Detective

As a Detective, your job is to investigate crimes, primarily murders, and solve cases using clues left behind at crime scenes. Unlike Police Officers, Detectives don’t arrest criminals or jail them, but instead, focus on gathering evidence, processing clues, and solving cases. Detectives work closely with Police Officers by providing the necessary information for them to issue arrests and track down criminals.

Reporting a Murder

When a player dies in the game, a case is created behind the scenes, but nobody is working it until somebody calls it in. Murder cases are reported by:

• Anyone standing near the body, by using /911 while aiming at it, or simply by clicking the body, or
• The victim themselves, who has two minutes after respawning to use /911 with no body in sight.

This puts an open report on the case board, and every online Detective is told a new case has come in. Detectives view the board with /cases.

A detective running /cases to see outstanding cases.

The board is split into sections:

1. Unclaimed —reports waiting for a Detective)
2. Yours —the cases you are investigating, each showing your progressExample of an assigned case, found under Yours on the case board.
3. Closed — cases that have been closed, solved cases move here

Clicking an unclaimed case asks you to confirm if you would like to claim it, and move into Yours once accepted!

A case belongs to one Detective at a time. Once you claim it, it leaves the board for everyone else, and no second Detective can join you on it.

You may hold two cases at once — claiming a third is refused until you close or drop one.

You can also claim a case without ever opening the board. Click the body at the scene and, if the case is unclaimed, it offers it to you and you can begin searching for clues!

If you leave a claimed case untouched for 1 hour, it is taken off you and returned to the board for anyone to claim again, and the progress you had on it is lost. If the case is still unsolved 4 hours after you started it, it goes cold and can never be solved.

Your Steps

A player's corpse found lying down in a car park... :(

Every case walks you through four steps, shown on your action bar as you play:

1. Visit the Scene — travel to where the body was found.
2. Search for Clues — click the corpse to start the brush minigame.
3. Analyze Evidence — take what you recovered to a scanner.
4. Solve the case! — review the suspects and close it.

The bar advances by itself as each step completes, plays a note when it changes, and points you at the crime scene or the nearest scanner with a distance readout.

Turn it on or off with /hs steps on and /hs steps off, and pin it to one particular case with /hs steps set when you are holding more than one case.

Collecting Clues

Reaching the scene is worth progress on its own, so walk it before you touch anything. The scene is a marked red box around the body, and the clues inside it are drawn from the actual fight, the weapons that were really used are included in the evidence you find.

• Blood is left behind when a melee weapon is used.
• Arrows are left when a ranged weapon is used.

Up to four pieces of evidence are buried within about 8 blocks of the body, disguised as the ordinary blocks they replaced. The body itself counts as a clue and is credited to you the moment the search begins.

Click the corpse and press Start Search to begin. You then have 100 seconds to use a brush to uncover the buried evidence. Only the Detective on the case can brush that scene's blocks.

A detective uncovering clue particles by using a magnifying glass

Holding up the Magnifying Glass while you search highlights where the evidence is hidden with special blue particles, so make sure keep one on you!

The killer gets no advantage here: a perpetrator standing in the scene of their own murder sees the ground the same way everybody else does.

The timer is the whole game. If you run out of time, the search has failed. Every piece of evidence you had gathered is taken back off you, and the case goes cold immediately. Assess the scene first, bring a brush and a magnifying glass, and do not start the search until you are ready to finish it.

Located at /gps police

Using the Scanner

Recovering evidence is not the same as reading it. Everything you brushed out is a physical item in your inventory, and it says nothing until it is processed at a Forensic Scanner at a Police Station.

Right-click the scanner to list what evidence are carrying, naming the case each piece belongs to. Click the Analyse All Evidence button to scan all evidence.

Clues shown in Forensic Scanner, ready to be scanned.

The scanner refuses evidence from a case that is already closed, and evidence from a case that is not yours. When it is done it reports, per case, how much it scanned and what it was worth.

Reading the Case File

Open a case from /cases. The case screen carries the victim, the status, the cause of death, whether it reads as self-defence, where it happened and who was involved. The following buttons are made available to you.

• Evidence — everything recovered, and who each piece is tied to.
• Suspects — the profiles: weapon, number of attacks, total damage, who struck the lethal blow, and where they were standing.
• Attacks — the full attack log of the fight, each entry with its weapon, damage, timestamp and coordinates.
• Crime Scene — provides a directions arrow back to the scene.Clues shown in Forensic Scanner, ready to be scanned.
• My Steps — where you are in the case.

These sections unlock as you earn progress. A section you have not reached shows as a scrambled button. Visiting the scene, brushing the evidence and analysing it in full is enough to open all of it.

Drop Case hands the case back to the board for another Detective. Your progress on it is lost, so use it when you know you cannot finish, not when you are stuck.

Solving the Case

A detective opening their completed murder investigation! :)

Click the Solve Case button to close and the plugin will automatically file wanted points (if applicable).

Solving files a wanted point against everyone the case holds responsible, clears every Detective's progress on it, and pays you from the Government. You are paid a base fee plus a bonus per piece of evidence recovered and per suspect named. The victim is told their case was solved and who was named.

If the fight data shows the victim threw the first punch and the person who killed them was the one they attacked, the case is marked self-defence and no wanted point is filed.

Police Officers see the result on /wanted and take it from there.

Cold Cases

A case goes cold when the search times out, or when it is still unsolved 4 hours after you started it. Cold cases move to the Closed section of the board, their evidence is worthless — the scanner will not touch it — and no Detective can solve them. Speed matters.

Tools and Responsibilities

Using /detectivekit, you can claim your tools

• Brush: digs buried evidence out of the crime scene.
• Magnifying Glass: hold it up during a search to reveal where the evidence is hidden.
• Forensic Scanner: the bench at the Police Station that processes evidence into case progress.

Unlike Police Officers, Detectives do not:

• Chase down criminals or
• Arrest and jail criminals.

Those tasks are handled by Police Officers, who can handcuff, tase, pepper spray and baton a suspect, track them, and take them to a processing room to be jailed.

Police Officer vs. Detective

It’s essential to understand the difference between Detectives and Police Officers:

• Police Officers chase down, arrest, and jail criminals. They have tools like handcuffs, tasers, pepper spray and batons, and they walk suspects to a processing room on foot — there are no teleports in an arrest.
• Detectives investigate crimes, collect and process clues, and solve cases. They do not make arrests or chase criminals.

Only Police Officers can jail criminals. Once a case is solved, Detectives must coordinate with Police Officers to ensure arrests are made.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I report a murder?
  • Aim at the body and use /911, or just click the body. If you are the victim, /911 works for two minutes after you respawn.
• How many cases can I hold at once?
  • Two. Claiming a third is refused until you close or drop one.
• Can another Detective help me work a case?
  • No. A case belongs to one Detective, and nobody else can join it while you hold it.
• What happens if I don’t touch a case for an hour?
  • It is taken off you and goes back on the board. Your progress on it is lost.
• What happens if the search timer runs out?
  • The search has failed. The evidence you gathered is destroyed and the case goes cold on the spot. There is no retry.
• What does the scanner do?
  • It processes the physical evidence you recovered, which is what unlocks the evidence list, the victim details, the suspect profiles and the attack log on the case screen. Unprocessed evidence tells you nothing.
• Why is a button on the case screen scrambled?
  • You have not earned enough progress to read that section yet. Click it and it will tell you how much you have and how much it needs.
• Why did solving my case not make anybody wanted?
  • The fight read as self-defence: the victim struck first and was killed by the person they attacked. The case still closes and still pays out.
• What should I do after solving a case?
  • Police Officers on duty will pick the suspect up off /wanted and handle the arrest.

By following this guide and understanding the responsibilities of a Detective, you’ll be well-prepared to pass the exam and serve your community by solving crimes!