Resident Evil Requiem All Endings — How to Get the Good Ending
Both endings in Resident Evil Requiem explained. Release Elpis vs Destroy Elpis, what each does to Leon, and why Speed Demon needs the good ending.
Two Endings, One Choice That Matters
Resident Evil Requiem keeps it simple. There are two endings, no hidden third, no secret variant you unlock by collecting everything. The whole thing comes down to a single decision near the end of the game, and that decision splits the finale cleanly in two.
The choice is whether to Release Elpis or Destroy Elpis. One is the good ending and the canon outcome. The other kills your protagonist and cuts the game short. If you only care about one thing here, it’s this: Release Elpis is the good ending. Everything else is detail.
I’ll walk through where the choice happens, what each option actually does, and why the good ending isn’t just the “nicer” one but the one you have to pick if you’re chasing the completionist run.
Where the Choice Happens
The decision lands late, in the Umbrella Underground chapter, after you’ve pushed all the way through Wrenwood, the Rhodes Hill Care Center, the Raccoon City streets, and finally underground. By the time the game hands you the choice, you’ve earned it.
Without spoiling the exact staging, you reach a point where the fate of Elpis is in your hands. The game makes the two options clear. There’s no obscure trigger or missable flag. You pick, and the ending branches from there. So unlike some games where the “good ending” requires a checklist of prior actions, Requiem’s good ending is purely about this one call.
Ending 1 — Release Elpis (The Good Ending, Canon)
This is the one you want. Here’s why.
Elpis isn’t what it first appears to be. Elpis is actually an antiviral agent, not the threat it was framed as. Releasing it sets off the proper conclusion to the story rather than a tragedy.
Choosing Release Elpis does several things:
- It triggers the true final boss. Only on this path do you fight Victor Gideon, the real final boss. If you want that climactic two-phase battle, this is the only way to reach it. The full strategy is in the Victor Gideon final boss guide.
- Leon is cured and survives. Because Elpis works as an antiviral, Leon lives. The character you’ve spent the back half of the game with walks away.
- Chris Redfield arrives. The good ending brings Chris into the picture, tying the finale back into the wider Resident Evil cast.
- There’s a post-credits scene. The Release Elpis path includes an extra stinger after the credits. Stay watching to the end.
This is the canon ending. It’s the version of events the series treats as what actually happened, and it’s the satisfying payoff to the whole campaign.
Ending 2 — Destroy Elpis (The Bad Ending)
The other option is bleak and short.
Choosing Destroy Elpis is the bad ending. The consequences:
- Leon dies. There’s no cure on this path. Destroying Elpis throws away the antiviral that would have saved him, and the protagonist doesn’t make it.
- You skip the final boss entirely. No Victor Gideon. The game wraps up without the climactic fight. If you destroyed Elpis hoping for a dramatic finale, you get the opposite — an abrupt, downbeat close.
- No post-credits payoff of the good ending. You miss the canon resolution and the extra scene that comes with it.
It’s a real ending, and some players will want to see it once for completeness. But narratively it’s the dead end, in every sense.
Why Speed Demon Needs the Good Ending
If you’re going for the Speed Demon challenge — the speedrun-style completion — you don’t actually have a choice between the two. You must pick Release Elpis.
This catches people out. You might assume the faster ending is the one to grab for a speed-based goal, and Destroy Elpis is technically the shorter path since it skips the final boss. But Speed Demon is tied to the proper completion of the game, and the proper completion is the good ending. Destroying Elpis cuts the run short in a way that doesn’t satisfy the requirement.
So the plan for a clean Speed Demon attempt is to reach the Elpis choice, pick Release Elpis, beat Victor Gideon (both phases), and roll the canon credits. Yes, that means the “completion” path is also the longer one because it includes the final boss. That’s the trade. If you want the achievement and the canon ending in a single run, this is how it lines up.
Quick Summary
| Release Elpis | Destroy Elpis | |
|---|---|---|
| Outcome | Good ending (canon) | Bad ending |
| Elpis is… | An antiviral agent | Destroyed |
| Leon | Cured, survives | Dies |
| Final boss | Victor Gideon (fought) | Skipped |
| Chris Redfield | Arrives | Absent |
| Post-credits scene | Yes | No |
| Speed Demon eligible | Yes | No |
The Bottom Line
There’s no agonizing here. Release Elpis is the good ending, the canon ending, and the only path that gives you the final boss, Leon’s survival, Chris’s arrival, and the post-credits stinger. It’s also the path you’re required to take for Speed Demon. Pick it, then go beat Gideon — the final boss guide has the fight covered phase by phase.
Save a manual file before the Umbrella Underground choice if you want to experience the bad ending too. That way you can see Destroy Elpis once, then reload and take the path that actually matters.