As a remake (or perhaps reimagining) of the first two games in the series, Layers of Fear packs in an awful lot of story. Since your in-game actions impact what happens, there are multiple endings to explore. So if you’re wondering what all endings in the Layers of Fear remake are, here’s what you need to know.
Here’s How All of The Stories in Layers of Fear Can End
Most of the stories have at least two endings. The ending you get depends on the actions you take while playing that particular tale. And I do mean the whole tale—it’s not like some games where you can spend the entire game punching orphans and still get the good ending. If you want to know what’s going on in each story, make sure to check out our explainer. But if all you want is the list of endings, here they are:
The Painter’s Story
All these endings reveal that this isn’t the Painter’s first attempt at completing his perfect painting. He has a massive pile of similar paintings, so the story you experience is one of many loops.
Family. The painter finally realizes the importance of family. But with his wife and child gone he decides to end his life. He lies down in his pile of paintings and sets it—and himself—on fire.
Art. He paints a “perfect” painting which turns out to be a self-portrait. He decides all the “sacrifices” he made were worth it, and he hangs it in a gallery. Though, like most of the game, that could all be in his head.
Loop. He completes his painting but it warps in front of his eyes. Seemingly never happy with his work, he starts all over again.
If you want the Family ending, make choices and collect objects that have to do with your wife and daughter. As a tip, green items (letters included) have to do with family. Items with red on them (such as letters with a red mark down the side) will push you in the direction of the art ending. If you see a scale symbol that means there’s a particularly big decision to make.
There’s also a fourth, secret ending but we’ll come to that later.
The Daughter’s Story
The daughter’s story has three endings, which are as follows:
Forgiveness. The daughter forgives her father and, setting the house on fire, leaves with one of his portraits of her. She then hangs it on her wall at home. The picture briefly warps, suggesting she’s not entirely out of the woods.
Resentment. She doesn’t forgive her father and smashes the portrait. The house bursts into flame for unknown reasons and she’s crushed by falling debris.
True ending. She decides to follow in her father’s footsteps and stay. She walks into his workroom and talks about how insanity runs in the family.
To get the Forgiveness ending you have to behave and help your father and mother. To get the Resentment ending, disobey them, for example by playing the wrong notes, using a crayon on a painting, and so on. The “true” ending requires you to collect sketches and put them together in the right order.
The Musician’s Story
After playing the main game you know how the Musician’s story is, eventually, going to end. The game doesn’t quite show that, but there are still two ways this chapter ends, though they’re both quite similar.
Loneliness. She decides that she’s truly alone, concluding that she’s “free.”
Acceptance. This is similar to the above, except that she picks up a knife and heads to the bathroom.
Like in the main game, decision points are marked with a scale symbol and it’s those choices that influence your ending.
The Actor’s Story
Separate from the Painter/Daughter/Musician story, the actor’s tale has three endings. He’s not really on a ship. Rather the whole ship story is taking place in his own head in an effort to deal with the loss of his sister, Lily. The endings are as follows:
Always. Lily, either her ghost or James’s split personality, takes over James’s body.
The Flame. James accepts Lily’s death and awakes from his hallucination.
Formless. This is the equivalent of The Painter Story’s Loop ending, an encounter with the Rat Queen, pushing you back to the beginning of your dream.
In both the Always and The Flame endings it’s suggested that the nightmare isn’t quite over, that something (either Lily, James, or the Rat Queen) is lurking, ready to return. You get The Flame ending by obeying the director, the Always ending by repeatedly going against them, and the Formless ending for hopping around in the middle.
The Writer’s Story
So far, I’ve only encountered one ending to the Writer’s story. It ends with her trying to defeat the Rat Queen by burning her portrait. But this doesn’t work and the Rat Queen locks her in the lighthouse, telling her to write.
I’ll update this if a second ending is uncovered. But, right now, the only Writer’s ending I’m aware of is the Trapped ending.
How to get the Secret Ending of Layers of Fear Remake
It may not be listed in the chapter menu but there is a fourth, hidden Letting Go ending for the Painter’s Story. It’s been uncovered by Reddit user wolker4, and is detailed here. Essentially, you have to complete four separate, unrelated tasks, which are as follows:
Chapter 1: Repair the broken bedroom mirror using the pieces you find in the room.
Chapter 3: Find four bowls in the child’s room and place them with the teddy bears.
Chapter 5: Gather the three perfume bottles in the bathroom and place them on the tray.
Chapter 6: Find the four paintings in the main hall and mount them.
As the Painter, you can now leave the house, netting you the Letting Go trophy.
How to Get the Good Ending in Layers of Fear Remake
There’s no singular ‘good’ ending to any of the stories, it’s down to your interpretation.
That said, the secret Letting Go ending is perhaps the most positive of all the Painter’s Story endings.
As for the Daughter’s Story, the Forgiveness ending is the most positive, though I’d argue that she’s seeing too much good in him. I guess that’s what forgiveness is about…
The Musician’s Story doesn’t have any good endings since you know she’s going to end her own life. The Alone ending is marginally less miserable.
The Flame is the closest the Actor’s Story has to a good ending, since he gets to live his life, accepting his sister’s death.
And the Writer’s ending? If there’s a good ending, one where she doesn’t end up trapped, it’s yet to be found.
And those are all the endings for the Layers of Fear remake, some much more miserable than others.
