Thursday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's grid serves up a balanced challenge across all three difficulty levels, with equal-sign zones and exact-number conditions driving most of the early strategy. 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 teal (<3) and orange (>3) vertical boundary is the single most constrained position in the grid. Only one domino in the entire set can bridge these two conditions. Find it and the rest of the puzzle opens up.
Key Insight: There are eight zones with a condition of 0: navy (0) appears three times, orange (0), green (0), and teal (0) each appear once. You have exactly five dominoes containing zeros (0/5, 2/0, 0/4, 0/1, 3/0). This is a tight resource constraint that dictates most of the bottom-half placements.
Watch Out For: The navy (4) zone appears twice and green (4) appears three times. Do not assume all 4-value zones can use the same domino. The 4/2 and 4/3 dominoes must be allocated carefully between navy (4), green (4), and green (3) zones. Misplacing the 4/2 domino early can orphan the 4/3 domino.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Analyze the teal (<3) and orange (>3) constraint. The <3 condition permits only pips 0, 1, or 2. The >3 condition permits only pips 4, 5, or 6. The only domino with one pip under 3 and one pip over 3 is 1/5. Place the 1/5 domino vertically spanning these two zones. This is the most constrained placement in the entire puzzle.
- 2.Move to the purple (2) and pink (5) vertical pair. The 2/5 domino satisfies both exact-number conditions exactly. Place it vertically. This resolves the only purple (2) zone and one of the pink (5) zones.
- 3.The pink (4) and teal (5) zones share a vertical border. The 4/5 domino fits here perfectly. Place it vertically. This resolves one pink (4) zone and one teal (5) zone.
- 4.For horizontal pairs: the teal (2) and orange (3) zones take the 2/3 domino horizontally. The navy (4) and green (4) zones take the 4/2 domino horizontally. These are straightforward exact-number matches.
- 5.Place the remaining single-zone dominoes. The 5/3 domino goes horizontally in the remaining teal (5) zone. The 3/1 domino goes vertically in the remaining orange (3) zone.
- 6.Now address the zero-value zones. You have five zero dominoes and six zero-condition zones. The 0/5 domino goes horizontally in navy (0) and purple (5). The 2/0 domino goes vertically in green (4) and orange (0). The 0/4 domino goes vertically in navy (0) and orange (4). The 0/1 domino goes horizontally in green (0). The 3/0 domino goes horizontally in pink (3) and teal (0).
- 7.Place the remaining dominoes: 1/4 vertically in purple (4), 1/2 vertically in pink (2), and 4/3 horizontally in navy (4) and green (3). Verify that all zone conditions are met and all 15 dominoes are placed.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 2/5 domino vertically in the purple (2) zone and pink (5) zone
- 2.Place the 4/5 domino vertically in the pink (4) zone and teal (5) zone
- 3.Place the 2/3 domino horizontally in the teal (2) zone and orange (3) zone
- 4.Place the 4/2 domino horizontally in the navy (4) zone and green (4) zone
- 5.Place the 5/3 domino horizontally in the teal (5) zone
- 6.Place the 3/1 domino vertically in the orange (3) zone
- 7.Place the 0/5 domino horizontally in the navy (0) zone and purple (5) zone
- 8.Place the 2/0 domino vertically in the green (4) zone and orange (0) zone
- 9.Place the 0/4 domino vertically in the navy (0) zone and orange (4) zone
- 10.Place the 0/1 domino horizontally in the green (0) zone
- 11.Place the 1/4 domino vertically in the purple (4) zone
- 12.Place the 1/2 domino vertically in the pink (2) zone
- 13.Place the 4/3 domino horizontally in the navy (4) zone and green (3) zone
- 14.Place the 3/0 domino horizontally in the pink (3) zone and teal (0) zone
- 15.Place the 1/5 domino vertically in the teal (<3) zone and orange (>3) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. The puzzle set uses the same grid configuration across all three levels, but the strategic approach differs. Easy focuses on direct matching, Medium introduces resource counting, and Hard demands constraint propagation.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The zero-domino resource constraint is the real trap. With five dominoes containing zeros and six zones requiring them, you cannot afford to waste a single zero pip. Misplace the 0/5 or 0/4 domino and you will have an unsolvable grid with no way to recover.
Our Take: Today's puzzle is a great demonstration of how Pips rewards systematic thinking. The teal (<3) and orange (>3) constraint pair is an elegant design choice that forces you to think about domino orientation from the very first move. The zero-resource management in the later stages adds a satisfying layer of depth that separates the Easy approach from the Hard strategy.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
