Trapped on Easy, Medium, or Hard levels? We’ve got the solutions you need.
—
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the newest game in the New York Times collection. Released in August 2025, Pips offers a fresh take on dominoes, providing a captivating single-player experience that could become your next daily pastime.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only reveals the entire puzzle, prompting you to move to the next difficulty level and start anew. But worry not! Below are step-by-step answers that serve as hints, helping you navigate each difficulty level.
### How to play Pips
If you’re familiar with dominoes, you’ll have an idea of how Pips is played. As outlined in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, akin to dominoes, are arranged vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The primary difference between a typical domino game and Pips is the color-coded conditions you must consider. The tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions specific to color-coded spaces require actions like matching the sum of pips to a given number. Often, only a part of a tile may be within a color-coded area.
Some common scenarios you’ll encounter include:
– **Number**: All pips in this space must match the required number.
– **Equal**: All domino halves must have the same pips in this space.
– **Not Equal**: Every domino half must have a different number of pips.
– **Less than**: Pips in this space must total less than a specific number.
– **Greater than**: Pips must total more than a given number.
If an area lacks color coding, there are no conditions for those domino sections.
### Easy difficulty hints, answers for April 11 Pips
– **Equal (5):** In the purple space, the domino half must have five pips. Answer: 5-2, placed vertically.
– **Number (9):** The red space must equal 9. Answer: 1-0, placed horizontally; 4-4, vertically.
– **Number (7):** The light blue space must equal 7. Answer: 3-5, placed horizontally; 0-4 vertically.
– **Equal (5):** In the yellow space, the domino half must have five pips. Answer: 3-5, placed horizontally.
### Medium difficulty hints, answers for April 11 Pips
– **Number (6):** The purple space must equal 6. Answer: 1-3, placed horizontally; 3-6, vertically.
– **Number (10):** The red space must equal 10. Answer: 5-5, placed horizontally.
– **Equal (6):** Each domino half in the light blue space must have 6 pips. Answer: 6-6, placed horizontally; 3-6, vertically.
– **Less Than (4):** In the yellow space, each domino half must have fewer than 4 pips. Answer: 2-6, placed vertically.
– **Number (10):** The dark blue space must equal 10. Answer: 4-4, placed horizontally; 2-6, vertically.
### Hard difficulty hints, answers for April 11 Pips
– **Number (5):** The purple space must equal 5. Answer: 2-1, placed horizontally; 3-6, horizontally.
– **Number (1):** The red space must equal 1. Answer: 2-1, placed horizontally; 0-5, horizontally.
– **Number (10):** The light blue space must equal 10. Answer: 0-5, placed horizontally; 5-4, vertically.
– **Greater Than (5):** The yellow space must have more than 5 pips. Answer: 3-6, placed vertically.
– **Less Than (5):** The dark blue space must equal less than 5. Answer: 0-4, placed horizontally.
– **Equal (2):** Every domino half in the green space must have 2 pips. Answer: 2-2, vertically; 2-3, horizontally.
– **Less Than (5):** In the purple space, each domino half must have fewer than 5 pips. Answer: 2-3, placed horizontally.
– **Greater Than (5):** In the red space, each domino half must have more than 5 pips. Answer: 6-1, placed vertically.
– **Number (5):** The light blue space must equal 5. Answer: 5-2, placed vertically.
– **Number (5):** The dark blue space must equal 5. Answer: 5-2, vertically; 3-1, horizontally.