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 is a big square with a little square inside. The best place to start is at the top. We have a 12 pair next to a 6 pair next to a 12 pair. This limits what we can bridge these groups with, since we can’t place a 6/3 from one 12 into a 6 since there won’t be another 6/3 to match it with. The only dominos that can bridge these three are the 6/1 and 6/5, so we’ll start there.

Step 1

Place the 6/5 domino from Orange 12 into Blue 6 and the 1/6 domino from Blue 6 into Pink 12. The 6/2 domino goes from Pink 12 into Purple = and the 2/4 domino goes from Purple = into Green =.

Step 2

Place the 4/4 domino in the remaining Green = tiles and the 6/3 domino from Orange 12 down into Dark Blue =. The 3/1 domino goes from Dark Blue = into Orange =.

Step 3

Next, place the 1/1 domino in the next two Orange = tiles and the 1/2 domino from Orange = into Green 2. The 6/6 domino fills up both Purple > 10 tiles and the 4/0 goes down from Pink < 5 into Blue =. Place the 0/0 domino in the next two Blue = tiles.

Solution

Place the 0/5 domino from Blue = into the first free tile and the 5/5 domino in the left tiles of Dark Blue > 13. The 5/3 domino goes from Dark Blue > 13 into the second free tile, and the 3/3 domino fills up the remaining two free tiles.

A fairly straightforward, but still challenging, Hard Pips today. Doubles were definitely key here, and I got stuck trying to make a 5 and a 6 fill up Purple > 10 until I realized the obvious solution: Just use the 6/6!

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

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