NYT Pips hints, answers for August 15, 2026

Welcome to your guide for Pips, the latest game from the New York Times released in August 2025. This unique spin on dominoes offers a single-player experience perfect for a daily gaming habit. When you get stuck, piecemeal answers are provided to guide you through each difficulty level without revealing the entire puzzle.

To play Pips, you'll need to understand that tiles are placed vertically or horizontally and connect like traditional dominoes. However, unlike dominoes, tiles in Pips must meet specific color-coded conditions. These conditions can include adding up to a specific number, being equal to a certain value, or being greater or less than a given number. If there's no color coding, there are no conditions on the domino halves within that space.

For the easy difficulty, the first hint is to place 4-4 vertically and 0-6 vertically, with a total of 8. The second hint for the equal condition is to place 0-6 vertically, 6-6 horizontally, and 6-5 vertically, all equaling 6. For the number condition, place 6-5 vertically to make a total of 5. The equal condition for 3 is met by placing 3-3 vertically.

In the medium difficulty, the greater than 8 condition is satisfied by placing 4-6 horizontally and 4-2 vertically. The equal condition for 2 is met by placing 4-2 and 6-2 vertically. The number condition for 6 is satisfied by placing 6-3 horizontally and 3-1 vertically. The greater than 4 and less than 3 conditions are both satisfied by placing 6-1 vertically.

For the hard difficulty, the greater than 4 condition is met by placing 5-0 vertically. The greater than 0 condition is satisfied by placing 2-1 vertically. The equal condition for 1 is met by placing 2-1, 1-1, and 1-0 vertically. The greater than 3 condition is satisfied by placing 6-4 horizontally. The greater than 16 condition is met by placing 6-4 horizontally and 6-5 vertically. Finally, the number condition for 0 is satisfied by placing 0-0 horizontally and 0-2 vertically.