Directive 8020 Guide: How to Unlock Every Ending

Quick Answer: Launch coverage confirms Directive 8020 has five main endings. Your smartest move is to secure a “clean” base save where the entire crew survives, then use the Turning Points system to rewind and alter specific choices like mimic trust checks and late-game sacrifices.

Navigating the Cassiopeia’s Final Hours

Supermassive Games built a tangled web of choices for this sci-fi nightmare. Getting a single ending is easy enough, but seeing all five substantial finales requires serious planning.

Instead of blindly restarting the entire game, you need to understand how the new Story Tree works. Your first playthrough should focus on building a flawless base save. Once you have a clean run, you can jump back to late-game Turning Points and tweak one variable at a time to watch the nightmare unfold differently.

If you are struggling with some of the trickier puzzles early on that might ruin your perfect run, make sure you know how to find the correct chemical agents before stressing over the finale.

The Completionist Numbers

Hunting down every possible outcome is a massive undertaking. Here is a quick look at the exact numbers you are dealing with on your path to total completion.

What Actually Triggers an Ending?

A single choice rarely dictates your finale. Endings in this franchise snowball from dozens of smaller decisions made hours earlier. You have to juggle several moving parts simultaneously.

• Crew Survival: Who is left breathing dictates your available finale branches.
• Mimic Identification: Correctly spotting an impostor before letting them back into the group is vital for survival.
• Evidence Collection: Finding clues allows you to safely accuse impostors or unlock hidden dialogue later.
• Relationships: Crew members who hate each other are far less likely to risk a dangerous rescue mission.
• Mission Status: The ultimate fate of Earth, the Cassiopeia, and the core mission objective shift heavily based on your final actions.

Establishing Your Best Ending Route

You want your very first completion file to be a golden run. Keep Brianna Young, Nolan Stafford, Laura Eisele, Samantha Cooper, and Josef Cernan alive and well.

To keep your crew breathing, follow a few strict survival principles. Keep the team grouped together whenever possible, as isolation creates massive mimic risks. Never trust a character who returns from a solo mission with a flimsy excuse. Prioritize searching rooms for evidence over rushing to the exit, and hit your Quick Time Events to prevent stupid accidental deaths.

Testing the Bad and Worst Endings

Once you have your clean base file, it is time to ruin everything. Open the Story Tree and rewind to late Turning Points.

To trigger the worst possible outcomes, you want to create cascading failures. Let characters with terrible relationship stats decide each other’s fates. Blindly trust crewmates who just spent time alone in the dark. Fail critical stealth segments after a long survival chain, or make a panic choice during the final high-pressure mission decision. Change exactly one major choice per rewind so you know exactly what triggered the new ending.

Post-Game Lore and Spoiler Topics

After the credits roll, the community usually scrambles to figure out what just happened. Once you finish your runs, you will probably start hunting for explanations regarding a few highly specific story beats.

• Cycle 13: A massive finale variable that completely changes how you interpret the ending.
• The Booster Ring: A crucial late-game objective that heavily dictates the context of your survival.
• Eisele’s Destiny: A specific character route flag that drastically alters the best-ending cleanup process.

Explore more walkthroughs and tips on our main Guides page.