Class of ’09: Puzzle Showdown does not have one answer string that clears every match. The useful route is a progression plan: learn controlled chains in Nicole’s easy campaign, carry that board discipline through Jecka, Ari, and Emily, track Kelly’s eight outcomes separately, then clean up the cutscene, Marathon, and online achievements without repeating finished content.
This roadmap covers the July 17, 2026 Steam release, AppID 3861730, checked July 21, 2026. Steam confirms five campaigns, 13 endings, 17 achievements, P2P online play, and shared-screen PvP. Public achievement descriptions name four solo campaigns but do not publish the fifth campaign’s route trigger or the dialogue choices for Kelly’s endings. Those gaps stay gaps below: the guide uses achievement and theater states as checkpoints instead of inventing choices.
Build the run around what the game actually records
Before replaying anything, divide progress into five ledgers. This matters because the campaign menu, Weekend at Kelly’s, the cutscene theater, Marathon, and online PvP award different kinds of completion. A finished story campaign will not satisfy a score target, and a local versus win does not match an achievement that explicitly requires an online win.
| Progress block | What proves it is done | What not to assume |
|---|---|---|
| Nicole, Jecka, Ari, Emily | Four named campaign achievements | A viewed scene alone does not prove the campaign achievement registered |
| Weekend at Kelly’s | Eight numbered ending achievements | One Kelly ending does not complete the side quest |
| Cutscene theater | All six slots unlocked and Have You Learned Nothing? awarded | The 13-ending total is not the same as the six-scene count |
| Marathon | 20K, 50K, and 100k achievements | A campaign score does not replace a Marathon score |
| Online PvP | All Downhill From Here after the first online win | Shared-screen PvP is a separate mode |
Steam’s 13-ending figure and achievement list expose twelve plainly labeled story milestones: four named campaign completions and eight Kelly outcomes. That leaves one ending outside those twelve labels. The practical move is to clear the twelve visible milestones, inspect the fifth campaign and theater after each batch, and let the menu state reveal the next task. It is an audit method, not a claim that Steam has published the missing trigger.
Use Nicole as the chain laboratory, not a speed test
The community wiki’s current release revision maps the four named campaigns to rising difficulty: Nicole is easy, Jecka is normal, Ari is hard, and Emily is harder. Start with Nicole even if match-three games are familiar. Puzzle Showdown’s important skill is not finding any line of three; it is predicting the board after that line disappears.
For the first campaign, use a three-question decision loop before each swap:
- What clears now? Identify the horizontal or vertical line of at least three matching blocks.
- What falls into the cleared space? Follow the columns above the match rather than watching only the flashing pieces.
- Does that fall create the next clear? If not, decide whether the immediate space is worth breaking the setup.
A chain is the second clear caused by the first board change. Steam calls chaining the game’s learning curve because it creates more pressure than isolated matches. During Nicole’s route, deliberately build a two-step chain while the board is safe. If the second match does not form, diagnose the fall: the wrong color was one row too high, the first clear removed a support block, or an emergency match broke the setup. That diagnosis is more useful than restarting immediately.
The Steam listing also advertises a keyboard-only option, partial controller support, DualShock and DualSense support, and play without timed input. Check the in-game control screen for the active device rather than copying a universal button layout. The goal at this stage is consistent cursor movement and one planned chain, not a fast clear.
Carry one board habit through Jecka, Ari, and Emily
The four campaign achievements make the intended ladder visible:
- Nicole’s route is recorded by Nihilists Riled.
- For Jecka, the confirmation badge is Beautiful Ignorance.
- Ari is settled when Self-Harm Queen appears.
- Emily’s completion marker is Hot Girls Do Meth.
After Nicole, change only one training priority per campaign. In Jecka’s normal route, protect a usable area instead of clearing every available trio. A low board with no prepared follow-up can still lose momentum; keep one side open for emergency matches while building on the other. In Ari’s hard route, stop treating a failed chain as permission to scramble. Recover the safe side first, then rebuild a two-step setup. In Emily’s harder route, abandon a large setup as soon as it threatens survival. A smaller chain that restores space is better than waiting for a theoretical attack while the stack reaches the top.
After each ending, verify the matching Steam achievement, then open the cutscene theater and note any new slot. If the achievement is missing, replay that campaign before moving deeper into side content; otherwise a later audit cannot distinguish an unregistered completion from a still-locked fifth route.
The official store promises five campaigns, while the public achievement list names only Nicole, Jecka, Ari, and Emily. Do not assign an unverified character or unlock condition to campaign five. Once all four named achievements and the Kelly checklist are settled, return to the campaign menu and follow the newly available state. If nothing changes, recheck missing achievements and theater slots before replaying every story.
Treat Kelly as eight tracked outcomes, not one long route
Weekend at Kelly’s is described separately from the five campaigns, and each of its eight results has a numbered Steam achievement. Use those numbers as the route ledger:
| Ending | Achievement | Checkpoint action |
|---|---|---|
| 1 of 8 | Quiet On Set! | Mark 1 only after Steam registers it |
| 2 of 8 | My First Boy-Boy-Boy-Boy-Girl Scene | Keep its save or choice notes separate from ending 1 |
| 3 of 8 | Cigarette Omelette | Confirm the number before starting another branch |
| 4 of 8 | KELLY 2022 | Record the last changed choice |
| 5 of 8 | I Was Worthless Too | Do not count a viewed scene without the achievement |
| 6 of 8 | Sponsored By [REDACTED] | Preserve the branch notes that produced it |
| 7 of 8 | Religion Is Gay? | Check the exact ending number in Steam |
| 8 of 8 | RE-20 Set To MAX | Audit all eight before leaving Kelly’s mode |
No readable official source reviewed here publishes an eight-route dialogue map, and the supplied community guide deliberately stops short of inventing one. Use controlled branching: write down the choices for a successful ending, return to the nearest available branch point, change one decision, and compare the resulting achievement. Changing several choices at once may reach a new result, but it destroys the information needed to reproduce it or locate the one ending still missing.
If a Kelly branch is correct but the battle keeps ending the run, step out to Nicole or Marathon and rehearse the board problem itself: preserving emergency space, predicting a fall, or abandoning an unsafe setup. Then return to the same Kelly branch. This keeps story-route testing separate from mechanical practice.
Audit the sixth cutscene before grinding side modes
The theater achievement, Have You Learned Nothing?, appears only when all six scene slots are open. Those six scenes are not interchangeable with the 13 endings: one is a theater inventory, the other is the game’s advertised outcome count. Open the theater after each of the four named campaigns, after finishing the Kelly set, and after any newly exposed fifth campaign state.
If five scenes are open, do not start a blind full replay. Check these failure signals in order:
- A named campaign ending played but its Steam achievement is absent.
- One Kelly number is missing even though eight routes were attempted.
- The campaign menu now exposes a state that was not available before the twelve labeled milestones.
- The theater slot remains locked after the relevant achievement registered; in that case, close and reopen the menu before repeating content.
The community story-match playlist below was independently checked through YouTube oEmbed as Class of ’09: Puzzle Showdown – Story Matches by EcoReck. It is useful for visually comparing story matches and endings, but it is not treated as an official choice map.
Make Marathon three separate score projects
Marathon has three official score achievements: 20K for 20,000 points, 50K for 50,000, and 100k for 100,000. Treat them as gates. A run that has never reached 20K is not helped by playing as though 100K is the only meaningful result.
For the 20K project, prioritize survival and record why each run ended: no emergency clear, an unread fall, or a chain setup held too long. Once 20K is repeatable, make 50K the chain-conversion project. Keep the same survival floor, but require more first clears to leave a second match. Attempt 100K only after 50K is repeatable; at that point, the useful comparison is not merely final score but the board state where control was lost.
Steam does not publish a full scoring formula, character multiplier table, exact garbage values, or a guaranteed opening. This roadmap therefore does not claim a hidden build. It gives observable checkpoints: safe space, predictable falls, repeatable two-step chains, and the three score achievements.
Leave the online win until the board is stable
All Downhill From Here requires the first online match win. Steam lists online PvP as peer-to-peer and local play as shared or split-screen PvP. Because the achievement says online, do not use a local win as the completion test.
Enter online play after a 20K Marathon run is repeatable and at least one two-step chain can be built without sacrificing the recovery area. In the match, keep the same priorities used in the campaign ladder: survive first, read the fall, and release a smaller safe chain when a larger setup threatens the top. If the match disconnects or ends without the achievement, do not count it; verify the Steam notification after a completed win.
A clean final audit should total 17 achievements: four named campaigns, eight Kelly endings, three Marathon scores, the six-cutscene theater achievement, and the first online win. If the arithmetic is short, the category counts reveal where to return. That is faster and safer than replaying the entire story because the menu still shows an unexplained lock.
Evidence limits for the July 21 release build
This is a current-release roadmap, not a permanent balance guide. No usable source supplied a patch-specific garbage table, exact chain timing, fixed live-board solution, optimal character ranking, or reproducible Kelly choice tree. Those details were excluded. Future patches may change difficulty or unlock behavior, so use the current client, Steam achievement state, and theater slots as the final authority when they conflict with an older community checklist.
Sources & credits
Game identity, AppID 3861730, SBN3 developer/publisher metadata, the July 17, 2026 release date, five-campaign and 13-ending totals, match-three/chaining description, multiplayer modes, accessibility features, and the untouched 1920×1080 JPGs were checked against the official Steam store page and Steam appdetails. Achievement names and requirements were checked against the official Steam global-achievement page. Difficulty labels and cautious completion boundaries were reconciled with the current community wiki API and verified community guide pages. The supplied SteamHunters URL was blocked by Cloudflare and was not used as evidence; saved Reddit captures hit verification challenges, so Reddit-only claims were also excluded.