Pips solver
One line per row. Give every region its own letter and use a dot for a gap. A cell with its own rule is a one-letter region.
Board preview
Your board appears here as you type.
Two numbers from 0 to 6 for each domino, separated by spaces. A blank half is 0.
How to enter a board
Draw the board as rows of letters, one letter per cell, with a dot wherever the grid has a gap. Cells that share a colored region share a letter; a gray cell with no rule can have its own letter set to "No rule". For example, a board whose top row is one region of two cells beside a single-cell region, above a row of three cells in a third region, is written:
AAB CCC
Then pick each region's rule and type the dominoes from the tray, such as 3-5 0-0 2-6. The board needs exactly two cells for every domino, so the solver tells you if the counts don't match.
| Rule | Shown in the game as | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Adds up to | 6 | the pips in the region total exactly that number |
| Less than | <4 | the total is below the number |
| More than | >9 | the total is above the number |
| All the same | = | every cell in the region shows the same number |
| All different | ≠ | no number appears twice in the region |
| No rule | (blank) | any numbers will do |
How the solver works
At each step it lists every move still open on the board (each pair of touching empty cells, each unused domino, each way round) and drops any move that would break a rule or leave a region unable to reach its rule with the pips still in the tray. It then fills the cell, or places the domino, with the fewest moves left, so forced moves come first. When it finds a placement it keeps looking for a second one, so it can tell you whether your answer is the only one. The search runs in the background, so you can cancel it, and if a board takes longer than usual it asks before searching further instead of guessing. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Want a gentler nudge for today's boards? See today's Pips hints for Easy, Medium and Hard, browse the Pips archive or read how to play Pips.
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