Entertainment
NYT Pips hints, answers for March 13, 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 March 13 Pips
Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally.
Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 13 Pips
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 5-3, placed vertically; 3-4, placed vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this orange space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically; 2-6, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed horizontally.
Number (5): Everything in this green space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-1, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed horizontally.
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 3-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally.
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Hard difficulty hints, answers for March 13 Pips
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.
Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 2-4, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-4, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
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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FREE SAMSUNG GALAXY S26: Sign up for a T-Mobile Experience Beyond plan for 24 months and get a free Samsung Galaxy S26 (256GB) which ordinarily costs $899.99. Existing T-Mobile Go5G Plus members also qualify for the deal.
It’s tough to find a free deal these days. We usually have a massive amount of fine text to read, but T-Mobile is making this deal pretty simple. Sign up for two years of coverage (which you probably needed anyway) and get a free Samsung Galaxy S26 (256GB). Here’s how to qualify.
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Announced in February, the Samsung Galaxy S26 is the latest model from the major iPhone competitor. It comes with added features like better AI capabilities and a 50 megapixel camera. Samsung also mentions improvements in display clarity with the new S26, giving off better colors and sharper details.
If you’re one for selfies, the Samsung Galaxy S26 could be a great option. Samsung designed the front-facing camera to have a wider view, making it easier to capture selfies with the group.
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If you’re going with T-Mobile coverage, it’s well worth hopping on this free Samsung Galaxy S26 deal. The cell phone bill was inevitable so you might as well snag a free upgraded phone in the process.
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Buy a $300 Delta gift card and get a free $20 Starbucks gift card
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Credit: Delta / Starbucks
The price of flying these days is shocking. If you plan on traveling soon on a route served by Delta, it’s well worth checking out this deal to get something for free. It’ll help ease the pain of the ticket price.
Through May 11, purchase a Delta gift card worth $300 or more and get a free $20 Starbucks eGift card. It’s as simple as that. You can also qualify for the deal by buying multiple gift cards that total at least $300. The deal with apply automatically and you’ll receive a separate email containing the free Starbucks card.
Booking flights these days is not much fun. Prices are ahh…. abnormal, but Delta has eased the pain a bit thanks to this deal. The carrier is positioning this free Starbucks gift card deal as a good option for Mother’s Day, but realistically, it’s useful for anyone who plans to book with Delta soon.
Keep in mind the Delta gift card and Starbucks card will never expire. Delta mentions this offer is valid until May 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET or for the first 11,000 purchasers, whichever comes first. That means it might be smart to hop on this deal soon since there’s no way to know if it’ll last until May 11.
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If you plan on flying soon or want to gift a special someone a Delta gift card worth $300 or more, snag this deal to get a free $20 Starbucks eGift card. It’s a win-win situation for those who plan to fly with Delta.
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Snag a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones for $50 off
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As of May 6, get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) for $399 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $449. That’s $50 off and a discount of 11%.
Though an incremental upgrade from the previous QuietComfort model, these have some new features you’ll want to try out. But mostly, these comfortable headphones are all about feeling great on your ears and sounding fantastic. They offer noise cancellation and spatialized audio so it sounds as though you’re right where the music is. The new Cinema Mode can help to spatialize and balance background and sound and sound effects when watching movies to help put you right into the film as well.
Beyond that they can be used to take calls with their built-in microphones. They’ll last a long time while you’re on the phone too, with 30 hours of play time when listening to songs, podcasts, or taking meetings.
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Mashable Lead Shopping Reporter Bethany Allard took the headphones for a spin in her review and and called them a “well-rounded pair of headphones”, praising their blend of “comfort, noise cancellation, and sound”.
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