Pips August 24, 2026
Puzzle #372 · Monday
This is the pips puzzle for August 24, 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 August 24, 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 "= 4" region. It spreads 4 pips across 2 squares, averaging 2.0 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 "= 6" region. It spreads 6 pips across 5 squares, averaging 1.2 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 "= 4" region. It spreads 4 pips across 3 squares, averaging 1.3 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
- = 4 — 2 squares that must total exactly 4. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 12 — 3 squares that must total exactly 12. 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
- = 5 — 2 squares that must total exactly 5. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 11 — 4 squares that must total exactly 11. 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 — 1 square totalling less than 4. A bound rather than a target, so it narrows without telling you a number.
- ≠ — 1 square that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
- = 6 — 5 squares that must total exactly 6. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 30, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
hard
- = 4 — 3 squares that must total exactly 4. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 16 — 3 squares that must total exactly 16. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 8 — 3 squares that must total exactly 8. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 10 — 3 squares that must total exactly 10. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 17 — 4 squares that must total exactly 17. 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.
- > 0 — 3 squares totalling more than 0. Like the less-than badge it constrains without pinning, which is why it is worth leaving until later.
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.
The hard board runs 29% loose regions against a typical 44%, so it is tighter than most, which usually means it falls faster once the first region is settled.
Its tightest sum target is 4, 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.
Behind the generator
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 7 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 2 of the hard board's 7 regions carry something other than an exact total.
Generation is seeded from the date, so August 24, 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.
The shape of the grid
The shape fills about 83% of its 6×4 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.
The easy board is a different animal: this is a distinctly irregular outline, filling only 67% of its 3×4 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.
Common questions
- Is the August 24, 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 August 24, 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 (2-2, 1-1, 6-6). 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.
Count the pips before you place
Your tray carries 62 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 55 across 16 squares. That leaves 7 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 35 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 22 across 11 squares. That leaves 13 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 difficulty ladder
These are three separate boards, not one board with hints removed, so playing all three on August 24, 2026 gives you three genuine attempts rather than three views of the same solution.
- easy
- 8 squares, 4 dominoes, 4 regions, 3 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, 10 region boundaries. 29% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 4 squares.
What your tray forces
The tray holds 3 doubles (2-2, 1-1, 6-6), 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 1-1. 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.
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 "= 4" region. It spreads 4 pips across 2 squares, averaging 2.0 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, 1 less-than and 2 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 6" region. It spreads 6 pips across 5 squares, averaging 1.2 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 — 5 exact-sum, 1 greater-than and 1 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 4" region. It spreads 4 pips across 3 squares, averaging 1.3 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
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.
What each rule demands here
The hard board uses 3 of the six possible region rules. What each one is actually demanding here:
- = 17
- Spreads exactly 17 pips over 4 squares, an average of 4.3 each. Anything that pushes the running total past 17 is already lost, so this is the region to count before you commit.
- > 0
- Requires every value above 0, leaving only 6 of the seven pip values legal in those 3 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.
The full badge vocabulary, including the ones this board happens not to use, is on the pips rules page.
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