date since the archive opened.
- Pips rules — what each region badge means.
- Practice mode — a fresh board whenever you want one.
- Today's pips puzzle