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:

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 Medium Pips

Hard Pips Walkthrough And Solution

Here’s today’s Hard Pips:

It’s interesting, in today’s grid-style Hard Pips there’s a pattern to the dominos. There are 5 dominos that have a blank on the left side. There are four with a 1 on the left side. Only three have a 2 on the left side, and just two have a 3. Only one has a 4. None are doubles, which is perhaps the best way to approach this grid, knowing that if you see two or more tiles with the same number, you can essentially use these as barricades, guiding which direction to place your domino. There are three 2’s next to two 3’s on the left side of the grid, and that should give us the perfect place to start.

Step 1

Begin by placing the 2/3 domino from Dark Blue 2 up into Green 3. It’s the only domino that can go here, since the Dark Blue 2 is bordered by 2’s. Next, place the 0/4 domino above that from Purple 0 into Pink 4. The 2/4 domino goes below in the Orange 2 tile over to Dark Blue 4 and the 3/1 domino sits directly beneath that from Dark Blue 3 into Green 1. Finish up Step #1 with the 5/3 domino from Purple 5 up into Green 3. This is a nice and tidy beginning since once you place that first 2/3 domino, everything else must go in each of these tiles.

Step 2

We know we’ll need a 5 and a 4 in Purple 9 and at this point, we can safely say we’ll have two 0’s in the Pink = spot, but we’ll still save all this for Step #3 just so we’re certain. Place the 5/2 domino from Pink 5 over into Orange 2 and the 0/5 domino from Dark Blue 0 up into Orange 5. Next, place the 0/1 domino from Blue 0 up into Orange 1 and the 2/1 domino from Dark Blue 2 over into the top Orange 1 tile. Finish Step #2 with the 1/4 domino from Blue 1 down into Pink 4.

Solution

Place the 3/0 domino from Purple 3 into Pink = and the 2/0 domino below that from Green 2 into Pink =. The 5/1 domino goes from Purple 9 into Blue 1 and the 4/3 domino goes from Purple 9 up into the first free tile. Finish off this Hard Pips with the 5/4 domino from Blue 5 over into the second and final free tile.

There’s definitely a different strategy for these grid-style Hard Pips and it shifts slightly depending on the puzzle. But generally, if you have no doubles you have great little anchors all over the grid showing you which domino goes where and you can just build off that until you get to the end. These are always a fun change of pace, though we’ve had lots of them lately!

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Be sure to follow me for all your daily puzzle-solving guides, TV show and movie reviews and more here on this blog!