Ah, The Quarry’s best ending. The one where all the teens don’t die. You want it, we’ve got it. Keeping everyone alive in The Quarry is challenging, though there are a few different routes to take. In general, if you’re careful and sensible, you can pull your squad through just about anything. Spoilers abound ahead, you have been warned – let’s take a look.
Keeping the entire cast alive, including the various members of the Hackett family and the eventual big bad Silas, isn’t possible. Even though the game presents them alongside the teens in the closing crawl of who lived and died, some are inevitable for the plot to move forward.
Still, for the main squad of nine, there are a number of ways to get them to the end alive, well, and ready to make their case to the police that no, officer, honest, there were monsters. Naturally, what follows will include giga-spoilers for The Quarry, from start to finish. You have been warned. Twice.
General advice
Be sensible. Run away from monsters. Don’t shoot unless you know what you’re shooting at. Only take actions that actually make sense, rather than what terrified teens are recommending you do.
Don’t press buttons just because they’re there. Not every interrupt is needed or necessary – or safe.
Don’t stress the details. The specifics of how characters have interacted or their feelings towards each other, unfortunately, rarely matter for big results.
Do QTEs. The Quarry’s QTEs are pretty simple and it’s never a bad idea to do them well. Messing up can get you killed, though.
Gather evidence. If you want your teens to survive the night and also get away with it, you’ll need a significant amount for the best ending.
Jacob
Ah, sweet, stupid, jock-head Jacob. At least he got laid. Let’s keep him alive.
If Jacob dives into the water to get the cap back, untangle him rather than pulling on the wire until he drowns.
Don’t ‘distract’ the hunter when he comes over to Jacob after he cuts himself down in chapter 3. He’ll put blood on Jacob’s face which will keep him safe.
Don’t shoot at rustling bushes at Ryan, or you might kill Jacob with a gun. On the upside, you can kill Jacob with a gun, which you might really want to by this point.
Nick
Nick ends up being a bit of a dick, but we can still keep him breathing.
Nick getting infected isn’t avoidable, it happens whether you help him as Abi or not.
Thus his transformation isn’t avoidable either – shoot him, it’s for the best.
However, you want to avoid him getting shot after that, while playing as Ryan as Laura goes to shoot the werewolf in the cage, stop her.
He’ll stop being a werewolf at the end of the game.
Abi
Abi picks the wrong man, but that doesn’t mean she has to die.
Do Abi’s run-away QTEs in chapter 3 well or she might end up infected or worse.
Shoot Nick when he’s transforming, or say goodbye to Abi’s head.
Take the trapdoor up in the endgame.
Ryan
Ryan, with the best voice acting in the biz and the smoothest lines, is premium high-prio.
Not much matters until Chapter 9 as Ryan, as he’s important for the late-game.
Once he’s stabbed, be careful with QTEs surrounding the knife, and hide in the closet rather than under the bed.
When Bobby comes to retrieve his knife, either option is actually okay. In fact, if you want Bobby to survive, choose not to stab him so he can overpower his brother later.
Let Laura bite you, it’s the only way.
Shoot Chris while it’s all kicking off with the Hacketts.
Finally, do the final car sequence QTEs well to avoid being horribly killed.
Emma
Emma’s a not-Instagram influencer, so y’know… well, if you insist on keeping her alive.
Keeping Emma up is mostly in QTEs, but also grabbing the right items. Get the fireworks near the start and check out the bags and grab the taser before opening the trap-door on the island.
From there, competent QTE actions and using your items when prompted will do you well.
Laura
Laura spends much of the game in a flashback where she can’t die, but after is a different story.
Don’t shoot Travis, no matter how weird he is. He won’t be impressed later on. Be nice to him as much as possible, if you really want.
Get rid of werewolf Chris while playing as Ryan.
Do QTEs in chapter 10 and you’re home-free.
Max
Probably some of the second-best deadpan line delivery in the game, let’s keep Max alive.
Just don’t leave the island. That’s it, honestly. Max will always be a werewolf, will almost-always get cured, and will always die if he heads across the water.
Dylan
Sweet, music-loving, probably-gay Dylan, he can have a hard time of it staying alive.
Amputating Dylan’s hand or not doesn’t matter, there are ways out in either situation.
Once he makes it to the scrapyard with Kaitlyn, stay on your QTE toes. Use loud sounds to distract the werewolf. Either he’ll kill it and escape, or kill it and transform, being saved at the end of the game like everyone else.
Kaitlyn
Sassy Kaitlyn can die all over the place once you reach the endgame, but we’ll keep her alive.
Two major places, and two similar solutions: the scrapyard in chapter 9 and the lodge at the end of the game. Do your QTEs.
If Dylan doesn’t survive in the crane, you’re going to be in trouble, so keep him up with good QTEs too.
In the final sequence, escape via the beam, then grab the shells and shoot Caleb. If Dylan’s still with you, you can also trap Caleb in the freezer with a lot more QTE usage, but he freezes to death anyway.
Those are the key decisions – much easier to keep everyone alive than you might have thought, isn’t it? Here’s our evidence guide for getting away with all this, as well as our The Quarry review for our thoughts on the game as a whole.
Written by Ben Barrett on behalf of GLHF.
