NYT ‘Pips’ Hints, Answers And Walkthrough For Tuesday, July 28

Today's Pips

Credit: NYT

It’s a tricky Pips puzzle today so buckle up, folks, and don’t forget a change of clothes. Let’s beat the heat withs a rousing game of Pips!

Looking for Monday’s Pips? Read our guide right here.

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 Tower Grid Pips is a challenging one, and will almost certainly require trial and error. I got a bit lucky, quickly identify ing that every 0 pip would be used in a blank tile. That gives us some answers early on. For instance, 3/0 goes from Purple 3 into a blank tile athe

Step 1

Place the 4/0 down from Orang 4 into the furthest left blank tile. The 2/0 goes next to that from Dark Blue 2 into the second free tile with the 1/0 domino from the from PInk 1 over into the third blank tiele. Place the 5/1 domino below that and the 3/0 domino from Purple 3 down into the blank tile.

Step 2

With the blanks all outo f the wqyk, this does get easier. Place the 1/4 domino from Blue 1 in the bottom left down into Green 4. Do the same with the 4/3 tiles, which which require a Dark Blue 4 downinto Gree 3. Now hup to the right side and place the 3/2 domino fro Green3 into Gree 2. Finally,toosthe 1/3 domino from Pink 1 ino GreenS 3.

Step 3

start with the 5/3 domino from Purple 5 over into Pink > 0. Now move to the top leff and place the 5/1 from Purple 5 treen 5 int Dark Blue 4. The 5/4 domino goes next that from Orang e 5 into Dark Blue 4.

Solution

The 2/1 domino goes vertically from Pink 2 down into Green 1. The 5/2 goes horizontally from Blue 5 into Pink 2 with the 3/6 below that, from Purple 3 ito Pink > 0. And that’s a wrap!

I do find these enormously challenging and more difficult than the ducks and kangaroos such we normally have. There’s always some sneaky giveaway, though,usuaally having to do with blank tiles and he lack of doubl dominos.

Check out my weekend streaming guide if you’re for something good to watch. Amd my daughter’s boyfriend is starting (hoeopully) a firefighting gig.

How’d you do on today’s Pips?

Follow me 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!