Until Dawn Chapter 1 Walkthrough: Butterfly Effect, Friendship, Memento Mori
Meet the cast and choose your favorite characters in Until Dawn on PS4.
In this Until Dawn Chapter 1 Walkthrough we’ll guide you through the game’s first proper area as you start to make some tricky decisions that will have an impact on your Until Dawn experience.
For more help, head on over to our Until Dawn Walkthrough and Guide. It’s got all you need to survive the night with as many characters alive as possible.
Until Dawn Chapter 1 will begin with you playing as Sam, Hannah’s best friend. You might recognize this character from the trailers and pre-launch hype, as Sam is played by Hayden Panettiere. Her bio says that she is considerate and adventurous, and at least one of those can’t be good when you’re in a horror game.
Walk along the path until you can interact with the gate, and then back away and move to the left. You will have to follow the on-screen prompts to either take the Safe or Quick option, and since nothing was chasing us we opted to go the safe route. Continue up and over the wall until you regain control of Sam on the other side.
As you walk along the linear path you will eventually come to a sign, and further investigation will explain the Totems in the game and what each type means. For example, finding black Totem will prophesize a potential death, while a white Totem will speak of luck and good fortune. You can read more about the Totems and take a second look at the ones you’ve found by pressing the R1 button on your controller.
If you looked at the sign you would have also found the yellow Guidance Totem on the ground. This vision will show a snowball fight, and during this a bird will fly away from a picnic table. Having played to that point in the game, our advice is to use these Totems to make informed decisions in the future. If you are following along with our guide, we’ll cover this particular vision further when that moment arrives.
Head to the cable car station and spend a few moments looking around. We found a backpack lying on a bench that belonged to Chris, and when his phone rang we chose the Snoop option instead of Close Bag. This choice is what Until Dawn refers to as the Butterfly Effect, and an on-screen graphic will notify you that such a choice has just been made. What this means is that if you had gone with the other option, the events of the future would in some way (big or small, good or bad) work out differently. Although this event didn’t seem to drastically alter the game, we advise that you close the bag rather than snooping like we did.
At this point in the story you’ll be introduced to Chris. His bio states that he’s methodical, protective and humorous. He also has a crush on Ashley. Acknowledge the bio and you’ll be back in control of Sam.
Follow Chris around the back of the cable car station and investigate the clue on the side of the building. We’re not sure of the significance, but the wanted poster is for Victor Milgram, a suspected arsonist who was last seen on March 16, 1998. Clearly this is an old poster given Chris’ cellular phone.
You’ll gain control of Chris at the back of the cable car station, and at this point the game will give you a little QTE practice in the form of a shooting range. Do your best to nail the targets, and if you’re used to an inverted pitch like us, good luck, although you should be able to manage either way. When the option to shoot the hanging bag or squirrel pops up, we opted for the bag. This was another Butterfly Effect moment, and we just figured that a little good karma wasn’t going to hurt us as things played out in this game. It turns out that we were correct.
Head back to the front of the station and use the key to open the door. You can do some looking around once you’re inside, taking note of the poster just inside the door, as well as the monitor that appears to show the lodge bathroom. When you’re done, exit and join Sam on the cable car.
There’s a cutscene to get through, but on the other side will be a bio of Jess, Mike’s new girlfriend (his old girlfriend in the prologue was Emily). She’s listed as confident, trusting and irreverent. Dismiss this bio and you will be in control of her.
Walk to the left of where Jess was sitting (and facing) and you’ll be able to open the door to let Chris and Sam out of the cable car. Because of the choices we made (looking at Chris’ cellular phone), Chris will automatically grab a letter from Jess. You’ll be playing as Jess, and we choose to Explain rather than Insist.
After that scene you’ll move on to a bio of Emily and Matt. Emily is Mike’s ex and is intelligent, resourceful and persuasive. Matt (Emily’s new boyfriend) is motivated, ambitious and active. If you’re wondering why we’re taking the time to explain all of this to you, it’s because the personality traits of each character will help you to decide what decision might be best for them in the future.
You’ll be playing as Matt for a minute, but shortly after you’ll get Mike’s bio. Mike is intelligent, driven and persuasive. After you dismiss that bio you’ll still be in control of Matt, and you’ll have to choose if you want to Threaten or Welcome. We chose to latter option because it occurred to us that less infighting would be beneficial to every member of the group surviving. Of course we sort of abandoned that idea a moment later when we decided to Persist with Emily, rather than agree.
Moving right along with the bios we ended up at Ashley. Just like Chris has a crush on her, she has one on him, and she’s listed as academic, inquisitive and forthright. Dismiss the bio and spend a moment looking through the telescope, focusing on the bottom left corner specifically. Continue to move it around until a cutscene takes over. When the scene ends you’ll be forced to choose whether to Encourage or Mislead. We decided to encourage Matt to look through the telescope since we’re not overly huge fans of Emily.
When you regain control you’ll be back with Jess, at which point we decided on Check Phone rather than Read Book. We’re not really sure if it matters much, but we decided on Grab Snowball over Run to Bench as well. From here you’ll be in a snowball fight driven by quick time events. Our strategy was to pepper Mike with snowballs at every opportunity, but we didn’t hit the bird on the picnic table. This decision was a direct result of the vision from the yellow Totem where we witnessed the bird flying away. Smashing it with snow seemed like a bad idea, but you can do whatever suits you. Just keep in mind that as your decisions vary from our own you might not recognize some of the events that we describe in this walkthrough.
When the snow battle ends you will have another decision to make. We briefly considered the romantic option, but quickly realized that Grab Snowball was a far better option than Kiss Mike. This took us back to Dr. Hill’s office where we again had to answer questions about what freaked us out. There is no right or wrong here, so our advice is to be honest and follow your instincts.
Continue with Until Dawn: Chapter 2.