Multiplayer

Requirements

• Steam. Lobbies run through Steam. Without Steam running, the Multiplayer button is locked.
• Windows or Mac. The browser version has no multiplayer. The demo shows the button but keeps it locked.
• Same version. Every player needs the same game version on the same build (Early Access or full game). The lobby turns away anyone who does not match.
• 2 to 10 players.

Starting a Match

1. From the main menu, open Multiplayer and press Create Lobby. You become the host.
2. Share the 6-digit Lobby Code, or use Invite Friends to send a Steam invite.
3. Friends open Multiplayer, type the code and press Join Lobby, or accept the Steam invite.
4. When everyone is in, the host presses Start Match.

The code stops working once the match starts. Nobody new can join a match in progress; only players who were already in it can come back.

How a Level Runs

• Your own clock. A level opens for everyone at once, and your time starts when you close the level briefing.
• The race is on. As soon as the first player solves the level, a deadline starts for everyone else: 5 seconds per official at the table (30 seconds at a table of 6).
• Time Is Up is not the end. When the deadline passes, your level closes, you lose points for every corrupt official still free and you carry on to the next level.
• Losing a level eliminates you. Three wrong arrests or arresting a clean Mayor ends your race for the rest of the match. Your score freezes and you can spectate.
• Next level starts when every player still in the race has finished and pressed Next Level.
• The match covers the whole campaign your edition includes, then continues into Endless. Professionals work as in solo play; each player has their own inventory and drops.

Scoring

• A correct arrest resets the wrong streak and the other way round. Both reset at the start of every level.
• Bonuses and penalties are settled together once everyone has finished the level, so every player sees the same result.
• Standings are pure score. On a tie, whoever reached that score first ranks higher.

Spectating

Once you have finished a level or been eliminated, you can watch another player's table on the same level. Pick a player from the score band at the top of the screen or use the eye button (Watch) in the waiting panel.

Players who are still solving cannot watch anyone. The pause menu hides the seed from every player for the whole match and Final Standings reveals it, so nobody can look ahead at another table.

Leaving and Rejoining

• If you leave or lose your connection, you can come back at any time during the match with Rejoin Match in the Multiplayer menu. Where you land depends on the race:
  • Your level is still running: your table is restored where you left it.
  • You had already finished that level: you wait for the next one like everyone else who finished.
  • You had been eliminated: you return as a spectator.
  • The race has moved on: you join the current level with a fresh table. A level you left unsolved costs the same penalty as running out of time on it.
• While you are away, you stay in the standings with your score frozen. If you never come back, the same penalty still applies once the race moves past a level you left unsolved: leaving never beats running out of time.
• If everyone else has finished and a player still has not pressed Next Level after 60 seconds, the host can kick them. A kicked player can rejoin.
• Multiplayer runs are saved to your run history like solo runs.

Winning the Match

The match ends in one of two ways:

• Nobody is left racing: every player has been eliminated or has left.
• One player is left racing, leads everyone including the players who left and presses Claim Victory.

Being the last one standing does not end the match on its own: you keep racing against the frozen scores of the others until you pass them. The winner is always the highest score, even if that player was eliminated or left. The Final Standings panel shows the result for everyone.

Creator Mode

A lobby option for streamers who play with their viewers. Tick Creator Mode in the lobby before the match starts. It is ticked by default when Streamer Mode is on, and everyone in the lobby can see that it is active. The player who turns it on is the creator, and the creator races like everyone else.

• Everyone starts together. Each level opens with a shared 3-2-1 countdown, the briefing closes on its own and time counts from the same moment for every player. Nobody can wait in the briefing, watch the solution on stream and start late.
• Hidden lobby code. The code shows as dots. Use the eye button (Show code) off stream, or Copy it without showing it at all.
• Only the creator runs the match: starting, kicking, banning, display names and rematches.
• Kick at any time, in the lobby or mid-match. A kicked player can come back.
• Ban removes a player for the rest of this lobby, rematches included. A banned player cannot rejoin with the code, an invite or Rejoin Match.
• Display names. In the lobby the creator can give any player a name of up to 16 characters; leave it empty to go back to the Steam name. Other players cannot rename themselves.
• Rematch. After the final standings the creator can start a new match in the same lobby with a new seed. Everyone still in the lobby joins automatically, bans and display names carry over and players from the previous match are marked.
• If the creator drops out, the match keeps running, but nobody else gets the creator's controls. They come back when the creator reconnects.

In the lobby, player options are on the button at the end of each player's row. During the match, right click a player's score plate or their row in the waiting panel.

Creator Mode is built for casual matches with your community, not for prize competitions. Viewers who watch your stream can still see how you solve a table.

Move Verification

In every multiplayer match, the host's game replays every other player's arrests against the real table and checks them against the reported score and finish time. When they do not match, a suspect stamp appears next to that player. Only the host sees it, or the creator in Creator Mode.

• The stamp never changes anyone's score. In Creator Mode the creator decides whether to ban.
• Verification does guard the race itself. A win the host cannot confirm does not start the deadline for everyone else, and a player whose arrests show they were eliminated is treated as eliminated.
• A slow connection alone does not earn a stamp: timing is judged against each player's own usual delay and only flagged when it repeats.