Home / Puzzle / Impostor Detective
Impostor Detective is a free online logic-deduction puzzle for one player. A crew of four to seven were somewhere on the station last shift, and each one says a single thing about where they were or who they were with. Every crewmate is telling the truth. The impostor is not. Nothing else is given, and nothing else is needed — the statements are built so that exactly one crew member can be the liar without contradicting everybody else. That uniqueness is checked rather than hoped for: a case only ships if a sweep over every possible arrangement of the crew finds one consistent accused and no other, so a solved case is solved by reasoning and never by guessing between two who both fit. A notebook lets you mark each crew member cleared or suspect while you work, and naming the impostor first time is three stars. Eight levels grow the crew, the rooms and the kinds of statement in play. This is a single-player puzzle: there is no lobby, no chat and nobody else on the station. No download, no account, no timer.
How to play Impostor Detective
- Each crew member makes exactly one statement about the last shift.
- Every crewmate is telling the truth. The impostor is the only one lying.
- Statements are about places and company: who somebody was with, who was alone, who was seen in a named room, which two were together or apart, and who is not the impostor.
- Tap a crew member to select them, then press the Accuse button to name them.
- Tap the small box on the right of a card to mark that crew member — a tick for cleared, a question mark for suspect, and again to clear the note.
- The notes are yours. The game never reads them and they never change an answer.
- A wrong accusation is not fatal. It costs a star, and that crew member is marked cleared, because you now know for certain they were not lying.
- There is exactly one crew member the statements allow to be the liar. Working out who is always possible from what is on screen.
- Three stars is naming the impostor first time, two is naming them second, one is naming them at all.
- New Case deals a different set of statements at the same level. Every level has dozens of them, and they cycle rather than running out.
- On a keyboard, the number keys select the crew member in that position.
Tips
- Start with whoever is mentioned most. A crew member several statements talk about is the one whose position is most constrained, and pinning them down usually collapses everything else.
- "I was alone" is a claim about everybody else, not just about the speaker. If it is true, nobody shares that room, which contradicts every "I was with them" pointing at the speaker.
- Assume somebody is the liar and follow it through. Whoever forces a contradiction was not the liar — that is the whole method, and it is the same one the game uses to check the case is fair.
- "X is not the impostor" is the strongest statement in the game, because it says something about the answer directly. If it is a lie, X is the impostor — and the speaker cannot be.
- Two statements that cannot both be true tell you the liar is one of those two, before you know anything else.
- Use the notebook rather than your memory. Ticking off the people you have proved innocent is what turns a six-person case into a two-person one.
- A wrong name is not wasted if you already know why. It costs a star; guessing between two candidates you have not separated costs the same star and teaches you nothing.
- Rooms are only ever named in "seen in" statements. If no statement names a room, the arrangement does not matter and only the who-with-whom does.
FAQ
Is Impostor Detective free to play?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy. All eight levels are included and unlock as you clear them, and each one deals dozens of separate cases.
Is this a multiplayer game?
No, and it never pretends to be. There is no lobby, no chat and nobody else on the station — the crew are a set of statements, and the puzzle is working out which one cannot be true. It is a single-player logic puzzle that happens to be dressed as a crew manifest.
How do I find the impostor?
By elimination on the statements. Assume one crew member is lying, take every other statement as true, and see whether that can all be so at once. Exactly one assumption survives. The most useful statements are the ones that talk about somebody else, because they tie two people together.
Can there be more than one possible answer?
No, and that is checked rather than assumed. Before a case is ever shown, every crew member is tested as the liar against every possible arrangement of the crew across the rooms. A case is only used if exactly one of them is consistent. So a case is never down to a coin flip between two who both fit.
What happens if I accuse the wrong person?
You lose a star and keep going. That crew member is marked cleared, since you now know for certain they were not the liar, and the case stays open. There is no lives system and nothing to restart.
What are the tick and question mark for?
They are your notes. Tap the box on a card to cycle it between cleared, suspect and blank. The game never reads them — they exist because a six-person case is much easier to hold in your head once the people you have already ruled out look different from the ones you have not.
Does the impostor know they are lying?
The rule is simply that their statement is false and everybody else's is true. That is all the game asserts and all you need. There is no hidden motive to model and no second impostor: every case has exactly one liar, stated up front in the readout.
Are the cases random?
Generated from a seed rather than random. The same level always deals the same first case, and New Case steps to a different one. Each level has dozens — how many depends on how many sets of statements come out with exactly one possible liar, which is a stricter bar than it sounds — and once you reach the end they cycle rather than running out. Nothing about a case depends on when you played it.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The crew are a scrolling list of cards, each with its statement in full and a large note button, and accusing is a single button under the list. Nothing needs dragging and the text stays at a readable size in portrait.