How to Play CARNAGE
Spotless, Blackened, report, Trial, and the last three standing.
CARNAGE is an online social-deduction killing game. Xebeth drops a group of participants into a large map, assigns each person an Ultimate, and waits for someone to get impatient. You are not clearing stages. You are managing information until only three living players including you remain.
That sentence is the rulebook. Everything else — poison, truth bullets, secret Survivor — is a way to reach three or to stop someone else from reaching it.
The two teams that are not teams
At the start, everyone is Spotless. If you kill another participant, you become the Blackened. There is no hidden mafia assignment at spawn. The killer is whoever chose to use a weapon, C9, C4, or a motive letter.
Spotless players want to find the Blackened when a body is reported, vote them out in Trial, and stay alive. The Blackened wants the opposite: survive the vote. If the killer walks, they choose a participant who voted wrong to die, then the game moves to the next chapter. Full Trial math is on the Trial guide.
You can also refuse to kill all match and still win by being one of the last three. That is a legal path, not a coward path. How to win compares the three finishes.
Exploration, items, and motives
Between deaths you walk the map, search furniture, eat, and optionally do tasks. Furniture hides weapons. Food hides C9. Motive letters can force a player to kill or die. Xebeth Files later summarize time, place, and cause of death for Trial. None of that replaces walking with your eyes open. Map and tasks is the geography version of this page.
Ultimates change what “walking” means. Musician hears farther. Photographer snapshots a room. Cosplayer wears another face. Programmer can fake cause and time of death. Learn the roster on Ultimates so you know what a teammate could have done.
Reporting and dragging
When you find a body, hold Q or E (or the UI prompt) to report. That freezes the chapter into investigation and Trial. You can also drag the body. Dragging is how killers relocate evidence and how panicked Spotless players look guilty.
Nurse, after inspecting a corpse, can see exact time of death and the weapon. Maid can clean blood off themselves. Mops clean floors but lock your item slot while dirty. If you do not know those tools, you will accuse the wrong person. The cheatsheet is the pocket version.
What “playing well” looks like
Good Spotless play is boring: be seen, do a task, do not touch loud weapons, remember who was in your hallway, and speak in Trial with one concrete fact. Good Blackened play is quieter: pick a low-evidence weapon, clean or avoid blood, plant an alibi, and do not over-talk. Both are covered in Blackened if you need the killer checklist.
Codes and shop luck do not change these rules. Claim codes on a break. Then come back to the loop: walk, watch, report, vote, repeat until three remain.
Related how-to pages
- Getting started — first ten minutes
- How to win — three finish lines
- Trials — bullets and votes
- Controls — the binds this page assumes
If you only read one guide after this one, read Trials. Most “I don’t get this game” complaints are lost votes, not lost movement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers for this CARNAGE page.
How do you win CARNAGE?
Be one of three living participants at the end. You can get there by voting, by killing, or by surviving. Details: how to win.
When do I become Blackened?
When you kill someone. There is no random killer card at spawn.
What happens if we vote wrong?
The Blackened lives and can kill someone who voted incorrectly. The chapter then continues.
Is CARNAGE like Murder Mystery?
Only in the sense that someone can kill. The loop is closer to Danganronpa: investigation, Trial, execution, next chapter.