Resident Evil Requiem: all endings explained (Hope, Destruction, and post-credits scene)

Resident Evil Requiem does not do things by halves with its endings. After about twenty hours of exploring Rhodes Hill Hospital and the ruins of Raccoon City, everything comes down to one decision. Grace Ashcroft finds herself in front of the ARK terminal — Umbrella's secret laboratory where Elpis lies — and must choose: release Elpis or destroy it .

No decision made before this moment influences the outcome. No hidden morality system, no side quest that tips the balance. It's binary, brutal, and it changes absolutely everything — who lives, who dies, and what the future holds for the franchise.

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the entire story of Resident Evil Requiem. If you have not completed the game, turn back now.

To unlock both endings without starting over, manually save before Leon takes the elevator to the central room of the Biological Weapons Depot (Room B4). You then regain control of Grace for the final choice. The game's autosave also allows you to go back — just refuse to overwrite your save.

To fully grasp the stakes of the two endings, you must understand three key elements of the scenario.

It's the threat that looms over Leon throughout the game. The T-virus, contracted during the Raccoon City incident in 1998, has remained dormant in the survivors' bodies for almost 30 years. But it has mutated. Antibodies are no longer enough. Six survivors of Raccoon City have died from the same thing — and Leon is next on the list.

The disease progresses in four stages: black marks on the skin (stage 1), numbness and internal bleeding (stage 2), then uncontrollable vomiting of blood and death within one to two hours (stage 3). Leon hides his symptoms under gloves for much of the game, but towards the end, he is in advanced stage 2. Time is running out.

It's the central twist of the game. Everyone — the antagonists, the BSAA, even the player — thinks Elpis is a biological weapon. The ultimate creation of Oswell Spencer, the founder of Umbrella. Except it's not. Elpis is an antiviral. A remedy capable of neutralizing all biological weapons based on the T-virus and its derivatives. This is Spencer's act of redemption—too late to save his reputation, but enough to potentially save millions of lives. The name "Elpis" comes from ancient Greek and means hope Capcom did not choose this word at random.

The organization in the shadows since RE7. In Requiem, we learn that they manipulated Umbrella's downfall from the beginning, that they are responsible for the strike on Raccoon City, and that they secretly control part of the government. Zeno, the "cardboard Wesker" of the game, works for them. Victor Gideon, the real main antagonist, uses them as much as they use him. It's a nest of vipers.

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If Grace chooses to destroy Elpis — convinced that it is a weapon too dangerous to exist — she enters the destruction code into the terminal. The ARK installation begins to collapse.

This is the darkest ending of the entire Resident Evil saga. By far.

Leon, weakened by the Raccoon City Syndrome (he is in stage 2-3 at this moment), tries to confront Zeno. But Zeno possesses superhuman abilities inherited from his biological modifications — in the lineage of Albert Wesker, but on a budget version. Leon shoots. Zeno effortlessly dodges every bullet. He physically dominates him, then shoots him in the head.

Leon S. Kennedy dies. One of the most iconic characters in the franchise, present since RE2 in 1998, killed by a secondary antagonist in a collapsing basement. Capcom was not afraid to hit hard.

Grace witnesses Leon's death from the other side of the room. She is horrified, but does not have time to react — the ARK collapses around her. She flees via the elevator, alone.

The consequences of this choice are devastating:

• Leon is dead — no healing possible without Elpis
• Sherry Birkin is condemned — she carries the same infection, and the only remedy has just been destroyed
• Emily cannot be saved — the blind little girl Grace was trying to protect remains locked in her biological cocoon
• Zeno escapes — he swears to avenge Grace, leaving the threat of Connections looming
• No post-credit scene — the game cuts to black after the credits. No teaser, no hope. Nothing.

The Destruction ending is clearly the "bad" ending — Capcom confirmed it as non-canonical. But it exists to show what happens when one acts out of fear rather than understanding. Grace destroys Elpis because she believes it is a weapon. She never knew it was a cure.

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If Grace chooses to release Elpis, everything changes. The installation does not collapse immediately. Elpis spreads through the ARK systems, and the truth emerges: it is not a weapon, it is a universal antiviral. Spencer's atonement.

Spencer had hidden Elpis in incomplete documents, precisely to prevent the Connections from seizing it. There was never a "key" linked to Grace or Emily — it was a decoy. Spencer wanted someone trustworthy to find Elpis and release it at the right moment. His act of redemption after decades of biotechnological crimes.

Victor Gideon, upon learning the truth, loses his cool. He who thought he was getting his hands on the ultimate weapon finds himself with a remedy. "Do you know how much time and money I wasted on this?" he rages. But he quickly realizes that destroying all viral weapons would plunge the world into chaos — no more biological deterrence, no more balance of power. In his twisted mind, the antiviral is even more dangerous than a weapon.

Zeno, the Connections' underling, injects himself with Elpis thinking he will gain additional power. Except the antivirus neutralizes his biological modifications. His superhuman abilities disappear all at once. Victor Gideon, who already saw him as a Wesker imitation, takes advantage of this to decapitate him. End of Zeno.

Leon, on his side, also receives a dose of Elpis. The antiviral begins to take effect on the Raccoon City Syndrome. His black marks fade. For the first time in months, he feels better "I can't believe this antiviral really worked. I feel better than I have in ages," he said after the battle. Thanks to a dose reserved for Sherry as well.

Victor Gideon, refusing to accept defeat, injects himself with a cocktail of mutations and transforms. The final battle takes place in two phases.

Phase 1 — The Muted Doctor. Victor uses tentacles as whips, melee combos, lays electric lines on the ground, and pulls out a rocket launcher. It's an aggressive fight reminiscent of the franchise's best bosses. The trick: keep your distance, block the tentacles with the hatchet, and shoot him during his recovery windows.

Phase 2 - The Flesh Monster. Victor transforms into a gigantic creature, a flesh kaiju that strongly resembles Nemesis in RE3. The battle takes place on a restricted platform. You have to aim at the glowing red pustules — first on the arms, then the head, then the lower body. He strikes with devastating ground strikes and summons tentacles and damage orbs between each cycle. The battle ends with a QTE where Victor grabs Leon — you have to hammer the keys to get out and finish him off with the Requiem weapon.

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After Victor Gideon's defeat, several cinematics follow and conclude the arcs of each character.

Leon and Grace, exhausted, find themselves trapped in the rubble of the ARK. Grace refuses to leave without Leon. "I will stay here with you," she says, resigned. But the BSAA arrives — the Wolf Hound Squad, sent by Commander Redfield (Chris). A soldier announces: "Mr. Kennedy, I have a message from Captain Redfield." Leon responds with a weary smile: "I'll be damned."

The antiviral Elpis is already taking effect. Leon is feeling better. Grace is also receiving the treatment. A dose is reserved for Sherry Birkin, who was carrying the same infection — and probably partially protected thanks to her regenerative abilities linked to the G virus.

The game's latest emotional twist. Leon reveals to Grace that he did not hit any vital organs of Emily when he shot her earlier (when she was in mutated form). "She could still be alive," he says. And he's right. Emily is found unconscious but alive — her biological cocoon disintegrates after the rescue at Rhodes Hill. Elpis undoubtedly helped stabilize her.

The post-battle scene shows us Grace in a helicopter, a coffee in hand, on the phone with Leon. Sherry is fine. Emily too — and Grace is teaching her to read. She has become her tutor. On her desk at the FBI, we can see photos of her with her mother Alyssa Ashcroft and with Emily. Grace found a new family after losing hers.

Leon, true to himself, jokes: "It would have gone better if Chris hadn't been late to the party." Chris, by the way, is nowhere to be found — "I'm sure I'll come across him at some point," says Grace. A detail that will be important.

It's the scene that everyone missed by closing the game during the credits. Stay until the end.

After the credits at the end of Hope (and only this end), a short sequence shows soldiers - operators of the Connections - in radio communication. They declare:

"The remaining BSAA forces have been neutralized. Recover the objective before they send in the wolves."

Three elements to remember here:

• The connections are always active. The death of Zeno and the defeat of Victor have not changed anything in the organization. They continue to operate in the shadows.
• The BSAA has been compromised. Forces from the BSAA have been "neutralized" — confirming that Chris's organization is infiltrated or under attack. This would explain why Chris is untraceable at the end of the game.
• "The wolves" — a mystery. Who are they? The Wolf Hound Squad of the BSAA? A rival faction? A secret unit of Chris? Capcom deliberately leaves doubt.

This scene clearly serves as a bridge to RE10 or a major DLC. The Connections, introduced in RE7 and developed in Requiem, are positioned as the antagonists of the franchise's sequel. With Umbrella definitively buried and viral weapons potentially neutralized by Elpis, the threat shifts to political and military control — a new field for Resident Evil.

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Unlocking the Hope's End unlocks a 60-page document in the Bonus Content menu: the Grace Report. And it's not filler—it's a goldmine of lore.

The report summarizes the events of the saga from Grace's point of view, but also introduces significant retcons in the Resident Evil timeline:

• The Connections caused Umbrella's downfall — it is no longer the American government alone that pushed Umbrella to bankruptcy. The Connections orchestrated sabotage from within.
• The attack on Raccoon City was linked to the Connections — the decision to raze the city in 1998 would have been influenced by the organization, not just by the government's panic.
• Spencer had planned Elpis from the beginning — the founder of Umbrella knew that his viral creations would be misused. Elpis was his insurance policy, hidden in deliberately incomplete documents to deceive the Connections.
• Alyssa Ashcroft was murdered by the Connections — Grace's mother, an investigative journalist, had cracked the Spencer case. Her death in 2018 was not an accident — it was a cover-up.

This report is clearly a setup for future episodes. It repositions the Connections as the main enemy of the franchise, where Umbrella has held this role since 1996.

The Hope Ending is the canonical ending. It is the one where Grace releases Elpis, Leon is healed, Victor Gideon is defeated, and the post-credits scene teases RE10. Capcom has confirmed that this is the official conclusion that will be taken up in future episodes.

Yes. Manually save before Leon takes the elevator in the Biological Weapons Depot (Room B4). After Grace's choice, you can reload this save to see the other ending. Autosave also works — just refuse to overwrite your automatic save when the game prompts you.

Only in the Destruction ending (non-canonical). If you choose to destroy Elpis, Zeno kills Leon with a bullet to the head. In the Hope ending (canonical), Leon is cured of the Raccoon City Syndrome by the Elpis antiviral and survives.

No. RE Requiem has only two endings: Hope and Destruction. The "secret ending" some talk about is actually the post-credits scene of the Hope ending, only accessible by watching the entire credits after freeing Elpis. No third hidden path.

Victor Gideon is the main antagonist of RE Requiem. Former doctor linked to Spencer's research, he seeks Elpis to destabilize the world order by neutralizing all biological weapons. He transforms into a Nemesis-type creature during the final boss of the Hope ending - two combat phases including a particularly impressive kaiju form.

Chris does not appear directly in the end cinematics. He sends the Wolf Hound Squad to save Leon and Grace, and Leon mocks his lateness. The post-credit scene shows that BSAA forces have been "neutralized" by the Connections — which could explain Chris's absence and set up his role in RE10.

In the end Hope, yes. Leon reveals that he did not hit any vital organs when he shot her in mutated form. Emily is found alive, her biological cocoon disintegrates, and Grace takes her in as a guardian. They are seen together in the epilogue — Grace teaches her how to read.