Having trouble with Easy, Medium, or Hard levels? Your solution is here.
Welcome to the guide for 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 find yourself stuck, the game only provides the option to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to start over at the next difficulty level. However, we’ve got you covered! Here are bite-sized hints to guide you through every difficulty level.
How to play Pips: If you’ve played dominoes, you’ll have a basic understanding of Pips. The tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The primary difference with Pips is the color-coded conditions that must be addressed. The connecting tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions tied to the color-coded spaces vary. For example, if a space gives a single number, every side of a tile within that space must add up to the provided number. Often, only half a tile will fall within a color-coded space.
Common conditions include:
– **Number**: All pips in this space must total the number.
– **Equal**: Every half of a domino in this space must have the same number of pips.
– **Not Equal**: Every domino half in this space must have a different number of pips.
– **Less Than**: Domino halves must total less than the given number.
– **Greater Than**: Domino halves must total more than the given number.
If an area has no color coding, there are no conditions for the domino portions within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for March 11 Pips:
– **Number (5):** All in this space must add up to 5; answer: 5-5, placed vertically.
– **Number (9):** All in this red space must add up to 9; answer: 5-5, placed vertically; 4-4, placed vertically.
– **Number (9):** All in this light blue space must add up to 9; answer: 4-4, placed vertically; 2-3, placed vertically; 3-5, placed vertically.
– **Number (9):** All in this orange space must add up to 9; answer: 2-3, placed vertically; 6-6, placed vertically.
– **Number (5):** All in this space must add up to 5; answer: 3-5, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 11 Pips:
– **Less Than (1):** All in this space must be less than 1; answer: 1-0, placed vertically.
– **Number (3):** All in this space must add up to 3; answer: 4-3, placed horizontally.
– **Number (10):** All in this space must add up to 10; answer: 5-5, placed horizontally.
– **Number (12):** All in this space must add up to 12; answer: 4-5, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed horizontally; 4-1, placed horizontally.
– **Less Than (2):** All in this space must be less than 2; answer: 4-1, placed horizontally.
– **Number (10):** All in this space must add up to 10; answer: 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
– **Number (3):** All in this space must add up to 3; answer: 5-3, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for March 11 Pips:
– **Number (3):** All in this space must add up to 3; answer: 5-3, placed horizontally.
– **Number (10):** All in this space must add up to 10; answer: 5-3, placed horizontally; 5-2, placed vertically.
– **Greater Than (0):** All in this space must be greater than 0; answer: 5-2, placed vertically.
– **Number (7):** All in this space must add up to 7; answer: 3-4, placed vertically.
– **Number (10):** All in this space must add up to 10; answer: 5-5, placed horizontally.
– **Number (12):** All in this space must add up to 12; answer: 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed vertically.
– **Number (10):** All in this space must add up to 10; answer: 5-6, placed horizontally; 5-1