A full guide: who the spy is, how locations and professions are dealt, the question round, voting, the spy's final guess and the controls on muta.pro. Read it and jump straight into a room.
Spy is a game of social deduction and bluff. Everyone except one player knows the shared location (for example, "Airport" or "Casino") and their own profession in that place. One player secretly becomes the spy — they do not know the location.
Everyone knows the location except the spy; questions expose them, while they try to guess the place.
The sides have opposite aims. The civilians want to work out the spy from evasive answers and vote against them. The spy wants to survive to the end of the vote unnoticed or, once revealed, to guess the chosen location. No dice and no cards in hand — just conversation and observation.
Gather your group with a room code. The server secretly picks one location from the deck (there are more than two dozen in the muta.pro version) and assigns the spy at random. Each civilian is given a profession tied to that location.
You do not show your role to your neighbours: on the start screen the role card is hidden until you reveal it yourself with the "Show role" button. Open it for yourself only — it holds either the location and your profession, or a warning that you are the spy. Once the role is open, the question round begins.
A location is set, a spy is chosen, and the civilians are given professions. Everyone silently looks at their role card and hides it again.
Players take turns asking each other questions about the place: "Do you come here often?", "What would you eat here?". The person addressed answers. The right to ask is passed on with the "Pass the turn" button.
The spy does not know the location, so they answer vaguely and ask general questions themselves, trying to work out from others' replies where everyone is.
Civilians phrase their questions so that their teammates catch the hint while the spy gets confused. You must not name the location outright — otherwise you give it away to the spy.
A limited time (about 90 seconds) is given for discussion. When it runs out, the game automatically moves to voting. You can also move to it earlier with the "To voting" button.
Everyone points at the person they think is the spy. The player with the most votes becomes the suspect.
If the spy is accused, they get one last chance to guess the location. If an innocent is accused, the spy survives and wins at once.
The outcome of the round is decided at the reveal. The civilians win only if the vote pointed at the spy and he then failed to guess the chosen location.
The spy wins in two cases: if the vote pointed at an innocent (he stayed undetected) or if he was revealed but named the correct location from the shared list. Each new round sets a new location and a new spy, so you can play a series and keep score however your group likes.
A good question tests knowledge of the place without naming it: from the answer a teammate nods along, while the spy flounders.
The spy answers in general phrases and avoids details. An answer that is too vague is a reason to take a closer look.
If you are the spy, catch the hints about the place in others' replies and tune your answers to what has already been said.
One or two rounds of questions give more clues than an early shot in the dark. But dragging it out to the end of the timer is risky too.
The question is the civilian's main weapon. A good question cuts out the spy without giving him the location: a teammate recognises "one of us" from the answer, while the outsider is forced to bluff blind. A bad question names the place too directly and hands the spy a hint.
"Do you need a uniform here?", "Do you work with people or with equipment?" — questions like these test the profession. Someone who knows will answer confidently and to the point; the spy gives a vague brush-off.
Latch onto someone's remark: "And would you do that there too?". The spy, who never heard the location's context, easily contradicts what has already been said.
Ask a question you yourself have two or three good answers to. Otherwise, on your turn to answer, you will pass for the spy yourself.
By sending questions around the circle you gather more samples of behaviour and don't reveal exactly whom you suspect.
A hesitation and an "um" before a simple question about the place is a common sign that a person is playing for time and making things up.
You don't know the location — and that's fine. The spy's task: last until the vote unnoticed, meanwhile piecing together a guess about the place from others' replies in case of a reveal. You can't stay silent, and you can't be too brazen either.
"Yes, I'm here regularly", "I like the atmosphere here" fit almost any location. Avoid specific details you don't know.
"Interesting, and what do you think yourself?" — this shifts attention onto the other person and gives you one more hint about the place instead of exposing you.
Keep a general list of places in your head. Every detail from others' answers crosses off the surplus and brings you closer to the right guess.
An answer that is too glib and "just in case" detailed gives you away more than a short, calm one. Fewer details — less evidence.
If you feel you're about to be revealed and the place is already clear — sometimes it's better not to wait and to name the location confidently at the reveal.
By the time of the vote you have a dozen replies in hand. The spy almost always leaves a trace: he talks about the place, not from inside the place. Your task is to compare the answers and not be led by the loudest accuser.
Three answers sound like they come "from inside" the location (◯), one stands out with general phrases — the likely spy (✕).
Keep in mind who answered like an insider and who got by on general words. What is suspicious is not a single remark but the gap between people.
Whoever accuses loudest from the first round is often the spy himself: the noise covers his own evasiveness.
Scattered votes save the spy. Agree with a glance or a hint so the accusation converges on one person rather than smearing across several.
The basic mode on muta.pro is one spy, a timer of about a minute and a half, and a final guess. Your group can easily tweak the pace and difficulty within the same rules, with no new buttons.
One round of questions and straight to the vote. Less information, more bluffing — good for the spy, exciting for everyone.
Two or three rounds before the timer. Civilians have time to double-check the suspect, and it's harder for the spy to keep the mask on.
Play several deals in a row and keep score of the wins — that way the spy's role goes to everyone in turn.