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Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, 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 on to 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 with 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.

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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:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• 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.

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Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed vertically.

Less Than (9): Everything in this space must be less than 9. The answer is 5-6, placed vertically; 4-2, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this red space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically; 3-1, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for June 17 Pips

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 5-6, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-0, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally; 0-3, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally; 1-4, placed horizontally.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 0-5, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2 placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for June 17 Pips

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically.

Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically; 5-2, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally.

Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed vertically; 0-5, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-2, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 6. The answer is 4-2, placed vertically; 4-6, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this orange space must add up to 6. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 6. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically; 1-1, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this green space must add up to 6. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically; 3-3, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 6. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically; 2-1, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this orange space must add up to 6. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 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.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

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Tangy.

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ZESTY

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A visitor.

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GUEST

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Hurdle Word 3 hint

To light up.

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TORCH

Hurdle Word 4 hint

A riding horse.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

STEED

Final Hurdle hint

Purpose.

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POINT

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 New Moon has now passed, meaning the lunar cycle is beginning again. Over the coming nights, the Moon will gradually become more visible in the evening sky as a thin waxing crescent starts to reappear.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Wednesday, June 17, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 14% of the moon will be be lit up, according to NASA's Daily Moon Guide.

After several nights of darkness, there is finally some surface features visible again tonight. Without any visual aids, you'll be able to see the Mares Fecunditatis and Crisium. And with binoculars or a telescope, you'll also catch a glimpse of the Endymion Crater.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on June 29.

What are Moon phases?

According to NASA, the Moon completes one orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, moving through eight recognised phases along the way. While the same side of the Moon always faces our planet, the amount of its surface lit by the Sun changes as it travels around Earth. As a result, we see the Moon appear in different shapes over the course of a month, from slender crescents and half moons to a bright Full Moon. This repeating sequence of phases is known as the lunar cycle.

New Moon - The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.