Pips September 6, 2026
Puzzle #385 · SundayToday
This is the pips puzzle for September 6, 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, 1 greater-than and 1 all-different regions.
By Sukie · Puzzle editor
Hints and answers for September 6, 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 "= 10" region. It spreads 10 pips across 3 squares, averaging 3.3 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 "= 8" region. It spreads 8 pips across 3 squares, averaging 2.7 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 "= 9" region. It spreads 9 pips across 3 squares, averaging 3.0 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
- = 9 — 2 squares that must total exactly 9. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, 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.
- ≠ — 1 square that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
- > 4 — 2 squares totalling more than 4. Like the less-than badge it constrains without pinning, which is why it is worth leaving until later.
medium
- = 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.
- = 9 — 3 squares that must total exactly 9. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 20 — 4 squares that must total exactly 20. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 24, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- > 3 — 2 squares totalling more than 3. Like the less-than badge it constrains without pinning, which is why it is worth leaving until later.
- ≠ — 2 squares that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
hard
- = 7 — 2 squares that must total exactly 7. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 9 — 2 squares that must total exactly 9. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 12, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 9 — 3 squares that must total exactly 9. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 18, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 14 — 4 squares that must total exactly 14. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 24, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- = 21 — 4 squares that must total exactly 21. The range a region this size can hold is 0 to 24, so that target rules out most fillings before you place anything.
- ≠ — 2 squares that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
- ≠ — 3 squares that must all differ. With only seven pip values in existence, no double can sit wholly inside it.
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 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.
The three boards in detail
easy
The easy board has 8 squares, 4 dominoes and 4 regions — 2 exact-sum, 1 greater-than and 1 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 10" region. It spreads 10 pips across 3 squares, averaging 3.3 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 5 regions — 3 exact-sum, 1 greater-than and 1 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 8" region. It spreads 8 pips across 3 squares, averaging 2.7 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 and 2 all-different regions.
Start with the "= 9" region. It spreads 9 pips across 3 squares, averaging 3.0 per square, so the halves that can legally sit there are limited before you have placed anything at all.
Easy, medium and hard compared
These are three separate boards, not one board with hints removed, so playing all three on September 6, 2026 gives you three genuine attempts rather than three views of the same solution.
- easy
- 8 squares, 4 dominoes, 4 regions, 4 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, 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, 7 regions, 10 region boundaries. 29% of its regions carry something other than an exact total, and the widest region spans 4 squares.
Reading the constraints
The hard board uses 2 of the six possible region rules. What each one is actually demanding here:
- = 7
- Spreads exactly 7 pips over 2 squares, an average of 3.5 each. Anything that pushes the running total past 7 is already lost, so this is the region to count before you commit.
- ≠
- Forbids any repeat across its 2 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.
Why the shape matters here
This is a distinctly irregular outline, filling only 56% of its 6×6 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.
Pip budget
Your tray carries 70 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 60 across 15 squares. That leaves 10 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 49 pips in total, and the exact-sum regions between them demand 37 across 10 squares. That leaves 12 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.
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 4 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.
Where this puzzle comes from
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 September 6, 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.
Common questions
- Is the September 6, 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 September 6, 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 (6-6, 4-4, 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.
- 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.
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