Keep Calm

You're going it alone. Independent. Admirable. Possibly foolish...

The content below contains spoilers from one or more of the games. Read at your own risk!

Keep Calm is one of the basic gameplay mechanics in The Dark Pictures Anthology.

Overview

Keep Calm occurs when the protagonist must be unnoticed. The segments are made as heartbeats and require the player to press the correct button when the moving line touches a heartbeat space, which keeps their character still and quiet. If the player presses the button too early or too late, their character gives away their location. Failing a segment has various consequences, ranging from the loss of a valuable object to the protagonist's death.

In Shared Story, both players do the Keep Calm segments if the characters they are controlling are next to each other. If one of the players fail the segment, the failure counts for both players, though some segments have consequences only for the player who is directly responsible for failing it.

The speed of the segments, the number of buttons, and the frequency of clicks are determined by the difficulty setting. The number of segments never changes, and also differs in each installment.

Season One

Man of Medan

Chapter	Characters	Conditions	Segments	Success	Failure
Chinese Market	Joe Charlie	Always happens	One	No consequences
Intrusion (Theatrical Cut)	Conrad	Always happens (Singleplayer/Movie Night) Alex does not take Danny hostage (Shared Story)		Conrad is able to choose whether to escape on the speedboat or attack Junior	Junior catches Conrad
Trapped	Conrad/Fliss Julia	Conrad barricades the door and completes the QTE and continues pushing the table/Fliss barricades the door and completes the QTE Conrad/Fliss distracts the pirates and hides instead of replacing the desk in front of the vent		Fliss stays with the group	Junior catches Fliss
Finding Friends	Brad	Brad approaches the final bathroom stall		Brad continues to explore the area	Brad is forced to move to the next area and loses the gas mask if he found it
Glamor Girl (Theatrical Cut)	Conrad	Conrad survives and completes more QTEs than his pursuer before reaching the office and chooses to hide		The sequence continues as if Conrad chose to run	Conrad dies, unless he has the knife, in which case he can attack his pursuer
Depths	Alex/Brad/Fliss Fliss/Julia/Brad	Always happens		The protagonists can explore the room and find a secret, as well as Julia's ring if she accepted Alex's proposal	The protagonists cannot explore the room
Junior				The protagonists are be able to choose whether to run or continue hiding	The protagonists lose the rebreather if they found it
		The protagonists successfully completed the first segment and continued hiding		The protagonists keep the rebreather if they found it	The protagonists need to complete QTEs to keep the rebreather if they found it
Matters of the Heart (Theatrical Cut)	Alex	Always happens		No consequences
The segments in Chinese Market and Matters of the Heart are the only ones that have no consequences if failed. Conrad is the only protagonist who can die by failing a segment. In his case, the segment in Glamor Girl. In Shared Story, Glamor Girl's segment is the only one where only one player has to stay calm while both players are in the same room, as Fliss/Brad won't be aware Conrad is nearby. Before the update, the speed of segments often depended on the situation - the tenser it was, the faster the heartbeat went.

Little Hope

Chapter	Characters	Conditions	Segments	Success	Failure
Family	Anthony Tanya	Always happens	One	No consequences
Off Track	Andrew			Andrew can explore the shack and find a secret and the gun	Andrew cannot explore the shack
Another Way	Daniel			Daniel can explore behind the counter and find a secret	Daniel cannot explore behind the counter
Lost	Angela/Andrew John			No consequences
Pursued	Daniel Taylor	The protagonists choose to hide		The protagonists keep the knife if they found it	The protagonist who failed the segment loses the knife if they have it
Surrounded	Daniel	Daniel chooses to escape		Daniel needs to complete two QTEs to escape the Impaled Demon	Daniel needs to complete three QTEs to escape the Impaled Demon
Reflections	Taylor	Taylor says nothing or tells Daniel/John to not let her go		Taylor escapes the Hanged/Burned Demon	The Hanged/Burned Demon kills Taylor
Ruined	Daniel	Daniel says nothing or tells Andrew he needs help		Daniel engages in combat with the Impaled Demon	The Impaled Demon kills Daniel
Besides the difficulty setting, the speed of the segments is determined by how many locked traits the protagonist performing the segment has. The segments in Family and Lost are the only segments that have no consequences if failed. Taylor and Daniel are the only protagonists who can die by failing a segment. In their cases, segments in Reflections and Ruined, respectively.

House of Ashes

Chapter	Characters	Conditions	Segments	Success	Failure
Cursed	Balathu Kurum	Always happens	Two	No consequences
The Temple	Jason Nick	The protagonists choose to go around the rubble		If Merwin is alive, he survives to the end of the chase	If Merwin is alive, the vampire kills him
Breaking Up	Eric Rachel	Rachel chooses to hide		Dar isn't alerted to the protagonists	Dar is alerted to the protagonists and can shoot Eric if he doesn't immediately cut the rope
The Truce	Nick Salim	Salim or Nick fails a QTE before reaching the vampire		The vampire runs away	The vampire attacks the protagonist who failed the segment, giving the other protagonist a chance to distract them and injuring whoever it attacks if they fail QTEs
The Ancient One	Eric/Nick Nick/Rachel	Nick chooses to shut the door and both protagonists complete the QTE to hold it		The Ancient One leaves	The Ancient One attacks the protagonist who failed the segment
The Vault	Nick	Salim doesn't inspect the hatching cocoon and Nick chooses to go left or does nothing/Nick is injured		Nick doesn't need to complete QTEs if he chooses to retreat or does nothing	Nick must complete QTEs if he choose to retreat or does nothing, and dies if he fails them without the UV wand
		Nick chooses to advance	Three	Nick survives, though he subsequently is attacked by The Ancient One	The Ancient One kills Nick, though he dies as well
This is the first installment in which failing a Keep Calm segment can result in the death of a supporting character and an antagonist, namely Merwin and The Ancient One. Nick is the only protagonist who can die by failing a segment. In his case, the segment in The Vault if chose to advance. Nick's segment in The Vault while mining the motherlode is the only one in House of Ashes with three segments instead of two. The Keep Calm in Cursed is the only segment in the game that always happens, while the rest are optional.

The Devil in Me

Chapter	Characters	Conditions	Segments	Success	Failure
The World's Fair Hotel	Marie Jeff	Always happens	Two	No consequences
Cigarettes (Curator's Cut)	Charlie		One	Mark and Kate finish their conversation	Mark and Kate's conversation ends prematurely
Mannequins	Mark Kate			Mark and Kate have a chance to attack Jamie and decrease their relationship	Mark and Kate don't have a chance to attack Jamie and decrease their relationship
Workshop	Mark	Mark successfully hid both times	Three	Mark can continue exploring the workshop	Mark is caught by Du'Met, ending the chapter
Waste Disposal	Charlie	Always happens (Singleplayer/Movie Night) Charlie gets on the conveyor belt before the other player finishes Morellos (Shared Story)	Two	Charlie survives the chapter	Du'Met kills Charlie
Chase	Kate	Kate is alive	Six	Kate gets to choose to stay or run	Kate loses her crystal and must complete extra QTEs to avoid being grabbed by Du'Met
	Kate/Jamie	Kate/Jamie chooses to hide and doesn't throw their item to distract Du'Met	Two	Kate/Jamie evades Du'Met	Kate/Jamie is grabbed by Du'Met
Maze	Erin/Kate/Jamie	Always happens	One	The girls evade Du'Met	Another Keep Calm segment begins
		The previous Keep Calm was failed			If Erin is alive and has her microphone, she loses it
Cliffside	Charlie/Mark	Always happens		If Charlie is alive, he survives the scene	If Charlie is alive, Du'Met kills him
Charlie is the only protagonist who can die by failing a segment. In his case, the segments in Waste Disposal and Cliffside. Kate's crystal can be used before a Keep Calm to make the segment easier.

Trivia

• Keep Calm is analogous to Don't Move from Until Dawn, where the protagonist had to stay still so they won't be noticed, and Don't Breathe from The Quarry, where the protagonist had to hold their breath to avoid detection.
• Keep Calm segments are similar to hiding segments, except Keep Calm segments take place during cutscenes while hiding segments take place while the player is exploring.

Gallery

Season One

Man of Medan

Joe and Charlie hiding from the sergeant in Chinese Market

Conrad hiding from the pirates in Intrusion

The protagonists hiding from Junior in Trapped

Brad hiding from Junior in Finding Friends

Conrad hiding from the Sailor Girl (Fliss/Brad) in Glamor Girl

The protagonists hiding from Olson as he panics in Depths

The protagonists hiding from Olson as he searches for them in Junior

The protagonists as they keep hiding from Olson in Junior

Alex hiding from Olson in Matters of the Heart

Little Hope

Anthony sneaking up on James in Family

Tanya eavesdropping on Megan in Family

Andrew inspecting the shack in Off Track

Daniel hiding in Another Way

Andrew, John, and Angela hiding from Vince in Lost

Daniel and Taylor hiding from the Hanged/Burned Demon in Pursued

Daniel hiding from the Impaled Demon in Surrounded

Taylor hiding from her demon in Reflections

Daniel hiding from his demon in Ruined

House of Ashes

Balathu hiding in Cursed

Jason hiding from a vampire in The Temple

Rachel hiding from Dar in Breaking Up

Nick hiding from a vampire in The Truce

Eric hiding from The Ancient One in The Ancient One

Nick hiding from a vampire in The Vault

Nick planting the mines on the motherlode quietly in The Vault

The Devil in Me

Jeff and Marie hiding from Holmes in The World's Fair Hotel

Charlie eavesdropping on Kate and Mark in Cigarettes

Kate and Mark hiding from Jamie in Mannequins

Mark hiding from Du'Met in Workshop

Charlie hiding from Du'Met in Waste Disposal

Kate hiding from Du'Met inside a locker in Chase

Erin hiding from Du'Met in Maze

Charlie hiding from Du'Met in Cliffside