NYT Pips Hints and Answers for August 23, 2025
For August 23rd, the Easy puzzle is genuinely straightforward (finally!), Medium ramps up nicely, and Hard... well, let's just say Hard earned its name today. The trick with today's puzzles seems to be starting with the doubles — at least that's what worked for me after my third attempt. Quick tip before we dive in: if you're struggling, try working backwards from the colored boxes. Sometimes knowing where pieces need to end up makes the path clearer. Learned that one the hard way yesterday.
NYT Pips (Easy) Solution for August 23, 2025
Puzzle image for Easy:
The Easy solution starts with placing your double blanks horizontally — one blank goes in the purple box, the other sits outside. From there:
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That 1-3 domino? Vertical placement, with the 1 landing in purple and 3 hitting pink
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Double 3s go horizontal, both nestled in the pink box
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The 4-blank piece fits horizontally in blue
Took me maybe two minutes today, which is saying something because Tuesday's "Easy" had me questioning my spatial reasoning skills entirely.
NYT Pips (Medium) Solution for August 23, 2025
Puzzle image for Medium:
Medium difficulty is where things get spicy — you'll need to place five dominoes across blue, brown, purple, and pink boxes. Start with the 3-6 piece vertically (3 outside, 6 in blue), then work your way through:
The 6-4 goes horizontal with 6 in blue, 4 in brown. Next, place 1-4 horizontal (1 outside, 4 brown). The 1-5 piece needs to go horizontal too — 1 in purple, 5 in pink. Finally, that 4-3 domino stands vertical with 4 in brown, 3 hanging outside.
My neighbor texted me stuck on this one... told her to focus on the brown box first. Sometimes having too many options is worse than having few.
NYT Pips (Hard) Solution for August 23, 2025
Puzzle image for Hard:
Alright, Hard mode. Deep breath. Ten dominoes, and they really want you to work for it today.
Begin with double 1s horizontal in the brown box center. Then the 1-6 goes horizontal (1 brown, 6 pink), followed by 1-4 vertical (1 brown, 4 pink). Double blanks sit horizontal in pink's middle.
Here's where it gets tricky — and where I messed up twice:
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6-blank vertical: blank in pink, 6 in dark blue
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3-6 vertical: 3 green, 6 blue
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2-6 vertical: 6 purple, 2 outside
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Blank-1 horizontal: blank purple, 1 outside
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1-3 horizontal: 1 purple, 3 blue
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1-2 vertical fills the remaining purple spots
That purple box arrangement is brutal. Started over three times before realizing the 2-6 placement was key to unlocking everything else.
How to Play Pips?
Pips is basically domino Tetris meets color-matching — you've got a grid with colored boxes and need to place dominoes so the right pip values land in the right colored regions. Each colored box has specific pip requirements (like all 3s in pink, or all blanks in purple), and every domino must be placed exactly once.
The beauty is in the constraints... sounds boring, but it's weirdly addictive? My wife says I've been muttering about pip placement in my sleep, which tracks because I definitely dreamed about dominoes last night.
Pro tip: NYT lets you rotate pieces with the spacebar or by clicking. Also, you can remove placed pieces if you paint yourself into a corner (and you will). No shame in the reset button either — I've made friends with it.
Weekend puzzles tend to be tougher, so if today's Hard mode crushed your soul a bit, you're not alone. Tomorrow's Saturday puzzle will probably be even more diabolical. Can't wait.
