Life is Strange: Reunion – Complete Choices, Endings & Collectibles Guide

Life is Strange: Reunion brings Max and Chloe back into the spotlight, blending emotional storytelling with time-bending mechanics and a new round of tough decisions. This guide is designed to help you navigate the most important choices, understand how the endings work, and track down core collectibles without spoiling every single scene beat-by-beat.

Whether you are chasing the ideal outcome, unlocking every trophy or achievement, or simply trying to keep your friends alive, this spoiler-aware guide breaks the game down into approachable segments, focusing on decisions that really matter rather than micromanaging every dialogue line.

Getting Started: Structure, Episodes & Replayability

Reunion follows the familiar Life is Strange format: heavily narrative chapters, frequent dialogue choices, and key moments where Max’s powers and your decisions shape the story. While the exact number of chapters and their titles vary from other entries, the overall structure remains similar:

• Cinematic sequences that introduce each setting and conflict.
• Exploration segments that let you search for photos, sketches, podcasts, and optional interactions.
• High-stakes scenes, often tied to Backtalk-style confrontations or time-sensitive decisions.
• Chapter summaries that record the outcomes of your main choices.

The game is designed around replayability. You can revisit chapters to:

• Experiment with different dialogue approaches.
• Pick up missing collectibles.
• Explore alternate branches that you may have skipped on your first playthrough.

Because of this, it’s generally recommended to play blind once, then use a guide to fill in gaps on a second run when you’re chasing specific endings or trophies.

Core Mechanics Refresher: Rewinding, Backtalk & Evidence

Max and Chloe bring back several familiar mechanics, but Reunion also emphasizes careful observation and social navigation more than some earlier entries in the series. Here’s what to keep in mind:

Time Powers and Rewinding

Max can still manipulate time, but the rules are tighter than in the original Life is Strange. Most rewinds are bounded by the current scene or conversation, which means you cannot simply reset entire chapters at will. Use rewinds to:

• Test dialogue options and observe different character reactions.
• Correct mistakes during timed puzzles or stealthy sequences.
• Collect info (such as passwords or personal details) and replay interactions armed with new knowledge.

From a narrative standpoint, the franchise’s writers at Square Enix and Deck Nine have repeatedly emphasized that Max’s time powers come with psychological cost and moral ambiguity, reinforcing that there is rarely a truly “perfect” timeline.¹

Backtalk / Confrontation Sequences

Chloe’s style of confrontation returns through Backtalk-like segments, where sharp, contextual responses allow her to dominate a conversation, call out lies, or push someone into a crucial action. During these sequences:

• Listen carefully for the exact words and emotional tone your opponent uses.
• Select responses that mirror or twist their language back at them.
• Lean into Chloe’s bluntness when the situation rewards aggression, but avoid it when you’re trying to build trust.

Winning or losing these moments usually doesn’t end the story outright, but it can determine whether certain characters survive, whether key evidence is exposed, and how others see Max and Chloe later on.

Evidence Boards and Investigation

Reunion leans more heavily into investigative sequences than some earlier games in the series, echoing elements of Life is Strange: Double Exposure where Max pieced together timelines using evidence boards.² In Reunion, you’ll often find:

• Whiteboards or cork boards covered in notes, photos, and timelines.
• Loose documents like receipts, flyers, and personal letters.
• Markers in the environment that can be photographed or sketched as collectibles and as clues.

Take time to fully explore these spaces. Examining everything doesn’t just unlock achievements; it often makes later dialogue options richer and can change how much Max actually understands about the situation.

Major Choice Categories and What They Influence

Rather than listing every single dialogue branch, it’s more useful to think of decisions in terms of categories that affect similar outcomes. Reunion’s choices can be grouped as follows:

Relationship and Trust

Reunion continuously tracks how honest, supportive, and consistent you are with key characters. Maintaining trust often requires:

• Backing up your friends publicly when they are being questioned or doubted.
• Sticking to the same story instead of rewriting history with frequent rewinds.
• Acknowledging past mistakes, especially events from the original Arcadia Bay story.

Trust doesn’t always mean telling the whole truth immediately, but characters are remarkably perceptive when you constantly dodge questions or minimize your role in past disasters.

High-Stakes Events: Who Can Live or Die

Several characters find themselves in dangerous situations: fires, explosions, crowd panics, and emotional breakdowns. During these sequences:

• Follow environmental prompts quickly, but don’t forget to look for alternate solutions.
• Use rewinds to test routes—often the safest path isn’t the most obvious.
• Take note of earlier clues about a character’s health, anxiety triggers, or physical limitations.

Saving everyone usually requires a mix of calm dialogue, smart use of time powers, and prior groundwork (for example, earlier trust-building conversations that convince someone to listen when it really matters).

Handling Evidence and Secrets

Evidence choices often boil down to a moral dilemma: expose wrongdoing at the cost of someone’s reputation, or shield them and live with the consequences. When deciding whether to share or hide evidence:

• Ask whether the person involved is actively dangerous, or trying to change.
• Consider who is likely to be blamed if you stay silent.
• Think about how your decision aligns with your portrayal of Max and Chloe—are they seeking justice, redemption, or simple survival?

Canonically, the franchise has repeatedly explored themes of institutional failure and the burden of silence, particularly in school settings.³ Reunion continues this by showing how systemic problems persist even when individuals try to do the right thing.

Collectibles Overview: Photos, Sketches, Podcasts & More

Like earlier entries, Reunion turns observation into a tangible reward system. Optional photos, sketches, and audio items not only deepen the world but also contribute to trophies and achievements.

Types of Collectibles

• Optional Photos: Scenes where Max can capture a specific object, pattern, or person at the right angle or moment.
• Sketches: Chloe’s drawings, unlocked by examining a focal object long enough to inspire her creativity.
• Audio / Podcasts: In-world podcasts or recordings, often used to deliver background lore and thematic commentary.
• Evidence Items: Documents, receipts, or whiteboards that count toward investigative goals.

Tips for Finding Collectibles Naturally

To reduce backtracking and chapter replays, adopt a methodical exploration style:

• Before pushing any objective marker, sweep each area clockwise or counter-clockwise.
• Prioritize looking out windows, at notice boards, and on shelves—common locations for hidden items in Life is Strange level design.
• Revisit previously empty corners after major conversations; new interactions sometimes appear once a scene advances.
• Use Max’s camera or Chloe’s sketch prompts whenever the game slows down and gives you quiet, scenic moments.

Most collectibles are missable on a first run, but the game’s chapter select mode allows you to return and grab them later without overwriting your story-critical choices, mirroring how earlier games handled optional photo logs.⁴

Strategies for Key Scenario Types

The original article this is inspired by focuses on helping players through especially tricky sections. While exact scene titles may differ, the problems themselves fall into recurring patterns. The following advice applies broadly across the game’s middle and late chapters.

1. Social Puzzles in School and Campus Settings

Reunion returns to lecture halls, faculty offices, and student hangouts where small details matter. To handle these areas effectively:

• Observe personal spaces: Notice what’s on desks, whiteboards, and lockers—this tells you who cares about what, and gives you leverage in conversations.
• Use gentle confrontations first: Many authority figures respond better to a respectful but firm approach than to instant rebellion.
• Don’t forget to rewind: Test a bold answer, then rewind if it closes off useful paths instead of opening them.

2. High-Tension Party or Bar Sequences

Several scenes take place in crowded social venues where alcohol, music, and long-simmering tensions collide. These segments usually combine collectibles with important character beats. To get the most out of them:

• Move systematically through the space, talking to everyone at least once.
• Check coasters, posters, and décor for sketch and photo opportunities.
• When confronting antagonistic characters, consider whether your goal is to humiliate them, expose them, or simply escape safely.

Your choices in these sequences often feed directly into later investigative scenes, so pay close attention to overheard conversations and offhand comments.

3. Emergency and Disaster Scenes

As in earlier entries, Reunion’s climax centers on chaotic, time-sensitive emergencies. These combine environmental puzzles with moral choice. Apply the following mindset:

• Establish safety first: If a character is trapped or injured, stabilize them before chasing optional actions.
• Scan for tools: Fire extinguishers, valves, crowbars, and masks can all be essential; check corners and utility rooms.
• Sequence matters: Doing actions in a safe order can prevent collateral damage. Use rewinds to test sequences if things go wrong.

These scenes dramatize the series’ core question about whether Max’s powers can truly fix everything, or whether some loss is unavoidable. Your path through the chaos strongly shapes the tone of the epilogue.

Ending Paths and How to Aim for the Outcome You Want

Without detailing every individual ending variant, we can group outcomes by their emotional trajectory and the broader consequences for Arcadia Bay’s extended community.

1. Hopeful / Reconciliatory Outcomes

These endings emphasize healing and accountability. To aim for them, try to:

• Preserve as many lives as possible, even when it requires risk or sacrifice.
• Share critical evidence with people who can act responsibly, rather than hoarding secrets.
• Encourage open conversations about trauma and guilt instead of shutting them down.
• Maintain strong bonds between Max, Chloe, and key allies by consistently choosing supportive dialogue.

Expect epilogues in which characters still carry scars from past events, but have a clear path forward and a sense that the cycle of harm has finally been disrupted.

2. Cynical or Fragmented Outcomes

If you prioritize short-term safety, concealment, or revenge, you may drift toward darker conclusions:

• Allowing crucial evidence to disappear or be destroyed.
• Letting antagonists walk free or be punished in extrajudicial ways.
• Fracturing relationships through repeated lies or abandonment.

These endings don’t necessarily kill everyone, but they leave Max and Chloe emotionally isolated, skeptical that their interventions truly helped. The narrative leans into the idea that power without transparency can corrode even good intentions.

3. Bittersweet Middle Ground

Many players will land somewhere in between—saving some people while losing others, doing the best they can with partial information. These outcomes often feel the most canonically Life is Strange:

• Some secrets are exposed, others remain buried for pragmatic reasons.
• Relationships evolve instead of resetting to a tidy, idealized state.
• Max and Chloe accept that they cannot undo every mistake, but they remain committed to each other and to trying again.

Because Reunion is designed to acknowledge the events of previous games, it intentionally resists the idea of a completely untroubled “golden” ending. Instead, it offers layered epilogues that reflect the intertwined consequences of your choices across multiple timelines.⁵

FAQ: Life is Strange: Reunion