Welcome to your Thursday insights on Pips, the latest entry in the New York Times games lineup.

Debuting in August 2025, Pips presents a novel approach to dominoes, offering a distinctive single-player adventure that could turn into your new regular gaming pastime.

At present, if you find yourself in a bind, the game displays the entire puzzle, encouraging you to progress to the next level of difficulty and restart. However, there’s no need for concern; we have you covered! Below are clues and solutions to assist you at each level of difficulty.

How to engage with Pips

If you have experience with dominoes, you’ll grasp the fundamentals of Pips. As noted in our Pips hints articles, tiles are arranged either vertically or horizontally and connect similarly to dominoes. The primary distinction is the color-coded conditions that you need to fulfill. Adjacent tiles do not always have to correspond.

The conditions relate specifically to the color-coded areas. For example, if a single digit is specified, all sides of a tile in that area must total that digit. Frequently, only a partial tile may be situated within a color-coded zone.

Here are typical situations you may face across different difficulty levels:

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

• Equal: Each domino half in this zone must feature an identical number of pips.

• Not Equal: Each domino half in this zone must display a different number of pips.

• Less than: Each domino half in this zone must total less than the indicated number.

• Greater than: Each domino half in this zone must total more than the indicated number.

If an area lacks color coding, there are no restrictions on the domino sections within those zones.

Easy difficulty hints, answers for Oct. 18 Pips

Less Than (3): Everything in this zone must be lower than 3. The solution is 1-3, arranged horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this zone must equate to 3. The solution is