Looking for help with today’s Easy, Medium and Hard NYT Pips puzzles? Whether you’re after a nudge in the right direction or just want to compare notes, below you’ll find everything you need to solve each of today’s Pips plus a full walkthrough for today’s Hard Pips.
The work week has returned after an all-too brief weekend. But never fear, we can distract ourselves from the daily grind with today’s Pips puzzles! Grab those dominoes, Pipsqueaks, and let’s get to it!
Looking for Sunday’s Pips? Read our guide right here.
How To Play Pips
In Pips, you have a grid of multicolored boxes. Each colored area represents a different “condition” that you have to achieve. You have a select number of dominoes that you have to spend filling in the grid. You must use every domino and achieve every condition properly to win. There are Easy, Medium and Difficult tiers.
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Here’s an example of a difficult tier Pips:
As you can see, the grid has a bunch of symbols and numbers with each color. On the far left, the three purple squares must not equal one another (hence the equal sign crossed out). The two pink squares next to that must equal a total of 0. The zig-zagging blue squares all must equal one another. You click on dominoes to rotate them, and will need to since they have to be rotated to fit where they belong.
Not shown on this grid are other conditions, such as “less than” or “greater than.” If there are multiple tiles with > or < signs, the total of those tiles must be greater or less than the listed number. It varies by grid. Blank spaces can have anything. The various possible conditions are:
- = All pips must equal one another in this group.
- ≠ All pips must not equal one another in this group.
- > The pip in this tile (or tiles) must be greater than the listed number.
- < The pip in this tile must be less than the listed number.
- An exact number (like 6) The pip must equal this exact number.
- Tiles with no conditions can be anything.
In order to win, you have to use up all your dominoes by filling in all the squares, making sure to fit each condition. Sometimes there’s only one way to solve the puzzle. Other times, there can be two or more different solutions. Play today’s Pips puzzle here.
Today’s Pips Solutions And Walkthrough
Below are the solutions for the Easy and Medium tier Pips. After that, I’ll walk you through the Hard puzzle. Spoilers ahead.
Today’s Easy Pips
Today’s Medium Pips
Hard Pips Walkthrough And Solution
Here’s today’s Hard Pips:
We have a ≠ group today which will likely use up most of our doubles, of which we have several. Today’s Hard Pips has a bigger clue, however: The bottom left corner has a 2 and a 3 tile next to one another, but we have no 2/3 domino. This means we’ll need two separate dominoes to fulfill those conditions, which helps us plan our approach.
Step 1
Begin with the 2/2 domino from Green 2 into Orange ≠ and the 4/4 domino from Dark Blue 4 into Orange ≠. We’re sending both those to the edges, since Dark Blue 6 will need to place into the center tile. It can’t go down, or we wouldn’t be able to fill Pink 3 and Purple 2. Next, place the 5/5 domino from the left-most Orange ≠ tile into Blue 10 and the 5/3 domino from Blue 10 into Pink 3. Finish this step off with the 2/0 domino from Purple 2 into Blue =.
Step 2
Place the 0/5 domino from Blue = into Orange > 4 and the 0/3 domino from Blue = into Dark Blue < 4. The 0/4 domino goes from Blue = into Green 4, finishing off the second-biggest = group. Next, place the 4/1 domino from Purple 4 into Pink = and the 1/1 domino in the next two Pink = tiles.
Solution
Place the 1/0 domino from Pink = into Blue 0 and the 1/3 domino from Pink = into Purple 6. The 3/3 domino goes from Purple 6 into Orange ≠ and the 6/0 domino goes from Dark Blue 6 into Orange ≠. Finally, the 6/2 domino goes from Pink > 2 into the one and only free tile, and you’re done!
That Purple 2 / Pink 3 combo actually made this a pretty easy Hard Pips, as far as they go. I had initially placed my early dominoes incorrectly and when I came to that, I realized right away what needed to change. Had there been a 2/3 domino on the board, however, I might not have noticed until much later!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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