Tuesday is here and we have some very tricky Pips to solve. Honestly — and maybe it’s just me — I struggled with all three tiers today. The Easy wasn’t that hard, but it was more challenging than usual. The Medium was a right pickle. The Hard had me scratching my head rather vigorously (metaphorically speaking). Let’s place some dominoes!
Looking for Monday’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:
Pips example
Screenshot: Erik Kain
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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
Easy Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Today’s Medium Pips
Medium Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Hard Pips Walkthrough And Solution
Here’s today’s Hard Pips:
Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Today’s Hard Pips is brought to you by the letter “H” as in “Hatred” and “Harmony” and “How the heck do we solve this Pips?” It’s a tricky one, but we have a bit of information we can use to solve it:
First, we have four 6’s in our domino inventory. We know we need three of those for Dark Blue 12 and Orange > 10. The fourth is a spare. We also know that 2’s are the only Pips we can use in Green = which requires five of the same Pips. We also know we’ll need four of our blank dominoes for Pink 0, but we have six total, so that’s two spare blanks. With that in mind, let’s begin!
Step 1
The best place to start is with the 6’s. Place the 6/2 domino from Dark Blue 12 into Green = and the 6/1 domino from Dark Blue 12 into Blue < 6. I often try to place dominoes that are very close to the < or > number, but today’s puzzle requires a very different approach. The 6/6 domino goes from Orange > 10 into Blue > 1.
Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Step 2
Next, we’ll bang out the Green = group. Place the 2/2 domino in the middle tiles and the 2/0 domino from Green = into Pink 0. Our last 2 domino is a 2/4 and given we’ll need to fill the Purple = with dominoes from above, this one needs to slot over to Dark Blue = instead.
Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Step 3
I like saving the free tiles for last if possible, so we’ll leave those for the final step. For now, place the 3/0 domino from the left-side Purple = group into the Pink < 3 tile. The 3/4 domino goes right below it from Purple = into Dark Blue =. We’ll finish the Dark Blue = group with 4/0 into Pink 0 and then plop the 0/0 domino below that, wrapping up Pink 0.
Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Solution
Three dominoes left and we’re done. The 5/1 domino goes from Orange > 10 into Purple = and the 1/0 domino slots into the second Purple = tile up into the first free tile. Last, but not least, the 5/3 domino goes from Orange > 4 into the final free tile. And that’s all folks!
Hard Pips
Screenshot: Erik Kain
This one was hard and I had to trial and error different approaches several times before I finally got it right. Did you struggle with this one as much as me? Did you find a different solution for today’s Hard Pips?
Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Be sure to follow me for all your daily puzzle-solving guides, TV show and movie reviews and more here on this blog!
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2025/12/02/nyt-pips-hints-answers-and-walkthrough-for-tuesday-december-2/
