Questions we get asked.

An archive of investigative fiction you work rather than watch. Each case is a file: a briefing, evidence you can examine with real instruments, suspects with something to hide, and one answer the material actually supports.

You read, test what you are told, pin what connects on a corkboard, and name a culprit. Nobody nudges you toward it.

No. The archive is free to read and play right now, and everything currently in it stays that way.

If we introduce paid cases later we will say so plainly, well before anyone is asked for money.

Most run 20 to 45 minutes. Every case carries an estimate on its card, and the harder Investigation files can run past an hour if you work them properly.

You can leave whenever you like. Your progress, notes and board are waiting when you come back.

No. Every case is solvable from the material in front of you — no outside knowledge, no trivia, no guessing at what the author was thinking.

Start with an Easy case marked Record or Thread. If you get stuck, a case can lend you a hunch for a small score cost.

How much guidance the file gives you. Record is a complete account, read as it stands. Thread opens as you earn it — follow the sequence and connect what matters. Investigation gives you only evidence and no narration at all.

Same quality of mystery in each. Pick by how much scaffolding you want.

Yes. Rooms put up to six detectives on one file at the same time, with a shared board, shared evidence, text and voice chat, and a verdict the room files together.

One person hosts and shares a six-character code. Everyone needs an account.

The case stays open and you can keep working it. A wrong call costs you credits on the eventual score, but it never locks you out — the file is not a one-shot exam.

A base figure for the difficulty, less a penalty for each wrong accusation and each hunch you pull. Closing a case cleanly and without help pays the most.

Time is recorded for the standings but does not reduce your score. Read slowly.

Each hunch belongs to one lead in the case and can only be bought while you are working that lead. The ones ahead of you stay sealed; the ones behind run down when you move past them.

That way you never have to buy a nudge you do not need in order to reach the one you do. Each pull costs 10 credits.

No. Your notes, corkboard and pinned evidence live in your own browser and survive a reload.

They are tied to that browser, though — they will not follow you to another device, and clearing your browsing data erases them. We cannot restore them, because they were never sent to us.

You can reopen any case and reread the file, but the score is recorded once. Knowing the answer is its own reason not to expect credit for it a second time.

When they are genuinely solvable, not on a schedule. Each file is written backwards from its solution and then tested, which takes as long as it takes.

Instagram is where new files are announced first.

Please tell us. A contradiction, a lead that dead-ends, an answer the evidence does not quite reach — these are the most useful messages we get, and we correct files.

Name the case number and the step where the reasoning broke.