Sunday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's lineup serves up a consistent challenge across all three tiers, with the same zone layout appearing for Easy, Medium, and Hard -- meaning your strategic thinking gets pushed further at each level. 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 Hard difficulty introduces more restrictive domino placement rules. Lock in the purple (4) zone first.
Key Insight: The purple (=) and green (=) zones must contain identical pip values throughout. These zones act as multipliers: once you place one domino, the rest must match. Choose carefully, a wrong start here cascades across the entire grid.
Watch Out For: The teal (9) zone is a trap. It looks like it needs a single high-value domino, but it actually requires a combination of three dominoes to reach exactly 9. Do not overshoot by dropping a 6/6 or 5/4 here.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 2/2 domino horizontally in the purple (4) zone
- 2.Place the 4/3 domino horizontally across the pink (4) zone and teal (9) zone
- 3.Place the 6/6 domino horizontally across the orange (7) zone and navy (>4) zone
- 4.Place the 4/4 domino vertically across the green (4) zone and orange (4) zone
- 5.Place the 1/6 domino horizontally across the purple (1) zone and teal (9) zone
- 6.Place the 5/1 domino horizontally across the navy (5) zone and green (=) zone
- 7.Place the 1/2 domino horizontally across the orange (7) zone and pink (2) zone
- 8.Place the 1/4 domino horizontally across the green (=) zone and purple (4) zone
- 9.Place the 6/4 domino vertically across the teal (6) zone and pink (4) zone
- 10.Place the 0/1 domino horizontally across the teal (<4) zone and green (=) zone
- 11.Place the 0/4 domino horizontally across the orange (0) zone and navy (4) zone
- 12.Place the 1/1 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
- 13.Place the 0/3 domino vertically across the orange (0) zone and purple (=) zone
- 14.Place the 3/3 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone
- 15.Place the 2/4 domino horizontally across the pink (<4) zone and teal (4) zone
- 16.Place the 4/5 domino horizontally across the orange (4) zone and navy (>4) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge across the board. The identical zone layout for all three difficulties means the puzzle tests your ability to optimize placement order rather than decode new layouts. Easy is forgiving, Medium tightens the screws, and Hard demands precision.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The teal (9) zone is the trap. Most players instinctively try to fill it with a single high-value domino, but the solution requires three separate dominoes to hit exactly 9. Getting greedy with a 6/6 here bricks the entire board.
Our Take: Sunday's set rewards patience over speed. The orange (0) zone is your best friend -- lock it in first and the rest falls into place. The equal-value zones (purple and green) act as force multipliers: solve them right and they constrain the board in your favor. Solve them wrong and you're restarting. Clean, methodical play wins the day.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
