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 Pips is brought to you by the letter “H” as in “Happy Sunday!” and “Huzzah!” This is a somewhat tricky one, and I definitely had to swap some stuff around as I went. The important thing is that all the blanks you have need to go in the 0 tiles. There are none left over for other spots — you can’t make a 6 group with a 0 and 6, for instance. We also need to get rid of 6’s, because all our totals groups are 6 or 0. With that in mind, let’s begin.

Step 1

Start with the 0/1 domino from Green 0 down into Blue 6. The 5/6 domino goes from Blue 6 into Orange = and the 6/4 domino goes from Orange = into Purple =. Finish this step off with the 4/4 domino in the next two Purple = tiles.

Step 2

Next, move back to Green 0 and place the 0/5 domin up into Orange 6. The 1/2 domino goes from Orange 6 into Blue < 6 and the 3/0 domino goes from Blue < 6 over into Pink 0. Place the 2/2 domino in the top two tiles of Purple 6.

Solution

Place the 2/0 domino from Purple 6 down into Dark Blue 0 and the 2/4 domino from the first free tile down into Purple =. The 3/3 domino goes in Pink 6 and the 6/0 domino goes from the second free tile up into Pink 0 — and you’re done!

Like I said, a moderately challenging Pips but nothing crazy or too perplexing. Thank goodness, honestly. This is supposed to be a lazy Sunday, after all!

How’d you do on today’s Pips? Let me know!

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