NYT Pips solutions: quick clues to beat the Feb 20 puzzle

If you hit a wall on today’s New York Times Pips (Feb. 20), this guide walks you through the puzzles step by step so you can finish every grid with confidence. Below you’ll find quick gameplay tips, a compact guide to the symbols you’ll see, the Easy and Medium answers, and a detailed walkthrough for the Hard puzzle.

Pips is a logic placement game built around domino-like tiles: you rotate and drop two-number pieces into a colored grid so that each region’s rule is satisfied. Colors and icons define numeric conditions — sums, inequalities or sameness — and every tile must be used and every square filled to complete a board.

How Pips works in practice

At a glance, think of each colored area as a mini-constraint. Some regions show an exact total, others demand that all tiles be identical or all different, and a few simply require numbers above or below a threshold. Tiles are two-sided numbers (for example, 6/1 or 3/0) and you can rotate them before placing.

Smaller puzzles test basic arithmetic and placement; higher difficulties introduce overlapping constraints and symbol rules that force careful trial and elimination. The game rewards spotting forced placements first — tiles that have only one legal slot — then working outward from those anchors.

Common symbols and what they mean

• = — all pips in that colored group must be the same number
• ≠ — the pips in that group must not all match; at least two different values are required
• > — the tile(s) placed here must have a pip value greater than the displayed number
• < — the tile(s) must have pip values less than the displayed number
• Numeric target (for example, 12) — the sum of pips in that colored zone must equal the shown value
• Uncolored or blank squares — act like free spaces and impose no extra rule

Solutions for today’s puzzles (spoilers)

Note: The items below reveal the completed arrangements for the Feb. 20 Easy and Medium puzzles, followed by a step-by-step solution for the Hard board.

Easy puzzle — solution summary

The Easy grid solved with straightforward placements that satisfy each colored-region total. Start by filling any zone that lists an exact sum with the only tile combinations that reach it, and use those placements to reduce options in neighboring squares.

Completed layout: the final grid arranges the tiles so every colored area meets its specified total or equality rule. (If you want to reconstruct it visually, place the unique-sum tiles first, then rotate and fit remaining tiles into the free spaces.)

Medium puzzle — solution summary

The Medium board required a few forced moves early on — one or two tiles had only one legal location because of overlapping inequalities. Once those anchors were placed, the remaining pieces slot in quickly by matching local thresholds and the equal/unequal markers.

Final state: all zones closed cleanly after resolving the initial forced placements. If you struggled, retrace those anchors and re-evaluate any region that lists a strict > or < constraint.

Hard puzzle — full walkthrough and final placements

The Hard game today is a five-pip puzzle that starts with clear forced moves but becomes more tangled in the center. Below is how to work through it and where each tile ultimately belongs.

Key opening constraints:

• The top-left area requires a tile containing a 5 and that space is the only spot where the 5/0 tile can meet both the purple total (11) and the dark-blue <1 restriction — so place 5/0 there.
• The orange square that needs a 1 can be satisfied only by 6/1, so that piece is fixed early.
• On the bottom-right, a purple region labeled >5 forces the 6/0 tile into that corner.

With those anchors in place, several interior choices follow logically:

I placed the 1/1 tile into the teal area marked with an equality sign — its identical pips satisfy the “all the same” condition for that region.

The central cluster was trickier. The 6/3 tile is most useful in the center because it alone can satisfy both a >3 requirement and a 3-count in adjoining squares, so giving it that spot removes ambiguity for adjacent placements.

From there the remaining moves fall into place:

• 3/0 fits the pink area that requires a 3 total.
• 2/2 occupies the upper-right pip covering the olive-2 and purple-2 constraints.
• That leaves the 4/1 to fill the pair of squares constrained by <2 and >2 rules (the only tiles left that can satisfy both when oriented correctly).
• The final two pieces, 1/2 and 3/2, complete the dark-blue 4 zone and the pink equality area respectively.

Summary table — final Hard placements

Tile	Assigned region / reason
5/0	Top-left — required for purple total and dark-blue <1
6/1	Orange 1 square — only viable 1-provider
6/0	Bottom-right purple >5 — only tile that satisfies >5
1/1	Teal = zone — identical pips meet equality
6/3	Center — fits >3 and three-count spots
3/0	Pink 3 zone
2/2	Upper-right olive-2 and purple-2 squares
4/1	<2 and >2 pair — only remaining feasible tile
1/2	Dark-blue 4 zone
3/2	Pink = area (final slot)

If you follow those placements in sequence — lock the forced tiles first, use them to eliminate impossible positions, and then place the multi-functional tiles like 6/3 where they resolve multiple constraints — the puzzle completes logically. For more practice, repeat the pattern of finding unique-fit tiles early; that approach shortens solving time on future Pips boards.