How to Play Pips
Pips is a logic puzzle played with dominoes. You get a board made of shaded regions and a tray of dominoes that covers it exactly. Every domino has to go down, each covering two touching squares, and when the last one lands every region has to satisfy the condition on its badge.
There is no timer and no fail state. A puzzle has exactly one answer and you can move pieces around as much as you like while you look for it.
Play PipsWhat the badges mean
- A plain number: the pips in that region add up to exactly that.
- Less than a number: the total has to come in under it.
- Greater than a number: the total has to beat it.
- An equals sign: every square in the region shows the same value.
- A not equals sign: every square in the region shows a different value.
- No badge: anything goes there.
How to play
- Click a domino in the tray to turn it a quarter turn, so it will land the way you want.
- Drag it onto the board. It covers the square you drop it on and the next one along.
- Double click a piece you have placed to send it back to the tray, or drag it somewhere else.
- A region that has already gone wrong turns red, so you find out before the board is full.
- Finish when every square is covered and every badge is satisfied.
Where to start
Single square regions are givens. That square shows the number on the badge and nothing else, which usually settles the domino beside it too.
Tight sums come next. A two square region adding to 12 can only be six and six, and anything near the top or bottom of its range has very few ways to be filled.
Then look at shape rather than numbers. A square with only one free neighbour forces the domino covering it, and that tends to cascade across the board. Counting the tray helps as well, because each domino exists once, so if only one piece carries a six then every region wanting a six is competing for it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Pips puzzle?
A daily logic puzzle where you place a set of dominoes on a shaped board so that every shaded region meets its condition, such as a sum, an inequality, all equal or all different.
Does every Pips puzzle have one solution?
Yes. Each puzzle is checked by a solver before it reaches you, so there is exactly one arrangement that satisfies every region.
What do the numbers in the diamonds mean?
They are the condition for the region they sit on. A number alone is a target sum, and the symbols mean less than, greater than, all equal or all different.
Is there a new Pips puzzle every day?
Yes, on easy, medium and hard, and you can play any earlier day from the previous games button.