NYT ‘Pips’ Answers Explained For Tuesday, August 18

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 “YEAR” which commemorates one year of Pips puzzles! The first one came out on August 18, 2025. Happy Anniversary, Pipsqueaks!

Step 1

Start with the 0/0 domino in Pink 1 in the “A” and the 1/6 above that from Pink 1 to Blue 11. The 1/1 goes from Purple 1 to Blue 1 and the 6/6 domino goes in Orange > 11.

Step 2

Move to the “r” and place the 0/6 domino from the free tile up into Orange > 11 and the 6/2 from Orange > 11 into Dark Blue > 1. Move to the “Y” and place the 1/4 domino from Purple 1 into Dark Blue 11 and the 1/5 from Pink 1 into Dark Blue 11.

Step 3

The 2/2 domino finishes up the “Y” from Dark Blue 11 into Purple > 1. Hop over to the “E” and place the 5/3 domino from Green 11 into Pink > 1 and the 0/1 from Dark Blue = into Green 1. The 5/5 domino goes in Green = in the “A”.

Solution

Place the 5/0 domino from Blue 11 into the second free tile in the “A” and then move back to the “E” and place the 0/4 domino from Dark Blue = into Green 11 and the 2/0 domino from Green 11 into Blue =. Finish this Pips with the 0/3 domino from Blue = into Orange > 1.

Have a tasty Tuesday, Pipsqueaks!

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!