Greetings to your reference on Pips, the newest addition to the New York Times lineup.

Launched in August 2025, Pips delivers a novel approach to dominoes, offering an immersive single-player journey that could turn into your next daily gaming habit.

At present, if you find yourself at an impasse, the game solely allows you to disclose the complete puzzle, compelling you to advance to a higher difficulty tier and begin again. Nevertheless, we’re here to assist you! Below are segmented answers that will act as hints to navigate you through each level of difficulty.

How to engage with Pips

If you’ve ever participated in a game of dominoes, you’ll grasp the fundamentals of playing Pips. As previously noted in our hint articles for Pips, the tiles, similar to dominoes, are arranged either vertically or horizontally and connect with one another. The principal distinction between a classic domino game and Pips lies in the color-coded requirements you need to fulfill. The adjacent tiles are not necessarily required to match.

The requirements you must satisfy pertain to the color-coded areas. For instance, if it indicates a single digit, every side of a tile in that area must total the digit specified. It is possible – and frequent – for merely half of a tile to reside within a color-coded area.

Here are typical examples you will face across the different difficulty levels:

• Number: All pips in this area must sum to the specified number.

• Equal: Each half domino in this area must contain the identical number of pips.

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

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

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

If a section lacks color coding, it signifies there are no requirements on the domino portions within those areas.

Simple difficulty hints, solutions for Jan. 3 Pips

Greater Than (1): All elements in this area must exceed