Pips Puzzle Update
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed today, I completely understand. The latest NYT Pips puzzle has been quite a challenge for me. I attempted both the medium and hard levels, though, to be honest, my brain may not have been up for it. This game has become my favorite on the NYT Games app. It’s refreshing to have visual logic elements instead of just word games. There’s something intriguing about the strategy and thought required to solve all three layers daily. Let’s get cracking on those dominoes!
Looking for Tuesday’s Pips?Check out the guide here.
Playing Pips
Pips consists of a grid filled with multicolored boxes. Each color signifies a different “condition” to meet. Your objective is to fill the grid using the given dominoes while ensuring that all conditions are satisfied. The game offers Easy, Medium, and Hard levels.
Here’s an example of a challenging layer of Pips.
As illustrated, the grid holds various symbols and colors. For instance, the three purple squares on the left cannot be equal to each other, hence the strikethrough equal signs. Additionally, the two adjacent pink squares need to sum to zero, while all blue squares in the zigzag must be equal. You can click on the domino to rotate it as needed for placement.
There are other conditions, like “less than” or “greater than,” that might not be directly visible in this grid. Some rules include:
- All pips in a group must be equal.
- All pips in a group must not be equal.
- The pip of this tile must be greater than the number listed.
- An exact number must match a specified value.
- Any tile without conditions may be used freely.
Ultimately, to win, you need to fill in every square and utilize all dominoes while satisfying each condition. Play today’s Pips puzzle here.
Today’s Pips Solution and Walkthrough
Below are the solutions for Easy and Medium levels, followed by hints for the Hard puzzles—spoilers ahead!
Easy Pips Today
Here’s the visual for today’s easy Pips.
Today’s Pips
Here’s the visual for today’s Pips once again.
Hard Pips Walkthrough and Solution
Today’s Hard Pips are as follows:
Honestly, I found today’s medium difficulty puzzling. I felt stuck and fumbling around with placements. The dominoes can be arranged in numerous ways, especially in the two columns on the right. There’s no clear starting point, which makes it tricky.
The key is recognizing what’s absolutely necessary in the right column, and how to construct the purple 8 in the left column. Here’s what you’ll need:
- All three sixes fill the orange 12 and pink 11 groups.
- 3 out of 5 fills the blue 10 and pink 11.
- One of the blank tiles must go in purple.
This configuration removes the 6 and leaves you with one extra 5 and one blank tile. If the dark blue is required to exceed 3 in the left column, you’ll need 5, 4, and 3 to finalize that grid side.
Step 1
Start by placing the 5/6 dominoes in the pink 11 group and the 2/2 domino in the Blue = group.
Step 2
Next, put a blue 10 5/3 domino on the green 6, followed by an orange 12 6/0 domino on the same. Then, place a 2/1 domino on the leftover green 6 tiles.
At this point, you should have a clearer idea of what to use in the left column. You can then place a 4/5 domino on the dark blue and a 3 on the purple 8, followed by a 3/2 domino on an open tile in the purple 8 section.
Solution
Then place the blue 10 5/1 domino on the pink ≠ and the orange 12 6/4 domino on the same. Finally, the 0/1 Domino can be positioned from purple.
This puzzle gave me a hard time! I kept trying to move dominoes from pink 11 to blue, but I just didn’t have the right 3s or 4s left to finish the purple 8 group on the left. Instead, I experimented with vertical placements of the 5/6 and 2/2 dominoes, and that made things click. Today was challenging! What about you?
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