All NYT Connections, Pips, & Strands Answers for August 19, 2025

Every day, you can find a slew of free puzzles on the New York Times Games website to challenge your brain. Some of these puzzles involve word connections, while others focus on numbers and math.

If you are looking to solve these New York Times Games Puzzles like Connections, Strands, and Pips, you might be in need of a hand. You can find everything you need for all three games below.

NYT Pips Hints and Answers

Pips is the newest game from the New York Times Games, and it involves putting dominoes into their proper places, given the placement restrictions. In the galleries below, you will find the puzzle, then a clue, then a second clue, and finally the answer to each level of this challenging puzzle game.

Easy Pips Puzzle

Medium Pips Puzzle

Hard Pips Puzzle

How to Play Pips

Here are the rules of how to complete your first games of Pips.

• You have to fill each space of the board and use all the dominoes.
• You can rotate the dominoes.
• Dominoes can be half in one section and half in another.
• Each section has a condition that has to be met by the pips inside it.
  • Numbers: Dots in this region sum to the number provided.
  • Equal Sign: Dots in this region are all the same number.
  • Less than : Dots in this region sum to less than the number provided.
  • Greater than >: Dots in this region sum to more than the number provided.
  • Empty regions: No conditions apply.

NYT Strands Hints and Answers

Strands is a word-find puzzle game that has been taken to the extreme. In order to find all the related words and the Spangram, you will need to figure out the theme before selecting any words. Today’s theme and words are quite difficult, and below you can find the puzzle, two clues, and then the answers.

How to Play Strands

According to the New York Times, all you need to do to play Strands is to:

• Figure out the theme by looking for words that share a category.
• You must use every letter.
• No words will overlap.
• Non-themed words will each give you 1/3 of a hint.
• You have unlimited tries.

NYT Connections Hints and Answers

Connections supplies you with sixteen words that are related to one another in secret groups of four. If you want to solve it, you don’t have a whole lot of tries before you end up losing. In the section below, these screenshots will give clues and then the answer to this minimalist puzzle game.

How to Play Connections

If you don’t know the rules of Connections just yet, here is a brief summary of them from the New York Times Games.

• Find groups of four words that belong together.
• If you make more than three mistakes, you lose.
• Puzzles only have one solution, even if some words look like they can belong in more than one category.
• Each group has a color based on its difficulty.
  • Yellow: Easiest
  • Green: Medium
  • Blue: Hard
  • Purple: Hardest