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.
Another Thor’s Day, another trio of Pips puzzles to solve. It was getting all hot and unpleasant and we had a wildfire sprout up nearby but now it’s raining. I woke up from a very deep nap to the sounds of thunder and that lovely petrichor. Now I’m all refreshed to play some games. Let’s do this!
Looking for Wednesday’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.
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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 “P” as in “Pips” and “p” as in “pips” and people, my Pipsqueaks, it’s perfect. Probably. Possibly? Potentially! I found myself obsessed over the Orange 9 in the big “P” and the very limited ways you could actually make it work. We could certainly place a 5/2 or a 4/3 domino and then tack on a “2” or we could use a 4/4 and tack on a “1” but none of these would leave us with something greater than 4 for Blue > 4.
I came to the conclusion that it had to be the 3/3 domino and the 3/6 domino combined, without a doubt, which basically informs what we can do everywhere else, since we know we’ll need at least one 6 for Dark Blue > 10 and the rest of our 6’s for one of the = groups that requires a double. We also need to be careful about our positioning going forward so that we can make the three “3” groups work (two are pairs of tiles that equal 3 and one is a pair that has to be less than 3 — all small groups).
Step 1
Start with the 3/3 domino in Orange 9 and the 3/6 domino from Orange 9 into Blue > 4. Then hop over to the little “p” and place the 4/6 domiono from Purple > 3 into Dark Blue > 10 and the 5/2 domino from Dark Blue > 10 into Green < 3.
Step 2
Place the 4/4 domino in Purple = on the left and the 4/3 domino from Purple = over into Pink 3. The 0/0 domino straddles Pink 3 and Green < 3. Now hop back to the big “P” and place the 1/2 domino from Blue > 0 into Purple 3 and the 1/0 domino from Purple 3 into the one and only free tile. We’ve knocked out all three “3” pairs now, and we’re closing in on the finish.
Solution
The simple trick here is figuring out whether 6’s or 5’s pair better with the Dark Blue > 3 and Green > 4 tile. Place the 5/4 domino from Orange = into Dark Blue > 3 and the 6/5 domino from Pink = into Green > 4. Now place the 5/5 and 6/6 dominoes in their respective groups and you’re done!
Have a thunderful Thursday, Pipsqueaks!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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