Struggling with Easy, Medium, or Hard? Find all you need here.
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalog. Released in August 2025, Pips offers a fresh take on dominoes, delivering a fun single-player experience that might just become your daily gaming routine. Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only allows you to reveal the entire puzzle and move to the next level. We’ve got you covered with piece-by-piece solutions to help you navigate each difficulty.
How to play Pips
If you’ve played dominoes before, you’ll have a good sense of how Pips works. As we’ve noted in prior Pips guides, the tiles, much like dominoes, are laid out vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The primary difference with Pips lies in the color-coded rules you must follow. Matching tiles is not always necessary.
The conditions to follow are specific to the color-coded sections. For instance, if a space gives a number, each side of any tile there must sum to that number. It’s common for only part of a tile to be inside a color-coded section. Here are typical conditions across the difficulty ranges:
– Number: Pips in this area must total the number specified.
– Equal: Each domino half here must have the same number of pips.
– Not Equal: Each domino half here must have a different number of pips.
– Less than: Pips in this area must be less than the number specified.
– Greater than: Pips in this area must be more than the number specified.
If a space isn’t color-coded, there are no restrictions for tiles in those sections.
Easy Difficulty Hints for March 15 Pips
– Equal (0): Match all to 0. Solution: 0-0 (horizontal); 0-3 (vertical).
– Equal (5): Match all to 5. Solution: 4-5 (horizontal); 5-5 (horizontal).
– Number (10): Total must be 10. Solution: 4-5 (horizontal); 3-6 (horizontal).
Medium Difficulty Hints for March 15 Pips
– Number (2): Total must be 2. Solution: 1-2 (vertical); 5-1 (vertical).
– Less Than (1): Less than 1. Solution: 0-2 (vertical).
– Equal (3): Match all to 3. Solution: 1-3 (vertical); 3-6 (vertical).
– Number (5): Total must be 5. Solution: 1-2 (vertical); 3-4 (horizontal).
– Equal (2): Match all to 2. Solution: 0-2 (vertical); 2-5 (horizontal).
– Greater Than (10): More than 10. Solution: 2-5 (horizontal); 3-6 (vertical).
Hard Difficulty Hints for March 15 Pips
– Number (10): Total must be 10. Solution: 5-5 (horizontal).
– Greater Than (2): More than 2. Solution: 3-4 (vertical).
– Number (2): Total must be 2. Solution: 2-4 (vertical).
– Equal (4): Match all to 4. Solution: 3-4 (vertical); 2-4 (vertical); 4-0 (vertical).
– Less Than (2): Less than 2. Solution: 4-0 (vertical).
– Number (12): Total must be 12. Solution: 6-6 (vertical).
– Number (4): Total must be 4. Solution: 4-6 (horizontal).
– Number (11): Total must be 11. Solution: 4-6 (horizontal); 5-6 (horizontal).
– Number (1): Total must be 1. Solution: 1-6 (vertical).
– Number (12): Total must be 12. Solution: 5-6 (horizontal); 1-6 (vertical).
– Equal (2): Match all to 2. Solution: 2-2 (horizontal).
– Equal (3): Match all to 3. Solution: 3-3 (horizontal); 3-5 (horizontal).
– Greater Than (2): More than 2. Solution: 3-5 (horizontal).
– Less Than (2): Less than 2. Solution: 0-0 (horizontal).
– Number (1): Total must be 1. Solution: 1-1 (horizontal).
– Not Equal: Each must be different. Solution: 0-2 (horizontal); 1-1 (horizontal); 6-0 (horizontal).
– Greater Than (2): More than 2. Solution: 6-0 (horizontal).
If you’re