Pips, the New York Times’ engaging new single-player puzzle game released in August 2025, puts a fresh spin on dominoes. If you’re finding yourself stuck on the daily challenge and need a nudge, this guide provides hints and answers to help you conquer each difficulty level without resorting to revealing the entire solution. Let’s dive into Pips and how to solve it!

Understanding Pips: A Dominoes Puzzle Game

If you’re familiar with dominoes, you’ll quickly grasp the basics of Pips. Like dominoes, tiles are placed vertically or horizontally, connecting with each other. However, Pips introduces color-coded conditions that add a layer of strategic thinking. The touching tiles don’t necessarily need to match traditionally. The game challenges you to meet color-coded constraints within the puzzle, making it a unique experience.

How to Play and Win at Pips

The conditions you must meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. Here’s a breakdown of common constraints you’ll encounter:

Number: The sum of all pips (dots) in this colored space must equal the specified number. Even half a tile can fall within a colored space.
Equal: Every domino half within this space must display the same number of pips.
Not Equal: Each domino half in this space must have a distinct number of pips.
Less Than: Every domino half’s pip count in this space must be less than the specified number.
Greater Than: Every domino half’s pip count in this space must exceed the specified number.

Areas without color coding have no conditions, providing some flexibility in your tile placement. Use these as opportunities to set up the more challenging areas.

Pips Hints and Answers: September 8, 2025

Here are the hints and answers for the September 8, 2025, Pips puzzle, broken down by difficulty level.

Easy Difficulty: Solutions

Greater than (2): The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally. All pips here must be greater than 2.
Equal (1): The solution is 2-2, placed vertically; 2-1, placed horizontally. Every half-tile must have an equal number of pips.
Less than (2): The answer is 2-1, placed horizontally. Every half-tile must be less than 2.

Medium Difficulty: Solutions

Number (5): The answer is 5-4, placed vertically. The sum of pips must be 5.
Equal (3): The answer is 5-3, placed vertically; 2-3, placed vertically; 1-3, placed vertically.
Not Equal: The answer is 5-3, placed vertically; 5-6, placed vertically; 1-3, placed vertically; 2-3, placed vertically.

Hard Difficulty: Solutions

Number (0): The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally.
Number (2): The answer is 4-2, placed vertically.
Number (1): The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.
Number (4): The answer is 4-2, placed vertically.
Number (3): The answer is 3-1, placed vertically.
Number (3): The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally; 1-2, placed horizontally.
Number (3): The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally; 1-4, placed horizontally.
Number (16): The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.
Equal (3): The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (3): The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Equal (2): The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally; 6-2, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically; 2-2, placed vertically.
Number (5): The answer is 5-2, placed vertically.
Number (2): The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.
Number (6): The answer is 6-2, placed vertically.
Number (5): The answer is 5-0, placed vertically.
Number (0): The answer is 0-2, placed vertically; 5-0, placed vertically.

If you enjoy puzzles like Pips, explore other games like Wordle, Strands, Mahjong, Sudoku, and crosswords for more brain-teasing fun!