NYT Pips Hints & Answers for July 21, 2026

In today's NYT Pips easy puzzle, Ian Livengood hands you a compact grid where the central constraint practically shouts the first move. You'll spot a three-cell region demanding a sum of 10, and since the pip ceiling is 6, the only workable trio is two 2s and a 6. Once you slot those in, a neat row of equals and sum pairs cascades, and the puzzle resolves in a few satisfying clicks. It's a gentle warm-up that rewards pattern recognition over brute force.

Stepping up to medium, Livengood stretches the grid and sprinkles in a lonely single-cell sum-2 that acts like a key in a lock. That tiny hint forces a specific domino, which unlocks the sum-8 column, then triggers a chain of equalities that sweep across the board. A sprawling four-cell equals region in the lower right becomes your compass, and you'll find each placement snapping into place with a logical rhythm. The puzzle feels like a well-orchestrated domino tumble.

Rodolfo Kurchan's hard puzzle strips everything down to bare arithmetic: almost every cell is its own sum mandate, with values ranging from 0 to 5. You'll begin by collecting every cell that screams zero, and then pair them with neighboring single-digit sums. The scarcity of multi-cell regions means you must hold the domino adjacency logic in your head while juggling a few equals couplets. It's an intense but elegant solve that tests your ability to track pip counts and forced placements simultaneously.

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