Clues by Sam Mar 30, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
Easy·Solved
A1
👮♂️
Alex
cop
B1
👮♀️
Barb
cop
C1
👨🍳
Clyde
cook
D1
👨🔧
Donald
mech
A2
👩🏫
Ellie
teacher
B2
👩🏫
Freya
teacher
C2
👩🍳
Hope
cook
D2
👨🍳
Isaac
cook
A3
👩✈️
Katie
pilot
B3
👨✈️
Logan
pilot
C3
👨🎤
Mark
singer
D3
👩🔧
Paula
mech
A4
👨⚕️
Ronald
doctor
B4
👨✈️
Sam
pilot
C4
👩🎤
Tina
singer
D4
👮♀️
Uma
cop
A5
👩💼
Vicky
clerk
B5
👨💼
Wally
clerk
C5
👨🎤
Xavi
singer
D5
👩⚕️
Zara
doctor
Final Board State
This puzzle is fully solved.
All characters have been identified as innocent or criminal based on today's clues.
Final Result
Innocent 7Criminal 13Unknown 0
See how each clue leads to the final result
Answer (spoilers)
A quick reference of the final identities. For explanations, see the reasoning above.
▶ Answer list (spoilers)
Innocent · 7
[ D1 ] [ A2 ] [ C2 ] [ D2 ] [ D4 ] [ A5 ] [ B5 ]
Criminal · 13
[ A1 ] [ B1 ] [ C1 ] [ B2 ] [ A3 ] [ B3 ] [ C3 ] [ D3 ] [ A4 ] [ B4 ] [ C4 ] [ C5 ] [ D5 ]
Clues
Raw text reference from the original puzzle
Original clue texts as provided in today's puzzle. No deductions or interpretations are applied here.
▶ Raw clues (original text)
A1 · Alex
"There are exactly 2 innocents above Uma"
B1 · Barb
"There are exactly 3 criminals in column A"
C1 · Clyde
"There are more innocents in column A than column C"
D1 · Donald
"Each column has at least 2 criminals"
A2 · Ellie
"2 of Mark's neighbors on the edges are innocent"
B2 · Freya
"I'm pretty sure Hope is right"
C2 · Hope
"I'm pretty sure there are criminals about"
D2 · Isaac
"Freya is one of 3 criminals below Barb"
A3 · Katie
"Could you let me go? Pretty please?"
B3 · Logan
"Row 3 has more criminals than any other row"
C3 · Mark
"I'm pretty sure we won't win this one"
D3 · Paula
"Both criminals below Alex are connected"
A4 · Ronald
"There's an odd number of innocents in column B"
B4 · Sam
"There are 6 innocents on the edges"
C4 · Tina
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 4"
D4 · Uma
"Exactly 2 of the 3 innocents in row 2 are Paula's neighbors"
A5 · Vicky
"I'm pretty"
B5 · Wally
"The criminals thought they'd make a pretty penny"
C5 · Xavi
"I'm pretty sure this won't end pretty"
D5 · Zara
"Exactly 1 innocent in column C is neighboring Freya"
Answer Explanation
Full reasoning transcript (reference)
This is the full reasoning transcript for today's puzzle. For an interactive walkthrough, use Replay above.
▶ View full transcript (16 steps)
C2 · Hope → INNOCENT, D2 · Isaac → INNOCENT
Because: In row 2 there are four people: Ellie at A2, Freya at B2, Hope at C2, and Isaac at D2, and Uma’s clue says there are exactly three innocents in that row. Paula is at D3, and the only people in row 2 who are neighbors of Paula are Hope (C2) and Isaac (D2). Since exactly two of the three row 2 innocents must be Paula’s neighbors, those two must be Hope and Isaac, because there are no other row 2 neighbors available. Therefore, we can determine that C2 (Hope) is INNOCENT and D2 (Isaac) is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Exactly 2 of the 3 innocents in row 2 are Paula's neighbors" — Uma (D4)
B2 · Freya → CRIMINAL
Because: Isaac’s clue says that Freya is one of the three criminals below Barb. Since that statement directly includes Freya as part of the criminals in that group, Freya must be a criminal. Therefore, we can determine that B2 Freya is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Freya is one of 3 criminals below Barb" — Isaac (D2)
A2 · Ellie → INNOCENT
Because: Row 2 contains Ellie at A2, Freya at B2, Hope at C2, and Isaac at D2, and the clue says there are exactly three innocents in that row. We already know Hope and Isaac are innocents, and Freya is already confirmed a criminal, so the only remaining person who can be the third innocent in row 2 is Ellie. This also matches the neighbor part of the clue, because Paula at D3 is a neighbor of C2 and D2 (Hope and Isaac) but not of A2 (Ellie), so exactly two of the three row-2 innocents are Paula’s neighbors. Therefore, we can determine that A2 Ellie is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Exactly 2 of the 3 innocents in row 2 are Paula's neighbors" — Uma (D4)
D3 · Paula → CRIMINAL
Because: Mark is at C3, and the only neighbors of Mark who are also on the edge of the board are D2 (Isaac), D3 (Paula), and D4 (Uma), because they are all in column D. Ellie’s clue says exactly 2 of those edge-neighbors are innocent. Since Isaac and Uma are already known to be innocent, they already account for those 2 innocents, so Paula cannot also be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that D3 Paula is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"2 of Mark's neighbors on the edges are innocent" — Ellie (A2)
A4 · Ronald → CRIMINAL
Because: The clue talks about the people below Alex in column A, which are Ellie at A2, Katie at A3, Ronald at A4, and Vicky at A5. It says there are exactly two criminals among those people, and those two criminals are connected by up-down adjacency. Since Ellie at A2 is already known to be innocent, the two criminals must come from A3, A4, and A5, and the only way for two criminals in that vertical line to be connected is for them to be A3 and A4 together or A4 and A5 together. Either way, Ronald at A4 must be one of the criminals. Therefore, we can determine that A4 Ronald is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Alex are connected" — Paula (D3)
B1 · Barb → CRIMINAL
Because: In column B we have Barb at B1, then Freya at B2, and Logan, Sam, and Wally at B3–B5. Isaac’s clue says that among the four people below Barb (B2–B5), there are exactly three criminals, and Freya is one of them. Ronald’s clue says there is an odd number of innocents in column B, so since the column has five people total, the number of criminals in column B must be even. The only even total that can include three criminals already below Barb is four criminals in the column, so Barb must be the fourth criminal. Therefore, we can determine that B1 Barb is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Freya is one of 3 criminals below Barb" — Isaac (D2)
"There's an odd number of innocents in column B" — Ronald (A4)
A1 · Alex → CRIMINAL
Because: In column A, Ellie at A2 is INNOCENT and Ronald at A4 is a CRIMINAL. Paula’s clue says there are exactly two criminals below Alex in column A, and those two are connected; since A2 is INNOCENT, the only way to have two connected criminals below A1 is for A4 to be one of them and exactly one of A3 or A5 to be the other. Barb’s clue says there are exactly 3 criminals in column A, so besides Ronald and that one criminal at A3 or A5, the third criminal must be Alex at A1. Therefore, we can determine that A1 Alex is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Alex are connected" — Paula (D3)
"There are exactly 3 criminals in column A" — Barb (B1)
D1 · Donald → INNOCENT
Because: The clue is about the people above Uma in column D. Above Uma at D4 are Donald at D1, Isaac at D2, and Paula at D3, and the clue says exactly two of these three are innocents. Since Isaac is already known to be innocent and Paula is already known to be criminal, the only way to reach exactly two innocents above Uma is for Donald to be innocent as well. Therefore, we can determine that D1 Donald is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There are exactly 2 innocents above Uma" — Alex (A1)
D5 · Zara → CRIMINAL
Because: Look at column D: Donald at D1 is INNOCENT, Isaac at D2 is INNOCENT, Paula at D3 is CRIMINAL, and Uma at D4 is INNOCENT, leaving only Zara at D5 as unknown. Donald’s clue says each column has at least 2 criminals, so column D must contain a second criminal in addition to Paula. Since Zara is the only remaining undetermined person in column D, she must be that second criminal. Therefore, we can determine that D5 Zara is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Each column has at least 2 criminals" — Donald (D1)
C1 · Clyde → CRIMINAL, C3 · Mark → CRIMINAL
Because: Freya is at B2, and the only people in column C who neighbor her are C1 (Clyde), C2 (Hope), and C3 (Mark), since neighbors include diagonals. Zara’s clue says that among those column C neighbors of Freya, exactly one is innocent. Hope at C2 is already known to be innocent, so Clyde at C1 and Mark at C3 cannot be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that C1 Clyde is CRIMINAL and C3 Mark is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Exactly 1 innocent in column C is neighboring Freya" — Zara (D5)
C4 · Tina → CRIMINAL, C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL
Because: Below Alex in column A are Ellie, Katie, Ronald, and Vicky, and Paula’s clue says that the criminals among those four are exactly two and they are connected. Since Ronald is already a criminal and Ellie is already an innocent, the second criminal below Alex must be either Katie (to connect with Ronald) or Vicky (to connect with Ronald), which also means exactly one of Katie and Vicky is an innocent. That fixes column A as having exactly two innocents in total: Ellie plus whichever of Katie or Vicky is the innocent. Clyde’s clue says column A has more innocents than column C, so column C must have at most one innocent. Column C already has Hope as an innocent, so Tina at C4 and Xavi at C5 cannot be innocents and must be criminals. Therefore, we can determine that C4 Tina is CRIMINAL and C5 Xavi is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Alex are connected" — Paula (D3)
"There are more innocents in column A than column C" — Clyde (C1)
B4 · Sam → CRIMINAL
Because: Row 1 has Alex, Barb, and Clyde as criminals, while Donald is innocent, so row 1 contains exactly 3 criminals. Tina’s clue says rows 1 and 4 have an equal number of criminals, so row 4 must also contain exactly 3 criminals. In row 4, Ronald and Tina are already criminals and Uma is innocent, so the only way for row 4 to reach 3 criminals is for Sam at B4 to be a criminal. Therefore, we can determine that B4 Sam is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 4" — Tina (C4)
B5 · Wally → INNOCENT
Because: The edge clue says there are exactly 6 innocents on the edges, and we already have 4 edge innocents for sure: Donald at D1, Ellie at A2, Isaac at D2, and Uma at D4. The only remaining edge spaces that are still unknown are A3 (Katie), A5 (Vicky), and B5 (Wally), so exactly two of these three must be innocent. Paula’s clue says “Both criminals below Alex are connected,” and below Alex in column A the only confirmed criminal is Ronald at A4, so there must be exactly one more criminal among A3 and A5 (not both), making exactly one of {A3, A5} a criminal. Since the edge clue allows only one criminal among {A3, A5, B5} total, and {A3, A5} already contains that one criminal, B5 must be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that B5 Wally is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Alex are connected" — Paula (D3)
"There are 6 innocents on the edges" — Sam (B4)
B3 · Logan → CRIMINAL
Because: The clue is about the people below Barb, who is at B1, so it refers to B2 Freya, B3 Logan, B4 Sam, and B5 Wally. It says Freya is one of exactly three criminals among those people. We already know Freya (B2) is a criminal and Sam (B4) is a criminal, while Wally (B5) is innocent, so only two criminals are currently accounted for below Barb. Since there must be three criminals below Barb, the remaining person there, Logan at B3, has to be the third criminal. Therefore, we can determine that B3 Logan is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Freya is one of 3 criminals below Barb" — Isaac (D2)
A3 · Katie → CRIMINAL
Because: In row 3, Logan (B3), Mark (C3), and Paula (D3) are already criminals, while Katie (A3) is the only unknown in that row. Logan’s clue says row 3 has more criminals than any other row, and row 1 and row 4 already each have 3 criminals. For row 3 to be strictly higher than those rows, it must have 4 criminals, which is only possible if Katie (A3) is also a criminal. Therefore, we can determine that A3 Katie is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Row 3 has more criminals than any other row" — Logan (B3)
A5 · Vicky → INNOCENT
Because: Alex is at A1, so “below Alex” refers to the people in column A beneath him: A2 Ellie, A3 Katie, A4 Ronald, and A5 Vicky. Paula’s clue says “both criminals below Alex,” which means there are exactly two criminals among those four people. Since Katie at A3 and Ronald at A4 are already criminals, that already fills the “both criminals” requirement, so Vicky at A5 cannot also be a criminal and must be innocent; the “connected” part is satisfied because A3 and A4 are directly adjacent in the same column. Therefore, we can determine that A5 Vicky is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Alex are connected" — Paula (D3)