Puzzle Pack #2 Puzzle 26 Answer

Amy’s clue says exactly 2 painters have a criminal directly to their left. The painter cases named here are Clyde at C1 with Bruce directly to his left, and Gus at C2 with Frank directly to his left. Since those are the painter cases that must account for the clue’s total of 2, the people directly left of them have to be criminals. So Frank and Bruce must be criminal.

Frank’s clue says that no builder has an innocent directly above them, so the total number of builders with an innocent directly above is exactly 0. Wanda is a builder, and Ollie is directly above Wanda. Since that count is already filled by none, Ollie cannot be innocent. So Ollie must be criminal.

Ollie’s clue says Debra is one of the exactly three criminals in row 1. In row 1, Amy is already innocent and Bruce is already criminal, so the only unknown people left there are Clyde and Debra. Since this clue still has to account for exactly three criminals in that row, those two remaining spots must both be criminals. So Clyde and Debra must be criminals.

One clue says column A has an odd number of criminals, so among Emily, John, Noah, and Vicky there must be an odd number of criminals. The other clue says the people strictly between Amy and Vicky also have an odd number of criminals, and those people are Emily, John, and Noah. So Emily, John, and Noah already account for an odd criminal count by themselves, and column A must also have an odd criminal count. That means adding Vicky cannot change that odd count to even. So Vicky must be innocent.

Among the still-unknown edge people who are not neighbors of Gus, exactly 2 are innocent. That group is Emily, John, Noah, Rob, Wanda, Xia, and Zara. But in that group, the only people who can still be innocent are John, Noah, Rob, Wanda, Xia, and Zara. Emily is not one of the possible innocents there. So Emily must be criminal.

Among the still-unknown edge people who are not neighbors of Gus, exactly 2 must be innocent: John, Noah, Rob, Wanda, Xia, and Zara. In that group, the only people who can still be innocent are John, Noah, Rob, Xia, and Zara. That excludes Wanda from the 2 innocent spots there, so Wanda must be criminal.

Column A has to contain an odd number of criminals, and it currently has 1 known criminal with only John and Noah still unknown there. That means John and Noah have to add an even number of criminals to column A, so in this step they are fixed as criminals together. At the same time, the edge must contain exactly 5 innocents, with exactly 1 of those innocents being a neighbor of Gus, and the number of criminal builders must match the number of criminal pilots. Using those limits together on the remaining edge unknowns fixes Xia as an innocent. So John and Noah must be criminals, and Xia must be innocent.

Emily’s clue says the number of criminal builders and criminal pilots must match. The builders already contain exactly 1 criminal, so among the two unknown pilots, Rob and Zara, there must be exactly 1 criminal pilot. John’s clue says Xia’s neighbors contain an odd number of criminals. Xia’s neighbors already include 2 known criminals, and the only unknown neighbors are Pam, Rob, and Zara. Since Rob and Zara contribute exactly 1 criminal between them, Pam cannot add another criminal without making the total even again. So Pam must be innocent.

Emily’s clue says the number of criminal builders and criminal pilots must match. The builders already have exactly 1 criminal, so among the pilots D4 Rob and D5 Zara there must also be exactly 1 criminal. Pam’s clue says Xia has more innocent neighbors than Bruce. Right now both Xia’s neighbors and Bruce’s neighbors have 1 known innocent, and the only unknown person in Bruce’s neighbor group is Gus. The only unknowns these two clues can still affect are Gus, Rob, and Zara, and since Rob and Zara must split as one criminal and one innocent, Xia’s neighbor group gains exactly 1 more innocent from those pilots. That means Bruce’s neighbor group cannot also gain an innocent from Gus, or it would not have fewer innocents than Xia’s group. So Gus must be criminal.

Emily’s clue says the number of criminal builders and criminal pilots must match. The builders already contain exactly 1 criminal, while the pilots currently contain 0, so D4 Rob and D5 Zara cannot both be innocent. Gus’s clue says Emily’s neighbors and Xia’s neighbors must contain the same number of criminals. Emily’s neighbors already have 3 known criminals, and Xia’s neighbors have 2. If Kay were criminal, Emily’s neighbors would rise to 4 criminals. Then Xia’s neighbors would also have to reach 4 criminals, which would require both Rob and Zara to be criminals. But that would give the pilots 2 criminals, not the 1 criminal required to match the builders. So Kay must be innocent.

Emily’s clue fixes the number of criminal pilots: there must be as many criminal pilots as criminal builders, and the builders already contain exactly 1 criminal while the pilots are only Rob and Zara. Noah’s clue also says Frank’s neighbors and Xia’s neighbors must contain the same number of innocents; right now Frank’s neighbors already have 2 known innocents, while Xia’s neighbors have 1, and the other open people involved in these clues are Luigi, Rob, and Zara. If Luigi were innocent, then Rob and Zara would have to make both clues work at the same time, but they cannot. So Luigi cannot be innocent. That makes Luigi criminal.

Among the still-unknown edge people who are neighbors of Gus, the group is just Hope and Martin, and that group contains exactly 1 criminal. The only person in that group who can still be that criminal is Martin. So Hope cannot be the criminal there, and Hope must be innocent.

Vicky’s clue says there are exactly 5 innocents on the edges, and exactly 1 of those edge innocents is a neighbor of Gus. In the edge cells that are neighbors of Gus, Hope is already a known innocent. That means the one allowed innocent in that group is already accounted for, so any remaining unknown person there cannot be innocent. Martin is that remaining unknown edge neighbor of Gus, so Martin must be criminal.

Hope’s clue says that Zara is one of Rob’s 3 criminal neighbors. That directly identifies Zara as a criminal.

Emily’s clue says the builder group and the pilot group must contain the same number of criminals. The builders already have 1 known criminal, and the pilots also already have 1 known criminal. The only still-unknown person involved here is Rob in the pilot group, so Rob cannot also be a criminal without making the pilot total higher than the builder total. So Rob must be innocent.