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.
We’re already ten days into June somehow. Time is a blur. Or a slightly textured oval. Either way, we have some dominoes to distribute and the tiles are calling. Shall we, Pipsqueaks?
Looking for Tuesday’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.
Here’s an example of a difficult tier Pips:
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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 letter “T” with a very elaborate frame. I had a tough time with this one, mostly because there are so many ways to make the Orange 15 and Dark Blue 15 groups work, but all but one of these leads you astray. One handy clue is Blue 0 requires all three of your blank pips. We also know that 4’s have to go in the top Purple = group because they won’t work down in the bottom right Purple = group. And 1’s must make up the Blue 4 group. +
Step 1
Place the 0/4 domino from Blue 0 into Purple = and the 0/3 domino from Blue 0 into Orange 15. The 0/5 domino goes from Blue 0 down into Green 11 and the 6/4 domino goes in the Pink > 4 tile up into Purple =. Finally, the 6/6 domino finishes up Orange 15.
Step 2
Place the 4/4 domino directly above the 6/6 in Purple = and the 4/5 domino from Purple = down into Dark Blue 15. The 5/5 domino finishes up Dark Blue 15 and the 3/3 domino goes below in the top Purple = tiles. The 2/3 domino goes from Pink < 4 down into Purple =.
Solution
The 3/6 domino goes from Purple = down into Dark Blue > 4 and the 2/2 goes in Orange 4. Place the 4/1 and 2/1 dominoes from Green 11 down into Blue 4 and finish this Pips off with the 1/1 domino in the last two Blue 4 tiles.
Have a great Wednesday, Pipsqueaks!
How’d you do on today’s Pips?
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