Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Newbie Questions

May-2-2007 20:36

Hi guys, I was just wondering if you could give me some tips...

I''ve been playing for a few days now, and I've been wanting to move up from the usual intermediate difficulty games I play to hard difficulty games. However, the first time I tried it I made my first false accusation (I was foolish enough to try and guess instead of just quitting the case).

So I was wondering if you guys can give me simple tips (like the range of # of suspects, range of # of suspects with fake/no alibi, etc.) to help me adjust to a hard difficulty. I'm very anal - so my first false accusation was particularly hard on me. I was even tempted to start a brand new character and abandon this one just to have a clean slate, but I realize false accusations are somewhat inevitable.

And if you guys are feeling generous enough to spare some more time to write, maybe you could also post how to adjust from Hard to Really Hard. I read in some posts that switching from Hard to Really Hard is a big adjustment to the gameplay.

May-2-2007 20:42

If you do a search on this board, you will see that many have answered questions about how many suspects there are in each level and the formula for accusing a suspect.

Also if you find that you are having a hard time with gettign alibis and they clam eay, you might just have to go back and do intermediate until you can save up enough skill points to buy more skills.

Good luck!

May-2-2007 20:47

Also on this newbie thread, if you go back 4 or 5 pages, look for the post called, " One More Please" by gzhu.

In that post it explains in detail the ways to successfully accuse a suspect.

May-2-2007 22:26

There is another way to clean your record. No need to start a new detective. Look around...

As for the numbers. It is considerd spoiler to post them here. If you want them, pm me and I'll send it to you. Or check the Watson Sleuth helper. The numbers there are correct.

May-2-2007 23:03

Oh I didn't know it was a spoiler. I'm sorry. But I checked the Watson Helper and figured it out from there. Thanks Reda.

I didn't know about cleaning the record... I just figured it out a few minutes ago (I won't post how in case it's another spoiler). A couple of questions, though:


1) Should I clear my name or wait until I have one or two more false accusations (I'm not exactly sure if my detective retires on the 3rd FA or after it)?

2) Does the amount of money I have to pay to clear my record increase as
my experience (or money, or age, or any other statistic) increases? Or does it stay constant?

May-2-2007 23:44

You should clear your Det. at either one or two FA's as on the 3rd FA your det. becomes retired.

Yes, the amount of money you pay to clear your FA's will increase as your experience points go up. So if you have the cash now, I'd go ahead and pay him off.

And my recommendation is to NEVER guess. It's always better to quit than get an FA, and there are no penalties for quitting cases!

Hope that helps!

May-2-2007 23:54

Ok. Thanks a lot.

May-4-2007 00:42

The "cheapst" way is to clear when you have 2 falses. The amount will grow but not double. So you can "live" with 1 false for very long time. I have mine for over a year now... But once you have 2, go ahead and pay. Cause the third will get you retired.

May-4-2007 01:04

I never have a wee bit problem with my intermediate cases - the suspects and townies do clam up sometimes, but I am able to persuade them. But I am having a real dread time with the hard cases - the suspects and townies clam up so hard that I am unable to persuade them, I either get two footprints or two hair clues And a lot of claims for the Shoe maker or Barber as alibi, so they are already clamming up before I can fing out ANYTHING....
I even hate to think of trying any more of these hard ones.... I've already quit too many, And I am not getting any more skill points on the intermediate one.....
HELP

May-4-2007 01:44

Well in your case, since you dont want to keep quitting cases, even though quitting is not a bad thing, the only thing you can do is go down to the lower level cases until youve accumulated enough skill points over time to buy better skills that will help you with the harder level cases.

May-4-2007 03:21

I think Lady Jas is right, a_agwari. Maybe you need more skills to tackle hard cases. I've only been able to easily tackle hard cases when I got Advanced Sweet Talking, Advanced Rule Bending, and Flirting to talk to witnesses and suspects, and Thread and Hair analysis to maximize evidence searches.

You are not getting any more skill points on intermediate cases because the experience you get isn't enough to warrant a skill point. But you will probably get a skill point after every two consecutive intermediate cases. If you still can't solve hard cases, I suggest you follow Lady Jas's advice and keep solving intermediate cases until you have better skills.