The Closing Shift Endings Guide

In The Closing Shift, the psychological horror game developed by Chilla's Art, the protagonist faces a terrifying confrontation with her stalker on the final night. Regardless of which escape path the player chooses on the fifth shift, the game does not offer a truly happy resolution for the young coffee shop employee.

Overview of the Final Night

During Shift #5 (12/17), the unnamed protagonist discovers that the deranged man who has been stalking her—whom she initially met when returning a dropped cellphone—has been secretly living inside the storage room above the coffee shop. After realizing the danger and completing her closing tasks, the stalker suddenly lunges at the front door. At this point, the player must choose one of three escape routes, leading to three distinct endings.

Ending #1: The Storage Area Escape

If the player decides to make a run for it by attempting to leave through the storage area directly, the outcome is swift and fatal.

• The Choice: Fleeing through the primary storage exit without proper preparation or alternate routing.
• The Outcome: The stalker quickly rushes up to the protagonist and attacks her with a metal pipe, likely killing her.

Ending #2: The Vent Escape

If the player chooses to escape by navigating through the building's ventilation system, a screwdriver becomes the key tool for survival, though it ultimately leads to an ambiguous and terrifying fate.

• The Choice: Finding a screwdriver lying on the stalker's living blanket in the hidden room, using it to unscrew the vent cover, and crawling outside.
• The Outcome: After escaping the building, the protagonist discovers the corpse of Hasaku (the private investigator) lying in the snow. She grabs her car keys from the ground, rushes to her vehicle, and drives back to her apartment. However, after parking, she turns around to find the stalker already waiting inside her car. He lunges at her, leaving her ultimate fate unknown.

Ending #3: The Rooftop and Apartment Ambush

Choosing to fight back and escape via the rooftop provides a momentary sense of justice, but it ultimately culminates in a chilling recreation of classic psychological horror tropes.

• The Choice: Climbing to the rooftop via the storage closet ladder, discovering Hasaku's body in the snow, and dropping a heavy cinder block directly onto the stalker's head.
• The Outcome: Believing her attacker is dealt with, the protagonist rushes to the nearest police station. When officers return with her to the coffee shop, both the stalker's body and Hasaku's corpse have completely vanished. Dismissing her claims as a prank or imagination, the police drop her back home. Later, while watching the news, her television malfunctions. When she steps outside to look for her phone near her car, she retrieves it and heads back inside. Unbeknownst to her, the stalker slipped into her apartment. A brief cutscene shows him opening a closet door before ambushing her, leaving her fate once again unknown.

Summary of Outcomes

• The Closing Shift stands out as one of Chilla's Art titles where the protagonist does not secure a safe, definitive victory in any path.
• Inspiration for the final twist in Ending #3—where the stalker ambushes the protagonist inside her home—was drawn from the Japanese TV series Horror Accidental, specifically the episode "Beneath the Wheel."