NYT Pips hints, answers for September 23, 2026

Welcome to a guide for Pips, the newest game from the New York Times, released in August 2025. This single-player game provides a unique twist on traditional dominoes. If you get stuck, you can use these piecemeal hints to help you progress through each difficulty level.

In Pips, like dominoes, tiles are placed vertically or horizontally and connect. However, unlike traditional dominoes, the touching tiles do not need to match; they must satisfy specific color-coded conditions. These conditions vary based on the color-coded space and can include adding up to a certain number, equal or not equal numbers, being less than or greater than a number.

For easier puzzles, here are a few hints:

- If a space is purple and has a number 0, the answer is 0-4, placed vertically.

- If a space is red and has a number 0, the answer is 0-6, placed horizontally.

- If a space is green and has a number 0, the answer is 4-0, placed horizontally.

At medium difficulty, the hints include:

- If a space requires all tiles to have equal pips (6), the answer is 6-0, placed vertically; 6-5, placed horizontally.

- If a space requires all tiles to have a value of 5, the answer is 6-5, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed horizontally.

For those playing on a harder difficulty, the hints include:

- If a space requires tiles to add up to 2, the answer is 5-2, placed horizontally.

- If a space requires tiles to add up to 11, the answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically.