Greetings to your resource for Pips, the newest addition to the New York Times gaming collection.

Launched in August 2025, Pips presents a distinctive take on dominoes, crafting an enjoyable single-player journey that may become your daily gaming routine.

At present, if you find yourself at an impasse, the game reveals the entire puzzle, compelling you to advance to the subsequent difficulty level and restart. But don’t worry! Below you will find step-by-step clues that will help you navigate through each level of difficulty.

How to engage with Pips

If you have any experience with dominoes, you will likely have a basic understanding of how Pips functions. As mentioned in our earlier hint articles for Pips, the tiles, similar to dominoes, can be placed either vertically or horizontally and connect with one another. The primary distinction between a classic game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded criteria you must satisfy. The connected tiles don’t necessarily need to correspond.

The criteria you need to fulfill pertain specifically to the color-coded areas. For instance, if it indicates a single number, all sides of a tile within that area must sum to the given number. It is not uncommon for only a portion of a tile to fall within a color-coded area.

Here are typical scenarios you will face across the various difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips within this area must total the specified number.

• Equal: Every half of a domino in this area must have the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every half of a domino in this area must have a distinctly different number of pips.

• Less than: Every half of a domino in this area must total less than the specified number.

• Greater than: Every half of a domino in this area must total more than the specified number.

If an area lacks any color coding, it indicates that there are no specific conditions for the portions of dominoes in those areas.

Hints and answers for Easy difficulty, Nov. 9 Pips

Number (5): All items in this area must sum to 5