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.
Happy Saturday, Pipsqueaks! It’s getting hot out there. Be sure to wear sunscreen if you’re spending your weekend outdoors — once you’re done solving your batch of puzzle games, that is. Let’s throw some dominoes!
Looking for Friday’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 the number 300, which I suppose probably has something to do with the World Cup. I have no clue! It’s also a movie about the Spartans from Zack Snyder. In any case, it’s pretty clear that the big Pink = group needs to be 4’s but it’s less clear what the other = groups will be. We have several doubles and they could go in several different spots. Figuring out how to align the dominoes around the Pink = group is also a trick, so I took a gamble and it paid off.
Step 1
I started with the 0/0 domino from Green 0 into Pink 0 (instead of placing them up in Green 0 to Purple 0). Next, place the 4/4 domino in the bottom right tiles of Pink = and the 3/4 domino from Dark Blue 3 into Pink =. The 0/4 domino goes from Purple 0 into Pink = and the 3/0 domino goes from Dark Blue 3 into Green 0.
Step 2
We’ll move into the “3” and place the 5/3 domino from Purple > 3 into Pink 3 and the 0/6 from Blue 0 into Orange =. The 3/6 domino goes from the first free tile into Orange = and the 3/1 domino goes from Orange 3 into the second free tile. Last, place the 4/2 domino from Pink > 3 into Blue < 3.
Solution
Our only 4 left is 4/5 so place that from Pink = into Blue = and the 5/5 domino in the remaining Blue = tiles. Place the 1/1 domino in Purple < 4. Next, place the 2/2 domino in the top tiles of Green = and the 2/1 domino from Green = into the final free tile. That’s a wrap!
Have a great Saturday, Pipsqueaks!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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