The Tutorial: Basics Of Traits, Choices, And Endings
The Tutorial doesn't label it's endings, and you can't see a flowchart of it like you can in the main game. If it did have those things, there would be eight endings, and each character would get four of them. If eight sounds like a lot this is because the same events from two different perspectives is two different endings.
Each character in the tutorial has only one trait: The human can be hostile, which causes them to kill the demon. The demon can be wicked, which causes them to kill the human.
Here's a flowchart of the tutorial, laid out the same way I will for the game proper later on and with fun made-up nicknames for all the endings. I know that the tutorial's simple enough you probably don't need one, but at worst it could help you read the later one if you want, and at best it'll help you get around the way the game thinks of endings.
Each top branch from of a node is happens if the trait is turned on, and each bottom one happens if the trait is turned off.
(Though you could just as easily swap the human and demon dolls since they make their choice at the same time.)
Hidden Traits:
You have to witness a trait's choice from the perspective of the character who makes it to unlock the ability to tinker with it, or even see that it exists. However, traits exist even when you can't see them!
In the actual game, each trait has a default configuration that causes it (until you discover it) to be either always on, or always off.
In the tutorial it fudges things so that, instead of having a consistent default configuration, the other doll will always pick the opposite choice as you, ensuring you can't get the worst or best endings without causing them deliberately.
Getting Unstuck:
Okay, so that shouldn't be too complicated to understand in therms of the very simple tutorial, but if you're looking for a way to use this to unstick yourself from the main game and don't want to have to read spoilers to do it, here's how you weaponize this information in the game proper:
The most important thing takeaway is that you can cluster traits together into groups that are the results of the same events, from different perspectives. If you're stuck, try getting the endings you've already seen with lead roles who you've only seen be the side cast in those events. At worst you can probably pick up another ending, maybe understand why things happened like they did. At best you may find that the ending you were getting as once character only happens under the default configuration of a different character's hidden trait, and you can get new endings for both by changing the new trait you've discovered!
The Cast, Their Traits, And Their Quirks
Here, we start getting into spoilers. Still, not all traits are created equal so I'll still use spoiler tags on some.
The HeroThe Hero is the last character to enter the sequence of events. When playing from his perspective, a fair bit can happen between the others before the curtains open. However, his choices still hold quite a lot of sway, second only to the Underling's.
The Hero's traits and their effects are as follows:
Dutiful
-Controls whether the Hero kills or runs away from the first demons he meets
-If Hero is your lead role, and you chose not to be dutiful, you'll be given a chance to relapse onto the Dutiful route unless something interrupts you reaching the gate.
-The side cast version of Hero can't change their traits mid-run, so he'll never relapse at the gate. (As below, being Non-Diplomatic still can't make them relapse.)
Default Configuration: On
Diplomatic
-Diplomatic does almost nothing.
-Both Dutiful and Diplomatic are connected to the Gate choice, suggesting they'll both affect which a side cast Hero will choose. This is misleading. A Dutiful Hero has already killed the first demons and is unable to negotiate because he's covered in blood. A Non-Dutiful hero will never relapse onto the Dutiful path, even if you made him Non-Diplomatic too!
-Just before posting this guild, I found an odd behavioural quirk where, if The Underling is the lead role, and some specific conditions are met, The Hero and The Maiden basically disappear into thing air if Diplomatic is disabled. More details in the "quirks" bit.
Default Configuration: Off (Presumed)
H-Heroic
-Controls the Hero's reaction to seeing the Overlord and Maiden talking peacefully.
-If Hero is your main role, turning down the Heroic choice on the Dutiful version of the meeting will, after a few more textboxes, offer you a second chance to be Heroic. The results and endings are totally identical, and the side cast Hero can't do this because he can't change his traits mid-run.
-Other times where the Hero and Overlord fight are not affected by Heroic.
Default Configuration: Off
T-Trusting
-Controls whether the Hero believes the Maiden if she tells him they're not evil.
-This causes the Hero to stick up for her in the town square.
Default Configuration: Off
Quirks
The Hero's has three quirks worth mentioning:
-They have ability to relapse on some of their trait-choices if you make him the lead role, though neither instance will change which ending he gets.
-The Gate choice is the only one labelled with two traits. Like covered before, this doesn't actually cause anything interesting it just makes Diplomatic useless, outside a weird behaviour quirk.
-Diplomatic is used strangely and inconsistently in a one instance: Non-Dutiful Hero, Possessive Overlord, and Disloyal Underling. Lead role Hero is killed by Overlord. Likewise, lead role Overlord kills Hero then is killed by Underling. These happen regardless of Diplomatic! However, if Underling is lead role, Hero must be diplomatic for this to happen. If Hero is not diplomatic, and Underling is lead role, Hero and Maiden vanish into thin air! Overlord dies alone instead.
The MaidenThe default configurations of the other characters funnel The Maiden away from the times she can make choices that matter, but as the other characters become easier for you to control you'll start find ways that she matters, too.
Traits:
Polite
-Controls whether The Maiden calls for help, or talks to the Underling when they meet
-Affects flavour text when meeting the Underling, but no one ever hears the call.
Default Configuration: Off
Obedient
-Controls whether The Maiden goes home if she's told to
Default Configuration: On
R-Resolute
-Controls whether The Maiden takes The Hero with her if fleeing town
-Doesn't control anything else about whether she flees. The word "resolute" is a bit of a misnomer, really
Default Configuration: Off
M-Martyr
-Controls whether The Maiden will save The Overlord from a Heroic Hero
-Does not let her save anyone from anything else
Default Configuration: On
The UnderlingThe Underling is a strange and kind of ironic character, with their traits having little control over their own endings- but massive ramifications for everyone else. They have some weird endings based on non-trait choices that are uncontrollable if they're side cast instead.
Traits:
Hungry
-Controls whether The Underling immediately devours The Maiden.
-Can and will happen unconditionally on every route. The in-game ending charts are lying to you.
Default Configuration: On
Disloyal
-If The Overseer is set to Tyrant (which she will be by default) your first choice will be a Disloyal check. This is not the one that matters, though there are some dialogue changes based on it.
-The time that the Disloyal check matters is if The Underling is awoken by their friends.
Default Configuration: On
Co-Coward
-Controls whether The Underling will fail to assassinate The Overlord
-This is only checked when they would actually succeed if it's disabled
Default Configuration: Off
Ca-Captor
-Changes whether The Underling captures or kill The Maiden should she overhear their plot alone.
-This doesn't change which ending Underling gets afterwards. The ending in question is also one with A and B variants, making it possible to 9/9 The Underling's endings without ever seeing this trait.
Default Configuration: Off
Quirks:
-The Underling has three choices as the lead role that aren't attached to any traits and can't be controlled for side cast Underling at all! The top options all massively derail the plot and immediately cause an ending that's totally unreachable from anyone else's perspective, while the bottom ones are all the choices that side cast Underling will make and continues the story like it would go normally.
-If The Underling is the main cast member, the game will completely skip the Hero's Heroic trait check should you reach the point it would normally happen and you've avoided getting an ending so far. The game will always proceed as if that trait is disabled.
-See The Hero's traits for an inconsistency in the Heroic ending's critera.
The OverlordThe details are spoilers, but Overlord has the least influence over the normal story branches.
Tyrant
-Changes whether Underling is given the day off
-Has no effect on endings
-Disabling this stops Underling being prevented with the purely-cosmetic Disloyal choice, which you may see one the effects of even if Overlord is the lead role.
Default Configuration: On
Antisocial
-Changes whether Overlord tells Maiden to go home
-Only an Obedient Maiden will listen, does nothing otherwise
Default Configuration: On
P-Possessive
-Causes Overlord to try to intervene if Hero wants to bring her home after she's said she likes it more with Overlord.
Default Configuration: Off
This one is a big spoiler. I recommend discovering it yourself!
Forgiving
-Causes The Overlord to forgive The Underling when everyone is stuck in the burning room, triggering the lead role's True End.
-Uniquely, seeing that the choice with this trait exists isn't enough to unlock it. You must choose it to unlock it for future runs.
Default Configuration: Off
The Ending Flowchart (Finally)
There's no spoiler tags inside images of course, so spoilers are obviously no-holds-barred at this point.
Here's my flowchart of every ending. This is based on the state the world at large is in for every character, regardless of who the lead role is. Who the lead role is has no impact except for The Underling's special choices, which side cast underling always declines, and the fact lead role Underling will skip the Heroic check of a Non-Dutiful Hero, causing him and Maiden always to leave the room peacefully. (It also affects whose hidden traits get unlocked of course, but that's not an ending.)
The top branch is what's picked if a trait is enabled, the bottom branch is what's picked if it's disabled or Underling isn't the lead role. However to stop connectors crossing over each other, I had to make three exceptions to this, as labelled by [NO] markers on the top connectors and [YES] markers on the bottom connectors!
(Also, the number and colour of the connector ribbons shows who hasn't gotten an ending yet, and each column's background is faintly coloured to match the character whose choice it is. Both those are mostly because I thought they'd be cute details and aren't need to understand the thing- thank goodness because I do not have it in me to try to make this thing colourblind-accessible after already making its creation way harder than it should have been.)
The cite notes read as follows:
[1] Choice isn't a trait: side cast always picks this option (down)
(This note is attached to the bottom branches of Underling's special choices)
[2] Heroic check skipped if Underling is the lead role: Hero can't backstab Overlord for them
(This note is attached to the odd branch where Underling doesn't follow the rest of the cast.)
[3] The fact that this ending has no non-dutiful variant causes an inconsistency: Maiden walked past bodies, but Hero entered with permission and his sword clean
(This note is attached to the version of the Complacent ending where The Hero didn't kill any demons before reaching the chamber and killing The Overlord and only The Overlord.)
[4] Lead role Underling inconsistency: a Diplomatic check happens before giving a Heroic end, if it fails the game acts like Hero and Maiden both died or left
(This note is attached to the Heroic end, and the Cowardice check that occurs instead if the Hero and Maiden have each either died or left.)
Y'know, if The Underling takes their special choice to kill The Hero instead of deserting, and The Maiden wasn't eaten, then that ending goes down while she and The Overlord are flirting in her chamber. Hell of a first date...
This flowchart was made in Libresprite. Not a great flowchart-making tool in retrospect...
A Mostly-Extraneous Bonus About The Biggest Spoiler Of All
Last chance to look away...
Even if you've seen some of the post-True-Ending, there's more behind doing it with all 41 endings under your belt.
Okay... I think they're gone now. Time for some fun facts about the True Endings, Your Good End, Your Bad End, and Tragedy's End.
Overlord's True End
The reason you had to pick the Merciful option is to prevent the "first true ending" dialogue from colliding with the "I want to save them" if you turned down OTE and then did MTE right after.
Depending on how early you get to OTE, that first true ending dialogue can change! Tragedy will give her normal dialogue, then add onto it:
For a low-but-imperfect ending count, Tragedy will say:
"oh! Come to think of it, you reached the first true ending unusually quickly. i'm impressed!"
"but there's no need to rush. please take your time exploring all the horrible possibilities!"I haven't measured the exact count, it's a pain to try to since every test takes a true reset but I think it's sub-9, the point where Your True End will still impossible if you immediately do MTE after.
There's a second set of hidden dialogue if you get OTE as your third ending- a perfect run, only stopping to get the options to disable Dutiful and Hungry first.
"...hm? actually, it seems like you found the optimal path to the first true end!"
"either you're extremely lucky or you know exactly what you're doing."
Through making a savestate from the menu during the choice whether or not to take retribution, then backing it up in your files and doing a true reset, then restoring and loading that savestate, it is possible to illicitly get OTE as your first ending. There is no special dialogue for this. Since your ending count is very low but not exactly three you will get the first set of dialogue- you certainly did get there unusually quickly!
Maiden's True EndAs you should know if you're reading this, you'll get the choice to answer The Maiden's prayers, and shoot for Your Good Ending. You can choose to get more ending, but only if you don't have 41 already. You must fight Tragedy when doing MTE with all 41 endings.
If your first MTE is the point you unlock the 41st ending, you will not get the Letter Collector achievement from it. This can be fixed by getting any other Bad Ending as long as you still have all letters. This lets you get that achievement after Tragedy's End- even as your last one, if you want.
The optimal route to get here is:
-Underling, any ending
-Hero, any ending
-Overlord, Turn off Dutiful and Heroic, be social, possessive, and merciful (bonus dialogue!)
-Maiden's True End
This allows you to challenge the final boss with so little HP you get instakilled in one shot. Speaking of...
TIME TO FIGHT GOD
Phase 1 of the fight is lets you attack/defend to no effect. Tragedy does not fight back. Giving up after trying one, or trying both (you will not be prompted to give up after trying the second, the transition is automatic) will send you to phase 2.
Rematching Tragedy after getting Your Bad End at least once will skip to phase 2 automatically- skipping past both the little ??? dialogue choices and phase 1 itself.
Your EndingsWhen fighting Tragedy, each move that doesn't send her reeling deals one damage for every character who hasn't sent her reeling already this fight, plus an extra one for every wrong attack choice that she countered. Since summoning is required and doesn't send her reeling, you're going to take 10 damage.
Getting Your Bad End can put the game in a strange state where the fight doesn't end properly and doing True Reset from the menu (requires doing a normal one once before) triggers, instead of the tutorial, a broken version of phase 2 where you have 0/0 HP and broken visuals. Attempting to Summon plays the respective Summon cutscene normally and that character to appear, but then you die before Tragedy attacks with a bad ending. This skips the tutorial and makes your save count as having gotten Your Bad End before from the start of the game for the purposes of skipping to phase 2 when you do MTE, but doesn't unlock the ability to trigger the Tragedy fight from the bad end chart. I think this happens if your latest YBE was caused by the 4 HP instakill on the first summon, but I haven't thoroughly tested it.
This is what the Tragedy Storage bug looks like:
Note that the music playing is the character select music, not Requiem's boss theme.
Defeating Tragedy triggers the credits, and gives Your Good End. You will have to exit the theatre unless you have 41 endings, in which case you can instead get...
Tragedy's End
Tragedy's End is a bonus scene caused by getting Your Good End with all 41 endings- aka all letters. You will be given the choice to Exit the Theater like normal, or to ask Tragedy's story. Tragedy reveals that The Maiden is based on her experiences, ??? reveals that they're not your self-insert but instead Tragedy's Love from the letters.
The only thing you may not have already known about this is that picking to exit the theater without talking to Tragedy causes the Tragedy's End cutscene to resume from that point instead of offering a reset like YGE without all endings does.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2996028811
More BAD END THEATER guilds
- All Guilds
- BAD END THEATER Guide 10
- How to get a good end
- BAD END THEATER Guide 8
- Bad End Theater ALL ACHIEVEMENTS (spoilers!!!)
- Guide 2
- Guide 1