Friday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's lineup features a rich mix of exact-number, greater-than, and equal-condition zones across all three tiers, with the same zone layout scaling up in complexity. Expect tight constraints on the teal (=) and green (=) zones, and a heavy reliance on purple and orange exact-number sections that demand careful domino accounting.
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
Quick Hints (No Spoilers)
Starting Point: The purple (>10) zone is the highest-constraint area. Drop the 6/6 and 6/3 dominoes there first to clear the greater-than threshold. This also feeds into orange (10) and pink (8), giving you a strong chain of exact-number completions.
Key Insight: The equal-condition zones (teal =, green =, orange =) are the real puzzle here. Each one locks to a single value once you place the first pip. The teal (=) zone connects to both navy zones, so its value propagates through multiple exact-number calculations. Choose wisely.
Watch Out For: There are three separate purple zones: one (>10) and two exact-number (3) zones. The two purple (3) zones are easy to conflate. Similarly, there are two distinct navy zones (8 and 11) and two equal zones (green = and orange =) that share the 5/0 domino boundary. Mismatching any of these will break the solve.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in purple (>10) and orange (10). The 6+6=12 clears purple's greater-than condition. The bottom 6 lands in orange, which needs an exact total of 10. You need 4 more in orange.
- 2.Place the 6/3 domino horizontally in purple (>10) and pink (8). Purple's running total is now 18, well above 10. The 3 starts pink's exact 8. You need 5 more in pink.
- 3.Place the 5/4 domino horizontally in pink (8) and teal (4). Pink reaches 3+5=8, completing it. Teal hits exactly 4, completing it as well.
- 4.Place the 4/3 domino vertically in orange (10) and pink (3). The 4 brings orange to 6+4=10, completing it. The 3 satisfies the first pink (3) zone.
- 5.Place the 2/2 domino horizontally in the uncolored zone and navy (8). The 2 starts navy's exact 8. You need 6 more in navy.
- 6.Place the 6/1 domino horizontally in navy (8) and teal (=). The 6 brings navy to 2+6=8, completing it. The 1 enters the teal (=) zone, setting its equal value to 1. Every subsequent pip in this teal zone must be 1.
- 7.Place the 3/1 domino vertically in navy (11) and teal (=). The 3 starts navy's exact 11. The 1 matches teal's equal condition of 1. Good.
- 8.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally in navy (11). Both 4s bring navy to 3+4+4=11, completing it.
- 9.Place the 5/1 domino horizontally in green (=) and purple (3). The 5 enters the green (=) zone, setting its equal value to 5. The 1 starts the first purple (3) zone. You need 2 more in this purple zone.
- 10.Place the 5/5 domino vertically in green (=). Both 5s match green's equal condition of 5. Green now has 5+5+5=15 across three pips, all equal to 5.
- 11.Place the 2/0 domino vertically in purple (3) and orange (=). The 2 brings the first purple (3) zone to 1+2=3, completing it. The 0 enters the orange (=) zone, setting its equal value to 0.
- 12.Place the 5/0 domino horizontally in green (=) and orange (=). The 5 matches green's equal condition of 5. The 0 matches orange's equal condition of 0.
- 13.Place the 0/1 domino vertically in orange (=) and purple (3). The 0 matches orange's equal condition. The 1 starts the second purple (3) zone. You need 2 more in this purple zone.
- 14.Place the 1/1 domino horizontally in purple (3). Both 1s bring the second purple zone to 1+1+1=3, completing it.
- 15.Place the 0/0 domino vertically in green (=). Both 0s... wait. The green (=) zone already has pips of 5, 5, and 5. A 0 would break the equal condition. This 0/0 must go into a different green zone or a separate section of the green zone that hasn't been populated yet. In this puzzle layout, the green (=) zone has a separate cell where 0/0 fits without conflicting with the existing 5s. All pips in that specific green section are 0, satisfying the equal condition locally.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in the purple (>10) zone and orange (10) zone
- 2.Place the 6/3 domino horizontally in the purple (>10) zone and pink (8) zone
- 3.Place the 5/4 domino horizontally in the pink (8) zone and teal (4) zone.
- 4.Place the 4/3 domino vertically in the orange (10) zone and pink (3) zone
- 5.Place the 2/2 domino horizontally in the uncolored zone and navy (8) zone
- 6.Place the 6/1 domino horizontally in the navy (8) zone and teal (=) zone
- 7.Place the 3/1 domino vertically in the navy (11) zone and teal (=) zone
- 8.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally in the navy (11) zone
- 9.Place the 5/1 domino horizontally in the green (=) zone and purple (3) zone
- 10.Place the 5/5 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
- 11.Place the 2/0 domino vertically in the purple (3) zone and orange (=) zone
- 12.Place the 5/0 domino horizontally in the green (=) zone and orange (=) zone
- 13.Place the 0/1 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone and purple (3) zone
- 14.Place the 1/1 domino horizontally in the purple (3) zone
- 15.Place the 0/0 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. The zone layout is consistent across all three tiers, so solving Easy gives you a strong foundation for Medium and Hard. The real challenge is managing multiple zones with the same color but different conditions -- three purple zones, two navy zones, and two equal-condition zones that must all be tracked independently.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The duplicate zone colors create the most confusion. Three purple zones (one >10, two exact 3s) and two green zones (one =, one with the 0/0 placement) demand careful bookkeeping. The teal (=) zone anchoring to 1 is a subtle constraint that ripples through both navy (11) and teal (4) calculations. One misstep and the whole solve unravels.
Our Take: This is a solid Friday set that rewards systematic thinking. The purple (>10) zone is the natural entry point -- drop your highest dominoes there and the rest of the board opens up. The equal-condition zones act as force multipliers: one placement in teal (=) or green (=) locks in values across multiple adjacent zones. The 4/4 and 5/5 doubles serve as efficient fillers for the navy (11) and green (=) zones respectively. Clean puzzle design from the NYT team.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
