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 tries to trick us early on by giving us the same number of 4’s and 5’s, each with a double, and each perfectly viable in the Dark Blue = group. I ended up going with 5’s because 5/2 is just a smidge closer to the Orange > 1. Either of these could work in Green 7 also, which I’m certain is by design.

Step 1

Begin with the 1/5 domino from Purple > 0 into Dark Blue = and the 5/5 domino right above that in the middle Dark Blue = tiles. The 5/2 domino goes from Dark Blue = into Orange > 1 and the 5/0 domino goes from Dark Blue = down into Pink =.

Step 2

Next, place the 0/4 domino from Pink = into Blue = and the 4/4 domino in the remaining Blue = tiles. The 4/3 domino goes in Green 7 and the 0/6 domino goes from the middle Pink = tile into Blue 10. (This is where, had you put 4’s in Dark Blue =, you’d realize you have a 5 and a 6 left and can’t possibly make Blue 10 work).

Solution

Place the 1/4 domino from Purple 5 down into Blue 10 and the 1/1 domino in the top left Purple 5 tiles. The 2/0 goes down from Purple 5 into Pink = and finish things off with the 3/0 domino from the one free tile over into Pink =.

A nice little trick in today’s Hard Pips but overall, pretty straightforward. Even getting Dark Blue = wrong in the beginning would make for a very easy fix, swapping out 4 and 5 dominos almost 1-for-1.

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

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