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Twelve Minutes walkthrough and guide

A guide to help you navigate the timestreams in Twelve Minutes, especially if you get stuck and don't know what to do next.

Sam Chandler

August 19, 2021 9:50 AM

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Twelve Minutes is a rich narrative experience that can often feel like a puzzle. For this reason, some players may require a walkthrough or some guidance in order to progress in Twelve Minutes. With so many interactive items and objects, and a whole lot of dialogue and twisting paths and outcomes, working out what to do next can be tough.

Twelve Minutes walkthrough and guide

This walkthrough will explain how to complete the Twelve Minutes in order to achieve some of its endings. It will provide you with both subtle hints to maintain the mystery, and full-blown spoilers if you’re really stuck. Just be aware; there is no way to help you without some spoilers, so back out now if you’re concerned you may see something you don’t want to.

Twelve Minutes’ Spoiler-Free Tips and Hints

While we like to think of these as spoiler-free tips for Twelve Minutes, depending on your sensitivity to spoilers, you should tread carefully. We’ve listed some general tips and guidance and listed some common places players get stuck and ideas on what you might want to try.

Spoiler-Free Tips

Try these spoiler-free tips before reading the full walkthrough. Often, mental fatigue is the reason for a lack of progression. It can be frustrating to have to reset the evening over and over. Take a small break and come back in 15 minutes. A clear head may save you from ruining the story by reading further.

• Have you exhausted all conversation options with each character?
• What have you recently learned that you didn’t know before?
  • Did you take this information to another timestream?
  • Did you share this information with other characters?
  • Did this information make an item more important than it was previously?
• Have you tried showing interesting items to different characters?

Another tip is to simply walk out of the apartment if you want to quickly reset the current time loop or timestream.

What to do if you get stuck in Twelve Minutes

You may inevitably get stuck in Twelve Minutes. When this happens, a good idea is to simply step away for a moment and clear your mind. If you find yourself stuck in Twelve Minutes, consider some of the following. Have you: 

• Found the polaroid on the refrigerator
• Tried turning the light in the bedroom on and off
• Discovered new phone contacts you should call
• Interacted with the story-critical item
• Attacked the cop when he’s restrained

Detailed Item List

This is a complete list of the items in the small apartment in Twelve Minutes as well as a list of items that can be found on each of the characters. If you’re stuck, perhaps you’re missing an item. Remember that once you pick up an item, it can also be interacted with while in your inventory for additional dialogue and observations – some items can also be combined. Note that we have omitted a story-critical item from the list below (we alluded to it above). Finding the item is possible via a timestream listed below.

Twelve Minutes Timestream walkthrough

Now we get into the nitty-gritty details of Twelve Minutes. Though this walkthrough does spell out a lot of the potential paths, we’ve done our best to try and avoid overt spoilers. Below you’ll find notable items that we found to be critical in progressing the story as well as a description of some of the timestreams in Twelve Minutes. As for what we mean by "timestreams", we consider the dinner with the wife a timestream.

Each timestream below will give a brief idea of what is involved in reaching that timestream as well as some hints on what to do once you are there. Some of the timestreams also have diverging branches you may need to explore. Keep in mind, sometimes you can bring information from one timestream to another. An example of this would be bringing the knowledge of the present to a later timestream to convince the wife the day is repeating. Depending on your playstyle, you might discover information sooner or even later than its listed below.

Notable items

Though there are a lot of items in Twelve Minutes, these are the ones I found to be most useful during my playthroughs. This is obviously heading into spoiler territory, so here we go.

• Knife – Found on the kitchen sink, can be used as a weapon or a tool
• Light switch (bedroom) – Broken, can be turned on and off
• Mugs – The wife will try and drink out of one a few minutes after leaving the bathroom
• Sleeping tablets – Found in the bathroom cabinet
• Baby clothes – Given by the wife or found in the top drawer
• Mobile phones – There are multiple mobile phones, one is in the closet
• Pocket Watch – Critical story item that can be interacted with (this is what we were alluding to above)
• Polaroid – Photo of the wife on New Year’s Eve

Dinner with the wife

After the elevator ride, you can enter your apartment by using the key that’s in the fake rock in the plant outside your front door. From here, the first time loop should likely involve you having dessert with your wife, hearing the news from her, dancing, and then experiencing the cop enter the apartment.

This method showcases a few important pieces of information: the wife will always start in the bathroom, she goes into the bedroom and gets zapped by the broken light switch, she collects the present from the bedroom, the two characters can drink water, she reacts to the lightning, and the police officer will break down the door.

Having a lovely dinner and evening with the wife at a later point in the story offers one potential ending.

Hiding in the closet

Another one of the timestreams available is to hide in the closet. The one that is most effective at revealing new information is to hide in the closet the second a new loop starts; this ensures the wife does not see you. As the cop interrogates her, listen carefully as she will reveal the location of the pocket watch.

Hiding in the closest is also a way to get the cop to investigate the apartment a bit more thoroughly than he does if he can see the wife and husband immediately.

Wife stays in the bedroom

This timestream has the wife remaining in the bedroom, either by being electrocuted or by giving her sleeping pills. Depending on your approach, you will then be able to interact with the cop in different ways. The most effective is to drug the wife and set a trap for the cop. This timestream splits off depending on what you do to the cop after you trap him: talk to him, restrain him, injure him, or a mixture of the three.

Prove the day is repeating

The gift can be a valuable tool to prove the day is repeating. You can also use the lightning and storm to prove the day is repeating. Once the wife is convinced, it will allow her to share information about her father. From this point onwards, you can use the information about her father to prove the day is repeating. 

The goal here is to have the wife on the couch, believing that the day is repeating. From here, you can talk to her for more information, though certain dialogue can make her leave the apartment. Once she’s on the couch, you are able to make specific phone calls. 

Tell your wife what really happened

This timestream is the most time-consuming to reach as it requires you to learn the full story of Twelve Minutes. Once you know all the details, you can tell your wife what really happened. This will result in her crying on the couch – which has a similar effect to the above timestream. However, this one allows you to unlock another achievement.

Working out what to do in Twelve Minutes can be a bit of a puzzle. The game rewards players that experiment with the items and try out all dialogue options. Remember to take newly-learned information to other timestreams to see if you can eke out more information to help you reach some of the game’s endings. Take a look at our Twelve Minutes Achievements guide for more help. Stop on over at the Shacknews Twelve Minutes page for our ongoing coverage of the game.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler