Game guide

How to Play Griductive

Griductive is a daily grid-deduction puzzle. A grid of suspects, each secretly criminal or innocent — and every clue their cards reveal is true, with exactly one set of verdicts that fits all of them. Judge a suspect correctly and their card flips to reveal a new statement, cracking the case open one deduction at a time.

Every person on the grid is secretly a criminal or innocent, and exactly one line-up fits every statement on the board. Read the clues, prove each verdict, and identify everyone.

The loop

How it works

Tap a suspect and call them criminal or innocent. Call it right and the card flips to reveal that person’s statement — your next lead. Call it wrong and you get feedback without ending the case, so you only ever commit to what the clues actually prove.

AdaTeacher
AdaEach row has at least one criminal.
A correct call flips the card and hands you a new clue. Green is innocent, red is criminal.
  • Tap a suspect to call them criminal or innocent.
  • Tap a solved card to spotlight its clue — it lifts up and color-codes the people it names; press & hold it to dismiss a clue you're done with.
  • Mark pencils colored notes; Hint spotlights the next step.

Mark cycles a card through red and green hunches, then three neutral hues for grouping; Hint comes in two stages — first it rings the statement you need, then it points at the very person you can name next.

A few people start already identified — your foothold into the grid. Cases grow across the week, from a gentle Monday up to the knottier weekend; a new one opens daily at midnight Eastern Time.

Clues

Read the statements

Every flipped card carries a statement — your evidence. Tap a solved card to select it: it lifts to the front with a badge, the rest of the board dims, and its words color-code exactly who it counts. Color shows only on the card you’ve selected, so a hue always means “look here”.

2 of Emery’s neighbors in row 1 are innocent
Emery
Bea
Cole
Dana
June
Shawn
Sam
Tony
Jams
Kino
Nuby
Hua
  • who the clue is measured from
  • the people it counts
  • a specific person or spot it names
Glossary

Clue wording

A handful of words in the clues carry an exact meaning. When one trips you up, here’s the ruling.

On the grid
Rows & columns
Rows run across and count from the top (1, 2, 3…); columns run down and are lettered from the left (A, B, C…). A spot like C2 means column C, row 2.
Neighbors
Everyone a person touches, diagonals included — up to eight in the middle of the grid, fewer along an edge or in a corner.
Corners & edges
The corners are the four cells where two sides meet; the edges are the whole outer ring that frames the grid — the corners count as edges too.
Directions & shapes
In between two people
The people on the straight line between the two named people — the pair themselves don’t count.
Connected
A run of people linked edge to edge — up, down or sideways, never through a diagonal. One person alone already counts as connected.
Neighbors in common
Cards that neighbor both people at once. Neither of the two people counts as their own common neighbor.
Directly above / below / left / right
Only the single card that touches that person in that direction. Every direction clue means this touching sense — none of them reach further down the row or column.
Counting words
No / exactly N
An exact tally — “no” means zero. Treat every number as exact unless the clue says at least or more.
At least N
That many or more.
Both
Exactly two.
Odd
1, 3, 5, 7… — zero is not odd, so an odd count is also a promise that there is at least one.
The most / the only
Both weigh a group only against others of its own kind — a row against the other rows, a column against the columns, a profession against the professions, a person against the other people. “The most” has to beat them all outright — no ties. “The only” means no other group of that same kind matches the count; it says nothing about the rest of the grid, so “the only column with exactly 2 criminals” leaves every row and profession free to have 2 as well.
More than
A plain comparison. It promises nothing about the smaller side — that side can even hold none.
In total
The combined count across everything the clue names — the whole grid, or two named groups taken together — not each group on its own.
Ground rules

Watch out for

Every statement is trueA card only flips once you’ve judged it right, and whatever it then says always holds — criminals tell the truth here as well.
A profession is just a jobA cook is no more suspect than a guard. Only a clue can tie a job to guilt or innocence.
You never have to guessAt any point, at least one verdict already follows from the clues. If nothing looks forced, a word is being read too loosely — or a card you’ve flipped still has more to give. It is never a fifty-fifty.
Names run alphabeticallyPeople are seated in alphabetical order, left to right and top to bottom — handy for spotting who a clue points at.
Worked example

Walk one through

Here is a full 3×3 case, from first call to last. Only Hugo starts face-up; everyone else you’ll prove one clue at a time. Read the note under each step — that’s where a first read tends to slip.

Nine suspects, seated A–Z left to right, top to bottom. Only Hugo starts cleared — his card reads “there are no criminals in column C.”

  1. Start from the free clue

    Hugo is already cleared, and his statement is the simplest kind: a flat zero. Column C holds Cara, Finn and Isla, so call all three innocent.
    “No” means exactly zeroNot “hardly any” — none. Column C is the rightmost column (columns run A, B, C from the left), so all three people in it are innocent on sight.

  2. Corner the first criminal

    Isla’s flipped card says she has just one criminal neighbor. Her three neighbors are Finn, Hugo and Elle — Finn and Hugo are already innocent, so the one criminal has to be Elle.
    Neighbors include diagonalsElle sits corner-to-corner from Isla, not side by side — and still counts. Every touching cell is a neighbor, so a corner like Isla’s has three of them.

  3. Let the new clue talk

    Calling Elle right flips her card: she is one of two criminals in column B (the middle column — Ben, Elle, Hugo), and she counts as one of them. Hugo is innocent, so the other must be Ben.
    A correct call unlocks the next clueElle’s statement appeared only because you proved her. If the grid feels stuck, you usually just haven’t flipped enough — a solved card still has more to give.

  4. A count cuts both ways

    Cara’s card reads “only one criminal in row 1.” Row 1 is Ada, Ben, Cara; Ben is already that criminal, so Ada is innocent.
    An exact tally is a ceiling too“One criminal in row 1” is a limit as well as a promise: once you’ve found that one — Ben — everyone else in the row must be innocent.

  5. Force the last criminal

    Ada’s card: “each row has at least one criminal.” Row 3 is Gwen, Hugo, Isla — Hugo and Isla are innocent, so Gwen must be the criminal that keeps row 3 honest.
    A grid-wide rule can pin a hidden cell“Each row” speaks about every row at once. Row 3’s other two are already cleared, so the rule alone names Gwen — no clue pointing straight at her required.

  6. Close the case

    One suspect left — Dev. Gwen’s flipped card already told you there are exactly three criminals in total, and you’ve now caught all three (Ben, Elle, Gwen). So everyone still unproven — Dev included — is innocent. All nine are judged.
    Three criminals — Ben, Elle, Gwen — and the case is cracked.
    The last one is freeWith eight verdicts locked and exactly one arrangement possible, the ninth has nowhere to hide — many cases end on a call you barely have to think about.
Win condition

Crack the case

Identify everyone correctly and the case is solved. Every grid has exactly one consistent set of verdicts, so any line of reasoning that never contradicts a clue gets you there.

If a call does not hold, revisit the statements and narrow the grid from the evidence you have.