I’ve spent the day traveling and that has mostly negative effects on my brain. I get tired, grouchy and ready to hang up my hat. And the fun part about today is that as I type this, my computer is being sluggish and acting out — as if it was resentful of my absence these past few days and is now dragging its feet. So I’ll be brief. Let’s solve today’s Pips!
Looking for Wednesday’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. Play today’s Pips puzzle here.
Today’s Pips Solution
Below are the solutions for the Easy and Medium tier Pips. After that, I’ll walk you through the Difficult puzzle. Spoilers ahead.
Easy
Medium
Difficult
Let’s do a complete walkthrough of today’s Difficult Pips. It starts out like this:
I often joke that the moment we get to October and Halloween season, they start putting out the Christmas decorations. Well, it looks like the NYT Puzzle setters have joined the fray. We’re only two days into October, and already they’ve given us our first Christmas tree!
Step 1
The really tricky thing about this tree is the trunk. There’s effectively a bottleneck between the branches and the base. Because of the symmetry, and because the very top of the tree is poking up, the only way to fit the dominoes is if the central Orange 4 has a domino that juts down. If you do it any other way, you’ll find that you can’t fit the rest of the pieces in the top half of the puzzle. This is the key thing to note before solving this.
So begin by placing the 4/2 domino from Orange 4 down into Purple <3. Next, we’ll tackle the lowest branches. The 4/3 domino slots into Pink 4 over into Blue 3 and the 1/6 domino goes from Green <4 into Blue 12. We know Blue 12 requires both 6’s, so place the 6/4 domino up into the free tile. This is a trap: If you place the 6/4 domino from Blue 12 into Orange 4, you cut yourself off. (I learned this the hard way at first).
Step 2
Next, we’ll move to the top of the tree. Based on our remaining dominoes, either of the Pink 4 groups could be filled in with 5’s or 3’s, but because of the secondary tiles on those respective dominoes, only the 5’s will work up top. So place the 4/5 domino from Purple >3 into Pink =. Next, slot the 1/1 domino from Purple 1 into Dark Blue 1 and the 0/0 domino from Dark Blue 1 into Blue 0.
Step 3
Now we’re on a roll. Place the 5/4 domino into Pink = in the center and the 5/2 domino from Pink = into Orange 3. Then place the 1/2 domino from Orange 3 into Green 3 and the 1/0 domino from Green 3 into Blue 3. So many tiny groups with similar conditions! It’s really quite a tricky Pips!
Solution
With all that out of the way, the base of the Christmas tree is a piece of cake. The 3/3 domino goes in the center of Pink = and the 3/1 domino goes from Pink = into Orange <2. That leaves the 2/3 domino which slots into Blue <3 over into the final Pink = tile. And that is that!
This was one of the most challenging Pips I’ve tackled in a long time, mainly because that central bottleneck can really get you if you place it wrong. I had to start all over after I thought I was on a roll, all because I’d placed that center Orange 4 incorrectly. How’d you do?
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