Prepare yourself for another challenging NYT Pips puzzle as we dive into a mind-bending domino placement game. On this delightful October Friday, with Halloween just around the corner, who needs spooky surprises when you can tackle a tricky puzzle instead? Although, let’s be honest, a bit of chocolate wouldn’t hurt as we dive into today’s Pips challenge.
Missed Thursday’s Pips puzzle? Catch up with our comprehensive guide here.
How To Play Pips
Pips presents players with a grid filled with multicolored boxes, each color representing a unique “condition” that needs to be fulfilled. You have a limited number of dominoes that must be strategically placed to fill the grid, meeting all conditions without exception. The game is divided into Easy, Medium, and Difficult levels.
Here’s a glimpse into a challenging Pips puzzle:
The grid displays various symbols and numbers, each linked to a color. For instance, the purple squares on the left must not match one another, indicated by a crossed-out equal sign. Meanwhile, adjacent pink squares must sum to zero. The blue squares, arranged in a zig-zag pattern, need to match each other in value. Dominoes can be rotated to fit specific spaces, a necessary move for solving the puzzle.
Beyond what’s visible on this grid, additional conditions might include “less than” or “greater than” scenarios. In cases where tiles bear > or < symbols, their cumulative value should be either more or less than the specified number, depending on the grid's requirements. Blank spaces offer flexibility. The potential conditions you might encounter include:
Not shown on this grid are other conditions, such as “less than” or “greater than.” If there are multiple tiles with > or < signs, the total of those tiles must be greater or less than the listed number. It varies by grid. Blank spaces can have anything. The various possible conditions are:
- = All pips must equal one another in this group.
- ≠ All pips must not equal one another in this group.
- > The pip in this tile (or tiles) must be greater than the listed number.
- < The pip in this tile must be less than the listed number.
- An exact number (like 6) The pip must equal this exact number.
- Tiles with no conditions can be anything.
In order to win, you have to use up all your dominoes by filling in all the squares, making sure to fit each condition. Play today’s Pips puzzle here.
Today’s Pips Solutions And Walkthrough
Below are the solutions for the Easy and Medium tier Pips. After that, I’ll walk you through the Hard puzzle. Spoilers ahead.
Today’s Easy Pips
Today’s Easy Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Today’s Medium Pips
Today’s Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Hard Pips Walkthrough And Solution
Here’s today’s Hard Pips:
Today’s Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
To me, today’s Hard Pips looks like an ostrich. Sure, it could be a duck, but ostrich is more interesting. This is a very challenging Pips with no clear place to start. There’s also a red herring.
Basically, there are two numbers that could fulfill the big Dark Blue = group. Theoretically, you could use o’s or 3’s in this group. You might be inclined to go with 3’s because of the Purple 0 block at the top. The problem with this, however, is the missing domino: There is no 3/5 domino, and we’ll need one half of whatever’s in Dark Blue = to be a 5 for the top left Orange 5 tile.
Step 1
What this means is that Dark Blue = will be 0’s. We’ll start at the ostrich’s tail, placing the 6/1 domino from Purple 12 up into Blue 1. Next, place the 6/0 domino from Purple 12 down into Dark Blue 0 and the 4/5 domino from the Green 4 tile into the Orange 5 tile.
Next, place the 0/0 domino in the two left Dark Blue = tiles and the 4/1 domino from the Green 1 tile into the Purple 1 tile, like so:
Today’s Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Step 2
Place the 0/5 domino from Dark Blue = into the Orange 5 tile and the 0/2 domino from Dark Blue = into Pink 2. Now, lay the 0/1 domino from Dark Blue = into Blue 1. We’ve finished off the entire Dark Blue = group at this point, and it’s smooth sailing here on out.
Today’s Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Step 3
Head to the ostrich’s feet and place the 3/3 domino in the bottom two Green = tiles and the 3/1 domino from Green = into Blue 2. Then, place the 5/6 domino from Pink 5 into Orange 12 and the 6/4 domino from 6 Orange into the free tile.
Today’s Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Solution
From here, place the 0/4 domino from Purple 0 down into Pink 8 and the 4/2 domino from Pink 8 into Blue 4. Place the 2/3 domino from Blue 4 into the free tile and the 0/3 domino from Purple 0 into the final free tile — and that’s it!
Today’s Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
I definitely struggled with this one, clearing the board a couple of times after finding myself in a corner. I tried using 0’s in Dark Blue = first, but this didn’t work for one reason or another so I tried 3’s instead and got so close but couldn’t complete the puzzle. I went back to 0’s and started at the tail-end of the ostrich and while it was slow going, I finally got it! What did you think of today’s PIps?
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