Meet Pips

Pips launched in August 2025 as the New York Times take on dominoes, built as a single-player daily puzzle.

Why hints beat revealing

The game's only help option uncovers the entire puzzle, which ends your run. Piecemeal answers let you unstick one space and keep playing.

“the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle”

Tiles behave like dominoes

You place tiles vertically or horizontally and connect them to each other. Unlike classic dominoes, touching halves do not have to match.

“The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.”

Color decides the rule

Each color-coded space carries its own condition. A space marked with a single number means every tile side inside it must add up to that number.

The five conditions

Number means the pips sum to it. Equal means every half matches. Not Equal means every half differs. Less than and Greater than compare the total against the number.

Blank space, no rules

Uncolored areas place no condition on the tile halves sitting in them, so they are free room to work with.

“there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces”

Easy answers

Less Than 4 takes 3-1 vertical. Less Than 1 takes 0-5 horizontal. Equal 1 uses 3-1 and 1-4 vertical. Number 10 uses 1-4 vertical and 6-6 horizontal.

Medium answers

Both Equal 0 spaces start with 0-0 vertical, joined by 0-2 then 0-3 horizontal. Number 4 pairs 0-2 with 1-1. Equal 6 takes 6-3 and 0-6 horizontal.

Hard answers

Equal 1 anchors the grid with 4-1, 1-1, 6-1 and 1-3. Greater Than 9 takes 6-4, Greater Than 10 takes 5-6, and Number 15 closes with 2-3 and 6-6 vertical.