Thursday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. The board leans on a single navy (=) zone that anchors the grid, an exact-total orange (8) slot, and a teal (>16) sum that needs the high-value doubles to clear.
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
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. All three difficulty levels share the same zone layout and domino set, so the climb comes from how much sequencing the board demands, not from new mechanics.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The zero-total zones are the real gate. Green (0) and navy (0) only accept 0-pips, and the entire solution hinges on keeping those 0s alive while feeding the purple (<3), green (>3), and uncolored slots.
One misplaced 0 strands the board with no legal fill.
Our Take: Today's set is a clean lesson in constraint-counting. The navy (=) and teal (=) zones pre-solve a third of the board, and the teal (>16) threshold forces the high-value pips into one corner.
Once you see that the zero-total zones guard the low pips, the grid unfolds fast. Fair, tight puzzles with just enough teeth on Hard to keep you honest.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
