You think you're just playing a cheesy slasher flick. You're wrong. When you first boot up Supermassive Games’ horror hit, it feels like a simple "butterfly effect" gimmick where a few choices matter, but chasing a trophy guide Until Dawn completionists actually use reveals a much darker, more mechanical reality. It’s a game of precise saves, excruciating patience, and the willingness to watch the same teenagers die in increasingly creative ways just to see a digital icon pop on your screen. Honestly, the Platinum is a test of endurance more than skill.
Most people mess up their first run. They try to be "good." They try to save everyone. That’s fine for a casual Friday night, but if you want that 100%, you have to embrace the role of a sadistic director. You’ll need at least two full playthroughs, though most people end up doing two and a half because they missed one tiny collectible in Episode 5.
The First Hurdle: Collectibles are the Real Killer
Don't let the jump scares distract you. The biggest threat to your Platinum run isn't the wendigo; it's a missing Totem. There are 30 of them. Loss, Death, Guidance, Caution, and Fortune. If you miss one, you’re often looking at a massive chapter-select rewind because the game doesn't just let you "pick up" what you missed and quit. You have to play through to the end of the story from that point for certain triggers to save correctly.
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It’s tedious.
The Twins and 1952 clues are equally annoying. You're looking for scraps of paper and old photos while a masked psychopath is supposedly chasing you. It breaks the immersion, sure, but that’s the price of the trophy guide Until Dawn hunters live by. You have to be thorough. Check every corner. If the camera angle shifts, walk back the way you came. There’s almost always a secret tucked behind the "wrong" way.
They All Live vs. They All Die
The core of the trophy list hinges on two extremes. You need "They All Live" and "This Is THE End."
Saving everyone is actually harder than killing everyone. To keep everyone breathing, you need to be a master of QTEs (Quick Time Events). One missed button press in the final scene at the lodge? Boom. Sam or Mike is dead, and your "Four Daughters of Darkness" or "They All Live" trophy is gone. You’ve basically wasted fifteen hours.
Conversely, the "kill everyone" run is strangely cathartic. Watching Emily get what’s coming to her or letting Chris stay outside the lodge is a dark highlight for many. But even killing everyone requires specific timing. You can’t just fail every QTE. If you want the "This Is THE End" trophy, you have to ensure they survive long enough to reach their scripted deaths. It’s a delicate balance of incompetence.
Navigating the Butterfly Effect Without Losing Your Mind
If you’re looking at a trophy guide Until Dawn for the first time, you’ll see people talking about "Chapter Select." Here is the catch: Until Dawn uses a linear save system. If you go back to Chapter 6 to change a choice, you must play through Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 sequentially for that choice to carry over. You cannot skip around.
This is where most players quit.
Imagine realizing you forgot to let the cat... well, let's just say you forgot to be nice to a specific animal in Chapter 2. You’re in Chapter 10. You have to restart almost the entire game. To avoid this, your first "blind" run should just be for fun. Don't even look at the trophies. Just live with your mistakes. Then, use your second run as your "Perfect" run.
The Infamous "Don't Move" Segments
The PS4 controller's light bar and internal gyro are your worst enemies here. For the "Don't Move" prompts, the game is incredibly sensitive. If your hand tremors even slightly because you’re nervous, Sam is toast.
Pro tip: Put the controller down on a flat surface. A coffee table is your best friend.
Wait.
Don't do that if your controller vibrates. If a vibration setting is on and the controller buzzed on a hard table, the sensor will pick it up as movement. You’ll fail. Hold it with both hands, lock your elbows into your ribs, and hold your breath. It sounds dramatic, but for the Platinum, it’s necessary.
Why the "The Quicker Man" Trophy is Sneaky
You have to win a fight. But it's not a fight you'd expect. It involves Mike in the sanatorium. Most players get through this area just trying to survive, but to get the specific trophy, you have to be aggressive. It's one of those trophies that isn't naturally "good" or "bad" for the story; it’s just a specific mechanical requirement that feels out of place with the rest of the horror vibe.
Dealing with the "Ashley Snaps" Moment
There’s a trophy called "Fatal Grudge." It is arguably the most cold-blooded trophy in the game. You have to make Chris choose to shoot Ashley earlier in the game. She’ll beg him not to. If he does (even though the gun has blanks), she remembers. Later, when Chris is running for his life from a wendigo and screaming for her to let him into the lodge, she just... stands there. She watches him die.
Getting this trophy feels gross. It’s a testament to the game's writing that you actually feel like a jerk for clicking a button, but it’s a mandatory stop on the way to the Platinum.
The Complexity of Josh’s Fate
Josh is a special case. He can’t "live" in the traditional sense. His "best" ending is actually a fate worse than death, but for the "They All Live" trophy, the game considers his transformation as him being "saved." To get this, you MUST find the "Twins" collectibles, specifically the journal that explains what happened to his sisters. If Sam doesn’t find that journal in the mines, she can’t tell Josh, and Josh gets his head popped like a grape.
No journal? No Platinum.
Actionable Steps for a Clean Platinum Run
If you want to actually finish this without doing five different playthroughs, follow this specific sequence. It’s the most efficient way to handle the trophy guide Until Dawn requirements without burning out.
- Playthrough 1 (The "Good" Run): Focus on keeping everyone alive. Collect EVERY single totem and clue. Use a checklist. Make sure you find the Twins Clue #20 (The Journal) as Sam in Episode 10. Keep the dog (Wolfie) alive in the Sanatorium by giving him the bone and finishing the QTEs.
- The "Don't Shoot" Rule: In Episode 6, when Chris has the gun, do NOT shoot Ashley. Don't shoot yourself either. Just let the timer run out or shoot yourself (it doesn't matter, but shooting her locks you out of "They All Live").
- Clean Up via Chapter Select: Once you finish the game with everyone alive, go back to Episode 6. This is where you shoot Ashley to get the "Fatal Grudge" trophy later in Episode 8.
- Playthrough 2 (The "Bad" Run): Start from Chapter 6 or 1 or wherever you have remaining "death" trophies. Kill everyone. Make the worst choices possible. Let Jess die early by being slow as Mike. Let Matt get hooked in the face. It’s faster because the game actually gets shorter as characters die off.
- The Final Trophies: Check your list for "Instant Inferno" or "The Skillful Wolfie." These are usually the ones people miss because they require very specific, non-obvious actions in the final two chapters.
Until Dawn is a masterpiece of the "choice" genre, but the Platinum trophy turns it into a rigorous exercise in data management. Keep your saves backed up to the cloud if you're worried about a power flicker ruining a "Don't Move" segment. Trust me, it happens.
Stay patient. The screams get less annoying after the third time you hear them.
Essential Next Steps:
- Download a collectible map: You will not find the 1952 clues on your own. Some are hidden behind crates that look like background dressing.
- Verify your Episode 10 save: Before the final lodge sequence, ensure Sam and Mike are both healthy. If one died earlier, you can't get the "Everyone Lives" trophy in this cycle.
- Toggle "Invert Y-Axis" if needed: Some of the shooting galleries in the later chapters are fast. If you aren't comfortable with the default controls, change them before the Sanatorium, or you’ll miss a shot and lose a character permanently.