Happy March 1st, Pipsqueaks! It’s a brand new month and spring is basically here (even if the spring equinox is still three weeks away). If you’re looking for something to distract yourself from all the crazy news, check out my weekend streaming guide after we solve today’s Pips. There’s lots of new shows and movies out.
Okay, grab your dominos and let’s get to it!
Looking for Saturday’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.
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:
At first glance, this is an incredibly daunting Pips, but we’ve had one like this before, and that taught us how to proceed. There are two important things to take note of before tackling this Hard Pips:
- First, look for doubles. We have doubles from 0/0 to 4/4 in our domino collection today. These are a good place to start.
- Second, there are no 3 tiles on the board, but we have lots of 3’s in our domino stash. This means that all free tiles will be 3’s, which gives us another crucial piece of information.
Step 1
Only two of the doubles are “for sure” on the board, with both 1/1 and 0/0 having multiple possible positions. Place the 4/4 domino in the top right from Orange 4 to Dark Blue 4, and place the 2/2 domino in the bottom right, from Pink 2 to Blue 2.
Next, since we know that 3’s occupy the free tiles, we can place the 4/1 domino on the bottom left from Green 4 to Pink 1 and the 4/2 domino above that, from Purple 4 to Green 2.
Step 2
Usually I recommend saving the free tiles for the end, but since we know these are all 3’s, we don’t have to follow that rule completely. We know that any domino with a 3 is going to jut out into a free tile, after all.
Place the 3/3 in the bottom two free tiles and the 3/1 domino above that from the third free tile into Pink 1. Place the 4/3 domino in the top left corner, from Purple 4 into the fourth free tile. Now, place the 1/1 domino in the bottom right, from Purple 1 up into Orange 1.
Step 3
Place the 4/0 domino from Blue 4 to Orange 0 into the center of the grid. Place teh 2/0 domino above that from Purple 2 to Blue 0. Next, place the 2/1 domino from Pink 2 into Blue 1 at the center-top of the grid.
Solution
Place the 2/3 domino from Orange 2 into the fifth free tile at the top right and the 1/0 domino directly below that, from Dark Blue 1 into Green 0. The 0/0 domino goes next to those, from Green 0 down into Purple 0. Finish this one off with the 0/3 domino from Dark Blue 0 into the sixth and final free tile.
Using the strategy above, I was able to solve this on my first try without having to rearrange a single domino. That actually surprised me, but once you realize how to begin, and how each 3 must go into a free tile, you basically have a pretty clear path to victory.
How’d you do on today’s Pips? Let me know!
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