Clues by Sam Apr 06, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
Easy·Solved
A1
👩✈️
Amy
pilot
B1
👩🏫
Betty
teacher
C1
👩🎤
Chloe
singer
D1
👩🌾
Donna
farmer
A2
👨✈️
Ethan
pilot
B2
👮♂️
Floyd
cop
C2
👮♂️
Gabe
cop
D2
👷♀️
Hope
builder
A3
👨✈️
Ike
pilot
B3
👨🏫
Jason
teacher
C3
👨🏫
Logan
teacher
D3
👨🌾
Martin
farmer
A4
👨🔧
Oscar
mech
B4
👩⚖️
Paula
judge
C4
👷♂️
Scott
builder
D4
👷♀️
Tina
builder
A5
👩🔧
Uma
mech
B5
👩⚖️
Vicky
judge
C5
👨🔧
Wally
mech
D5
👩🎤
Xia
singer
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 13Criminal 7Unknown 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 · 13
[ A1 ] [ B1 ] [ D1 ] [ B2 ] [ C2 ] [ D2 ] [ A3 ] [ B3 ] [ C3 ] [ D3 ] [ A4 ] [ A5 ] [ D5 ]
Criminal · 7
[ C1 ] [ A2 ] [ B4 ] [ C4 ] [ D4 ] [ B5 ] [ C5 ]
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 · Amy
"Row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents"
B1 · Betty
"I'm one of 2 innocents neighboring Floyd in row 1"
C1 · Chloe
"I'm an even more evil criminal!"
D1 · Donna
"An odd number of innocents on the edges neighbor Paula"
A2 · Ethan
"Yup! I can only dream of being as evil as Paula!"
B2 · Floyd
"Jason is one of the 2 innocents below Betty"
C2 · Gabe
"Exactly 1 innocent to the right of Amy is neighboring Floyd"
D2 · Hope
"There's an odd number of innocents on the edges"
A3 · Ike
"Martin is one of Scott's 4 innocent neighbors"
B3 · Jason
"Oh, but if we're only 2 innocents, that means..."
C3 · Logan
"Maybe we have a niceness contest tomorrow?"
D3 · Martin
"Row 4 has more criminals than any other row"
A4 · Oscar
"There are more innocent cops than innocent singers"
B4 · Paula
"You bet! I'm an evil criminal! Ha ha ha!"
C4 · Scott
"Only one column has exactly 2 criminals"
D4 · Tina
"Nah... Nice try Chloe, but my vote goes to Paula."
A5 · Uma
"I didn't know it was a contest..."
B5 · Vicky
"Only 1 of the 3 mechs has an innocent directly to the right of them"
C5 · Wally
"I wance saw Paula steal candy from a baby. True evil!"
D5 · Xia
"There is only one innocent to the left of Scott"
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)
B3 · Jason → INNOCENT
Because: Floyd’s clue says, “Jason is one of the 2 innocents below Betty,” which directly states that Jason is an innocent (and also that there are exactly two innocents somewhere below Betty in column B). Therefore, we can determine that B3 Jason is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Jason is one of the 2 innocents below Betty" — Floyd (B2)
B4 · Paula → CRIMINAL, B5 · Vicky → CRIMINAL
Because: The clue is about the people below Betty in column B: Floyd at B2, Jason at B3, Paula at B4, and Vicky at B5. It says that there are exactly two innocents among those four people, and that Jason is one of those two. We already know Floyd is INNOCENT and Jason is INNOCENT, so those must be the two innocents the clue is referring to. That leaves Paula and Vicky as not among the two innocents below Betty. Therefore, we can determine that B4 Paula is CRIMINAL and B5 Vicky is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Jason is one of the 2 innocents below Betty" — Floyd (B2)
D5 · Xia → INNOCENT
Because: The three mechs on the board are Oscar at A4, Uma at A5, and Wally at C5. Vicky’s clue says that exactly one of these three mechs has an innocent directly to their right. Oscar’s right neighbor is Paula at B4, who is a criminal, and Uma’s right neighbor is Vicky at B5, who is also a criminal, so neither of them can be the one with an innocent directly to the right. That forces Wally at C5 to be the only mech whose right neighbor is innocent, so the person directly right of Wally, Xia at D5, must be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that D5 Xia is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Only 1 of the 3 mechs has an innocent directly to the right of them" — Vicky (B5)
A4 · Oscar → INNOCENT
Because: Scott is at C4, so the people to the left of Scott in the same row are B4 Paula and A4 Oscar. Xia’s clue says there is only one innocent to the left of Scott, meaning exactly one of Paula and Oscar is innocent. Paula is already known to be a criminal, so she cannot be that one innocent. That forces Oscar to be the only innocent to Scott’s left. Therefore, we can determine that A4 Oscar is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There is only one innocent to the left of Scott" — Xia (D5)
C1 · Chloe → CRIMINAL, C2 · Gabe → INNOCENT
Because: Oscar’s clue compares the total number of innocent cops to the total number of innocent singers, saying the innocent cops are more. We already know Xia at D5 is an INNOCENT singer, so there is at least 1 innocent singer. That means there must be at least 2 innocent cops, and since the only cops on the board are Floyd at B2 (already INNOCENT) and Gabe at C2, Gabe must also be INNOCENT to reach 2. With 2 innocent cops, the clue forces the number of innocent singers to be only 1, so Chloe at C1, the only other singer besides Xia, cannot be innocent and must be CRIMINAL. Therefore, we can determine that C1 Chloe is CRIMINAL and C2 Gabe is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There are more innocent cops than innocent singers" — Oscar (A4)
B1 · Betty → INNOCENT
Because: To the right of Amy in row 1 are Betty at B1, Chloe at C1, and Donna at D1. Of those, the only ones who are neighbors of Floyd at B2 are Betty (directly above Floyd) and Chloe (diagonally adjacent to Floyd), since Donna at D1 is too far away to neighbor him. Gabe’s clue says that exactly one innocent among the people to the right of Amy is neighboring Floyd, so exactly one of Betty and Chloe must be innocent. Chloe is already known to be a criminal, so the only way to have exactly one innocent there is for Betty to be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that B1 Betty is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Exactly 1 innocent to the right of Amy is neighboring Floyd" — Gabe (C2)
A1 · Amy → INNOCENT
Because: The people in row 1 who neighbor Floyd at B2 are Amy at A1 (diagonally), Betty at B1 (directly above), and Chloe at C1 (diagonally). Betty’s clue says that in row 1 there are exactly two innocents among Floyd’s neighbors, and she is one of those two. Since Chloe at C1 is already known to be a criminal, the only way to have two innocents among those three neighbors is for Amy at A1 to be the other innocent alongside Betty. Therefore, we can determine that A1 Amy is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"I'm one of 2 innocents neighboring Floyd in row 1" — Betty (B1)
D1 · Donna → INNOCENT
Because: Look at row 1: Amy at A1 and Betty at B1 are already INNOCENT, and Chloe at C1 is already a CRIMINAL, leaving only Donna at D1 unknown. Amy’s clue says row 5 is the only row that ends up with exactly 2 INNOCENTS, so row 1 cannot end up with exactly 2 INNOCENTS. If Donna were a CRIMINAL, then row 1 would have exactly Amy and Betty as its two INNOCENTS, which would give row 1 exactly 2 INNOCENTS and contradict the clue. The only remaining possibility is that Donna is INNOCENT, making row 1 have 3 INNOCENTS instead of 2. Therefore, we can determine that D1 Donna is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents" — Amy (A1)
A3 · Ike → INNOCENT
Because: Paula is at B4, and the edge people who neighbor her are A3, A4, A5, B5, and C5. Donna’s clue says an odd number of those edge-neighbors are innocents; since A4 (Oscar) is already an innocent and B5 (Vicky) is already a criminal, the remaining three people A3, A5, and C5 must contain an even number of innocents. Amy’s clue says row 5 has exactly 2 innocents, and in row 5 we already have D5 (Xia) innocent and B5 (Vicky) criminal, so A5 and C5 must be one innocent and one criminal, meaning A5 and C5 contribute exactly one innocent. That forces A3 to also be an innocent so that A3, A5, and C5 together contain two innocents, which is even. Therefore, we can determine that A3 Ike is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents" — Amy (A1)
"An odd number of innocents on the edges neighbor Paula" — Donna (D1)
D3 · Martin → INNOCENT
Because: Ike’s clue explicitly says that Martin is one of Scott’s 4 innocent neighbors, which directly identifies Martin as innocent. Therefore, we can determine that D3 Martin is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Martin is one of Scott's 4 innocent neighbors" — Ike (A3)
C4 · Scott → CRIMINAL, D4 · Tina → CRIMINAL
Because: In row 5, we already know Vicky is a criminal and Xia is an innocent, and Amy’s clue says row 5 has exactly 2 innocents. That means row 5 must have exactly 2 criminals as well, so among Uma and Wally there is exactly one additional criminal, making the total number of criminals in row 5 equal to 2. Martin’s clue says row 4 has more criminals than any other row, so row 4 must have more than 2 criminals. But in row 4, Oscar is already an innocent and Paula is already a criminal, so the only way for row 4 to reach 3 criminals is for both Scott and Tina to be criminals. Therefore, we can determine that C4 Scott is CRIMINAL and D4 Tina is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents" — Amy (A1)
"Row 4 has more criminals than any other row" — Martin (D3)
D2 · Hope → INNOCENT
Because: Look at the total criminals in each column. Column B already has exactly two criminals, Paula at B4 and Vicky at B5, and everyone else in that column is confirmed innocent, so column B is locked to exactly 2 criminals. Scott’s clue says only one column has exactly 2 criminals, so no other column is allowed to end up with exactly 2. In column D, Tina at D4 is the only confirmed criminal and the only undecided person is Hope at D2; if Hope were a criminal then column D would have exactly 2 criminals, which is not allowed. Therefore, we can determine that D2 Hope is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Only one column has exactly 2 criminals" — Scott (C4)
A2 · Ethan → CRIMINAL
Because: The edge positions include A2, A5, and C5 as the only edge people whose status is still unknown, and there are already 8 confirmed innocents on the edges. Hope’s clue says the total number of edge innocents is odd, so among A2, A5, and C5 there must be an odd number of innocents. Amy’s clue says row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents; since row 5 already has Xia as innocent and Vicky as criminal, exactly one of A5 (Uma) and C5 (Wally) must be innocent. That forces the unknown-edge-innocent count to be 1 plus whatever A2 is, so A2 cannot be innocent and must be criminal to keep the total odd. Therefore, we can determine that A2 Ethan is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents" — Amy (A1)
"There's an odd number of innocents on the edges" — Hope (D2)
A5 · Uma → INNOCENT
Because: Look at the number of criminals in each column. Column B already has exactly two criminals, Paula at B4 and Vicky at B5, and everyone else in that column is innocent, so column B is definitely a “2 criminals” column. Scott’s clue says only one column has exactly 2 criminals, so no other column is allowed to end up with exactly 2 criminals. In column A there is currently exactly one criminal, Ethan at A2, so if Uma at A5 were a criminal then column A would become exactly 2 criminals, creating a second “2 criminals” column, which the clue forbids. Therefore, we can determine that A5 Uma is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Only one column has exactly 2 criminals" — Scott (C4)
C5 · Wally → CRIMINAL
Because: In row 5, we already know Uma at A5 and Xia at D5 are innocents, and Vicky at B5 is a criminal, leaving only Wally at C5 unknown. Amy’s clue says row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents, so row 5 must end up with exactly 2 innocents total. If Wally were innocent, row 5 would have 3 innocents, which would make Amy’s statement impossible because none of the other rows can have exactly 2 innocents given their current known counts and the remaining unknowns. Therefore, we can determine that C5 Wally is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Row 5 is the only row with exactly 2 innocents" — Amy (A1)
C3 · Logan → INNOCENT
Because: Scott is at C4, and his neighbors are Jason at B3, Logan at C3, Martin at D3, Paula at B4, Tina at D4, Vicky at B5, Wally at C5, and Xia at D5. Ike’s clue says that Martin is one of Scott’s 4 innocent neighbors, so among these eight neighbors Scott must have exactly four innocents in total. We already know that Jason, Martin, and Xia are innocent, while Paula, Tina, Vicky, and Wally are criminal, which makes three innocent neighbors so far with only Logan undecided. That means Logan must be the fourth innocent neighbor to satisfy the clue. Therefore, we can determine that C3 Logan is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Martin is one of Scott's 4 innocent neighbors" — Ike (A3)