Thinkfun Clue Master Instructions

™

8 to adult

single player

Welcome, Clue Masters!

Tippy the dog needs your help to unlock a secret door and return to his dog house!

Tippy has uncovered all of his lost chew bones, tennis balls, and food bowls, but finding his lost treasures was only half the adventure. To unlock the secret door, you’ll have to place all his treasures in the correct arrangement.

The 40 Sudoku-like challenges use symbols instead of numbers, and provide clues about the correct arrangement. You will use the clues and your deductive reasoning skills to unlock the secret door and help Tippy return home with his treasures.

INSTRUCTIONS

To Start:

Select a challenge. Each challenge starts with a hidden arrangement of nine tokens on a 3 x 3 grid.

3 Colors 3 Shapes

Bones

9 Pieces

Ball

Bowl

Your Goal:

Use the visual clues given to place Tippy’s treasures on the grid in the correct arrangement and unlock the secret door.

When your arrangement has all the clue patterns – YOU WIN!

You’ll know you have the right solution when you can find all the clue patterns on your completed grid. You can also look on page 27 to verify your solution.

Clue Symbology:

The Clue Master pieces come in three shapes and three colors.

The combination produces nine unique pieces that form a complete mathematical set.

Token Symbols:

These symbols indicate a specific token shape and color.

Shape Symbols:

These symbols indicate a specific token shape, but not a specific color.

Color Symbols:

These symbols indicate a specific token color, but not a specific shape.

How to Solve a Clue Master Challenge:

Each of the first 20 challenges present a series of clues about how to arrange the tokens on the grid. Each clue shows a pattern that must appear on the game grid at least once. Only one solution fits all the clues.

Sample Challenge:

Clue 1 Clue 2 Clue 3 Grid

In the sample challenge above, the three Clues are three patterns that must appear on the grid at least once.

Each clue is a partial snapshot that gives you accurate but incomplete information about where the pieces belong on the grid. You’ll need to use careful reasoning and logical deduction to find the arrangement of pieces that satisfies all the clues.

Here’s how we use deduction to discover the solution:

Clue 1 Grid First, we see that Clue 1 shows us the whole grid, but with some pieces missing. However, we are still able to determine the exact location of these three pieces.

Next, we see that Clue 2 shows us just a part of the grid. At first it looks like the clue can fit in several locations, but based on the information given in Clue 1, we can determine that Clue 2 must go in the upper left corner of the grid.

Clue 2 Grid

Placing Clue 2 in any other location would put two different pieces in the same spot. For example, if we put Clue 2 in the upper right corner, the blue bones would land in the middle of the grid, but Clue 1 already told us there is a green ball in the middle of the grid.

Lastly, we see that Clue 3 shows us just the shape of one piece, and just the color of another piece. This clue may not seem to provide much information on its own, but now that we’ve already placed 6 pieces on the grid, we can use Clue 3 to correctly place the 3 remaining pieces on the grid.

Clue 3 Grid

Clue 3 tells us that there have to be bones in the center of one row with a blue piece to the right of the bones. Clues 1 and 2 told us to put balls in the center of the top 2 rows, so we know Clue

3 is referring to the bottom row. Clue 3 tells us where to place 2 of the 3 remaining pieces, therefore we know to put the last piece in the only remaining spot.

Now that we’ve completely filled the Grid, we will confirm we have the correct solution by checking to make sure our arrangement contains all three clue patterns.

Solution

Clue 1 Clue 2 Clue 3 Solution

Clue 1 Clue 2 Clue 3 Solution

Clue 1 Clue 2 Clue 3 Solution

Our solution is correct! All three clue patterns appear in our completed grid! When you understand how logical deduction was used to solve the sample challenge above, you’re ready to start playing! As you play, remember the following tips:

1. Clues do not have to be used in the order given.

2. Shape information from one clue might combine with color information from another clue.

3. Sometimes clues fit together like a jigsaw. You can rule out placements where the information from one clue would conflict with another clue.

4. If you see the same piece on more than one clue, “lock” the clues together and reason about them as a single clue.

Proceed to Challenge 1, and stay tuned for an introduction to Negative

Clues after you’ve solved Challenge 20. You’ll soon be well on your way to becoming a Clue Master!

Clue Master was invented by Mark Engelberg.

Challenges by Serhiy Grabarchuk Jr.

Congratulations on solving the Beginner and Intermediate Challenges!

To solve the Advanced and Expert Challenges, and become the ultimate

Clue Master, there’s one more thing you need to know.

Negative Clues

Clues that appear on a darker background are called

Negative Clues. These clues show a pattern that MUST NOT appear anywhere on your completed grid.

Sample Challenge:

Clue 1 Clue 2 (Negative) Incorrect Solution

This solution satisfies Clue 1, but it is not a valid solution because the Negative

Clue pattern can be found on the grid.

Clue 1 Clue 2 (Negative) Solution

This is the correct solution, because it satisfies Clue 1 and the Negative Clue pattern can’t be found anywhere on the grid.

When you understand how Negative Clues can be used with regular clues to help you determine the correct arrangement of the pieces, you’re ready to continue playing!

As you play, remember that in some challenges it is easy to visualize the solution in your head, but in other challenges, the easiest way to get started is to place one or more clues on the grid to see how the other clues can or cannot also fit on the grid. Part of the fun is swapping pieces until you find the solution that satisfies all of the clues!

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