Sunday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's set features a balanced progression from straightforward placements to complex zone interactions, with the Hard puzzle demanding careful domino orientation. 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
Quick Hints (No Spoilers)
Starting Point: Begin with the purple equal zone - it needs dominoes with matching numbers on both ends.
Key Insight: The teal zone requires exactly 5 total pips, so look for domino combinations that sum to 5.
Easy Pips Solution
Scroll past if you want to keep trying
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- 1.Place the 3/3 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone
- 2.Place the 3/6 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone and pink (>4) zone
- 3.Place the 4/0 domino horizontally in the teal (5) zone
- 4.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the teal (5) zone and orange (5) zone
- 5.Place the 3/0 domino horizontally in the navy (3) zone and orange (5) zone
Today's Medium Pips
Quick Hints (No Spoilers)
Starting Point: Look at the pink less-than-4 zone first - it restricts which dominoes can go there.
Key Insight: The purple equal zone needs dominoes with identical numbers, while the purple greater-than-1 zone needs dominoes where both ends are greater than 1.
Medium Pips Solution
Scroll past if you want to keep trying
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- 1.Place the 1/6 domino horizontally in the purple (>1) zone
- 2.Place the 0/2 domino horizontally in the pink (<4) zone and teal (4) zone
- 3.Place the 3/1 domino vertically in the navy (4) zone
- 4.Place the 4/1 domino horizontally in the green (4) zone and purple (3) zone
- 5.Place the 2/2 domino vertically in the teal (4) zone and purple (3) zone
- 6.Place the 0/0 domino vertically in the orange (<4) and purple (3) zone
- 7.Place the 4/4 domino vertically in the pink (=) zone
Today's Hard Pips
Quick Hints (No Spoilers)
Starting Point: Focus on the purple and pink equal zones first - they need dominoes with identical numbers on both ends.
Key Insight: The teal >10 zone requires dominoes where the sum of both ends exceeds 10, which limits your options significantly.
Watch Out For: Multiple zones require exact totals (10, 1, 0) - domino orientation matters for which pips count toward which zones.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone
- 2.Place the 5/6 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone and pink (=) zone
- 3.Place the 6/6 domino horizontally in the pink (=) zone and teal (10) zone
- 4.Place the 4/0 domino vertically in the teal (10) zone and navy (0) zone
- 5.Place the 1/4 domino vertically in the orange (1) zone
- 6.Place the 4/5 domino vertically in the teal (>10) zone
- 7.Place the 6/1 domino horizontally in the teal (>10) zone and orange (1) zone
- 8.Place the 5/2 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone and green (=) zone
- 9.Place the 2/2 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
- 10.Place the 4/6 domino vertically in the purple (10) zone
- 11.Place the 1/0 domino horizontally in the navy (1) zone and green (=) zone
- 12.Place the 0/0 domino horizontally in the green (=) zone
- 13.Place the 2/0 domino vertically in the pink (10) zone and green (=) zone
- 14.Place the 4/4 domino vertically in the pink (10) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge with a clear difficulty progression
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The combination of equal zones, exact number requirements, and the >10 condition creates multiple constraints that must be satisfied simultaneously.
Our Take: Today's puzzles demonstrate effective difficulty scaling. The Easy puzzle introduces basic zone interactions, Medium adds more complex conditions, and Hard requires careful domino orientation to satisfy overlapping requirements. The teal >10 zone in Hard is particularly clever - it forces players to think about domino sums rather than individual values.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
