Welcome to your resource for Pips, the newest game in the New York Times collection.

Launched in August 2025, Pips brings a fresh spin on dominoes, offering an entertaining single-player adventure that may become your daily gaming routine.

Currently, if you find yourself unable to progress, the game reveals the entire puzzle, forcing you to advance to the next level of difficulty and restart. But fret not! Below, we provide partial answers that act as clues to assist you through each difficulty tier.

How to engage with Pips

If you’re familiar with dominoes, you will grasp the basic gameplay of Pips. As mentioned in our earlier hint articles about Pips, the tiles, similar to dominoes, can be arranged vertically or horizontally and connect with one another. The primary distinction between conventional dominoes and Pips lies in the color-coded criteria you need to fulfill. The adjacent tiles don’t necessarily have to correspond.

The requirements you must fulfill are tied to the color-coded areas. For instance, if it specifies a single number, the sum of each side of a tile in that section must equal the given number. It is common – and possible – for only half of a tile to reside within a color-coded area.

Here are common scenarios you will face across different difficulty levels:

• Number: The total of the pips in this section must equal the specified number.

• Equal: Each domino half in this area must display the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Each domino half in this area must exhibit completely different numbers of pips.

• Less than: The sum of each domino half in this area must be less than the specified number.

• Greater than: The total of each domino half in this area must exceed the specified number.

If a section lacks any color coding, it indicates that there are no restrictions on the domino portions within those areas.

Easy difficulty hints, answers for Dec. 14 Pips

Equal (3): Everything in this area must equate to 3. The answer