Tuesday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Easy offers a compact warmup, Medium adds a mix of exact totals and distinct values, and Hard stretches into a board with gaps through the middle and a long equality zone on the right. 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 a satisfying difficulty curve, moving from five dominoes on Easy to seven on Medium and fourteen on Hard. The growing tile pool gives each board a distinct weight.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard is the trickiest board because the upper high-total zone crosses domino boundaries while the right side links two separate equality zones. The top-row 5s come from the 0-5 and 1-5, leaving the double-five for the bottom row.
Our Take: Hard rewards checking both ends of a tile before committing it. The contrast between exact-zero clues and unmarked cells makes that habit especially useful here.
Until Tomorrow
See you tomorrow for another round of careful placements and satisfying fits.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.