Detective Duel: murder mystery sudoku online, head to head
One case, two detectives and a few cards face down. The duel is the murder mystery sudoku you already know — the floor plan, the rooms, the signed statements — with someone across the table solving the same case at the same time. Here is how it works.
One case, two detectives
The same floor plan for both of you, each with your own suspects. First to place all of yours wins.
You have your suspects, your rival has theirs, and the plan is the same one. There is no clock: the hurry comes from the player opposite.
The statements do not all arrive at once, the way they do in a normal case: they come as cards, and you start with a few in hand.
Drawing means showing
To take a card you have to throw one away, and what you throw goes face up: your rival reads it.
Cards say where somebody was: in a room, next to an object, or somewhere along a whole row. The smaller the place, the better the card.
And that is the duel: every turn you decide whether to draw — handing over whatever you discard — or pass without drawing and keep the little that is already yours.
The plan is your notebook
Marking costs no turn and your rival never sees it. What you keep in your head, you lose.
Tap a square for an X (“nobody can be here”) and again for an O (“someone goes here, but I do not know who”). Every person you place crosses out their whole row and column.
The full method, with a case solved from start to finish, is in how a case gets solved.
Pinning is betting
One per turn. Get it right and it stays; get it wrong and your rival plays twice in a row.
Marking is free. Pinning is saying “this one goes here” and betting that it is true.
Hence the only tactic worth learning: pin what is proven, not what is likely. The player who loses is almost always the one who got nervous.
One win, one level
You start at the bottom, where there is no entry fee, and every win opens the next level.
Each level brings a bigger plan and more people inside, with its own entry fee and its own pot. The settings open the same way, one at a time, up to the last one, which is not a home.
Winning pays chips for the entry fees higher up and points for your rank, which unlocks characters. There is nothing to pay for with money.
Who you play, and where
Your rival is the machine, not another person online: open the page and there is a game waiting. Low down it gets distracted and hands you good cards; higher up it misses nothing. You can see its stars before you start.
It runs in the browser, at the duel: free, no account, nothing to install, and on a phone it all fits on one screen.
And when you want a case with no hurry: the book
The duel is the fast one. The slow one — a big case, with its setting drawn and the solution explained step by step — is Sudoku Detective. There are also cases to print and the full rules.
And if you got here from Murdoku, that is where the craze came from and how the two compare.
Pass it on to someone
Frequently asked questions
Do you play against another person?
No: your rival is the machine, and it plays better the higher the level. Nobody has to connect first — you open the page and there is a game.
Do I have to pay or sign up?
No. It runs in the browser, free, with no account, no email address and no ads. The chips in the game are won by playing and cannot be bought with money.
What happens if I pin a suspect in the wrong square?
Your rival plays twice in a row. That is why you only pin what is proven: marking squares with X and O is free, pinning is a bet.
How do the levels open?
By winning the previous one: one win, one level. The settings work the same way, one at a time. You start at the lowest level, which charges no entry fee, so there is always a game to play.
What are the chips for?
They pay the entry fee for the higher levels, which hand out bigger pots. Points are a different thing: they raise your detective rank, and the rank unlocks characters and card designs.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. The duel page fills the screen with no scrolling: the plan, your hand of cards and your rival all fit at once.
Is it the same as Murdoku?
It is the same genre: a sudoku where the digits are suspects and the clues are signed statements. The duel adds the rival, the cards and the face-up discard, and it is played in the browser rather than on paper.
What languages is it in?
In the seven languages of the site: Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Dutch. The cards and the statements are written in each language, not machine translated.