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:

These are always a bit tricky, but today’s Hard Pips ended up being simpler than it looked. Or I got lucky. Either way, the trick is to notice that there are five dominoes with a 5 pips but only four tiles that need a 5. That means the extra 5 can’t go in Purple = because we’d be one short, so it almost certainly will end up in the free tiles on the bottom left. In any case, I started with 5’s and went from there, adjusting a couple things in the end because I’d boxed myself out of the Purple = by mistake.

Step 1

Start with the 5/4 domino from Green 5 into Dark Blue 4 in the top right corner. The 5/0 domino goes next to that from Orange 5 down into Dark Blue 0. Move to the bottom right corner and place the 5/2 domino from Pink 5 into Orange 2 and the 5/1 domino from Green 5 into Purple 1. That leaves us with the 5/3 domino, but since we don’t know how it will square with the free tiles yet, skip it for now. Instead, pop that 4/0 domino up in the top left corner from Pink 4 into Purple 0.

Step 2

Next, place the 4/2 domino from Blue 4 into Pink 2 and the 3/1 domino from Orange 3 into Blue 1. The 2/0 goes from Blue 2 down into Orange 0 and the 2/3 domino goes next to that from Orange 2 down into Dark Blue 3. Finish this step up with the 0/1 domino from Dark Blue 0 over into Green 1.

Solution

Place the 0/3 domino from Blue 0 up into Purple = and the 4/3 domino from Pink 4 into Purple =. The 4/1 domino goes below that from Purple 4 into Blue 1 and the 2/1 domino goes from Green 2 into Dark Blue 1. That leaves the 5/3 domino which fills up the two free tiles and we’re done!

Have a great rest of your Thursday, Pipsqueaks!

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

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