NYT ‘Pips’ Hints, Answers And Walkthrough For Monday, July 13

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 the letter “T” and I guess the letter “I” next to it rather than a small “t’ which has been the tradition. Oh well. The best place to start is in the “T” where at least one domino simply must be placed.

Step 1

Start with the 0/2 domino from Blue < 2 over into Pink 3 and the 1/3 domino from Pink 3 down into Green 3. The 0/4 domino follows that from Green 3 into Pink 5 and the 1/5 domino drops into Pink 5 down into Dark Blue 5.

Step 2

We’ve used two of the three dominoes that = 4 and the only one left is 2/2 so plop that into Purple 4 and then hop down to the “I”. Place the 3/5 domino from Orange = into Green 5 and the 3/2 domino from Orange = into Blue 4.

Solution

Next, place the 5/2 domino from Purple = into Blue 4 and the 5/4 domino from Purple = into Dark Blue =. The 6/2 domino fills up Orange 8 and the 4/4 domino wraps up Dark Blue =. Voila! You’re all done!

Have a lovely Monday, Pipsqueaks!

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

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