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Sherlock Holmes
The Consulting Detective
Case Summary
A deduction-dominant detective built on forensic observation, rapid cold reading, practical knowledge application, disguises, anticipatory trap-setting, and tightly sequenced case plans across Conan Doyle's prose canon.
Very strong novel-only import with broad direct feats across reasoning, perception, strategy, disguise, and planning. Some headline community claims still need conservative handling where the source package shifts from explicit case action into broad extrapolation, especially on extreme memory scaling and the longer-range Moran timing read.
Primary strengths: Deductive reasoning, Observation, Knowledge application, Disguise and deception, Short-to-mid-term planning
Feat entries: 103
Archive Note
This dossier was compiled primarily from Reddit-sourced material, so the current feat record may still be incomplete.
Because of that, a character can temporarily look weaker than they should in the leaderboard, battles, or radar profile if important feats have not been documented here yet.
The archive will keep improving over time as more feats, cleaner sourcing, and better scaling notes are added.
Radar profile
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Sherlock Holmes excels in cognitive analysis, strategy & planning, and reasoning, consistently demonstrating elite-level abilities supported by extensive feats of deduction and manipulation. While his deception and manipulation skills are strong, they represent comparatively weaker lanes compared to his exceptional cognitive and strategic capabilities.
FSIQ
9.7
EQ
9.3
Strategy & Planning
9.2
Reasoning
9.9
Manipulation
8.7
Deception
8.8
Community signal
Votes nudge the live score instead of replacing the dossier score. Movement stays gradual so evidence remains primary.
Evidence Ledger
Jump directly into the needed category instead of scrolling every section manually.
Quick Access
Category
Planning archive records.
Holmes deliberately allows the confrontation to culminate at a place where bodies are unlikely to be found, because if only Moriarty's body turned up the organization might suspect Holmes lived, whereas no bodies better sustains the death illusion.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Because the investigators hold the original ring, Holmes has a duplicate made in advance so the ring-recovery trap can still operate without sacrificing the actual evidence.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - Our Advertisement Brings a Visitor
Before meeting Watson, Holmes tells Mycroft exactly when to have a cab at Lowther Arcade and how to carry the transport chain forward to Victoria, integrating his brother into the escape route.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Before the Empty House trap springs, Holmes has a wax figure made in his own likeness so a convincing visible target can occupy the Baker Street window without risking Holmes himself.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Holmes privately tells the woman to remain in the key room all day until 10:00 PM and then carry a candle upstairs, ensuring the thief cannot safely retrieve the treaty during the day and that the room state signals later timing.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes informs Scotland Yard beforehand that the suspect will be running from the crime scene around the target time, adding a capture layer instead of relying only on his own presence.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes instructs Helen to complain of a headache, retire early, signal with a lamp once Roylott is settled, and then move silently to her old room so Holmes and Watson can occupy the danger room instead.
Source: The Adventure of the Speckled Band / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Deception archive records.
Holmes tells Watson to give the driver a note and ensure it is kept, expecting Moriarty to inspect it later and read the movement as a straightforward flight plan while Watson sprints through the arcade to break the tail.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Holmes intentionally sounds frightened when describing Moriarty to Watson and leaves a sorrowful note before the confrontation, creating a later narrative in which he appears to have gone to certain death rather than planned survival.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Holmes fabricates a message that appears to come from Elsie, using the cipher itself to make it credible, so that Abe comes to the house where Holmes and the police are ready to seize him.
Source: The Dancing Men / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes uses a dying-man disguise so convincingly that it enables a confession or revealing behavior from the target rather than simple suspicion.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
For the actual operation Holmes adopts a clergyman disguise, giving him a role that can plausibly approach respectably and later be admitted indoors once the street scuffle occurs.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes ensures he appears injured during the scuffle, making it natural for Irene's household to carry him indoors where the next stage of the plan becomes possible.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes reaches the train independently in an Italian priest disguise so neither Watson nor Moriarty's side can easily identify him before departure.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
On returning to London Holmes adopts an elderly-man disguise, preventing Moran's side from recognizing him too early and allowing him to reveal himself to Watson on his own terms.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
The supplied novel document lists Holmes convincingly posing as a seaman, poor man, clergyman, old priest, bookseller, plumber, dying man, old sporting man, and old woman, often fooling Watson despite their close familiarity.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes tells Phelps and, crucially, the suspect brother that the group will be taking a cab back to London, then quietly leaves the cab to run the real nighttime operation locally.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes instructs Mrs. Hudson to light the room while keeping curtains arranged so Moran sees only the convincing silhouette, not the fraud itself.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Before moving on the Bohemia plan, Holmes disguises himself as a poor cleaner near Irene's home so he can watch her comings and goings without attracting suspicion.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
After Reichenbach Holmes travels through Asia and Europe while keeping his identity hidden and using Mycroft as the narrow channel for money and London intelligence.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Category
Manipulation archive records.
The dossier notes Holmes talks an inspector into obtaining a warrant near midnight, showing that he can quickly align formal police action with his case tempo.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes pretends he has a wager over whether the goose is country-bred or town-bred, pushing the salesman to prove him wrong by disclosing where the goose came from.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes has Watson set off a false fire alarm knowing that, in sudden danger, Irene will instinctively go to secure what matters most, thereby revealing the location of the compromising photograph and letters.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
The supplied document frames Holmes as intentionally heightening Helen's fear of the danger so she obeys his instructions without second-guessing or improvising.
Source: The Adventure of the Speckled Band / Sherlock Holmes novel document
The supplied novel document describes Holmes intimidating a man so effectively with the prospect of prison that he drops to his hands and knees begging.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Strategy archive records.
Holmes has the luggage continue toward Switzerland while he and Watson leave at Canterbury and travel cross-country by Newhaven, Luxembourg, and Basle, drawing Moriarty after the baggage instead of the men themselves.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
After separating himself from Watson and Phelps, Holmes waits for nightfall and goes back around the hour he expects the brother to recover the hidden treaty, then confronts him in the act.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Even though Irene later sees through the scheme and preempts the next day's retrieval, Holmes still successfully extracts the location of the hidden compartment during the operation itself.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
FSEQ archive records.
Holmes explicitly tells Phelps he has a plan and manages the patient's emotions so that Phelps does not collapse completely while the recovery operation is still in motion.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Across examples like Phelps and other highly agitated visitors, Holmes does not merely observe distress but manages it enough to keep the case moving and the witness usable.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Adaptability archive records.
Once Moriarty falls, Holmes immediately shifts from mutual-death framing to survival contingency, climbing down the side of the falls where Watson and any later investigators will not see him and where he will not leave obvious track evidence on the main path.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Category
Adversity Capacity archive records.
The supplied novel document emphasizes that Holmes shows little visible nervousness despite being hunted by Moriarty, a foe with continental criminal reach and repeated murder attempts in play.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document / The Final Problem analysis
After the descent Holmes must deal with Moran's backup attempt to kill him from below, and he keeps his composure, runs through the forest, and escapes the sniper's line of fire.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
The supplied novel document says Holmes intentionally inhales a drug that violently stimulates fear, suffers intense hallucinations for over ten minutes, and still recovers his composure afterward because enduring it is necessary to catch the culprit.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
The supplied novel document presents Holmes as completely composed, even laughing, while Colonel Moran, an elite sniper and planner, is trying to kill him and Watson.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document / The Empty House material
The dossier notes that Holmes exhibits little physical or mental reaction when Watson angrily confronts him about taking drugs, implying unusually strong emotional compartmentalization.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
The novel document frames Holmes as willing to keep working cases even in a state where he should be resting constantly to postpone death, prioritizing case resolution over his own condition.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
The supplied dossier specifically notes that Holmes does not allow attraction to highly beautiful women, including Irene Adler, to cloud his reasoning in case contexts.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
FSSQ archive records.
Watson's observations and the supplied dossier both present Holmes as having many contacts from different circles, which repeatedly supports his information gathering and case access.
Source: A Study in Scarlet / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
FSIQ archive records.
Holmes explicitly describes the mind as an attic that should be furnished with useful material only, and the supplied novel dossier frames his retained case knowledge as being intentionally organized rather than merely passively remembered.
Source: A Study in Scarlet / Sherlock Holmes novel document
The supplied document claims that after reading a newspaper once, Holmes remembers every word, using this as an extreme example of his working memory and retention.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
While traveling in a cab without visual access to the outside, Holmes states that he knows exactly where in London they are after tracking turns and travel flow mentally.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
The supplied novel document says Holmes could tell from a glance that a window was thirty feet off the ground, indicating rapid visual measurement.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes is described as remembering and visualizing the entire building layout relevant to the Naval Treaty theft, including both stairways and the key room arrangement.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
The dossier states that Holmes held the layout of the Priory School, surrounding roads, grasslands, and nearby houses in his mind as an integrated visual field.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Intelligence archive records.
The supplied novel document credits Holmes with deep or practical working knowledge across chemistry, geology, law, tobacco, disguises, psychology, handwriting, military codes, geography, and other fields repeatedly applied in investigations.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Knowledge archive records.
Holmes collects and inspects the dark layered ash at the scene and identifies it as Trichinopoly cigar ash, citing his own prior study of tobacco residues.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - What John Rance Had to Tell
The supplied novel document states that Holmes became an expert on submarine mechanics in at least thirty minutes, presenting a rapid case-relevant learning feat.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Watson's list of Holmes's abilities states that Holmes can inspect mud splashes on trousers and determine what part of London they come from by color and consistency.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - The Science of Deduction
When Holmes first appears in A Study in Scarlet, he is conducting laboratory work and demonstrates a reagent that precipitates only hemoglobin, which he presents as a clearer blood-identification method than prior approaches.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - Mr. Sherlock Holmes
Watson later realizes Holmes's early lip examination was his way of detecting a poison clue, showing Holmes had already moved toward toxic explanation before it was verbally confirmed.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - Our Advertisement Brings a Visitor
Category
Perception archive records.
The novel document attributes to Holmes the ability to inspect word spacing, vocabulary, and general grammar and determine whether a writer is a man or a woman immediately.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
While waiting for the ring visitor, Holmes tells Watson the caller will appear any minute and has already heard him before the bell rings, despite being on another floor.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - Our Advertisement Brings a Visitor
Within seconds in the room, Holmes notices a breathing rhythm that he considers close to that of an asthmatic and adds the condition to Mortimer's profile.
Source: The Hound of the Baskervilles / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Reasoning archive records.
At Lauriston Gardens Holmes quickly concludes the killer is a man in his prime, over six feet tall, with small feet, blunt square-toed boots, a Trichinopoly cigar, a red face, and long fingernails, and that he arrived in a four-wheel cab with a horse wearing three old shoes and one new one.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - The Lauriston Gardens Mystery
Knowing the target name is Elsie and that E is common in English, Holmes spots repeated symbols in matching positions, anchors the cipher from there, and expands outward to infer words and decode the full message system.
Source: The Dancing Men / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes glances at Watson and concludes he is a doctor, that he has military bearing, tropical exposure, illness, and a wounded arm, then compresses those clues into the conclusion that Watson is an army doctor returned from Afghanistan.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - The Science of Deduction
Holmes notices multiple candle stains on the hat and concludes that the owner relies on candle lighting rather than gas in his residence.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes reads the 'Charing Cross Hospital' inscription, the 1884 date, and contextual career timing to conclude whose cane it is and connect it to Mortimer's medical background.
Source: The Hound of the Baskervilles / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes notices fresh mud on the underside of Helen's left arm and compares the splash pattern to transport types, concluding that she arrived in a dog-cart seated on the driver's left.
Source: The Adventure of the Speckled Band / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Before Rance explains himself, Holmes tells him that he stopped at the gate, returned looking for a colleague, entered the room, knelt by the corpse, and tried the kitchen door, all from reading the tracks left behind.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - What John Rance Had to Tell
Before Bohemia's client is revealed, Holmes inspects the note and reads both the quality of the paper and male authorship from material and writing characteristics.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes links the warning pattern, the family's American plantation ties, the timing gap between letter and death, the probable sailing route, and ship records from Pondicherry and Dundee to identify the Ku Klux Klan and isolate the vessel Lone Star.
Source: The Five Orange Pips / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes combines the hat's internal initials with common naming patterns and identifies the owner as likely Henry Baker before confirming the lead through later contact.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes uses the clue chain around the ring, the eyewitness account, and the already-built physical profile to conclude that the apparently drunken red-faced man seen near the scene was the murderer himself.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - What John Rance Had to Tell
When Lestrade mentions the two pills, Holmes immediately treats them as the key to the case, tests them separately on a dying dog, and correctly concludes that only one is poisoned.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - Lestrade's report aftermath
Holmes concludes before retrieving it that the stolen treaty is still in the room where Phelps spends most of the day, making the solution a matter of timing and exposure rather than a broader city search.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Before he has hard proof, Holmes identifies the wife's brother as the likely thief and structures the later operation around that conclusion.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
On returning in The Empty House, Holmes spots a man watching Baker Street and reasons that there is no innocent motive for the surveillance, so the watcher must be tied to a hostile actor already aware of Holmes's survival.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Holmes notes that the hat was once expensive and high quality, yet has not been replaced for years, leading him to conclude that the owner's finances have declined since purchase.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes notices long-standing claw marks in the middle of the stick and concludes that a dog habitually carries it there for its owner.
Source: The Hound of the Baskervilles / Sherlock Holmes novel document
From the footprint spacing and movement pattern in the Lauriston room, Holmes concludes that victim and killer walked in amicably, then the blunt-toed man began pacing and working himself into rage before the killing.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - What John Rance Had to Tell
After much of the Norwood house is burned, Holmes is credited with visually reconstructing what the interior and exterior looked like before the damage from remaining dimensions and visible structure.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Psychology archive records.
After Moriarty visits Baker Street, Holmes uses his wording, confidence, and willingness to speak in person to conclude that Moriarty is a superiority-driven, freedom-obsessed narcissist who sees Holmes as a personal obstacle rather than merely a police risk.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Holmes identifies both fear and distrust in Helen's presentation and treats those psychological cues as part of the case structure before the room inspection pays them off.
Source: The Adventure of the Speckled Band / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes recognizes that Phelps is not simply ill but psychologically crushed by the treaty loss because of its effect on his honor, his career, and how his family may see him.
Source: The Naval Treaty / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes's article 'The Book of Life' argues that fleeting facial expressions and involuntary muscle movement can reveal hidden thought, implying an explicit micro-observation framework behind his people-reading.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - The Book of Life discussion / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes reasons that the unbrushed hat suggests a lack of attentive wife, and when combined with the owner's goose purchase as a likely peace offering, he reconstructs a recent marital collapse and sad effort at reconciliation.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
The custom hat securer suggests a man who once took precautions and cared for details, while the broken elastic left unrepaired implies slipping discipline and self-care.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes reads Mortimer's deliberately untidy presentation and reasons that such unattended dress would be less likely if he had a wife managing or correcting it.
Source: The Hound of the Baskervilles / Sherlock Holmes novel document
By observing their behavior together, Holmes concludes that Irene and her lawyer are actually in love rather than merely maintaining a normal professional relationship.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
STP archive records.
Holmes reads the man's military bearing, side-whiskers, and general carriage, concluding before the exchange that the visitor is a retired sergeant of the Royal Marines, which the man then confirms.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - The Science of Deduction
The dossier credits Holmes with instantly reading multiple social and occupational details from McFarlane, including his profession, fraternal link, relationship status, and breathing-related condition.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
In the hat analysis, Holmes infers that the owner is intellectually capable because the hat size implies a large head, which he treats as one clue among several rather than a complete conclusion by itself.
Source: The Blue Carbuncle / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes notices side-wear from pedal friction on shoes and spatulate fingertips, using those clues to conclude that the woman regularly cycles and is a professional musician.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes rejects the police assumption that the killer was writing 'Rachel' and instead treats the word as the German 'Rache' for revenge, while also noting that the letter style shows the writer is imitating German rather than actually being German.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - The Lauriston Gardens Mystery
When Watson receives the urgent message about an ill Englishwoman, Holmes immediately reads it as Moriarty's move to separate him from Watson before the confrontation.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Category
Outsmarting archive records.
Holmes notes Vincent/Clay's half-wage job request, acid mark, mud on trousers, and the shop's usefulness as a digging point, then concludes the league is a distraction while a tunnel is being dug toward the nearby bank and that John Clay is involved.
Source: The Red-Headed League / Sherlock Holmes novel document
After solving the code, Holmes does not just interpret it; he weaponizes it by using a forged message to bring Abe to a controlled location where police are already concealed.
Source: The Dancing Men / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes and Watson hide in the empty house opposite Baker Street, wait for Moran to fire at the decoy, and then rush and capture him once the shot commits him.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Category
Foresight archive records.
The Final Problem analysis presents Holmes as using that fresh psychological model to anticipate Moriarty's choices across transport pursuit, isolation tactics, and the desire for a personal superiority-confirming confrontation.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
The supplied analysis argues that Holmes did not return by coincidence, but read Moran's psychology well enough to judge roughly when loss, ego, and criminal drift would push him into murder again and create the opening for Holmes's reappearance.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
Holmes tells Watson not to take the first or second available hansom, anticipating that Moriarty's side would secure those most obvious options as an interception layer.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Holmes anticipates that a fight or commotion will happen as Irene exits, allowing Watson to enter the house during the confusion and Holmes to play the injured rescuer.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes calculates that Moriarty can catch their train only by engaging a special and taking advantage of the quarter-hour delay before the boat, so he gets off earlier at Canterbury instead.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
Holmes expects Moriarty to remove Watson rather than accept a clean two-on-one imbalance, so when the fake medical summons arrives it fits the pattern he had already projected.
Source: The Final Problem analysis
At the church Holmes places himself where he can be selected, correctly foreseeing that the rushed private wedding will need another participant to help complete the ceremony.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes reasons that the empty house down the road offers the correct height and concealment for an assassin watching Baker Street, so he predicts Moran's later firing position before the ambush is sprung.
Source: The Final Problem analysis / The Empty House section
After profiling the pair, Holmes reasons they will need to marry unofficially and quickly, follows them, and catches the timing closely enough to be present at the church at 5:50.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes's plan depends on his reading that Irene is too kind to leave an apparently injured clergyman in the street, and that prediction proves correct during the operation.
Source: A Scandal in Bohemia / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Category
Tactics archive records.
The novel document credits Holmes with reproducing the same chemicals, quantities, and timing as the original murder method so that the real culprit, seeing someone understands it, will reveal himself out of guilt and alarm.
Source: Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes and Watson hold position in the dark until the snake comes through the ventilator, after which Holmes lashes it back through the opening, causing Roylott's own murder method to kill him instead of Helen.
Source: The Adventure of the Speckled Band / Sherlock Holmes novel document
Holmes publishes a notice that the lost ring has been found, correctly reasoning that the killer cannot comfortably abandon it and will risk trying to recover it.
Source: A Study in Scarlet - Our Advertisement Brings a Visitor