War of the Human Tanks' 4 Endings Guide

How to get the 4 endings for War of the Human Tanks to complete the storyline and earn the Steam Achievements. These four endings cover two major storyline arcs and a handful of missions you'd miss in one playthrough. Since they're tied to specific mission victories/defeats, this guide covers all possible route branches for each respective ending.

Endings Overview and Tips

There are four endings for War of the Human Tanks, as per the “War of the Human Tanks” Steam achievement which is tied to seeing all four endings. Endings are based on whether you win or lose specific missions.


TIP: Note you do not need to take detours to beat the Tank-model or Cats to get these endings. You may ignore those “detours” altogether and critical path your playthroughs, if that’s what you prefer. If you manage to overcome the frustration of the detour levels, however, especially the last detour level, it’ll definitely make winning a lot easier for you.

TIP: An easy way to lose the specific missions you need to lose is simply deploy a single command tank and have her attack herself, in case you were wondering what the quickest way to go about it was. I also highly recommend you have auto-skip on for the dialogue, it’ll literally blast through all dialogue that isn’t new so you won’t have to sit through it again.

So you can essentially categorize the endings in pairs: one pair of endings involving your estranged human tank Miou and another involving your adversary, Kurara.

In my marathon of this game I basically went in the numerical order this is presented, although they can really be accomplished in any order. The pairs are very similar thematically, although there are subtle differences that distinguish [1] as the true end from [2] and [4] as a much more popular end than [3].

The 4 Endings

[1] True(?) Miou End

Win every single battle. Fairly straightforward, most players probably get this ending on their first playthrough.

[2] Alternate Miou End

You'll either need to start a new playthrough or load a save that starts at Episode 12: “What the Sword is For.”

Lose the battle in Episode 12: “What the Sword is For,” which will then lead you to an alternate Episode 13 “Set Miou Free” (which is essentially similar to the “Charge! Human Tanks” mission except you’re still facing Miou's human tank in the mission in addition to the enemies of the other episode's mission.)

This concludes the first pair of endings.


On to the next arc, and the last pair of endings:

[3] Kurara Alternate Ending:

You'll need to start a second playthrough and win battles until Episode 07: "Shadow from the Past."
Lose the battle in Episdoe 07: “Shadow from the Past.” (Your Miou encounter at the Tenryuu Tunnel).

You’ll know you’re on the right path since there will be an alternate scenario for Episode 09, entitled “Kurara Iikura Strikes Back.” Notice a handful of the missions that follow are actually completely different from the Miou route. It will culminate with Episode 13: “The Daihon’ei Rebel Unit.” This is actually a completely different scneario altogether than the previous endings, so there'll be a bunch of fresh story beats and missions.

[4] Popular, Good-ish Kurara Ending:

These pair of endings aren’t necessarily “Good vs. Bad,” but it seems like this ending is the most popular. You’ll need to lose another battle before Episode 07, however; lose Episode 2 (Yumishirogahara), the first one you get to deploy units for, since it’ll let you play an alternate Episode 05 (which is tied to a separate achievement). After you lose Episode 2: “Imperial-Capital Conquering,” you’ll eventually hit an alternate Episode 5: “Satou’s Lesson.”

Don't forget to also lose Episdoe 07: “Shadow from the Past.” Most of the missions that follow will be similar to those that preceded the previous ending. You’ll know you've reached the 4th ending when you reach the final, alternate Episode 13 title, “The Will to Fight.” Once you beat it (it’s very similar to “The Daihon’ei Rebel Unit,” you will have completed all four endings!


Congratulations, you've seen all four endings of "War of the Human Tanks!" There's still a bunch of free missions to catch up on if you've only went through the storyline missions; some of the special free missions have their own achievements, too. Good luck, and thanks for reading!

[Alder613]

I lost Episode 6. Does that mean I can't get the True(?) Ending?

[Xelam13]

This was very helpful, thank you

[Miriam]

The ending used in the sequel is mostly the Rebel Unit one, but it also has part of the Miou ending.

[Joe]

Very helpful :)

[brown_gaijin]

How do you "lose" What the Sword is For? I have tried sending my command unit directly into the line of fire, and I have let time run out.

[digitalwill]

i have a question do you know which ending is going to be used for the sequel war of the human tanks alter?

[Uncreative Name]

You can't skip episodes.

[Charlie]

I've got a question, is it possible to get skip "complete episode X" achievements? i.e. can you get complete episode 2 or 3 without completing episode 1 et al?

[atanlf]

Which one is the canon ending?

[a_harmless_teddy_bear]

Thank you for this. I was stuck for so long