The imposter’s hint is usually the one that fits a second word better than the word the rest of the lineup agrees on. The imposter was shown two words, the secret word and a fake word, and picked a hint that pulls toward the fake one while staying just possible for the real one. So you’re not looking for a hint that’s wrong. You’re looking for one that leans.

What is the imposter trying to do?

To pull you toward the fake word without getting caught. Put yourself in their shoes: you’re shown VOLCANO, and your fake word is GLACIER. A blatant hint like ICE would be caught in a second, because it points so plainly away from a volcano. So you pick FROZEN. It shouts glacier, but some volcanoes really do have frozen tops, so it isn’t impossible. That’s the imposter’s whole craft: fit the fake word strongly and the real word just enough.

Honest writers can make it harder, too, by picking a hint that fits both words, like ICELAND, which has volcanoes and glaciers. So many lineups have some honest doubt in them, and the imposter hides behind it. Your job is to tell a hint that fits both apart from a hint that leans the wrong way.

Who is lying?

Fits only one wordAn honest hint fits the secret word. A hint that fits a near neighbor better (BOW for a guitar case) leans the imposter's way.
Two words, one lineupFind the two words the lineup could mean. The hints that fit only the odd one out are your suspects.
Too vague, too cleverAn imposter hides in hints that fit everything. A hint that commits to nothing is worth a second look.
The fake-word guessGuessing the fake word costs a guess, but the game tells you it was the fake word, so you learn what the imposter was aiming at.
Ask the right questionPick a question whose answer differs between your two words, and ask the suspect you doubt.
Maybe no oneOn a paranoia day there may be no imposter, or two. If every hint fits, "No one lied" can be right.

Six ways into a lineup, all around one question.

The map shows six ways into a lineup. The nine tells below break them down, roughly in the order you’ll use them: first by reading the placards, then with help from the game.

Tell 1: It’s the odd one out

Read every placard before you guess, and ask what each one points at. Usually most of them gather around one picture, and one belongs to a different picture.

In the example lineup, CRATER and SMOKE paint a volcano, and ICELAND fits a volcano too. FROZEN is the only placard from a cold picture. That makes it the first suspect.

This tell is fast, but don’t stop at it. A sly imposter picks a hint that blends in, and an honest writer sometimes picks a sideways hint that looks odd at first. Use the odd one out to choose a suspect, then test that suspect with the other tells.

Tell 2: It points at a word of the same length

The game tells you how many letters the secret word has, and the fake word always has the same number. That turns counting into a real tool.

When you suspect a placard, name the word it seems to point at and count its letters. FROZEN suggests snow, ice, a glacier. Of those, only GLACIER has seven letters, like VOLCANO, and a glacier is just the kind of thing a volcano gets mixed up with. When the word a placard points at fits the letter count but isn’t the word the others point at, you’ve probably found both the imposter and the fake word.

Tell 3: It leans one way while the others fit both

Some hints fit both words evenly, and some lean. Take a TIGER case where the fake word is ZEBRA. STRIPES fits both animals, so on its own it tells you almost nothing. HORSE is different. A zebra looks like a striped horse, and a tiger is nothing like one. If the rest of the lineup points at a big cat, HORSE is leaning toward the zebra.

For each placard, ask: does this fit both of the words I’m considering, or one of them much better? A lean toward the word the lineup isn’t pointing at is the one thing an imposter can’t avoid: pulling that way is their job.

Tell 4: It names something that goes with the other word

One sly kind of imposter hint names a tool, a partner or a body part that goes with the fake word. Hints like that feel innocent because they’re so ordinary.

PIZZA, with PASTA as the fake word: FORK. You can eat pizza with a fork, but you rarely need one. Pasta is hard to eat without one.
GUITAR, with VIOLIN as the fake word: BOW. A violin is played with a bow. A guitar is played with your fingers or a pick.
PHONE, with WATCH as the fake word: WRIST. A watch lives on your wrist. A phone lives in your hand or your pocket.

When a placard names something you’d use or wear with a thing, ask which of your two words really needs it.

Tell 5: Nobody who knew the word would pick it first

Honest writers know the secret word and want you to find it, even when they pick a sly hint. Their list of hints is made to lead to the secret word: for VOLCANO, think LAVA, ASH and MAGMA. FROZEN doesn’t belong in that company. It’s true of some volcanoes, but nobody trying to help you find one would offer it.

So for each placard, ask what the writer was trying to do. An honest hint can come at the word sideways, but it still leads toward the secret word. An imposter’s hint leads somewhere else and only pretends to lead home.

Tell 6: It argues with a true hint

The game’s true hints never lie, and the first one is written to be true of the secret word and false of the fake word. That makes it a test you can hold every placard up to.

In the example, the first true hint is “It’s hot inside.” Set it next to the placards. CRATER and SMOKE sit happily with heat, and ICELAND, for all its ice, is full of volcanoes and hot springs. FROZEN doesn’t fit at all. When a placard and the first true hint can’t both describe the same thing, trust the true hint.

The second true hint, the first letter, works the same way. “It starts with V” rules out GLACIER, so a placard that only makes sense for a glacier is in trouble.

Each true hint costs a point, so buy one when it would change what you do next, not out of habit. They’re only on offer while you still have guesses left.

Tell 7: It’s the hint that led you to the fake word

Sometimes the clearest tell comes from a wrong guess. If you guess the imposter’s fake word, the game tells you so, with a little devil face, and the guess is used up. It’s the most useful miss you can make.

Now you know the fake word, so look back at the placards and ask which one pulled you there. If you guessed GLACIER because of FROZEN, FROZEN has just given itself away. And since the fake word is always the secret word’s close mix-up, you also know roughly where the real answer is.

You can even guess the likely fake word on purpose, as a test, when you have guesses to spare. If you solve the case afterward, it costs you a point of guess score, but it can turn a hunch about the liar into near certainty.

Tell 8: Its answer fits the other word

Your one question is the nearest thing SUS has to a lie detector. Honest suspects answer about the secret word, and the imposter answers about the fake word. The trick is choosing a question that the two words answer differently.

Is it alive?
Can you eat it?
Is it bigger than a person?
Can you hold it in one hand?
Is it made by people?
Is it mostly found outdoors?
Is it hot?
Does it make a sound?
Is it round?
Do people wear it?
Does it use electricity?
Is it found in or on water?
Does it move by itself?
Is it sweet?
Can it hurt you?
Do most people use it every day?

The 16 questions you can put to one suspect, once per case.

Some worked examples:

VOLCANO or GLACIER: “Is it hot?” A volcano is hot and a glacier isn’t, so an honest suspect says YES and the imposter says NO. “Does it move by itself?” splits them too, the other way around: a glacier slowly flows downhill, and a volcano stays put.
MOON or STAR: “Is it hot?” again. A star is blazing hot, and the moon isn’t. If the lineup points at the moon and your suspect says YES, it may be answering for a star, perhaps from behind a placard that says TWINKLE.
PHONE or WATCH: “Do people wear it?” A watch, yes. A phone, no.
PIZZA or PASTA: “Is it round?” A pizza usually is, and spaghetti isn’t.

And some questions to skip: “Is it bigger than a person?” for VOLCANO and GLACIER, “Can you eat it?” for PIZZA and PASTA, “Can you hold it in one hand?” for PHONE and WATCH. Every suspect gives the same answer, honest or not, and your one question is gone.

Ask your top suspect, usually. An answer that fits the secret word clears them, at least on that question. An answer that fits the fake word is close to a confession. If you can’t decide between two suspects, ask the one whose answer would change your mind the most.

Tell 9: It has a partner, or nobody is lying

Most daily cases have exactly one imposter, but paranoia days break that rule: some daily cases have no imposter, and some have two. The game never says which, so watch for the shapes they leave behind.

Two placards lean the same wrong way. Two imposters are shown the same fake word, so they pull in the same direction. If FROZEN and another placard both point at something icy, you may be looking at two liars. Accuse both.
Nothing leans at all. If every placard fits the secret word comfortably and none points anywhere else, “No one lied” may be the answer.
Your fake word isn’t one. If you guess what you’re sure is the imposter’s fake word and the game just says it’s wrong, with no devil face, then either the imposter was pulling somewhere else, or no one lied today.

Every Sunday, the Big Case takes the guesswork out of the count: six suspects and always two imposters, both pulling toward the same fake word. Look for the pair that agrees with each other and not with the rest.

A word of caution: paranoia days are the exception. If you accuse two suspects or no one every day, you’ll give away points on all the days with exactly one imposter. Save it for lineups that really look that way.

What isn’t a tell?

Fitting both words, on its own. ICELAND for VOLCANO, CHEESE for PIZZA, STRIPES for TIGER: a hint that fits both can just as well be an honest writer making the case harder. A hint that fits everything deserves a second look, as the map says, but accuse the one that leans.
Its place in the lineup. The game shuffles the placards, so suspect No. 1 is no more likely to lie than No. 4.
A place name. Names like ICELAND or HAWAII are allowed as hints. Judge them like any other word.
A hint you wouldn’t have picked. Writers choose from a list, and people like different hints. Strange isn’t the same as lying.

Practice on the example case

The practice case below is the VOLCANO lineup from this page. You already know the answer, which makes it a good place to try the moves without pressure: guess GLACIER on purpose to see the devil face, buy the first true hint, ask FROZEN “Is it hot?”, guess VOLCANO, then accuse. Nothing is saved.

Practice case · nothing is saved

Read the placards: each suspect holds a one-word hint.
Guess the secret word. You get 3 tries.
Stuck? Buy a true hint (−1 point) or question one suspect.
Point at the liar, or say no one lied.

CRATERNo. 1

FROZENNo. 2

SMOKENo. 3

ICELANDNo. 4

The practice case needs JavaScript switched on.

A worked case, start to finish

Here’s how a careful player might handle the VOLCANO case for real:

Read the lineup. CRATER, FROZEN, SMOKE, ICELAND, and the word has seven letters. Three placards point at a volcano. FROZEN points at something icy (tells 1 and 3).
Count. What icy thing has seven letters? GLACIER, a natural mix-up for a volcano. That’s very likely the fake word (tell 2).
Guess. VOLCANO on the first try: solved, for 3 points.
Ask. Question FROZEN: “Is it hot?” It says NO, and an honest suspect would say YES for a volcano (tell 8).
Accuse. Name FROZEN. Caught the imposter: 2 more points, for a perfect 5 out of 5.

Not every case is that tidy. On a harder day you might not be sure of the word, so you’d buy the first true hint before your second guess, or guess the likely fake word as a test. The tells work the same way. You just lean on more of them.

Updated 29 October 2026