Thursday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. All three difficulty levels share the same zone layout today, making this a consistency-driven challenge where mastering the Easy puzzle directly prepares you for Medium and 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 pink (22) zone is your biggest constraint. With only four dominoes spanning it, you need the 5/5, 6/4, and 6/6 placements to total exactly 22.
Key Insight: The navy (=) zone forces all pips to match. The 2/2 double is your only clean fit there since the other navy zone (navy 9) needs a 3/3 and a 6.
Watch Out For: Don't overload the purple (13) zone. With the 4/4 and 5/6 already contributing 10, only 3 more pips can go there -- exactly what the 5/3 provides. Any other placement breaks the total.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Place the 4/4 horizontally in purple (13). This is your foundation: 8 pips down, 5 remaining for purple. The remaining purple slots must total exactly 5 across the vertical crossings.
- 2.Place the 5/6 vertically across purple (13) and teal (11). The 6 lands in purple (now 4+6=10), and the 5 goes to teal. Purple now needs exactly 3 to hit 13.
- 3.Place the 5/3 vertically across teal (11) and purple (3). The 5 goes to teal (teal now has 5+5=10), and the 3 lands in purple (3) -- satisfied exactly. Teal still needs 1 more to hit 11.
- 4.Place the 0/2 vertically across purple (3) and navy (=). The 0 goes to the already-satisfied purple (3). The 2 starts navy (=).
- 5.Place the 2/2 horizontally in navy (=). Both pips are 2 -- the equal condition is met. Navy (=) is done.
- 6.Place the 0/1 vertically in orange (1). Orange hits exactly 1. Done.
- 7.Place the 0/6 vertically across orange (1) and teal (>0). The 0 goes to orange (already done). The 6 goes to teal, which satisfies >0.
- 8.Place the 5/5 horizontally in pink (22). Pink now has 10. Needs 12 more from the two vertical crossings.
- 9.Place the 6/4 vertically across pink (22) and green (9). Pink gets 6 (now 16), green gets 4.
- 10.Place the 6/6 vertically across pink (22) and navy (9). Pink gets 6 (now 22 -- satisfied), navy (9) gets 6.
- 11.Place the 5/0 vertically across green (9) and orange (0). Green gets 5 (now 4+5=9 -- satisfied), orange (0) gets 0.
- 12.Place the 0/0 horizontally in orange (0). Orange (0) hits 0 -- satisfied.
- 13.Place the 3/3 vertically across navy (9) and pink (7). Navy (9) gets 3 (now 6+3=9 -- satisfied), pink (7) gets 3.
- 14.Place the 4/1 vertically across pink (7) and green (1). Pink (7) gets 4 (now 3+4=7 -- satisfied), green (1) gets 1. Grid complete.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally in the purple (13) zone
- 2.Place the 5/6 domino vertically in the purple (13) zone and teal (11) zone
- 3.Place the 5/3 domino vertically in the teal (11) zone and purple (3) zone
- 4.Place the 0/2 domino vertically in the purple (3) zone and navy (=) zone
- 5.Place the 2/2 domino horizontally in the navy (=) zone
- 6.Place the 0/1 domino vertically in the orange (1) zone
- 7.Place the 0/6 domino vertically in the orange (1) zone and teal (>0) zone
- 8.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the pink (22) zone
- 9.Place the 6/4 domino vertically in the pink (22) zone and green (9) zone
- 10.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in the pink (22) zone and navy (9) zone
- 11.Place the 5/0 domino vertically in the green (9) zone and orange (0) zone
- 12.Place the 0/0 domino horizontally in the orange (0) zone
- 13.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the navy (9) zone and pink (7) zone
- 14.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the pink (7) zone and green (1) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge -- the identical zone layout across all three difficulties means the puzzle logic is consistent, but the Hard difficulty demands precise ordering and attention to zone boundaries.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard -- the pink (22) zone requires exact pip accounting across three dominoes (5/5, 6/4, and 6/6), and any miscalculation cascades into the green (9) and navy (9) zones. One wrong orientation and the entire grid collapses.
Our Take: Today's set is a great study in how the same zone configuration plays differently across difficulty levels. The Easy puzzle gives you enough room to experiment, while Hard demands surgical precision. The navy (=) zone with the 2/2 double is a nice constraint that forces you to think about domino orientation early. Solid Thursday workout.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
