Shift at Midnight: How to Unlock All Three Endings

Every run of Story Mode in Shift at Midnight ends with the same problem: your pet needs surgery, and the game checks whether you can pay for it. Which of the three endings you see depends on two things only — whether you call Sheriff Clyde Dawson after Shift 12, and whether you have at least $250 in personal funds when the veterinarian asks for payment after Shift 13.

Quick answer: For the True Ending, do not call Clyde and reach the vet check with at least $250. Call Clyde to get Grave Decision (pet lives, Clyde dies). Refuse the call while under $250 to get Empty Home (Clyde lives, pet dies).

The two choices that decide the ending

The vet raises the surgery after you finish Shift 10, setting the target at $250 to be paid within three days. Personal funds are tracked separately from your store’s quota and your store-shopping balance, so buying weapons or traps never touches the money you need for surgery. Only two inputs then branch the story.

• The call after Shift 12 decides who is put at risk. Calling Clyde guarantees the pet’s surgery is paid, but locks you into Grave Decision. Refusing the call protects Clyde.
• Your personal balance at the final vet check decides whether the pet lives when you have refused the call.

Note: refusing the call does not automatically save everyone. If you do not call Clyde but still finish below $250, you get Empty Home rather than the True Ending.

True Ending: keep both the pet and Clyde alive

This is the demanding route because you have to fund the surgery yourself. Personal income each shift is roughly a $10 base wage plus about 10 percent of store revenue, minus penalties for killing real humans. The $250 target counts only these personal funds, not the earlier medicine bills you paid along the way.

You do not always need the full $250 the moment the choice appears. The final Shift 13 payout is added before the vet performs the check, so a small gap can still close on the last night. Runs have finished the surgery at $252 and $257, leaving only a few dollars afterward. A large deficit will not be rescued by one night, though.

Grave Decision: save the pet, lose Clyde

Take this route when you are far short of $250 and only Shift 13 remains but you still want the pet to live. At the end of Shift 12, call Clyde. He arrives to cover the surgery, but after leaving the store the Dentist attacks and kills him. The pet survives, paid for entirely by Clyde, and your own balance does not matter.

Empty Home: save Clyde, lose the pet

Reach the Shift 12 decision with less than $250 and choose not to call Clyde. Finish Shift 13 still below the surgery cost, and the vet cannot operate. Clyde survives because you never called him, but the pet dies. For this ending you do not need to lose money on purpose by killing humans — just start the final days with a naturally low balance and play out the run.

The final night sequence and how to confirm the ending

All three endings share the same climax. Early on Shift 13 several people attack the shop and the Dentist arrives soon after. Shoot him when you get the chance, and you are taken to a strange area where you run forward until you hit a dead end. Clyde then appears and takes down the Dentist in a cutscene.

The ending screen tells you which branch you landed on. The True Ending shows the pet alive after a successful surgery with Clyde still living; Grave Decision holds a funeral for Clyde while the pet survives; Empty Home states the surgery cost more than you had, with Clyde alive but the pet gone. In the True Ending and Grave Decision the save then moves into post-story play and the pet can join future shifts.

Common mistakes that block the endings

The biggest failure point is killing Clyde during his earlier visits. He stops by the store a few times across your shifts, and he can appear as a doppelganger. Check him carefully before firing, because killing the human Clyde removes the option to call him before the final day and can lock you out of the endings entirely. Do not assume he is a doppelganger just because it is his third visit, as his visits can play out differently between runs.

The other mistake is misreading how the money works. Completing the store’s quota does not guarantee the True Ending, and buying weapons or traps does not spend from personal funds. Only your personal balance settles the surgery.

How many runs you need for all three

Because the conditions conflict, the reliable plan is three separate Story Mode outcomes. Do the True Ending first since it has the strictest money requirement, then the other two, which only depend on the Clyde call.

If you would rather not replay everything, make a backup copy of your save right before the Shift 12 decision. Reload it after each ending to try the next branch, keeping in mind that save-restore behavior can vary by platform.