Starting a case
Pick a case from the library and choose a nickname of 3 to 20 characters. Your nickname appears on leaderboards and to other people in your room, so choose one that does not identify you.
You then receive a recovery code. Write it down or store it in a password manager. It brings your progress back on another browser or after clearing your cookies, and each time you use it, it is replaced by a new code. If you prefer, add an email address on your account page: you can then sign in on any device with a 6-digit code we email you.
Each nickname has one run per case. You can leave at any point and pick up where you stopped.
Files and exhibits
A case is split into numbered files. File 1 is open from the start: it is the case as it stood when the original investigation stopped. Files 2 and 3 are sealed and hold what came to light later.
Each file contains exhibits with an ID such as A4 or C1: reports, statements, letters, receipts, timetables, photographs, drawings and messages. Handwritten exhibits have a typed transcript and drawings have a full text description, for screen readers and for anyone who finds handwriting hard to read. You can open any exhibit full screen, zoom into drawings, and place two exhibits side by side to compare them.
Gates: opening sealed files
A sealed file opens when you answer its gate correctly. A gate asks for a few things at once, for example a place, a time and a word, and every part must be right. The evidence you already have is always enough to answer it.
- Times are 24-hour. 09:40, 0940 and 9.40 am are all read the same way. Where a gate asks for a moment, a small window around it is accepted.
- Typed answers ignore capital letters, accents and most punctuation.
- Each wrong attempt costs 5 points.
- After two wrong attempts in a row on the same gate, that gate rests for 60 seconds before you can try again.
Locked items
Some exhibits are locked: a phone with a PIN, a case with a combination, a coded note. The code is somewhere in the evidence. Enter it to see what the item holds. A wrong code costs no points, but after two wrong codes in a row the lock makes you wait a minute, so the challenge is finding the right one, not guessing.
Hints and what they cost
The hints page, Ask Sherlock Holmes, is organised by objective, one set per open file. Under each objective is a list of questions you might be asking yourself. Each question answers in tiers: the first tier nudges, and the last tier usually names the exhibits to look at.
- Every tier has a price in points, set per case. The price is shown before you confirm, and later tiers cost more because they say more.
- Tiers open in order. Reading a tier you have already opened again is free.
- Not every question on the list leads somewhere. If a question is about something that does not matter, the answer says so plainly.
- Once every file is open, Sherlock Holmes offers up to three last words: increasingly direct pointers, each with its own price.
The hints page warns you before it shows anything, and it can open in its own tab so you can keep the evidence in view.
The five-part vote
When you are ready, you cast one vote. It has five parts, and together they are worth 100 points. The parts do not all carry the same weight.
- Who is responsible for the death.
- Method: how it was done.
- Motive: why it was done.
- When: the period during which the guilty person’s own account is false.
- Proof: the two exhibits that prove it best. Some cases accept more than one strong pair.
You see a summary before you confirm. Once you lock the vote it cannot be changed. You then get the verdict: which parts you got right, the full solution with a timeline, a verdict on each suspect, the clues you may have missed and, once enough people have played, how other players voted.
If you are stuck for good in a solo case, you can give up instead. You see the full solution, but the run gets no score and no leaderboard place.
Scoring and ranks
Your score is the points for the parts you got right, minus every deduction: hint tiers, last words and wrong gate attempts. Naming the right person matters most: if you name the wrong person, the other four parts you get right earn only half their points. A score never goes below zero. Your rank comes from your score:
- 90 and above: Chief Inspector
- 75 to 89: Inspector
- 50 to 74: Detective Sergeant
- 0 to 49: Constable
Leaderboards rank by score. When scores are equal, fewer deductions come first, then the earlier vote.
A leaderboard place needs every file of the case opened before the vote. A vote cast earlier still gets its verdict and score, but it is not listed.
Playing in a room
From a case’s start screen you can open a room and share its six-character code, its link or its QR code. Up to six people can be in one room, and new members can join while the room is still investigating.
- Everyone in the room sees the same files. Opened files, unlocked items and revealed hints are shared, and so are their costs: the room has one set of deductions.
- Everyone casts their own vote, and may lock it in whenever they are ready. No one sees anyone else’s answers before the reveal. When the room is done investigating, the host opens voting: from then on no one new can join.
- The room reveals all votes and the solution when every member has voted, or 48 hours after voting opened. The host can also close voting early.
- Each member’s score is their own vote points minus the room’s shared deductions. Room results go on the team leaderboard.
- You can leave a room while it is still investigating, until the room has opened a sealed file or taken a deduction (a hint, a last word or a wrong answer). If the host leaves, the member who joined earliest becomes host.
- A room that never reaches voting closes 14 days after it was opened.
- Because each nickname has one run per case, you cannot join a room for a case you have already started alone.
- Everyone in a room can read the case in their own language: English, Arabic or Turkish. The files, answers and scores are the same in every language.
Your notebook, timeline and print view
The notebook has a grid for each suspect: motive, means, opportunity, alibi and free notes, with exhibit tags. The timeline lets you add, edit and sort your own entries by time. Both are kept in this browser only and are never sent to the server. You can export them as a file and import them elsewhere.
The print view lays out every exhibit you have opened on its own A4 page, with blank notebook and timeline sheets, for anyone who prefers to work on paper.
Everything can be used with a keyboard, and nothing depends on dragging.