Clue is the classic whodunnit board game in app form. Figure out whether Mr. Green, Ms. Scarlett, or Colonel Mustard killed Mr Boddy in this multiplayer game of sleuthing and social engineering.

Clue (also called Cluedo in some parts of the world) is a multiplayer board game that centers around a fictitious murder. The app Clue is a faithful recreation of this board game with added illustrations and the option of playing against computer-controlled opponents. It’s a perfect way to enjoy an evening with friends and family or to sharpen your detective skills before a family gathering.

First, it’s worth pointing out that the Clue app is a one-time purchase. There are no ads, no microtransactions, and no gimmicks. You don’t have to manage energy or balance resources to build Mr. Boddy’s mansion. Everything is fully functional and ready to go once you the app. It’s honestly a breath of fresh air in today’s mobile ecosystem.

Second, if you’ve played Clue, it’s worth reiterating that this is the board game in digital form. There are some snazzy animations as well as a killer built-in note-taking feature, but the fundamental experience of playing the app Clue is functionally identical to the experience of playing real Clue. If you like Clue, you’ll love the app, but if you don’t like the game, this is probably a safe skip.

The premise of Clue involves a dastardly murder. Mr. Boddy has been killed somewhere in his mansion by one of the playable characters. Your goal is to figure out who killed him, where he died, and what was used to kill him. As you play through the game, you take turns moving a figure representing your character to one of the rooms. You then guess a character, weapon, and location. The location must be the room you moved to, and you cannot exit a room and re-enter on the same turn.

Clue involves a decent amount of bookkeeping when you play it on a physical board. In digital form, the game is simple and easy to manage. The built-in note-taking automatically accounts for cards that people definitely don’t have, meaning that you only have to jot down the complexities involved when someone’s guess is disproven by someone else. If Orchid guesses that Mr Green did it with the Candlestick in the Ballroom and Mrs. Scarlett shows her a card, you know that Scarlett has one of those three cards. Through careful observation and note-taking, it’s possible to figure out which card she has and quickly reason your way to an accurate guess.

Clue is a brilliant game that has all of the complexity of a Sudoku game while adding a hefty amount of social observation. Skilled players will make all sorts of wild guesses to throw off your intuition, including guessing their own cards and guessing cards that they know are held by other players. When playing with humans, it’s important to pay attention to your opponents’ mannerisms and tendencies and try to figure out when they’re doing this. If you can guess that your friend likes to guess their own cards, it’s a lot easier to call their bluff and zero in on victory.

Clue is a game that’s easy to learn and complex to master. While first time players will simply mark off their own guesses, more experienced players will quickly learn to document everything in the game. The key to success is using a system of documentation that allows you to parse this massive flow of information and condense it into a series of useful facts.

The first thing to tick off is when someone definitely doesn’t have a card. If someone guesses “Orchid, Wrench, Ballroom” and their guess advances two players before it’s stopped, those two players cannot have Orchid, Wrench, or Ballroom in their hands. There’s a handy note-taking feature built into the Clue app that automatically does this sort of note-taking for you. It’ll make a big red X.

The second thing is to note when someone has one of several cards. If Mr. Green stops the aforementioned guess, he either has Orchid, Wrench, or Ballroom in his hand. It’s a good idea to make a small number in the corner of the appropriate squares on the grid. If Mr. Green stops a later guess, you’ll want to use a different number to distinguish things. The app doesn’t perform this sort of note-taking automatically, but the interface makes it easy to do it yourself.

Once you’ve got the numbers down, it’s just a matter of paying attention to later events that could “disprove” them. In the first example, if Mr. Green shows you he has the Conservatory, he cannot have the Ballroom, so you can remove your small 1 in the corner. Similarly, if you learn that Professor Plum has the Wrench, you can remove the 1 from Mr. Green’s square. This means that Mr Green must have Orchid. Figuring out all of the players’ cards like this will almost always result in Clue games that end within three or four turns. It’s just a matter of taking the right notes.

At the start of each game of Clue, one character, weapon, and location are hidden in a secret envelope. Then, the remaining cards are dealt out to the players. Whenever you make a guess, each other player must attempt to disprove that guess by showing you one of the cards you named. Only one card must be shown, even if the other player has more than one of those cards in their hand. Then, it’s the next player’s turn to move and then take a guess.

Before the next player goes, however, you can perform the ultimate act of bravery: you can make a guess for real. When you make this second guess, you’re either going to win or lose the game. You name a character, a weapon, and a room, then open the envelope in secret. If the cards you name are the cards in the envelope, you win. If any of them are different, however, you have to quietly place the cards back in the envelope and announce that you’ve lost. You’re not allowed to say what you got wrong.

Are you a Clue veteran? Do you have any tips or tricks that we missed? Who are your favorite characters to play as? Did you know that Mr. Green is a plant? Let us know in the comments below!