You know what the NYT Pips game needs? Some kind of extra challenge. Sure, the Hard Pips can be challenging but I want more. The New York Times Games bosses can have both these ideas for free. Either, or both, could be implemented.
First, an easy way to make an extra challenge would be an Extreme or Mega or some-such Pips tier that you can only play if you’ve beaten the other three tiers. Have these be extremely difficult. Maybe even include special conditions that aren’t found on the other three tiers.
Second, a Hard Mode that penalized any incorrect guesses. This would probably only work if you solved the puzzle wrong, as in placed the final domino and something was in the wrong spot. This could easily be added along with the Mega Tier difficulty.
I like this game and sometimes it stumps me, but I’d like it more with an extra challenge. You could even have grids where you have to move some of the tiles around, or where you had “magnet” tiles that repulsed or gravitated other tiles to them. The possibilities are limitless! But I’ve rambled long enough now. Let’s solve this Pips!
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Looking for Saturday’s Pips? Read our guide right here.
How To Play Pips
In Pips, you have a grid of multicolored boxes. Each colored area represents a different “condition” that you have to achieve. You have a select number of dominoes that you have to spend filling in the grid. You must use every domino and achieve every condition properly to win. There are Easy, Medium and Difficult tiers.
Here’s an example of a difficult tier Pips:
Pips example
Screenshot: Erik Kain
As you can see, the grid has a bunch of symbols and numbers with each color. On the far left, the three purple squares must not equal one another (hence the equal sign crossed out). The two pink squares next to that must equal a total of 0. The zig-zagging blue squares all must equal one another. You click on dominoes to rotate them, and will need to since they have to be rotated to fit where they belong.
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. Sometimes there’s only one way to solve the puzzle. Other times, there can be two or more different solutions. 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 Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Today’s Medium Pips
Today’s Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Hard Pips Walkthrough And Solution
Here’s today’s Hard Pips:
Today’s Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Well, this is an “8” which continues the ongoing trend to include numbers as our Pips puzzles. We’ve had 1, 2, 4 (twice), 5, 6, 7 and possibly others I’ve forgotten. 8 provides some unique challenges, however, because it’s tough to know if that center line will go this way or that way or be confined to a domino in the center itself, between the Purple 3 tile and the Pink 8 group. I had to mess around with this one for awhile before I figured out what to do, clearing the board once and adjusting a couple domino directions.
Step 1
What I came up with is the Purple 12 group as the right place to start, because we know this requires two of our three 6 Pips. Which direction to put them was hard to know, but here’s what I did.
Place the 6/4 domino from the top Purple 12 tile over into Pink 8. Place the 6/1 domino down into Dark Blue = since we’ll need the 6/0 domino for later. Then place the 4/5 domino from Pink 8 into Blue 10 and the 5/1 domino down from Blue 10 into the Green 1 tile.
Todays’ Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Step 2
Place the 1/4 domino from Dark Blue = into Blue = which is the largest group of tiles on the board and will require a double. We have a 1/1 and a 4/4 but we’ve already used too many 1 Pips to fulfill the Blue = requirement. Place the 3/5 domino from the central Purple 3 tile into Pink 8 and the 3/2 domino from Pink 8 down into Orange 8.
Today’s Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Solution
Place the 4/4 domino in the next two Blue = tiles and the 6/0 domino from Orange 8 directly down into the Dark Blue = at the bottom right corner of the “8.” Next, place the 0/4 domino from Dark Blue = into Blue = and the 0/5 domino from Dark Blue = into the one and only free tile on the board.
Finish things up with the 1/1 domino in the Orange = tiles at the top, and that’s a wrap!
Today’s Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
As always, I’m very curious to see if anyone else found a different solution. This one feels like you might be able to come up with something else, but it’s also pretty limited on selection of available options so I’m really not sure.
How did you do on today’s Pips? Did anyone find a different solution?
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