Struggling with Easy, Medium, or Hard levels? We’ve got everything you need right here.
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the newest game in the New York Times collection. Released in August 2025, Pips offers a unique twist on dominoes, providing a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit. Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to a harder difficulty and start over. But don’t worry, we’re here to help! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints to guide you through each level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll be somewhat familiar with how Pips is played. As we’ve mentioned in past hints for Pips, the tiles, similar to dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference from traditional dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you must address. The connecting tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you need to meet are specific to color-coded spaces. For instance, if given a single number, every side of a tile in that area must add up to the provided number. It’s common for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Common scenarios you’ll encounter across difficulty levels:
– Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
– Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
– Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
– Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
– Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it indicates there are no conditions on the domino portions within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for April 16 Pips
Number (6): Everything in this purple space must add up to 6. Solution: 1-0, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
Number (4): The domino half in this red space must have 4 pips. Solution: 4-3, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Every domino half in this light blue space must have 3 pips. Solution: 4-3, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
Number (1): The domino half in this yellow space must have 1 pip. Solution: 1-4, placed horizontally.
Equal (4): Every domino half in this dark blue space must have 4 pips. Solution: 1-4, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for April 16 Pips
Number (6): Everything in this purple space must add up to 6. Solution: 0-4, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally.
Number (6): Everything in this red space must add up to 6. Solution: 0-4, placed horizontally; 2-3, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (0): The domino half in this light blue space must have more than 0 pips. Solution: 5-6, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Every domino half in this yellow space must have 3 pips. Solution: 2-3, placed horizontally; 3-5, placed vertically.
Number (6): The domino half in this dark blue space must have 6 pips. Solution: 6-4, placed vertically.
Equal (4): Every domino half in this green space must have 4 pips. Solution: 6-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally; and 4-3, placed horizontally.
Number (10): Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. Solution: 4-5, placed horizontally; 3-5, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for April 16 Pips
Equal (5): Every domino half in this purple space must have 5 pips. Solution: 5-4, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally; and 5-6, placed horizontally.
Equal (6): Every domino half in this red space must have 6 pips. Solution: 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed vertically.
Number (4): The domino half in this light blue space must have 4 pips. Solution: 5-4, placed vertically.
Equal (1): Every domino half in this yellow space must have 1 pip. Solution: 1-1, placed vertically; 1-3, placed vertically.
Number (8): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 8. Solution: 5-3, placed vertically.