Version 1.3 9/5/12
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Nick Chase: A Detective Story
A Walkthrough by Michael Gray
AKA The Lost Gamer (
[email protected])
Copyright 2012
For a list of all my various guides, check
http://the_lost_gamer.tripod.com/guides.html
Table of Contents:
001. General information
002. Walkthrough
003. Credits
001-General Information
---------------------------------------------------------
This is a walkthrough for the PC game called Nick Chase:
A Detective Story. It's a film noir type game, where a
hard-boiled detective solves a mystery. This walkthrough
should also work for the iOS versions of the game.
To contact me about this guide, email me at
[email protected].
002-Walkthrough
---------------------------------------------------------
Start the game by flipping open the book and selecting "new
game".
Nick's Office
-------------
The game starts in Nick Chase's office. Nick is a former
police officer, turned PI. Nick doesn't have anything to do
right now besides clean the fishbowl.
This is a simple challenge, designed as a basic tutorial to
teach you how to play the game. The brush for the fishbowl
is on top of a small dresser, near the desk. Tap on it to
pick it up. The brush appears in the inventory at the
bottom of the screen.
Tap on the fishbowl, which is on top of the safe. This
gives you a close-up view of the fishbowl. Use the brush on
the fishbowl. Rub it on all nine areas with gunk, in order
to clean the tank.
Nick notes that Felix the Fish looks hungry. Tap on the
close here, and Nick opens the door. This reveals some fish
food. Pick up the fish food. Zoom in on the fish bowl again
and use the fish food on Felix to feed him.
Feeding the fish causes the phone to ring. Tap on the phone
to pick it up. Hey, someone wants to hire Nick! The details
about the case are inside a blue envelope.
There are twenty envelopes on this screen. Tap on all of
them, to pick them up. You can always pinch your fingers to
zoom in and out of the screen, at least a little bit, if
you think that will aid you in your search.
Once you find all twenty blue envelopes, Nick goes through
the one which is from the client. The client is in a
wealthy suburb, and Nick goes there.
Client's House
--------------
The butler invites Nick Chase inside, but as he's going
down the hallway, a locked gate appears out of nowhere.
This is a puzzle. You want to rotate the various pieces of
the lock so all the designs match.
There are five pieces: four corner pieces and the middle
piece, which is cross-shaped. Tap on a piece to rotate it.
If you experiment with them, you'll notice that each square
moves a different number of squares when you tap it.
The trick to the puzzle is working from "most number of
squares moved" to "least number of squares moved". So,
start by moving the upper/right piece into place. Then, do
the lower/left square. Then, the lower/right. Finally, the
upper/left. That's the order you want to move all the
squares in. Don't forget about the middle piece, though!
Once you solve the puzzle, the client appears. He says the
door puzzle was a test of Nick's skills, a test which he
passed with flying colors. The client explains that a
manuscript written by Leonardo Da Vinci has been stolen.
Nick now has to search for evidence. Drag the magnifying
lens around by the handle, and move it all around the case.
Evidence shows up when you move it over something
interesting.
For example, there is a piece of evidence on all three
corners of the base of the platform here, and a piece of
evidence on the left side of the pillow. One is on the left
side of the hole in the glass, one is on the top/left part
of the glass container, and the last one in the
upper/right.
To Nick's chagrin, all of the evidence seems useless,
except a small drop of blood. As he heads to the lab to get
the blood analyzed, he remembers the hallway with the trick
lock.
The screen is split up into a number of squares. Tap on a
square to flip it over. Flip squares until you have one
complete picture. The picture is of the hallway, with
distinct footprints on the floor. Nick berates himself for
not remembering the footprints until now, when it's too
late to examine them.
Dr. Morrison's Lab
------------------
Nick arrives at the lab of his friend, Dr. Morrison. Tap on
the analyzer (which is the machine on the desk on the
left). It looks like Nick will have to fix it. Pick up the
photograph on the ground in the lower/right to see what the
finished analyzer will look like.
The ten pieces of the analyzer are all over the room. Pick
them all up, then tap on the lower/right corner to look at
the picture of the analyzer again. Put all the pieces in
the spots where they belong.
Click on the machine on the right-hand side of the screen.
You have to power up this machine. For the first challenge,
you want to press the green button when the lever is in the
green area. Do this three times in a row.
For the second challenge, you want to tap the levers on the
left. This changes the pictures on the right. Tap the
levers until the pictures on the right form a glass beaker.
The third challenge involves a series of buttons. Three
buttons will be pushed. You want to duplicate the pattern,
by pushing the same three buttons. It's a simple enough
challenge, although I had a really hard time doing this on
my iPod. Duplicate three patterns successfully, and you're
done.
Once you've finished, press the faucet and the reagent
formula fills out the glass bottle. Tap it to pick it up,
then use it on the analyzer (the far left part,
specifically). Use the fuel canister on the burner
underneath the reagent, then use the matches on the burner
to light it.
Once Nick is satisfied, tap on the faucet on the right hand
of the analyzer, then tap on the beaker the liquid flows
into. Dr. Morrison notes that the blood sample contained a
lot of sedative.
Joe the Scribbler's Apartment
-----------------------------
Nick decides to go visit his friend, Joe the Scribbler.
Maybe Joe knows a criminal who is taking heavy sedatives.
When you arrive at Joe's place, however, the hallways is
dark. If you try to flip on the light switch, you'll see
that the wires are cut. Look inside the trashcan here and
grab the electrical tape. Use it on the wires (when the
power is off), then turn on the lights.
Knock on Joe's door. It's locked. Click on the doormat to
find the key. Pick it up, then zoom in on the door handle.
Put the key on the lock to start a minor puzzle.
The lock has three parts, as you can see. Tap the lock to
rotate it. Make it face right, then press the door handle.
Make the lock face up, then press the door handle to get
rid of the second lock. Make the lock face left then press
the door handle to open the door.
Joe the Scribbler is inside his apartment, but he has
dropped the lid to his chest. The sixteen pieces are
scattered all over the room. Tap on all of them to pick
them up, then use them on the chest (which is on the
couch).
This starts a fairly simple jigsaw puzzle. Put all the
pieces into the empty spots to form a picture of a simian
creature. The pieces lock into place when you have them
where they're supposed to go, and the two circular pieces
are the eyes.
Joe the Scribbler thanks Detective Chase, then says that
the criminal who takes sedatives is Jonathan Graham,
Junior. He is planning on breaking into some bank safes,
which were based off designs by Leonardo Da Vinci.
The Golden Cats Club
--------------------
Jonathan Graham is at a seedy hangout called the "Golden
Cats".
To get to the club, you have a challenge where you put road
pieces onto a map. Your goal is to make a full road,
leading from the left side of the screen to the right. If
you have pieces you don't want to use, put them in the
trash can in the upper/right.
Nick shows up at the Gold Cats and he picks up a discarded
ID. You then have a jigsaw puzzle challenge, where you
piece together the ID. It has a picture in the upper/left,
with Golden Cats and the name of the man on the right.
Donnie's Workshop
-----------------
Nick goes to the workshop of his friend, Donnie. Donnie has
the equipment needed to make a good ID.
Let's start with the paper. Open the drawer in the
lower/right and take out the gold-colored paper. Take the
pen (which is on the left side of the desk, and use it on
the paper (above the single drawer on the desk). Run your
finger all over the signature here, and the signature is
put on the card.
Pick up the film, which is in the partly-opened door on the
left side of the desk. Use the film on the camera, then tap
the camera. Nick takes a picture of himself.
You need to develop the film, though, so go inside the
darkroom, through the door on the right side of the screen.
The dark room here is rather light. Tap on the door to
close it. Tap on the three holes in the window curtain to
close them, and tap the vent on the right to close it.
Once you've made the room dark enough, you want to pick up
nine bottles of film development fluid.
Put the film on a film tray (on the right side of the lab).
You get a close-up on the tray. This is a puzzle, where you
want to balance all three sides of the tray. The way to do
this is to have 60 on all sides. Put the 60 blue on one
side, 40 and 20 red on another side, and 50 and 10 green on
the third side.
This gives you a negative. Use the negative on the enlarger
machine on the back wall, and you get a developed picture.
Hooray! Leave the darkroom through the door to go back to
the lab, then put the picture on the fake card Nick is
making in the upper/left.
Zoom in on the shelf above the desk, which has letter
blocks. You're going to want to spell out "Golden Cats",
like the real ID. However, you need to do it backwards. So
spell out "golden cats" by selecting the mirror image of
every letter, and don't forget to use the blank tile for
the space.
Once that's done, you get a stamp. Use the stamp on the ID
to finish it. Nick then uses the ID to get into the Golden
Cats Club. Jonathan Graham isn't there, but his friend,
Mary Ann Smith is. She said Jonathan was broke, and he
pawned her locket to Frankie the Fatso.
Nick decides he needs to visit his old boss. As he leaves,
there is another flashback scene. This time, tap on two
tiles to swap them. Swap tiles until you have a whole
picture. It's a picture of Joe the Scribbler's apartment.
Once the picture is finished, tap on the gun on the floor
in the lower/left. So, Joe bought a gun, huh? He must have
been scared.
McKenzie's Office
-----------------
Nick goes to visit Major McKenzie. The major steps out for
a bit, giving Nick the perfect chance to snoop through the
database. Tap on the computer which holds the database.
The computer card is in the safe. Tap on the safe to see
that it's locked. The code must be around here somewhere...
Tap on the bookshelf. There are eight missing books. Find
all the books in this scene, then tap on the bookshelf
again. Put the books in the proper sections (i.e. according
to the first letter of the book's title). Solving this
puzzle gets you a code:
5482
1837
Tap on the safe and enter that code. The safe then opens,
so you can get the punch card and use it on the computer.
You have a password challenge here. Figure out what the
password to the computer is! If you type in a correct
letter, it appears on the monitor. If you type in a wrong
letter, it shows up at the bottom of the screen. So, it's
sort of like a game of hangman.
The password varies from game to game, but the word
"password" is usually a correct solution. Hee hee.
Once you find the password, you can use the computer. Type
in Frankie and you get the profile of Frankie the Fatso.
Tap on the screen to move to the second page of the profile
(or just wait for it to appear) to learn where his address
is.
Frankie the Fatso's
-------------------
You have the driving challenge again, to reach Frankie's
place. This time, it's a bit more difficult, because there
are more pieces already on the board.
When Nick arrives, he decides that he doesn't want to enter
through the front door. That means he's going to break into
the apartment. As you can see, though, there is a burglar
alarm.
Take the umbrella from inside the trash dumpster, and use
it on the fire escape. Whoops! The bottom rung of the fire
escape falls down. Pick it up.
Nick needs to find a way to boost himself up a bit, so he
can reach the next rung of the fire escape. Take the brick
in front of the dumpster, then tap the dumpster to push it
near the fire escape. That should work. Use the umbrella on
the fire escape now, and it pulls down.
Examine the burglar alarm. Use the rung of the ladder on it
to open it. This starts a puzzle, where you want to move
the 24 circles here to form one giant loop.
From the start (that is, the left), the connection goes up,
right, and down to a light. Then it goes down, left, down,
right and right to a light. Then it goes right, right, up,
and left to a light. From there, it goes left, up, up,
right, down, right, up, right, down and down to the final
light. Then it goes down twice. The green light turns on
when you're done.
Finishing the alarm lets Nick inside the apartment. It's
kind of dark in here, but he's not going to risk turning on
the lights.
Frankie's safe is hidden behind the big painting on the
wall. Tap it to see that it's loose. You need to activate
four levers in this room to move the painting. The levers
are the statue of liberty (on the left), the golf club in
the golf bag, the jack in the box on the desk and the
steering wheel next to the painting.
Tap on all four levers, then tap on the painting. There is
a lock inside the safe, made up of squares. Back away from
the safe, then look at the rug on the floor. That's the
pattern you want to duplicate on the lock. Zoom back in on
the safe and press the squares until they match the pattern
on the rug.
Nick then opens the safe and gets some things. Among them
is Mary Ann's locket, which he returns to her. Nick then
decides to stop by his office before going to the Golden
Cactus, which is Graham's current location.
Nick's Office
-------------
Someone came here while Nick was gone and messed things up.
Tap on the twelve mismatches, between the before picture
and the after picture. Once that's done, Nick decides to
get some things to prepare for his next trip. Tap on all of
them, based on their silhouettes at the bottom of the
screen. Don't forget the item inside the safe.
The Cactus
----------
You have the driving challenge again, while Nick travels to
the Cactus. Once you arrive, Nick takes the room next to
Graham. He decides to wait until Graham is alone, before he
goes to talk to him.
Tap on the newspaper here on the ground here. You have a
Sudoku puzzle, with this solution:
352 681 947
468 927 351
971 345 862
124 876 539
879 453 216
635 192 784
519 234 678
786 519 423
243 768 195
In the iOS version, you have a crossword puzzle. Type in
the correct answers.
1. Evidence left by touch = Fingerprint
2. Name of unknown male corpse = John Doe
3. Dark postage = Blackmail
4. The science of investigation = Forensics
5. A fake document = Forgery
6. Nick's goldfish = Felix
Solving the puzzle turns the game into nighttime. Now, it's
time to find a way into Graham's room.
Close the curtains so no one can see you, then pick up the
screwdriver on the nightstand.
The next part may be hard to figure out on your own. Use
the lighter all over the room. When you use it on the
lower/left part of the closet/dresser, a draft causes the
lighter to go out. Nick finds this suspicious.
Tap on the dresser to move it. This reveals a hidden door,
leading to Graham's room. The door doesn't have a handle,
so zoom in on the door on the right side of the screen. Use
the screwdriver from the nightstand on the screws here to
get the door handle. Then, use the handle on the door that
leads to Graham's room.
Zoom in on the door. You have a combination lock here. Move
it clockwise, slowly, until you hear a click. The lock will
drop one. Now, move it counter-clockwise until you hear a
click. The lock drops another one. Then, move it clockwise
again, until you hear the third click.
The lock opens, and Nick enters the room. Mary Ann is
there, and she pulls a gun on Graham. When Nick enters,
Mary Ann is caught off guard, and Graham steals the gun.
Using Mary Ann as a hostage, he escapes.
A car chase follows. This is like the car challenges from
earlier, with a twist. You can only put a piece into place,
if it is next to the square you are on. You only get three
pieces at a time, and if you can't use a piece, put it in
the trash.
Nick and Graham alternate moves, until you catch up with
him. Nick manages to save Mary Ann, but Graham dies. Mary
Ann says that Graham was blathering about an empire and
fireworks. Nick figures that this refers to the Empire
Hotel, an unfinished building.
Empire Hotel
------------
Nick takes Mary Ann home, then he drives to the Empire
Hotel. Along the way, he remembers the newspaper article.
This is a slider puzzle, in which you slide pieces around
to form a picture. Slide all the pieces into place, except
for the one in the bottom/right, which is missing.
Nick then arrives at the Empire Hotel. There are
searchlights here. You want to walk from bush to bush,
while avoiding being caught by the searchlights. Tap on a
bush to walk to it. Your destination is the lower/right
corner, where there is a manhole.
Nick goes down the manhole. There are sixteen keys here.
Pick up all sixteen keys, and Nick goes back aboveground.
Your goal now is to reach the shears, in the upper part of
the screen. Keep traveling from bush to bush until you
reach the shears. Then, go to the bush which is next to the
fence, on the right side of the area. There's a hole in the
fence, so you can go right from here, onto the metallic
thing.
In the PC version of the game, Nick uses the shears here to
cut open the fence. This results in a match-3 challenge,
where you need to match three tokens of the same color over
and over again, until the board is cleared. Sometimes, the
game glitches and the puzzle won't appear, causing the
player to become stuck. If this happens for you, just use
the "skip" button to pass through the fence.
Nick ends up near the building. Click on the motor of
device here to learn that it is broken. Tap on all thirteen
gears here, then use them on the motor.
This starts a gear puzzle. Put all the gears into place.
Each gear goes on a yellow peg. The largest gear is in the
upper/left and the bottommost gear is the reddish one. When
two gears overlap, they start to spin.
Nick uses the machine to scale the building, then enter a
room. The exit door is locked, however. Tap on the table
towards the middle of the room. This starts a puzzle, where
you rotate the rings of the table until the whole picture
is complete. The two middle rings are already in place.
There are six circular indentations for this puzzle. Tap on
the five wooden circles in this room to pick them up. One
of them falls on the ground, so you'll have to tap on the
pieces and put them back together in a jigsaw puzzle.
Once you have the five wooden circles, look at the table
again. Put them in their proper slots to get the key. Use
the key on the door to exit the room.
Nick heads for the elevator, which leads to the top of the
building. However, the room is full of steam! There are
nine valves here. Touch a valve to turn it off. Nothing
happens if you touch a valve a second time.
The trick is that you can't touch a valve, if it is blocked
by steam. So wait for the steam to momentarily disappear,
before touching the valve behind it.
Once you turn off all the valves, the elevator appears. Tap
on the elevator to go inside.
There are three elevator button puzzles. The first one
involves queens, from chess. You want to place three queens
on the 5 by 5 board, so they cover every square on the
board. There are multiple solutions, and one of them is
this:
xxQxx
xxxxx
xxxQx
xxxxx
Qxxxx
Once you solve that, you get the next challenge, which is a
matching game. Tap on a square to see a picture, then tap
on a second square to see another picture. You want to make
matches of the various pictures. Make twelve correct
matches to win the challenge.
The last challenge is the toughest. You want to light up
all the buttons on the board. Tap a button to light it up.
The catch is that if you press a button next to a lit
button, the lit button turns off. You'll have to play
around a bit before you can get all the buttons lit, or
alternately, since this is the last puzzle of the bunch,
you can skip it with the skip button if it gives you too
much trouble.
Once you finish the elevator puzzles, Nick arrives at the
penthouse. It seems that Graham is NOT dead. Nick
interrupts the deal that was going on between Graham and
his employer. Graham is killed, the employer escapes, and
Nick retrieves the Leonardo Da Vinci manuscript.
Nick realizes that something is wrong here. Tap on the bomb
in the center of the room. Nick decides he has to disable
the bomb, quickly.
Disabling the bomb is a three-part puzzle, just like the
elevator. In the first part, you have to make matches.
Point one hand of the clock at a disc, and point the second
hand of the clock at another disk. Then, tap the button the
right. If the two discs match, they get cleared.
The pairs are 1 and XI, 22 and II, 3 and III, 4 and IV, 5
and LV, and 66 and VI.
Once that's done, you get a puzzle where you tap on tiles
to rotate them. You want to form a complete picture, where
all the edges of the 25 tiles match each other. Once you're
done, tap the button at the right.
This leads to the third and final puzzle. You have a huge
mess of wires, and your challenge is to find the only wire
which connects the left-hand side of the bomb to the right-
hand side. This is the green wire. Tap it to solve the
puzzle.
And that's it, everyone! That's the end of the game. Nick
returns the manuscript to his client, and he is well-
compensated for his efforts. Hooray!
003-Credits
---------------------------------------------------------
This FAQ is copyright of The Lost Gamer, 2012. If you want
to use any part of this FAQ, ask me first (instructions
under general information).
