The investigator’s reading room
Somatry investigation guides
Make sense of the record before you make a case. These spoiler-free guides explain how to read evidence, compare timelines and test a theory in Somatry: Cold Case Mystery.
Start with the question in front of you.
A case can feel tangled for different reasons. You may be unsure what a document proves, unable to reconcile two timestamps, or ready to report without a convincing answer to all four questions. Choose the guide that matches the problem you are trying to solve.
Reading records
Read a fictional receipt, roster or log according to its original purpose before using it to support a wider theory.
Separate a Record's Author from Its Subject ↗Distinguish the person who wrote a record, the person it describes and the source from which its information came.
Compare Originals and Copies Without Assuming Fraud ↗Use differences between fictional document versions to ask about copying, later additions and missing context before assigning intent.
Read Annotations as a Separate Layer ↗Keep printed content and later handwriting distinct when a fictional document contains corrections, reminders or private shorthand.
Distinguish Writing, Filing and Event Dates ↗Avoid treating a document's most visible date as the date of every event described inside it.
Timelines
Build a fictional case timeline without turning phrases such as after lunch or before closing into invented exact minutes.
Track Dates When a Timeline Crosses Midnight ↗Prevent an overnight sequence from becoming contradictory because times were copied without their dates.
Check Whether Two Clocks Are Comparable ↗Compare timestamps cautiously when the fictional records do not establish that their clocks share the same setting.
Do Not Invent Travel Times ↗Use route information supplied by a fictional case instead of treating an imagined journey duration as evidence.
Separate the Time of a Message from the Event It Describes ↗Keep reporting and occurrence distinct when a fictional message refers to something that happened earlier.
People and places
Check which evidence connects similar names, initials or titles before treating them as one person in a fictional case.
Separate an Object's Location from Its Owner's Location ↗Avoid placing a fictional character somewhere solely because a possession appears there.
Distinguish an Account from the Person Using It ↗Read fictional account records without assuming that a name attached to a transaction identifies every person involved.
Track Role Changes Across Dates ↗Prevent an old title or roster entry from assigning a fictional character the wrong responsibilities later in a case.
Read Addresses in Their Historical Context ↗Account for renamed streets, moved objects and correspondence addresses when locating events in fictional records.
Comparing evidence
Avoid counting repeated versions of one fictional claim as several separate confirmations.
Decide What a Missing Entry Can Tell You ↗Evaluate a blank or missing name by asking whether the fictional record should have captured the event at all.
Establish the Order of Document Versions ↗Build a supported revision sequence without assuming that the cleanest fictional document was written last.
Ask What a Photograph Actually Shows ↗Separate visible details from assumptions about when, why and under what conditions a fictional photograph was made.
Recognize Duplicates Before Counting Events ↗Check whether two similar fictional entries describe separate events or two records of the same event.
Testing a theory
Compare a few evidence-based explanations for a fictional discrepancy instead of committing to the first dramatic possibility.
Test a Theory Against Its Hardest Evidence ↗Look for the strongest potential contradiction before treating a fictional case theory as ready for a report.
Notice When You Are Reading Only for Confirmation ↗Use a simple comparison routine to avoid turning every fictional detail into support for the suspect you chose first.
Distinguish a Pattern from a Repeated Coincidence ↗Ask what connects repeated fictional details before treating their recurrence as a deliberate signal.
Do Not Turn Sequence into Cause ↗Separate what happened after an event from evidence that the earlier event caused it in a fictional case.
Reading interviews
Preserve a fictional witness's wording before shortening it into a stronger or different claim.
Preserve Uncertainty in a Witness Statement ↗Read probably, around and I think as meaningful parts of a fictional account rather than verbal clutter.
Trace a Secondhand Account Back to Its Source ↗Identify who observed an event and who merely repeated it within a fictional interview or message chain.
Evaluate a Corrected Statement Without Assuming Deceit ↗Compare the specific change in a fictional account before deciding whether a correction undermines the whole statement.
Do Not Fill a Character's Silence for Them ↗Distinguish an unanswered question from evidence of what a fictional character intended to conceal.
Organizing your notes
Create short, useful notes for a fictional cold case while retaining the source and limits of each claim.
Keep an Open-Question Ledger ↗Turn uncertainty into a short list of answerable questions rather than a vague feeling that the fictional case is confusing.
Link Every Important Claim to Its Source ↗Make a fictional case theory easy to check by recording where each important conclusion came from.
Use Confidence Labels Without Inventing Percentages ↗Distinguish direct observations, supported inferences and open possibilities while reading a fictional mystery.
Re-enter a Case After Taking a Break ↗Resume a fictional investigation without mistaking your last theory for the evidence you had actually established.
Preparing a report
Avoid assuming that identifying a plausible culprit automatically establishes how a fictional crime was carried out.
Keep Motive Separate from Opportunity ↗Distinguish why a fictional character might act from whether the evidence places them in a position to act.
Choose the Relevant Moment, Not the Most Dramatic Timestamp ↗Identify which event a timestamp belongs to before using it as the moment in a fictional case report.
Check That All Four Report Answers Fit One Story ↗Review killer, method, motive and moment together so individually plausible answers do not contradict one another.
Use Report Feedback to Recheck Evidence ↗Respond to Somatry's count of correct answers by reviewing your weakest supported field rather than guessing blindly.
Reading mystery fiction
Choose between city lore, original short fiction and investigation guidance while keeping the game's case solutions unspoiled.
Read Documents as Both Evidence and Storytelling ↗Notice how a fictional form, letter or notebook reveals a character through its practical use as well as its explicit words.
Separate Atmosphere from a Testable Clue ↗Enjoy a mystery's mood while distinguishing evocative description from details that support a specific conclusion.
Read a Limited Account Without Calling Its Speaker a Liar ↗Distinguish a fictional narrator's incomplete knowledge from deliberate deception.
Recognize What a Mystery Ending Resolves ↗Distinguish the question a short mystery answers from the personal history it intentionally leaves open.
New to the evidence desk?
The How to Play guide introduces Somatry’s read, flag and report flow with an interactive website illustration. The articles here focus on the reasoning behind that flow. Any worked examples are invented teaching scenarios, not solutions from the game.
Keep the detective glossary nearby for terms such as flagged evidence, motive and moment. If a district name is unfamiliar, the world guide can orient you without revealing a culprit.