Looking for help with today’s NYT Pips puzzles? You’ve come to the right place. Not only will you find strategies below, but full answers for each daily trio of Pips puzzles and a full walkthrough for the Hard Pips.
It’s Saturday at last. The weekend is here, like rainbow dominoes glimmering in the sun. Let’s solve these Pips, shall we?
Looking for Friday’s Pips? Read our guide right here.
How To Play Pips
In Pips, you have a grid of multi=-colored 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:
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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:
Today’s Pips is another currency — the Japanese YEN. As of this writing, the Yen is worth 0.0063 US dollars. That has no bearing whatsoever on the puzzle at hand, however, so let’s get right to it!
Step 1
Start with the 4/6 domino from Orange > 3 into Blue > 16. I placed the 6/5 domino in the next two Blue > 16 tiles, but the 6/6 would also work. Only, I like to save my doubles in case we need them later. And we will. Place the 0/0 domino in the top Green 0 tiles and the 0/2 domino from Green 0 down into Purple < 3. Then hop down to the “N” and place the 5/4 domino from Green > 3 into Blue =.
Step 2
Pop the 4/4 domino directly above that and the 4/3 domino from Blue = down into the first free tile. It’s the only remaining domino with a 4 that doesn’t have a blank attached so we know it has to go here. The 6/2 domino goes in Orange 8 and the 0/4 domino goes from Dark Blue 0 into Purple > 3. Move up to the “Y” and place the 2/1 domino from Pink > 0 down into Dark Blue =.
Solution
The 1/1 domino goes in the next two Dark Blue = tiles and the 1/0 goes from Dark Blue = down into the second free tile. Place the 5/0 domino from Purple > 4 into the third free tile and the 6/6 domino in Pink = in the “E”. Last, but not least, the 0/3 domino goes from Dark Blue 0 over into the fourth and final free tile and you’re done!
Have a stupendous Saturday, Pipsqueaks!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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