12 Minutes is a mind-bending point-and-click adventure game that follows a man stuck in a time loop trying desperately to break it. 12 Minutes features excellent performances by James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe as the main cast, but Dafoe’s character gives the player the most grief throughout the entire game as he plays the cop who unexpectedly arrives at the player’s apartment at 12:05 on the dot each loop. The cop’s goal is simple: to rob the couple of an expensive pocket watch that the wife is secretly hiding inside their apartment; but, depending on the player’s actions, he can be thwarted.
How to Kill the Cop in 12 Minutes
There are a few ways to take care of the cop in 12 Minutes, but unfortunately, killing him is an intricate task that requires a little bit of planning. He’s impossible to kill head head-on with the main character's fists or with the knife that’s conveniently left sitting on the kitchen counter as he’ll counter any attack and reset the loop. He also can’t be killed without resetting the loop if attacked while he’s putting zip-ties on your wife. Essentially, in a one-on-one fight, Dafoe’s cop wins every time.
RELATED: Twelve Minutes' Creative Director Talks About The Game's Time Loops
To incapacitate and kill the cop when he comes into the apartment in search of the pocket watch, the player needs to electrocute him using the faulty switch in the bedroom. In order to do that, he needs to enter the room and touch the switch. Luckily, if he enters any dark room, the first thing he always does is turn on the lights. He won’t go into the bedroom, however, unless the wife is passed out on the bed after being given sleeping pills.
To do that, grab a mug, fill it with water, and then combine it with the pills in the medicine cabinet. Give that to your wife at the start of the loop and she’ll pass out. To make sure that the cop is electrocuted when he touches the light switch, turn the lights in the bedroom on and receive a small jolt, then turn them off. The next time the lights turn on, they’ll give the person touching the switch a much bigger shock.
Set all that up, and then wait in the closet on the left side of the main room for the cop to enter at 12:05. He’ll walk into the bedroom to check on the unconscious wife, try to turn on the light, and then pass out. It’s important to note that he’ll wake up after a few seconds, so the player will need to move fast in order to incapacitate him. He can be killed from here either with the knife on the kitchen counter, the knife in his pocket, or the gun that’s carrying; however, killing him doesn’t do much to move the story forward as he has key pieces of 12 Minutes' mystery.
If the player decides to tie him up, they can get more information out of him if they shoot him in the arm or leg, but he’ll eventually bleed out and die if he’s left for too long or shot in the arm or leg a second time.
12 Minutes is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Game Pass.