Stuck on Easy, Medium, or Hard? Find all you need here.
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the newest game in the New York Times collection. Released in August 2025, Pips puts a fresh twist on dominoes, providing a fun solo experience that might become your next daily gaming habit. If you’re currently stuck, the game only reveals the entire puzzle, making you start over at the next difficulty. But we have you covered with piecemeal answers as hints to help you through each level.
How to Play Pips:
If you’re familiar with dominoes, you’ll understand Pips. The tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally to connect. The main difference is the color-coded conditions you must meet. Tiles don’t need to match. In color-coded spaces, meet conditions like:
– Number: Pips must add to the specified number.
– Equal: All halves must have the same pips.
– Not Equal: Every half must have different pips.
– Less Than: Sums must be less than the number.
– Greater Than: Sums must be more than the number.
Areas without color coding have no conditions.
Easy Difficulty Hints for May 17 Pips:
– Greater Than (5): Must be greater than 5. 6-4, placed vertically.
– Number (9): Must add to 9. 4-5, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed vertically.
– Greater Than (2): Must be greater than 2. 4-3, placed horizontally.
– Number (4): Must add to 4. 4-4, placed horizontally.
– Equal (4): Must equal 4. 4-5, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed vertically; 4-3, placed horizontally.
Medium Difficulty Hints for May 17 Pips:
– Equal (5): Must equal 5. 5-2, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed vertically.
– Equal (2): Must equal 2. 5-2, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.
– Less Than (2): Must be less than 2. 5-1, placed vertically.
– Number (10): Must add to 10. 6-1, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically.
– Greater Than (4): Must be greater than 4. 2-6, placed horizontally.
– Greater Than (5): Must be greater than 5. 6-0, placed horizontally.
– Less Than (2): Must be less than 2. 6-0, placed horizontally.
– Number (2): Must add to 2. 6-1, placed vertically; 3-1, placed vertically.
Hard Difficulty Hints for May 17 Pips:
– Number (6): Must add to 6. 6-2, placed vertically.
– Number (4): Must add to 4. 2-4, placed vertically.
– Equal (2): Must equal 2. 2-4, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically.
– Equal (6): Must equal 6. 6-6, placed vertically; 6-5, placed vertically.
– Number (5): Must add to 5. 4-1, placed vertically.
– Number (10): Must add to 10. 5-0, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically.
– Number (9): Must add to 9. 4-0, placed vertically; 6-5, placed vertically.
– Number (0): Must add to 0. 4-0, placed vertically.
– Number (10): Must add to 10. 6-4, placed vertically.
– Equal (5): Must equal 5. 5-5, placed vertically.
– Not Equal: Must be different. 2-3, placed vertically; 1-6, placed vertically; 0-6, placed vertically.
Explore more puzzles at Mashable’s games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crosswords, and more.
Topics: Gaming