Hi!

This time I'll jump straight to last week's results.
Sunday's puzzle seems to have been an interesting one. It's rare to see such a big difference in times for the fastest and the median solvers. Looking at the top 50%, seems like it was definitely a hard puzzle, not far from Brutal. Also % of perfect solves and % of no-hint solves were the lowest of the week. But looking at the top 1% it seems to have been easier than Friday's puzzle!
Maybe there was a trick only the fastest solvers noticed? Or maybe some people just got lucky by stumbling on a critical contradiction unwinding the whole mess? If you didn't solve Sunday's puzzle yet, why not give it a go and see which camp you land in!
Here are all the stats for the week.
Top 1% / 10% / 50% solve times, % perfect / % no hints

Mon 2026-07-13 (Easy): 1m 17s / 1m 55s / 3m 34s / 54% / 82%
Tue 2026-07-14 (Medium): 2m 0s / 3m 4s / 5m 38s / 47% / 80%
Wed 2026-07-15 (Tricky): 1m 55s / 2m 51s / 5m 21s / 45% / 78%
Thu 2026-07-16 (Tricky): 2m 17s / 3m 31s / 6m 31s / 37% / 77%
Fri 2026-07-17 (Tricky): 2m 52s / 4m 35s / 8m 16s / 26% / 56%
Sat 2026-07-18 (Hard): 2m 52s / 4m 45s / 8m 59s / 26% / 60%
Sun 2026-07-19 (Brutal): 2m 36s / 4m 45s / 10m 30s / 21% / 55%

As usual, you find these and more also on the home page. Creating an account is free!

And here are the weekly bonus puzzles:
#1 Medium - https://cluesbysam.com/archive/4bc363e9a544
#2 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/archive/de1c824f27dd
#3 Brutal - https://cluesbysam.com/archive/e1a8c1b592f7

And then the community puzzles... Many community puzzles have some very clever deductions, and they often present a fun, unique experience you won't find in the daily puzzles. I'm still thinking of ways to make it easier for you to find the most fun ones. Perhaps there are some avid curators out there who would like to do a first pass to find the best ones...? I'll get back on this topic later. Things will be moving slowly for the next couple of weeks as I'm still balancing this with my vacation.
Anyway, here are some of the most recommended community puzzles from last week:
#1 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=70ce57-05d22fa41aa0c8f8
#2 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=1832eb-5cbb6c1f21b825ca
#3 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=520d50-0cbdd3274445ad10

By the way, if you think you have a great puzzle in you, and you still don't have editor access, please reach out (replying to this mail works) and I'll put you at the top of the queue!

I hope you enjoy the puzzles!

-Sam