Today's secret and Spy training: the complete guide to solo mode
No group tonight? BETRAYAL has a mode for one. In solo mode you are the spy: you know only the category, and you have to work out the secret from a ladder of clues. It takes a couple of minutes, and it is great practice for your next game night.
What solo mode is, and why it makes you a better spy
Open the game and tap 🎯 Play alone. You get two options: 📅 Today's secret, a single daily puzzle that is the same for everyone, and 🕵️ Spy training, which gives you as many rounds as you want.
Both train the skill the spy needs most in a group game: turning half-clues into a confident guess. Around the table, the civilians' answers are your clues. "You'd want good shoes there" is a small hint, and a good spy builds a shortlist from hints like that. Solo mode trains exactly this, without friends watching you. It also helps civilians, because once you know how quickly a spy can narrow things down, you get better at giving answers that are true but not too revealing. See the spy guide and tips.
How Today's secret works, step by step
- You see the category. Places, countries, jobs or fruits. The secret is always one of the game's built-in words, so the list you guess from is the same for every player.
- You read clue 1 of 5. The clues climb a ladder from vague to obvious. Clue 1 could fit many words; clue 5 almost names it.
- You guess from the list. Pick a word and confirm it. If you're right, the round ends and you score.
- A wrong guess reveals the next clue. You'll see "Not Pear... here's another clue", and that wrong word can't be picked again.
- Or press "💡 Next clue (−1 point)". If you have no real idea yet, you can skip ahead without guessing. It still uses up one of your tries.
- You have 5 tries in total. Every guess and every hint counts as one.
- On the last clue you must guess. The hint button disappears and the game tells you: "This is the last clue: make your guess!"
If you're truly stuck you can also give up and reveal the secret, but that counts as a lost day.
Scoring
The earlier you solve it, the more points you get:
| Solved on | Points |
|---|---|
| Clue 1 | 5 |
| Clue 2 | 4 |
| Clue 3 | 3 |
| Clue 4 | 2 |
| Clue 5 | 1 |
| Not solved | 0 |
A wrong guess and a hint cost the same: each one moves you a rung down the ladder.
The coloured squares: sharing without spoilers
When the round ends, tap 📤 Share your result. The game copies a short text with the puzzle number, your score out of 5, and a row of squares, one for each try:
- 🟥 a wrong guess
- 🟨 a hint used ("Next clue")
- 🟩 solved
- ⬜ a try you didn't need
So 🟨🟥🟩⬜⬜ means: took a hint, made one wrong guess, then solved it on clue 3 for 3 points. The squares show how you played but never what the secret was, so you can paste them in a family chat in the morning without ruining anyone's puzzle.
Streaks and stats
- Played: how many daily secrets you have finished, won or lost.
- Win %: the share of those you solved.
- Current streak 🔥: consecutive days solved. Missing a day or losing a puzzle resets it.
- Best streak: your longest run so far.
- Distribution: a small chart showing on which clue you usually win. Lots of wins on clue 4 or 5 means you could guess earlier.
Your stats are saved on your phone, not in an account, so they stay on the device you play on.
When the secret changes
A new secret arrives at midnight, your local time. It is worked out from the date, not sent by a server, so everyone who plays on a given day gets the same secret and the same clues, even offline. That keeps comparisons fair.
Spy training: unlimited practice
Today's secret is one shot a day. Spy training is the gym:
- Choose a category (places, countries, jobs, fruits) to drill one list, or Mix to get a random category every round, which is closer to the surprise of a real game.
- Unlimited rounds with the same rules: 5 clues, 5 tries, 5 to 1 points.
- Points add up across rounds.
- No quick repeats: a word won't come back for about 30 rounds, so you meet the whole list rather than the same few words.
Training doesn't touch your daily streak, so experiment freely: try guessing on clue 1 every time and see how often it pays off.
Strategies that work
Read the ladder, not just the clue
Each clue is meant to be added to the ones before it. "It grows on a tree" plus "you peel it" removes far more options than either one alone. Keep a running shortlist in your head and cross words off with each new clue.
Eliminate by category
The category tells you what kind of clue to expect. With countries, think region, climate, flag, famous food. With jobs, think uniform, workplace, tools, hours. With places, think indoor or outdoor, noisy or quiet, who goes there and why. With fruits, think colour, size, skin, seeds, where it grows. "My day starts before sunrise" cuts the jobs list in half at once.
When to take a hint, and when to guess
Since a hint and a wrong guess cost the same, a guess is usually the better choice. A wrong guess still teaches you something: it removes a word, and you get the next clue anyway. Use "Next clue" only when you have no candidate at all, for example when clue 1 is so broad that any guess would be random. Once your shortlist is down to two or three words, always guess.
Use the search box
The guess screen has a 🔍 Search the list box. Type a few letters to jump to a word instead of scrolling. Scrolling the full list once at the start also reminds you of words you might forget.
Learn the word lists
The best spies know the lists. The secret is always one of these words:
A worked example: a fruit, step by step
Here is an invented ladder (not a real daily puzzle) to show the thinking. Category: 🍎 Fruits.
Clue 1: "It grows on a small tree that loves long, dry summers."
Very broad. Fig, apricot, lemon, orange, peach, plum and pomegranate could all fit. Guessing now would be a lottery, and I don't even have a favourite. I press "Next clue". 🟨
Clue 2: "Its thick skin is never eaten."
That removes fig, apricot, peach and plum, all soft-skinned. Orange, lemon, tangerine and pomegranate are left, and the first three are close cousins. Orange is the most common fruit on the shortlist, so I guess Orange. Wrong. 🟥 But it was a fair try, and it removes one citrus.
Clue 3: "Opening it can be messy, and it may stain your clothes."
Citrus is juicy, but it doesn't usually stain. A fruit with thick skin, from a dry-climate tree, that stains clothes: that sounds like pomegranate. I'm fairly confident, and waiting would cost a point, so I guess Pomegranate. Correct! 🟩
Clues 4 and 5, for the record
Had I kept going: clue 4, "Inside, hundreds of small juicy seeds are packed between thin white walls", and clue 5, "Its ruby-red seeds are sprinkled on salads, and its juice is famous."
Result: 3 points, shared as 🟨🟥🟩⬜⬜. Looking back, I could have guessed Pomegranate at clue 2 instead of Orange. Pomegranate was the only option there that wasn't one of three similar citrus fruits, and a "lonely" option on the shortlist is often the right one.
A friendly challenge
Start a little daily tradition: everyone plays Today's secret before lunch and posts their squares in the group chat. Keep track of who has the longest streak this month, or who scores the most points in a week. Whoever finishes last picks the category at the next game night. No spoilers in the chat until everyone has posted.
New to the group game? Start with how to play.
Ready, spy?
Today's clue ladder is waiting, and it's the same for everyone. Play today's secret now and see how early you can crack it.