It’s Thursday, and while the day might bring some thunder, the weather is surprisingly warm. Yet, there’s rain in the forecast, which should encourage the leaves to change when temperatures dip. But hey, I’m not here to talk about the weather. Let’s dive into today’s Pips walkthrough, shall we?
Looking for Wednesday’s Pips? Check out the guide here.
How to play Pips
Pips features a grid filled with colorful boxes. Each color signifies a different “condition” you’ll need to meet. The goal is to fill the grid using a specific number of dominoes. To win, you must use all the dominoes and satisfy all conditions accurately. The game has Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels.
Take a look at this challenging layer of Pips.
As illustrated, the grid is packed with colorful symbols and numbers. The three purple squares on the far left shouldn’t match each other (hence the strikethrough equal signs). Meanwhile, the two pink squares beside them should sum to zero. Also, all the blue squares in the zigzag pattern need to be identical. You can click on a domino to rotate it since they need to be in the right orientation.
Conditions such as “less than” or “greater than” aren’t visually outlined on this grid. Here’s a quick guideline:
- All = The pips in this group must all match.
- All ≠ The pips in this group should not match.
- All > The pips for this tile must exceed the listed number.
- An exact pip (like 6) must equal that number.
- Any unconditioned tile can be utilized.
To claim victory, you need to fill every square while utilizing all dominoes and adhering to each condition.
Today’s NYT Pips: Hints and Answers for Saturday, October 4th
Here are the solutions for the Easy and Medium levels. Spoilers ahead.
Easy
Medium
Difficult
For today’s tougher Pips:
The easy Pips resemble a U shape, and the medium ones look like an L. I can’t help but think maybe words could come from these shapes, but the difficult ones? Not really any letters there. Maybe an A? Anyway, three of these groups add up to a lot. It seems like the blue should be 1 while the highest pink could be either 3 or 5.
Step 1
Starting with the purple 0, it’s clear that we need to place it in the center, while the 0/1 domino fills the blue = area, and the 0/6 domino fits into pink 12.
Next, use the 6/1 domino from pink 12 to blue =, while the 1/1 domino takes care of two more blue = tiles.
Step 2
This next step turned things around. At first, I tried placing a 2 in the green = group, which worked briefly, but caused issues on the left side. Instead, a 1/4 domino should go from blue = to green =.
Then, place a 4/5 domino of green = onto pink = and a 1/5 domino of blue = onto pink = too. Finally, 5/5 dominoes can fill the last two tiles of Pink =, and 5/1 domino slots will complete Pink = and Dark Blue =.
Step 3
Here, add a 1/2 domino from blue = to dark blue =, and a 2/3 domino around dark blue = leading into orange =. To finish blue =, just put a 1/3 domino there on the first open tile.
Solution
In conclusion, a 0/4 domino with purple 0 fits in the second free tile, a 3/3 domino with orange = fills the bottom remaining slot, and a 3/6 domino fits the last open tile. You’re done!
The clear placement of purple 0 and blue = made the start straightforward, but the other = groups posed quite the challenge with so many combinations. You might find yourself trying different setups before landing on the right one.
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