Pips is the New York Times’ domino-inspired daily puzzle, released in August 2025. The single-player game challenges you to place domino tiles vertically or horizontally while satisfying conditions in color-coded spaces.
If you get 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
Pips uses familiar domino mechanics: tiles connect vertically or horizontally, but touching tiles do not necessarily need to match. Instead, each color-coded area has a condition that determines how the domino halves inside it must be arranged. In some cases, only half of a domino lies within a colored space.
- Number: All the pips in the space must add up to the specified 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 specified number.
- Greater Than: Every domino half in the space must add up to more than the specified number.
Uncolored areas have no conditions for the portions of dominoes placed within them.
Easy Pips hints and answers for August 26, 2026
- Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. Place 3-4 horizontally and 2-5 vertically.
- Less Than (1): Everything in this space must be less than 1. Place 0-6 horizontally.
- Number (28): Everything in this space must add up to 28. Place 6-6 horizontally, 0-6 horizontally, 5-1 vertically, and 2-5 vertically.
- Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. Place 5-1 vertically.
Medium Pips hints and answers for August 26, 2026
- Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. Place 5-3 horizontally.
- Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. Place 5-3 horizontally and 3-1 vertically.
- Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. Place 6-6 horizontally and 6-5 horizontally.
- Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. Place 1-6 vertically and 3-1 vertically.
- Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. Place 6-5 horizontally and 1-6 vertically.
- Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. Place 5-4 horizontally.
- Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. Place 4-3 vertically.
- Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. Place 2-5 horizontally.
- Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. Place 2-5 horizontally and 5-4 horizontally.
Hard Pips hints and answers for August 26, 2026
- Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. Place 2-6 horizontally.
- Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. Place 3-6 horizontally.
- Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. Place 2-6 horizontally, 2-4 horizontally, and 2-3 vertically.
- Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. Place 2-5 horizontally and 6-0 vertically.
- Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. Place 3-6 horizontally, 3-5 horizontally, and 3-0 vertically.
- Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. Place 6-0 vertically, 0-0 horizontally, and 3-0 vertically.
- Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. Place 3-5 horizontally and 5-5 vertically.
- Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. Place 2-3 vertically and 3-3 horizontally.
- Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. Place 2-2 horizontally and 2-0 horizontally.
- Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. Place 2-0 horizontally.
- Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. Place 0-1 vertically.
- Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. Place 6-4 vertically.
- Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. Place 0-2 vertically and 1-4 horizontally.
- Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. Place 6-4 vertically, 4-4 horizontally, and 1-4 horizontally.
Looking for more puzzles? Mashable’s games hub includes Mahjong, Sudoku, free crosswords, and more.
Source: mashable.com
