How to Unlock the Secret Ending in Pillars of Eternity 2

In Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, players will need to track down Eothas five years after the first game takes place. In the first game, the player will have defeated Eothas and returned to rule over their people at Caed Nua. But gods don’t stay dead for long in Eora. Eothas wreaks havoc after he has reawoken under their castle and stolen the souls of their people. The player has a portion of their soul stolen by Eothas, and will need to use their skillset as a Watcher to find the undead god and thwart his plans. 

Through the story-based combat game, players can traverse the world and interact with a variety of different characters through dialogue choices, some of which can greatly impact the game and it’s ending. Some choices may also follow players from the first game, making the decisions carry even more weight and importance. there are multiple different endings to the game depending on what decisions The Watcher makes, or refuses to make. The secret ending below is a very simple one that only has a few short pages of story associated with it, but it is an ending regardless. Unlocking this ending may entertain some completionists and adds some lore to the world that makes it more rooted in the player’s mind. 

How to Unlock the Secret Ending in Pillars of Eternity 2

To unlock the secret ending, players will have to speak with Berath, also known as The Pallid Knight. The player will have the opportunity to speak with her at the beginning of the game. The encounter with her is the first playable part of the game. First, the player will wander in between life and death, depicted as a smoky purple bridge. Here, they will see memories from the previous game in the series, and be guided by a voice. Eventually, they will reach a door and be transported to what seems to be another realm. Here, there is another door with a dwarf standing outside. The dwarf will greet them and then open the door, allowing them into the room where Berath is waiting. 

Seated in front of mystical cards that she uses to illustrate the task at hand to The Watcher, players would have encountered her in the first game if they played it. Berath is the goddess of life and death, sometimes appearing as male and female twins, a genderless god, or the female Pallid Knight that appears in this scene.

During the conversation, she will try to persuade the player to search for Eothas. There will also be the option for players to add story into the game from their previous playthrough in the first Pillars of Eternity game through dialogue choices. Simply refuse her offer multiple times and ignore the call of the Watcher to avoid the quest to unlock the secret ending. 

She will threaten to return the player to the Wheel, showing them cards that reference their fate. After the player refuses twice she will lament that finding and stopping Eothas will be more difficult without The Watcher’s skills and circumstances. 

The Usher, appearing as a dwarf in this scene, who accompanies Berath will gesture for the player to follow him, and the player will have the opportunity to change their mind and take her up on her offer. If they don’t change their mind, the player’s essence as the Watcher will then dissolve and reform into a creature that’s life is entirely dependent on whether the Watcher Berath chooses succeeds in their quest to find Eothas. This will roll the credits and end the game here. 

Clearly, this ending will be difficult to trigger on accident if players are used to story-based games and their context clues. However, some players may trigger it out of curiosity and stubbornness. It might be helpful to note that Berath will become more gruesome and threatening as players get closer to triggering this ending. Players can simply restart the game and open a new save file if they have accidentally triggered the secret ending, and will only have lost out on a few minutes of gameplay, as they haven’t even had the chance to customize their character at this point and no major decisions have been made. 

If the player doesn’t trigger this ending, they will go on to create a character and continue the game. Berath will return the player to the mortal realm so that they can try to stop Eothas, and the player can choose from a variety of different endings later on in the game. So far, there are three main endings, a deadfire ending, and individual character endings that are still being unearthed. These endings are all shown via slides that the narrator reads out to the player, along with images that help her tell the story. No matter what endings are chosen, no ending is one-hundred percent the right one, and they all have consequences. These various endings can be weighed against each other to choose the lesser evil or the more satisfying of the endings. In this case, some may think that simply taking themselves out of the equation and making someone else deal with it may be the best course of action to take for the world of Eora. 

If the player desires to, they should try to complete as many different endings as possible to get the full experience of the Pillars of Eternity 2 and the world of Eora. 

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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