dotio: The Pips Puzzle Game
The best NYT Pips alternative: 4,800+ handcrafted puzzles, daily challenges, live leaderboards, four difficulties, smart hints. No ads. Pay once, play forever.
What Players Say About dotio
"Better than pips in NYT… very engaging animations that feels rewarding every time you solve."
App Store review4,800+ puzzles across four difficulty tiers, global leaderboards, friend groups, and built-in solving tools that NYT doesn't offer.
See how dotio compares to NYT Pips →
What is the Pips Puzzle?
Pips is a domino logic puzzle where you place dominoes on a grid of coloured regions. Each region has a rule about the pip values it must contain: a required sum, all equal, all different, or a comparison. Place every domino so all rules are satisfied. Every puzzle has exactly one solution, found through pure logic. Learn more about how pips works.
Place Dominoes
Drag dominoes from your hand onto the grid. Each domino has two pip values, one on each half, and covers exactly two adjacent cells. Rotate dominoes to control which pip lands on which cell.
Follow the Rules
Coloured regions have rules about the pip values they contain: required sums, all equal, all different, greater than, or less than. Every region must be satisfied simultaneously.
Solve the Puzzle
When every pip is in the right place and every rule is satisfied, you've cracked it. Every puzzle has exactly one solution, found through logic alone. No guessing required.
Use the Tools
The Pip Counter totals pips in each region so you can skip the arithmetic. The Sum Helper tracks your progress toward target sums. Smart hints guide you when you're stuck.
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Coming from NYT Pips? See why dotio is the upgrade.
New to pips? Try the tutorial.
Pips Puzzle Features
4,800+ Puzzles
Pip puzzles across Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Each with exactly one solution, no guessing required.
Daily Challenges
Fresh puzzles every day in Easy, Medium, and Hard. Build your streak and track your progress.
Daily Leaderboards
See how you rank against every other player worldwide. Compete on the daily leaderboard with anonymous identities and percentile rankings.
Smart Hints & Tools
Pip Counter totals the pips in each region so you can focus on logic. Sum Helper and smart hints guide you without spoiling the answer.
45+ Achievements
32 badges and 14 milestones to unlock, from Lightning to Night Owl.
Friend Groups
Create or join a private group and compete with friends. Share your daily times and see who comes out on top.
Ghost Mode
Race against the clock as rules fade away. Can you remember them once they've vanished?
No Ads. Ever.
No ads. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. Pay once, enjoy for ever. Works offline. Just puzzles.
Ready to play?
The best NYT Pips alternative. Download dotio and start solving today.
Thoughtful. Daily. Satisfying.
