Happy Saturday and welcome to your guide for Pips, the newest game featured in the New York Times collection.
Launched in August 2025, Pips introduces a distinctive spin on dominoes, providing an enjoyable single-player adventure that might just turn into your daily gaming routine.
At present, if you find yourself at an impasse, the game only allows the entire puzzle to be revealed, compelling you to progress to the next level of difficulty and restart. Nevertheless, we have you sorted! Below are incremental clues that will help you navigate through each stage of difficulty.
How to engage with Pips
If you’ve ever enjoyed playing dominoes, you’ll have a basic understanding of how Pips operates. As we’ve indicated in our earlier hint articles for Pips, the tiles, similar to dominoes, can be arranged either vertically or horizontally and connect to one another. The primary distinction between a conventional game of dominoes and Pips lies in the color-coded criteria that you need to consider. The adjoining tiles are not required to match.
The criteria you must fulfill are particular to the color-coded areas. For instance, if a single number is given, every side of a tile situated in that area has to total the provided number. It is feasible – and quite frequent – for only half of a tile to fall within a color-coded area.
Here are typical scenarios you will encounter across the various difficulty levels:
Number: All the pips in this area must total the specified number.
Equal: Each domino half in this area must contain the identical number of pips.
Not Equal: Each domino half in this area must possess entirely different counts of pips.
Less than: Each domino half in this area must sum to less than the specified number.
Greater than: Each domino half in this area must total more than the given number.
If a space lacks any color coding, it indicates no conditions apply to the segments of dominoes within those areas.
Hints and answers for Easy difficulty on Sept. 23 Pips
Greater Than (2): Everything in this area has to be greater than 2. The solution is 3-4, arranged horizontally.