Monday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's set runs a familiar gauntlet of aggressive greater-than zones and exact-number traps, with the teal (>16) zone doing the heaviest lifting on every board.
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: Easy day. All three boards share the identical layout and solution, so the real challenge is execution speed, not puzzle logic.
A clean run for anyone who reads the teal zones first.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The teal (=) zone is the trap. It demands three dominoes hold a single uniform value while simultaneously feeding the green (>3) zone and an uncolored cell.
Nail the 4-value chain early or the whole board stalls.
Our Take: Monday's set is a warm-up, and a generous one. The recurring trick is the zero-pip dominoes doing double duty across the "0" condition zones, and the orange (8) exact-number trap that punishes anyone who spends the 6/2 too early.
Solid fundamentals, low stress.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
