Sunday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's set shares a single zone layout across all three difficulties, anchored by a teal (>16) zone that demands big pip totals and a dense cluster of exact-value and = conditions that reward disciplined placement.
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 difficulties share a single zone layout, so the jump from Easy to Hard is about pressure and precision rather than new mechanics.
The teal (>16) zone and the teal (=) chain do the heavy lifting.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The twin purple zones (purple (>4) and purple (>3)) and the twin navy conditions (navy (=) and navy (0)) are easy to conflate. Dropping the 5/0 into the wrong purple or routing the 3/0 and 4/0 into the wrong navy condition dead-ends the board fast.
Our Take: The teal (=) chain is the real star of today's set. Three dominoes all carrying a 4 pip lock that zone uniformly while feeding the green (>3) zone downstream.
The navy (=) chain mirrors it on the other side, and together they frame the whole solve. Clean, tight Sunday layout that rewards methodical order over brute-force guessing.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
