NYT ‘Pips’ Hints, Answers And Walkthrough For Sunday, August 9

How To Play Pips

In Pips, you have a grid of multi=-colored 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 word “NEW” though I almost thought it was “HEW” at first. It’s a tricky one, and I admit to making many alterations before finally getting to the finish line. We have three doubles but only one group that obviously requires a double, and no clue about what that might be. That’s in the “N” which also has a free tile. Forget the “N” for now. We’ll start at the “W” and work our way backwards.

Step 1

Place the 3/1 domino from Purple < 4 down into Orange 7 and the 2/2 domino from Orange 7 down into Dark Blue < 3. The 5/1 domino goes from Pink > 4 down into Orange 7 and the 2/1 domino goes from Orange 7 down into Green < 2. Finish the “W” off with the 6/1 domino from Blue> 5 down into Orange 7. “W” done. Onto “E”.

Step 2

Place the 6/2 domino from Pink > 5 into Purple 8 and the 6/4 domino from Purple 8 down into Orange =. The 4/2 domino goes from Orange = into Green 2 and the 4/5 domino goes from Orange = down into Dark Blue =. Wrap up the “E” with the 5/6 domino from Dark Blue = into Green > 5.

Solution

At last, the “N”. Place the 1/1 domino in the two Pink 2 tiles and the 4/4 above that in Blue =. The 3/6 domino goes from Orange < 4 up into Purple 15 and the 6/0 domino goes from Purple 15 into Dark Blue 0. The 4/3 domino goes from Blue 4 into the final Purple 15 tile and the 0/1 domino goes from Dark Blue 0 up into the one and only free tile. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that!

Have a swell Sunday, Pipsqueaks!

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

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