Got the bad ending for killing a single Nosalis/Watchman

[Black Wolf]

I was speedrunning the game on easy mode just to get a bunch of achievements, one of which is "Shadow ranger" (do not kill a single human throughout the entire game).

While i was running through the level of the Bear, i bumped into one of those Nosalis/Watchman mutants, not a big deal really. Unfortunately though, said mutant was not a gentleman like me and didn't ignore me as i ran past it, it started CHASING and ATTACKING me to which i replied with 4 shotgun shells from my 4 barrel shotgun into its face. I got the bad karma point, i was aware this was going to happen in this part, as i had gotten the achievement for the bad ending a few days ago. I said to myself "Oh well, just a single bad karma point, guess that won't prevent me from getting the good ending".

But in the end, it happened, i got the bad ending like, LMAO, i thought the karma system was like Exodus where you can make mistakes and be a good guy at the same time, but nope, apparently, killing a single mf that MIND YOU, attacked me first, so i was just defending myself, was enough for the game to go: "hell nah, you're a bad person bro, sorry" despite me not having killed a single human being during the rest of the levels and having gotten every single possible good karma point too XD

Before you roast me: i'm not posting this because i'm upset or anything like that, i'm just incredibly surprised that the system was designed so badly in terms of deciding what type of ending you get.

[vss]

Of my experience you CAN go through the game without killing any humans. Mutants shouldn't count with some exceptions where you shouldn't attack them.

When it comes to the Bear on "The Garden" level you shouldn't kill the baby bears and once you take down mama bear you have to kill the watchmen or you lose moral point.

Hardest levels to go without killing human enemies - train, red square, D6; all are achievable provided you are patient enough, get cover and use med kits - especially for the train.

Final mission on D6 - you cannot proceed without blowing up the train but that doesn't affect the good ending. You CAN just hide behind cover and not shoot anyone, you will get to the ending regardless (tested even on ranger hardcore).

EDIT: note that to get the good ending you need to accumulate good "mojo" :D like save Pavel, find stashes, listening to conversations, etc; so simply not getting bad moral points isn't enough

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Pygmy Marmoset:

Of my experience you CAN go through the game without killing any humans. Mutants shouldn't count with some exceptions where you shouldn't attack them.

When it comes to the Bear on "The Garden" level you shouldn't kill the baby bears and once you take down mama bear you have to kill the watchmen or you lose moral point.

Hardest levels to go without killing human enemies - train, red square, D6; all are achievable provided you are patient enough, get cover and use med kits - especially for the train.

Final mission on D6 - you cannot proceed without blowing up the train but that doesn't affect the good ending. You CAN just hide behind cover and not shoot anyone, you will get to the ending regardless (tested even on ranger hardcore).

EDIT: note that to get the good ending you need to accumulate good "mojo" :D like save Pavel, find stashes, listening to conversations, etc; so simply not getting bad moral points isn't enough

Broski, i'm telling you that i did every possible thing that would gain me good moral points, didn't kill pavel or the other guy, saved the bear, literally everything. I got a single bad moral point after killing that single watchman in the bear level (those watchmen are running away, supposedly "scared" so you're not supposed to kill them, however their AI is coded to attack the player no matter what if the player gets into their attack range, the exact same thing for example can happen with the librarians when non enraged, and no the Watchmen won't lose their aggro on you if you ignore them and move away.)

Please read my message carefully, as i'm not in need of knowing how to get the good ending or the achievement (i got it lol), this is just a small little thing i found out while i played.

[vss]

Originally posted by Black Wolf:

Originally posted by Pygmy Marmoset:

Of my experience you CAN go through the game without killing any humans. Mutants shouldn't count with some exceptions where you shouldn't attack them.

When it comes to the Bear on "The Garden" level you shouldn't kill the baby bears and once you take down mama bear you have to kill the watchmen or you lose moral point.

Hardest levels to go without killing human enemies - train, red square, D6; all are achievable provided you are patient enough, get cover and use med kits - especially for the train.

Final mission on D6 - you cannot proceed without blowing up the train but that doesn't affect the good ending. You CAN just hide behind cover and not shoot anyone, you will get to the ending regardless (tested even on ranger hardcore).

EDIT: note that to get the good ending you need to accumulate good "mojo" :D like save Pavel, find stashes, listening to conversations, etc; so simply not getting bad moral points isn't enough

Broski, i'm telling you that i did every possible thing that would gain me good moral points, didn't kill pavel or the other guy, saved the bear, literally everything. I got a single bad moral point after killing that single watchman in the bear level (those watchmen are running away, supposedly "scared" so you're not supposed to kill them, however their AI is coded to attack the player no matter what if the player gets into their attack range, and no they won't lose their aggro on you.)

Please read my message carefully, as i'm not in need of knowing how to get the good ending or the achievement (i got it lol), this is just a small little thing i found out while i played.

That's really interesting. I took another look at info about the achievement Shadow Ranger and indeed (at least as per Metro wiki) only human enemies must count.

What they didn't list were the cases where you shouldn't attack mutants...

I'll probably try and test the part you described but I have the achievement already. Still, it is indeed unfortunate if you didn't get it for that single mutant.

[Rook_]

Thanks for posting this @Black Wolf.

I'm about to start another playthrough as I finally want to get the few achievements I'm missing and good ending and 'Shadow Ranger' are among them. I started looking for some info about any unexpected outcomes of speedruns etc. so your timing is perfect, lol.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Rook_:

Thanks for posting this @Black Wolf.

I'm about to start another playthrough as I finally want to get the few achievements I'm missing and good ending and 'Shadow Ranger' are among them. I started looking for some info about any unexpected outcomes of speedruns etc. so your timing is perfect, lol.

You're welcome!

[Serpent King]

The karma system in exodus is that you can kill humans if they are evil and it doesn't affect the ending. Previous metro games killing humans is considered bad but in last light you can still easily get good ending while killing in those action heavy levels and probably some other parts in the game. Killing mutants shouldn't matter unless you kill some that clearly don't want to fight you or dark one is telling you not to attack them.

[Mambius]

The morality system just sucks. No need to bother.