Clue glossary

Every word in a Dokuverse clue has exactly one meaning, so a cozy logic puzzle never turns on a misreading. Here is each one, with an example from the tutorial case. New to the game? Start with how to play.

The board

What you see before you read a single clue.

Cast: The characters you place: suspects and a victim in Ashcombe Manor, cats and the odd visitor in the Cat Café, plants and a slug in Gardoku. A case always has as many characters as the map has rows.
Region (room, area, bed): An outlined part of the map with its own name. Ashcombe Manor calls them rooms, the Cat Café calls them areas and Gardoku calls them beds. Every square belongs to exactly one region.
“Duchess is in the Window Nook.”
Object: A thing drawn in a square, such as a rug, a cushion or a pot. You can stand on most objects. Blocking objects are the exception.
“Miso is on a cushion.”
Blocking object: An object nobody can stand on: a piano, bookcase or table in the manor, a bookshelf, espresso bar, plant or vase in the café, a pond, shed or birdbath in the garden. Its square is always empty.
Row and column: Rows run across and are numbered 1, 2, 3 from the top (north) edge. Columns run up and down and are lettered A, B, C from the left (west) edge. A square is named column first, so B1 is the second square of the top row.
“Tux is in row 1.”
One per row and column: The main rule. Each row and each column holds exactly one member of the cast, so no two characters ever share a row or a column.

Clue words

Each word means exactly one thing, in every world and every case.

On: In the same square as the object. "On a cushion" means any square with a cushion in it.
“Miso is on a cushion.”
Beside: In a square that shares a whole side with the object's square: one step north, south, east or west. Touching only at a corner does not count. Beside is only used for blocking objects.
“Tux is beside a vase.”
In the (region): Inside the outlined region with that name, in any of its squares.
“Duchess is in the Window Nook.”
North, south, east, west: North is the top of the map and south is the bottom. East is the right-hand side and west is the left.
Further north (south, east, west) than: Further north than means in a row closer to the top, any number of rows closer and in any column. It does not mean straight up. East and west work the same way with columns.
“Pepper is further south than Duchess.”
Same region, different regions: Same means both characters are inside one outlined region. Different means they are in two separate regions.
“Miso and Pepper are in the same area.”
Alone (no other): Nobody else from the cast is in that character's region. The clue always names who counts: in Ashcombe Manor the victim counts, in the Cat Café the visitor counts, and in Gardoku objects never count.
“No other cat is in Miso's area.”
Not: Flips any clue to its opposite. "Not on any cushion" means on none of the cushions.
“Pepper is not in the Sitting Room.”

Playing a case

The words you meet while you play.

The reveal: The end of a case. Once every character is placed correctly, the story resolves: who was alone with the victim, which cat knocked something over, or which plant got nibbled.
Level: How hard a case is. The tutorial cases are 4×4, Easy cases are 5×5, Medium cases are 6×6, and Hard and Expert cases are 7×7. Harder cases need longer chains of reasoning, never guessing.
Hints: Free, with no daily cap. A hint first shows you where to look, then explains the reasoning; when a character has only one square left, a hint can place them for you. If you made a mistake, the hint shows that first.
Monday case: A new case every Monday at 09:00 UTC, free when it arrives and free for good after that.

Coming 23 November to iPhone and Android

Free to download, with 25 free cases, a new free case every Monday at 09:00 UTC and hints that are always free. No ads. Extra packs of 5 cases are $0.99 each, or $3.99 for all six launch packs in the Launch Collection.

App StoreComing 23 November
Google PlayComing 23 November