Atomic Heart has a long history that packs a lot of information into a very short time. It’s completely understandable that the ending might confuse you a bit, so we’ve put together this guide to explain the two conclusions you can come to.
Atomic Heart’s Ending Killing Sechenov, Explained
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If you choose to defeat Sechenov, you will see the best ending in Atomic Heart. You’ll need to fight your way through The Twins first. Then, when P-3 confronts Sechenov, he is electrocuted by his glove, knocking him to the ground. The glove is opened and the neuropolymer containing the personality and intellectual capacity of the character you know as Charles comes out. He recounts how he manipulated P-3 from the start to be wary of Sechenov, and now that Sechenov and P-3 are incapacitated, Charles springs into action. The Neuro Polymer crawls on the floor, while talking about how humans must disappear and make way for the new dominant lifeform, Polymer, in the nearby Red Polymer vat.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll remember that the red polymer can absorb bodies and create new life forms. Charles uses it to assume the crude form of a jelly man before picking up Sechenov and snapping his neck. We later learn that Charles also absorbed the body, but we don’t know if he does the same with P-3. Charles explains that Polymer is so much more than humans could be, and now he must expand across the world and become something more with the robots he helps.
Charles takes the thinking device from Sechenov’s desk and smashes it. It seems to do something else, but we don’t know what. Maybe it’s just a sign that all thought devices have stopped working, because it was the most powerful. What we do know is that the thought devices are irrelevant and that Charles can now control every human who has been injected with polymer on the planet. This would leave humans as mindless bodies.
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This seems to be the most likely outcome as P-3 is transported to Limbo after the Thought Device is crashed. He sees Right, one of the twins who contains his wife’s brain and personality. However, Charles was able to send P-3 into Limbo throughout the game, so it can only be P-3 that is sent into Limbo. The way Right descends from the sky and P-3 approaches him sounds like a sequence telling us that robots are now gods in Atomic Heart. This may be true for the 3826 installation.
The final moments of this finale make it clear that some people are still alive and uncontrolled by Polymer. These may be people from outside the Soviet Union. they discuss how the neuropolymer containing Charles escaped and can no longer be found. It also cannot be analyzed further in the camera images due to its small size. Given these notes, it appears that Facility 3826 is under Charles’s control, but the rest of the world remains free. It remains to be seen how Charles plans to kill all the humans.
The End of the Atomic Heart March, Explained
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Related: Someone has already created a mod that skips the long Atomic Heart intro sequence.
The second ending in Atomic Heart is a bit of a joke. This is what you will get if you decide not to face Sechenov and break your glove. The narrator explains that P-3 was last seen walking away across the field, and Sechenov sees this as insubordination but does not pursue him. The comment about a small pile of neropolymer lying around on the floor and disappearing is still there, but you won’t be putting the pieces together unless you’ve seen the best ending above.
Once this ending is complete, you can select a new option from the game menu, “Back to installation 3826.” If you do, you will return to the game from the point where the train crashed. You can take on all the optional content without the pressure of a primary goal to achieve.
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