One Clear Day Complete Walkthrough: Ten Cases, Four Endings, and the One Blank Square
Spoiler warning: this article gives the correct board face for all ten cases, the four secret lines, the four endings, and every number. On a first run, read sections 1, 2, and 8 first, and leave the case-by-case answers until you are truly stuck.
Every figure here can be counted in the game itself: the squares on the roster, the number of RAIN days in thirteen years, the pulls you have left. The game is at https://clear-day.gamestrategists.com/ and the main site at https://gamestrategists.com/ .
1. What Kind of Game This Is
One Clear Day is a first-party keyword-search ARG, a single-page state machine in the browser. There is no countdown, no jump scare, no fill-in-the-blank, no fake browser, and no fake terminal. The place is one and only one: the gatehouse of Bailu Primary School and the Weather Corner beside it. A weather board of dawn redwood hangs in the window, put up in 1998, with one character cut into each of its two faces. You come back in 2026 to look into a small thing: for 4,748 days in a row, the board has never once been turned to RAIN. Bailu sits in the lower Yangtze region, with roughly 130 rainy days a year. Thirteen years without a single one is not an arithmetic problem. Every time you pull an original document, one more part of the site goes dark for good; at the end of it, on the 12 July 2013 duty roster, the duty-pupil square is still blank. Whoever signs it serves that one day. One day only.
This is a standalone world. It shares no characters, settings, or locations with the site's other titles, and you do not need to have played any of them. It plays the way the rest of the site does — keyword search, four acts, a few clickable words under each record, Chinese and English — but the story is new. There is no cross-title link to find elsewhere.
The site has five pages: Home, Weather Corner archive, Duty Room, Guestbook, and About. Three people matter, all verifiable: Chen Shouyi (the gatehouse, since 1987), Xu Yan (staff no. 0417, arrived in autumn 2011 to teach science, deactivated 2013-08-20), and you (class of 2013, fifth in the third row; on 2013-07-12 it was your turn at duty and you did not go). That day brought a downpour, 68 mm for the day, a district outage at 23:41 lasting 47 minutes, 21 cm of standing water in the switch room, and at 00:40 the medical room logged a seven-year-old boy with mild hypothermia and a blank name field.
2. The Four Moves: Read, Search, Flip, Sign
Read and Search
Read: the five pages; note down any noun you meet. Search: type the word into the search box and the matching record opens. Flip: each case asks what that day's board face is, CLEAR or RAIN. The board has only two faces, CLEAR and RAIN; rule two says overcast counts as clear, snow as rain. The correct face comes from evidence, not from a moral choice: you are checking against the original, not changing the weather. A wrong flip returns one line and can be retried. Sign: once all ten are flipped, the finale decides what to do with the day.
There are also a few words under each record that fill the term in for you, plus three tiers of hints. Seven rules sit in the rule book; the four worth remembering are 2, 3, 4, and 7:
| Rule | Point | Use in this guide |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Two faces only, CLEAR and RAIN; overcast counts as clear, snow as rain | Why the first four squares are CLEAR |
| 3 | Sign after flipping, with the date; no square may be left blank | Why the square sat empty for thirteen years, and the reason to sign it |
| 4 | Copy the rain gauge as it reads, never from the board | Why Act Three onward flips to RAIN |
| 7 | The board must never be left blank (the only rule with no explanation) | Written by the same hand as the carving on the board's back |
The rule book is signed "Drafted by Xu Yan, Science; copied by Chen Shouyi". The two threads only meet in Act Four: the blank square was not an omission, it was left for someone to come back and fill.
Six Pulls, Never Returned
From Act Three you pull original documents: one pull flips one square, never returned. The quota is six, exactly the six RAIN squares. Running out does not block progress and the rules do not punish you; what is irreversible is the square itself — a flipped square has no second turn. Progress stays on this machine, and how many squares you have flipped is worked out from what you actually did, not from a number a save file claims.
3. All Ten Cases, Case by Case
The first 4 squares are CLEAR, the last 6 RAIN; the first four land in Acts One and Two, and from Act Three you turn them to RAIN yourself. Keywords, faces, and evidence below are the data's own values. English search terms come from each case's keywordsEn.
| No. | Case | Search keywords | Correct face | Key evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Today: Clear | today clear / today / Zhou Xiangxiang | CLEAR | The printed sheet in the window: "4,748 clear days in a row"; today's square on the roster and the board both say CLEAR; rule two |
| 014 | 4,748 clear days in a row | clear streak / 4748 / four thousand seven hundred | CLEAR | A small line on the count sheet: "counted from 12 July 2013"; 13 x 365 + 3 = 4,748; Bailu gets about 130 rainy days a year |
| 027 | Who scored the scale | Xu Yan / science class | CLEAR | The 1998 equipment card says "Xu Yan", but she arrived only in 2011; that line was added later, its ink newer, the original name erased; Chen says "Copied it onto the wrong line" |
| 041 | The blue umbrella in the cupboard | blue umbrella / umbrella / lost property | CLEAR | Registration no. 2013-07-12-01, paper tag "2013.7.12"; the umbrella is dry, opened to dry then folded away; "collected by" blank for thirteen years |
| 058 | 12 July 2013, the original | July twelfth / original / log book | RAIN | The log was soaked; under CLEAR show a horizontal, a vertical, four dots, the character RAIN, written first and later covered with CLEAR; rule four says copy as it reads; station downpour 68 mm |
| 063 | Who was on duty that night | duty rota / Xu Yan / Chen Shouyi | RAIN | The duty-pupil square blank, erased over and over; on 12 July duty read "Xu Yan, Chen Shouyi"; the calendar's damp back brings up "heavy rain / 68 mm / from 23:41" |
| 077 | The commendation list | commendation list / all staff | RAIN | Line three of the draft struck out with a thick pen, the last character "Yan" readable against the lamp; a slip reads "finding not yet issued; no individual to be listed"; only page one of the night log was attached |
| 089 | The incident finding | incident finding / improper operation / finding | RAIN | Conclusion: "duty staff member X entered the basement switch room without authorisation and died of electrocution"; page two, with "heard someone calling from the playground" and "the child is fine", was not attached; the playground gate was electrically locked and jammed in the outage |
| 102 | Thirteen volumes | recopied / thirteen volumes / Chen Shouyi | RAIN | Steel cupboard, 2014-2026, thirteen volumes, 4,748 squares, all CLEAR, and every CLEAR in one person's hand; recopied when damp, two evenings a volume, twenty-six evenings in all |
| 110 | The back of the board | back of the board / take down / make-up duty | RAIN | The RAIN face hung toward the wall for thirteen years, wood dry, the cut still sharp; the back is carved "whoever signs it serves that one day. One day only.", dated 1998, in the rule book's hand |
The easy ones to get wrong are the first four: they go by what the board said that day, not by whether it actually rained. For 014 the arithmetic is right; what is wrong is thirteen years without a single RAIN, and the guide only checks, it does not change the weather. 058 is the dividing line: under CLEAR the strokes of RAIN show through, rule four says copy as it reads, this square is RAIN — and the moment you flip it, the whole site cuts over.
Once all ten squares are settled, the finale opens. Page 111, "Sign the Square", places no card itself; it is the pencil, read it and you reach the choice. After finishing there is one more page, "Extra page · the next morning", 07:50 on 13 July 2026, the printed sheet now reading 4,750; it is not counted among the ten.
4. The Surface World and the Inner World
The First Rain: A Hard Cut With No Transition
The surface world is a grey-walled noticeboard, blue-black ink, sans-serif headings, a child's plane-tree drawing. The inner world is dark blue-black, one red duty lamp, water stains on the page. There is no transition: the instant 058 turns to RAIN, one frame of pure black, then straight into the inner world, no sound, no fade, window, desk and the drawing on the wall all dark at once. This is not a cutscene, it is a hard cut.
Seven Notches Down, and Reopening Comes Back Damp
After that, every further RAIN darkens the site one more notch, seven in all. The pool the red lamp throws shrinks notch by notch, down to a point at 110. Every record also carries a second, water-damaged body: once the site goes dark, reopening it shows the damp version, not a fresh copy. On the note "Leave it be" has bled; the plane tree's green runs to the paper's lower edge; the middle two rows of the class photo dissolve into a pale blur. Home, guestbook, and images all switch to a "the same objects, soaked" counterpart, not a fresh set of illustrations. So after Act Three, when you go back to the warm pages of Act One, they are already wet. Nobody else did it. You turned them, one page at a time.
5. Four Secret Lines and the Hidden Ending Key
All four secrets sit off the main line, opened only by one of those clickable words, or a word you think of yourself. They are not counted among the ten cases; one of them opens the hidden ending directly.
| The page is called | You need to have read | How to find it, and what it says |
|---|---|---|
| Who said "nobody blames you" first | 089, "The incident finding" | On 089, click "nobody blames you". The torn half-line from the medical register turned up in the waste basket: the child kept asking "was it me", and the nurse said what Chen taught her, "Nothing happened today. Nobody blames anyone", three times before he slept. The five lines in the guestbook are that one sentence across thirteen years |
| The keys at the switch room door | "Who said 'nobody blames you' first" | On that page, click "keys". Five keys at the switch room door, a paper tag whose back leaves four characters: "the door is open". She did not go in to get in; she cut the main switch so the playground gate could be opened from outside |
| The third name | Both "The square" and "The eraser in the tin" | See the route below. Three dents, same pencil, same hand: the pressure of a seven-year-old writing his own name |
| The back of the leave form | Both "The third name" and "A slip of paper behind the board" | The hidden ending key; see below |
How to reach "The back of the leave form"
This chain breaks most easily, so it is spelled out. That page opens only once you have read both "The third name" and "A slip of paper behind the board" — and "The third name" itself needs both "The square" and "The eraser in the tin" read first. In order:
- After 063 "Who was on duty that night" turns to RAIN, click "blank square" for "The square"; hold the page at an angle to the red lamp and two characters rise out of the erasure as dents.
- On 102 "Thirteen volumes", click "Mr Chen", then "eraser", for "The eraser in the tin". It rubbed out the duty roster, the class list behind the photo, the medical register's name field, and the 1998 line on the personnel card.
- With both "The square" and the eraser read, click "third name" inside "The square", and only then does "The third name" open.
- The other branch: on 110 "The back of the board", click "leave form" for "A slip of paper behind the board", its reason line blank on the front.
- On "The third name", click "reason", and with that slip of paper in hand "The back of the leave form" opens: turn it over, and low on the back, in pencil, "It is my duty today. If only I could swap one day. Just one."
She wanted one day too, and the carving on the board's back never says the signer has to be you. The finale offers three options; find this line and a fourth, "Give Her the Day", appears.
6. Four Endings: Conditions and Costs
"One day only" is no gift from above; its source is carved on the back of the wooden board. In 1998 someone cut: "The 12 July square on the duty roster is blank. Whoever signs it serves that one day. One day only." Rule three ("no square may be left blank") and rule seven ("the board must never be left blank") were written by the same hand; the blank square was always left for someone to come back and fill. The carving predates 2013 and that night. You are not handed a miracle; you are allowed to stand the watch you once skipped. Each of the four choices is one way to spend that day.
| Option (stamp) | Where the day goes | The cost |
|---|---|---|
| Rain (Rewind) | Let 2013-07-12 replay 24 hours as it was; you do not go to school | On return the thirteen years are taken back too, and you step out of everyone's memory; the guestbook keeps only four "nobody blames" lines, and the thirteen volumes in the steel cupboard become one, with both clear days and rain |
| A Different Square (Rewrite) | Swap the "Xu Yan" square on the duty roster for your own seven-year-old name | At filing your name is wiped from the roster, the class list, and the medical register; she lives, remembering only that there was "a child" that July, never who, and asks Chen three times |
| As It Was (Keep) | Do not spend the day; hang the board back in the window, still CLEAR, cord tied with four knots | No miracle. You stay to take over from Chen, turning rain to clear for everyone every day, learning to lean the first stroke of CLEAR slightly left, and become the next author of this story |
| Give Her the Day (hidden) | Finish the leave form she never handed in and submit it for her (approval signed "proxy" under rule six) | She spends that one day living a whole life: turns RAIN at 7:50, shows Grade 3 the rain gauge, lends the umbrella to a child who forgot his; she signs the 12 July square herself and finally serves that watch |
All four endings are written as actions, as what is still on the desk the next morning. The fourth appears only after you have turned to "The back of the leave form".
7. The Numbers, Checked
The numbers scattered through the guide, gathered here so you can check them, with nothing newly calculated.
| Item | Value | Where you can see it in the game |
|---|---|---|
| Records | 42 | Four acts 7+9+12+8, plus 4 secrets, 1 signing page, 1 extra page |
| Cases | 10 | 001 / 014 / 027 / 041 / 058 / 063 / 077 / 089 / 102 / 110 |
| Acts and their split | 4 acts, 1-3-4-2 | Each act head says so: One 1 case, Two 3, Three 4, Four 2 |
| Pull quota | 6 | Exactly the six RAIN squares, never returned; the search desk shows how many are left |
| Endings | 4 (1 hidden) | Rewind / A Different Square / Keep / Give Her the Day |
| Clear streak | 4,748 = 13 x 365 + 3 | 2013-07-12 to 2026-07-12, leap years 2016 / 2020 / 2024 |
| Downpour that day | 68 mm | The copy page and the calendar's damp version; district outage at 23:41 for 47 minutes |
| AI-generated images | 19 | Surface 8 / inner 8 / finale 2 / og 1, each labelled as AI-generated |
A few more that line up: the spring roster has 181 squares, all signed; Xu Yan's contract ran to 2014-07 but she was deactivated 2013-08-20, eleven months early; the only door record left is 2013-07-12 23:47, "entry, no exit". These are not puzzle answers; they just pin the story down.
8. When You Get Stuck
- The clickable words: each record has a few underneath; one click fills the search box and jumps to the matching record.
- Three tiers of hints: every square has three, from a direction ("look at the sheet in the window, then at today's square on the roster") to something concrete ("rule two, rule four") to the answer straight ("this square is CLEAR / RAIN"). Open them one at a time; no penalty.
- A wrong flip is not punished: turning the board wrong returns one line that pushes you back to the evidence, for example "The board says CLEAR and so does the roster"; you can retry. All that is kept is the squares you settled, not how many times you were wrong.
- The search box knows a few extra words: "weather", "thanks", "Xu Yan", "0417", "4748", "rain", "one day", "Mr Chen", "nobody blames you" — none tied to a record, all worth answering. They must match exactly, and some need the matching case read first ("rain" needs page 110).
- Quota used up: spending all 6 does not block progress; the rules say running out "will not dead-end progress", and the quota was exactly six RAIN squares to begin with.
9. Why "Keep" Hurts Most
Three of the four endings spend the day: Rain buys one day back, A Different Square swaps a name, Give Her the Day hands in the form for her. Only Keep hangs the board back and changes nothing. It is called the most painful one, and the reason is arithmetic rather than sentiment: those three live one day, Keep lives a whole life.
Chen turned rain to clear 4,748 times, telling himself once a year "that day was clear". Choose Keep and you take his chair; from the next day you turn rain to clear for everyone, and learn to lean the first stroke of CLEAR slightly left so all thirteen volumes look like one hand. That line in the guestbook, "Nothing happened today. Nobody blames anyone", is yours to write every year from then on. It is not comfort. It is a line someone has to keep saying.
Years later a child opens this site. The front page reads "Today CLEAR", so many clear days in a row. The number is right, the paper dry, the lettering warm. He will not know the square was ever blank, or that someone served that watch for him. The other endings are a loss; Keep is staying, and being the person who turns rain to clear, every day.
Related links
Changelog
- 2026-11-05: First published. The 42 records, 10 cases, 4 acts at 1-3-4-2, 6 pulls, 4 endings, 4,748 = 13 x 365 + 3, 68 mm, 19 AI images and the prerequisite chain for the hidden ending were each checked inside the game.