| NPC | Individual in a video game not controlled by a gamer: Abbr. |
| VIOLENT | Like many crimes and video games (NOT EVIL anagram) (7) |
| FREEHOUSE | Pub not controlled by a brewery (4,5) |
| DRY | Not controlled by a port authority? |
| NPCS | All those not controlled by humans in a video game, for short |
| INDIE | Made by a company not controlled by others (5) |
| PRIVATE | Server in force that's not controlled by state (7) |
| ACADEMY | School funded by British government but not controlled by the local authority (7) |
| FREEENTERPRISE | Peers interfere improperly in business not controlled by state (4,10) |
| FREEWILL | Ability to make choices that are not controlled by fate or God (4,4) |
| PRIVATESECTOR | Part of the economy not controlled by government: 2 wds. |
| FREEPRESS | Newspaper industry not controlled by government censorship |
| MINIBOSS | Small challenge for a gamer formed by a synonym for "micro" + a word meaning "supervisor" (Theme explanation: Three squares in this grid each contain a different three-letter initialism for a business |
| UNREGULATED | Not controlled by the government (11) |
| EDAMAME | A cheesy individual in a waxed jacket, James shelled soy beans |
| SQUAT | Polysemous word whose core sense, "compress, flatten, force together, press down", led to its various meanings including a crouch, a deep knee-bend exercise, a hare's form or a building unlawfully occ |
| ALPHA | Highest ranking individual in a group of social animals (5) |
| WHALEOFATIME | Much fun from contemporary individual in a pod? |
| SOLOMONISLANDER | Marooned son's ill, abandoned individual in a Pacific location |
| PUNTER | Better individual in a flat-bottomed boat (6) |
