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.
Sunday has arrived and you know that means I want it to be a lazy Sunday and you probably also know by now that this is only in my wildest dreams. It’s another busy day, folks, so pull up your sleeves and dig into that mountain of dominoes, because we need to solve these Pips puzzles!
Looking for Saturday’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.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
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:
Okay okay, today’s Hard Pips is “K” “k” — yet another upper and lower-case Pips puzzle. Honestly, this one had enough less than and greater than combos that it was just a lot of trial and error. Here’s the walkthrough, though I’m not certain this is the best place to start. At least it’s easy to follow.
Step 1
Place the 5/1 domino from Purple 9 down into Dark Blue 2 and the 4/4 domino from Purple 9 into Green < 5. The 1/1 domino goes from Dark Blue 2 over into Blue 9 and the 3/3 domino goes from Green 3 down into Orange 9. The 6/2 domino goes from Orange 9 up into Blue 9.
Step 2
Toss the 6/6 domino from Blue 9 into Orange 5 and since we now have just 5/5 for doubles remaining, pop that into Pink =. Hop over to little “k” and place the 2/0 from Blue < 3 into Purple < 2 and the 1/2 domino from Dark Blue 1 into Pink > 1.
Solution
The 0/4 domino goes from Purple < 2 into Dark Blue > 3 and the 0/5 domino goes from Orange < 4 down into Pink > 4. The 3/4 domino slides into Blue 3 down into the one and only free tile and the 4/1 domino goes in Purple 5 back in the big “K.” That’s all she wrote!
Have a splendid Sunday, Pipsqueaks!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Be sure to follow me for all your daily puzzle-solving guides, TV show and movie reviews and more here on this blog!