12 Minutes has quite a few surprises for players looking to explore the various pathways of the time loop you are stuck in. This game is essentially one big puzzle that can end in many ways, with different outcomes for the few characters in the game. The implications of those endings have ranging effects on them. Here are all of the endings in 12 Minutes and how to get them.
Endings with credits
As you will see below, there are a few different ways to end and reset a loop, so we don’t really consider them endings because the game goes on, but they are worth mentioning. These endings will causes the credits to roll. For each of these, you will need to have visited the father in the past one time during the night.
Alone
For the Alone ending, go into the bathroom after the wife comes out and grab the pocket watch. Stare at it and wait as it moves backwards to go back to see the father, but this time during the day. During this conversation, choose the option “Maybe it’s better that we aren’t together.” You will decide to leave the wife and not kill the father.
After this scene, you will see the clock’s hour hand fall to six after being at twelve for the entire game. Click Continue when it pops up. During this timeline, you have a job where you come home earlier but to a completely empty apartment.
Walk to the front door and use your key to open it. There is nothing you can do in this empty apartment except walk into the different rooms. Be sure not to reset your progress in the options, though. We can still go back without losing all of your work.
Go into the bathroom and use your key on the ventilation grid. Oddly enough, the pocket watch is here. Grab the hour hand and move it back to the 11:58 spot to go back to the father. To get back into the normal loop, choose “I want to be with her” and “She never needs to know.”
Continue
Warning: this ending will reset your progress, so leave this for last if you want to get the other endings without running through the game again.
For this ending, wait for your wife to come out of the bathroom and sit on the couch reading a book. Sit next to her and click on her book a few times. She will mention a quote about forgetting things. Now go to the father via the pocket watch in the bathroom.
When you are in the room with the father, click on the red book on the shelf behind your character. He will cite the quote the wife said, and the father will offer to help him forget everything. Do not press anything else, and eventually, he will use some hypnosis on you to forget everything that happened and return you to the beginning of the game, resetting the time loop.
Mindfulness
To start this ending, you will need to interact with the book your wife is reading to get the meditation quote if you have not yet, and then grab the pocket watch and go back to the meeting with the father.
For this ending, you will need to be looking at the clock on the wall when it strikes 12. However, the father will end this loop faster if you don’t delay him. Let him talk for a little bit until he stands in front of you and says, “Say something.” Click the red book behind your character, and you will say the meditation quote your wife said.
The father will go on for a little bit. Click “I’ve changed my mind” immediately and get ready to choose “I want to be with her,” but wait a little bit. When he is behind you saying, “All the pain. All the Stress,” click it. Do this too early, and he will hit you and end the loop too early. Don’t choose any more conversation options. Click the clock on the wall in front of you, and when it reaches 12, you will have your ending where the father says you need to let her go.
After the credits roll, the clock will still be at 12, but you will not see Continue. Do not open Options and delete your progress. Instead, grab the hour hand and move it to 11:58 for Continue to appear and return to the father again.
Loop endings
These endings do not end the game but are interesting ways for the loop to end. Instead of the cop murdering you or you killing yourself, these are ways your character believes he can get out of the time loop, only to be disappointed when it resets.
Confessed
To get this ending, you will need to know that you are the monster the father and mother talked about. You are the son of the father and the nanny, making yourself the half-brother of your wife. Additionally, you will need Bumblebee’s phone number.
At the start of a loop, go into the closet and get the phone in your wife’s purse and call Bumblebee. Ask her to tell her father to listen to you guys and that he doesn’t have the full story. When you’re off the phone, go into the bathroom and get the pocket watch. Go back into the living room and talk to your wife. Choose “Tell her what really happened.”
From here, choose “Say you killed her father” and “Say it’s your fault,” and then finally, “Say you will confess to the cop.” Now, wait for the cop to arrive. Make sure not to interact with your wife while she cries on the couch, or she will leave and mess up the sequence of things, making the cop not answer Bumblebee’s phone call.
When he rings the doorbell, let your wife answer. She will tell him to listen to what you have to say. Choose “Tell him you killed her father” and then “Say it’s your fault.” Disgusted at the thought that you married your sister and killed your father, he will ask for the pocket watch and return for you later. Choose “Tell him about the pocket watch,” and you will hand it over and leave. Your wife will be disgusted and demand you leave. Walk out the door, and the loop will reset.
Coward
To do this ending, first knock your wife out with sleeping pills. When she lays down, make sure the light switch has been flipped on and off one time. Also, grab your wife’s phone and the pocket watch (make sure the bathroom door is closed). After that, go into the closet and close the door. You will fast forward to the cop’s arrival. Wait for him to come into the apartment and go into the bedroom. He will see the wife unconscious and flip the switch, electrocuting him and knocking him out for a little bit.
As he is unconscious, go to his body and interact with it. You will have access to all the items in his inventory, but be sure only to take one handcuff. Use it on him to restrain him for when he wakes up.
Talk to him and choose “Say you are innocent.” Taking the coward’s way out will ensure he doesn’t harm you, only your wife. Don’t move while he stands up and cuts the handcuffs with his knife. He will walk to you and ask for the pocket watch. Choose “I know where it is” to give it to him. He will instruct you to sit on the couch.
Wait a little bit on the couch, and you will hear a gunshot. The cop will come out and ask for the phone. You are both making this out to be a suicide, so give him the phone, then tell the emergency operator your wife committed suicide. From here, let the cop tell you how you screwed up and go into the bedroom to see your wife and end the loop.
Groundhog
For this ending, you will make a perfect night. Start the loop by calling Bumblebee and telling her why her father is really doing this. This will prevent him from coming into your apartment. Now, you need to play out the night perfectly for your wife.
First, grab the mugs near the couch and on the counter. Fill them both with water at the sink and then open the fridge and grab both desserts. Tell your wife it is time for dessert and quickly place the desserts and mugs on the table. Do not take anything else. Sit down, and your wife will come out and kiss you for setting the table.
After she sits down, she will give you the present. Open it and talk about her being pregnant. Choose “It’s going to be great,” and she will ask you to dance. Say, “With pleasure.” Stand up and dance with her. When you are done, she will ask why you are acting differently. Choose “Tell her how much you love her.” She will invite you into the bedroom. Go in there and click the bed to have a quick makeout session and cuddle her. The loop will end during this.
Listen
This ending needs to be done on the very first loop. If you are okay with losing progress, open Options and reset the game.
When the game starts up again, walk forward and open the front door to begin the loop. Now set your controller down and don’t touch anything. Your wife will come out, and after a little bit of talking, you will leave the apartment and end the loop.
