Thursday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's grid packs a punch with dense color zones and multiple exact-number conditions that demand careful domino mapping. 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 navy (=) zone and purple (=) zone are your most restrictive equal-value constraints. Solve those first to narrow down your domino pool.
Key Insight: The green zone has both an exact-number condition (green 10) and a less-than condition (green <4) in different cells. These two green sub-zones must be handled separately -- they do not share the same pip pool.
Watch Out For: Don't overload the teal (>10) zone too early. You need exactly enough high-value pips to exceed 10, but wasting a 6/5 here when it could serve an exact-number zone elsewhere will break your solve.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Analyze the board. You have 15 dominoes to place across 13 zones with multiple overlapping conditions. The key: every domino that crosses a zone boundary must satisfy both conditions simultaneously.
- 2.Start with the orange (<3) zones. Only dominoes with both values 0, 1, or 2 fit. Place the 2/0 vertically in one orange zone. This locks down your most restrictive condition immediately.
- 3.Tackle the purple (=) zone. You need dominoes where multiple pips share the same value. Place the 3/4 horizontally so the 3 lands in purple (=) and the 4 lands in pink (10). The 3 is the first of several matching 3s in purple.
- 4.Place the 3/6 horizontally with the 3 in purple (=) and the 6 in teal (>10). Purple now has two 3s -- matching condition satisfied. Teal gets 6 toward its >10 total.
- 5.Place the 0/5 vertically so the 0 goes into navy (=) and the 5 into purple (6). Navy starts building its equal-value set. Purple (6) gets 5 -- needs 1 more.
- 6.Place the 0/0 horizontally entirely inside navy (=). Two zeros match perfectly. Navy condition satisfied.
- 7.Place the 0/3 horizontally spanning navy (=) and green (<4). The 0 stays in navy's equal set; the 3 satisfies green's less-than-4 condition.
- 8.Now address the exact-number zones. Place the 1/4 vertically across purple (6) and green (10). Purple (6) now has 5+1=6 -- condition met. Green (10) gets 4.
- 9.Place the 6/5 vertically across pink (10) and teal (>10). Pink gets 4+6=10 -- condition met. Teal gets 6+5=11 -- condition met.
- 10.Place the 2/2 horizontally in pink (=). Matched pair. Pink's equal condition is satisfied.
- 11.Place the 2/1 horizontally across pink (=) and teal (=). Both zones get matching values. Teal's equal condition starts building.
- 12.Place the 1/0 horizontally across teal (=) and the remaining orange (<3). Both values under 3, matching in teal.
- 13.Place the 2/6 vertically across pink (=) and green (10). Pink matches its 2. Green now has 4+6=10 -- condition met.
- 14.Place the 2/5 horizontally across pink (=) and navy (>4). Pink matches. Navy gets 5 which exceeds 4.
- 15.Place the 1/5 vertically across teal (=) and purple (>4). Teal gets its matching set. Purple gets 5 which exceeds 4.
- 16.Place the 1/3 vertically in teal (=) and the uncolored (no condition) zone. All dominoes placed, all conditions satisfied.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 3/4 horizontally in purple (=) zone and pink (10) zone
- 2.Place the 3/6 horizontally in purple (=) zone and teal (>10) zone
- 3.Place the 2/0 vertically in orange (<3) zone
- 4.Place the 6/5 vertically in pink (10) zone and teal (>10) zone
- 5.Place the 0/5 vertically in navy (=) zone and purple (6) zone
- 6.Place the 1/4 vertically in purple (6) zone and green (10) zone
- 7.Place the 0/0 horizontally in navy (=) zone
- 8.Place the 0/3 horizontally in navy (=) zone and green (<4) zone
- 9.Place the 2/2 horizontally in pink (=) zone
- 10.Place the 2/1 horizontally in pink (=) zone and teal (=) zone
- 11.Place the 1/0 horizontally in teal (=) zone and orange (<3) zone
- 12.Place the 2/6 vertically in pink (=) zone and green (10) zone
- 13.Place the 2/5 horizontally in pink (=) zone and navy (>4) zone
- 14.Place the 1/5 vertically in teal (=) zone and purple (>4) zone
- 15.Place the 1/3 vertically in teal (=) zone and uncolored (no condition) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge -- the overlapping exact-number and equal-value zones create a web of constraints that rewards methodical planning over guesswork.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard -- the green zone split between an exact-10 total and a less-than-4 condition is easy to misread. Many solvers will accidentally route too many pips into green (10) early, leaving the green (<4) zone without viable low-value dominoes.
Our Take: Thursday's set is a solid mid-week workout. The zone layout forces you to think about domino orientation and boundary crossings more than usual. If you solved the Hard puzzle, you've earned the Friday break. If you're still stuck, the walkthrough above will get you there.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
