Using the evidence board

Twelve evidence files are recoverable in Chapter One. Finding them is the easy half. The board is the other half.

What a connection is

A connection is a claim that two documents are about the same thing: the same minute, the same person, the same place, or that one of them contradicts the other. You select a card, choose "connect to", and pick a second card.

If the claim is one the chapter recognises, the board writes a deduction into your journal — a paragraph in Wren's voice saying what the two documents together establish. If it is not, nothing happens. There is no penalty, no attempt counter, no cooldown and no score for accuracy. Try everything if you like.

Why deductions matter

Three things depend on them:

• The journal. Deductions are the only place the game states a conclusion outright.
• The endings. Ending A requires at least ten of the twelve evidence files and the chapter's key deductions. The other two endings have their own requirements.
• Achievements. One achievement is for making all twelve deductions. It is not required for any ending.

The two modes

Board mode shows the files as cards on a corkboard with thread between the ones you have connected. Cards can be dragged, and the layout is saved.

List mode shows the same files as a plain list with a "connect to…" button on each row. Deductions appear inline underneath.

The modes are equivalent. Every connection available in one is available in the other, and switching between them mid-chapter loses nothing. Thread colour is never the only way a connection is indicated — connected cards are also labelled and listed.

Hints

Ask for a hint on a card twice and the board offers one. Hints describe the shape of the connection and never name the second card:

You are holding one record with a time written on it. Something else in this building stopped at the same minute, and it is not a clock.

That is a real hint from the chapter. It tells you what kind of thing to look for and leaves the finding to you. Taking hints does not affect any ending. It does affect one achievement, which is for finishing the chapter without taking any, and which exists for people who want it rather than as a judgement on people who do not.

A method that works

If you are stuck, the productive move is almost never to stare at the board. It is to open the journal, read your own notes in order, and look for two entries with the same number in them. This chapter is built out of times, counts and initials. Four instruments agreeing on one minute is not a coincidence, and neither is a count that goes in as six and comes out as four.