The Investigator’s Guide

Every case in the archive is a closed file that never sat right. Your work is the same on all of them: read what was recorded, examine what was kept, and put a name to what happened.

Nothing here punishes curiosity. Open everything. The archive keeps your notes, pins and findings on this device — only your verdict and score are recorded.

Files are gated by findings, not by time. A sealed section or a sealed envelope lists what it depends on; establish those findings and it opens on its own — you’ll hear it.

Some files fork. What you establish decides which version of events opens. A branch you didn’t take isn’t lost — re-examine the material and the file re-reads itself.

Thread and Investigation files can be taken under sealed conditions. Choose it on the case card before you open the file — never after. A sealed run has no hunches at all, keeps nothing (your board, notes and marks live in that tab and nowhere else), and gives you exactly one filing. Name the wrong person and it scores nothing.

Close it correctly and the whole score is multiplied — 1.4× on an Easy file, 1.6× on a Medium, 2× on a Hard.

One rule makes the rest of it mean anything: a file is only ever offered sealed if you have never opened it. Work it normally first, pull a single hunch, even just open the folder, and the sealed run on that file is gone for good.

There is no walking away, either. Leave the tab for more than three minutes and the seal breaks, and the run is filed as a miss — abandoning a sealed run costs exactly what naming the wrong person costs. The file stays open to you in Normal mode, but the multiplier does not come back. Take the mode when you mean to finish it.

A case can only be closed once, in any mode. Reopening a file you have already closed earns nothing.

Evidence lives in the folders beside the story. Photographs, documents, recordings, film — each opens on the examination stage. Assume every item was kept for a reason, including the ones that look like nothing.

Stamp files as you go (lead, alibi, suspicious) so the pile stays sorted. A stamped file is a file you’ve already half-thought about.

The instrument tray sits beside every opened file. A tool that can’t bite on this evidence stays dark.

Loupe M

Sweep photographs close. Scroll to focus.

UV lamp U

Kill the lights and sweep the beam. Ink hides.

Marker H

Drag across text worth keeping — it lands in your findings.

Stamps T

Classify the file: lead, alibi, suspicious.

Light table C

Lay two items over each other. Differences glow.

Audio bench

Scrub recordings; slow them down; listen under the noise.

Jog wheel

Step film frame by frame. The one frame matters.

Cross-index

Ask the archive what else mentions a name, a place, a time.

Imager

Acquire a recovered phone or laptop; verify the image, then restore and read the device.

Forensics kit

Swab, dust, test. Physical answers to physical questions.

A finding is a fact you established with an instrument — a revealed phrase, a matched print, an enhanced face. The findings log keeps them; sealed content lists which ones it’s waiting for.

Stuck behind a seal? Read its dependency line, then go back to the evidence that could plausibly yield it — usually with a tool you haven’t tried on it yet.

Some subjects can be brought in. Ask what the file lets you ask — questions open up as your findings do — and slide discovered evidence across the table to see how they take it. The same exhibit lands differently once you’ve broken their story, so mind the order.

Every answer is filed as a statement — ordinary evidence you can then work with the Marker and Cross-index. The lie you can’t catch in the room, you catch afterward on the page. You get one sitting with each subject; when you conclude it, they’re gone.

When a case keeps them, the archive holds back editions of The Trallaght Standard. Request a date, read the paper, and take the scissors to any article — the clipping files itself with your evidence.

Most of it is just the city talking. The cutting that matters won’t announce itself; you find it the way you find anything — by working it with a tool, not by cutting it out.

Some cases open the floor plan. Place people and objects where testimony says they stood, set the doors as they were found, and use measure and sight line to see what the room allows. Moving pieces around proves nothing on its own.

A claim you’ve read appears in the reconstruction panel. Set the scene as the witness describes it and run the test: if the geometry won’t back their words, that contradiction is yours. You can only test testimony you’ve already found.

Base

Easy 50 · Medium 100 · Hard 200, banked when the file closes correctly.

Wrong accusation

−10 from the eventual score, per prior attempt on the case.

Hunch pulled

−10 each. Counted at the desk, not on your honour.

Floor

A score never goes below 0. Record cases pay full base on conclusion.

Time on the case is kept for the standings, but it doesn’t touch the score. Read slowly.

An Investigation Room puts up to six detectives on the same file at once. Everyone reads and works the evidence on their own, but the board, the unlocks and the final verdict are shared — and a chat dock keeps the team talking.

Rooms are found under Rooms in the top navigation. They’re optional: solo play is unchanged, and Record files aren’t offered co‑op — there’s no shared board to work.

Shared

The corkboard (pins & thread), every finding — including interview statements, newspaper clippings and verified scene tests — team chat & voice, and the verdict vote.

Private

Your field notes, tool work, an interview in progress, your scene reconstruction, reading position and highlights stay on your device.

When anyone establishes a finding, the sealed content it unlocks opens for everyone at once — you’ll see who cracked it. Move a pin and the team watches it slide, with a coloured cursor and a name on whoever’s dragging.

The Chat plate joins the dock, bottom‑right. It has two channels: Text, always on, and Voice — peer‑to‑peer, audio only, opt‑in. Join voice to open your mic; nothing is recorded.

Mute / Deafen

Cut your mic, or silence everyone, without leaving the call.

Push‑to‑talk

Switch it on and hold Space to speak; release to go quiet.

Per‑voice volume

Trim any one teammate with their slider.

Devices

Choose your mic (and speaker, where the browser allows).