Tuesday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. Today's lineup spans five sub-boards with a heavy emphasis on exact-value totals and inequality conditions, demanding precise pip arithmetic across every placement. 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 bottom right board is the most complex section with five zones and three different condition types (exact total, greater-than, inequality). Solve this board first -- it consumes the highest pip values and simplifies the remaining placements.
Key Insight: The teal (not-equal) zone on the bottom left forces all its pip values to be different. The 3/3 double domino cannot go here under any circumstance. Place it in the adjacent uncolored zone, which accepts any domino without restrictions.
Watch Out For: The top right board contains two navy zones with different exact totals: navy (5) and navy (4). These are separate zones that look identical on the grid. Track which navy zone is which by their adjacent neighbors -- navy (5) sits next to teal (4), while navy (4) sits next to teal (7).
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Start on the top left board. Place the 5/4 domino horizontally across the purple (>4) and pink (7) zones. The 5 clears purple's greater-than-4 check. The 4 is the first contribution to pink's exact total of 7. This opening is forced -- no other domino in the set has a 5 paired with a value that works for pink's total.
- 2.Place the 3/6 domino vertically across the pink (7) and purple (>5) zones. The 3 completes pink's total (4+3=7). The 6 clears purple's greater-than-5 check. This placement depends on step 1 -- without the 4 already in pink, the 3 would not finish the total.
- 3.Place the 1/6 domino vertically in the orange (7) zone. Both cells land inside orange. The 1 and 6 sum to exactly 7. This is a single-zone placement that consumes an entire domino within one color region.
- 4.Move to the top center board. Place the 1/2 domino horizontally in the pink (<4) zone. Both 1 and 2 are less than 4. This is the smallest board and the quickest to solve.
- 5.Move to the top right board. Place the 4/3 domino vertically in the teal (4) zone and navy (5) zone. The 4 satisfies teal's exact total of 4. The 3 goes into the first navy zone (total 5), leaving 2 more needed.
- 6.Place the 2/5 domino horizontally in the navy (5) zone and teal (7) zone. The 2 completes the first navy zone's total (3+2=5). The 5 goes into teal's 7 total, leaving 2 more needed. Note how this domino bridges two different teal zones.
- 7.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the orange (4) zone and green (<3) zone. The 4 satisfies orange's exact total of 4. The 1 is less than 3, satisfying green's condition. The 1 is the only pip under 3 available at this point.
- 8.Place the 2/4 domino vertically in the teal (7) zone and navy (4) zone. The 2 completes teal's total (5+2=7). The 4 satisfies the second navy zone's exact total of 4. This closes out the top right board.
- 9.Move to the bottom left board. Place the 3/3 domino horizontally in the uncolored (no condition) zone. The double 3 cannot go in the teal not-equal zone because both halves would be equal. The uncolored zone accepts it without restrictions.
- 10.Place the 0/5 domino horizontally in the teal (not-equal) zone. The 0 and 5 are different values, satisfying the condition. This is the only placement possible here -- any double would fail, and any pair of equal values would fail.
- 11.Move to the bottom right board. Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the green (12) zone. Two 5s sum to 10. The green zone has three cells total, so one more pip of value 2 is needed to reach 12.
- 12.Place the 2/3 domino vertically in the green (12) zone and purple (8) zone. The 2 completes green's total (10+2=12). The 3 goes into purple's 8 total, leaving 5 more needed across two remaining cells.
- 13.Place the 3/5 domino horizontally in the pink (>2) zone and purple (8) zone. The 3 is greater than 2, satisfying pink. The 5 brings purple to 3+5=8, leaving one more cell in purple that must be 0 to maintain the total.
- 14.Place the 0/2 domino vertically in the purple (8) zone and navy (7) zone. The 0 goes into purple, bringing its total to 3+5+0=8. The 2 goes into navy, leaving 5 more needed to reach 7.
- 15.Place the 1/5 domino horizontally in the orange (>0) zone and navy (7) zone. The 1 is greater than 0, satisfying orange. The 5 completes navy's total (2+5=7). All 15 dominoes placed, all 26 zone conditions satisfied across five boards.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 5/4 domino horizontally in the purple (>4) zone and pink (7) zone
- 2.Place the 3/6 domino vertically in the pink (7) zone and purple (>5) zone
- 3.Place the 1/6 domino vertically in the orange (7) zone
- 4.Place the 1/2 domino horizontally in the pink (<4) zone
- 5.Place the 4/3 domino vertically in the teal (4) zone and navy (5) zone
- 6.Place the 2/5 domino horizontally in the navy (5) zone and teal (7) zone
- 7.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the orange (4) zone and green (<3) zone
- 8.Place the 2/4 domino vertically in the teal (7) zone and navy (4) zone
- 9.Place the 3/3 domino horizontally in the uncolored (no condition) zone
- 10.Place the 0/5 domino horizontally in the teal (not-equal) zone
- 11.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the green (12) zone
- 12.Place the 2/3 domino vertically in the green (12) zone and purple (8) zone
- 13.Place the 3/5 domino horizontally in the pink (>2) zone and purple (8) zone
- 14.Place the 0/2 domino vertically in the purple (8) zone and navy (7) zone
- 15.Place the 1/5 domino horizontally in the orange (>0) zone and navy (7) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. All three difficulty levels share the exact same zone layout and solution, which means the difficulty scaling comes entirely from reduced guidance. Tuesday's set is methodical -- no trick layouts, just clean pip arithmetic across five sub-boards.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard -- by default since it offers the least guidance. The bottom right board is the most complex section, packing five zones (green 12, pink >2, purple 8, orange >0, navy 7) into a tight cluster. The purple zone requires three pip values (3, 5, 0) to sum to 8, and the 0 must come from the 0/2 domino. Misplace that 0 and the entire board unravels.
Our Take: Today's puzzles are a solid test of constraint satisfaction. The exact-value conditions (pink 7, orange 7, teal 4, navy 5, green 12, purple 8, navy 7) leave no room for estimation -- either your pip sums match or they don't. The not-equal teal zone on the bottom left is the cleverest constraint: it silently forces the 3/3 double into the uncolored zone, a detail that separates confident solvers from guessers. A clean Tuesday workout that rewards systematic thinking over speed.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
