Clues by Sam Jul 03, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩🏫
teacher
B1
🕵️♂️
sleuth
C1
👩🌾
farmer
D1
👨🔧
mech
A2
👨🏫
teacher
B2
👷♂️
builder
C2
👩⚕️
doctor
D2
👨🎨
painter
A3
👩🎨
painter
B3
👷♀️
builder
C3
👩🔧
mech
D3
👩🌾
farmer
A4
👩🎨
painter
B4
👷♂️
builder
C4
👨⚕️
doctor
D4
👨🌾
farmer
A5
👨🏫
teacher
B5
🕵️♂️
sleuth
C5
🕵️♀️
sleuth
D5
👩🔧
mech
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 — 4 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Jul 03, 2026 — a Hard solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Hard and resolves with 4 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Hope (C2), Joyce (A3), Linda (C3) and Ronald (C4); the remaining 16 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B2 · Gabe → INNOCENT, B3 · Karen → INNOCENT
Donna’s clue says Floyd has exactly 4 innocent neighbors, and exactly 2 of those innocent neighbors are below Brian. Among Floyd’s neighbors, the only people who are below Brian are Gabe and Karen. Since those 2 below-Brian innocent spots still have to be filled, Gabe and Karen must be the ones who fill them. So Gabe and Karen must be innocent.
02.C3 · Linda → CRIMINAL
Karen’s clue says Linda is one of Gabe’s three criminal neighbors. That directly places Linda among the criminals in Gabe’s neighborhood. So Linda must be criminal.
03.D2 · Isaac → INNOCENT
Row 2 has to contain an odd number of innocents, and right now Gabe is the only known innocent there. If Isaac were criminal, then the only row 2 people left who could make that row's innocent count stay odd would be Floyd and Hope. But Floyd's clue already fixes Floyd's neighboring innocents at exactly four, with exactly two of them below Brian, and those two are already Gabe and Karen. Gabe's clue also fixes his neighboring criminals at exactly three, with Linda already one of them. With Amy, Brian, Floyd, Hope, and Joyce all needing to satisfy those facts at the same time, making Isaac criminal creates a conflict. So Isaac must be innocent.
04.C4 · Ronald → CRIMINAL
Nancy’s neighbors must contain an odd number of criminals. In that neighbor group, Linda is already a known criminal and Isaac is already a known innocent, while Hope, Ronald, and Sam are the three unknown neighbors. Now test Ronald as innocent. Then those same remaining people involved in these clues, especially Hope and Sam together with the mech clue about Hope and Zara, cannot satisfy both the odd-neighbor requirement around Nancy and the rule that exactly one mech has a criminal directly above them. So Ronald at C4 must be criminal.
05.A1 · Amy → INNOCENT
Brian and Gabe’s common-neighbor clue says that shared group has exactly 3 innocents. In that shared group, Donna is already innocent, so among Amy, Floyd, and Hope there is exactly 1 criminal. Gabe’s row-2 clue says row 2 has an odd number of innocents. Row 2 already has Gabe and Isaac as 2 innocents, so among Floyd and Hope there must be exactly 1 more innocent, which means exactly 1 of Floyd and Hope is criminal. That uses up the one criminal from Amy, Floyd, and Hope on Floyd or Hope, so Amy cannot be that criminal. So Amy must be innocent.
06.D5 · Zara → INNOCENT
Isaac’s clue says there is exactly 1 criminal among the people directly above mechs, and those people are Hope and Sam. Amy’s clue says there are exactly 2 farmers with an innocent directly below them, which means there is exactly 1 criminal among the people directly below farmers: Hope, Sam, and Zara. So the one criminal allowed in the larger group of three is already accounted for within Hope and Sam, the smaller group. That leaves Zara unable to be criminal. This leaves Zara innocent.
07.B4 · Paul → INNOCENT
Zara's clue says exactly 3 of Linda's innocent neighbors also neighbor Joyce. In that shared group, Gabe and Karen are already known to be innocent, and the only other person there is Paul. Since that group still needs 1 more innocent to make the required 3, Paul has to be the remaining innocent one. So Paul must be innocent.
08.B5 · Vince → INNOCENT
Paul’s clue says Vince is one of his 5 innocent neighbors. Since Vince is explicitly included among Paul’s innocent neighbors, Vince’s identity is fixed by the clue itself. So Vince must be innocent.
09.D3 · Nancy → INNOCENT
Isaac’s clue leaves exactly one criminal among the people directly above mechs, so with Ronald already criminal, Linda’s neighbors can have only one more criminal besides Ronald. Zara’s clue says Linda has exactly 6 innocent neighbors, and since Linda has 8 neighbors total, that means exactly 2 of Linda’s neighbors are criminals. Among Linda’s neighbors other than Nancy, the second criminal spot is already accounted for by Hope or Sam, together with Ronald. That means the remaining person outside that smaller group, Nancy, cannot be criminal. So Nancy must be innocent.
10.D1 · Ethan → INNOCENT
Hope’s neighbors and Vince’s neighbors must have the same number of criminal neighbors, and right now each side already has 1 known criminal. If Ethan were criminal, Hope’s side would go up to 2 criminals. At the same time, the remaining unknown people involved here are Brian, Joyce, Olive, Thor, and Wanda, and they also have to keep fitting Donna’s restriction on Floyd’s neighbors and Paul’s statement that his neighbors include exactly 5 innocents with Vince as one of them. Making Ethan criminal leaves those same unknown people unable to satisfy all of those facts together while also keeping Hope and Vince equal on criminal neighbors. So Ethan must be innocent.
11.A4 · Olive → INNOCENT, C5 · Wanda → INNOCENT
Paul says he has exactly 5 innocent neighbors. Among his neighbors, Karen and Vince are already innocent and Linda and Ronald are already criminal, so the four unknown neighbors A3 Joyce, A4 Olive, A5 Thor, and C5 Wanda must contain exactly 3 innocents and 1 criminal. That one criminal in the four unknown neighbors is accounted for by Joyce or Thor, so Olive and Wanda cannot be that criminal. So Olive and Wanda must be innocent.
12.D4 · Sam → INNOCENT
Olive’s clue says Olive’s neighbors and Zara’s neighbors must contain the same number of criminals. Right now Olive’s neighbors have 0 known criminals, while Zara’s neighbors already have 1 known criminal, Ronald. If Sam were criminal, then Zara’s neighbors would have 2 criminals. The only other people available to affect Olive’s side of that clue are Joyce and Thor, but at the same time they also have to fit Paul’s clue about having exactly 5 innocent neighbors, and that combination cannot be made to work. So Sam must be innocent.
13.C2 · Hope → CRIMINAL
Isaac’s clue says exactly 1 mech has a criminal directly above them. Zara is a mech, but the person directly above Zara is Sam, who is innocent, so Zara is not that one. Linda is a mech and is already criminal, so for there to be exactly 1 such mech case, the person directly above Linda has to be criminal, and the only person there is Hope. So Hope must be criminal.
14.A2 · Floyd → INNOCENT
Gabe’s clue says row 2 has an odd number of innocents. In row 2, Gabe and Isaac are already known innocents, so there are currently 2 known innocents, and Floyd is the only person there whose identity is not yet known. If Floyd were criminal, row 2 would stay at 2 innocents, which is even, not odd. So Floyd at A2 must be innocent.
15.B1 · Brian → INNOCENT
The edge cells must contain an odd number of innocents, and there are already 11 known innocents on the edge. So Brian, Joyce, and Thor together must add an even number of additional innocents. Paul’s clue says his neighbors contain exactly 5 innocents. Among those neighbors, there are already 4 known innocents, so Joyce and Thor must contribute exactly 1 more innocent between them. That means Joyce and Thor contribute an odd number of innocents, so Brian must be the extra innocent that keeps the total number of edge innocents odd. So Brian must be innocent.
16.A3 · Joyce → CRIMINAL
Donna’s clue says Floyd has exactly 4 innocent neighbors, and exactly 2 of those innocents are below Brian. Those 2 are already Gabe and Karen. That leaves the neighbors not below Brian as Amy, Brian, and Joyce, and Amy and Brian already account for the 2 innocent neighbors that must be in that remainder. So Joyce cannot be innocent. That makes Joyce criminal.
17.A5 · Thor → INNOCENT
Paul says Vince is one of his exactly 5 innocent neighbors. Among Paul's neighbors, Karen, Olive, Vince, and Wanda are already innocent, while Joyce, Linda, and Ronald are criminal, leaving only Thor unidentified. If Thor were criminal, Paul would have only 4 innocent neighbors, not 5. So Thor must be innocent.