Looking for help with today’s NYT Pips puzzles? You’ve come to the right place. Not only will you find strategies below, but full answers for each daily trio of Pips puzzles and a full walkthrough for the Hard Pips.

The first Monday of October is here and it’s getting very autumnal outside. I keep looking up at the mountain and seeing the great streaks of yellow where the aspen forests have begun changing, green to gold. Time to get up there for the views. But first, we have some Pips to solve!

Looking for Sunday’s Pips solutions? Read our guide here .

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.

Hard Pips Walkthrough And Solution

Here’s today’s Hard Pips:

No free tiles in today’s Hard Pips and no super obvious places to begin. Sometimes I just pick a corner and see where it leads, and today I picked the bottom right. It has two advantages: An = group that needs a double and the Orange 14 group that needs bigger pips.

Place the 2/6 domino from Dark Blue 2 into Orange 14 and the 0/5 from Green = into Orange 14. The 0/0 domino fills in the remaining Green = tiles. Then place the 6/1 domino from Purple 6 into Dark Blue 1 and the 0/2 from Dark Blue 1 into Orange =.

Toss the 3/2 domino from Dark Blue 3 into Orange = while we’re still up top, then hop back down to the bottom and place the 1/3 domino from Blue 1 to Orange 14. The 2/2 domino goes from Pink 2 into Purple 2 and the 3/3 domino slides into the bottom tiles of Green 9. The 3/6 domino goes from Green 9 into Blue 6.

Place the 3/0 domino from Orange 3 into Pink 1 and the 0/6 domino from Pink 1 into Purple 6. The 1/0 domino goes from Pink 1 into Blue 0 and the 4/2 domino goes from Purple 4 into Orange =. Finally, finish this Pips with the 4/4 domino in the Green 8 tiles on the top-right and you’re done!

Have a mega Monday, Pipsqueaks!

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

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