Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we’ve shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you’ll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

Easy difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 4 Pips

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 4 Pips

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 1. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 1-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 3-3, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 4 Pips

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this orange space must add up to 7. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically; 4-0, placed horizontally.

Number (7): Everything in this red space must add up to 7. The answer is 0-1, placed vertically; 6-3, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 7. The answer is 6-3, placed vertically; 4-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 2-1, placed horizontally.

Number (7): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 7. The answer is 2-1, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed horizontally.

If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you’re a sports fan.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: A dispute

• Green: Possibility

• Blue: Estimated

• Purple: Basketball clubs

Here are today’s Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Contention

• Green: Games of chance

• Blue: More or less, colloquially

• Purple: Starting with NBA teams

Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today’s Connections #969 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

• Contention: CONFLICT, DISCORD, FRICTION, RIVALRY

• Games of chance: BINGO, CRAPS, LOTTERY, WAR

• More or less, colloquially: APPROX, BOUT, LIKE, ROUND

• Starting with NBA teams: BULLSEYE, HEATED, MAGICAL, NETSCAPE

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.

If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.

Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you have a side passion.

Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: For the enthusiast

The words are related to pasttimes

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe leisure activities.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today’s spangram is Hobby Shop

NYT Strands word list for February 4

• Miniature

• Puzzle

• Model

• Hobby Shop

• Collectible

• Game

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.