Explanations and solutions to the full Crime Scene: Berlin 1976 game
Puzzle A B C D E F G H I Endgame
Puzzle A
You have read Part 1 of the story and revealed the Evidence card marked “Start”. You have found a ‘letter’ in the dark shadows of cell 26 of the Investigation Image. Now, take Evidence Card 26 and start solving Puzzle A.
Evidence Card 26 has a black-and-white string on it, so you need to find an extra card to solve puzzle A. The string comes from a small key symbol on the card. You will find a key in cell 8 of the Investigation Image, on the windowsill. Take Evidence card 8 as well, and you are ready to solve the puzzle.
Card 8 shows you seven strange blue letters and tells you you’ll need 7 letters for your answer. Card 26 shows you a cipher key with a separate collection of letters for 7 different days. Wednesday is underlined, so we can assume that is the one we will be using, and the story so far also supports that assumption. Now let’s take the first blue letter from Evidence Card 8. It is an M. When we find the M from the blue top row of card 26, and follow that column downwards to the Wednesday line, we will land on the letter C. When we do the same for all the other letters on card 8, we get: T = L, G = A, K = U, U = D, D = I and G = A again.
String those letters together and you get CLAUDIA. That is the solution to puzzle A. What you did while solving this puzzle, was using actual substitution cipher, which is very popular when creating coded writing.
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a ‘knife’ on the plate in cell 17 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 17.
Puzzle B
You followed the cipher and found a ‘knife’ in cell 17 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 17.
Evidence Card 17 guides you to search for a ‘briefcase’ in the Investigation Image. You’ll find it on the floor in cell 18, so take Evidence Card 18. The question marks on this card seem to say a 3-digit number should be changed into another 3-digit number. Now, if you have paid attention while reading the story, you’ll remember what you just read. You are supposed to change one detail on the passport, and that detail has to do with the appearance of Elsa. In paragraph 3 of the story, you’ll find Elsa’s height which is clearly different from that of Erika Michler. The actual height of Elsa is what she changes Erika’s height into: 163 cm is changed into 172 cm. Therefore, 172 is the solution to this puzzle.
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a ‘flower’ in cell 13 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 13.
Puzzle C
You followed the cipher and found a ‘flower’ in cell 13 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 13.
Evidence Card 13 guides you to search for a ‘telephone’ in the Investigation Image. You’ll find it in cell 25. Evidence Card 25 has a black-and-white string that comes from a clock. You’ll find the extra card from the clock on the top of the shelf in cell 4 of the Investigation Image. Take Evidence Card 4. Now you are ready to solve puzzle C.
Evidence Card 25 gives you the names of what could be three train stations, especially since Evidence Card 4 seems to show a map of different train lines. Since card 25 also says our solution should be made up of two numbers, and getting from the first station to the last one takes two journeys, that could be our aim: to find out the numbers of the lines that will take us from Pankow-Heinersdorf to Alexanderplatz.
First, we locate the Pankow-Heinersdorf station on the blue-orange double line. Once we have located Alexanderplatz on the teal line, we will realize we have to use the orange line for our first part of the trip. We cannot use the blue line, since that one never connects with the teal line. The map of the lines tells us the value of the orange line is 7. That is the first part of our solution. At Prenzlauer Allee, we will change trains and travel on using the teal line. The value of the teal line is 8. Since the teal line takes us all the way to Alexanderplatz, that is all we need.
When you string the two numbers together, you will get the solution: 78.
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a ‘heart’ on the couch in cell 16 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 16.
Puzzle D
You followed the cipher and found a ‘heart’ in cell 16 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 16.
Evidence Card 16 guides you to search for a ‘newspaper’ in the Investigation Image. You’ll find it under the table in cell 23, so take Evidence Card 23 and start solving Puzzle D.
You’ll have to start with looking for two extra cards that should come from coffee mugs or something similar. You’ll easily spot the one on the floor in cell 22 but seeing the other one in the shadows on the couch in cell 21 can be a bit challenging. However, there it is! So, reveal Evidence Cards 21 and 22 and you are all set to start solving puzzle D.
Your job is now to open the padlock on the door of the toilet cubicle. The question marks on card 21 give you a lot of information. They say that you should add together 3 separate 2-digit numbers and that the sum of them should be a 3-digit number starting with a 1. That means that the numbers we add together should be high enough that they form a sum of 100 or more when added together. Now what numbers should we use? Both card 21 and card 22 show numbers that possibly could be used: there’s a 39 on card 21, and a 37 on card 22. 39 + 37 = 76, so we need a third number of 24 or more to reach a sum of at least 100. Since we haven’t used card 23 yet, let’s investigate that one. There are actually several numbers on this card: the 17 of the postal address and a 33 and a 22 of the 1970s phone number. Only one of them matches our requirement of 24 or higher, so let’s add 33 to the 76 we had!
When we add together 76 and 33, we get 109, and that is the code that opens the lock, and is the solution to puzzle D.
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a ‘lock’ in the door that is part of the bookshelf in cell 19 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 19.
Puzzle E
You followed the cipher and found a ‘lock’ in cell 19 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 19.
Evidence Card 19 prompts you to look for a statue, and you’ll find a decorative one on the shelf in cell 10 of the Investigation Image. Take Evidence Card 10. This card shows the base of a statue and has a black-and-white string on it. It seems to come from a musical instrument, a lyre. We find a decorative lyre in cell 5 of the Investigation Image, so take Evidence Card 5, too. Now we are ready to solve puzzle E.
You’ll notice that the two cards (5 and 10) can be lined up to form a complete statue. Start by doing that. The text you read on card 19 said that the attached photo would reveal the hiding place of the package you are about to retrieve. You will notice that there are 7 numbers drawn onto the photo of the statue. The order they appear in is a little surprising, but if you let your finger travel between the numbers, starting at the 1 and then visiting each number in sequence (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7), you’ll notice that your finger describes a familiar shape. If you didn’t notice it yet, do it again. You are drawing the number five, even if you draw starting at the end.
The shape your finger described forms the solution to this puzzle: 5.
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a ‘mirror’ in the shadows of cell 6 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 6.
Puzzle F
You followed the cipher and found a ‘mirror’ in cell 6 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 6.
Evidence Card 6 prompts you to look for a road, which is a little surprising since we are inside a flat here. However, there is a window in the flat, and what do we see outside, if not the part of a road in cell 7. Take Evidence Card 7 and start solving puzzle F.
Your first job is to find an extra card following the black-and-white string coming from a ruler. You’ll find a ruler lying on the shelf in cell 20 of the Investigation Image. Take Evidence Card 20. Now we can solve the puzzle!
Card 7 shows part of a map of Berlin. On this map, we see streets, street names, numbers, and dots. The other card, card 20, shows eight street names in two columns, and four of them are marked with red dots. Further two lines connect a dot from the left column to a dot in the right column. The two lines form an X. Now, if we look at the map card again, we will notice that exactly four of the dots are red. And if we look even closer, we’ll see that those red dots are on exactly those four streets that were marked with red dots in the other card: Krausenstraβe, Charlottenstraβe, Jerusalemer Straβe, and Zimmerstraβe. Now, since these streets are paired up on the other card, we could try pairing them up in the same way on the map card. Instead of using a pen to combine the dots, we can just use card number 20, for example. When we place it, much like a ruler, on top of the map card, and line it up with the dots of Krausenstraβe (between the numbers 6 and 7), and Zimmerstraβe (near the number 18), we will se that an imagined line would run neatly through the number 14 on Schützenstraβe. Now let’s do the same for the other pair of streets: Charlottenstraβe (the dot is below the number 16) and Jerusalemer Straβe (the dot is right by the number 11). When we lay down the card to combine these two dots, we will notice that it would cross the first line exactly at the number 14.
14 is the solution to this puzzle!
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a ‘cigarette’ in the ashtray on the table in cell 11 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 11.
Puzzle G
You followed the cipher and found a ‘cigarette’ in cell 11 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 11.
Evidence Card 11 prompts you to look for an ‘ad’ in the Investigation Image. You will find an ‘ad’ in the magazine on the floor in cell 30. Take Evidence Card 30.
Evidence Card 30 has a black-and-white string coming from a ketchup bottle. You will find a ketchup bottle lying on the floor in cell 24 of the Investigation Image, so take Evidence Card 24, too. Now you can solve puzzle G!
Now, using six lines, card 24 tells us we are looking for six letters. The same card also gives us six numbers: 8, 2, 7, 18, 13, and 3. It seems we should find out which letter corresponds to which number, and that way find the solution. Now, the original ketchup card tells us the value of the letter “e” in Tomaten is a 6, but it does not say anything about the numbers we need. So, the most important task here is to figure out exactly why the letter “e” is a 6. Well, we may find other suggestions, but we may also notice that that specific “e” is the 6th letter on the card. Following that logic, we may get pretty far. Maybe even all the way! Let’s start counting! We’ll start with the 8, which takes us two steps further from the “e” landing us on the first letter of the second row: a “K”. The next number is a 2, and the second letter is the “o” in the first word. Next up we have a 7, so that should be between the “e” (6) and “K” (8), and there we find an “n”. The next one is 18. We can start on 8 (the “K”) and count on from there. The 18th letter is the “s” in Flasche. While we were counting that, we also passed number 13, which we are looking for now. The 13th letter is the “u” in “Ketchup”. And the last one is easy to spot: the 3rd letter is an “m”.
Now, if we string those findings together, we find the solution: “Konsum”.
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find a cooking ‘pot’ on the floor below the window in cell 12 of the Investigation Image, and take Evidence Card 12.
Puzzle H
You followed the cipher and found a ‘pot’ in cell 12 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 12.
Evidence Card 12 guides you to search for a ‘bicycle’ in the Investigation Image. It is in the picture frame in cell 1, so take Evidence Card 1 and solve Puzzle H.
Evidence Card 1 has a black-and-white string on it, so you need to find an extra card to solve Puzzle H.
The string comes from a warning sticker. Can you spot something similar in the Investigation Image? Try looking closely at the back of the television set. There, in cell 14, you will find a similar warning sticker. Take Evidence Card 14, and you are ready to solve puzzle H.
The extra card tells us we need for numbers for the solution. It also gives us a color order of Green, Yellow, Blue, and Red. Now, the original card has four switches, each with colors for their different settings. The original positions of the switches do not matter, since we will turn them all to match the color order we got from card 14. Let’s start! When we turn the first switch to green, it is set to 3. When we set the second switch to yellow, it points to a 2. Moving to the third switch, we set that one to blue, which equals 4. And the last one we turn from zero to red and end up with that one on 2.
Stringing the numbers we found together, we get 3242, and that is the solution to this puzzle!
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find ‘shoes’ in cell 27 of the Investigation Image. Well, actually, it is only one shoe, but that’s alright, so take Evidence Card 27.
Puzzle I
You followed the cipher and found a ‘shoe’ in cell 27 of the Investigation Image. Now take Evidence Card 27.
Evidence Card 27 cryptically guides you to search for ‘names’ in the Investigation Image. There! On the shelf of cell 15, we spot the name Michler on the back of a book. Well done! Take Evidence Card 15 and start solving Puzzle I.
Evidence Card 15 shows grid paper with some names or similar on it, and a black-and-white string coming from some of the squares on an otherwise empty part of the card. Well, luckily more grid paper is not very difficult to spot in cell 29. Take Evidence Card 29 and you can solve puzzle I.
The original card tells us we need 3 numbers for this solution. The card also shows three separate texts. Maybe each one corresponds to a number? The other card gives us 20 different street addresses each with a street name and a number. Now, apparently each text on the original card somehow corresponds to one of the addresses on the other card, but how? The last address in the list is Zimmerstraβe 2. Now, if we disregard the “straβe” part (which is identical in each of the addresses) we are left with Zimmer. That letter Z might have caught our attention since we have a MR ZIME on the other card. Now we may realize MR ZIME actually consists of the same letters as Zimmer! This could be it!
Let’s start with the first one, RICH FIRED. There are only two street names that have an F in them: Friedrich and Markgrafen. Markgrafen is right out since RICH FIRED does not have two A letters and so on. However, Friedrich fits the bill exactly! The number associated with Friedrichstraβe is 6. Next, we have MR ZIME that we already solved. The number for Zimmerstraβe is 2. And last, we have MR EAU, a very short name. Kur, Bode, and Mauer are the shortest names on the list, and only Mauer has 5 letters, like MR EAU. We now see that Mauer also uses the same letters as MR EAU. The number for Mauer is 3.
String together the numbers you found: 623. That’s the solution to the final puzzle!
Follow the cipher to the storybook. Next, find ‘bullets’ in cell 9 of the Investigation Image, and reveal the last card, Evidence Card 9.
Endgame
You found ‘bullets’ in cell 9 of the Investigation Image and took Evidence Card 9. The card instructs you to read Part 3 of the story. It’s time to make your final choice.
If you have all of your Reputation Cards, they spell out “HE IS YOUR FRIEND.” The right course of action is to c) Talk to the man. Take Evidence Card 28 and see how the story ends.