Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Newbie Questions

Apr-9-2006 22:34
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WARNING GAME SPOILER!!

If you wish to enjoy the adventure of figuring out this game on your own, DO NOT read the rest of this post.

If you are too lazy to read through a page or two of threads to see if your question has already been asked a zillion times, then PLEASE read this first!

Welcome to Sleuth, and your new addiction.  There is no cure, so just accept it and enjoy it! Here are a few tips and hints that you should find helpful, and are among the FAQ of the newbie boards.

First, a great place to FIND ANSWERS and cool history threads about Sleuth is in the Moderator Picks Board. The Mods have picked out their favorite bits and made them easy to find. In addition to personal favorites, try looking over the Newbie FAQ. This can be found on the bottom of most pages as a tiny little grey link. Also the Help file at the upper right of most screens is packed with little useful tidbits.

HOW DO I SOLVE a case? First off…we recommend that you try the tutorial found on the front of the case page. It won’t count against your daily caseload, and it will give you an idea of how the game works. It’s not set up to walk you through the most efficient course through the game, but to show you how the game works, leaving you to find your own strategy. The following formulas will help you find your murderer.

PE+Fake/"none of your business" Alibi=guilty
WE+Fake/"none of your business" Alibi=guilty
2 WE = guilty

PE=Physical Evidence WE=Witness Evidence

Having a clammed suspect that will not give you an alibi is not the same as a fake/none alibi.

PE+WE DOES NOT = Guilty

Nov-19-2007 11:17

Nevermind I found the answer to the first question..I need 2 WE...Sorry about that.

Dec-12-2007 08:06

How do I delete a Retired Detective? I want to use the name again . . . .

Dec-17-2007 03:54

I now have a WE Contact. If I do favors for otherWE townspeople, do I run the risk of getting TWO WE Contacts? Or should I only now do favors for PE townspeople?

Dec-17-2007 20:28

Myrtle, there is no way to delete a retired detective. Your options are to either reactivate that detective and start over again with a clean slate, or to transfer your possible subscription to a new detective, but this detective will have to have at least a slightly altered name from the old one, ie--Myrtle12. As for contacts, all detectives get one W/E and one P/E contact in each city, no exceptions, ever. So your W/E contact is set in stone in NY until you go and retire your detective again. As for the P/E contact, favors for W/E contacts will have no effect on who you potentially get for a P/E contact (and never have). If you choose to try and go for a specific P/E contact (ie--the Barber), you'll need to QUIT any P/E favor you get that isn't for the Barber (ie--the Shoemaker, Tailor, or Banker), until you hit paydirt with the Barber. It may take a very long time, but that's the only way you can be certain of ensuring you get the specific contact you want. If any P/E contact will do, then fire away with the favors.

Solving it, the only real way to earn money around here is to work and solve cases and favors. Favors pay off an average of five times more than regular cases do, but you need to do cases to get the favors, so you gotta do one to get to the other.

There are a couple of special missions that do offer money for their completion, but they're only offered to Subbed detectives, and the traveling costs to complete them outweighs the rewards you get for the missions. Cases and favors are your best bets.

Hope that helps a little. Good luck, you two. :-)

Jan-3-2008 12:48

If all of your suspects and townspeople have clammed on you, the best option you have really is to quit the case and try again on a new case. Sorry.

Jan-5-2008 03:10

i cant find the tools you say they exist.... plz help

[quote]There are also several tools listed on the Community Sites page that have been specifically created by Sleuth players to help with the game. [/quote]

Jan-5-2008 03:19

Check the Automated Sleuth Helper thread on the Sleuth Talk board, and the various other helpers on the Community pages. The others aren't automated, but they're all built on the same guidelines. They're all designed to give you a hand in working on cases, but ultimately, you're still responsible for making decisions.

Jan-5-2008 08:44

thank you again david!

Apr-30-2008 04:56

Hello!
A few questions:

1. Is it good to ask the FortuneT. for 20 dollars about a case? I never had use of it.
2. Is the following technique go0d: 1. Townie says XY knows who the killer is. 2. I ask XY about 3 people (4 has no/fake alibi) 3. At the 4th XY clams up. 4. I accuse the fourth suspect without alibi. It works if XY has a valid alibi. Does it work when XY has a fake alibi?
3. What can I do with a book? It's OK that my detective will improve, but how? (had no books yet.)
4. How much is the discount at a faction with 30+ standing? There is sg what costs 85000$ at 1 standing, how much will it be at 30?

Thanks for the answers.

Apr-30-2008 05:10

Hi there.

1. For each level of case, there may be different numbers of suspects. For example, in a Hard level cases there will either be 7 or 8. The Fortune Teller can tell you whether you've got all your suspects for the case, or whether there's still one you haven't found. So yes, it's useful.

2. This is risky. The townie won't actually say XY knows who the killer is, they'll say XY *thinks* they know who the killer is. Whether XY is right or not doesn't depend on whether they have a valid alibi or not. They might have a real alibi and still give you evidence about the wrong person. It's also not going to work as a method as you do harder cases, because you won't have enough questions left to ask them.

3. You get a small experience point bonus the first time you read a book. Apart from that, people collect books for the sake of owning them - you have access to the full text of each.

4. I confess I'm not sure about discounts, as I've never bothered much with buying things from factions. The items you get from favours will get better as you go up the levels, and if you join an agency you'll have access to their smart gear for checking crime scenes.

Hope that's some use to you, and happy sleuthing.