🕵️ Method
How to solve a logic mystery: 7 detective tips
In a logic mystery (Enquetix, Clues by Sam, Murdle…), you never guess: you prove. When you get stuck, it's almost never because a clue is missing, it's because you haven't yet seen how to combine them. Here are the reflexes of good detectives.
1. Start with the clues that talk about few cards
“There is exactly 1 suspect to the left of Hugo”, when Hugo is in column C, only talks about two cards: if you already know that one is innocent, the other one is a suspect. The fewer cards a clue concerns, the easier it is to use. In Enquetix, tapping a clue in the notebook highlights the cards concerned: count them.
2. Think of the two extremes: “none” and “all”
“No innocent in row 3”: the whole row is suspect. “There is no innocent among the journalists”: all three of them are suspects. Those clues solve several cards at once.
3. Subtract what you already know
“Exactly 2 suspects in column B” and you have already found 2? All the others in the column are innocent. You have found 1 and only one unknown card is left? It's a suspect. It's the most common deduction.
4. Neighbors, diagonals included
Two cards are neighbors if they touch each other, even diagonally. A card in a corner only has 3 neighbors, a card on the edge has 5, in the middle 8. “Pierre has exactly 3 innocent neighbors” is much more useful for a corner card.
5. Odd or even is often the last piece
“An odd number of suspects above Léa”: with two unknown cards above her and no known suspect, there is exactly one. Combine it with another clue about one of the two, and you're done.
6. Cross the tabs
The strength of a crossed investigation: people, places and objects answer each other. “The innocents' objects were not used”: as soon as a person is cleared, their objects are too. “An object found in a place without traces was not used”: an empty place clears everything found in it. And the other way round, an object that was used points to its owner and to the place where it was.
7. A refusal is a clue
In Enquetix, the game refuses your answer when it isn't proven yet. That's not a mistake, it's information: this card isn't the right one yet. Look for the one that a clue covers almost entirely. And if you are really stuck, the Hunch bonus shows you a card that can already be proven.
To practice
The easiest way: the guided tutorial (2 minutes), then today's case. And when you want more, the archives hold every case published so far.