← Kludoku

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

  1. Each row and each column holds exactly one person.
  2. Furniture blocks its square — but suspects can sit on chairs and sofas, or lie in beds. Windows, paintings and mirrors hang on walls.
  3. All testimonies are true. "Beside" means directly up, down, left or right AND in the same room; north is the top of the screen.
  4. Whoever ends up alone in a room with the victim is the killer.

Core technique

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.

Hypothesis branches

Stuck between two candidate squares? Right-click a suspect's face (hold on touch) to open a hypothesis branch: your guesses render dashed on top of the real board, parallel branches wait as mini portraits in square corners, and a refuted branch strikes the disproven pencil mark for you. Keep the branch that survives; the real board never moved.

Accomplice cases

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

Five shared daily cases (beginner → expert) 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