> Endings Guide

The game's ending structure is shaped by your investigation depth across 52 websites, your interactions with the 4 rival NPCs, which threats you activate (or avoid), and a final decision point in the climax. The branching structure rewards thorough exploration — the more clues you collect and connections you make, the more ending options become available.
✅ Verified Endings (Confirmed)
The following endings have been confirmed through completed playthroughs and documented reliably:
> Debt Cleared
Status: ✅ Verified
The most commonly reported ending. You collect all puzzle pieces across the deep web sites, navigate the investigation chain to its conclusion, and clear your debt. The specific outcome depends on which clues you followed and which NPCs you allied with.
Known Conditions:
- Must complete the core investigation chain (tracking down the organization behind the debt)
- Interacting with CryptChat NPCs and following their clue chains improves your ending outcome
- Surviving all 8 threat encounters without being caught
> The Bomb Maker Ending
Status: ✅ Verified
If you visit the Bomb Maker's website and engage with his content throughout the game, the ending route changes significantly. Bomb-related encounters escalate through the night, and the final sequence involves his traps directly.
Known Conditions:
- Must visit the Bomb Maker's site and survive at least one bomb encounter
- Interacting with his hosted pages unlocks additional dialogue paths
- Do not attempt this on your first playthrough — the bombs add significant complexity
> Failure Endings
Status: ✅ Verified
Multiple failure states trigger unique game-over screens and provide information that can help in future playthroughs. These are not "you lose" — they are narrative branches that acknowledge your specific failure cause.
Known Triggers:
- Caught by a threat too many times (resource depletion)
- Failing a critical hacking minigame at a key moment
- Allowing the rival NPCs to outpace you in the race for puzzle pieces
- Timer expiration on a bomb you failed to find
🔄 Community Reported (Partially Confirmed)
The following endings have been reported by multiple community members but have not yet been fully documented with step-by-step conditions. We include them here so you can work toward them and report your findings:
> Cletus Alliance Ending
Status: 🔄 Community Reported
Some players report that consistently assisting Cletus with his meth operation throughout the game leads to a unique ending where he assists you during the final confrontation. The exact trust threshold and trigger conditions are still being mapped.
Reported Conditions:
- Must assist Cletus every time he appears (have meth ready)
- May require refusing to help him at least once early to unlock a different branch
- Mutually exclusive with some other ending paths
> DOS Coin Collector Ending
Status: 🔄 Community Reported
Multiple community members report that accumulating a high DOS Coin count — estimated at 500+ — unlocks additional dialogue options during the final decision point. The exact threshold and whether this is a separate ending or an ending modifier is unconfirmed.
Reported Conditions:
- Focus on mining VirtMesh users for passive DOS generation
- Sell every downloadable file and website link to NPCs
- Avoid spending DOS on non-essential upgrades
> Rival Elimination Ending
Status: 🔄 Community Reported
The 4 rival NPCs can be sabotaged or eliminated through the CryptChat system. Some players report that successfully removing all rivals from the competition unlocks a unique ending path where you are the sole remaining investigator. The specific sabotage sequence is still being documented.
Reported Conditions:
- Must use CryptChat to buy sabotage options against each rival
- Requires significant DOS investment
- Some rivals are harder to eliminate than others
Known Ending Conditions
Based on the released game and community documentation, these specific factors are confirmed to affect your ending route:
- Investigation Depth: The game contains 52 explorable websites — 26 always available plus timed and permadead pages. Which sites you visit and how thoroughly you comb through their content directly determines which endings are reachable. Missing critical pages — particularly the Reflect-related sites in the deeper tiers — can lock you out of primary endings entirely.
- NPC Relationships: Key NPC relationships branch outcomes. Assisting Cletus by providing meth changes how certain encounters play out late-game. Visiting the Bomb Maker's site and engaging with his content unlocks additional dialogue paths and potential secret ending routes.
- Survival Record: How many times you are caught by threats influences the final state of your run. Multiple captures erode your resources and can gate certain ending paths that require clean records or specific resource thresholds.
- DOS Coins Collected: Scattered across various deep web sites and earned through minigames, DOS Coins function as both a collectible and a narrative key. The number you accumulate before the final decision point may unlock additional options or alternative resolutions during the climax.
- Final Decision Point: The game's climax presents a direct choice informed by everything you learned across all 52 sites, every NPC interaction, and your survival track record. This moment determines which primary or secret ending you reach.
- Bomb Maker Activation: A binary state — visiting his website or not — that creates entirely separate ending branches. This is the single most impactful choice in the game.
Replay Strategy
Because some ending routes require mutually exclusive choices — particularly the Cletus assistance path versus refusing him, and the Bomb Maker activation versus avoidance — you will need multiple playthroughs to see everything. Here is a recommended replay plan:
- First playthrough: Play blind. Make the choices that feel right. See what ending you naturally reach. This is the most authentic experience.
- Second playthrough: Activate the Bomb Maker. Visit his site early and engage with his content throughout. See how the ending changes with bombs in the mix.
- Third playthrough: Focus on DOS Coin collection and NPC alliances. Sabotage rivals. Build relationships. See which paths open with maximum resources and connections.
- Fourth playthrough: Speed-run mode. Skip optional content. See what happens when you rush the core investigation without exploring the full web.
Tips for Unlocking Endings
- Explore all 52 sites: Before committing to a final decision, visit every accessible deep web site. The page that contains the clue you need for a specific ending might not look important on first glance — dig into every link and check every source code.
- Decide on Cletus early: The choice to assist Cletus with his meth request comes relatively early and has late-game consequences. Save before this decision if you want to explore both branches.
- Revisit old sites: Some pages change or reveal new information after you have made progress elsewhere. Check back on early sites after major discoveries — especially the forums and personal blogs.
- Track your DOS Coin count: Keep a running tally of DOS Coins as you explore. Missing even a few can affect which final options are presented to you.
- Survive consistently: Practice your defensive routines. Being caught at a critical moment can lock you out of the ending you are working toward by draining resources you will need later.
- Use the motel's motion sensors: Place them at the left end, right end, and Lucas' back door for reliable threat detection. Getting caught wastes time and resources.
- Plan multiple playthroughs: Some endings require mutually exclusive choices — particularly the Cletus assistance path versus refusing him, and Bomb Maker activation versus avoidance. Plan to play through the game multiple times to see everything.

For the core mechanics and first-hour survival strategies that make any ending run possible, start with the Beginner Guide. For specific puzzle solutions and hacking minigame strategies, see the Puzzle Guide.

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