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.
Well it’s been a long day and I’ve had a bunch of technical issues, so excuse my brusque demeanor, but I’d really like to just solve this Pips and take a nap. And throw my computer out the window. Let’s do it!
Looking for Sunday’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:
An “O” and an “o” for our Hard Pips today, after yesterday’s double Kk. It’s downright kookie if you ask me. Let’s start with the little guy. Blue 4 probably (though not definitely) needs four 1’s and we do have a 1/1 domino in our stash.
Step 1
Place either the 5/1 or the 6/1 domino from Green > 10 into Blue 4 and the 1/1 domino above that in the next Blue 4 tiles. The 1/3 oes from Blue 1 into Pink 4 and then the 1/6 or 1/5 (depending on what you’ve used already) goes from Pink 4 down into Green > 10.
Step 2
Place the 2/2 domino in the bottom tiles of Purple = since it’s our last double and the 4/1 domino next to that, from Dark Blue 4 into Orange 4. The 3/0 domino goes from Orange 4 up into Green 0 and the 0/2 goes from there up into Orange 4. The 2/6 domino wraps up this step from Orange 4 into Purple > 10.
Solution
Place the 5/0 domino from Purple > 10 into Pink < 3 and then the 0/6 or 0/4 domino can go from Pink < 3 into Blue > 9 and whatever you didn’t use goes from Blue > 9 down into Dark Blue 4. Finish the puzzle with the 4/2 domino from Dark Blue 4 into Purple =.
Have a miraculous Monday, Pipsqueaks!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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