Monday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's trio runs on the same zone layout across all three boards, so the real difficulty curve comes from how fast you read the constraints, not from new mechanics. We've got a quick hint for each of the Easy, Medium, and Hard puzzles.
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
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - the deeper constraint chain means a single rushed placement can cascade into a dead end, so careful reading beats speed.
Our Take: All three boards share the same zone layout, which makes this a clean day for sharpening your constraint-reading instincts rather than learning new tricks. The jump from Easy to Hard is less about unfamiliar mechanics and more about how much friction you tolerate before committing. Slow down on the strictest zones and the rest of the grid solves itself.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
