NYT ‘Pips’ Hints, Answers, And Walkthrough For Sunday, November 30

Well, well, well. It’s already the end of November. I hope all you Pipsqueaks enjoy this final Sunday of the month. Soon, it’ll be Christmas and then New Year’s Eve and then we’ll all be writing 2026 on everything. Or trying to remember to write 2026, at least. In any case, we have some Pips puzzles to solve and dominoes to fit into colorful tiles. Let’s make some magic!

Looking for Saturday’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. 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 brought to you by the letter “N” as in “November” or “Nachos.” It’s a pretty tricky one today, if only because there are so many different groups of small or single tiles. Lots of different conditions like > and < and = and totals, too, though these are also clues.

Step 1

I decided to start on the right side of the “N.” I placed the 5/1 domino from Pink > 4 into Dark Blue 2 and then held off on finishing the Dark Blue 2 group because the free tile could be anything. We’ll save that for later.

Green 18 clearly needs all 6’s so I placed the 4/6 domino from Orange 4 into Green 18 and, since we only had one more domino with 6’s, the 6/6 domino in the remaining Green 18 tiles.

Step 2

We had quite a few 2’s and the right 2’s to fill Blue = so I placed the 2/3 domino from Blue = into Pink > 2 and the 2/1 domino from Blue = into Orange < 2. The 2/2 domino filled out the remaining Blue = tiles.

Step 3

Next, I placed the 0/5 domino from Blue 0 into Green > 4 and the 2/4 domino from Purple 4 into Pink = (figuring that Purple 4 would likely be two 2’s). The 0/2 domino went into Dark Blue 0 up into the second Purple 4 tile and the 0/4 domino slotted right next to it, from Dark Blue 0 into the Pink = tile.

Solution

Next, I placed the 0/1 domino from Orange 0 into Blue < 2 and the 4/3 domino from Pink = into the Purple = group. The 3/3 domino finished that group off. Finally, I went back to where it all started and laid the 3/1 domino from the lone free tile into Dark Blue 2.

I imagine there are other solutions to this one, so if you found one send me a screenshot. I don’t always reply to these, but I’m always happy to see the alternative solutions readers come up with. See you in December!

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