NYT Pips Hints, Walkthrough And Solutions — Wednesday, October 15

It’s gorgeous out. A little breezy, a little wet with lingering clouds from all the rainy days we’ve had. It’s just chilly enough to be pleasant, and I’m still not bundling up. And the leaves! The leaves are all changing now. The streets and lawns are blanketed with yellow and orange. It’s quite something. And fleeting, of course. In any case, today’s Pips is a real doozy. Let’s knock it down! (Okay, you don’t knock down dominoes in Pips, but that was how I was introduced to dominoes so . . . )

Looking for Tuesday’s Pips? Read our guide right here.

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. Play today’s Pips puzzle here.

NYT Pips Today: Hints, Answers 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.

Easy

Medium

Hard

Here’s today’s Hard Pips:

Today’s Pips is, well, PIPS. All four letters make up the four separate sections of this puzzle. Thankfully, this makes it pretty easy to know where to begin, though it gets a lot tougher toward the end.

Step 1

We know that the 6/0 domino has to go in Orange >3 down into Green 0 and the 0/0 domino has to go in the remaining Green 0 tiles. Doubles are a great place to start if you have spots that require them, such as single-file groups like this. This fills out the “I” but the “S” also requires a double and we only have one left.

Place the 3/3 domino in Orange = and then 3/2 domino up into Green =. Then place the 2/0 domino from Green = into the Purple 0 tile.

Step 2

Like I said, the beginning is easy. It’s the double P’s that make this Pips challenging. You can start with either, but I went with the second P first, placing the 2/6 domino from Dark Blue 2 into Pink 12. This is another spot that can only work using this specific domino. Next, place the 6/4 domino from Pink 12 into Blue 9 and the 3/1 domino from Blue 3 into Dark Blue 1. Place the 5/2 domino from Blue 9 into Orange 2 and the 0/1 domino from Orange 2 down into Dark Blue 1. We now have just one letter left!

Solution

The tricky thing about these two sections of today’s Pips is you could fill out the first “P” using different dominoes, but then when you get to the second one you won’t have the right pips remaining. I had to start over on this section because I couldn’t make the very last tiles work.

In any case, start with the 2/4 domino from Pink >2 up into Purple 4. Next, place the 5/4 domino from Dark Blue 10 into Purple 8 and the 5/1 domino from Dark Blue 10 into Blue 4.

Finally, place the 4/1 domino from Purple 8 into Pink 2 and the 1/3 domino from Pink 2 into Blue 4 and you’re all done!

I love these types of Pips that are a little different. This one is very clever and quite challenging, though not as hard as some we’ve seen over the past couple weeks. How did you do?

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