Hi there!

I hope you've been solving many puzzles last week. At least I have! Since a selected few now have access to the editor, I've had the amazing opportunity to play puzzles made by others. It's been a lot of fun, and it has broaden my perspective of what's possible. But I also feel like solving so many puzzles has wrecked my sense of difficulty!

I think that's partially why last week's difficulty was all over the place. For example, Sunday seems to have been easier than Tuesday! Oh well. I hope you enjoyed the additional excitement of having no idea what to expect.

Here are the stats and puzzles form last week. You can also find these and your own results here: https://cluesbysam.com/s/home.
Top 1% / 10% / 50% sole times, % perfect solves, % solves without using any hints

Mon 2026-02-16 (Easy): 1m 23s / 2m 0s / 3m 37s / 50% / 86%
Tue 2026-02-17 (Medium): 2m 19s / 3m 56s / 8m 12s / 29% / 54%
Wed 2026-02-18 (Tricky): 2m 13s / 3m 19s / 6m 3s / 43% / 83%
Thu 2026-02-19 (Tricky): 2m 42s / 4m 19s / 8m 29s / 36% / 61%
Fri 2026-02-20 (Hard): 2m 42s / 4m 2s / 7m 16s / 25% / 84%
Sat 2026-02-21 (Hard): 3m 29s / 5m 29s / 10m 37s / 36% / 71%
Sun 2026-02-22 (Hard): 2m 36s / 3m 54s / 6m 46s / 46% / 76%

But what about all those community puzzles I've been enjoying? Well, it would be just rude if I kept them all for myself and didn't share them with you as well! However, they are a bit scattered. I'm working on a way of having them nicely in one place, but it will take a while before I'll get that done. Until then, you can find some here on Reddit. And here are some you won't find elsewhere, including a Hard one by me.

#1 by Alice (Medium): https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=370a85-f5d9635a98c5d656
#2 by Mark (Medium): https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=ce58c1-5645f71ff42dcadd
#3 by Tanja (Tricky): https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=2d7cb5-fb69d54594e550c1
#4 by Wrenvy (Tricky): https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=5c22fc-5f689463a0f6d98d
#5 by Sam (Hard): https://cluesbysam.com/archive/f20ef1eb0bdc/

I wish there was a direct way for you to give feedback for the community puzzles. I will work on something like that as well. But for now, if you use Reddit, perhaps that's the best place.

I hope you like the puzzles!

Oh, one more thing! Last week I announced that flavor text is now in italic. But it was only for a day or two. Why? For me, it didn't spark joy. But since I know many of you liked it, you can bring it back! Scroll down to "What's new" section in the daily puzzle to find out how.

Have a good one!

-Sam