Welcome to your Saturday overview for Pips, the latest offering in the New York Times games collection.
The games today present a higher level of difficulty than they seem, but we have the strategies to assist you in navigating them. Launched in August 2025, Pips provides a novel spin on dominoes, delivering an enjoyable solo experience that could become your new daily gaming habit.
If you encounter challenges, the game presently only permits you to unveil the full puzzle, which means you’ll need to progress to the next level of difficulty and restart. However, there’s no need to fret, as we have hints to steer you through each stage.
How to engage with Pips
If you have experience with dominoes, you will grasp the fundamentals of Pips. As noted in our earlier hints for Pips, the tiles can be arranged vertically or horizontally and interconnect with one another. The primary distinction from conventional dominoes lies in the color-coded conditions you must fulfill. Adjacent tiles are not required to match.
The conditions pertain specifically to the color-coded regions. For instance, if a region indicates a lone number, each side of a tile within that region must sum to that number. It is usual for only a portion of a tile to occupy a color-coded area.
Frequent examples across various difficulty tiers:
– Number: All pips in this area must total the specified number.
– Equal: Every domino half in this area must contain an identical number of pips.
– Not Equal: Every domino half in this area must feature distinct numbers of pips.
– Less than: Every domino half in this area must total less than the indicated number.
– Greater than: Every domino half in this area must total more than the indicated number.
If a section lacks color coding, there are no restrictions on the domino pieces within those areas.
Easy difficulty hints, solutions for Oct. 4 Pips
– Number (2): Must total 2. Solution: 2-4, arranged horizontally.
– Equal (4): Must equal 4. Solution: 2-4, arranged horizontally; 0-4, arranged vertically.
– Equal (1): Must equal 1. Solution: 1-5, arranged horizontally; 1-0, arranged vertically; 1-1, arranged horizontally.
– Number (0): Must total 0. Solution: 1-0, arranged vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, solutions for Oct. 4 Pips
– Equal (0): Must equal 0. Solution: 0-0, arranged horizontally; 0-1, arranged horizontally; 0-2, arranged vertically; 0-5, arranged vertically.
– Equal (1): Must equal 1. Solution: 0-1, arranged horizontally; 1-2, arranged vertically; 1-4, arranged vertically.
– Number (4): Must total 4. Solution: 4-5, arranged horizontally.
– Equal (2): Must equal 2. Solution: 0-2, arranged horizontally; 1-2, arranged vertically.
– Equal (6): Must equal 6. Solution: 6-6, arranged vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, solutions for Oct. 4 Pips
– Equal (4): Must equal 4. Solution: 4-4, arranged vertically.
– Number (0): Must total 0. Solution: 0-0, arranged horizontally.
– Less Than (3): Must be less than 3. Solution: 0-0, arranged horizontally; 1-4, arranged vertically.
– Number (3): Must total 3. Solution: 3-1, arranged vertically.
– Number (0): Must total 0. Solution: 0-1, arranged vertically.
– Number (4): Must total 4. Solution: 3-1, arranged vertically; 0-1, arranged vertically; 1-1, arranged horizontally.
– Number (0): Must total 0. Solution: 0-3, arranged vertically.
– Number (3): Must total 3. Solution: 2-1, arranged vertically.
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