If today’s Pips is fighting back, here’s a clean, spoiler-managed guide for Friday, October 10 (Puzzle #53). You’ll find light hints first, then the exact placements and a step-by-step for Hard. If you want to try the boards yourself before peeking, play at the official NYT Games Pips page: nytimes.com/games/pips.

Pips rules refresher (symbols and constraints)

  • A plain number on a colored region means the pips in that region must sum to that total.
  • = means every covered domino half in that region shows the same number.
  • ≠ means all covered halves in that region are different numbers.
  • > or < set a strict bound on any covered halves in that region.
  • Blank regions have no constraint.

Dominoes can cross region boundaries; only the half on a region has to satisfy that region’s rule. You must place every domino to finish.

Hints without spoilers

Difficulty Gentle nudges
Easy Use 1s and 4s to settle the pink group; the lone pair that repeats identical pips stands upright elsewhere. A vertical double in teal locks the center.
Medium Pink breaks into two zones; blanks support vertical placements. Purples and blues lean on 6-bridges; greens rely on multiple 5s to close.
Hard Start on the high-sum purple corner with 6s. Count blanks early—zeros are scarce and all are needed for the 0-sum cluster. The large pink “=” groups each resolve to a single digit; preserving 3s is key before you finalize orange.

Tip: When a large “=” region spans five tiles, check which digit you can still supply across your remaining domino halves. That often forces the value.

Solutions (spoilers)

Easy — exact placements by region

  • Pink: place a 1–4 horizontally; stack a 4–4 vertically in the same pink group to finish it.
  • Purple: lay a 1–1 horizontally, and elsewhere a 1–4 horizontally.
  • Teal: drop a 3–3 vertically.

These placements satisfy the equality and sum requirements while using all low pips efficiently.

Medium — exact placements by region

  • Pink:
    • In one pink area, place 4–1 horizontally and 4–5 horizontally.
    • In the other pink area, drop 3–blank vertically and 5–blank vertically.
  • Teal: place 4–1 horizontally.
  • Yellow: set 2–5 vertically.
  • Purple:
    • 3–6 vertically, 6–4 horizontally, 3–2 horizontally.
    • In a separate purple area, place 3–blank vertically.
  • Blue: 3–6 vertically, 6–6 vertically, 6–4 horizontally.
  • Green: 4–5 horizontally, 2–5 vertically, 5–5 vertically, 5–blank vertically.

Note: The vertical 6–6 in blue fixes that column and constrains where 6–4 can go; place those before locking down the final green verticals.

Hard — step-by-step walkthrough

This board funnels you into a clear opening in the upper-left purple cluster and then into two large “=” groups. Counting zeros up front prevents dead ends later.

  1. Top-left purple sum (18): commit the double-six (6–6) in the corner. Extend with a 6–5 so its 5 lands into the adjacent dark-blue 10-sum region.
  2. Reserve blanks: there are only five blanks today, and four are required to complete the green 0-sum region. Keep one spare for later constraints.
  3. Stabilize blue 10: feed the 5 from step 1 into that blue region, pairing it with a 4–5 later to reach the target total without exhausting key 3s.
  4. Large pink “=” on the left side: this five-tile region resolves to 3s. Place a 5–3 bridging from dark-blue 5 into pink, and drop your 3–3 inside the pink block to anchor the value.
  5. Move to the right side’s green 0-sum: all four zeros must land here. Stack 0–0 vertically in the middle two green tiles, send 0–4 up into the adjacent pink “=” above, and drop 0–5 down into a purple 11-sum below.
  6. Finish the right pink “=” group: that block resolves to 4s. Sit a 4–4 above the 0–4 you placed in step 5 to complete the equality.
  7. Tidy the purple 11 on the right: after receiving the 5 from step 5, feed in a 3–6 from the neighboring blue “=” or blue total to hit 11 cleanly.
  8. Orange 5 on the right: you can make 5 with either 1+4 or 2+3. Choose 1 and 4 here so you retain enough 3s to finish the left pink “=” group. Place 4–1 from pink into orange to close it.
  9. Route onward into blue “=” on the right: after using 4–1 in orange, lay 4–3 from the orange adjacency into blue “=” to preserve the equality, then extend with 3–6 downward into the purple 11 if not already completed in step 7.
  10. Return to the left pink “=” group: fill remaining gaps with 3–1 into the loose tile and 3–2 into blue “=”.
  11. Close out with 2–6 from blue into the final free tile. All sums and equality groups should now be satisfied, with every blank and zero accounted for in green.

If you used 2+3 to make orange 5 earlier, you likely ran short on 3s to finish the left pink block. Back up to step 8 and switch to 1+4 for orange to free the 3s.

Why this ordering works

  • High totals first: Purple 18 forces two 6s; locking these reduces branching.
  • Scarce resources next: With only five blanks and four required for green 0, misplacing a blank early can corner you.
  • Big “=” groups then: Five-tile equality regions constrain the digit you can feasibly repeat given the remaining domino halves.
  • Cleanup by sums: After equality groups are set, the remaining sums tend to have only one viable pairing path left.

Once you’ve placed the double 6, counted your blanks, and fixed the two large “=” blocks (3s on the left, 4s on the right), the rest of the board has a single consistent resolution. If you’re still stuck on a specific choke point, clear any 3 used in orange and reattempt step 8 with 1 and 4.