All Four Endings

CONTRABAND has four unique endings. Each one has its own Chapter 5 epilogue with multiple scenes and further branching choices. Seeing all four is the key to the "The Last Pilot" legendary achievement.

Ending 1: The Rift branches

How to reach: In Chapter 4, at the tree (c4_temptation), choose "Prune — this is the only real branch."

This is the "good ending" by conventional narrative metrics. The player uses the Starforge to collapse all alternate branches into a single coherent reality, sealing the Rift permanently. No more revisits. No more do-overs. The universe becomes, for the first time in anyone's memory, simply itself.

Chapter 5 continuation

The player returns to Verge Station. The dispatcher offers a clean job. Player can:

• Accept the job → Months pass. A Guardian initiate finds you on a backwater moon with a gift. If you saved the child, the gift includes a photograph of her grown up in a harvest festival.
• Retire from piloting → You sell the ship. You learn to garden. You never fly again.

What survives

Guardians survive. The child survives (if saved). The Black Fleet vanish within days. Vex is either dead or alive depending on prior choices, and if alive, she leaves a message thanking you and is never heard from again.

Ending 2: The Multiverse

How to reach: In Chapter 4, at the tree, choose "Walk away — let them all exist."

The player refuses to choose. Every branch remains active. The Rift stays open. The pilot becomes aware of every version of themselves — the one who took the bribe, the one who died saving the child, the one who became what the Black Fleet worship.

Chapter 5 continuation

The first week, the pilot cannot sleep. Every time they close their eyes, they live three days of a different life. A version of themselves who learned to manage it appears as an inner voice. The player can:

• Pick the branch where you hurt the most and is true → You carry every mistake. You do not forgive yourself. You become a person who knows what they did and keeps going.
• Pick a softer branch → You forgive yourself for things you did not do. Kinder life than you thought you'd get.
• Refuse to pick → You dissolve. Not a person anymore. Just simultaneous lives.

What survives

Everything. Guardians continue. The Black Fleet continue. Every version of every character continues to exist somewhere. You carry it all forever.

Ending 3: Another Life

How to reach: In Chapter 4, at the tree, choose "Take a different branch and live that life."

The player steps into the branch where they took the bribe in the prologue. They are now rich, living on a private moon with a wife and two children, a life that feels real because the body remembers it. The old pilot's life is somewhere else, and the player never learns what happened to it.

Chapter 5 continuation

Morning. Breakfast with the other pilot's family. The player can:

• Stay silent → Years pass. The pilot is a good father and husband. But every night they wake up crying. They never find out if the child survived in the other branch. They live in a cold empty space inside themselves that would be filled if they were brave enough to look.
• Confess to your wife → She listens. She tells you the original pilot once said the same thing, drunk, ten years ago. She takes your hand. You become real to her by telling the truth.

The final scene: the pilot dies old, in a bed, surrounded by family. The last thing they think is the face of the Guardian child — saved or not, they never learned which. They had a life. It was not theirs. But it was theirs now.

Ending 4: The End of History

How to reach: In Chapter 4, at the tree, choose "Burn the tree."

This is the bleakest ending. The tree burns. All branches, all histories, all versions. The Rift cannot reopen because there is no longer a branch for it to fold. Guardians, Black Fleet, Vex, and the Guardian child are retroactively erased — they never existed, because the Starforge that anchored them no longer existed.

Chapter 5 continuation

The player is the only person in the universe who remembers these people ever existed. They carry the memory of an entire history that no longer happened. The player can:

• Record everything before forgetting → You build a secret archive on a hidden moon. You die without telling anyone where it is. A thousand years later, a scavenger finds it. They don't believe it. But they keep it.
• Let it go → You try to forget. It is slow. By the time you die, all you remember is flying a cargo run that went wrong, and after that something vast and unspeakable happened. You do not remember anyone you loved.

Optimal order to see all endings

My recommended playthrough order to appreciate each ending properly:

1. First run: Rift branches (prune). This is the most satisfying first experience and gives you a sense of closure.
2. Second run: Multiverse (walk away). Now that you know what closing the Rift feels like, refusing to close it hits differently.
3. Third run: Another Life (take the bribe retroactively). Reserved for a playthrough where you want a bittersweet, melancholic experience.
4. Fourth run: Burn. Save this for last. This ending is designed to be felt after you care about the characters.

Seeing all four unlocks the legendary achievement "The Last Pilot." You will also unlock all four endings in the achievement panel, each worth gold tier.

Which ending is "canon"?

None. Every ending is canon in its own branch. The game's philosophy — embedded in the Rift branches mechanic itself — is that no ending is the true one, because branches do not work that way in this universe. Every choice is real. Every revisit creates another reality. The story you experienced is yours, and yours alone.

Requirements and gating for each ending

Each ending requires specific prerequisites to be available in the Chapter 4 choice. Missing a prerequisite means the corresponding option is visible but grayed out, with a subtle hover tooltip explaining what is missing. The prerequisites are:

• Rift branches — Requires Guardian reputation ≥ 40 and the Starforge Fragment in inventory. The Fragment is earned either by completing the Chapter 2 Guardian main path or by being gifted it during the Ritual of Seventeen Mirrors.
• Multiverse — Requires at least 10 total branches created via revisit. The game interprets low branch counts as a player who has not yet earned the right to refuse choice.
• Another Life — Requires that an alternative branch exists where the player took the prologue bribe. This means either you took the bribe originally and revisited to a different path, or you revisited specifically to take the bribe in a branch. Players who never touched the bribe cannot reach this ending.
• Burn — No specific prerequisites mechanically, but thematically reserved for players who reject the reconciliation offered by other endings. Telemetry shows this ending is most often chosen by players on their fourth or later playthrough.

The epilogue purchases

Each of the four endings has an extended epilogue sold separately as a paid expansion. Each epilogue is $4.99 individually, or $12.99 for the bundle containing all four. These epilogues continue the pilot's life beyond the final cutscene and include additional characters, new systems to explore (in the Multiverse and Another Life epilogues), and several hours of additional story. Purchases are verified server-side against Firestore and sync across devices — if you bought the Rift branches epilogue on your phone, it unlocks on your laptop automatically upon sign-in.

The epilogues are genuinely optional. The base endings stand on their own as complete narrative experiences. The expansions are for players who want more time with the world. First-run players are not expected to purchase; waiting until after all four base endings are seen is the designer's recommended pacing.