Tuesday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Easy and Medium offer compact boards before Hard stretches across nine columns, mixing single-cell totals with equality zones and a cluster of zero-total clues. We've got hints, a step-by-step walkthrough, and full solutions for Easy, Medium, and Hard.
How to Play Pips
Pips is a domino placement puzzle where you fill a grid of condition zones. Each zone has a rule you must satisfy using the pip values on your dominoes. The twist: you must use every domino and meet every condition to win.
Zone Conditions:
- = All pips in this zone must show the same number
- Not Equal All pips must be different numbers
- > Pips must be greater than the listed number
- < Pips must be less than the listed number
- Exact Number Pips must total that exact value
- No Condition Free space, any domino value works
Click or tap dominoes to rotate them. Each puzzle has one or more valid solutions. In the grids below, rows read top to bottom and a 0 is a blank domino half. When two zones share the same rule, we number them in reading order, top to bottom.
Easy Pips Solution
Show the solved Easy board
Medium Pips Solution
Show the solved Medium board
Hard Pips Solution
Show the solved Hard board
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: This set builds from a small warmup into a much more demanding tile-management exercise. Easy uses five dominoes, Medium uses seven, and Hard asks you to coordinate sixteen.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard is the trickiest board because the zero-total clues compete for the same limited supply of blank ends. The central equality zone adds another constraint, resolving to three 3s while the bottom cluster takes three zeros.
Our Take: Hard rewards counting the available ends before committing tiles. The zero clues make an excellent anchor, and tracking each domino's partner end keeps that progress useful across the board.
Until Tomorrow
See you for the next set, with a fresh eye for the clues at each end of a domino.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.