Monday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's lineup features a consistent grid pattern across all three difficulties, with zones built around exact totals, equality constraints, and threshold conditions. 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
Quick Hints (No Spoilers)
Starting Point: The pink (=) zone forces all dominoes inside it to share the same value. Find the doubles and matching halves first, that will dictate how the rest of the board connects.
Key Insight: The two exact-11 zones (green and navy) plus the purple (11) zone create a triple constraint. Dominoes that bridge these zones must satisfy two totals simultaneously, which drastically limits your options.
Watch Out For: The uncolored zones are traps, they have no conditions, but they consume domino halves that could be critical for meeting exact totals elsewhere. Don't waste high-value pips in free space until you've confirmed your 11-sum zones are satisfied.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Anchor the pink (=) zone with the 2/2 domino placed vertically. This sets the zone's equality value to 2, every pink cell must now contain a 2.
- 2.Place the 2/4 domino horizontally across pink (=) and teal (>2). The 2 side lands in pink, maintaining equality. The 4 side enters teal, which requires all values above 2, satisfied.
- 3.Place the 2/5 domino vertically across pink (=) and green (11). The 2 stays in pink. The 5 enters green, where it must contribute to an exact total of 11.
- 4.Complete green (11) by placing the 6/0 domino horizontally across green (11) and an uncolored zone. 5 + 6 = 11 exactly. The 0 goes into free space with no penalty.
- 5.Fill the purple (<4) zone with the 0/0 domino placed horizontally. Both zeros are below 4, satisfying the less-than condition.
- 6.Bridge purple (<4) and orange (>2) with the 0/3 domino placed vertically. The 0 remains in purple (under 4). The 3 enters orange, which requires values greater than 2, 3 qualifies.
- 7.Begin the navy (11) zone by placing the 5/0 domino horizontally across navy (11) and an uncolored zone. The 5 starts the navy total of 11.
- 8.Complete navy (11) by placing the 6/5 domino vertically across navy (11) and purple (11). 5 + 6 = 11 for navy. The 5 enters purple (11), starting that zone's total.
- 9.Complete purple (11) by placing the 6/3 domino horizontally across purple (11) and pink (>2). 5 + 6 = 11 for purple. The 3 enters pink (>2), which requires values greater than 2, satisfied.
- 10.Lock in the orange (5) exact total by placing the 1/5 domino horizontally across teal (=) and orange (5). The 5 in orange totals exactly 5 since it's the only domino in that zone.
- 11.Place the 1/1 domino vertically in the teal (=) zone. This builds teal's equality set with a matching pair of 1s.
- 12.Place the 1/0 domino vertically across teal (=) and an uncolored zone. The 1 completes teal's equality requirement. The 0 goes into free space.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 2/2 domino vertically in the pink (=) zone
- 2.Place the 2/4 domino horizontally in the pink (=) zone and teal (>2) zone
- 3.Place the 2/5 domino vertically in the pink (=) zone and green (11) zone
- 4.Place the 6/0 domino horizontally in the green (11) zone and uncolored (no condition) zone
- 5.Place the 0/0 domino horizontally in the purple (<4) zone
- 6.Place the 0/3 domino vertically in the purple (<4) zone and orange (>2) zone
- 7.Place the 5/0 domino horizontally in the navy (11) zone and uncolored (no condition) zone
- 8.Place the 6/5 domino vertically in the navy (11) zone and purple (11) zone
- 9.Place the 6/3 domino horizontally in the purple (11) zone and pink (>2) zone
- 10.Place the 1/5 domino horizontally in the teal (=) zone and orange (5) zone
- 11.Place the 1/1 domino vertically in the teal (=) zone
- 12.Place the 1/0 domino vertically in the teal (=) zone and uncolored (no condition) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge, the grid layout is identical across all three levels, but the logical chaining required to satisfy multiple overlapping exact-total zones demands careful planning regardless of difficulty label.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard, While the domino placements are the same across all three difficulties today, the Hard version's lack of visual hints means you have to deduce the pink (=) zone value entirely from the available doubles and cross-zone constraints. One wrong assumption about the equality value cascades into failures across green, navy, and purple.
Our Take: Monday's set is a solid warm-up for the week. The zone conditions are well-balanced, the threshold zones (>2 and <4) give you breathing room, while the three exact-11 zones force precise domino matching. The real skill test is recognizing that the pink (=) zone locks in at 2, and every other placement flows from that decision. Clean, logical, satisfying.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
