Stuck on Easy, Medium, or Hard? We have everything you need right here.
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue. Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. The tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Common examples across difficulty levels:
- Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number
- Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips
- Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips
- Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number
- Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number
If an area does hints, answers for Jan. 31 Pips
- Number (0): 0-0 vertical; 5-0 vertical
- Number (0): 4-0 vertical
- Less Than (5): 4-0 vertical
- Number (2): 2-0 vertical
- Number (0): 2-0 vertical
- Less Than (4): 3-0 vertical
- Number (0): 3-0 vertical
- Number (1): 1-0 vertical
- Number (0): 1-0 vertical
- Greater Than (5): 6-0 vertical
- Number (0): 6-0 vertical
Medium difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 31 Pips
- Greater Than (3): 6-5 vertical
- Number (4): 1-3 vertical; 3-2 horizontal
- Number (4): 3-2 horizontal; 2-4 vertical
- Number (7): 1-3 vertical; 4-6 horizontal
- Number (10): 4-6 horizontal; 2-4 vertical
- Equal (5): 6-5 vertical; 5-5 horizontal
- Greater Than (2): 1-6 horizontal
Hard difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 31 Pips
- Number (12): 4-4 vertical; 2-2 horizontal; 0-6 vertical
- Number (3): 3-6 horizontal
- Equal (6): 3-6 horizontal; 0-6 vertical; 6-5 horizontal; 6-2 vertical
- Greater Than (4): 5-3 vertical
- Equal (3): 5-3 vertical; 3-3 horizontal; 3-4 horizontal
- Greater Than (0): 1-5 vertical
- Greater Than (1): 5-2 horizontal
- Equal (5): 1-5 vertical; 6-5 horizontal; 5-2 horizontal; 5-0 vertical