Cases / Case 4 / Without paying
Beating Case 4 without paying
The complaint that comes up more than any other about this game is that Case 4 makes the paid top-up feel compulsory. If you intend to spend nothing, the run has to be planned differently from question one.
The core problem
Victor does not crack from accumulated pressure the way earlier suspects do. Every question that does not corner him on something specific is simply gone. With ten questions and five known deflections, you cannot afford to explore — which is exactly the position the top-up is sold into.
Five questions that will cost you the run
A zero-spend budget
Three questions to build, three to corner, four in reserve. The reserve matters more here than anywhere else in the game, because the moment Victor starts repeating himself you need somewhere else to go — and if you have nothing left, that is the moment the purchase prompt starts looking reasonable.
- Q1–Q3 · Build. His day, his location, and the office visit he volunteers. Do not challenge anything yet. You are collecting claims.
- Q4–Q6 · Corner. Make the errand specific — which documents, how long, who saw him — then put the poison in the room as an object he has to account for rather than a drink he can deny touching.
- Q7–Q10 · Reserve. Name the gap between being in the office and never touching the coffee. If he revises anything at all, spend the rest quoting that revision back. If he only repeats himself, you have questions left to switch subject instead of being cornered into buying more.
If you run out anyway
Restarting costs nothing but time, and a second run is much cheaper than it sounds — you already know his five deflections, so the three building questions can be compressed and you arrive at the office visit with more budget left. Players who clear this case without spending generally describe doing it on a later attempt, not a first one. Only 9.5% of Case 1 finishers ever get this badge at all, by any route.