Tuesday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. The board is a study in tight zones: two exact-value traps, a demanding teal sum, and several strict inequality gates that force precise domino placement from the first move.
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
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. The same board and solution run across all three difficulty tiers, so the gap is mostly in how much guidance you get, not in the layout itself.
All three demand disciplined management of the teal sum and the orange exact-number trap.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The orange (8) exact-number zone is the silent killer. It only accepts the 6/2 domino, and if you spend either a 6 or a 2 before reaching it, the puzzle becomes unsolvable.
Hard mode gives you no scaffolding to catch that mistake.
Our Take: Tuesday's layout is a clean study in constraint management. The teal (>16) zone forces a specific high-pip pairing early, and the orange (8) trap punishes players who sequence carelessly.
Once you commit to protecting the 6 and 2, the rest of the board resolves in a logical cascade. Solid mid-week material.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
