NYT Pips Hints and Answers August 28, 2025
Ready to crack today’s NYT Pips? If dominoes are still ringing in your head from last night, you’re not alone—sometimes you stare at those color-coded spaces and feel like you’re deciphering ancient runes.
But hey, once you get rolling, solving these can feel like popping bubble wrap. Below, I’ll lay out the clues and solutions for August 28, 2025, across every difficulty—just enough nudges to keep you moving, but not enough to spoil the fun.
NYT Pips (Easy) Solution for August 28, 2025
Puzzle image for Easy:
Let’s keep it breezy. The easy Pips today are built to flex those brain cells gently. Here’s what hit for me:
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Equal (4): Stack that 4-4 domino vertically, then poke a 4-2 right next to it, also standing up. The fours all line up—clean and simple.
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Number (17): Hunt those big totals: drop the 4-2 vertical, toss a 5-5 horizontal, and slide a 5-1 horizontal. If you’re counting on your fingers by the end, you’ve done it right.
And really, don’t overcomplicate things. Early puzzles are way less tricksy than they look. In my first week, I always imagined some wild trick with the 4s until I found myself laughing—sometimes it actually is as easy as it looks.
NYT Pips (Medium) Solution for August 28, 2025
Puzzle image for Medium:
Medium today features some cheeky counts, and yes, a big “aha” moment if you pause for coffee.
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Number (12): Whip out 4-6 horizontally, then stand a 6-1 vertically. If you’re daydreaming about pizza, just picture the dominos stacked for delivery.
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Equal (1): This one feels like a sneaky math quiz: place the 6-1 vertical, the 1-1 vertical, then run the 4-1 horizontal. The ones line up—a little domino parade.
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Number (17): Go for 2-4 vertical, toss a 5-4 horizontal, and smooth out with a 4-1 horizontal. The higher the number, the more dramatic sighs you’ll hear in the living room.
Honestly, Medium is where I start second-guessing and sometimes accidentally teach my dog about domino logic.
NYT Pips (Hard) Solution for August 28, 2025
Puzzle image for Hard:
If your coffee’s cold and your resolve is shaky, congratulations—you’re in the right place for Pips Hard. These puzzles pull no punches and will absolutely make you work:
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Equal (1), purple: Stand 1-1 vertically. Minimal, oddly satisfying.
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Number (17), dark blue: 6-6 vertical, 5-1 vertical for those deep totals.
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Number (1), red: Drop 5-1 vertically—this surprised me too.
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Number (9), green: Keep it bold: 5-4 vertical.
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Greater than (1), red: 3-2 vertical—you’ll chuckle when the “greater than one” instruction feels vaguely philosophical.
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Number (7), light blue: 2-0 vertical, 3-0 horizontal, then 2-6 vertical. This one’s a mini treasure hunt for those seven points.
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Less than (2): Go horizontal with 1-0—sometimes the chill option is just right.
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Number (0), purple: 3-0 horizontal. If you guess-and-check, you’re not alone.
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Number (6): Drop 2-6 vertically. Sometimes the straight shot hits best.
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Number (0), dark blue: 0-0 horizontal—the purest domino of the bunch.
Hard mode is not here to be your friend. It’s the level where you wonder about alternate careers in puzzle consulting. But if you solve it, that satisfaction will last till dinner.
How to Play Pips?
If you’ve played dominoes (or just stacked them up and watched them fall), you’ll get the gist of Pips. But it brings its own twist—color-coded spaces with conditions that spice up the puzzle. Forget matching ends; now you’re matching to numbers, chasing equality, inequality, or chasing totals.
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Number: All the domino pips in a color-coded zone must add to a given number.
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Equal: Every domino half in the space must show the same pip count.
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Not Equal: Each domino half is different—no repeats allowed.
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Less than / Greater than: The totals must be lower or higher than shown.
Sometimes, only half a domino falls in the colored space—yes, that counts! Sometimes there’s no color at all—freestyle time. My favorite part: you can almost “feel” the solution once you get rolling, like the tiles are whispering hints.
