How to play

Every statement is true. The crew member alone in the room with the Core is the saboteur. This page defines every rule, testimony phrase, and deduction a case uses.

Tick · fits the statement
Slash · ruled out

The goal

Each case is an incident aboard a ship. Use the crew’s testimony and the Ship log to place every crew member in a cell. On the finished board, exactly one crew member is in the Core’s room. That person is the saboteur.

Every statement is true

All testimony is true, including the saboteur’s. Nobody lies. If two statements seem to clash, look up their exact meaning under Testimony.

One crew member per cell

A cell holds at most one crew member.

Rows and columns have no limit

A row or column can hold any number of crew, including none. Airlocked has no one-per-row or one-per-column rule. The Ship log sometimes says exactly how many crew were in a row.

Where crew can stand

Crew stand only on open floor. Nobody can stand on a cell that holds a crate, plant, locker, terminal, or other obstacle, or on the Core.

Chairs and beds sit on open floor, and anyone can be in one. Recharge bays hold synthetic crew only.

Synthetics can dock

Synthetic crew can also dock on a recharge bay. Nobody else can. Older cases draw these spots as a docking console.

Synthetic crew have a dashed ring, and their card says Synthetic. A docked synthetic still counts in its room and its row.

Alone with the Core

Exactly one crew member is in the Core’s room: the saboteur, organic or synthetic. “Alone with the Core” means inside its room. A crew member in the next room is outside it, even in the cell right beside the Core.

Board controls

Select a crew member: Tap their card in the crew list, or tap a crew member you’ve placed on the board.
Place crew: With Place crew on, tap a cell to place or move the selected crew member.
Rule out and Maybe: Tap an empty cell to note it with × or ?. Marks are for you only.
Remove: Takes the selected crew member off the board.
Undo: Reverses your last change.
Check board: Tells you whether your placements can still lead to a solution.
Hint: Explains one next deduction.
Submit board: Sends the finished board for verification.

Keyboard

The board is one Tab stop. Arrow keys move between cells. Home and End jump to the start and end of a row. Enter or Space acts on the focused cell.

Marks are notes

Rule out and Maybe marks never change what Check board, Hint, or Submit board accepts. Use them however you like.

Check board

Check board looks at every crew member you’ve placed. A tick on each placed cell means the board can still be completed. A “!” on each placed cell means at least one placement is wrong. It never says which one, and it never shows a missing placement.

Hints

Hints are free and unlimited. Each one names a technique, tags the testimony it uses, and states what follows. It covers one step and never the rest of the solution. Your share card shows how many hints you used.

Each crew member’s testimony is one sentence with one or two parts, and every part is true. This tab lists every phrase testimony and the Ship log can use.

Tick · fits the statement
Slash · ruled out

Rooms

was in room

Their cell is inside that room.

was not in room

Their cell is anywhere outside that room.

was in the same room as crew

Both are in one room, in different cells. Any room works, as long as they share it.

was alone in room

They are in that room, and every other crew member is outside it.

Beside

was beside crew

Their cells share an edge: directly up, down, left, or right. Diagonal cells don’t count. A room wall between them doesn’t matter.

Also written as: occupied cells that shared an edge

was beside a object

Their cell shares an edge with a cell holding that object, through walls too. If the ship has several, any one of them counts. Being in a chair or bed doesn’t count as beside it.

Objects: chair, bed, recharge bay, crate, plant, locker, terminal.

was not beside a object

No cell holding that object shares an edge with theirs.

Furniture

was in a chair · was in a bed

Their cell holds a chair (or a bed). “In a chair in {room}” means a chair in that room.

was not in a chair · was not in a bed

Their cell holds no chair (or no bed). Any other cell they can stand on works.

was docked in a recharge bay

They are a synthetic on a recharge bay.

was not docked

They aren’t on a recharge bay. In cases with recharge bays, every spot a synthetic can dock is one, so they aren’t docked anywhere.

was the only one in a chair · in a bed · docked

They are in a chair, and nobody else anywhere on the ship is in a chair. The same holds for a bed, or for being docked in a recharge bay.

was docked, as synthetics do

They are synthetic and docked on a recharge bay (a docking console in older cases).

Also written as: was a synthetic docked on hardware; was synthetic and docked on hardware

Direction

was north · south · east · west of crew

North means any row above the other crew member’s row, at any distance. Their column doesn’t matter. South is any row below, east is any column to the right, and west is any column to the left.

Line of sight

could see the Core

They are in the Core’s room, in the same row or column as the Core, with only open floor between them. Chairs and beds don’t block the view. Room walls, recharge bays, and anything nobody can stand on do. Sight never turns a corner, and other crew never block it.

Also written as: had line of sight to the Core

could not see the Core

They are anywhere outside the Core’s room, or in a cell of that room that is off the Core’s row and column or has something in the way.

Also written as: did not have line of sight to the Core

Vents

could have crawled into room through a vent

They are in a different room, and a chain of one or more vents connects their room to {room}. Vents connect rooms, not cells, so where they stand in their room doesn’t matter. Vents into a sealed room are shut.

Also written as: could reach {room} from another room through one or more vents

Ship log

Can sight go diagonally?

No. Sight runs only along the Core’s row and column. A crew member diagonal to the Core, even one cell away, could not see it.

Can someone see the Core from the next room?

No. Room walls block sight, so anyone who could see the Core was in its room.

Do other crew block sight?

No. Sight stops at room walls, recharge bays, and anything nobody can stand on. Crew never block it.

Does “beside” cross a wall?

Yes. Two cells that share an edge are beside each other, even when a wall separates their rooms.

Is someone in a chair beside it?

No. Beside means a neighboring cell. A crew member in the chair is in it, not beside it.

If a clue says “beside a crate,” does any crate count?

Yes. Any crate on the ship counts, in any room.

Is there one crew member per row or column?

No. A row or column can hold any number of crew, including none.

Is the Core a crew member?

No. The Core is machinery. It isn’t on the roster and isn’t counted in rows.

Can anyone stand on the Core?

No. Nobody can occupy the Core’s cell.

Is a sealed room empty?

No. A seal shuts the room’s vents and nothing else. Anyone can be in a sealed room, including the saboteur.

Is there always exactly one solution?

Yes. Every daily case has exactly one board that fits all the testimony.

Will I ever need to guess?

No. Every daily case can be solved with the five techniques. If you’re stuck, there is still a deduction to find, and Hint can show it.

Do portraits or species mean anything?

Only synthetic status matters, because synthetics can dock on recharge bays. Species, portraits, and names carry no rules.

Do my marks affect checks and hints?

No. Rule out and Maybe marks are notes for you. Check board, Hint, and Submit board ignore them.