Need some help with the NYT Pips today? Unlike the other NYT Games, Pips is one of the few that focuses on numbers and logical placement. No worries, though, we've got you covered.
Below, we've compiled hints and solutions for the Easy and Medium puzzles, along with a comprehensive guide for the Hard Pips. You can play along here.
Spoilers below for the May 26 Pips. Only read if you want the solutions for today's Pips puzzles.
Alternatively, for more word-based puzzling, check out our guides for tips and solutions to Connections, Strands and Wordle.
Pips tips — how to play Pips
Pips is a domino placement game featuring a grid of multicolored boxes that gets more complicated and larger as you go up in difficulty. Each colored zone represents a condition you have to meet.
You select dominoes and place dominoes into the grid to meet those conditions. You must use every domino to achieve each condition and win the game. Clicking or tapping on the dominoes rotates them so you can position the tiles.
In the above example from a medium puzzle, there are four colored zones. Your placed dominoes must total 12 in the purple zone. In the teal and orange sectors, the number of domino pips must be greater than 3.
In the hard mode, the zones and symbols get more complicated. For example, you could see a crossed-out equal sign, meaning that the three squares you place must be different numbers.
Here are the various symbols you might see:
- = All pips must be the same in this group
- ≠ All pips must not be the same number in this group
- > The pips in the tile must be greater than the listed number
- < The pips in this tile must be less than the listed number
- A number [like 12], the pips must equal that exact number
- Tiles with no color can be anything; think of this as a free space
To win a game of Pips, you must fulfill every condition and fill every square. In some puzzles, there is only one correct solution. In others, usually the harder ones, there can be multiple solutions.
Today's Pips answers — hints to help you solve it
Below are the solutions for the Easy and Medium-level Pips. After that, you can find a fuller walkthrough for the Hard level. Spoilers below.
Today's Easy Pips solution
Today's Medium Pips solution
Today's Hard Pips walkthrough and solution
Today's Pips is difficult but fair. Hunker down and get ready to give your brain a workout (or just read the solution here).
Here we go: place the 6/2 domino from Green 12 into Orange = Next, the 6/4 domino goes from Green 12 over into Dark Blue =. Put the 6/6 domino in the Dark Blue 12 group. Place the 5/2 domino from Purple 10 into Orange = and the 5/4 domino from Purple 10 into Pink = to wrap up our first little section of the puzzle. See, it's not too bad.
Moving on, place the 4/0 domino from Dark Blue = into Purple 4. Put the 3/2 domino from Purple 4 into Orange =. Now, throw the 3/1 domino from Pink 3 into Purple 4 and put the 2/2 domino in the remaining Orange = tiles. Put the 4/2 domino from Pink = into Blue 2 to wrap up this step.
Next, we're going to put the 0/0 domino in the top two Green = tiles. From there, slide the 0/1 domino from Green = down into Orange 2. Finally, put 4/1 domino from Blue 4 down into Orange 2, going down, and the 0/2 domino goes from Orange 2 down into Pink 2. The last move is to place the 4/3 domino from Dark Blue = into Purple 3.
Here's what all those complicated moves look like in photo form:
Hard Pips solution
