Spoilers ahead. The independent Pips archive lists puzzle IDs 587 (easy), 614 (medium), and 642 (hard) for Wednesday, February 4, 2026. Start with the hints below if you want to solve them yourself, or jump to the placements for the full answers. The archive says it is not affiliated with The New York Times; its walkthroughs have not been independently checked against NYT game data.
Hints before the February 4 answers
Easy — puzzle 587
Start with the two dominoes containing a 5: 5-2 and 5-1. Those scarce values constrain the board’s two exact-sum-5 regions. Use the equals region as an anchor, then carry the remaining values into neighboring cells rather than guessing.
Medium — puzzle 614
Use the limited values to work through the equality regions first: the yellow equals region needs 1s, while the green equals region needs 2s. The purple 8 region must total 5+3. Then use the fixed 4 and 7 targets alongside the red greater-than-2 condition to narrow the remaining placements.
Hard — puzzle 642
Count the scarce 3s first; they restrict the neighboring 7 regions. Propagate those deductions through the greater-than regions and the other target-7 areas instead of treating each region in isolation.
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How Pips works
Pips is a domino-placement puzzle: place the available tiles across the board while meeting the conditions shown in its regions. The academic paper “Man, These New York Times Games Are Hard! A Computational Perspective” states that “Each domino piece must be used exactly once in the solution.” A physical domino set is optional for hands-on practice; it is not needed to play the digital puzzle.
February 4, 2026 answer placements
The following placements follow the independent archive’s walkthrough. They are a transcription of that source, not an independently verified NYT answer key. The notation names the domino and its orientation; where described, the tile’s second value extends into a blank cell.
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Easy — puzzle 587
The archive lists these dominoes: 5-2, 5-1, 3-2, 1-1, and 0-0.
- Place 0-0 horizontally in the purple 1 region.
- Place 1-1 horizontally so one 1 remains in that region and the other extends into a blank cell.
- Place 5-2 horizontally with the 5 in the yellow 5 region.
- Place 2-3 vertically, with the 3 extending into a blank cell.
- Place 5-1 vertically with the 5 in the red 5 region and the 1 in a blank cell.
Medium — puzzle 614
The listed dominoes are 5-4, 4-2, 3-3, 3-2, 3-1, 2-1, and 2-0.
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- The purple 8 region totals 5+3; the yellow equals region uses 1s, and the green equals region uses 2s.
- In the related opening group, place 4-5 horizontally, 3-1 vertically, 1-2 horizontally, and 2-0 vertically.
- For the red greater-than-2, light-blue 4, and blue 7 areas, assign 2+2 to the light-blue 4 and 4+3 to the blue 7, using 3-2, 2-4, and 3-3 in the listed placements.
Hard — puzzle 642
The listed dominoes are 6-3, 5-1, 4-3, 4-1, 4-0, 2-1, and 1-0.
- Use the limited 3s to constrain the adjacent 7 regions.
- Resolve the green greater-than-1 and light-blue 7 areas with 2-1 horizontally and 1-5 vertically.
- Place 4-3 vertically across the purple greater-than-2 and yellow 7 regions.
- For the purple greater-than-0, blue 7, and red 7 regions, place 1-4 vertically, 3-6 vertically, and 1-0 vertically.
- In the final yellow 7 area, place 4-0 horizontally, with the 0 extending into a blank cell.
Source note
The dated walkthrough is from an independent fan-made archive that disclaims affiliation with The New York Times. The academic paper supports the general domino mechanic, not the February 4 placements.
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