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

Introduced in August 2025, Pips provides a novel take on dominoes, offering an enjoyable single-player experience that may become part of your daily gaming habits.

As it stands, if you find yourself at a standstill, the game permits you to unveil the entire puzzle, necessitating a move to the next difficulty level and starting from scratch. However, don’t fret; we’re here to assist! Below are partial solutions that will serve as clues to guide you through each level of difficulty.

Playing Pips

If you are familiar with dominoes, you will grasp the basics of how Pips operates. As previously noted in our Pips hint articles, the tiles, much like in dominoes, can be arranged either vertically or horizontally and connect to one another. The key difference between a classic domino game and Pips lies in the color-coded requirements that you must fulfill. The adjacent tiles do not necessarily need to coincide.

The requirements you must satisfy pertain to the color-coded areas. For example, if only one number is indicated, the total of all sides of a tile in that area must equal the specified number. It is achievable – and quite typical – for just a section of a tile to fall within a color-coded area.

Here are typical scenarios you will come across at various difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips within this area must sum up to the designated number.

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

• Not Equal: Each domino half in this area must each bear a different number of pips.

• Less than: Each domino half in this area must total less than the number provided.

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

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

Hints and answers for Easy difficulty, Jan. 2 Pips

Greater Than (5): Every element in this area must exceed 5