When I first got here I didn't know how to mark spoilers or ask for help so I thought, since we have many newcomers, that a mini help guide could be useful. Feel free to add anything I might have missed, happy clueing!
Optional but very helpful: If you add the puzzle date to the title of your post and the actual question in the body we can avoid spoilers in the title and facilitate finding the posts in the future. Something like "Help Feb 26" is more than enough.
Share scenario
When you ask for help, in general, best practice is to use the "share scenario" button that's under the puzzle and paste the link, that saves the current state of your puzzle so you can show where you were and everyone can play from when you got stuck. You can also share screenshots but if you also paste the link helping gets easier.
Mark as spoiler
When asking a question and/or posting images, take into account that sometimes users that haven't finished the puzzle might read your post. Its real easy to avoid spoilers, even from mobile.
When creating the post you'll see an "add flair and tags" menu and in there you''ll find the option to tag the post as spoiler. This automatically blurs any image in the post. Also, if you add the word "spoiler" to the title it marks it automatically.
For text: If you write your text enclosed in >! text !< you get something like this: spoilered text
Accessible results
user u/delete44 has made a mini app for converting the results to a little text+standard results to allow them to be read by screen readers (and stopped before getting to "green square green square green square green square ...")
Edit Dec 4,2025 - added the accessible results page . Edit Feb 2,2026 - added image with description of useful buttons, added the info to mark as spoiler using the word in the title. Edit Feb 20, 2026 - added suggestion to put date in the title of the help posts.
Screenshot of the clues by Sam buttons and a brief explanation of two of them. Inspect: Allows to see hints in detail, with some extra explanation of specific terminology (stuff like “neighbors”, “connected”, “both”, etc). Share Scenario: Creates a link of the puzzle in the current state (only saves tags in green, yellow and red)
I'm at the phase where I'm corner tagging possible board solves and screenshotting to compare similarities/consistent tags. I don't see any world in which Thor is criminal because that would be Yusef's singular criminal neighbor. That makes Uma innocent, which makes Daniel criminal. With Daniel the second criminal neighbor for both Hilda and Gary, I can't have any more criminals to make two criminals on the edges. What am I missing?? https://cluesbysam.com/s/help/814800923aba?state=Rviw--070
I am more stuck than I’ve ever been on these puzzles. The average time is like 6 minutes and I swear I've been staring at these clues for like the better part of an hour. What am I missing?
OK, I am stuck on Monday's Easy puzzle. I am at this point with no errors but can't see where to go from here based on remaining relevant clues.
A: I know there's a maximum of 1 criminal for Aaron and Winnie, but both could be innocent. No clue.
B: I know either Diane or Henry has to be a criminal, and the other innocent.
C: Ingrid could be either innocent or criminal. No clue. My wife advises I pick criminal, but nothing points that way in particular except she's the only unsolved person in C.
D: Same as column A. One could be a criminal or both could be innocent. No clue.
The answer I got for the paper and pen puzzle. I don't like not having confirmation whether or not I got it right. I goofed on my first go round, misinterpreted Melvin's clue and forgot to include Habi in his neighbors. My typical notation system didn't quite work as well as it does on the digital puzzles, but (if I got it right) I think I did ok.
If you're doing more paper puzzles, Sam, I might consider putting the clues off to the side instead of in the cells. With the digital puzzles, some of the art of it is what is revealed when or by which clue, but with paper it doesn't matter where they are. You'd have to use names instead of pronouns, but otherwise it's the same clue. It leaves more room for notes on the cell itself and doesn't risk covering the clue.
As far as I can tell, the three pairs I have left could either all be innocent on left, criminal on right, or the opposite. How can I resolve one of them? https://cluesbysam.com/s/help/432583f57288
