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We have a tough trio of Pips puzzles today over at the NYT Games app. Even Easy is a bit harder than usual, and Medium is a definite head-scratcher. Today's Hard Pips had me rearranging my dominoes quite a bit until I finally figured it out. If you're stuck, read on for the solutions and a full walkthrough of today's Hard Pips.
Looking for Monday'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:
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.
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:
There is no super clear place to start in today's Hard Pips, but we can note a few observations:
First, there's a small ≠ group, and as I've noted in the past, doubles are great for these. One side sits outside the ≠ and the other goes inside. 9 times out of 10, when you see a ≠ group, look for doubles.
Second, we have just two dominoes with 2 pips on them, and we have a Purple 2 tile out there. We know one of these is going there. My guess is that the 3/2 domino will go in Dark Blue 3 / Green < 3, which leads me to believe the 2/1 domino will go from Purple 2 into Blue =. That’s where we’ll begin.
But before we do, also note the Orange > 10 group. Two tiles that must equal 11 or more, and we only have one domino with a 6, which means we 100% need to save that domino for this group. We’ll also need both of our blank dominoes for the Orange 0 group. Okay, off we go.
Step 1
As noted, place the 2/1 domino from Purple 2 into the Blue = group. Next, place the 5/1 domino directly below that in Orange > 10 into Blue =. The 1/4 domino will go from Blue = over into Pink =.
Step 2
Place the 4/0 domino from Pink = over into Orange 0 and the 0/3 domino from Orange 0 down into Pink ≠. The 3/2 domino slots into Dark Blue 3 down into Green < 3. Next, the 5/5 domino goes from Dark Blue 5 into Pink ≠ and the 4/4 domino goes from Blue 4 into Pink ≠. See what I mean about those doubles?
Solution
Next, place teh 4/5 domino from Pink = into Purple 10 and the 10/3 domino from Purple 10 into Blue 6. The 3/4 domino goes from Blue 6 down into Green 8 and the 4/6 domino slides into Green 8 down into Orange < 10. And that’s a wrap!
This was tricky, partly because of the holes in the middle, which restricted some directional options and partly because there were no free tiles. But it was also filled with little clues. We basically knew where the 0's and 6 had to go, and really only had two options for the 2. Did you solve this a different way?
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