Pips Answer for Tuesday, September 16, 2025

I kicked off my morning with the Easy puzzle, which felt like a great way to wake up the brain. The first thing I noticed was the Sum 11 region at the bottom right. Since 11 is such a high number for just two cells, I knew I had to use the 5 and 6 pips. Looking at my dominoes, the [1,5] and [2,6] were the only ones that could contribute those high numbers. Once I placed those, the rest of the Easy grid started to reveal itself. The 'equals' region in the top right was a bit of a domino effect; once one number was set, the others had to follow suit. Medium was a step up in complexity because of the overlapping 'equals' regions. I spent a good chunk of time looking at the [6,6] and [6,3] dominoes.

Big doubles like the [6,6] are usually anchors for the grid, but you have to be careful not to box yourself in. The sum of 4 across three cells was the real anchor for me there. It forced me to use lower values like 1s and 2s, which then narrowed down which dominoes could bridge the 'equals' chains. By the time I got to the Hard puzzle, I was in the zone. That vertical region that had to sum to 4 across four different cells was the trickiest part. It meant I basically had to use a bunch of 1s or a mix of 0s and 2s. I had to visualize how the dominoes [2,0], [1,6], and [2,1] would fit without blowing that small sum. The 'Greater than 3' constraint at the very bottom was actually a relief because it gave me a place to dump one of my larger pips from the [2,5] domino. I had to backtrack once when I realized I’d used the 2 from the [2,4] domino in the wrong 'equals' chain, but once I swapped it with the [2,1], everything just snapped into place.