NYT Pips Today: Hints, Answers and Full Solution for Thursday, January 15

We’re halfway through January, although I think that’s only halfway through the day since this month has 31 days. Still close enough. I’m never that sad when time passes quickly in winter. I’m ready for nice, warm weather. . . although I wouldn’t argue for a little more snow. Anyway, we have an Easy, Medium and Hard Pips to solve, so let’s lay some dominoes!

Looking for Wednesday‘s Beep? Read our guide here.

How do you play Pips?

In Pips you have a grid of multicolored boxes. Each colored area represents a different “condition” you must achieve. You have a select number of dominoes that you must spend completing the grid. You must use every domino and meet all the conditions to win. There are easy, medium and difficult levels.

Here is an example of a difficult level Pips:

As you can see, the grid has a number of symbols and numbers associated with each color. On the far left, the three purple squares may not be equal to each other (hence the equal sign crossed out). The two pink squares next to them must total 0. The zigzagging blue squares must all be equal to each other. You click on dominoes to rotate them, and that’s necessary because they need to be rotated to fit where they belong.

Other conditions, such as ‘less than’ or ‘greater than’, will not appear in this grid. If there are multiple tiles with > or < signs, the total of those tiles must be greater or less than the stated number. It varies per grid. Empty spaces can be anything. The different possible conditions are:

• = All kernels in this group must be equal to each other.
• ≠ In this group, not all kernels may be the same.
• > The pip in this tile (or tiles) must be greater than the stated number.
• < The pip in this tile must be smaller than the stated number.
• An exact number (such as 6) The pip must be equal to this exact number.
• Tiles without conditions can be anything.

To win you need to complete all your dominoes by filling in all the boxes and making sure you meet all the requirements. Sometimes there is only one way to solve the puzzle. Other times there may be two or more different solutions. Play today’s Pips puzzle here.

The current Pips solutions and walkthrough

Below are the solutions for the Easy and Medium tier Pips. Then I will guide you through the difficult puzzle. Spoilers ahead.

Today’s easy kernels

Today’s medium burners

Hard Pips walkthrough and solution

Here are today’s hard pips:

Today’s Hard Pips is very clearly a dumbbell. If you lift weights (and you should), you’ll recognize this immediately. It’s just not a very heavy dumbbell, at least in terms of difficulty. I made a small mistake while playing this, but a quick domino switch did the trick.

Step 1

Start with the 6/6 domino in the purple = tiles. We know this must be a double, since the Pink 5 is directly to the right of the top Purple = tile. There are two doubles, but only one can be used in Blue = above, so 6/6 must go here. Then place the 5/3 domino of Pink 5 in Green ≠ and the 5/2 domino of Dark Blue > 3 in Orange =. The 2/1 domino goes from Orange = to Blue > 0.

Step 2

Then place the 1/3 domino from Green ≠ in Dark Blue ≠ and the 2/0 domino from Dark Blue ≠ in the top Orange = group. The 0/3 domino goes from Orange = to Pink > 1.

Solution

Finally, place the 1/1 domino in the two right tiles of Blue = and the 1/4 domino of Blue = in Purple > 3 and you’re done!

Here’s an alternate version with just a few dominoes swapped. It works anyway.

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