Every tile in Cryptune belongs to one of six families, and recognising which one you are looking at is most of the work. A clue you cannot solve is often a clue you have categorised wrongly, because each type responds to a completely different kind of thinking and none of them responds to the others.
These pages take each type in turn: what it is, why it exists, how to spot one, and several worked examples pulled out of the real puzzle file with a note on what makes each one tick.
The distribution is heavily lopsided, and knowing that is useful in itself. One type accounts for the majority of every clue in the game, which makes it the correct default assumption when you have nothing else to go on. The rarest type appears on fewer than one puzzle in fifteen, which makes it a poor first guess and a genuine pleasure when it turns up.
A word on fairness, since it is the thing that separates a cryptic clue from a riddle. Every clue in Cryptune points at its word by a route you could have taken yourself. There are no clues that depend on knowing a fact you could not have known, and none that only make sense once you already have the answer. If a clue in the game fails that test, it is a mistake rather than a design, and the contact page exists partly so those can be reported.
New to the game entirely? Start with how to play, which covers scoring and the basic loop.