Thursday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Easy and Medium offer compact warmups before Hard stretches across nine columns, with narrow branches that make domino orientation part of the challenge. 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
Medium Pips Solution
Hard Pips Solution
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: This set builds steadily, moving from five dominoes on Easy to seven on Medium and eleven on Hard. The expanding workload gives the trio a satisfying progression.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard is the trickiest board because its narrow right-hand branch links separate clues through domino partners. The 6 in row 3, column 7 brings a 4 into the all-different zone below, where it must stay distinct from 1 and 3.
Our Take: The strongest lesson today is to follow both ends of every domino. A value that satisfies one clue still needs a partner that works across the next boundary.
Until Tomorrow
Keep those domino partners in view on the next board.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.