Clue Board Game Rules and How to Play | Solve the Case

Clue is a deduction game for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up, and the whole case is three cards: one character, one weapon, and one room, hidden in an envelope in the centre of the board. There are 324 possible solutions, you move by rolling two dice, and you win by making one correct accusation. Get one thing right before you play: you must be standing in a room to make a suggestion, and you get exactly one accusation per game.

I am Spector, a dad to Alex, 7, and Emma, 10. Clue is the first game either of them learned to lose properly, and it is still the one I pull out when I want a table of kids arguing about evidence instead of about rules. It is also the game where I have watched more grown ups get it wrong than any other in our shelf, almost always in the same three places, which is why this page exists.

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Clue at a Glance

Aspect	Details
Designer	Anthony E. Pratt, patented during the Second World War, first published 1949
Publisher	Waddingtons in the UK, licensed to Parker Brothers in North America, now Hasbro
Players	2 to 6 on the current box, 3 to 6 on the 2013 box
Age	8 and up
Playtime	About 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how many rooms people reach
Setup	8 official steps, about five minutes
Cards	21 solution and hand cards, plus 29 Clue cards in the current box
Possible solutions	324, which is 6 characters times 6 weapons times 9 rooms
Win condition	One correct accusation, and you only get one accusation
Scoring	None. There are no points in Clue
Current contents	Gameboard, 6 character tokens, 6 weapon tokens, 50 cards, solve envelope, notepad, 2 dice, rules

How Do You Set Up Clue?

Set up is eight steps and it is the part most people rush, which is why their first game is a mess of cards on the floor. Here is the official order from the current Hasbro rulebook.

1. Put all six character tokens on their coloured spaces around the board. All six, even if you are only playing four. The unused tokens sit there for the whole game.
2. Place all six weapons in separate, random rooms. Every weapon starts in a different room, before a single card is dealt.
3. Choose your character. Everyone picks a token that is already on the board, so nobody has a head start at the start spaces.
4. Separate the 29 Clue cards from everything else, shuffle them, and leave the pile face down beside the board.
5. Split the rest into three decks, characters, weapons, and rooms. Shuffle each one separately and lay them face down.
6. Take the top card of each deck and slide it into the solve envelope so nobody watching sees which card went in. That is your case: who, with what, where.
7. Shuffle the remaining 21 cards together and deal them all out. Uneven hands are fine and expected, the rulebook says so. Put the envelope in the centre of the board.
8. Tear one sheet from the detective notepad for each player, hand out a pen, and mark off every card in your own hand. Those cards cannot be in the envelope.

Step 8 is the one that changes how the game feels. If you skip it you are guessing. If you do it, you are reading.

How Many Cards Each Player Gets

Players	Cards dealt out	Hands you end up with
2	17, because 4 cards start face down in rooms	9 and 8
3	21	7, 7, 7
4	21	6, 5, 5, 5
5	21	5, 4, 4, 4, 4
6	21	4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3

Read that table as the difficulty dial. Two players hold almost half the deck between them and solve it in minutes, six players hold a third of a card each and spend the whole game waiting for a room. The middle of the range is where the deduction is actually interesting.

How Do You Move and Make a Suggestion in Clue?

On your turn you roll the two dice and then take one or more of three actions: move, suggest, or accuse. The magnifying glass icon counts as 1 when you move, and you never have to use your full roll.

The movement rules that catch people:

• You move up to the number of squares you rolled, and “up to” includes staying exactly where you are. You are never stuck.
• No diagonals, no passing through the same square twice in a turn, and you cannot land on or pass through a square another token is on, doorways included.
• You do not have to enter a room on an exact count, but you do have to come in through a doorway nobody is blocking.
• If you start your turn already in a room, you do not have to move. You can stay and make your suggestion there, and if the room has a secret passage you can take it instead of moving.
• Landing in a hallway is the worst square in the game, because you cannot make a suggestion from one. You can still draw a Clue card if you rolled the magnifying glass, so it is not a dead turn, it is just a thin one.

The Nine Rooms and the Four Secret Passages

Every corner room has a trapdoor to the room diagonally opposite. This is the single most useful thing on the board and most first time players walk straight past it.

Room	Secret passage	Notes
Hall	None	Side room, no trapdoor
Lounge	Dining room	Corner, so one step reaches a second room
Dining room	Lounge	The other end of that passage
Kitchen	Study	The two hardest rooms to reach normally, joined by one move
Study	Kitchen	The other end of that passage
Ballroom	Conservatory	Corner to corner in a single step
Conservatory	Ballroom	The other end of that passage
Billiard room	Library	Corner, and one of the easiest rooms to reach
Library	Billiard room	The other end of that passage

The centre space, which people often call the cellar or the stairs, is not a room. Nobody can enter it and nobody suggests it. It exists to hold the envelope.

How a Suggestion Actually Works

A suggestion names three things: any character, the room you are standing in, and any weapon. You can name a card you are holding yourself. That sounds like a mistake and it is the most useful trick in the game.

1. Say it out loud, for example “I suggest Professor Plum, in the Library, with the wrench”.
2. Move the character token and the weapon token you named into that room. They stay there after your turn, and any number of tokens and weapons can share a room.
3. The player to your left looks at their hand. If they hold any of your three cards, they secretly show you one, and only you see it. If they hold more than one of the three, they choose which one you get to see.
4. If they hold none, the next player checks, and so on around the table.
5. Mark everything you were shown on your sheet. A shown card cannot be in the envelope.

If nobody shows you anything, all you have learned is that no other player holds any of those three cards. The rulebook’s own comment on this is “that’s okay”, and it is worth sitting with, because a lot of players treat an unproved suggestion as a win. It usually is not. With five players and three cards named, there is a good chance the case contains one of them and no player can prove it.

Naming your own cards is how you force a useful answer. If you hold the Library and you are standing in it, suggesting Plum in the Library with the candlestick makes the next player prove they do not have the Library, and the answer narrows your case whether they show you the Plum or the candlestick.

What Are the Clue Cards and How Do You Draw One?

The current box has 29 Clue cards, a separate deck that never goes into the envelope. They are the reason the modern game moves faster than the 1949 original.

• If you roll the magnifying glass icon, draw the top Clue card.
• Read it out loud and do what it says, then put it back at the bottom of the deck.
• If you roll two magnifying glasses you still draw only one card.
• If a Clue card makes a character, weapon, or room card visible to the table, mark it on your sheet.

That is the whole system. Clue cards do not score you points, they hand out information, and a card that makes somebody reveal a card is the best card in the deck. In the current edition a card might open a secret passage or let you name a weapon you want shown.

Older boxes do not have these at all. If your copy has no Clue cards and no magnifying glass face on the dice, you are playing the 1949 game and nothing in this section applies.

How Do You Accuse and Win in Clue?

You get exactly one accusation in Clue, you must make it on your own turn, and you must be standing in a room, though it does not have to be the room you name. Look in the envelope: if all three cards match, you win. If any one is wrong, you are out of the game, and if nobody at the table ever accuses correctly then nobody wins and the murderer gets away.

The accusation rules are short and they are where the old internet gets it wrong most often.

1. Say “I accuse [character], in [room], with [weapon]”.
2. Open the envelope secretly.
3. All three right, you win on the spot and you show everyone.
4. Any one wrong, put the cards back in the envelope without showing anyone.

One accusation per game. There is no second attempt, no appeal, and no majority vote.

You must be in a room to accuse, but the room you name can be any of the nine. Standing in the Hall accusing a murder in the Library is completely legal.

You can accuse straight after a suggestion, which is the most common way first time players win. You have just forced three people to prove they do not hold a card, and if you are down to one possibility, take the shot.

A wrong accusation does not silence you. You cannot move, you cannot suggest, and you cannot accuse again, but you must still show cards whenever another player suggests or a Clue card names you. Sitting out is not the same as leaving the table.

If everybody guesses wrong, nobody wins. The official rulebook is blunt about it: the murderer gets away. You will find Wikipedia and several rules blogs claiming the last player standing wins by default. That is not what the printed rules say, so plan for a game that ends with no winner rather than a consolation prize.

The Characters and Weapons

Character	Colour	Weapon
Miss Scarlett	Red	Candlestick
Colonel Mustard	Yellow	Dagger
Mayor Green	Green	Lead pipe
Chef White	White	Revolver
Solicitor Peacock	Blue	Rope
Professor Plum	Purple	Wrench

Those are the six characters and the six weapons, and with the nine rooms above they make 324 possible cases. A blind guess is roughly a 1 in 324 shot, which is the arithmetic that makes the notes worth writing.

The names move around between editions, and the current box is the most dramatic change yet. The 2023 rulebook gives every character a written backstory and a new title: Mrs. White is now Chef White, Mr. Green is now Mayor Green, and Mrs. Peacock is now Solicitor Peacock, while Miss Scarlett is spelled with two t’s again after decades with one. The 2016 edition briefly replaced Mrs. White with a character called Dr. Orchid, so if you find that pink pawn you are looking at a one edition box.

The victim also has a name now. The current story is Boden “Boddy” Black, and the setting is Tudor Mansion. The original 1949 game called the house Tudor Close, which is where the name comes from.

Weapons are the same six in every English edition, but the UK names them knife, lead piping, and spanner where North America says dagger, lead pipe, and wrench. Six characters times six weapons times nine rooms is 324 possible cases, so a blind guess is roughly a 1 in 324 shot. This is the arithmetic that makes the notes worth writing.

The Two Versions in the 2013 Box: Mansion and Boardwalk

If you are buying second hand, the version people ask about is the 2013 box, and it is genuinely different from what is on shelves now. It shipped a board with two sides with a second crime scene on the back and a Clue sheet for each side.

	2013 box, Mansion and Boardwalk	Current box, reimagined
Board	Two sided, the Mansion on one face and the Boardwalk on the other	One board, Tudor Mansion
Player count on the box	3 to 6	2 to 6
Clue cards	27 black Clue cards plus 3 red bonus cards	29 Clue cards, no bonus cards
Red bonus cards	Placed face up in assigned spots on the board for players to take, and each one does something: take a card from every player and mark it, pick a player who must show you two cards, or ask one extra question every turn for the rest of the game	Not in the box
Cards face up at the start	Three cards are turned face up for everyone in 4 and 6 player games	Nothing is face up
Clue sheet	A sheet for each version, so you need the right one for the side you are playing	One detective notepad
Scoring	None	None

The Boardwalk side is the same game on a beach scene with its own rooms, and the only real change is those three red bonus cards. They are a genuine bonus and not a gimmick, particularly the one that lets you ask an extra question every turn, but the 2013 box is a collector item now rather than something to plan a game night around.

There Is No Scoring in Clue

Worth saying plainly, because accessory listings sell Clue score sheets and search results promise a points system that does not exist. There are no points, no victory points, and no second place in any official version of Clue, in either the Mansion or the Boardwalk game.

What decides the game instead:

• Information. Every card shown to you removes a possibility. The player with the most accurate sheet, not the player with the most luck, is the one who accuses correctly.
• Room access. A suggestion is the only way to gather evidence, so where you can stand is worth as much as what you know.
• Timing. You can hold a solved case for a whole game waiting for a better moment, or accuse early and be wrong in public.

If your group wants a deduction game where a partial effort still scores something, Clue is the wrong box. Our Lost Cities review is the opposite shape, where every expedition you open costs you 20 points whether you win it or not.

How Many Players Is Clue Best For?

Three to five players is the sweet spot, and the card counts above are why. Everyone has a useful hand, there is enough suggestion traffic to fill your sheet, and nobody is sitting through four turns of doing nothing.

Two players works officially and it is a different game. Four cards go face down in rooms after setup, and you look at one when you enter the room. It is quicker and it is thinner, because there is only one person to disprove your suggestions.

Six players is playable and slow. With four cards each, most of the evening is movement, and a table of six kids will start guessing instead of thinking.

Is Clue Good for Kids?

Yes, from about 8, which is the age printed on the box, and the reason is that the game asks for nothing a 6 year old cannot do. Read a suggestion, look at a hand, decide what to cross off, decide whether you are confident enough to accuse. All of it is real.

Emma, at 10, is very good at Clue for one specific reason: she writes down who showed her what, not just what was shown. That single habit is the whole skill, and it took her about six games to notice she was doing it.

Where younger players struggle is the elimination. Alex, at 7, accused with two rooms left on the table, was wrong, and then had to sit and watch Emma solve it. He now waits until he has one room left, which is exactly the behaviour the game is supposed to teach.

The game also has a genuinely useful side effect, which is that it teaches the difference between a guess and an argument. If you want more games that build that same reasoning deliberately, our guide to problem solving board games covers the mechanism, and our deduction and guessing guide covers the lighter family versions of the same idea.

Our House Strategy, Not Official Rules

Everything above is the printed game. This part is what we actually do at the table, and none of it is in the rulebook.

1. Never suggest in a room you have already suggested in. You have to leave and come back, so the second suggestion in a room you already cleared is wasted movement unless you are blocking a door on purpose.
2. Name one of your own cards on purpose when you are nearly certain. It forces a reveal and tells you more than a safe suggestion does.
3. Treat an unproved suggestion as a fact, not a win. It means nobody holds those cards, which is real information and often the best you will get all turn.
4. Count suggestions, not accusations. When a player has made eight suggestions and shown you nothing, that is a pattern worth writing down.
5. Accuse early if you are down to one room. Clue cards and other players are also narrowing your case while you wait, and a correct accusation from a stale sheet is still a win.
6. For two players, use the two player variant but add a house rule. We place the four face down cards in the four corner rooms rather than at random, because the corner rooms are the ones connected by secret passages.

Which Version of Clue Should You Buy?

What you want	What to buy	Why
The current game, the one to buy	Clue	The 2023 reimagined box, 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, 29 Clue cards, the same deduction game everyone remembers
A gift that looks expensive	Clue Signature Collection	The premium packaging edition with metal tokens and notepad shields, same game underneath
A younger child, ages 5 and up	Clue Junior	Hasbro simplified version for small players, no murder, and a much shorter game
The version with a second crime scene	Clue 2013 Mansion and Boardwalk edition	Two sided board and 3 red bonus cards, mostly found second hand now
A game with modern dice free movement	Nothing official, use a house variant	There is no dice free Clue in the current Hasbro line. If the dice irritate you, the community no dice variant gives each player 9 moves a turn, 1 move per space and 3 moves to suggest, accuse, or take a passage

• Similarities: Deduction, note taking, one player accusing a room full of liars.
• Differences: Clue is roll and move and luck decides how often you get to ask a question. A modern deduction game gives you the questions directly.
• Why this game fans will enjoy it: If you love the logic and hate the waiting, a game that hands out the same information without the dice is a better fit for your group.

Clue FAQs

How many players does Clue need? Two to six on the current box, which Hasbro rates for ages 8 and up. The 2013 box says 3 to 6. Three to five players is the sweet spot, because everyone holds a useful hand and nobody waits through four empty turns.

How do you win in Clue? By making one correct accusation naming the character, the weapon, and the room in the envelope. You get exactly one accusation per game, you must make it on your own turn, and you must be standing in a room, though not necessarily the one you name.

What happens if you guess wrong in Clue? You are out of the game. You cannot move, suggest, or accuse again, but you must still show cards when other players make suggestions. If every player guesses wrong, nobody wins and the murderer gets away.

Can you make a suggestion from a hallway? No. The room you name in a suggestion has to be the room you are standing in, and hallways are not rooms. The centre space where the envelope sits cannot be entered or suggested either.

How many solutions are there in Clue? There are 324, which is 6 characters times 6 weapons times 9 rooms. A blind guess is about a 1 in 324 shot, which is why writing on the detective sheet is not optional.

How many cards are in Clue? The current box has 50 cards: 6 character, 6 weapon, 9 room, and 29 Clue cards. Three cards go into the envelope and the other 21 are dealt out, so hands run from 9 cards each at two players down to 3 or 4 each at six.

How do the Clue cards work? Roll the magnifying glass icon on one of the dice, draw the top Clue card, read it out loud, do what it says, and put it back at the bottom of the deck. Two magnifying glass icons still draws only one card. Clue cards give away information rather than points.

Can you play Clue with two players? Yes, and Hasbro prints it. After setup step five, four of the remaining cards go face down in four rooms, corner rooms for a faster game, and you look at the card when you enter the room. The rest of the game plays exactly the same.

Does Clue have points or scoring? No. There are no points in any official version of Clue, in either the Mansion game or the Boardwalk game. You win by accusing correctly, and if nobody accuses correctly then nobody wins.

The Verdict on Clue

Clue is a five minute setup wrapped around one clean idea: three hidden cards, and every question you ask cuts the list down. The rules are short, the sheet does the thinking for you, and the game rewards a seven year old who crosses things off properly more than it rewards a grown up who guesses loudly. That is a good trade.

The two things to know before you buy it are both about the same thing. You only get one accusation, so treat it like a real decision rather than a lucky guess. And a wrong one takes you out, which is the reason some children love this game and the reason some never want to play it again. Get those two right and you have a family staple that costs nothing, needs no batteries, and finishes before the film.

If Clue is the version of deduction your group already loves, our secret deduction essentials list is the harder end of the same genre, and Hues and Cues is the same clue giving, stripped of the murder. If you want a murder mystery that runs on betrayal rather than logic, our Betrayal at House on the Hill guide keeps the same house and swaps the deduction for a traitor. If you want the deduction without the dice, Outfoxed runs on reading cards instead of moving pieces, and our escape room puzzle guide covers the cooperative version of the same story. For a night with a lot of people around the table, our 80s and 90s retro games guide is where Clue sits in its own era, and our dice and randomness guide explains why rolling to ask a question still works after seventy years.