Friday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's set is a balanced mix, with all three difficulty levels sharing the same zone layout but demanding progressively sharper placement logic.
We've got hints, step-by-step walkthroughs, and full solutions for Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels.
How to Play Pips
Pips is a domino placement puzzle where you fill a grid of color-coded zones. Each zone has a condition 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 equal 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 Color Free space, any domino value works
Click or tap dominoes to rotate them. Each puzzle has one or more valid solutions.
Today's Easy Pips
Today's Medium Pips
Today's Hard Pips
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. All three levels share the same zone layout and solution, so the difficulty ramp comes from how quickly you spot the constrained patterns rather than from new mechanics.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The orange (8) exact-number zone is the trap. With a full domino set on the board, it is tempting to overreach with a bigger pair, but the 6/2 is the only placement that totals exactly 8 while keeping the surrounding teal, purple, and navy zones intact.
Our Take: This is a clean, well-structured set built around two anchor zones: navy (=) and teal (=). If you cracked the equal-value pattern on the teal zone, the rest of the grid practically solved itself.
Friday's layout rewards patience over speed, and the shared solution across difficulties makes it a good one to study for pattern recognition.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
