Hi! Did the criminals convince you to give them your money? I would guess not. But I hope you enjoyed watching their effort! If you missed the first days, you might have felt a bit confused. Sorry for that. Sometimes the puzzles have a week-long story arc, and they usually receive positive feedback, so I try to introduce them now and then. But this week we're back to one-shot "jokes"! In the last newsletter I mentioned Clues by Sam had a bunch of new players. And with new players came some new questions! A very common one is, of course, if the logic in a puzzle is broken (It never is). I think Reddit also saw more of these than usual, in addition to several requests for additional hints. It's great that you asked! Also, I'm super thankful for everyone in the community who time after time have the patience to write clear and polite explanations to these questions! You're awesome! Thank you! Another common question was if there's an app. No, there's no app. Maybe in some distant future, but it's not a high priority for me. However, there is something many don't know: You can turn Clues by Sam into an app yourself! On your phone, you can create a shortcut to the page, and by choosing "Open as Web App", it will feel pretty much like an app. I know many are happily using it this way already. I think there might be some challenges with reloading the page to refresh the daily puzzle, but restarting the "app" should help. Quick instructions for how to do it on iPhone or iPad. Something similar works on Android, but I don't have one on me right now. Long-press the address bar Tap "Share" Scroll down and choose "Add to Home Screen" Enable "Open as Web App" and add!
I hope this helps! And then there was the usual question: Can we get results for perfect solves? I understand the question very well. You might enjoy solving the puzzles slowly to ensure you don't make any mistakes. Looking at the crazy fast times, you might suspect the fastest solvers are taking hints and doing lots of mistakes. It's not fun to be compared to those! But the surprising truth is that the fastest solvers actually do the fewest mistakes and use fewest hints. If you think about it, this makes sense. They're the most experienced solvers! It's the more casual solvers who resort to hints when the puzzle stops being fun (which I absolutely encourage to do!)
As always, only the first attempt of each user is included. Also, results by first-time users are always filtered out (They might be experienced players using private browsing to replay the puzzle, or they might be beginners just practicing. Either way, they're not representative of the general audience.) But since it's been requested so many times, I'll share an example of what they look like! In addition to the regular stats, I'll also share the stats for perfect solves. As expected, they're pretty much the same, but in general slightly faster. Except, oddly, on Sunday! There, 1% is still faster when looking at perfect solves, but otherwise they're a bit slower. Could it be due to the overall low perfect %? Definitely interesting. I will probably make these available on the home page as well once I find the time (might be a while, sorry), so you can keep an eye on these as well. Regular: Fastest 1 / 10 / 50 % and Perfect % / No Hints %
Perfect: Fastest 1 / 10 / 50 % Mon 2026-08-24 (Easy):
Regular: 1m 10s / 1m 40s / 2m 59s / 60% / 88%
Perfect: 1m 6s / 1m 33s / 2m 33s
Tue 2026-08-25 (Easy):
Regular: 1m 18s / 2m 1s / 3m 58s / 54% / 81%
Perfect: 1m 12s / 1m 49s / 3m 16s
Wed 2026-08-26 (Medium):
Regular: 1m 58s / 2m 59s / 5m 44s / 33% / 75%
Perfect: 1m 37s / 2m 33s / 4m 24s
Thu 2026-08-27 (Tricky):
Regular: 2m 51s / 4m 31s / 8m 55s / 33% / 67%
Perfect: 2m 27s / 3m 50s / 7m 3s
Fri 2026-08-28 (Tricky):
Regular: 2m 32s / 4m 15s / 8m 41s / 29% / 55%
Perfect: 1m 52s / 3m 41s / 7m 26s
Sat 2026-08-29 (Hard):
Regular: 2m 58s / 4m 59s / 9m 36s / 24% / 59%
Perfect: 1m 59s / 4m 36s / 8m 59s
Sun 2026-08-30 (Hard):
Regular: 2m 26s / 4m 19s / 8m 35s / 22% / 64%
Perfect: 1m 35s / 4m 26s / 8m 47s There were also requests to have stats for the bonus puzzles. I will have them on the home page one day. It's been in the state of "coming soon" for a couple of months now. Sorry for that. I've been really busy with another project, which I can hopefully share more about soon! Anyway, here are this week's bonus puzzles: #1 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/archive/cf6c94251da2
#2 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/archive/0c61e3720277
#3 Hard - https://cluesbysam.com/archive/fa4feab37150 And then we have community puzzles. I've noticed that the ratings have been going down recently, even if the puzzles are just as fun or better. I tweaked the thresholds recently so they would be more informative, and I'll try to further improve the system in the future. Until then, if you like going through the community puzzle archive, remember to hit that "Recommend" button if you think the puzzle was fun!
Anyway, here are some of the most recommended ones: Community puzzles:
#1 Medium - https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=f9fb73-71e4d2c54bedeae5
#2 Tricky - https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=f9fb73-849b09217341ec9a
#3 Hard - https://cluesbysam.com/s/share/?puzzleId=9dd43d-c930b81f857fd08d Now I have a plane to catch. I have a 13 hour flight ahead of me (visiting Japan!), which means I won't be available if the server goes down, or if tomorrow's puzzle doesn't work for some reason. I'm usually always on-call, so this is a bit scary for me! But it should be fine... -Sam
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