Thursday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles with a consistent zone layout across all three difficulty levels. Today's challenge revolves heavily around the green equal-sign zone and requires careful domino balancing across multiple color boundaries. 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 purple equal-sign zone dictates the top-left region. Solve it first and let its constraints guide your pink zone placements.
Key Insight: The green equal-sign zone is the busiest intersection on the board. Nearly half the dominoes touch it, so its value cascades into almost every other zone.
Watch Out For: The navy zone has two different conditions on adjoining sections - equal sign on one side and greater-than on the other. Dominoes crossing the navy boundary must satisfy both conditions at once, which can trap you if you place them too early.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Start with purple (=). Place 3/3 vertically entirely within purple to set the equal value to 3. This is non-negotiable and must come first.
- 2.Place 3/6 horizontally across purple (=) and pink (6). The 3 stays in purple matching the equal value; 6 goes to pink, contributing to pink's exact-6 sum.
- 3.Place 3/2 horizontally across purple (=) and pink (>1). The 3 stays in purple; the 2 satisfies pink's greater-than-1 condition.
- 4.Bridge teal (6) and orange (6) with the 6/5 vertical domino. The 6 satisfies teal's exact-6 requirement; the 5 contributes to orange's sum of 6.
- 5.Place 1/0 vertically across orange (6) and green (=). The 1 adds to orange's sum; 0 enters green.
- 6.Place 0/0 horizontally in green (=) to lock in the green zone's equal value.
- 7.Fill the teal (≠) zone with vertical dominoes 4/1, 3/0, and 2/6. Confirm all six pips in the zone are distinct numbers.
- 8.Place 0/6 vertically with the 0 in orange (<3) and the 6 in green (=). The 0 satisfies orange's less-than-3 condition.
- 9.Place 6/6 vertically in green (=).
- 10.Place 4/6 vertically in navy (>3) and green (=). The 4 satisfies navy's greater-than-3 condition.
- 11.Place 6/1 vertically in green (=) and navy (=).
- 12.Place 1/3 vertically in navy (=) and purple (3). The 1 stays in navy matching its equal value; 3 goes to purple's exact-3 zone.
- 13.Place 1/1 vertically in navy (=) to finalize the zone.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone
- 2.Place the 3/6 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone and pink (6) zone
- 3.Place the 3/2 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone and pink (>1) zone
- 4.Place the 6/5 domino vertically in the teal (6) zone and orange (6) zone
- 5.Place the 1/0 domino vertically in the orange (6) zone and green (=) zone
- 6.Place the 0/0 domino horizontally in the green (=) zone
- 7.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the teal (≠) zone
- 8.Place the 3/0 domino vertically in the teal (≠) zone
- 9.Place the 2/6 domino vertically in the teal (≠) zone
- 10.Place the 0/6 domino vertically in the orange (<3) zone and green (=) zone
- 11.Place the 6/6 domino vertically in the green (=) zone
- 12.Place the 4/6 domino vertically in the navy (>3) zone and green (=) zone
- 13.Place the 6/1 domino vertically in the green (=) zone and navy (=) zone
- 14.Place the 1/3 domino vertically in the navy (=) zone and purple (3) zone
- 15.Place the 1/1 domino vertically in the navy (=) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Consistent layout across all three levels - the zones are identical, but the difficulty ramps through domino selection and placement constraints. A moderate challenge overall.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The green equal-sign zone touches nearly every other zone on the board, creating cascading constraints that are easy to misjudge. One wrong domino orientation in the green zone ripples into orange, navy, and purple, forcing a full restart.
Our Take: Thursday's set rewards players who think in terms of zone intersections. The purple and green equal-sign zones act as keystones - solve those first and the rest of the board falls into place. The teal not-equal zone is the most forgiving, giving you room to experiment while you work out the harder boundary conditions. Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
