Pips Puzzle Help for Today

If you’re tackling today’s Pips, you’ve come to the right place. Puzzles in both medium and hard tiers can be quite challenging. As we approach the end of October and with the new year on the horizon, getting this puzzle done might just give you a fun boost for the weekend!

How to Play Pips

Pips consists of a grid filled with multicolored boxes. Each colored section represents a specific condition that needs to be met. Your goal is to fill the grid using a designated number of dominoes. Success means you must use all the dominoes while satisfying every condition. The game has levels ranging from Easy to Hard.

Here’s a glimpse of what a challenging layer of Pips looks like.

The grid is filled with various symbols and numbers corresponding to different colors. For instance, three purple squares must be unequal, which is indicated by strikethrough equals signs. The two pink squares adjoining must sum to zero. Also, all blue squares arranged in a zigzag need to be equal in value. Rotating the dominoes may be necessary to fit them properly into the grid.

Other conditions like “less than” or “greater than” aren’t shown in this particular grid. Here’s a brief overview of some conditions:

• All pips in this group must be equal to each other.
• All pips in this group must not be equal to each other.
• The pips of this tile (or tiles) must be greater than the number listed.
• Exact numbers must match up directly.
• Unconditional tiles can be placed without any restrictions.

To win, remember to fill every square while using all the dominoes and meeting each specific condition.

Today’s Pips Solution and Walkthrough

Below, you’ll find solutions for the Easy and Medium tiers before diving into the more difficult puzzles. Heads up—there are spoilers approaching!

Easy Pips Today

Pips Today

Hard Pips Walkthrough and Solution

Today’s hard puzzle presents some intriguing challenges. You could say the answer involves a “yes,” contrary to what one might have thought just moments ago. The clever arrangement was to spell “love” across all difficulty levels. This particular version stumps players, largely due to its lack of a clear starting point. I think the darker blue zero dominoes might connect starting from the blue ‘Y’ to a pink value greater than 4, but I’m not entirely sure that’s where to begin.

Step 1

What stood out to me was the orange 4 group marked with the letter “S,” so I decided to clear the board and start there instead. The orange 4 arrangement needs a domino that can accommodate a half, which calls for a double. The pink 26 requires just over 5, making that a tricky fit.

Following that, I placed a 1/1 domino on the next two orange 4 tiles and a 1/4 domino stretching from orange 4 to green 6.

Step 2

Next, I positioned the green 6 domino from 2/0 onto blue 0, and then moved the blue 0 domino to pink 26. After that, the pink 26 5/2 dominoes were laid on the purple area while filling the last two tiles marked with purple with 2/2 dominoes.

Step 3

To complete the lower segment, I placed the 0/5 dominoes from the dark blue 0 onto the pink greater than 4, as anticipated, and for the green 4 onto orange tiles that are marked by an inequality. Furthermore, the 2/4 domino transitioned from a purple 2 to an orange tile marked with an inequality.

Solution

Finally, I added the free tile’s 0/3 domino on the orange marked with an inequality, and the pink 26 5/1 domino onto another free tile. Lastly, I attached 1/6 dominoes tracing from dark blue 1 through blue 12, concluding with dominoes from blue 12 to one last free tile.

My strategy was mainly to determine how to occupy the largest domino group. The orange 4 truly demanded smaller Pips, possibly even a double. For the purple area, I definitely faced the need for a double, having weighed whether to select one or two. For the pink 26, I was quite sure that a 5/5 configuration was essential since it seemed probable that there were four 5s and one 6 needed.

As usual, I preferred saving the free tiles for last because they offer the most flexibility in placements. This approach generally means working from the bottom of the grid up to the top. Overall, I wouldn’t classify it as an overly tough puzzle, but it’s certainly not a walk in the park either. How does that sound?