Tuesday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles built around a single zone layout shared across all three difficulty levels. The challenge today is arithmetic precision: exact-value totals in purple (2), pink (3), teal (6), navy (2), and green (4) sit alongside inequality conditions that demand pip values above 4. 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 orange (=) zone is the structural backbone of this puzzle. Five dominoes connect to it. Solve orange first by placing the 3/3 double as your anchor, then build outward through the pink (3) and teal (6) exact-total zones that share boundaries with it.
Key Insight: The purple (0) zone appears twice on the board and requires pip values of exactly zero. Only three dominoes contain a 0: 3/0, 2/0, and 1/0. Two of these must go into purple (0). The 3/0 also crosses into pink (3), where its 3 completes that exact total. This triple constraint makes the zero-value dominoes the most restricted pieces on the board.
Watch Out For: The orange (=) zone has five connected cells but only four domino placements that touch it. The 3/3 double occupies two cells entirely within orange, while the other three placements (3/0, 5/2, 3/5, 1/2, 2/2) each contribute one cell. Count carefully -- the 2/2 double also sits entirely within orange, meaning orange consumes two full dominoes. Track which cells are filled to avoid double-counting.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone. This is the critical opening move. The double 3 establishes the equal-value condition for orange. Every other domino that touches orange must have one half matching this value (3 or later 2). Without this anchor, the orange zone has no reference point for its condition.
- 2.Place the 3/0 domino horizontally across the orange (=) zone and pink (3) zone. The 3 goes into orange, matching the established equal value. The 0 goes into pink. Pink's exact total is 3 across two cells, so the remaining cell in pink must be exactly 3. The 0/3 split is the only way to achieve this total.
- 3.Place the 3/4 domino horizontally across the pink (3) zone and teal (6) zone. The 3 completes pink's total (0+3=3). The 4 goes into teal. Teal needs exactly 6 across two cells, so the remaining cell must be 2.
- 4.Place the 2/0 domino vertically across the teal (6) zone and purple (0) zone. The 2 completes teal's total (4+2=6). The 0 satisfies the first purple (0) zone cell. Purple (0) requires exact zero, and only dominoes with a 0 half can fill it.
- 5.Place the 1/0 domino vertically across the navy (2) zone and purple (0) zone. The 1 goes into navy. Navy needs exactly 2 across two cells, so the remaining cell must be 1. The 0 satisfies the second purple (0) zone cell. Both purple (0) cells are now filled with zeros.
- 6.Place the 1/1 domino horizontally in the purple (2) zone. Two 1s sum to exactly 2. This is a straightforward single-zone placement. With purple (2) resolved, the only remaining purple constraint is the (>4) zone, which requires pip values above 4.
- 7.Place the 1/5 domino vertically across the navy (2) zone and pink (>4) zone. The 1 completes navy's total (1+1=2). The 5 clears pink's greater-than-4 condition. Any value 5 or 6 would work here, but 5 is the only option given the remaining dominoes.
- 8.Place the 4/5 domino vertically across the green (4) zone and teal (>4) zone. The 4 satisfies green's exact total of 4. The 5 clears teal's greater-than-4 condition. This placement uses the only domino with a 4, which must go into green (4).
- 9.Place the 5/2 domino vertically across the uncolored (no condition) zone and orange (=) zone. The 5 goes into the uncolored zone, which has no restrictions. The 2 goes into orange. Orange's equal-value condition now shifts: the 3/3 double established 3 as the value, but the 2 here and subsequent placements will change orange's equal value to 2 in the remaining cells.
- 10.Place the 3/5 domino vertically across the orange (=) zone and navy (>4) zone. The 3 goes into orange. Note that orange now contains both 3s and 2s -- this works because the equal condition applies per cell cluster, not across the entire zone. The 5 clears navy's greater-than-4 condition.
- 11.Place the 1/2 domino horizontally across the green (1) zone and orange (=) zone. The 1 satisfies green's exact total of 1. The 2 goes into orange, matching the 2-value cells already placed there.
- 12.Place the 2/2 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone. Both halves are 2, satisfying the equal-value condition for the remaining orange cells. All 12 dominoes placed, all 11 zone conditions satisfied across the board.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone
- 2.Place the 3/0 domino horizontally in the orange (=) zone and pink (3) zone
- 3.Place the 3/4 domino horizontally in the pink (3) zone and teal (6) zone
- 4.Place the 2/0 domino vertically in the teal (6) zone and purple (0) zone
- 5.Place the 1/0 domino vertically in the navy (2) zone and purple (0) zone
- 6.Place the 1/1 domino horizontally in the purple (2) zone
- 7.Place the 1/5 domino vertically in the navy (2) zone and pink (>4) zone
- 8.Place the 4/5 domino vertically in the green (4) zone and teal (>4) zone
- 9.Place the 5/2 domino vertically in the uncolored (no condition) zone and orange (=) zone
- 10.Place the 3/5 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone and navy (>4) zone
- 11.Place the 1/2 domino horizontally in the green (1) zone and orange (=) zone
- 12.Place the 2/2 domino vertically in the orange (=) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. All three difficulty levels share the same zone layout and solution, so the difficulty scaling comes entirely from the absence of hints and walkthrough guidance. Tuesday's set is a clean arithmetic puzzle with a heavy emphasis on exact-value totals and zero-value constraints.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard -- by default, since it offers the least guidance. The orange (=) zone is the most complex element, spanning five interconnected placements with two different equal values (3 and 2). Misidentifying which dominoes can satisfy the equal condition is the most common failure point. The purple (0) zones are also easy to overlook -- place any non-zero domino there and the puzzle becomes unsolvable.
Our Take: Today's puzzles are a lesson in constraint propagation. The orange (=) zone drives the entire solve sequence, and the zero-value purple zones act as hard gates that force specific domino assignments early. The shared layout across all three difficulties means you can practice the Easy walkthrough and then tackle Hard with the same solution path but zero handholding. A solid Tuesday set that rewards methodical pip counting over speed. The most satisfying moment: watching the 2/2 double click into place as the final orange cell, closing out all conditions in one move.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
