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:

Today’s Hard Pips are two shapes that look basically the same. We have Big Shape and Little Shape. Or maybe Mama Shape and Baby Shape. I usually start with larger grids when I’m dealing with this kind of Pips, but there’s only one way to fill in Little Shape, so we’ll start there.

Step 1

Place the 5/3 domino from Purple 5 up into Dark Blue = and the 3/3 domino in the next two Blue = tiles. The 3/1 domino goes from Dark Blue = into Green 1.

Step 2

We’ll knock out the Pink 0 group next. Start with the 0/1 domino from Pink 0 down into Green 2. The 3/0 domino goes from Purple 9 into Pink 0 and the 6/0 domino goes directly above that from Purple 9 into Pink 0. The 0/0 domino slots into the next two Pink 0 tiles. Every single blank domino was required for the Pink 0 group.

Step 3

Next, place the 4/1 domino from Blue = into the remaining Green 2 tile. The 4/4 domino goes above that in the remaining Blue = tiles. Moving to the top right of the Big Shape, place the 1/2 domino from Dark Blue 1 into Green =, the 4/2 domino from Blue 4 down into Green = and the 3/2 domino from Orange 3 into Green =.

Solution

Almost there now . . . Place the 4/3 domino from Orange > 3 into Purple < 4 and place the 2/5 domino from Dark Blue < 3 down into Pink 5. The 6/6 domino goes into the Orange = tiles on the bottom left side of the grid.

This was a moderately difficult Hard Pips, not too hard and not too easy. A Goldilocks Pips, as it were. I had almost as much trouble with the Medium today, actually, which also wasn’t the hardest Medium I’ve seen but which got me all twisted and turned around for a bit.

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

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