Some of the suspects are criminals. Everyone tells the truth. Prove who’s who — one verdict at a time, never by guessing.
The rules in five lines
Every suspect is either a criminal or innocent. There is exactly one answer.
Everyone tells the truth — criminals too.
One suspect starts proven. Their statement is the first clue in the case file.
Prove someone and they talk. Each suspect you prove reveals their own statement, opening the next part of the case.
No guessing. A verdict only sticks if it holds in every scenario that fits the clues on file. Otherwise the game rejects it and tells you how many scenarios are still possible.
Try it: a three-by-three training case
Hugo the card sharp (B3) starts proven innocent and says: “Exactly one of Idris's three neighbors is innocent.”. Who does that settle? Tap them and choose a verdict. Keep going until all nine are proven.
A
B
C
1
A1
Amircard sharp
B1
Basilmagistrate
C1
Calwine merchant
2
A2
Devwine merchant
B2
Emilmagistrate
C2
Felixcard sharp
3
A3
Gretamagistrate
B3
Hugocard sharp
C3
Idriswine merchant
Reading the board
Columns are lettered from the left (A, B, C…) and rows are numbered from the top (1, 2, 3…). Every card shows its seat in the top-left corner, so “B3” is the second card in the third row. Suspects sit in alphabetical order, left to right and top to bottom — Ada is always in A1 — so a name alone tells you roughly where to look.
When you prove a suspect, a CRIMINAL or INNOCENT stamp lands on their mugshot and their statement goes into the case file. The stamp is always spelled out, so colour is never the only signal; prefer amber and blue? Switch palettes in Settings.
The exact words
Clues & Culprits clues use a small vocabulary, and each word means exactly one thing:
Word
Means
neighbors
The up-to-eight people touching a suspect, including diagonals.
connected
Touching directly left, right, above or below — never diagonally — forming one unbroken run.
between
Strictly between two people in the same row or column. The two named people are not included.
above / below / left / right
Anywhere in that direction along the same column or row, not just the next card. “The person above me” is only used when there is exactly one.
exactly, none, all, both
Exact counts. “All” always means at least one.
odd / even
Parity of a count. Zero is even.
if … then
One-way. “If A is a criminal, so is B” says nothing when A is innocent.
edge, corners
The outer ring of the grid (corners included), and its four corner seats.
my row, my column, us cooks
The speaker’s own row, column, or role group — including the speaker.
a role (“the guards”, “the cooks”)
Everyone of that character class in today’s case. Every suspect wears a class badge on their nameplate; roles are what the class is called in this setting.
★
★’s neighbors: all eight touching cards.
★★
Between the two ★: only the two in the middle.
★
Everyone above ★: the whole column above.
Your toolkit
Notes — switch notes on, tap a suspect, and pencil them in as I? or C? or add up to four coloured tags (each colour has its own shape). Notes never count as verdicts and stay on the card unless you choose otherwise in Settings. Right-click a card to pencil quickly.
Check — asks the game whether your pencilled guesses can all be true at once. If they can’t, it names the clue they break. That’s a proof by contradiction, and it is how most hard steps are found.
Hint — press once to highlight the statement to re-read, twice to see which suspect it settles, three times for the full proof.
Ask — copies a link to your exact board, notes included. Whoever opens it continues from where you are.
Scenarios (the eye icon) — the number of complete answers that still fit every clue on file. Each proof shrinks it; when it reaches 1, the case is fully determined.
Tap a proven suspect to read their statement in the tray; tap a statement in the case file to dim it once you’ve used it up. Tap any name, row or role inside a statement and the matching cards light up.
Keyboard
Arrow keys move between cards. I innocent, C criminal, Enter opens the verdict picker, H hint, N notes mode. In notes mode I and C pencil a hunch (I? or C?) instead of a verdict, and 1–6 add coloured tags.
Difficulty
Three new cases arrive every day at midnight in your time zone. Easy (4×4) can always be solved one clue at a time. Medium (4×5) has a few steps that need two clues read together. Hard (4×5) has several, including at least one that needs three or more. On Sundays an Evil 5×5 case joins them.
Questions
What does “neighbors” mean?
Everyone touching a suspect, including diagonally. A suspect in the middle has eight neighbors, one on an edge five, one in a corner three.
Does “between” include the two people named?
No. “Between Bea and Ruth” means only the people strictly between them in the same row or column.
Is zero an even number?
Yes. “An even number of my neighbors are criminals” is true when none of them are.
Can criminals lie?
No. Everyone in Clues & Culprits tells the truth, criminals included. Some people say things that carry no information; you can hide those lines in Settings.
Why was my verdict rejected?
Because it isn’t proven yet. Clues & Culprits only accepts a verdict that holds in every scenario consistent with the clues on file. The message tells you how many scenarios are still open.
What do the colours in my result mean?
■ proven without help, ✕ at least one rejected verdict on that suspect, ● a hint pointed at that suspect, ◉ you asked for the full proof. The share image shows the same marks in colour.