Wednesday brings a fresh set of NYT Pips puzzles. June 10 serves up a balanced spread across all three difficulties, with the purple equal zones acting as the structural backbone of every grid. 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 teal (0) zones are the most constrained starting points. Place your zero-containing dominoes first to reduce the decision tree.
Key Insight: The purple (=) zones act as a constraint chain. Every domino placed in a purple zone must share the same pip value. This limits your options significantly and creates a cascading logic path through the entire grid.
Watch Out For: Don't waste your high-value dominoes early. The orange (15) and navy (15) zones need specific totals, so save the 6/6, 5/5, and 4/5 combinations for those exact-sum zones. Placing a high domino in a comparison zone by mistake can leave you without the right values for the exact-sum zones.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- 1.Start with the teal (0) zones. You have three dominoes containing zeros: 4/0, 0/4, and 0/3. Place the 4/0 vertically so it crosses purple (=) and teal (0). This satisfies two conditions with one domino. Place the 0/4 vertically across teal (0) and green (11). Place the 0/3 horizontally across teal (0) and orange (15).
- 2.Now tackle the purple (=) zones. All dominoes in any purple zone must show the same pip count. The 4-value dominoes (4/6, 4/0, 4/4, 4/5) form your primary set. Place 4/6 vertically across purple (=) and pink (>4). Place 4/4 horizontally inside purple (=). Place 4/5 vertically across purple (=) and navy (15).
- 3.Fill the exact-sum zones. Orange (15) already has 0/3 from step 1, so add 6/6 horizontally to reach the total. Navy (15) gets 4/5 (already placed) and 5/5 horizontally. Green (11) gets 0/4, plus 4/1 and 2/1 vertically across green (11) and teal (4).
- 4.Work the comparison zones. Pink (>4) gets the 4/6 (already placed). Pink (<4) gets the 2/3 vertically across pink (<4) and purple (=). Navy (>4) gets the 3/6 vertically across purple (=) and navy (>4). Orange (4) gets the 2/2 horizontally.
- 5.Finish the remaining purple zone placements. The 2/3 is already placed across pink (<4) and purple (=). Place 3/3 vertically in purple (=). Place 3/6 vertically across purple (=) and navy (>4). Place the 1/1 horizontally in teal (4) to complete the teal (4) exact-sum condition.
Hard Pips Solution
Last chance to solve independently
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- 1.Place the 4/6 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone and pink (>4) zone
- 2.Place the 4/0 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone and teal (0) zone
- 3.Place the 4/4 domino horizontally in the purple (=) zone
- 4.Place the 6/6 domino horizontally in the orange (15) zone
- 5.Place the 4/5 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone and navy (15) zone
- 6.Place the 0/4 domino vertically in the teal (0) zone and green (11) zone
- 7.Place the 0/3 domino horizontally in the teal (0) zone and orange (15) zone
- 8.Place the 5/5 domino horizontally in the navy (15) zone
- 9.Place the 4/1 domino vertically in the green (11) zone and teal (4) zone
- 10.Place the 2/1 domino vertically in the green (11) zone and teal (4) zone
- 11.Place the 2/3 domino vertically in the pink (<4) zone and purple (=) zone
- 12.Place the 3/3 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone
- 13.Place the 1/1 domino horizontally in the teal (4) zone
- 14.Place the 2/2 domino horizontally in the orange (4) zone
- 15.Place the 3/6 domino vertically in the purple (=) zone and navy (>4) zone
Puzzle Debrief
Overall Difficulty: Moderate challenge. The puzzle structure is consistent across all three difficulty levels, but the Hard mode demands more careful resource management thanks to the exact-sum zones competing with the comparison zones for high-value dominoes.
Trickiest Puzzle: Hard - The competing demands of the orange (15) and navy (15) exact-sum zones alongside the navy (>4) comparison zone create a tight resource puzzle. Misplace the 6/6 or 5/5 early and you'll back yourself into a corner with no recovery path.
Our Take: Today's Pips set rewards players who think in terms of constraints rather than brute force. The purple (=) zones are the logical key to every difficulty level - solve those first and the rest falls into place. The identical solution across all three tiers is unusual, but it makes for a satisfying progression where you can refine your strategy as you move up.
Tomorrow's Pips drops at midnight. See you then.
