Struggling with Easy, Medium, or Hard stages? Find all the help you need here.
Published on May 20, 2026.
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest addition to the New York Times game collection. Released in August 2025, Pips offers a unique twist on dominoes, providing a fun single-player experience that might become your new daily habit.
If you’re stuck, the game only lets you reveal the entire puzzle, prompting you to move on to the next difficulty. We’ve got you covered with hints to help you navigate each level.
How to Play Pips
If you’re familiar with dominoes, you’ll have a basic idea of playing Pips. Like dominoes, tiles are placed vertically or horizontally, connecting with each other. The difference in Pips is the color-coded conditions you must address, where touching tiles don’t have to match.
These conditions are specific to color-coded spaces. For example, a single number provided means every side of a tile in that space must sum up to it. It’s common for only half a tile to be within such a space.
Here are common scenarios across difficulty levels:
Number: All pips in this space must add up to the number.
Equal: Every domino half in this space must have 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 no color coding exists, there are no conditions on domino portions within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for May 19 Pips
Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. Answer is 1-1, horizontally; 5-5, horizontally.
Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. Answer is 0-3, horizontally.
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. Answer is 0-1, horizontally.
Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. Answer is 2-0, horizontally; 0-3, horizontally; 0-1, horizontally.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for May 19 Pips
Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. Answer is 3-4, vertically.
Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. Answer is 1-1, vertically.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. Answer is 0-0, horizontally; 3-4, vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. Answer is 5-2, horizontally.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. Answer is 5-2, horizontally; 2-4, horizontally.
Less Than (1): Everything in this space must be less than 1. Answer is 0-6, horizontally.
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. Answer is 0-6, horizontally; 6-4, horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. Answer is 2-4, horizontally; 6-4, horizontally.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for May 19 Pips
Number (12): Everything in this space must add up to 12. Answer is 6-6, horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. Answer is 1-6, vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this must add up to 0. Answer is 0-4, vertically; 0-2, vertically; 0-1, horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this must add up to 2. Answer is 0-1, horizontally; 1-4, horizontally.
Number (7): Everything in this must add up to 7. Answer is 1-4, horizontally; 3-2, vertically.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. Answer is 0-2, vertically; 2-2, horizontally; 3-2, vertically.
Number (12): Everything in this space must add up to 12. Answer is 1-6, vertically; 6-4, horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. Answer is 0-4, vertically; 6-4, horizontally; 4-5, vertically.
Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. Answer is 3-0, vertically.
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to