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.
It’s lovely and cool up in British Columbia, but back in my hometown, it’s hot and windy and fires are burning all around. Evacuations have begun, and other neighborhoods are on notice. Pray for rain, Pipsqueaks. Or send us some of yours. For now, let’s knock out these Pips puzzles.
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:
Today’s Hard Pips is a little French Bulldog, or at least that’s what it looks like to me. There’s basically only one way to begin this puzzle, and that’s in the nubby tail. Let’s get started.
Step 1
Place the 6/1 domino from Purple 6 into Pink 3 and the 2/5 domino from Pink 3 into Orange 16. the 5/6 domino goes above that in the remaining Orange 16 tiles. The 3/0 domino goes from Dark Blue 3 into Green 1 and the 4/4 domino goes below that in Blue =.
Step 2
Next place the 1/4 domino from Green 1 down into Blue = and the 4/6 domino from Blue = up into Purple 16. The 5/5 domino fills in the remaining Purple 16 tiles and the 0/0 domino goes in the right tiles of Pink 3.
Solution
Place the 3/4 domino from Pink 3 into Blue 4 and the 3/3 domino in Dark Blue =. The 6/6 domino fills in Orange > 9 and the 2/4 domino fills up the Green 6 tiles. Not too shabby!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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