Detective Duck Beginner Guide

The three tools you always have

The Case File holds the crime summary plus every suspect's role, photo, and statement — it updates automatically as you gather evidence, so re-open it instead of trying to remember five alibis at once. The magnifying glass is how you read fine details a normal camera angle hides: fingerprints, muddy footprints, torn note fragments, and engraved numbers. Your phone is only used at the end of a case, to close the investigation and lock in your accusation — there is no going back once you submit, so finish checking evidence first.

Why the tutorial case is worth replaying

The first tutorial case teaches the loop at its smallest scale: a stolen item, three pieces of evidence (a personality trait, a physical trait, and a tool clue), and a short suspect list where exactly one person matches all three. Every later case is the same shape with more rooms and more clues layered on top — if the tutorial case ever feels too easy, that is intentional. It is there to teach the matching habit, not to be the hard part.

Once that loop feels automatic, the next skill to build is searching a bigger scene without missing the one clue that unlocks everything else.

Read everything in full, not just the highlighted part

A note that seems like flavor text is frequently the exact source of a lock code later in the same case — a mural's painted year, a login username written on a sticky note, or a shift log entry. Skimming past the sentence around a number is the most common reason a keypad looks unsolvable.

Use the magnifying glass before you assume a room is empty

Several clues only appear once you zoom in with the magnifying glass: footprints leading toward a hiding spot, a partial fingerprint on a wall, or handwriting a normal camera angle blurs. If a room feels like a dead end, sweep it again with the magnifying glass before moving on.

Once your inventory has the right documents and tools, the next step is almost always a locked door — which is where new players lose the most time.

One clue rarely opens a lock by itself

Most keypads need two sources read together — for example, a poster giving a direction sequence plus a second note explaining what each direction is worth in digits. If you only found one half of a code, search nearby rooms again rather than guessing digits at random; the second clue is almost always close by.

For a running, per-case list of confirmed puzzle codes so you don't have to re-derive them from scratch, see the codes page — and for the recommended order to tackle each case, the walkthrough lays out an easy-to-hard path.

Several cases are built to frame the wrong person

A suspect who benefits from the crime — say, someone who suddenly receives stolen money — can look guilty at first glance while a second suspect with matching tools, a matching physical trait, and a broken alibi is the one who actually did it. Don't stop your evidence trail at the first suspect who seems to fit; confirm nothing contradicts them before you commit.

Once you submit an accusation, the case ends — right or wrong — so this is the one step worth double-checking before you tap through. It also decides how a co-op group should plan a case from the start.

How to split roles in a group

The fastest co-op teams assign one player to search rooms for physical evidence while another reads notes and tracks numbers out loud — nobody searches the same drawer twice, and the group reaches the suspect list with a full evidence set in a fraction of the solo time. Detective Duck is also built for phones and tablets, so a mixed mobile-and-PC group works without anyone being at a disadvantage.

Solo or in a group, the mistakes below are the ones that actually stall a case — worth a quick scan before your first real investigation.

One habit that fixes most of them

Before you open your phone to submit, do one pass back through the Case File and ask whether the evidence explains motive and opportunity for your chosen suspect — not just a hunch. That extra thirty seconds is the difference between a clean solve and a wrong-accusation restart.

Once the loop is automatic, the natural next stop is the recommended case order and the puzzle codes already confirmed for each scene.