SPOILER: Ending Discussion

[Kungfuquickness]

Hover at your own risk.

Which ending did everyone go with first?
I rejected the alien queen thingy. She obviously was screwing up the world.

I noticed there are two different endings as well as credit endings.
I'm curious of everyone's interpretation of them.

I find the "good" ending bittersweet because it seems that the robot dies or maybe finally rests.
If you choose to go with the queen. The robot opens a tomb just like at the beginning of the game and starts the cycle all over again.

Basically what I take from this is the final boss was actually one of your kind that was tempted by the queen. It failed the robot originally and he tried again with you.

Pretty awesome!

[ADV]

I thought she is the queen of the Hob's. Then something crashlands, merges with the queen which in turn, corrupts the planet. The androids are just helpers.

She helps hob because she is his queen, but has been forcefully merged in a symbotic relationship with that thing around her (as well as those androids). Killing her is a kindness.

"The purge" is getting rid of whatever that purple stuff is that crashlanded, from the queen and thus the planet.

IMHO: The natives are the hobs (the entire planet is a machine, it wasn't terraformed) the flying flower things, the fauna, and those wild scavengers which have grown large and fat because there are no security-bots.

[Juryiel]

ADV a écrit :

I thought she is the queen of the Hob's. Then something crashlands, merges with the queen which in turn, corrupts the planet. The androids are just helpers.

She helps hob because she is his queen, but has been forcefully merged in a symbotic relationship with that thing around her (as well as those androids). Killing her is a kindness.

"The purge" is getting rid of whatever that purple stuff is that crashlanded, from the queen and thus the planet.

IMHO: The natives are the hobs (the entire planet is a machine, it wasn't terraformed) the flying flower things, the fauna, and those wild scavengers which have grown large and fat because there are no security-bots.

This is inconsistent with a lot of things in the game. For example, you find the body of the third elder Hob in one of the lore rooms. Also, the tower symbol appears in Exodus so whoever is leaving is also bringing the tower with them. So those must be the Hobs.

[Hooshmandx]

So, this is what I understood from Hob's story:

Hobs (O.K, I'm Just gonna call them Hobs!) had three elders. these elders were their leaders. when their home planet fails, these elders lead hob people with a massive colony ship off that planet through space until it lands on a new planet and it's landing unintentionally causes harm for new planet's native species.

Then ship opens up and elders start building their new home on top of the ship. that floating palace is the governing body of the ship (with three seats for elders), and the map that we play throughout the game is actually the ship. have you noticed those gigantic engines that we see when we go underground? I also believe that all those tame creatures and sprites that we see throughout the game and also the friendly nature through the map are natives to Hobs original home planet and were brought here by Hobs. From that palace, elders command their robotic workforce to build a home for their people (rest of the Hobs are in a form of cryo sleep or hibernation and haven't woken up yet.).

So in my understanding, we never witnessed the true surface of this planet and it's original habitants, not really. what we see is a mutated form of what was originally living on this planet and now simply tries to survive, and it needs Hobs resources to do so. this, of course, causes a conflict in which mutants (purple goo) are attacking, trying to control the ship and elders in a defensive position trying to fight off this invasion through their technology and their robots. they eventually fail and their supply of robots depletes. in the prelude comics (it is just four pages, by the way, go check it.) we see the friendly robot whom appears to be one of the last units sent to fight off the mutants somehow survives their attack and starts waking up the Hobs one by one to start fighting the enemy and restoring what it believes to be natural order. This is the reason why after that peaceful ending in which Hero and Queen find a Mutual ground (and no, Hero does not go serving the Queen, He makes peace with her and that is why in the epilogue purple goo is not hostile, they are at peace.) robot is still looking for a savior.

I also think the reason Queen was so mad at elders was that she wasn't able to reason with them. they simply weren't going to listen. I think the Queen went to their palace. asking for help, they refused. she got angry, things got ugly. she captured two of them but one somehow managed to escape, sent their robotic army to fight the invasion and created murals. his body is lying on the floor of the fifth mural. I also believe some of those creatures we fight are mutated forms of those friendly animals. those blue humanoids might be Planet's natives serving their Queen.

The very first Hob that our robot awakes gets hit almost instantly after she awakes and leaves her room and eventually mutates, through which she understands the situation they are in and sees things from a different perspective (or maybe she just becomes a pawn of the Queen, losing her free will. I think correct answer is somewhere between.). The robot continues to awaken Hobs only to see them fail for a very long period of time until it is our Hero's turn. Now as the Hero of story you should Decide. Do you want to finish what elders have started, destroy the invader and take your place as the new elder of your race? Or will you embrace the new species and will be able to co-exist with it? Whatever your decision is, now it's your chance to make it home.



EDIT: I think the correct progression of the story is in this order:
1. First Mural (center of the map)
2. Second Mural (south of the map)
3. Third Mural (north of the map)
4. The Queen's Explanation
5. Forth Mural (west of the map)
6. Fifth Mural (east of the map)
7. Minicomic
8. Game itself

[Torx]

I think this is the story of “It sucks being you”. You are the infestation, and you do what an infestation does: you infest. And you can’t do any different, because that’s what you are biologically. Just like a Tiger would only eat meat. And a cow only should eat plants (Ask the British what will happen if they don’t).

I think the queen’s kindness wasn’t a fake, or a trick. It was honest. But it sucks being you, and you are the infestation. So, you do that. You infest. That’s why the humanoid species (called Hobs?) didn’t leave their shelters in the end. Infestations don’t share. It conquers not a little. Not most. BUT ALL!

So, yeah. She got my sword into her face. Sorry… but, yeah. It sucks “being you”. :/

I think it’s quite refreshing not always encountering the ‘total malevolent monster’ in fantasy games. I was expecting this for this game like with most games. But I got a good surprise in the end. :)

[Arrehan]

My persistent question while playing the game was "which is the invasive species?" I wasn't prepared to assume it was as simple as the purple stuff being an evil corruption. The robots, in their own way, manipulated the world to their own ends, and while they seemed to live in harmony with the lifeforms, I couldn't be sure they didn't bring those flora and fauna with them.

Ultimately, I see the sitation as a conflict between two incompatible ecosystems, each of which seems, from what I can see, to be stable in itself. From an objective standpoint, it's hard to say which would survive if they truly can't coexist. I honestly don't see why they can't coexist to some extent, but being forced to make a choice, as happens in the endgame, I would choose the species that seems to have the greatest adaptability and chance for long-term survival. From what I've seen throughout the game, I give that edge to the robots.

Disregarding that issue, there are a few points I've made notice of throughout the game that helped me decide which side to support:
* The robots have delved deep into the crust of the planet, and integrated their technology with the surface bedrock. By comparison, the corruption is built on top of their own infrastructure. This indicates they have been here for a long time, probably far longer than the purple stuff and its creator. An alternative possibility is that the entire surface structiure is built on top of the original planet's surface and its indigenous life, but I haven't seen anything in the game to support this.
* The seven creatures that control the corruption are vulnerable to the cries of the sprite creatures which they keep imprisoned. This weakness, and the fact that they don't kill the sprites, suggests a symbiotic relationship of some sort. This coupled with the behavior of the sprites (they appear when you kill monsters, for instance) gives me the impression that the corruption was specifically designed to counteract their presence.
* Hob collects butterflies. I've excamined this process and I think, though I'm not sure, that he preserves them when he does so. He also uses them to upgrade his outfits, but it's not clear that they're actually destroyed in the process. The queen's speech seems to indicate that these butterflies are critical to the system's life cycle. This gives me hope that the robots can preserve some aspect of the other ecosystem, whereas there's no indication that the purple infection can do so, with the exception of the sprites. The monsters also attack other living things on sight, although it's not clear if they're actually allied with the purple stuff, whereas the lifeforms protected by the robots seem harmless.

Based on these points, I'm inclined to side with the robots. They seem capable of both gentleness and combat, can adapt to multiple situations and travel across space. For the purple ones, while there is some indication they can do these things, it's simply less certain.

[constantcompile]

Very well put.

[Azedene]

My take on this situation:

1. The Hobs are intelligent biological life as is evidenced by the fact that they can get sick, and also bleed, but are maybe cybernetic as well because they can rust away. They created the incredible clockwork world of the game, which is either their home-world or a colony they founded after their own was destroyed by some cataclysm, presumably when their home star collapsed.

2. The Hobs make robot servants and guardians. These semi-intelligent machines are smart enough to defend and maintain the Hobs machinery, and even make decisions, but they aren't smart enough to be independent of the Hobs for more complex tasks like developing new technology or new construction. In short, they are stewards.

3. Local primitives. These are just what they sound like, they are primitive locals that moved into the Hob controlled areas after the Hobs lost control due to the corruption. Whether they are natives of the Hobs home planet, or natives of a planet the Hobs colonized is unclear to me.

4. The forest sprites. These charming semi-intelligent creatures seem to be natives of this world and are deeply tied to nature and the general health of the plant life. Basically they are forest spirits. They can suffer, as evidenced by the mournful song they sing when captured. It also seems they can be corrupted to a degree, as each of the captured sprites is dark colored. The sprites seem to be enemies of the corruption, as evidence by the fact they help you to cleanse the infection, and they seem to celebrate the destruction of said infection. To me this is strong evidence that the corruption is BAD, maybe not evil, but bad at least from the perspective of nature.

5. The corruption. This mysterious invader seems most likely to have come from space via a meteorite, which we infer from the queens gesturing at the end. The corruption takes on a monstrous appearance, and is openly hostile to anything that is not also corrupted, but it overwhelmingly lacks in intelligence to the point of being more of a plant life, although be it a very very invasive one. Furthermore the nexuses of the corruption, the jelly metroids, seem defenseless and unintelligent. Only the queen displays the qualities we would normally associate with intellect and free will, but more on her later. All in all I have a hard time calling the corruption EVIL due to its lack of intelligence and free will, but I still clearly recognize that it is dangerous and destructive in the extreme. This alone is enough for it to be considered an enemy. This is sad in a way, the corruption is only a different kind of life trying to survive, but it is so damaging to existing life that any free-willed species that does not wish to be corrupted would be morally justified in destroying it.

6. The butterflies. The roll the butterflies play in all this is unclear to me. On the one hand they are beautiful and peaceful, seemingly an inherent good. However they are also somehow used by the corruption as focal points for the corruption to spread, or perhaps as some have suggested they the corruption came from space and shattered on impact, in which case it could be the crystal shards themselves which are the source of the corruption. This still leaves several unanswered questions however. Why do some crystal shards manifest into corruption and not others? Why do the butterflies always gather on these crystal shards? Why were the dark butterflies gathered around the queen at the end? Are the dark butterflies corrupted, or ARE they the corruption itself.

Now to bring this all together. From the murals we gather that some cataclysm befell the Hob's world, they fled and perhaps started over here, transforming this planet into the clockwork world it is now. Then the corruption came, maybe in the form of a meteorite, and the scattered crystal shards become focal points of corruption in some cases, but not others. The forest sprites are captured and corrupted as the land become infected, nature itself seems to suffer as a result. Somehow or another the ruler of the Hobs is corrupted, along with the elders. They live now, presumably for a very very long time, in this corrupted state, seeming racked by suffering. At some point or another the machine stewards launch a war against the corruption to save their masters, but suffer a crushing defeat at the battle to reach on of the jelly pods. The massive piles of dead machines speaks volumes of the ferocity of this battle, and of the desperation of the machines in their attempt to achieve victory. With their defeat the few surviving machines scatter, and adopt a different strategy. Some of the surviving Hobs, who were placed in stasis to protect them from the corruption will be reawakened to fight off the corruption and save their world.

One of the awakened Hobs chooses to side with the corrupted queen, and while she is by no means evil, her choice does not cleanse the world of the corruption and so the machines continue to awaken Hobs one at the time to be their chosen sword. A seemingly great amount of time passes, maybe hundreds of years of attempts and failures, until finally one succeeds. In the final moments, one of the corrupted elders painfully stirs, and a toxic cloud poisons the hero. The hero crawls to the dark butterfly covered cocoon-throne and the queen awakens. She sees the hero, one of her own people, suffering, dying, and chooses to take the corruption into herself, though at great effort. The queen then goes on to explain something of what as happened to this world. From her gestures we gather that the corruption came from the sky as a meteorite, and from her body language she seems to be dismayed at what has happened to her body and her world. However in the same moment her mood seems to brighten as one of the darkened butterflies lands on her claw, the look of longing and appreciation of the tiny beauty is clear to see. The queen then reaches out her arm, beseeching the hero, join me it seems to say, let us live together in harmony. Is this the same choice she offered to her body guard and servant? What would such a world look like? Could this be an end to the war, or would it be an endless age of suffering and damnation as befell the elders?

If you take her hand the world is transformed, the corruption spreads everywhere, although be it in a cleaner, less monstrous form. This it seems, is the greatest gift, but does this mean you have chosen to share this world or surrender it? Regardless, this choice still does not meet the objectives of the machine steward that awakened you, and so he awakens the next would be hero and the cycle continues.

If you reject the queens proffered hand, and chose instead to draw your blade against her, the body guard intervenes and the two do battle. Dark against light, the corrupted against the pure, it seems the two could never coexist. With the death of the queen's guard the hero approaches the throne once more, and the queen opens her arms wide, as if surrendering to her fate. Does she know she is powerless to stop you, or is she excepting your judgement? In the final moments her expression seems to say "Do it, end this suffering". As you plunge your blade into her heart she seems to pull the sword in deeper. Her body erupts into light, and as her pained cries echo out the corruption is purged from the world once and for all. The hero slowly, hesitantly, takes the monarchs place on the now cleansed throne.

Hell of a game.

[constantcompile]

The "local primitives" really are the biggest question mark of the game for me. I'm not sure whether they moved in, as you put it, but I'm not sure they're indigenous, either.

They attack on sight, which makes me think they're no fans of the Hobs, but they also seem incompatible with the corruption.

Also, read the prequel comic. I'm not sure it's accurate to say the previous Hob chose to side with the Queen.

[Schmuck]

This theory is kinda branching off Hooshmandx said but this is what I believe.

There's a theory that apparently those cats(The little things that fly around and power things up, i'll call them cats for now.) and some of the wildlife in hob are actually from the Hob trying to invade the planet.
The evidence for this is that if you played the game, you'd had realise that the wildlife is in great sync with technology, So like sometimes if you go underground you see like large pipes power the ground and stuff. It might actually be that the planet that we play in in-game is part of the spaceship.

I think we can confirm that the corruption is native.
It'd also justify why the corruption was harmful to both the wildlife in the spaceship, why the wildlife is so mechanical yet everything is at peace with it, and why the cats help the robots.

The beast men, are probably different types of natives that came overtime. They're like tribal men that came over the aftermath of the war and started collecting the hobs technology and using it for their own, whilst also eating the cats to power themselves. Tribal men could also explain their behaviour as well.

The queen as well, when you talk to her what she is actually saying is that a massive spaceship came down (the hobs) and landed on the planet thus causing some sort of calamity. I'm not sure what the calamity did but it might be the reason why the corruption is out of control not really sure.

The queen may have tried to go to the elders from the spaceship, and negotiate peace with them but they wouldn't listen. You could also see that one of the elders escapes since there was originally 3, and that elder called the sentinels to fight the corruption. This may follow up from what I previously said was that the calamity caused from the spaceship caused the corruption to go wild, thus her servant helping you out against the corruption and the tribal men, though I'm not entirely sure. There are holes in that assumption.
That's why the queen tries to negotiate peace with you after purify the corruption because she doesn't want to beef.

And lastly, I think that kind of mechanical area with the spiders. I don't think there's much about them but I think the best assumption was that they were supposed to be like attack bots to fight the corruption, but I believe they just attack anyone.
Another suggestion I had was that the hobs were put in shelters to protect them from the corruptions, whilst the sentinels go and fight them and prepare the world to be inhabitable for the hobs.
I'm not 100% sure on this but I think we can conclude that:

The corruption is definitely native as the Queen even explains to you at the end of the game how they came down with a spaceship.

The cats obviously worked with the sentinels and the Hobs. They way behave around you and how their life syncs in so well with the hob technology cannot be a coincidence. There is even that temple, which must've been built by the hobs due to the building style, which that mother cat thrives in with lots of other cats.

Remember that all the sentinels aren't actually dead, some where found underground actually working (probably for the spaceship.) All the ones fighting are most likely dead however.

[Null_Error]

According to some concept art (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VRRv4), the "corruption"'s name is "rogue life", and it originated from a crack in a "dna storage pod/hibernation capsule/whatever". However, that may have been early in the development, and the concept of the queen apparently originated as the concept of rogue-life-infected ship elders, with the concept of the ship elders originating as the concept of a pilot. Also, confirmation that the tower was originally the cockpit of the world-ship.

So, given this, my guess is that if anything, the entire game takes place on the ship, which is so massive that despite having landed, while on top of it, its edges seem like a massive cliff. I see two possibilities for the sprites: they are either some form of the hobs or something engineered by them to power their devices (similar to many of the other ship beasties, as the concept art refers to them). It seems unlikely that they are one of the planet the ship landed on's indigenous lifeforms, given how similar they seem to many of the concept art's ship creatures/components. I would say that they might also be what messed up the dna storage pod in the first place, creating the rogue-life (and perhaps resulting in the rogue-life perceiving a dependency on them, which may or may not be real).

No clue about the trolls, which don't even seem to be mentioned anywhere in the concept art. My best guess is that they're overgrown hobs of some kind, but whether they existed before the ship and were brought along or are what happened to some of the hobs following the ship's landing, I don't know.

[megamagicmonkey]

Ender_IF_ a écrit :

So, here is my theory: I do believe that actually we have three factions: The androids, the corruption and the mixture of both races. If you notice the last structure we climb, it seems to be a palace, government council or sit of power where the androids rule. You have three of them, apparently trapped, and in a same typical kind of seat, you see the Cocoon of the Queen. So I think the Queen was actually one of you (an android), got corrupted but emerged as something different. The same thing happened to her bodyguard and now you are offered the same deal. When the credits role, while the world is still "corrupted" it has a kinder vibe to me, and whereas everyone implies the android is searching for another chosen blade to purge the corruption forever, I want to believe that what he sees in there is not another warrior but all of the other androids that come out in the other ending. That is why I feel he is rushing to open the door.

Problem with this theory. The third leader is found in one of the lore rooms, dead in a corner. It's the one on the far east side of the map. He's even wearing one of the helmets from the mural, same as the two found in the throne room.

Would also like to point out that the friendly critters have red blood, like you do, and the hostile creatures have purple blood.

[deggy]

I rejected the queen because basically her race came along after yours and practically destroyed the world. if you take the queens hand then the whole world gets corrupted and the nice robot can never go to rest because his purpose is to get hobs to defeat the queen. if you join the queen then you betray the robot. it seems that the only reason the queen healed you is because she wanted to use you to take over the world. if you reject her then the robot goes to rest after thousands of years and is probably happier that way. overall, the motto of the game is ''make it home'' you just have to decide to make it home for the sprites and hobs, or the queens corruption clan so i went with the robot because the queen wants to destroy the worlds beauty and make it only sanitary for herself. also i think the final boss is very fun.

[Zer0]

Here is my take on this:
1) The Hobs home planet is losing power (probably their sun is about to go out or they already consumed all the resources of that planet)
2) They Created a colony ship to find viable planets , the current one is one of them.
3) While traversing all Hobs are in cryo sleep,
4) All the robots are programmed to Terraform the planet to suite the Hobs.
5) The ship upon landing started breaking the surface to collect resoucres for the expansion and terraforming attempts,
6) There were already native species on the planet - The primitives (enemies we fight) , the wisps (the flying flower things) , and the purple ooze which is actually a hive.
7) The wisps are akin to native fauna - and so is the main food source of the ooze and the primitives.
8) The wisps actively assist in the terraforming cause it means there are less predators for them , hence they are designated allies by the Hob and the robots do not hurt them.
9) The terraforming and protection of the wisps negatively affects the primitives and the ooze so they adapt,
10) The adaptation involves getting aggressive as any animal whose survival is threatened would,
11) The hobs retaliate by making warrior drones instead of terraforming drones with the sole objective to destroy the ooze,
12) The Ooze wins , the wisps are mostly recaptured to act as the food source.
13) The wisps getting desperate modify one of the robots to fight the ooze again,
14) The robot changes tactics and enlists support hobs,
15) After the first few hobs are absorbed by the ooze the queen manisfests as a sentient organism and attempts negotations,
16) She convinces one of the hobs to her cause,
17) The Hob takes her to the council seat where negotiations are attempted and failed,
18) The Queen is greatly angered due to the stubborness of the elders,
19) She throws off one elder that crashes to the planet and explodes her more potent strain of ooze that is not ony consuming but also infesting objects,
20) When her anger subsides she realises her mistake , but the damage is done,
21) The potent ooze is spreading on the planet so she takes seat on the highest possible point and creates the butterflies to change it to a more stable ,benign crystalline form,
22) This will take time , so she stays there until its over - she does not actively seek harm but her people come first.
23) The robot unaware of this continues his directive - he keeps finding suitable champions for his cause.
24) The queen does not want to cause more harm , but she is willing to accept a compromise f the champion is willing to let her finish her work.
25) If you purge the planet , the robots directive is complete and he stops.
26) If you choose to let the queen do her thing your race will keep sleeping until the world is a somewhat acceptable place for both species.

[Retsus]

Just played the game... So here's my take on the story:
1. There's something wrong with Hob's planet that forced them all to immigrate, led by 3 elders
2. They arrived on the planets, those orcs and beast are natives to this planet. After arriving, the Hobs terraformed the planet down to the crust, completely changing it.
3. Something arrived to the palace where three elder gob resided (the queen). She could be also an alien or perhaps native to the planet but just managed to showed up...
4. The queen then proceed to corrupt the rest of the world, the surface and down to the core. This cause the landscape to submerge into the ground... This may be done deliberately by the hobs to prevent further corruption or perhaps due to the machine shutdown... The hob may also isolated the land from rest of the planet to prevent global corruption.
5. One of the elders managed to escape, he made the murals so rest of the hobs would know about the story, and then he started the machine to fight off the corruption.
Things that in my thoughts about where were all those hobs all these times:
- Hobs are the ones who terraformed the planet and then hid inside those buildings (and capsule) when the corruption started
- The hobs were still all inside the capsules, sleeping. While those machine were the ones who terraformed the planet but then got activated again when the corruption started... or simply more machine (this time in massive numbers) got activated.
- The machine are different from the ones who terraformed the planet, after all, we saw all kind of different machines during our gameplay
6. During battle, one of the machine got critically injured. But then saved by the forest sprites and somehow gained a sentience (or limited version of it). It then proceeded to wake up the hobs since the machine had failed to fight off the corruption. And then the game began.

Things that I took notice:

• The hobs (or elder hobs to be more precise), didn't know about the forest sprite. The sprite may have been living in the forest for a long time but hobs simply didn't realize their existence. Since those sprites didn't get mentioned in the mural at all.
  
• The machine woke up the hobs despite having superior battle power perhaps so the hob can work together with the sprites.
  
• The reason why the queen (and her bodyguard) helped the hob from time to time is to show that they are not hostile and did not want to eradicate all hobs... and that the queen is not on same side as those orcs/beasts.
  
• The queen may not like what the hobs did to the planet and then she tried to appeal to the elder hobs.
  
• Or the queen could be not that care about the environment, but she realized that her corruption (which is important for her people) is also bad for the hobs, so to coexist she tried to meet with the elder hobs.
  
• She may be tried to explain to the hob that she didn't mean harm, and that she also coexist with nature (her corruption didn't actually destroyed all lands and its native species, those butterflies also live among the corruption just fine.

[FriendlyOne]

Since by siding with queen you see everything covered in blight again and robot beginning the cycle again it comes across that defeating the queen and cleansing blight once and for all was his only purpose, looks like this robot is special, since other robots like him are more of a servicemen. Makes sense why in good ending he "Died", he completed his purpose, may he rest well.