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How to play NYT Pips
Pips is a domino-based logic puzzle: place every tile on the grid so the pips in each colored region satisfy its rule. Rotate tiles when needed. A region can require matching values, distinct values, a specified total, or values above or below a threshold; unmarked cells have no special condition. The puzzle has three difficulty tiers, labeled Easy, Medium, and Hard in current how-to coverage (some guides use “Difficult” for the top tier). Tom’s Guide’s Pips instructions explain the mechanics.
Hints for Friday, February 27
Easy: partial hint
One published text account gives only partial Easy placements, not a complete board solution: an Equal region uses 6–3 vertically and 0–6 horizontally; a Less Than (2) region uses 0–6 horizontally; and a Number (6) region uses 2–3 vertically and 6–3 vertically. Treat these as region-level clues, not a full answer. Bored Panda’s February 27 guide is the source for these partial placements.
Medium: start with constrained regions
No complete Medium placement list is available in the readable answer text for this date. As a general solving approach, begin with the regions whose rules and available cells restrict the possibilities most, then track any domino halves that cross into neighboring regions. Geometry can force a placement before the pip totals do. Try Hard Guides recommends using such forced placements and overlapping constraints, but does not provide readable answers for this board. Try Hard Guides’ Pips guide.
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Hard: spoiler-free clues
- The purple not-equal region contains seven tiles’ worth of cells, and all pips in that region must be distinct.
- Several 0/X combinations connect through the pink zero-sum region to the orange 3 and purple 6 regions.
- The blue 3 region can be filled by a single domino totaling three, such as 1/2 or 0/3.
These are the solving observations reported by Forbes for this board, rather than an independently tested solution. Forbes’ February 27 walkthrough.
Spoilers: answers and Hard walkthrough
Spoiler warning: The placements below reveal the Hard solution sequence. The accessible answer text does not establish complete Easy or Medium solutions, so they are not reconstructed here.
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Easy and Medium answers
Complete placements for the Easy and Medium boards are not substantiated by the readable answer text available for this date. The Easy clues above are partial only; no complete answer should be inferred from them.
Hard walkthrough
The following sequence reports the region destinations given in Forbes’ walkthrough. It does not provide grid coordinates, so use the board’s visible layout to determine each tile’s precise position and orientation.
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- Place 4/0 from the purple 6 region into the pink 0 region.
- Place 2/6 from the purple 6 region into the dark blue 12 region.
- Place 0/0 in the two remaining cells of the pink 0 region.
- Place 0/2 from the pink 0 region into the orange 3 region.
- Place 1/3 from the orange 3 region into the green 6 region.
- Place 3/0 from the green 6 region into the blue 0 region.
- Place 6/1 from the dark blue 12 region into the purple not-equal region.
- Place 1/4 from the pink 3 region into the purple not-equal region.
- Use 1/1 to fill the remaining cells of the pink 3 region.
- Place 4/2 from the single free tile into the purple not-equal region.
- Place 1/2 in the blue 3 region.
- Fit 6/3 and 0/5 in the remaining purple not-equal spaces. Forbes says these last two tiles can be rearranged.
What this date’s walkthrough does—and does not—establish
Forbes’ date-specific guide is the source for the Hard observations and placements above. Bored Panda contributes the partial Easy-region clues; the available text from these guides and Try Hard Guides does not substantiate complete Easy or Medium boards. The published walkthrough also does not establish that a board has only one valid arrangement; Forbes notes that some Pips boards can have multiple solutions. Accordingly, the Hard sequence is presented as a reported walkthrough, not as a claim that every placement is uniquely forced.
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