NYT Pips Hint, Answer & Solution for December 5, 2025

Dec 5, 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

Friday, December 5, 2025, rolls in with a structured, metrics-friendly trio of Pips NYT puzzles edited by Ian Livengood—a perfect logical workout for solvers who enjoy tracking performance curves, refining deduction flow, and benchmarking difficulty across puzzle IDs. And with early December settling in (that festive “end-of-year brain-upgrade mode”), it’s an especially good day to sharpen those reasoning skills.

Easy #395 — 4 Dominoes, Clean Logic, Fast Wins

The Easy puzzle delivers a compact analytical landscape built for efficient decision-making:

• A crisp 0-sum single that immediately narrows the pip range

• A less-than-2 vertical pair shaping the top-lane logic

• A streamlined 6-sum segment that guides early placements

• Two empties that subtly shift the grid’s geometry and influence starting routes

• A tidy 2-sum anchor that rewards solvers who enjoy reading micro-constraints

It’s a puzzle where a well-timed Pips Hint can completely change the opening tempo. Ideal for examining early-phase deduction efficiency and warming up your Friday logic engine.

Medium #398 — 7 Dominoes, Constrained Structure, High Information Density

Rodolfo Kurchan’s Medium puzzle ramps up both complexity and analytical satisfaction:

• A 0-sum start that tightens pip-economy immediately

• A wide unequal cluster preventing mirrored patterns and forcing deeper inspection

• A less-than-2 control cell that trims branching options

• A three-cell equals zone, acting as a stabilizing logic anchor

• A 4-sum checkpoint and targeted 6-sum pocket, perfect for mid-grid reasoning

It’s a strong test for solvers who like to measure branching-factor reduction and observe how constraints propagate across tightly arranged regions. Comparing Pips Hint strategies here can be surprisingly insightful.

Hard #403 — 11 Dominoes, High Compression, Full Analytical Audit

Kurchan’s Hard puzzle pushes the ceiling with a grid engineered for advanced, high-precision deduction:

• Multi-cell equals clusters spanning key corridors

• A triple-cell equals trio plus a separate pair-equals region

• A commanding 24-sum block requiring disciplined pip-economy management

• A gated unequal pair and a pivotal 0-sum hinge

• Empties that alter region partitioning and influence long-range inference

This is the kind of puzzle built for solvers who audit deduction order, track failure states, and enjoy analyzing how subtle pipelines in the grid affect long-form logic stability.

Whether you’re aiming to test your skills, log performance data, study pip-distribution behavior, or simply enjoy a Friday logic session enhanced by a few well-timed Pips Hints, December 5 delivers a fully instrumented reasoning playground—perfect for pushing your ID-based accuracy upward as the holiday season approaches.

Written by July

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 - Observe

Dominoes Include: [6-5], [5-2], [4-0], [3-1], [2-2], [2-1], [2-0]. Only one domino with 4 pips (4-0). Therefor, the domino halves in Red Not Equal must be 0+1+2+3+5. Only one domino with 3 pips (3-1). The domino halves in Yellow Equal must be 2.

💡 Hint #1 - Observe

Dominoes Include: [6-6], [6-4], [6-1], [5-3], [5-1], [4-4], [4-3], [3-3], [3-2], [3-1], [2-0]. Only 3 dominoes with 6 pips (6-6, 6-4, 6-1), need 4 domino halves that contain 6 pips for Purple 24 region.

💡 Hint #2 - Pueple Equal

The domino halves in this region must be 3.

💡 Hint #3 - Red Equal

The domino halves in this region must be 4.

💡 Hint #4 - Green Equal

The domino halves in this region must be 2.

💡 Hint #5 - Light Blue Equal

The domino halves in this region must be 1.

🎨 Pips Solver

Dec 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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: [4-0], [3-2], [2-1], [0-0].

2

Step 2: Yellow 2 + Red <2 + Light Blue 6 --(Arrows ①②③)

Confirmed by neighboring region and step 1 and relative position. The domino halves in Red <2 region must be 1+0. The domino halves in Light Blue 6 region must be 4+2. The answer is 2-1 (2 into Yellow 2 region), placed horizontally; 0-4 (4 into Light Blue 6 region), placed horizontally; 2-3 (3 right into blank), placed horizontally.

3

Step 3: Purple Equal --(Arrows ④)

The answer is 0-0 (one 0s into blank), placed vertically.

🔧 Step-by-Step Answer Walkthrough For Medium Level

1

Step 1

Dominoes Include: [6-5], [5-2], [4-0], [3-1], [2-2], [2-1], [2-0]. Only one domino with 4 pips (4-0). Therefor, the domino halves in Red Not Equal must be 0+1+2+3+5. Only one domino with 3 pips (3-1). The domino halves in Yellow Equal must be 2.

2

Step 2: Red Not Equal + Blue 4 + Green 6 + Purple 0 --(Arrows ①②③④)

Confirmed by neighboring region and step 1 and relative position. The domino halves in Red Not Equal region must be 0+1+2+3+5. The answer is 4-0 (4 into Blue 4 region), placed horizontally; 6-5 (6 into Green 6 region), placed vertically; 0-2 (0 into Purple 0 region, confirmed by remaining dominoes with 2 pips), placed horizontally; 1-3, placed vertically.

3

Step 3: Light Blue <2 --(Arrows ⑤)

Confirmed by neighboring region and remaining dominoes. The answer is 1-2 (2 left into blank), placed horizontally.

4

Step 4: Yellow Equal --(Arrows ⑥⑦)

The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 2-5 (5 left into Blank), placed horizontally.

🔧 Step-by-Step Answer Walkthrough For Hard Level

1

Step 1

Dominoes Include: [6-6], [6-4], [6-1], [5-3], [5-1], [4-4], [4-3], [3-3], [3-2], [3-1], [2-0]. Only 3 dominoes with 6 pips (6-6, 6-4, 6-1), need 4 domino halves that contain 6 pips for Purple 24 region.

2

Step 2: Purple Equal + Red Equal + Red <5 + Blue 0 + Green Equal --(Arrows ①②③④⑤⑥)

Confirmed by neighboring region and step 1 and relative position. The domino halves in Purple Equal region must be 3. The domino halves in Red Equal region must be 4. The domino halves in Green Equal region must be 2. The answer is 3-4 (3 into Purple Equal region, 4 into Red Equal region), placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically; 0-2 (0 into Blue 0 region, 2 into Green Equal region), placed vertically; 2-3 (2 into Green Equal region), placed horizontally; 3-1 (1 into Red <5 region), placed vertically.

3

Step 3: Purple 24 + Light Blue Equal --(Arrows ⑦⑧⑨⑩)

Confirmed by neighboring region and remaining dominoes (6-6, 6-4, 6-1, 5-3, 5-1). The domino halves in Purple 24 region must be 6. The domino halves in Light Blue Equal region must be 1. The answer is 6-1 (1 into Light Blue Equal region), placed vertically; 6-6, placed horizontally; 6-4 (4 down into blank), placed vertically; 1-5 (5 into Yellow Not Equal region), placed horizontally.

4

Step 4: Yellow Not Equal --(Arrows ⑪)

The domino halves in this region must be different. The answer is 3-5 (5 down into blank), placed vertically.

🎥 Catch the clever domino placement in this quick video that cracks open today’s Pips NYT puzzle logic

If this helped you, share it with fellow puzzlers or leave a comment with your own insight.

💡 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

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