The New York Times’ Pips offers a fresh take on dominoes, turning the familiar tile game into a single-player daily puzzle. Released in August 2025, the game challenges players to arrange dominoes vertically or horizontally while satisfying conditions in color-coded spaces.
If you are stuck, Pips currently reveals the entire puzzle rather than providing individual hints. The step-by-step answers below offer a way to solve each difficulty level without skipping ahead.
How to play Pips
Players place domino tiles so they connect vertically or horizontally. Unlike traditional dominoes, touching tiles do not necessarily need to match. Instead, each color-coded area has a specific condition that the tiles within it must satisfy.
A domino may also cross between spaces, meaning only one half of the tile can be inside a particular color-coded area.
- Number: All the pips in the space must add up to the displayed number.
- Equal: Every domino half in the space must contain the same number of pips.
- Not Equal: Every domino half in the space must contain a different number of pips.
- Less than: Every domino half in the space must add up to less than the displayed number.
- Greater than: Every domino half in the space must add up to more than the displayed number.
Uncolored spaces have no conditions for the portions of dominoes placed within them.
Easy Pips hints and answers for August 25
- Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.
- Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally.
- Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically.
- Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically; 0-1, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed horizontally.
- Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.
Medium Pips hints and answers for August 25
- Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.
- Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed vertically.
- Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 3-6, placed vertically.
- Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 6-5, placed horizontally.
- Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed vertically.
- Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically; 1-6, placed horizontally.
- Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally.
Hard Pips hints and answers for August 25
- Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically; 0-6, placed horizontally; 2-0, placed vertically.
- Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 2-0, placed vertically.
- Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-0, placed vertically; 6-4, placed horizontally.
- Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally; 0-4, placed horizontally.
- Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
- Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 5-3, placed vertically; 6-6, placed horizontally.
- Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed horizontally.
- Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 4-0, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed vertically; 2-5, placed horizontally.
For more puzzles, visit Mashable’s games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crosswords and more.
Source: mashable.com
