Sunday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. All three difficulty levels share the same grid layout today, making this a consistency challenge where the same zone conditions appear across Easy, Medium, and Hard. Master the logic once and you will see the pattern repeat. 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: Same grid layout as Easy and Medium, but Hard demands precise ordering. Start with the exact-number zones: purple (5), teal (10), pink (6), orange (9), and green (0).
Key Insight: The green (=) zones are the backbone of this puzzle. You have multiple green (=) zones that require all pips within each zone to be identical. The 6/6, 1/2, 1/5, 4/1, and 2/2 dominoes each touch a green (=) zone, so verify every pip matches its zone-mates.
Watch Out For: The navy (>2) and navy (<3) zones are adjacent and easy to confuse. Navy (>2) requires pips of 3 or higher while navy (<3) requires 2 or lower. Double-check which navy zone you are placing into before locking in a domino.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Open with the 5/6 domino vertically across purple (5) and teal (10). This is your only way to kick off the exact-number chain -- 5 satisfies purple and 6 contributes to teal's 10-point target.
- 2.Drop the 1/1 domino vertically across orange (<2) and purple (2). The 0/0 could also work for orange (<2), but 1/1 is required here because purple (2) needs exactly 2 pips and the second purple zone will use the 1 from 1/3.
- 3.Place 1/3 vertically across purple (2) and pink (>2). The 1 adds to purple's exact count and 3 clears pink's greater-than-2 condition.
- 4.Add 4/4 vertically to teal (10) and navy (>2). Both 4s push teal closer to 10 and satisfy navy's greater-than-2 requirement.
- 5.Place 1/5 vertically across green (=) and pink (>4). The 5 in green (=) means all pips in that green zone must be 5 -- and the 4/1 domino will place another 1 in the adjacent green (=) zone, not this one. Watch zone boundaries carefully.
- 6.Place 4/1 vertically across orange (>3) and a different green (=) zone. The 4 clears orange and the 1 goes into a green (=) zone that also receives a 1 from the 1/2 domino.
- 7.Place 0/4 vertically across pink (<2) and navy (>2). The 0 satisfies pink's less-than-2 condition and the 4 handles the second navy (>2) zone.
- 8.Place 1/2 vertically across green (=) and teal (=). This is critical -- the 1 and 2 must match their respective zone-mates. The 1 joins the green (=) zone from step 6 and the 2 joins the teal (=) zone that also gets the 2/2 domino.
- 9.Place 2/2 vertically in the remaining teal (=) zone. Both 2s match the teal equality condition.
- 10.Place 0/1 horizontally across green (0) and purple (<2). The 0 and 1 together total 0 for the green zone and the 1 stays under 2 for purple.
- 11.Place 0/0 vertically in the remaining green (0) zone. Both zeros satisfy the exact-zero requirement.
- 12.Place 2/4 vertically across navy (<3) and teal (>3). The 2 satisfies navy's less-than-3 condition and the 4 satisfies teal's greater-than-3 condition.
- 13.Place 3/3 vertically in pink (6). Two 3s total 6 -- exactly matching the pink zone's requirement.
- 14.Place 4/5 horizontally in orange (9). The 4 and 5 sum to 9, satisfying the exact-number condition.
- 15.Place 6/6 vertically in the final green (=) zone. Both 6s match, completing the equality condition.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 5/6 domino vertically in the purple (5) zone and teal (10) zone
- 2.Place the 1/1 domino vertically in the orange (<2) zone and purple (2) zone
- 3.Place the 1/3 domino vertically in the purple (2) zone and pink (>2) zone
- 4.Place the 4/4 domino vertically in the teal (10) zone and navy (>2) zone
- 5.Place the 1/5 domino vertically in the green (=) zone and pink (>4) zone
- 6.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the orange (>3) zone and green (=) zone
- 7.Place the 0/4 domino vertically in the pink (<2) zone and navy (>2) zone
- 8.Place the 1/2 domino vertically in the green (=) zone and teal (=) zone
- 9.Place the 2/2 domino vertically in the teal (=) zone
- 10.Place the 0/1 domino horizontally in the green (0) zone and purple (<2) zone
- 11.Place the 0/0 domino vertically in the green (0) zone
- 12.Place the 2/4 domino vertically in the navy (<3) zone and teal (>3) zone
- 13.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the pink (6) zone
- 14.Place the 4/5 domino horizontally in the orange (9) zone
- 15.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. All three difficulty levels share the same zone layout and solution, which is unusual. This makes the set feel repetitive if you solve all three in sequence, but the identical grid means you can focus entirely on domino logic without learning new layouts.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The multiple green (=) zones create a chain of dependencies that are easy to misplace. One wrong pip in a green (=) zone breaks the equality condition, and the proximity of navy (>2) versus navy (<3) zones demands careful attention to which comparison operator applies where.
Our Take: An odd Sunday where Easy, Medium, and Hard are effectively the same puzzle with the same solution -- making this more of a speed-run challenge than a progressive difficulty climb. The green (=) zones are the real puzzle here, forcing you to track which dominoes share each zone and ensuring all pips match. If you solved Easy, you solved all three.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
