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).