If you like Deductionary, play Clues by Sam next: it is the closest daily, a small grid solved from clues about rows, columns, and neighbors. For pure placement logic try LinkedIn's Queens and the New York Times' Pips; for a murder with your logic, Murdle, Mystery-o-matic, and Daily Detective; and for clues you have to find yourself, Daily Holmes, the game we make.
Looking for Deductionary itself? Today's puzzle is at deductionary.com. Everything below was checked on each game's own site on 29 September 2026.
Who Deductionary suits
Deductionary is a daily logic puzzle in a small grid. Six icons sit in fixed cells, ten cells are empty, and you place ten letters using clues: a letter is next to an icon, sits in an icon's row or column, lies directly below another letter, or a whole column holds only consonants. One kind of clue is a small word game, because an icon such as DICE can have letters of its own name around it. Every wrong placement counts against you: five stars for a clean solve, down to one star for five or more errors.
A new puzzle arrives at midnight in your own time zone, you can play as a guest, and a free account keeps your streak and opens past puzzles. It reached puzzle number 220 on 29 September 2026. It suits:
- Careful solvers. Accuracy is the whole score, so it rewards checking a placement before you tap, not racing the clock.
- People with a few spare minutes. One small grid, one sitting, done.
- Fans of logic with a light word twist. The letters are labels, but the clues about an icon's own name make you spell as well as reason.
- Murder mystery fans, through the book. Its paperback, Seven Murders, sets 70 puzzles inside seven murder cases, and the final grid of each case spells the killer's name.
If you want a story every morning, a bigger grid, or a week that climbs in difficulty, the games below add what Deductionary leaves out.
Seven games like Deductionary
- Clues by Sam. Twenty people in five rows and four columns, each criminal or innocent, sorted from clues about neighbors, rows, and columns; the game refuses any mark you cannot prove, and puzzles get harder through the week.
- Queens. LinkedIn's daily placement puzzle: one queen in every row, column, and colored region, no two touching, not even diagonally, and it played without signing in when we checked.
- Pips. The New York Times' domino puzzle: place every domino so each colored region meets its condition, such as a sum, all-equal pips, or a total under a number, with Easy, Medium, and Hard puzzles every day.
- Murdle. A daily murder solved on a logic grid of suspects, weapons, and locations; the site says its cases are generated by an algorithm it calls MORIARTY, the hardest falls on Saturday, and newcomers get a daily mini.
- Mystery-o-matic. A mansion murder every day: work out who did it, when, and with which weapon from where everyone was in fifteen-minute steps, and in the harder mode the killer may lie.
- Daily Detective. A daily whodunnit with a police report, up to five clues, and three alibis; the fewer clues you reveal before you accuse the killer, the better your result, and no account is needed.
- Daily Holmes. One scene and one question every midnight UTC, with nothing labeled as a clue, so you decide what counts as evidence before you answer in the day's format; today's case is free, with no signup.
Which one to open tomorrow
If you liked the grid and its clues, start with Clues by Sam. If you liked placing things, try Queens and Pips. If the Seven Murders idea appeals, Murdle, Mystery-o-matic, and Daily Detective put a crime on the board every day. If you would rather find the clues than be handed them, try Daily Holmes; its answer formats are on the modes page.
For the best-known dailies side by side on price, time, and the skill each one trains, see daily deduction games compared. For more alternatives in the same spirit, read games like Clues by Sam and games like Murdle, and if you want to sharpen the reasoning itself, work through our deductive reasoning exercises.
Ready to practise?
A new visual case lands every morning. Study the scene and solve it in the day's format. Written deductions receive AI feedback; structured modes check your answer directly.
Play today's caseFrequently asked questions
Is Deductionary free?
Yes. The daily puzzle is free, and you can play it as a guest. A free account saves your streak and stats and opens past puzzles. The site takes tips on Ko-fi and sells Seven Murders, a paperback of harder puzzles set inside seven murder cases.
When does a new Deductionary puzzle come out?
Every day at midnight in your own time zone, according to its FAQ. Only the day's puzzle counts toward your streak, though past puzzles still earn stars.
What is the closest game to Deductionary?
Clues by Sam. Both are small daily grids solved from clues about rows, columns, and neighbors, and both count your mistakes. Clues by Sam is bigger, with twenty people to sort into criminal or innocent, and it will not accept a move you cannot prove.
Is there a daily logic puzzle like Deductionary without letters?
Yes. LinkedIn's Queens and the New York Times' Pips are pure placement puzzles: queens in Queens, dominoes in Pips, each placed to satisfy rules about rows, columns, or colored regions. Both post a new puzzle every day and play in a browser.