All Atomfall endings and how to get each one

There are a surprising number of Atomfall endings for what is a relatively small game, but as you explore the Windscale quarantine zone, you’ll find plenty of characters who are willing to help you escape. That is, if you complete a series of tasks for them, or in some cases, even sell your soul. After all, the secrets of Oberon are valuable and many hope to salvage them before shit goes sideways.

There are certain steps you’ll have to complete to access any ending, which I’ll explain below, but besides that, I’ll walk you through the steps to get each of Atomfall’s five endings. There are also a few minor ending variations, such as how bloody you got exploring the quarantine zone, but considering how often you have to kill folks, it’d be surprising if you managed to achieve anything but the worst there.

Thankfully, these minor variations are just a sentence in the epilogue. This guide will, of course, contain spoilers for Atomfall, so leave now if you want to discover all the endings yourself.

How to reach Atomfall’s endings

Besides each character’s specific leads and setup, there are a few things you’ll need to do to actually access the end of Atomfall. These are:

1. Unlock all doors to the Interchange in Slatten Dale, Wyndham Village, Casterfell Woods, and Skethermoor
2. Turn on the central processor of the Interchange using the battery you find there
3. Find four atomic batteries and power up Data Stores Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta
4. Use a signal redirector to redirect power to the central processor via the four junction boxes in that room
5. Pull the lever in the central processor

If you complete all these steps, you’ll get access to Oberon and the potential to decide its fate and finish the game. All of the endings below require you to complete the above steps to actually reach Windscale.

Escape with the voice on the telephone

Though the voice on the telephone is a constant companion in Atomfall, ringing up at random phone boxes to kindly remind you that “Oberon must die” every ten seconds, this ending is the simplest to accomplish and requires no extra work. Assuming you’ve powered up the Interchange, simply:

1. Travel through Windscale to the Oberon dig site
2. Rearm the four explosives planted near Oberon
3. Pull the self-destruct console lever in the control room
4. Head back to Bunker L8, where you started the game

After you pull the lever, you’ll have to escape back into the Interchange, though you’ll be attacked on the way by druids and an angry Mother Jago who you’ll have to kill. The voice on the telephone will call on the phone just before you enter the Interchange and tell you to return to Bunker L8 in Slatten Dale, where you woke up at the start of the game. As you travel to Slatten Dale, you’ll find the rest of the zone has fallen into chaos as protocol soldiers, druids, and outlaws all fight each other.

Answer the phone there, and the telephone will say good job before putting you to sleep with gas and saying that everything will be clear when you wake up. As you expect, this is the most mysterious ending to Atomfall, as the caller doesn’t reveal their identity or your purpose and even speculates that they might have just been a voice in your head. Meanwhile, Oberon is destroyed and so the interference gradually lowers, letting people into the zone so they can find out what happened.

My personal theory is that you were a sleeper agent planted in the quarantine zone to resolve the Oberon crisis, and so that’s why they put you to sleep at the end once your job in the zone is complete, but honestly, who even knows?

Escape with Captain Sims

Helping Captain Sims and his protocol forces is another of your escape options, but this requires you to complete a few quest steps for the commander first. You’ll need to:

1. Speak to Captain Sims in the Wyndham Village hall and earn his trust by reporting a villager—or lie about reporting a villager, as with the baker
2. Agree to Sims’ request to visit Skethermoor Prison and speak to Dr. Garrow. It’s unclear if you have to free Garrow here, but doing so has no consequences provided you lie to Sims when you return to him
3. Retrieve Sims’ Protocol Radio Part from the speaking cave in the Casterfell Woods. The part is located in the room behind the statue at the area’s centre
4. Head to the Oberon dig site and rearm the four explosives before pulling the self-destruct console lever in the control room
5. Collect Sims’ audio diary from the Wyndham village hall giving you instructions for escape
6. Travel to Skethermoor Protocol Camp to find Sims waiting with a helicopter

As with any ending in which you destroy Oberon, you’ll have to fight through druids as you leave the dig site and kill Mother Jago. The voice in the soil will also tell you that it’s disappointed and the quarantine zone will descend into its usual infighting as all the factions battle each other.

After you grab Sims’ note from the village hall, you’ll find him with a helicopter at Skethermoor Protocol Camp outside the prison, where he lauds you as a hero and lets you climb aboard. In this ending, the Atomfall plan goes ahead and the quarantine zone gets nuked, wiping out all of its inhabitants apart from the protocol who were evacuated.

Escape with Dr. Garrow

Dr. Garrow is a robotics scientist who was involved in the original Oberon project, and if you complete some tasks for her, she’s also a viable option for an early escape:

1. Free Garrow from Skethermoor Prison and then find her in the Interchange central processor—this is easier if you complete the first step of Sims’ quest to get prison access
2. Retrieve Garrow’s research notes from her office in the robotics section of the Interchange and return them to her
3. Power up Casterfell Dam Data Storage and input the “GEN ERA” command and then return to her
4. Head to the Oberon dig site and use two atomic batteries to power up the extraction drill near the control room—if you don’t have any, defeat two of the robots wandering around Oberon and grab theirs
5. Pull the sample extractor console lever in the control room and then collect the sample where it drops just next to Oberon
6. Travel to Garrow’s office in robotics and give her the sample to escape—if you refuse to hand it over, she’ll turn hostile

One important note here is that you shouldn’t tell Dr. Holder where to find Garrow if you’re also pursuing his lead, as he will kill her. Garrow’s ending is unique in that you don’t actually do anything to Oberon or trigger the ending sequence in which the factions of the quarantine zone fight each other. The zone remains, and Oberon with it. It’s implied that Dr. Garrow continues her research into Oberon using the sample, with you as her partner, and that this likely bodes poorly for the outside world considering her extremely shady past with the original project.

Escape with Joyce Tanner

This is one of the more elaborate endings as you help the mysterious communications specialist achieve her goals in the quarantine zone. To do this, you need to:

1. Speak to Joyce Tanner in Data Store Charlie after you power up the Interchange—you can also find her earlier in the remote bunker in northeast Casterfell Woods, though either way you’ll have to power up the Interchange to properly start her lead
2. Power up the three radio towers located in Slatten Dale, Casterfell Woods, and Skethermoor then return to her
3. This step is optional, but if you’re pursuing Garrow’s lead as well and head to Casterfell Dam Data Storage, enter the “GEN MOVE” command for Joyce instead and bring her the tape—this will turn Garrow hostile
4. Head to the Oberon dig site and use two atomic batteries to power up the extraction drill near the control room—if you don’t have any, defeat two of the robots wandering around Oberon and grab theirs
5. Pull the sample extractor console lever in the control room and then collect the sample where it drops just next to Oberon
6. Rearm the four explosives around Oberon before pulling the self-destruct console lever in the control room. You can also poison Oberon here for Dr. Holder instead if you choose
7. Grab Joyce Tanner’s audio log in Data Store Charlie and then head to the extraction point she marks in the Casterfell Woods
8. Hand over the sample and escape—Joyce will turn hostile if you refuse

If you’re also pursuing the Infiltrators lead, that’ll add another dimension and a bit more context to what’s happening with this ending. As usual, you’ll have to fight Mother Jago and the druids as you leave, but then you can go find Joyce at the extraction point. Here, you can quiz her about who she really works for and ask if she’s Aggravaine—you might have to complete the Infiltrators’ lead in order to ask her this.

She admits that she is the mysterious Russian operative and that—with the Cold War heating up in the outside world—everyone needs to have access to Oberon so they can use it as a deterrent, making sure it’ll never actually be used again.

If you hand over the sample, Joyce clubs you over the head with a truncheon and you’re dragged into the escape helicopter with her insinuating that you’re about to be interrogated thoroughly by her friends. As you probably realised all along, Joyce is pretty sus, and even though you escape, things likely don’t end well for you here.

Escape with Mother Jago

This ending sees you side with the druids of the Casterfell Woods and their mysterious leader, Mother Jago. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Meet Mother Jago in the Casterfell Woods, agree to recover her book from the Castle Ruins, and return it to her
2. Head to the speaking cave and talk to the idol at its centre, agreeing to help it, then speak to Mother Jago outside
3. Travel into the medical tunnels below the Interchange—you reach here through medical—and retrieve the Growth Stimulant canister
4. Turn on both fire safety system valves next to Oberon at the dig site
5. Insert the Growth Stimulant into the fire safety fluid input on the walkways just outside the control room
6. Pull the fire safety system lever in the control room to feed Oberon the stimulant
7. Find Mother Jago in the underground section of the Castle Ruins above the pit filled with blue fungi
8. Throw yourself into the pit

In this ending, you become one with the voice in the soil and Oberon becomes more powerful, potentially even spreading from the quarantine zone to the outside world. The key difference with this ending is that you’ll have to fight protocol soldiers as you flee back through the dig site into the Interchange, but the druids fighting everywhere else will be friendly. It’s somewhat unclear whether you actually become one with Oberon or if Mother Jago duped you into helping and then killing yourself.

Escape with Dr. Holder

The most secret of Atomfall’s endings sees you help Dr. Holder poison Oberon and kill it for good. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Retrieve the church cellar key from the medical section of the Interchange
2. Meet Dr. Holder in the basement of St. Katherine’s church and agree to help him
3. Retrieve Sample One from the medical section of the Interchange—this canister is located by the body in the operating theatre—and return to him
4. If you freed Dr. Garrow, tell Dr. Holder she’s in the Interchange—Holder will shoot Garrow in revenge for her abandoning him and the other scientists. Speak to him after this to get Poisoned Sample One.
5. Turn on both fire safety system valves next to Oberon at the dig site
6. Insert the Poisoned Sample One canister into the fire safety fluid input, on the walkways just outside the control room
7. Pull the fire safety system lever in the control room to poison Oberon
8. Find Dr. Holder in the medical tunnels—since entrances will have collapsed, you’ll need to enter here via the Slatten Dale Interchange entrance. After you crawl under the shutters, look for signs pointing the way to your left in the construction site

In this ending, you poison Oberon and escape into the secret tunnels with Dr. Holder. As he reveals, the voice in his head is starting to fade, implying you’ve properly killed Oberon. However, he mentions that since you both have blue eyes—a side effect of the inoculation he gave you earlier, presumably—you’ll be treated as specimens, so you have to go on the run for a while.

If you destroy Oberon instead, Dr. Holder leaves an audio log in the central processor revealing some vital information—blowing up Oberon only seals it and doesn’t actually destroy it, meaning someone else is likely to stumble on it in the future. This heavily implies that poisoning Oberon for him is the only way it’s truly destroyed, making this the true “good” ending.