The New York Times has added a fresh challenge to its gaming roster with Pips, a single-player domino-style puzzle. If you are struggling to solve today’s board without resetting, these hints will help you clear the Easy, Medium, and Hard levels.
How to Play the Pips Puzzle
Pips requires you to place domino tiles in a grid based on specific color-coded conditions. Unlike traditional dominoes, the goal isn’t just to match numbers but to satisfy rules like sums, equalities, or inequalities.
- Number: The total pips in the colored area must sum up to that specific digit.
- Equal: Every domino half within the space must show the same number.
- Greater/Less Than: The total count must be higher or lower than the target number.
Easy Pips Hints and Answers
For the February 22 puzzle, the Easy mode focuses on simple sums and basic placement.
- Number (0): Place a 4-0 vertically and a 6-6 horizontally to meet the zero requirement.
- Greater Than (9): Use a 6-6 tile placed horizontally.
- Number (9): Combine a 6-6 horizontally and a 3-5 vertically.
- Greater Than (1): Position a 2-1 tile vertically.
Medium Pips Hints and Answers
The Medium difficulty introduces larger sums and more complex overlap between the domino tiles.
- Number (4): Use a 5-4 tile placed horizontally.
- Equal (3): Place a 3-2 vertically alongside a 3-5 vertically.
- Number (22): This large sum requires a 6-6 and a 4-6, both placed horizontally.
- Less Than (3): A 5-0 tile placed horizontally will satisfy this condition.
Hard Pips Hints and Answers
Today’s Hard level features tight constraints and multiple overlapping “Number” requirements.
- Equal (3): Place a 0-3 vertically and a 3-2 horizontally.
- Number (12): Use a 6-4 vertically and a 5-6 vertically to reach this total.
- Number (1): This appears multiple times; use 6-1, 0-1, or 0-2 in their respective vertical slots.
- Number (11): Place a 3-6 vertically and a 2-5 horizontally.