Living with guilt for all eternity is a fate worse than death. Detective James Karra, who wants nothing more than to find solace, is hoping for the best ending possible in the hunt for the serial killer in Nobody Wants to Die.
But what ending will you achieve in your first run-through of this dystopian noir where you can live forever? With four endings in Nobody Wants to Die, an emphasis is placed on your choices (dialogue and interactions) that affect the narrative. You’d think the decisions you make throughout affect the final outcome, but, your choices play more like Telltale Games: The Walking Dead than Slay the Princess.
Here are all endings in Nobody Wants to Die and what you need to do to unlock them.
How to unlock all endings in Nobody Wants to Die
While everything you do is recorded in Nobody Wants to Die, from dialogue to pointed silences, these have no real impact in the game other than shaping who James is as a result of his near-death experience. Some choices give you trophies, but most are there to provide you with different conversations if you choose to replay the game.
There are four instances where your choice truly matters. These are located in four particular locations:
- Icarus Bar
- Red Room
- Old Museum
- Jane Salma confrontation
A particular decision must be made in each key setting. These choices determine which of the endings you’ll get, all leading towards the final confrontation between James and the “killer.” Here are the choices you need to make to get each ending.
Ending one
- Icarus Bar: Don’t shoot
- Red Room: Don’t close the door
- Old Museum: Select “The murderer is behind it all“
- Jane Salma confrontation: Don’t shoot
Ending two
- Icarus Bar: Don’t shoot
- Red Room: Don’t close the door
- Old Museum: Select “The murderer is behind it all“
- Jane Salma confrontation: Shoot
Ending three
- Icarus Bar: Shoot
- Red Room: Close the door
- Old Museum: Select “Green is behind it all“
- Jane Salma confrontation: Shoot
Ending four
- Icarus Bar: Shoot
- Red Room: Close the door
- Old Museum: Select “Green is behind it all“
- Jane Salma confrontation: Throw the gun
Nobody Wants to Die endings, explained
The narrative of Nobody Wants to Die is a tad confusing, especially if you only played once. Knowing the voice of Jane Salma at the end of the game isn’t truly her is the first step in understanding Nobody Wants to Die.
The “murderer” as we know it is actually part of James, a twisted version of himself that’s creating delusions that result in violent outbursts.
Jane Salma who resides in Sara’s body through the entire story isn’t the antagonist we’re told to believe. Instead, Salma is protecting herself from James, who’s detaching from reality, because of his ichorite. The murderer’s voice speaks harshly on the immortality system, expressing its hatred towards those who choose to sit in silence while the ichorite becomes more damaged with each immortality cycle. It’s confirmed “the murderer” is in fact in James’ mind upon killing Salma and still hearing the murderer speak to you.
Ending one
James is killed by “the murderer” (Salma defending herself). Unable to protect Sara’s body, he lets Salma escape, still believing the murderer resides in her, not him. He continues to be plagued by his guilt regarding Rachel, and now with his failure to bring Sara’s true body back to her. His mind is still tethered to the ichorite as he falls further into his dark abyss.
Ending two
Ending two follows the same path as ending one, but Salma is killed and Sara’s body is destroyed. James still dies in the process, making this the bad ending of Nobody Wants to Die.
Ending three
Ending three is where a lot about the narrative is cleared up. Salma’s true voice can be heard, and you learn the truth behind the ichorite. The Desynchro-psychotic disorder explains what happened to Green, Kovalev, and affecting James too. Their minds reached their limit, thus creating a new violent conscious, separate to James and the others, but manipulating their actions.
James chooses to listen to the murderer and kills Salma, getting himself killed in the process. This is the worst ending you can get in Nobody Wants to Die.
Ending four
The final ending is Nobody Wants to Die‘s good end. James empties the bullets from his gun and throws it away, believing Salma’s words over the murderer. He lets Salma go and hands her his communication line to Sara. James fights off the murderer after seeing Rachel again, by dragging himself to a tall building and jumping off.
James awakes to a sunny beach, finding peace from the ichorite as he breaks free from its grasp. No longer shackled, he can finally take Rachel’s hand and find solace.
