It’s Veterans Day today. A holiday, though one that carries a somber reminder of the toll of war and the sacrifice of US military veterans over the years. Something to keep in mind as school is out and we spend time with friends and family. We have three Pips puzzles to solve today: Easy, Medium and Hard. The solutions for the first two are below, with a full walkthrough for the Hard Pips. Let’s lay some dominoes, shall we?
Looking for Monday’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:
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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:
Well, this is obviously the number “6” today. It looks simple enough, with just 9 dominoes to work with, but this was a very tricky Pips!
Step 1
Normally, I’d begin in the top right Pink = group since I know that has to be a double, but we have two doubles in our domino stash and it’s not at all clear which one it should be. Another potential starting point is the Blue 9 group at the bottom, which could be made with a 3 and a 6 or a 4 and a 5. I tried 3 and 6 and ran into some issues, so I started over with 4 and 5. Here’s what to do:
First, place the 4/4 domino from Blue 9 into Pink 10. Next, place the 5/3 domino from Blue 9 into Purple 8.
Step 2
The 5/6 domino goes from Purple 8 into Green 6 and the 5/0 domino goes above that, horizontally from Blue 7 into Orange 5. (I’m noticing now that we have Total groups equalling 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in this puzzle).
Place the 6/3 domino from Pink 10 into Dark Blue 4 and the 1/5 domino from Dark Blue 4 into Orange 5.
Solution
Next, place the 2/6 domino from Blue 7 into Purple = and the 6/0 domino from Purple = into the single free tile. Finish things up with the 2/2 domino in Pink = and we’re done!
I’ve noticed something interesting and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. On Saturday, the Easy Pips was either an “O” or a “0” (zero). I think it was a zero. Then, on Sunday, the Hard Pips was pretty obviously a “2” (and you could argue the Easy Pips was a “1” but it looks more like a “!” to me).
On Monday, the Easy Pips was a “4” and the Hard Pips was either an “S” or a “5” (I went with “S” at first, but now I’m not sure). Now, today, we have a “6” for the Hard Pips. That leaves us without a “1” or a “3” and possibly without a “5” which would mean we got 2 / 4 / 6 over the course of a few days. Depending on what the pattern is, we might get an 8 tomorrow. Or maybe it’s nothing at all!
How did you do? Did anyone find a different solution? Also, I’ve noticed that the Pips puzzle isn’t even showing up on some peoples’ NYT Games app. Have you noticed this? It’s pretty weird.
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