The Outer Worlds endings aren’t going to be exactly the same for every player. It is an open RPG after all, which means that your choices will change how the finale plays out for you. But how do you get the good ending in The Outer Worlds? What about the bad ending? There’s even a hidden alternate ending you can get that involves the sun and alternate endings for each of the “good” and “bad” endings. Regardless of your morale compass, here’s how to get all the endings in The Outer Worlds.
How to get The Outer Worlds good ending (save Phineas)
The “good endings” in The Outer Worlds aren’t quite morally good, but they will likely be the one people are looking for and would consider the “good endings.” To achieve this, help Phineas out on his mission by doing what he tells you to do for the critical path. This includes meeting his contact in Monarch, getting the Dimethyl Sulfoxide, and more. If you only help him, Phineas will lead you to Tartarus and you’ll help him take down the Board.
This level will take you through Tartarus as you gun down Board soldiers and make your way to Chairman Rockwell. You can kill him if you’d like or leave him. It doesn’t quite matter as it only changes a bit of the ending cinematic. You’ll then go fight a giant robot and confront Sophia Akande. Destroy the robot and the confront Sophia, who is immediately hostile. Grab the key off her corpse and then free Phineas.
There is also another slight variation of this ending. Make sure your Persuade is at 100 or your Intimidate is at 85, your Heavy Weapons is at 55, and your 2-Handed Melee is at 85 (with the Dumb stat) and:
- Your Lie is at 100 or your Persuade and Science are at 85
- Your Intimidate is at 100 or your Lie and Hack are at 85
Pick those options when they pop up and you can tell Sophia on the monitor that you’ve hacked her security and will drain the oxygen from her room or that she should be scared. She will flee the game and you won’t have to fight the last fight with the robot.
The ending cutscene is a montage of what you’ve done played over stills. This is where your choices will “matter” but it doesn’t change what you do on Tartarus. For example, leaving Rockwell alive means he can be your puppet in the last cutscene but leaving him alive puts you in that position. Following Phineas to the end may not end well for everyone, but most of the last scenes telling the future have more of a positive tinge to them.
Watch The Outer Worlds good ending
How to get The Outer Worlds bad ending (save Sophia)
Again, these endings aren’t quite “bad” since there is no mortality meter in the game and it doesn’t attach morality to these missions. But instead of helping Phineas, you can choose to turn him in almost right off the bat and start working for the Board instead of against them. Once you touch down on the Groundbreaker, go speak to Udom Bedford, the man with the mustache that you had to speak to to get your ship ungrounded. You’ll have an option to turn in Phineas here. Do this and it’ll take you down an alternate path of the same game but you’ll be working for the other side instead. You can also turn in Phineas to Udom for most of the game (before he “disappears” in the waste management area”) and then again near the end when Sophia Akande messages you on your intercom in your ship as you try to return the Dimethyl Sulfoxide.
Once you start helping the Board, they’ll be able to capture Phineas. If they do, Tartarus is the same level but you’ll just fight different enemies. He will have freed the prisoners and that will be your enemy instead of the Board. It is the same level except they will have killed Chairman Rockwell as part of the riot.
There is also another variation on the bad ending. Similar to the other nonviolent ending, you need your Persuade and Science at 85 or your Lie at 100 with the Dumb stat and:
- Your Persuade at 100 and Persuade and Medical at 85
- Your Intimidate and Handguns at 85 and your Intimidate at 100 or your Persuade and Medical at 85
Pick those options when they pop up on the end screen with the green monitor. From here, Phineas will realize his failures and take his own life. This bypasses the robot fight and having to kill Phineas yourself.
These play out the same as the “good” ending except that it swaps Phineas and Sophia. You’ll end up confronting him and saving her this time after you kill the same robot. The ending scene will play out similarly but it will have a slightly more pessimistic, corporate tinge to it.
Both endings, not counting the details surrounding each faction, are pretty similar and merely swap out each faction. So in case you have beaten the game with Phineas on your good side and think you have missed a whole different ending, you haven’t. The changes are more along the journey, rather than at the end.
Watch The Outer Worlds bad ending
How to get The Outer Worlds alternate ending
The alternate ending is probably the easiest one to get but it’s also the most hidden. You can do this if you help the Board capture Phineas or if you help Phineas yourself near the end of the game. Once you make your way to the Hope in the Kept Secret But Not Forgotten mission, you will be tasked with skipping the massive ship. You’ll come across this console in the picture below (which will be marked with an objective marker if you have the quest active).
Make sure to tell Ada that you are ready to skip the Hope and then say that you want to skip it yourself. Ada will advise against that. You need the “Dumb” stat (which you get from dialing down your intelligence during the character creator in the beginning) to be able to skip it yourself because you “know numbers real good.” If you do this correctly, you’ll sail right into the big red ball of fire and gas in the depths of space. This nets you the Sunburn trophy or achievement but will not get you the ones for completing the game, despite the credits popping up.
