October’s End and Pips Puzzle Solutions

The final weekend of October has passed, leaving just a few days in the month. The scenery is ablaze with vivid yellows, oranges, and reds, while gardens are adorned with all sorts of Halloween decorations like ghouls, witches, and skeletons. It’s the perfect backdrop for tackling one more NYT Pips puzzle on this lovely, autumn day. Here, you’ll find the solutions for Easy and Medium Monday Pips. If you’re interested in intermediate-level puzzles, I suggest starting with the purple 2 tiles in dominoes. You can also check out Pipsqueaks for a more detailed walkthrough of the harder puzzles.

Looking for Sunday’s Pips? You can find the guide here.

How to Play Pips

Pips features a grid filled with multicolored boxes, each color representing a different “condition” that players need to meet. The objective is to fill the grid using a specific number of dominoes. To win, players must use all dominoes and satisfy all conditions. The game has various levels ranging from Easy to Hard.

Here’s an example of a difficult Pips layer. The grid includes multiple symbols and numbers of varying colors. For instance, the three purple squares on the left shouldn’t be equal to each other, indicated by strikethroughs on the equal signs. The two pink squares beside them need to sum up to zero, while all blue squares in a zigzag pattern should match each other. Remember to rotate the dominoes into the correct position.

Other conditions like “less than” or “greater than” won’t be displayed in every grid. So, if you see multiple tiles with:

• 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.
• An exact number must equal this value.
• Any tile without conditions can be used.

To secure a win, make sure to fill every square while using all dominoes and fulfilling each condition. You can try your hand at the current Pips puzzle here.

Today’s Pips Solution and Walkthrough

Here are the solutions for the Easy and Medium tiers of Pips. Warning: spoilers to follow!

Easy Pips Today

Easy Pips today are available in the images below.

Pips Today

Check out the images for today’s Pips.

Hard Pips Walkthrough and Solution

Today’s hard Pips present a challenge. There are two rows that have always been tricky, and this time is no different. Two Purple = groups require four of the same number, but given the dominoes at our disposal, we might be looking at 1, 2, or a blank. Interestingly, the pink 4 tile mandates a 4, which allows us to exclude a 2 right from the start. The available dominoes for the 4 pips are limited to just 1 and a blank.

Now, let’s dive into the steps!

Step 1

I initially experimented with both 1 and 0, but I ultimately needed a blank domino in the second column. Start by placing a 1/1 domino on the top two purple = tiles. Next, put the 1/4 domino from Purple = on Pink 4, and the 1/3 domino from Purple = on Blue =.

Step 2

Next, position a green 1 0/3 domino on Blue = and a green 1 1/2 domino on Orange =. Finally, place the 3/2 domino on Blue = to continue down to Orange, completing the left column.

Solution

To finish up, place the 2/2 domino on Orange 4 and the 1/0 domino on Dark Blue 1 (they can face either direction). The 0/0 domino fits into the left two tiles of the purple = group. Conclude with the 0/4 and 0/2 dominoes of Purple = on Pink >5 ( it can go in either spot). There it is!

Initially, I was a bit confused about which purple = blocks required 1’s and which needed 0’s. However, it became clear that I absolutely needed all 3’s for blue =, so incorporating a second 4 into the pink > 5 group made sense. From there, everything fell into place. How did you find it?