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Hi!
We've soon survived yet another month of crime
hunting. Last Tuesday was cutting it close, though. Do
you still remember Julie's trick clue? Based on the
data, 77% of players fell for the trap! A lot of people
didn't exactly enjoy it, and I can see why. Sorry
for that!
What was the trick? Julie said "If I'm
innocent, then so is Wally", while being criminal
herself. So her clue wasn't a lie, but also it
wasn't telling us anything useful. But many thought
the clue meant the same as "If, and only if,
I'm innocent, then Wally is innocent". Many
also pointed out that that's how the clue used to
work. While this has never been the case, I can see
where the belief comes from. If you're curious, you
can read various explanations and confusions in these
reddit threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1mx3zig/is_a_statement_like_if_a_is_a_criminal_than_so_is/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1o5bror/paradox/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1nlp2to/dont_these_two_clues_contradict_each_other/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1nlsp6t/am_i_stupid_or_is_this_a_contradictory_sep_20/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1oc63nw/these_clues_are_inconsistent/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1obg1at/is_this_a_logic_error/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CluesBySamHelp/comments/1od29i2/in_case_youre_still_confused_by_yesterdays_trap/
Considering there's always so much confusion
around this kind of logic, would it perhaps be better
not to include them in the puzzle? What do you
think?
On to other topics! Last time I shared some completion
times. I shared the average/mean times, which many
pointed out are the same thing. Which is absolutely
true. The times were actually average/median times.
Despite the silly mistake, many found them interesting.
So I have a treat for you... More numbers! Here are last
week's median solve times. The second number is the
median of "perfect" solves (all green, no
hints, no mistakes).
Mon 2025-10-20: 4m 21s / 3m 29s
Tue 2025-10-21: 5m 50s / 4m 39s
Wed 2025-10-22: 7m 15s / 6m 3s
Thu 2025-10-23: 8m 56s / 7m 40s
Fri 2025-10-24: 9m 17s / 7m 44s
Sat 2025-10-25: 12m 30s / 13m 54s
Sun 2025-10-26: 15m 28s / 13m 52s
At first I thought I got the times the wrong way.
Shouldn't hints make solving faster? But it only
makes sense that people who don't use hints or make
mistakes are the fastest solvers. Anyways, I hope you
find these interesting, and let me know if there's
some other interesting numbers you'd like to see in
next week's letter!
Finally, this week's bonus puzzles! This time, the
two first ones introduce a new type of clue. Can you
spot it? Whenever I introduce a new type of clue, I also
need to update my validator algorithm that ensures all
solve paths are covered. And every time I do that, I
risk missing some valid deduction, preventing some
logical step from being taken. It has basically never
happened, but you never know, so fingers crossed!
I hope you like them! And if you have any thoughts
you'd like to share with me, you can reply to this
mail. I'd love to hear from you!
Best,
Sam
P.S. In case you lost the link to the daily puzzle,
here you go: https://cluesbysam.com
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