Your comprehensive guide to Pips, the newest entry in the New York Times games lineup, is here.

Debuting in August 2025, Pips provides a novel approach to dominoes, offering an engaging solo gaming experience that may become your preferred daily pastime.

At this time, if you find yourself at a standstill, the game permits you to unveil the entire puzzle, compelling you to move on to the next level of difficulty and start afresh. But fear not, we have you covered! Below are detailed solutions that will offer hints to assist you in tackling each level of difficulty.

How to play Pips

If you have experience with dominoes, you will grasp the basic principles of Pips. As highlighted in our earlier hints for Pips, the tiles, similar to dominoes, can be positioned either vertically or horizontally and interconnect. The primary distinction between conventional dominoes and Pips lies in the color-coded conditions you must satisfy. The adjacent tiles are not necessarily required to match.

The criteria you need to fulfill are tied to the color-coded areas. For example, if a single digit is indicated, all sides of a tile occupying that area must total the specified number. It is both possible and typical for only a portion of a tile to fall within a color-coded area.

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

• Number: The total of all pips in this area must equal the designated number.

• Equal: Every half domino in this area needs to have an identical number of pips.

• Not Equal: Each half domino in this area must display a completely different count of pips.

• Less than: All half dominoes in this area need to sum to a figure lower than the given number.

• Greater than: All half dominoes in this area must sum to a figure higher than the given number.

If a section has no color coding, it signifies that there are no restrictions on the parts of dominoes located within those areas.

Hints and solutions for easy difficulty, Nov. 18 Pips

Equal (6): Everything in this area must equal 5. The solution is