Entertainment
NYT Pips hints, answers for February 1, 2026
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:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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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. 1 Pips
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed horizontally.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-4, placed vertically.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-0, placed vertically.
Equal (0): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally.
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Equal (4): Everything in this green space must be equal to 4. The answer is 6-4, placed vertically; 0-4, placed horizontally.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 1 Pips
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 5-3, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 5-3, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally.
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally.
Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 1 Pips
Less Than (9): Everything in this space must be less than 9. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed horizontally.
Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed horizontally.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally.
Number (12): Everything in this space must add up to 12. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally.
Less Than (5): Everything in this space must be less than 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally.
Less Than (20): Everything in this space must be less than 20. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed vertically.
Less Than (7): Everything in this space must be less than 7. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally; 3-6, placed vertically.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally; 6-1, placed horizontally; 0-0, 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.
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The gorgeous yet budget-friendly Samsung QN70F Neo QLED TV is the cheapest its ever been
SAVE $300: As of April 21, you can get the Samsung 55-inch QN70F Neo QLED 4K TV for only $597.99 instead of $897.99 at Amazon. That’s 33% in savings and the lowest price on record.
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We’re in peak sports season, y’all. Besides the action of the Stanley Cup playoffs and NBA playoffs, there’s a fresh MLB season taking shape. If your TV is looking dull or lagging, it’s a prime time to upgrade — especially since you can find some epic deals on 2025 models.
As of April 21, the Samsung 55-inch QN70F Neo QLED 4K TV is on sale at Amazon for only $597.99. That’s 33% or $300 off its current list price, as well as its lowest price to date.
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If an upgrade is in order, but you don’t want to spend a ton of money, the Samsung QN70F Neo QLED 4K TV is an excellent value at full price. At $300 off, it’s a steal.
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The secret to faster AI output is better prompts
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Anyone using AI regularly already knows the real bottleneck isn’t the tools — it’s the prompts. Getting them just right can take longer than the actual work, and once you do land on a great one, it’s usually buried in chat history or lost in a notes app somewhere.
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Entertainment
How to watch Lakers vs. Rockets in the NBA Playoffs (Game 2) online for free
TL;DR: Live stream Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets in the NBA Playoffs for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The NBA is rolling onto the next round of playoff games, with the Los Angeles Lakers looking to go 2-0 in their first-round series with the Houston Rockets. LeBron James and Luke Kennard inspired the Lakers to win the opening game in the absence of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. The big question is whether 41-year old LeBron James can keep it going.
If you want to watch Lakers vs. Rockets in the NBA Playoffs for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Lakers vs. Rockets?
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets in the NBA Playoffs starts at 10:30 p.m. ET on April 21. This game takes place at the Crypto.com Arena.
How to watch Lakers vs. Rockets for free
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets in the NBA Playoffs is available to live stream for free on YouTube.
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This free live stream is geo-restricted to India, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in India, meaning you can access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.
Stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:
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Subscribe to a VPN (we tested ExpressVPN and it worked great)
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Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
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Watch the NBA for free from anywhere in the world
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The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This clearly isn’t a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select games from the NBA before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for the NBA?
ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing free live streams on platforms like YouTube, for a number of reasons:
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Live stream the NBA for free with ExpressVPN.
The gorgeous yet budget-friendly Samsung QN70F Neo QLED TV is the cheapest its ever been
The secret to faster AI output is better prompts
