How to play Kludoku

Kludoku is a murder-mystery logic puzzle: place every person on the crime-scene map using testimony alone, then accuse whoever was alone with the victim. Every case is generated with exactly one solution — no guessing is ever required.

The rules

The suspect tray: portrait chips with numbers, names and roles; the victim marked with a V — The cast of a case. Tap a suspect to pick them up; the victim is placed too — it is their scene. A beginner case at The Theatre Royal — 5×5, 5 suspects.

Each row holds exactly one person, and no column holds two — on a board wider than it is tall, some columns stay empty.
Furniture blocks its square — but suspects can sit on chairs and sofas, or lie in beds. Windows, paintings and mirrors hang on walls.
All testimonies are true. "Beside" means directly up, down, left or right AND in the same room; north is the top of the screen.
Whoever ends up alone in a room with the victim is the killer.

Core technique

Pick a suspect up and the board lights the squares their testimony still allows. Tap one to place them. Watch it on its own page →

The board with a suspect selected: legal squares highlighted, the rest veiled — The spotlight veil: with a suspect in hand, only their legal squares stay lit. A beginner case at The Theatre Royal — 5×5, 5 suspects.

Work testimonies like sudoku constraints: intersect what each statement allows, X-mark what it forbids, and pencil-note candidates. Every placement eliminates a full row and column — the board collapses fast once the first few suspects are fixed. In-game, tapping a testimony line highlights its squares; assist modes can gray illegal squares while you learn.

Guesses: two options, side by side

A guess is a fork: the suspect where you put them, and the suspect where you wonder if they are. Each option keeps what you place under it, and the real board never moves. Watch it on its own page →

Stuck between two squares for one suspect? Place them on one, then right-click their face (hold on touch) and place them on the other. That is a guess, and it opens a fork: option 1 holds them where they were, option 2 is the square you are wondering about. Both appear as chips above the board — that suspect's face, numbered 1 and 2 — and you are standing in option 2: the board turns gold, and everything you place from here on belongs to this option alone.

Switch to option 1 and the board shows only that world: what you placed under option 2 is gone until you come back, and when you do, you land exactly where you left off. The other side of the fork waits as a mini portrait on the square it would take: right-click it to cross over — on touch, hold the square, slide onto the portrait and let go. A guess that runs into a testimony is a dead end — drop it, and the game strikes the disproven candidate on the real board for you. A guess that survives is the answer: keep it, and it becomes the board.

Accomplice cases

The testimony column of an expert case, one card per suspect — Testimonies, one card per suspect. In an accomplice case exactly one of these cards is false from the first word. An expert case at The Bunker — 9×9, 9 suspects, with a liar and motives to prove.

Some cases warn that one suspect is the murderer's accomplice — and everything they say is false. Mark your suspect with the 🎭 toggle to render their statements inverted (the game rewrites each line to its logical opposite). Full technique in the accomplice guide.

Daily cases, ranks and points

The accusation dialog over a fully placed board: Who did it? — The board is full: the accusation opens. Whoever was alone with the victim did it. A medium case at The Repair Shop — 7×7, 7 suspects.

Ten shared daily cases (five difficulties, untimed and time attack) reset at midnight UTC, with global and friends leaderboards, streaks and a weekly points race. Solving earns points toward detective ranks — Recruit up to Master Detective — which unlock the hardest difficulties. It's free to play; read about the genre or start today's case.

Play free — no download