{
  "id": 12085656,
  "title": "NYT Pips hints, answers for October 5, 2026",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/nyt-pips-hints-answers-for-october-5-2026",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-05T05:32:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Mashable",
    "slug": "mashable",
    "url": "https://mashable.com/entertainment/pips-nyt-games-hints-answers-easy-medium-hard-october-5-2026"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Welcome to the guide for Pips, the latest game from the New York Times released in August 2025. This unique spin on dominoes offers a fun single-player experience perfect for a daily gaming habit. Currently, when stuck, the game only reveals the entire puzzle, forcing players to start over. However, piecemeal answers are provided to help navigate each difficulty level.\n\nTo play Pips, familiarize yourself with how it's played like dominoes. Tiles are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference is the color-coded conditions you must meet, which don't require matching colors. These conditions include numbers, equal, not equal, less than, greater than, and various others.\n\nFor easy difficulty, here are the piecemeal answers:\n- Number (4): 1-0 (vertical), 3-6 (vertical)\n- Number (9): 4-5 (horizontal)\n- Number (3): 3-4 (vertical), 3-2 (horizontal)\n- Less than (1): 1-0 (vertical)\n- Number (9): 3-6 (vertical), 3-2 (horizontal)\n- Number (6): 3-2 (horizontal), 3-4 (vertical)\n\nMedium difficulty hints include:\n- Less than (5): 4-6 (vertical)\n- Number (4): 4-5 (horizontal)\n- Less than (6): 4-5 (horizontal)\n- Number (7): 2-5 (vertical)\n- Equal (3): 3-3 (horizontal), 3-5 (vertical)\n- Greater Than (4): 3-5 (vertical)\n- Less than (2): 4-1 (vertical)\n- Less than (4): 6-2 (vertical)\n\nFor hard difficulty, the piecemeal answers are:\n- Number (6): 6-0 (vertical)\n- Number (0): 1-0 (horizontal)\n- Number (3): 2-3 (horizontal)\n- Number (1): 6-0 (vertical), 1-0 (horizontal), 0-3 (vertical)\n- Number (4): 4-2 (horizontal)\n- Equal (2): 2-3 (horizontal), 4-2 (horizontal), 2-0 (vertical)\n- Number (8): 4-4 (vertical)\n- Number (6): 6-3 (vertical)\n- Number (3): 0-3 (vertical)\n- Number (1): 2-0 (vertical), 1-6 (vertical)\n- Number (6): 1-6 (vertical)\n- Number (9): 6-3 (vertical), 3-3 (vertical)\n- Number (2): 2-2 (vertical)\n\nRemember, areas without color coding have no conditions on the domino portions within those spaces. If you're looking for more puzzles, check out Mashable's games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.",
  "summary": "The New York Times' latest game, Pips, brings domino fun to your desktop. How to play Pips as well as hints in case you get stuck.",
  "key_points": [
    "Number 4 revealed for easy difficulty: 1-0 (vertical), 3-6 (vertical)",
    "Less than 5 condition for medium difficulty: 4-6 (vertical)",
    "Number 6 solution for hard difficulty: 6-0 (vertical)"
  ],
  "editors_take": "The New York Times' release of piecemeal answers for its Pips game reflects a shift towards a more player-friendly experience, allowing users to navigate difficulties without restarting from scratch.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Mashable",
        "title": "NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for October 5, 2026",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/nyt-connections-sports-edition-today-hints-and-answers-for-october-5",
        "published": "2026-10-05T05:36:51.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}