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
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Place the 3/1 vertically across purple (3) and navy (1). Both zones satisfied immediately. This resolves two exact-value zones with a single domino, the most efficient opening available.
- 2.Place the 4/0 vertically across pink (4) and green (=). Pink (4) hits its exact total. The 0 seeds a green (=) zone that will ultimately hold three 0s from the 4/0, 0/2, and 0/5 dominoes.
- 3.Place the 3/4 horizontally across teal (3) and orange (4). Both exact-value zones resolved. The grid's low-value zones are clearing quickly.
- 4.Place the 5/4 horizontally across purple (10) and pink (4). The 4 goes to purple (10) and the 5 goes to pink (4). Pink (4) is already satisfied from step 2, but the 5 there is fine since pink (4) is an exact-value zone that's already met. Purple (10) now has 4, needing 6 more.
- 5.Place the 0/2 vertically across green (=) and teal (2). The 0 matches the green (=) zone's 0 requirement. Teal (2) hits its exact total.
- 6.Place the 0/5 vertically across green (=) and orange (5). Another 0 in green (=), the equal condition holds. Orange (5) satisfied.
- 7.Place the 5/2 vertically across purple (10) and pink (2). The 5 goes to purple (10), bringing it to 4+5=9. Pink (2) gets 2, satisfied. Purple (10) needs exactly 1 more.
- 8.Place the 4/2 horizontally across navy (4) and green (2). Navy (4) satisfied. Green (2) satisfied. Clean horizontal placement.
- 9.Place the 1/4 vertically across purple (1) and navy (10). Purple (1) satisfied. The 4 goes to navy (10), which now needs 6 more.
- 10.Place the 2/1 vertically across teal (2) and green (=). Teal (2) satisfied. The 1 goes to a green (=) zone, this seeds a different green (=) zone with the value 1.
- 11.Place the 0/1 vertically across orange (0) and green (=). Orange (0) satisfied. The 1 matches the green (=) zone seeded in step 10.
- 12.Place the 1/5 vertically across green (=) and purple (5). The 1 matches the green (=) zone's 1s. Purple (5) gets 5.
- 13.Place the 0/3 horizontally across pink (0) and teal (=). Pink (0) satisfied. Teal (=) gets 3 and seeds the equal condition.
- 14.Place the 6/3 vertically across navy (10) and teal (=). Navy (10) gets 6 (now 4+6=10). Teal (=) gets 3 and matches the existing 3. Equal condition holds.
- 15.Place the 3/2 horizontally across orange (3) and navy (2). Both satisfied.
- 16.Place the 3/5 horizontally across teal (=) and green (5). Teal (=) gets 3 and Green (5) gets 5. All 16 dominoes placed, all conditions met.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 3/1 domino vertically in the purple (3) zone and navy (1) zone
- 2.Place the 4/0 domino vertically in the pink (4) zone and green (=) zone
- 3.Place the 3/4 domino horizontally in the teal (3) zone and orange (4) zone
- 4.Place the 5/4 domino horizontally in the purple (10) zone and pink (4) zone
- 5.Place the 0/2 domino vertically in the green (=) zone and teal (2) zone
- 6.Place the 0/5 domino vertically in the green (=) zone and orange (5) zone
- 7.Place the 5/2 domino vertically in the purple (10) zone and pink (2) zone
- 8.Place the 4/2 domino horizontally in the navy (4) zone and green (2) zone
- 9.Place the 1/4 domino vertically in the purple (1) zone and navy (10) zone
- 10.Place the 2/1 domino vertically in the teal (2) zone and green (=) zone
- 11.Place the 0/1 domino vertically in the orange (0) zone and green (=) zone
- 12.Place the 1/5 domino vertically in the green (=) zone and purple (5) zone
- 13.Place the 0/3 domino horizontally in the pink (0) zone and teal (=) zone
- 14.Place the 6/3 domino vertically in the navy (10) zone and teal (=) zone
- 15.Place the 3/2 domino horizontally in the orange (3) zone and navy (2) zone
- 16.Place the 3/5 domino horizontally in the teal (=) zone and green (5) 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 purple (10) and navy (10) zones require exact pip accounting across multiple dominoes, and the two green (=) zones with different target values (0 and 1) are easy to confuse. One wrong orientation in the equal zones cascades into a full restart.
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 room to experiment, while Hard demands surgical precision. The dual green (=) zones with different values are a clever constraint that forces you to track which equal zone is which. Solid Thursday workout.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
