‘Academic Impact’ case walkthrough, hints, and solution in Rise of the Golden Idol

“Academic Impact” is the first case of Chapter 1 in Rise of the Golden Idol, taking place after the “Constriction” prologue case.

As with all of our Rise of the Golden Idol case guides, our goal here is to provide a hint-based experience that will lead you to the solution without automatically showing you how to solve it. We’ll start out with small hints for the puzzle, escalate to bigger ones, and eventually just spell out the answer if it’s still not clicking for you. We’ve separated our tiered hints and answers with in-game art, but be wary of scrolling farther than you intend.

In this Rise of the Golden Idol guide, we’ll walk you through the “Academic Impact” case, including hints and the full solution for the names and events puzzles.

‘Academic Impact’ names

Finding out everyone’s name in “Academic Impact” is pretty quick but critical to solving the rest of the case.

First hint

• Look to the woman for both her and her husband’s first names.
• The man has an item with his last name on his person.
• The victim’s last name is on an item on his person.
• Hints as to where to find the victim’s first name is on his person.

Second hint

• The couple share a last name.
• The woman says her husband’s name.
• The woman’s mother refers to her as her first name in a letter.
• The victim’s first name is found on the sign on the building in the background.

Solution

Listed left to right, here are the names of the Academic Impact characters.

• Cyril Bagman
• Debra Bagman
• Isaac Nowak

‘Academic Impact’ events

The event puzzle for “Academic Impact” requires eight words in this vignette.

First hint

• The first four names belong to the couple.
• The fifth and sixth names belong to the victim.
• The seventh word describes how the victim died.
• The final word describes where the victim was before dying.

Second hint

• Look at the victim’s body for anything odd.
• Look toward the top of your screen and correlate it to the body to determine the cause of death.

Solution

Cyril Bagman and Debra Bagman discovered the body of Isaac Nowak, which was there because he fell from the bridge.

After “Academic Impact,” you’ll tackle the second case of Chapter 1, “Under Construction.”