How to play Clue

What you need

• The Clue board, showing the nine rooms of Mr. Boddy's mansion: Kitchen, Ballroom, Conservatory, Dining Room, Billiard Room, Library, Lounge, Hall and Study.
• Six suspect tokens: Miss Scarlet (red), Colonel Mustard (yellow), Mrs. White (white), Mr. Green (green), Mrs. Peacock (blue) and Professor Plum (purple).
• Six miniature weapons: Rope, Lead Pipe, Knife, Wrench, Candlestick and Revolver.
• 21 cards: one for each suspect, weapon and room.
• The "Case File" envelope, one die, and a detective notebook sheet and pencil for every player.

A clipboard or a book to lean on helps. Notes have to stay private, and a sheet folded in half on the table is easy to glance at.

Missing pieces, or need a fresh copy? Miniature Market stocks current editions; compare the edition and component list against the rules here before you buy. (Affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How links work.)

Set up the game

1. Take a token. Find the START space with a suspect's name nearest you and use that suspect. If fewer than six people are playing, put the unused suspects on their start spaces anyway. They are still suspects and can be moved into rooms.
2. Place the weapons, each in a different room. Any six of the nine rooms will do.
3. Put the empty envelope on the X in the middle of the board.
4. Build the solution. Sort the cards into suspects, rooms and weapons, shuffle each pile face down, and without anyone looking, slide the top card of each pile into the envelope.
5. Deal the rest. Shuffle the remaining 18 cards together and deal them face down clockwise. Some players may get one more card than others. That is fine.
6. Mark your own cards. Take a notebook sheet, fold it so nobody can see, and check off the cards in your hand. They cannot be in the envelope.
7. Miss Scarlet always goes first. Play then passes to the left.

Playing Clue, turn by turn

1. Move. Roll the die and move that many squares, horizontally or vertically but never diagonally. You can change direction, but you may not enter the same square twice in a turn or move onto a square another token occupies. If you start your turn in a corner room, you may take the secret passage to the opposite corner instead of rolling: Kitchen and Study connect, and so do Conservatory and Lounge.
2. Enter a room. Rooms are entered through doors. The doorway does not count as a square, and you stop as soon as you enter, even if your roll had spaces left. You may not go through a door blocked by another token, and you may not leave and re-enter the same room in one turn.
3. Make a suggestion. When you enter a room, bring one suspect token and one weapon into it, and say, for example: "I suggest it was Mr. Green, in the Lounge, with the Wrench." The room must be the one you are in. You may name a suspect or weapon that is already there, and you may name cards from your own hand.
4. Opponents try to disprove it. The player on your left checks their hand. If they have any of the three cards you named, they must show you exactly one, privately. If they have none, the player on their left checks, and so on. As soon as one player shows a card, stop. Nobody else checks.
5. Record what you learned. Check the card off, and it helps to write the initials of the person who showed it. If nobody could show a card, you may end your turn or make an accusation.
6. Accuse when you are sure. On your turn, say "I accuse (suspect) of committing the crime in the (room) with the (weapon)." For an accusation you may name any room. Then look secretly at the envelope.
7. Right or wrong. If all three cards match, lay them out and you win. If any one is wrong, put them back secretly. You cannot win now and make no more moves, but you stay at the table and keep showing cards to disprove others' suggestions. Others may still move your token into rooms. If your token is blocking a door, move it into that room.

Movement rules that come up mid-game

• You may make only one suggestion after entering a room. To suggest again you must enter a different room, or leave and come back on a later turn. You may not skip a turn just to stay put.
• If someone's suggestion moved your token into a room, on your next turn you may either move normally or make a suggestion in that room without rolling.
• If other tokens block every door of your room, you must wait until a door clears.
• Any number of suspects and weapons can share a room.

Detective habits that solve cases faster

1. Track what people don't have. Every player who passes on a suggestion tells you they hold none of those three cards. Beginners record only the cards they are shown and miss half their information.
2. Write down suggestions you only overhear. When Ben shows Dee a card, you learn Ben holds at least one of three. Later, when you rule out two of them, the third must be Ben's.
3. Name your own cards to test the others. Suggesting a room you hold, as in the sample, guarantees nobody shows the room, so whatever comes back is about the suspect or weapon.
4. Lock in what you know and test one thing at a time. Once two parts are proven, keep naming them; the only card anyone can show you is the unknown one.
5. Plan your route to rooms you need. Secret passages save turns. Rooms near the center of the edges are reachable from several directions.
6. Use suggestions to move rivals. Naming another player's suspect drags their token into your room, which can pull them away from where they wanted to be. It also works as a bluff, because other players note what you ask about.
7. Accuse only when the grid is certain. One wrong accusation ends your chances. If two rooms remain, one more suggestion is almost always worth the turn.

Where Clue games go wrong

"Nobody could disprove it, so all three cards are in the envelope."

Only if none of the three are in your own hand. If you named one of your own cards, it is not in the envelope. The others are.

"I'll make a suggestion about the Kitchen from the Hall."

Not allowed. A suggestion must name the room your token is in. Only an accusation can name any room.

"I have two of the cards, so I'll show both."

Show exactly one, your choice, and only to the player who made the suggestion.

"Everyone checks their hand and the first match shows."

Checking goes in order from the suggester's left, and it stops at the first player who shows a card.

"I made a wrong accusation, so I'm out and I'll put my cards away."

No. You keep your cards and keep disproving others' suggestions. Taking your cards out of play would make the game impossible to solve.

"I'll stay in this room and suggest again next turn."

You may make only one suggestion per entry, and you cannot skip a turn to stay. The exception is when someone else's suggestion moved you there.

"Can I suggest my own character?"

Yes. Every suspect, including yours, is equally under suspicion.

Popular variants and house rules

• Leftover cards face up (house rule). When the 18 cards do not divide evenly, some tables set aside the extra cards face up for everyone to see, so hands are equal. It slightly shortens the game.
• Roll-free movement for kids (house rule). Move up to six squares instead of rolling. Fewer wasted turns for younger players.
• Partner detectives (house rule). Pairs share one hand and one notes sheet and whisper together. It is the easiest way to include a child under eight.
• Two-player Clue (house rule). The 1986 rules are for 3 to 6. Some families play two-handed by dealing a third "dummy" hand that each player can query. It works, but it is not in the rulebook, so agree on how the dummy answers.
• Newer editions (publisher variants). Some later Clue sets add characters, cards or different movement. Use the rules from the box you own if they differ.

Running your first case in five minutes

1. "Three cards are hidden in this envelope: one person, one weapon, one room. First to name all three correctly wins."
2. "The cards in your hand are innocent. Tick them off on your sheet."
3. "On your turn, roll and walk toward a room. Corner rooms have secret passages to the opposite corner."
4. "When you get into a room, make a suggestion: a person, a weapon, and the room you're standing in. Move those pieces into the room."
5. "The person on your left shows you one of those cards if they can, secretly. If they can't, the next person tries. As soon as someone shows a card, stop."
6. "Write down everything, including who couldn't show anything."
7. "When you're sure, make an accusation on your turn and peek in the envelope. Wrong, and you can't win, but you still show cards."

For the first round, everyone says aloud what they could deduce after each suggestion. It teaches the notebook faster than any explanation.

Ages and group size

The box says ages 8 to adult, for 3 to 6 players. Eight-year-olds manage it well if they can read the cards and are willing to keep notes; younger children do best as part of a pair. Four to six players gives the richest deduction because more people are answering suggestions. With three, each player holds six cards and the game moves quickly. Expect 45 to 60 minutes; a table of experienced players can close a case in about half an hour.

Clue questions players ask

Sources and edition notes

Classic 1986 Clue rules: six suspects including Mrs. White, nine rooms, one die, 3–6 players. Newer Clue editions may add cards, characters, movement rules or two-player variants. Setup, movement, suggestions, accusations and the special notes on suggestions follow the Hasbro classic instructions. The secret passage pairs follow the classic board layout. Strategy, the worked deduction and the variants marked as house rules are common practice, not rulebook text.

Sources rechecked October 22, 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• Hasbro: classic Clue instructions (PDF)
• Hasbro: Clue 1986 edition instructions (PDF)

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