NYT Pips Hint, Answer & Solution for December 30, 2025

Dec 30, 2025

🚨 SPOILER WARNING

This page contains the final **answer** and the complete **solution** to today's NYT Pips puzzle. If you haven't attempted the puzzle yet and want to try solving it yourself first, now's your chance!

Click here to play today's official NYT Pips game first.

Want hints instead? Scroll down for progressive clues that won't spoil the fun.

🎲 Today's Puzzle Overview

Join the community challenge for the Daily Domino Puzzle on Tuesday, December 30, 2025 — a calm, satisfying way to wrap up the year with a clear mind and a shared sense of discovery. As the final days of the year approach, today’s puzzle feels like an invitation to slow down, reflect, and enjoy logic for its own sake.

This Daily Domino Puzzle is designed for everyone, from first-time solvers to long-time fans. With easy, medium, and hard grids, you can ease into the logic or push yourself further, one deduction at a time. A helpful pips hint today: watching how small pip values limit larger regions can open the grid faster than expected, especially when sums and equal areas begin to overlap.

What makes today special is the community aspect.

Share hints, compare solutions, and talk through those moments where the grid suddenly makes sense. These small breakthroughs are often better when experienced together, and today’s puzzle naturally encourages discussion and collaboration.

Edited by Ian Livengood, with puzzles crafted by Ian Livengood (easy) and Rodolfo Kurchan (medium and hard), this is a thoughtfully balanced challenge that highlights clean logic and human-centered design. Whether you’re solving to relax, to learn, or simply to enjoy the rhythm of domino reasoning, December 30’s puzzle is a rewarding way to close out the year — one pip at a time.

Written by Joy

Puzzle Analyst – Mark

💡 Progressive Hints

Try these hints one at a time. Each hint becomes more specific to help you solve it yourself!

💡 Hint #1 - So easy

Just do it.

💡 Hint #1 - Unique Pip Detection

Scan the set for pip values that appear only once. When a region’s target requires one of these rare pips, its placement becomes mandatory. Here, the single 2 and single 0 immediately define how the Yellow 4 region must be constructed.

💡 Hint #2 - Cross-Region Pip Pairing

When multiple sum regions intersect, assign shared pips in a way that satisfies all targets at once. Using 0 to complete both the Green 6 and Blue 4 regions preserves higher pips for later and prevents dead ends.

💡 Hint #3 - Resolve with Complement Values

In the final stage, look for complementary pip pairs that complete remaining sums exactly. Matching 1+3 for the Purple 4 region forces the remaining high pips into their only valid locations, closing the grid cleanly.

💡 Hint #1 - Pip Frequency Elimination

Begin by counting how often each pip value appears across all dominoes. When a region requires equality, scarce pips become immediate candidates. Here, limited 5s, 6s, 3s, and 2s force early assignments, while the Light Blue 1 region can only be satisfied by the unique 0+1 combination.

💡 Hint #2 - Equal Regions Lock Rare Values

Multiple equal regions act like anchors in the grid. When only one domino carries a specific pip or pairing, those values must be locked in place. Assigning each equal region its only viable pip frees the rest of the grid and prevents later conflicts.

💡 Hint #3 - Finish with Zero Control

Save zero-heavy dominoes for the end. Zeros are flexible but become decisive once other values are fixed. Here, remaining 0s cleanly satisfy both an equal region and a low-sum constraint without disturbing established placements.

🎨 Pips Solver

Dec 30, 2025

Click a domino to place it on the board. You can also click the board, and the correct domino will appear.

✅ Final Answer & Complete Solution For Hard Level

The key to solving today's hard puzzle was identifying the placement for the critical dominoes highlighted in the starting grid. Once those were in place, the rest of the puzzle could be solved logically. See the final grid below to compare your solution.

Starting Position & Key First Steps

Pips hint for December 30, 2025 – hard level puzzle grid with critical first placements and strategy

This image shows the initial puzzle grid for the hard level, with a few critical first placements highlighted.

Final Answer: The Solved Grid for Hard Mode

NYT Pips December 30, 2025 hard puzzle full solution grid showing final answer with hints

Compare this final grid with your own solution to see the correct placement of all dominoes.

🔧 Step-by-Step Answer Walkthrough For Easy Level

1

Step 1

Dominoes Include: [4-4], [4-3], [4-2], [3-3], [3-1].

2

Step 2: Purple 12+ Light Blue Equal --(Arrows ①②③)

Confirmed by neighboring region and step 1 and relative position. The domino halves in Purple 12 region must be 4+4+4. The domino halves in Light Blue Equal region must be 3. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 4-3, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed horizontally.

3

Step 3: Red 2 + Yellow 3 --(Arrows ④⑤)

Confirmed by neighboring region and remaining dominoes (4-2, 3-1). The answer is 2-4 (2 into Red 2 region, 4 left into blank), placed horizontally; 3-1 (3 into Yellow 3 regoion, 1 down into blank), placed vertically.

🔧 Step-by-Step Answer Walkthrough For Medium Level

1

Step 1

Dominoes Include: [6-3], [6-2], [6-1], [5-3], [4-4], [1-1], [0-0]. The domino halves in Yellow 4 region must be 1+1+2. Only one domino with 2 pips (6-2). Only one domino with 0 pips (0-0).

2

Step 2: Yellow 4 + Green 6 + Blue 4 --(Arrows ①②③④)

Confirmed by neighboring region and step 1 and relative position. The domino halves in Yellow 4 region must be 1+1+2. The domino halves in Green 6 region must be 6+0. The domino halves in Blue 4 region must be 4+0. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically; 2-6, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed horizontally; 4-4 (one 4s left into blank), placed horizontally

3

Step 3: Red 6 + Purple 4 + Light Blue 6 --(Arrows ⑤⑥⑦)

Confirmed by neighboring region and remaining dominoes (6-3, 6-1, 5-3). The domino halves in Purple 4 region must be 1+3. The answer is 6-1 (6 into Red 6 region), placed horizontally; 3-5 (5 right into blank), placed horizontally; 3-6 (3 into blank, 6 down into Light Blue 6 region), placed vertically.

🔧 Step-by-Step Answer Walkthrough For Hard Level

1

Step 1

Dominoes Include: [6-6], [6-5], [6-4], [5-5], [5-3], [5-1], [4-2], [4-0], [3-3], [3-2], [2-2], [0-0]. Only 5 domino halves that contain 5 pips for Red Equal region. 6s, 3s and 2s are all only 4 domino halves. 4s and 3s are all only 3 domino halves. The domino halves in Light Blue 1 region must be 0+1.

2

Step 2: Red Equal + Purple Equal + Yellow Equal + Blue Equal + Purple >1--(Arrows ①②③④⑤⑥⑦⑧⑨⑩)

Confirmed by neighboring region and step 1 and relative position. Only one domino with 1 pips (5-1). Only one domino with the number 3-2. The domino halves in Red Equal region must be 5. The domino halves in Purple Equal region must be 6. The domino halves in Yellow Equal region must be 3. The domino halves in Blue Equal region must be 2. The answer is 5-1 (1 into Light Blue 1 region), placed vertically; 5-3, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed vertically; 6-4 (4 down into blank), placed vertically; 3-3, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed vertically; 2-2, placed vertically; 2-4 (4 into Purple >1 region), placed horizontally

3

Step 3: Green Equal + Light Blue 1 --(Arrows ⑪⑫)

Confirmed by neighboring region and remaining dominoes (4-0, 0-0). The answer is 0-0 (whole domino into Green Equal region), placed vertically; 0-4 (0 into Light Blue 1 region, 4 up into blank), placed vertically.

🎥 Daily Domino Puzzle Solution – December 30, 2025 (Tuesday)

Solve along, enjoy the process, and feel free to share your own insights or alternative approaches.

💡 Pro Tips for Similar Puzzles

Start with Constraints

Always begin with the most constrained regions - sum regions with small numbers or tight spaces.

Use Equal Regions

Use "equal" regions as anchors - they eliminate many possibilities quickly.

Work Systematically

Let the rules guide your placement rather than guessing randomly.

Double-Check

Verify each region's rules are satisfied before moving to the next.

🎓 Keep Learning & Improve

🧠 Strategy Guide

Master the core techniques to solve any Pips puzzle, no matter the difficulty.

🎮 How to Play

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