Clues by Sam Sep 22, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩💼
clerk
B1
👮♂️
cop
C1
👩💼
clerk
D1
👨💻
coder
A2
👩💼
clerk
B2
👨✈️
pilot
C2
👩✈️
pilot
D2
👨✈️
pilot
A3
👨🏫
teacher
B3
👨🏫
teacher
C3
👩⚕️
doctor
D3
👨🔧
mech
A4
👩🎤
singer
B4
👮♀️
cop
C4
👨⚕️
doctor
D4
👩🔧
mech
A5
👨🎤
singer
B5
👩🎤
singer
C5
👨🏫
teacher
D5
👩💻
coder
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 — 11 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Sep 22, 2026 — a Medium solved in 15 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Medium and resolves with 11 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Berat (B1), Evie (C1), Gus (D1), Ike (B2), Joy (C2), Olive (C3), Phil (D3), Susan (B4), Thor (C4), Wanda (B5) and Xavi (C5); the remaining 9 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B1 · Berat → CRIMINAL
Ruth’s clue says directly that Berat is a criminal. So Berat at B1 must be criminal.
02.C4 · Thor → CRIMINAL
Berat’s clue says the two criminals in row 4 must be connected. If Thor were innocent, then row 4 would have Ruth innocent, Thor innocent, and the two criminals would have to be Susan and Uma. But with Ruth, Susan, Thor, and Uma in that row, Susan and Uma would be separated by Thor, so those two criminals would not be connected. So Thor at C4 must be criminal.
03.A2 · Hilda → INNOCENT, A3 · Martin → INNOCENT
Thor’s clue says exactly 2 of Ike’s innocent neighbors are below Amy. Among Ike’s neighbors, the only people who are below Amy are Hilda and Martin. Since that below-Amy part still needs 2 innocents, those two spots have to be the 2 innocents required by the clue. So Hilda and Martin must be innocent.
04.A1 · Amy → INNOCENT
Martin’s clue says the people to the left of Evie contain exactly one innocent. Among those people, there are currently no known innocents, and the only unknown person left there is Amy. So the one innocent that still has to be there must be Amy. That makes Amy innocent.
05.C3 · Olive → CRIMINAL, C2 · Joy → CRIMINAL
Thor’s clue says Ike’s neighbors contain exactly 4 innocents, and exactly 2 of those innocents are below Amy. Among Ike’s neighbors, A2 Hilda and A3 Martin are already innocent and both are below Amy, so those are the 2 innocents below Amy already accounted for. That means the remaining innocent among Ike’s neighbors has to be someone not below Amy. Ike’s neighbors already include 3 known innocents, so there is room for exactly 1 more innocent, and from the people named here that 1 innocent must be either C1 Evie or B3 Nick, not someone in column C below Thor. So C2 Joy and C3 Olive cannot be that innocent person. That makes Joy and Olive criminal.
06.B2 · Ike → CRIMINAL
Joy’s clue says there are exactly 0 innocents among the people who are neighbors of both Berat and Olive. That shared group is only Ike and Joy, and it already contains 0 known innocents because Joy is criminal. So the only remaining unknown person in that shared group cannot be innocent. That makes Ike criminal.
07.C1 · Evie → CRIMINAL, D1 · Gus → CRIMINAL
Row 1 and row 4 each currently have 1 known criminal. Ike’s clue says row 1 has more criminals than row 4, so that difference still has to come from Evie and Gus in row 1 versus Susan and Uma in row 4. If Evie and Gus were both innocent, then only Susan and Uma would be left to meet that comparison, and that cannot make row 1 end up with more criminals than row 4. So Evie and Gus cannot both be innocent. That makes Evie and Gus criminals.
08.B3 · Nick → INNOCENT
Thor's clue says Ike's neighbors contain exactly 4 innocents, and exactly 2 of those innocents are below Amy. Those 2 are already Hilda and Martin, so among Ike's neighbors who are not below Amy there must be exactly 2 innocents. In that not-below-Amy group, Amy is already 1 known innocent, while Berat, Evie, Joy, and Olive are criminals. The only unknown person left there is Nick, so he has to be the remaining innocent. So Nick must be innocent.
09.D2 · Luigi → INNOCENT
Evie’s clue says row 1 is the only row with exactly one innocent. Row 2 already has one known innocent, and Luigi is the only person in that row whose identity is not yet fixed. If Luigi were criminal, then row 2 would still have exactly one innocent, which the clue forbids for every row other than row 1. So Luigi must be innocent.
10.D3 · Phil → CRIMINAL
Luigi’s clue says every row has at least 2 criminals. In row 3, that means there can be at most 2 innocents. Row 3 already has 2 known innocents, Martin and Nick, and Phil is the only person there whose identity was not yet fixed. So Phil at D3 must be criminal.
11.A5 · Vince → INNOCENT
Row 1 already has exactly one innocent, so no other row can end with exactly one innocent. Row 5 also must have at least 2 criminals, and among Wanda, Xavi, and Zoe, an odd number of them must be innocent because they are the row 5 people who neighbor Thor. Now test Vince as criminal. Then row 5 would have to meet all three restrictions at once using only Wanda, Xavi, and Zoe: row 5 could not have exactly one innocent, row 5 would still need at least 2 criminals, and Wanda, Xavi, and Zoe would need an odd number of innocents. Those requirements conflict, so Vince cannot be criminal. So Vince must be innocent.
12.B4 · Susan → CRIMINAL, D4 · Uma → INNOCENT
Luigi’s clue says every row has at least 2 criminals, and Vince’s clue says the edge cells must include at least 8 innocents. On the edges, there are already 6 known innocents, so among Uma, Wanda, Xavi, and Zoe, at least 2 must be innocent. If Susan were innocent and Uma were criminal, then Wanda, Xavi, and Zoe would be the remaining people who would have to satisfy those clue demands. But that combination cannot satisfy everything at once, so Susan and Uma cannot have those opposite identities. So Susan must be criminal and Uma must be innocent.
13.B5 · Wanda → CRIMINAL
Susan’s clue says every edge person can have at most 3 innocent neighbors. Ruth is on the edge and already has 3 known innocent neighbors: Martin, Nick, and Vince. Wanda is Ruth’s only unknown neighbor. So if Wanda were innocent, Ruth would have 4 innocent neighbors, which would break the clue. That makes Wanda criminal.
14.C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL
Wanda’s clue says column C must have more criminals than any other column. Column C already has 4 known criminals, and Xavi is the only person there whose identity is not yet known. Since column B already has 4 criminals, column C can be ahead of every other column only if Xavi is also a criminal. So Xavi must be criminal.
15.D5 · Zoe → INNOCENT
Evie’s clue says row 1 is the only row with exactly one innocent. Row 5 already has one known innocent, Vince, and Zoe is the only person in that row not yet identified. If Zoe were criminal, then row 5 would also have exactly one innocent, which the clue forbids. So Zoe must be innocent.