Stuck on Easy, Medium, or Hard? Find everything you need right here.
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue. Released in August 2025, Pips offers a unique twist on dominoes, creating an engaging single-player experience that could become your new daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, compelling you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will act as hints to help you navigate each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve played dominoes before, you’ll have some familiarity with how Pips is played. The tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The primary difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you must address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions specific to the color-coded spaces you encounter are as follows:
– Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the designated number.
– Equal: Every domino half in this space must show 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 total less than the designated number.
– Greater than: Every domino half in this space must total more than the designated number.
If an area lacks any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for May 2 Pips
– Equal (6): Everything in this space must equal 6. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed horizontally.
– Equal (3): Everything in this space must equal 3. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed horizontally.
– Equal (4): Everything in this space must equal 4. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally.
– Less Than (6): Everything in this space must be less than 6. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for May 2 Pips
– Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-3, placed vertically.
– Equal (5): Everything in this space must equal 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.
– Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally.
– Equal (4): Everything in this space must equal 4. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.
– Equal (2): Everything in this space must equal 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 2-6, placed vertically.
– Equal (6): Everything in this space must equal 6. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 5-6, placed vertically.
– Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-6, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for May 2 Pips
– Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 4-5, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically.
– Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-3, placed vertically.
– Number (15): Everything in this space must add up to 15. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally.
– Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically.
– Equal (6): Everything in this space must equal 6. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally.
– Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
– Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically; 1-3, placed horizontally.
– Equal (3): Everything in this space must equal 3. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed horizontally; 0-3, placed horizontally.
– Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally.
– Equal (0): Everything in