Hardest Characters To Keep Alive In Supermassive Games

Key Takeaways

• Characters can survive or perish based on player choices in branching narratives by Supermassive Games.
• Several characters like Matt, Taylor, and Eric are hard to keep alive due to complex conditions.
• Foresight, premonitions, and difficult puzzles play key roles in saving characters in Supermassive Games titles.

Supermassive Games‘ gameography operates using a butterfly effect mechanic, in which the chaos theory dictates how the events of each game will unfold, depending on the choices made by the player throughout the story. It’s all about making the hard choices, even if they have the best outcomes in the long run, and each title features unique premonition collectibles, such as totems and tarot cards, which drop hints as to the right choices to make. No characters are safe in Supermassive Games’ branching narratives, so even the smallest slip-up could have disastrous consequences.

In Until Dawn, The Quarry, and the ongoing Dark Pictures Anthology, characters can survive or perish under different circumstances in certain chapters, but some of them are much easier to keep alive than others. More often than not, the fate of the characters requires some foresight, which isn’t always possible during a blind playthrough. It makes the games unfair on occasion, but if everything were too easy, that would defeat the point. Here are the hardest characters to keep alive across all Supermassive Games titles.

8 Matt

Disagreeing With Emily’s Plan To Get The Flare Gun Isn’t Specified

Matt, the boyfriend of Emily, survives the ordeal on Blackwood Mountain if certain conditions are met throughout the night, particularly pertaining to Chapter 6, when Matt and Emily venture out to the fire tower to radio for help. In order for Matt to make it, he must disagree with Emily’s plan to go to the fire tower so that Emily can hand him a flare gun to use for self-defense. When the tower collapses and plunges them into the mines, he must jump to safety instead of helping Emily both times. Then, when the Wendigo attacks, he can use the flare gun to scare it off.

Later, in Chapter 10, he must hide with Jess to officially last until morning. Matt is so difficult to keep alive because a lot of the totem premonitions are confusing or unclear, so many players likely lost him in the mines by believing (understandably) that saving Emily was the smartest choice.

7 Eric

He Has A Potential Death In Almost Every Chapter

In The Dark Pictures Anthology, Eric is one of four characters — the others being Angela, Conrad, and Erin — who can die the soonest in their respective games. In Eric’s case, he can die as early as the sixth and final chapter in Act 1 of House of Ashes, which is called Breaking Up. SInce there are so many different ways that Eric can die, he’s exceptionally hard to keep alive. Eric is tied with Rachel for having the most deaths and the most chapters in which he can perish. He can die by impalement, gunshots from Dar and Salim, explosions, falling, and even an infected Clarice can chase him down and finish him off permanently.

Eric has a potential death sequence in almost every chapter, so players have to take extra caution when playing as him, but he can be saved by completing all QTEs, cutting the rope in Breaking Up, avoiding the path with the explosives, ditching Clarice when she gets infected, and helping him up during The Ancient One.

6 Taylor

Her Survival Requires Too Much Foresight

Little Hope‘s Taylor is the only protagonist who cannot die during their first encounter with their demon, but she does have the most variations of deaths out of all the characters, tying with Daniel for the most chapters in which she can die. Many of the QTEs decide Taylor’s fate, so successfully completing these greatly increases the chances of her making it out unscathed. In general, although it sounds counter-intuitive, the way to save characters in Little Hope revolves around forcing them to confront their demons alone rather than endangering others.

It’s important to make choices that go against a character’s worst traits, such as being aggressive and deceitful in Taylor’s case. In one instance, saving Taylor over Daniel will result in her death, but if she retrieves the gun from the police station, and Andrew picks Daniel first, both of them live to see another day.

5 Erin

She’s One Of The Few Characters Who Are Incredibly Easy To Kill

It’s a common theme for Supermassive Games titles to have one specific character who is incredibly easy to kill off, able to die incredibly early, or a mix of both. This is likely because Supermassive wanted to introduce the aspect of danger early on to raise the stakes for keeping characters alive, especially if one of them meets their demise prematurely. In The Devil in Me, that character is Erin, who is essentially the “weak link” of the group.

Erin can get axe-murdered, stabbed through the jaw, impaled through the eye with a syringe, or suffocate in a glass chamber. Her first three deaths are all dependent on a single choice, and there are no do-overs, so Googling a solution can feel like the only way to keep her around.

4 Jacob

The Breaker Puzzle On Which Jacob’s Survival Depends Can Be Confusing

Jacob is considered one of the hardest characters to save in The Quarry due to the breaker puzzle, which involves releasing him from a cage before he’s mauled to death by werewolf Nick. When prompted in Chapter 8, it’s important to agree to save Jacob; otherwise, he will automatically die by Nick’s hand. There are two other choices to guarantee Jacob’s survival that require Ryan and Laura to be interrupted before they can open the cage.

It’s a common misconception that pulling the breaker labeled ‘3’ (Jacob’s cage) will release him, but in actuality, players must select breakers one and two, continue, then flick two and three. It’s one of those puzzles that’s frustratingly never explained, so it’s really just a guessing game without a guide.

3 Jessica

A Sense Of Urgency Is The Biggest Clue To Saving Jessica

In Until Dawn, when Jessica is attacked and dragged away by the Wendigo, she becomes the character who can die soonest. In Chapter 4, as Mike, players chase the Wendigo down Blackwood Mountain and toward the mines. Mike will encounter several forks in the road, where he can take the fast but risky path or the slow but safe route, of which the latter seems the obvious choice.

However, if Mike chooses the slow paths or fails any QTEs, he will be too slow to save Jess, and she will have her jaw ripped off and be thrown down an elevator shaft before he can reach her. Again, it isn’t explicitly explained how players can save Jessica, so Until Dawn relies on a sense of urgency and realism to get the point across.

2 Conrad

Selfish Tendencies Don’t Come Naturally To Everyone

As Conrad, when the break-in event occurs, he must successfully complete a “keep calm” sequence. If he fails this, he will die. Later, he will have the option to either go for a knife or escape, but while it makes sense to arm oneself in a life-or-death situation, this will actually harm Conrad’s chances of survival. If he chooses escape and completes the QTEs, he will survive.

While this all sounds easy enough, Man of Medan tries to trick its playerbase by deterring them from choosing the selfish option, which would keep Conrad alive in this particular story. While this isn’t always the case, some of Supermassive Games’ narratives require an all-for-one mindset, which doesn’t come naturally to everyone.

1 Nick

Keeping Nick Alive Involves Attacking Him For Some Reason

Although Nick becoming a werewolf is an unavoidable event in The Quarry, it’s still possible to save him. Other outcomes that cannot be prevented involve Nick getting thrown in the pool and attacking Abi. Since he will lunge at Abi no matter what, this is where a lot of players get Abi killed, too. If she shoots Nick in werewolf form, he actually has more endurance after he turns, and he will survive the blast. However, if Abi hesitates, he will viciously decapitate her.

For Nick to survive, Laura must refrain from shooting him in Chapter 8, and Caleb must die in Chapter 10 to free all infected characters from the curse. As Nick becomes such a detriment to those around him, it’s understandable to assume that killing him off is the only option, or at least that’s what The Quarry leads players to believe.