THE FIELD GUIDE · AT YOUR OWN PACE
One place.
One perfect liar.
Spyfall is a game of questions, bluffing and reading your friends. The fun happens out loud, face to face.
Your phone deals a secret assignment, keeps time and handles votes. You provide the poker face.
One ship. Different stories.
Everything below is a made-up example. It never shows or changes a live assignment.
THE SETUP
Everyone shares the same place.
Except one person doesn’t know it.
The game secretly chooses one location for the whole group. Everyone except the spy sees that location and gets a role there. The spy sees only that they are the spy.
Mia
NOT THE SPY- LOCATION
- Ocean Liner
- ROLE
- Waiter
Leo
NOT THE SPY- LOCATION
- Ocean Liner
- ROLE
- Wealthy Passenger
Sam
THE SPY- LOCATION
- Unknown
- ASSIGNMENT
- Spy
Mia and Leo are on the same ocean liner. They have different roles, not different locations. Sam must work out where everyone is. In a real round, each person sees only their own assignment.
YOUR OBJECTIVE
Two sides. One secret.
If you are not the spy
You are an operative. You know the location and your role there. Answer as that character, even if your own answer would be different.
Ask questions to find who is bluffing. Give enough detail to sound believable, but do not name the location or hand it to the spy.
Find the spy. Protect the place.If you are the spy
You do not know the location and have no job assigned there. Everyone else has information you are missing.
Bluff plausible answers, listen for clues and ask questions that narrow down the possible places. The location list is available to everyone.
Blend in. Work out where you are.THE REAL GAME
Look up. Start talking.
The app randomly picks the first questioner. That person chooses a friend and asks a question out loud. Whoever answers asks someone else next. You do not type answers into the app.
“Would you bring a date here?”
“I’d probably be too busy working.”
“Is it easy to get some privacy?”
“Depends how crowded it is.”
Read it at your own pace, or tap to see what each player is trying to do.
“What would you wear here?”
Lets someone answer from their role without naming the place.“Which deck is the lifeboat on?”
Hands the spy a strong clue that you are on a ship.A strange answer is not proof. A waiter, a passenger and a captain can all answer the same question differently. Tease, bluff and defend your story. Keep it friendly.
YOUR PHONE IS YOUR HELPER
Peek. Decide. Look up again.
For your eyes only.
Make sure nobody is looking.
- Reveal your assignment privately.
In the actual game it hides after 15 seconds or when you switch away. You can reveal it again whenever you need.
- Spy: submit your location guess.
Tap Private actions · guess or vote, choose a location, then Review my guess and Confirm. You get one guess. With one spy it ends the round, right or wrong. With two, both commit before the answer is revealed.
- Anyone: nominate a suspect.
Tap Nominate, choose another player, then review and confirm. Your nomination casts your locked vote and starts a 30-second ballot. Other players can choose someone else or Skip. Nobody can vote for themselves. Live totals show who voted for whom, so you can ask your friends why.
Three is a tie. Four is a majority.
More than half of the original round roster must choose the same person. Everyone gets a vote, including that person, but nobody can vote for themselves. At most five of the six can vote for the accused.
No majority. If the vote closes like this, keep playing.
The voting window is 30 seconds. Your vote locks after confirmation. Actual votes show names; suspicion ratings still show combined heat only. If nobody is convicted, discussion resumes with a short voting cooldown. The round timer keeps running during voting. During a regular ballot, a spy can still guess. The first decisive action accepted by the server resolves the round; opening a review does not submit it. Players leaving do not reduce the required majority.
What about “Feeling the heat” and the other extras?
Suspicion buttons are hunches, never votes. Everyone sees the combined heat for each player. Your individual choices are not listed, though small groups may infer them. Heat alone cannot eliminate anyone or end a round.
Use the possible-location list to cross off your own ideas. Open Stuck? for a question prompt. Character customization, sound and mini-challenges are optional. You can play the whole game by talking, checking your assignment and making a decisive move.
EVERY WAY TO WIN
One decisive moment ends the round.
- A majority votes for the actual spy.
- A guessing attempt ends with no correct spy guess (both guesses in two-spy mode).
- The spy correctly guesses the location before time runs out.
- The 30-second final ballot ends without a majority catching a spy.
- A majority votes for an innocent player.
There is no elimination-and-continue phase in this version. A conviction ends the round. The spy does not need to survive the timer and guess the location: a correct guess or surviving the final vote can win it. Each player on the winning side earns one point. Both spies score when their side wins. Cancelled rounds score nothing.
At 0:00: one final vote
Questions and location guesses stop. A fresh public ballot lasts 30 seconds, anchored to the timer even if phones are asleep. Votes from an earlier ballot do not carry over. Catch a spy by strict majority to win. An innocent conviction, tie, skips or no majority gives the spies the win.
Two spies, one winning side
The host can choose two spies with at least 6 players; 9–12 is recommended. They do not know each other. Catching either ends the round for everyone. If a spy guesses before time runs out, voting closes and both spies get a shared 30-second window to commit one location guess. Either correct wins for both; neither correct loses for both. Missing guesses count as wrong. Answers stay hidden until both commit or that window ends.
Keep score across the night
Play Again keeps your points. Your browser identity keeps them on reconnect and rejoin. New players start at zero. Use the between-round scoreboard to view final standings; only the host can deliberately reset everyone’s scores for a new session. A room lasts 24 hours. If your host loses their connection for two minutes, a remaining player can confirm Take over as host. The game and scores stay intact; the old host returns as a player.
This version uses these house rules. A nomination alone does not end the game. Split votes and skips never convict anyone without a majority for one player.
06 · YOU KNOW ENOUGH TO PLAY
Gather your people.
Trust absolutely nobody.
- One person creates a room and shares its link, code or QR.
- Friends join on their own phones. Everyone enters a name and taps I’m ready. At least three players are needed, and everyone who joined must be ready.
- The host starts. Everyone sees three quick instruction cards. If everyone taps Skip to countdown, the shared 3–2–1 begins early. Privately check your assignment, then ask the first question.
- After the reveal at the end, compare bluffs. Guests ready up again; the host starts the next round.
Solo Test lets you switch between simulated players and try the real controls. It does not play the conversation for you. Real games need friends and an internet connection.