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 very smoky here in the mountains of Arizona. The Pocket Fire is burning south of here and its plume of smoke is dispersing all across town, creating an unpleasant haze that stings the eyes. It’s not fun, but it’s even less fun for the wildland firefighters trying to contain the blaze. I can’t complain too much as I sit here solving my NYT puzzles. Speaking of which, let’s solve today’s Pips!
Looking for Thursday’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 “USA” which feels a day premature, given the 4th of July is tomorrow. Maybe they have something else planned: fireworks or 4th or something like that. Maybe they just wanted to get out ahead of it. This perfectly patriotic Pips puzzles possesses a pretty practical point to proceed.
Step 1
Place the 1/3 domino from Orange 1 into Dark Blue 3 and the 5/1 domino from Green 5 into Purple 2. The 1/0 domino goes from Purple 2 into Dark Blue = and we’ll wait to see what goes in the next tile. Place the 6/5 domino from Green 12 into Orange 10 and the 5/3 domino from Orange 10 into Purple 3.
Step 2
Move to the “A” and place the 4/4 domino in the bottom two Purple = tiles and the 4/6 domino from Purple = into Blue 12. The 4/3 domino goes from Purple = into Blue 5 and the 2/3 domino goes from Blue 5 into Pink 6. Place the 3/6 domino from Pink 6 into Blue 12 and the 5/5 domino in the two tiles of Orange 10.
Solution
Place the 6/0 domino from Green 12 into Blue = and the 0/4 domino fro Blue = into the first free tile. The 0/2 domino goes from Dark Blue = into Pink 7 and the 5/4 domino goes from Pink 7 into the second free tile. The 2/2 domino fills in the remaining free tiles.
Have fun getting ready for your 4th of July festivities, which I suspect might include some World Cup action.
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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