Full-story spoilers start here. The dangerous moments in Life is Strange: Reunion are not the ordinary dialogue prompts. They are the short exploration windows that close after Max or Chloe starts the next conversation: a tool not picked up, a rewind state not preserved, a suspect not questioned, or a route through the fire entered without the equipment needed at the far end.
This walkthrough follows the released game on Steam as checked on July 20, 2026. It covers the critical path across all 32 named scenes, with puzzle answers, timed sequences, investigation gates, and the choices that change the survival route. It deliberately leaves the photo, sketch, podcast, and optional-evidence cleanup out of the main path so that a player can see what actually advances the story.
Read the route as a chain of irreversible handoffs
The opening world-state questions are not cosmetic imports. The game asks you to define Max’s past with Amanda, Chloe, Safi, and Vinh because it cannot automatically read an earlier save. The most visible completion consequence is Chloe’s Arcadia Bay state: the two possibilities lead to mutually exclusive achievements, so a 100% achievement run needs a second playthrough. Choose the history you want for the first run; do not randomize it if you care about relationship continuity.
During exploration, use a three-step rule: read the objective, sweep the current room, then start the marked conversation. Rewind changes what Max knows, but it does not make every missed interaction recoverable after a scene transition. Chloe’s Backtalk works differently: listen for the exact topic in the opponent’s line and answer before the timer ends. The route below calls out only answers that unlock a gate or protect a later branch.
Scenes 1-7: prove Rewind, then leave class with the right information
- Backstage Pass: walk uphill after Chloe’s opening exchange, inspecting the gun, Polaroid, and grave as the path exposes them. The scene is linear; its job is to establish the threat rather than test a branch.
- Mountain State of Mind: clear Max’s trunk until the camera is accessible, take the required sunset photo, and close the phone after reading Moses’s messages. If the objective appears stuck, the portfolio, hat, bag, or suitcase is still blocking the camera interaction.
- Emergency Response and Return to Selfie: examine the graffiti, approach the police and then the school building, and leave the bench when control returns. These short scenes feed the fire investigation.
- Time Dojo: go to Moses’s office and inspect the whiteboard before talking to him. For the first test, examine the schoolgirl figurine upstairs, read its base, rewind, and answer Mina Hiramatsu. For the cabinet test, take the screwdriver, open the door once, rewind, move the cushion from Moses’s chair into position, and repeat the opening. Rewind the damaged door state before reporting back. On the floor X, let the kettle spark, rewind, then run upstairs and unplug it before the accident.
- Class Act: help Loretta, Reggie, and Jeannette before returning to the camera case. Reggie needs information learned from the other student after a rewind; Jeannette also needs a first conversation followed by a rewind and revised feedback. Near the end, join Loretta to overhear Reggie’s call, rewind so the class does not retain the snooping state, and only then end class. Yasmin’s question about Safi is the first flagged story choice; there is no evidence that one reply blocks the critical path.
- Open Mic Night: make Amanda’s set succeed by questioning the heckler, rewinding, and using the Mercedes information. To extract Lucas’s useful lead, talk once, rewind, ask about his new novel, take a Vox Populi business card, listen, rewind again, and confront him with the podcast. The silent auction is optional, but its loop is a good Rewind check: bid before the show, after the show, and after Lucas; when Vinh cheats, rewind and remove the pen while bidding again.
Scenes 8-13: alternate entries until the two investigations meet
Bar Break In gives Chloe and Max different entrances. As Chloe, circle around the left side of the Snapping Turtle and climb the keg. Max’s Fremont Street approach is an evidence read: inspect the truck cab, the footprints at the porch, and the boarded window. In Lying and Waiting, Chloe takes the keyring, waits through the bar interactions, and faces Noelle at payment. The verified winning Backtalk sequence is Space followed by UVM. If you want the later Slick Rick conversation with Lucas, make up a sponsor name instead of using Max’s.
More than Meets the Eye is the first real timed room. Compromise with Loretta, take the crowbar near the large jug, bar the door, then take the wire cutters from the shelf. Four charge boxes must be disabled; one is behind the tapestry. Leave the box nearest the shelf until last, because crossing the room after cutting it wastes the remaining timer. If the fourth box does not register, rewind to a point before the cuts and run the same sweep without stopping for optional objects.
The reunion continues inside Max’s home. Plate the muffin, make coffee, light the fireplace, and check Chloe’s duffel for the car keys. Do not walk all the way up to the bed before finishing anything you want to inspect upstairs; proximity starts the next beat. Divide and Investigate then separates the work cleanly: Max handles administration and identity records while Chloe follows the Abraxas route.
Scenes 14-19: convert library terms into an Abraxas entry
In Admin Sleuth, Loretta needs searchable terms, not a random pile of books. Inspect History of the Occult on B6 and take Jack Parsons back to her. The nearby bust, Rituals and Relics in Modern Life, Animal Symbology, and Sabbats: A Celebration of Seasons advance the wider research loop. Tell Vinh to cancel Mabon, rewind the conversation, then use Owen’s interest to pull Vinh away from his desk.
Inside Owen’s office, search the drawer, read all three email pages, and query the computer about Abraxas secrets and Owen’s schedule. Use the phone to call Vinh, then rewind far enough to leave before he knocks. In Cat and Max, the folder search is an elimination sequence: help Jeannette, use the masked protester to distract Owen after learning he will not speak, inspect the unattended folder, check Isobel and Ratih while they are distracted, and finish with Vinh and Yasmin.
The Overlight moves to Moses’s office. Check his calendar, 3D printer, whiteboard, and upstairs photo before naming his find. Ask Moses about the printer before the later topics if you want the birthday-gift chain. The vision path outside is linear: follow the hill, inspect the marks on the trees, the note, and the bathroom-floor state until Chloe returns to the office.
In Times in Turtle, Max decides whether to tell Safi about the coming fire. Telling her is part of one well-documented survival route, but later dialogue still has to remain consistent. As Chloe, talk to Lucas and Ren, inspect the fireworks at the bar, then take the burned scrap from the bucket beside the fireplace. Ask Amanda about the message board and use the scrap to access it. The verified Joey Backtalk is CardinalSin, Bowling League, and Sic semper tyrannis. Meet Max outside when the investigation is exhausted.
Champlain Problems is a relationship scene rather than a puzzle. If you set up Moses’s 3D printer earlier, cycle through Chloe’s available topics until the birthday-gift option appears. The kiss-or-hold-hands prompt expresses the relationship direction but does not replace the later survival decisions.
Mabon is a password, mechanism, and evidence stack
At the Abraxas house, eavesdrop on the garden group and inspect the tapestry before answering the doorman. The working creature is Basilisk. Inside, take a spare mask from the sleeping guest. Reggie will only reveal the needed variation after repeated passes: drink, follow him, test a response, rewind, and approach the conversation again with the information retained.
Chloe’s basement mechanism is deliberately cheap-looking. Read the note near the altar, move the letter beside the curtain, inspect the circular plaque, and take the round coaster from the shelving opposite. Place the coaster in the plaque to open the Hall of Secrets. Inspect the green box on the right-hand shelves before leaving.
The intruder choice has a concrete collection consequence. Attack makes him drop the blueprint used by the optional-evidence achievement; Distract can advance the story but loses that piece for the current playthrough. After control returns to Max, persist through the changing room, go upstairs, examine the poster if desired, interact with the recorder and wine glass, remove the cloth, and face the mirror.
Scenes 20-27: finish the boards, accuse Ren, and name Vinh
The Majestic Tapestry resolves the power sequence by having Max focus on the displayed photos. In All Available Evidence, inspect the items on the desk, sweep every board downstairs, and use the snack table to reconvene only after the board interactions stop producing new comments. Telling Chloe about her death or holding it back changes their conversation; it does not substitute for the culprit decisions that follow.
After Worth the Wait, Chloe investigates the Snapping Turtle. In Chloe’s Decision, check Ren’s backpack before pressuring him. A verified winning line is I’ll tell Noelle (some routes display Amanda), then Red paint can, then Daddy issues. Report Ren to Noelle. That choice is what allows Noelle to intercept his attempt during “Peaceful” Protest.
Max’s Decision requires a rewind interrogation of Yasmin. Start with Owen and ask why, rewind, then use the new chain through the Hall of Secrets, the sledgehammer, and the people who knew. Rewind again to expose the cover-up and missing body. When Max must name the person connected to the Abraxas-house fire, choose Vinh for the route that saves him later. The story can continue after a different accusation, but the full-survival chain cannot.
A Bold Plan and “Peaceful” Protest mostly play out the accumulated state. In Keeping Watch, the eyepiece is not in the obvious case. Read the paper at the table with the lamp; the eyepiece is underneath it. Give it to Moses. If Ren and Vinh were correctly identified, the following events show both interventions rather than forcing the larger campus and Abraxas-house disasters.
Scenes 28-32: carry equipment through The Line of Fire
In the Lighthouse decides Safi’s survival through consistency. On the repeatedly verified route where Max disclosed the danger, begin with Max loves you. When Safi challenges what Max shared, answer She told you about the fire. At the grief beat, acknowledge You’ve been hurting since Maya died; when the conversation turns to recovery, choose She knows you can get better. Finish with the solidarity response. Local wording can vary with earlier treatment, so follow the empathetic meaning if a line is different. The observatory ignition still occurs; saving Safi is not the same as preventing that fire.
At the start of The Line of Fire, read the poster board on the route up the stairs. This gives Max Jeannette’s location. Follow the custodian into the utility room and do not leave with only the first objective completed:
- Read the utility note and activate the breaker box so the sprinkler route is live.
- Operate the first valve, then take both the mask and the normal wrench.
- Pass Noelle, turn the second valve, and collect the T-wrench nearby.
- Return to Noelle, give her the mask, name Jeannette’s classroom location, and tell her about Chloe and Moses.
- Use the T-wrench on the ground valve near the fountain or police-car side of the route.
- At the front building door, use the normal wrench to break the glass and alert Anthony the Poet to the exit.
If Trust Fall does not show the expected rescue state, the most common missing flag is the poster board, breaker, mask handoff, or third valve rather than the final run itself. Memorial reveals the outcome: a Wall of Heroes indicates the full-survival route, while a memorial means at least one rescue condition failed.
Partners in Time ends at the shirt beside the television. Move it, read Moses’s letter, and handle the surviving Polaroid. The final photo decision combines with the survival state to alter the closing montage. Community guides disagree with one source that invents a hidden Rewind-usage meter and three named final commands; the reproducible variables documented by multiple playthrough guides are who survived and whether Chloe burns the photo or gives it to Max. Make a manual save before the final interaction if you want to view both photo outcomes without replaying the whole story.
Sources and credits
Game identity, release date, developer, publisher, and screenshots were checked against the official Steam listing and the official Life is Strange site. Puzzle order, scene gates, and branching consequences were cross-checked against multiple verified walkthrough references and community achievement guides. Screenshots are official Steam media from Deck Nine Games and Square Enix.