Clues by Sam Jun 18, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩🎤
singer
B1
👨⚖️
judge
C1
👩💻
coder
D1
👨🔧
mech
A2
👨💻
coder
B2
👨⚖️
judge
C2
👨💻
coder
D2
👩🔧
mech
A3
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B3
👨🎨
painter
C3
👩🎤
singer
D3
👩🎨
painter
A4
🕵️♀️
sleuth
B4
👩✈️
pilot
C4
💂♀️
guard
D4
👩✈️
pilot
A5
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B5
👨🎨
painter
C5
💂♀️
guard
D5
👨✈️
pilot
Final Board State
This puzzle is fully solved.
All characters have been identified as innocent or criminal based on today's clues.
See how each clue leads to the final result
Skip the reasoning — 10 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Jun 18, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 15 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 10 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Bobby (B1), Chloe (C1), Gabe (C2), Kyle (A3), Nicole (C3), Paula (A4), Saga (D4), Umar (A5), Xena (C5) and Zane (D5); the remaining 10 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.D5 · Zane → CRIMINAL
Olivia’s clue says the two innocents below Daniel must be connected. Olivia is already one of those innocents, so the other innocent below Daniel has to be orthogonally next to Olivia. That limits the second innocent to Helen or Saga, and Zane is not next to Olivia in that line. So Zane must be criminal.
02.D1 · Daniel → INNOCENT, D2 · Helen → INNOCENT
Zane’s clue says there are exactly 2 innocents above Olivia. Above Olivia there are currently no known innocents, and the only people there whose identities are not yet known are Daniel and Helen. Since those two spots still have to supply all 2 innocents, Daniel and Helen must be innocent.
03.D4 · Saga → CRIMINAL
Olivia’s clue says that exactly two innocents below Daniel are connected. Below Daniel, Helen and Olivia are already innocent, Zane is criminal, and Saga is the only unknown person there. If Saga were innocent, then there would be three innocents below Daniel instead of both innocents being just the connected pair required by the clue. So Saga at D4 must be criminal.
04.C1 · Chloe → CRIMINAL, C2 · Gabe → CRIMINAL
The clue says exactly 2 judges have a criminal directly to the right of them. The judges are Bobby and Franco, so this clue needs both judge-right positions to be criminals. The only direct-right neighbors that matter for this clue are Chloe to the right of Bobby and Gabe to the right of Franco. Since those are the two cases the clue needs, both of those right-hand neighbors have to be criminals. So Chloe and Gabe must be criminal.
05.C5 · Xena → CRIMINAL
Chloe’s clue says row 5 has exactly 3 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is Paula’s neighbor. That means the people in row 5 who are not Paula’s neighbors must contain exactly 2 criminals. In row 5, the people who are not Paula’s neighbors are Xena and Zane. Zane is already known to be a criminal, so that pair still needs one more criminal to reach the required total of 2. The only remaining person there is Xena, so Xena must be criminal.
06.B4 · Quita → INNOCENT
Among Paula’s neighbors, Umar and Vince contain exactly 1 criminal. Also, among Paula’s neighbors who are outside Franco’s neighbors, namely Quita, Umar, and Vince, there is exactly 1 criminal. Since Umar and Vince are already part of that second group and already use up its single criminal, the only person left there, Quita, cannot be a criminal. So Quita must be innocent.
07.C3 · Nicole → CRIMINAL
Among Franco's neighbors, exactly 1 criminal is in the pair Kyle and Martin. Among Quita's neighbors, exactly 2 criminals are in the trio Kyle, Martin, and Nicole. The only extra person in Quita's trio, compared with Franco's pair, is Nicole, so that extra criminal has to be Nicole. So Nicole must be criminal.
08.A1 · Alice → INNOCENT
Quita’s clue says exactly 1 edge criminal is a neighbor of Alice, and among Alice’s edge neighbors the only possibilities are Bobby and Eli. So that one allowed criminal is already fully accounted for inside the smaller group of Bobby and Eli. Xena’s clue says Franco has exactly 3 criminal neighbors who do not neighbor Quita, and that larger group is A1 Alice, B1 Bobby, C1 Chloe, A2 Eli, and C2 Gabe. Bobby and Eli are the only people from Alice’s edge-neighbor group that can contribute there alongside the already known criminals Chloe and Gabe, so the criminal count required in Franco’s larger group is already filled without using Alice. That leaves Alice unable to be one of those criminals. So Alice must be innocent.
09.A4 · Paula → CRIMINAL, A3 · Kyle → CRIMINAL, B3 · Martin → INNOCENT
Paula, Kyle, and Martin are the key people for these two clues. Helen’s clue says Paula has exactly two criminal neighbors, and exactly one of those two is also a neighbor of Franco; the only Paula neighbors who are also Franco neighbors are Kyle and Martin. Quita’s clue says there are exactly eight criminals on the edge, and only one edge criminal is a neighbor of Alice, so the remaining people involved here, Bobby, Eli, Umar, and Vince, cannot be assigned in a way that also fits testing Paula innocent, Kyle innocent, and Martin criminal. That tested combination clashes with the two clues, so those opposite identities are ruled out. So Paula must be criminal, Kyle must be criminal, and Martin must be innocent.
10.C4 · Ruby → INNOCENT
Paula’s clue fixes her neighborhood at exactly 2 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is also a neighbor of Franco. In Paula’s neighborhood, Kyle is already a known criminal, and among the people there who are also Franco’s neighbors, the only criminal already identified is Kyle. If Ruby were criminal, the remaining unknown people named here would have to fit Paula’s clue and also keep Kyle’s clue true that only one row has exactly 3 criminals, but those requirements clash. So Ruby cannot be criminal. That makes Ruby innocent.
11.B2 · Franco → INNOCENT
Alice’s neighbors are Bobby, Eli, and Franco, and Ruby’s clue says that this group contains an odd number of criminals. Xena’s clue fixes the Bobby-and-Eli pair as exactly 1 criminal. That means Alice’s neighbors already have an odd criminal count from Bobby and Eli alone. Franco is the only other person in Alice’s neighbor group. If Franco were criminal too, the total there would become even, which would break Ruby’s clue. So Franco must be innocent.
12.B1 · Bobby → CRIMINAL
Paula’s clue fixes her neighborhood very tightly: there are exactly 2 criminals among A3 Kyle, B3 Martin, B4 Quita, A5 Umar, and B5 Vince, and exactly 1 of those criminals is also Franco’s neighbor. In the overlap with Franco’s neighbors, Kyle is the only criminal there, so the second criminal in Paula’s neighborhood has to come from Umar or Vince instead. Now test Bobby as innocent while keeping Franco’s edge clue true that exactly 3 edge people have an innocent directly to the left. With Bobby innocent, the remaining people involved here, Eli, Umar, and Vince, would have to satisfy both that edge total and Paula’s neighborhood requirement at the same time, and they cannot. So Bobby at B1 must be criminal.
13.A2 · Eli → INNOCENT
Franco’s neighbors must contain exactly 5 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminal neighbors also neighbor Quita. The people who are neighbors of both Franco and Quita are Kyle, Martin, and Nicole, and among them the 2 criminals are already Kyle and Nicole. That leaves the rest of Franco’s neighbors as Alice, Bobby, Chloe, Eli, and Gabe, and that group already contains 3 known criminals: Bobby, Chloe, and Gabe. So Eli cannot be a criminal. This leaves Eli as innocent.
14.A5 · Umar → CRIMINAL
Gabe’s clue says column A has exactly 2 innocents. In column A, Alice and Eli are already the 2 known innocents, and the only person there whose identity is not yet known is Umar. Since column A already has all 2 innocents it is allowed to have, Umar cannot be innocent. So Umar must be criminal.
15.B5 · Vince → INNOCENT
Paula’s neighbors contain exactly 2 criminals in total. Among Paula’s neighbors, the only people who are also Franco’s neighbors are Kyle and Martin, and exactly 1 of Paula’s 2 criminal neighbors must be in that Franco-neighbor group; since Kyle is a criminal and Martin is innocent, that 1 criminal is already accounted for by Kyle. That leaves the other criminal neighbor of Paula to come from the neighbors of Paula who are not neighbors of Franco: Quita, Umar, and Vince. Quita is innocent and Umar is already the 1 known criminal in that remainder, so Vince cannot also be a criminal. This leaves Vince as innocent.