Sunday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's lineup serves up identical zone layouts across all three difficulty levels, making this a rare consistency puzzle where mastering the Easy board directly prepares you for Hard. 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 navy (0) zone is your most constrained anchor. Only dominoes with a 0 pip can touch it, which forces specific placements in the adjacent orange (10) and teal (>1) zones.
Key Insight: The purple (=) zone is the busiest real estate on the board, collecting six separate domino placements. Every domino entering this zone must have matching pips on both sides of its border, which means the zone can hold different equal-pair values simultaneously.
Watch Out For: The green zone is split into two sub-zones -- green (>4) and green (<3). These are adjacent and easy to confuse. The 5/3 domino spans both, with the 5 feeding the greater-than-4 side and the 3 feeding the less-than-3 side. Misplacing this domino's orientation will break both conditions at once.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Anchor the 6/2 domino horizontally across purple (10) and pink (10). The 6 lands in purple, the 2 in pink. Purple needs exactly 10 total, so 6+4 from a future domino will close it. Pink needs 10 total, so 2+4+4 from the 4/4 will close it.
- 2.Place the 4/4 domino entirely within the pink (10) zone. Pink now has 2+4+4=10. Done.
- 3.Position the 4/5 domino vertically. The 4 side goes into purple (10), bringing purple to 6+4=10. Done. The 5 side goes into teal (10).
- 4.Set the 5/5 domino horizontally across teal (10) and orange (10). Teal gets 5+5=10. Done. Orange gets 5.
- 5.Place the 1/3 domino vertically in the orange (10) zone. Orange now has 5+1=6.
- 6.Lay the 0/1 domino horizontally across navy (0) and orange (10). The 0 satisfies navy's zero-sum condition. Orange gets 1, now at 7.
- 7.Place the 4/0 domino horizontally across teal (>1) and navy (0). The 0 side goes into navy (satisfied). The 4 side goes into teal (>1), satisfying the greater-than-1 condition.
- 8.Position the 3/4 domino vertically in navy (<4) and pink (>3). The 3 is less than 4, satisfying navy. The 4 is greater than 3, satisfying pink.
- 9.Set the 5/3 domino horizontally across green (>4) and purple (=). The 5 satisfies green's greater-than-4 condition. The 3 enters purple's equal-pips zone.
- 10.Place the 2/3 domino horizontally across green (<3) and purple (=). The 2 satisfies green's less-than-3 condition. The 3 enters purple's equal-pips zone.
- 11.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone. This adds a matching pair of 3s to purple.
- 12.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone. This adds a matching pair of 6s to purple.
- 13.Lay the 6/4 domino horizontally across purple (=) and pink (4). The 6 enters purple. The 4 satisfies pink's exact-4 condition.
- 14.Position the 6/1 domino vertically across purple (=) and teal (=). The 6 enters purple. The 1 enters teal's equal-pips zone.
- 15.Place the 1/4 domino horizontally across teal (=) and orange (4). The 1 enters teal. The 4 satisfies orange's exact-4 condition.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 6/2 domino horizontally in the purple (10) zone and pink (10) zone
- 2.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally in the pink (10) zone
- 3.Place the 4/5 domino vertically in the purple (10) zone and teal (10) zone
- 4.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the teal (10) zone and orange (10) zone
- 5.Place the 1/3 domino vertically in the orange (10) zone
- 6.Place the 0/1 domino horizontally in the navy (0) zone and orange (10) zone
- 7.Place the 4/0 domino horizontally in the teal (>1) zone and navy (0) zone
- 8.Place the 3/4 domino vertically in the navy (<4) zone and pink (>3) zone
- 9.Place the 5/3 domino horizontally in the green (>4) zone and purple (=) zone
- 10.Place the 2/3 domino horizontally in the green (<3) zone and purple (=) zone
- 11.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone
- 12.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone
- 13.Place the 6/4 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone and pink (4) zone
- 14.Place the 6/1 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone and teal (=) zone
- 15.Place the 1/4 domino horizontally in the teal (=) zone and orange (4) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate consistency challenge. All three difficulty levels share the exact same zone layout and solution, which is unusual for Pips. The difficulty lies not in different boards but in the time pressure and confidence required to execute the same solve under each label.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - Despite sharing the same solution as Easy and Medium, the Hard label adds psychological pressure. The green zone split (greater-than-4 vs. less-than-3) is the most error-prone section, and the purple (=) zone's six-domino density makes it easy to misplace orientation.
Our Take: Today's identical-board setup is a clever test of execution under pressure. If you solved Easy cleanly, you already know the Hard solution -- the question is whether you trust your placements when the stakes feel higher. The navy (0) zone remains the critical anchor across all levels; nail that and the rest falls into place.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
