How to get every ending in Cronos: The New Dawn

Cronos: The New Dawn is a dark and gritty survival horror with a sci-fi narrative. There are multiple endings to discover while tearing through the desolate wastelands and tackling Orphans, each putting a striking spin on the main story.

Here, we’ll go over how to get every ending in Cronos: The New Dawn and explain the story as a whole. Note that this guide will feature massive spoilers for the game, so read at your own discretion if you’ve not made it to the Clocktower area yet.

The Escapist recaps

• There are three endings to choose from in Cronos: The New Dawn, with one of them being locked behind the NG+ mode. If you want to see every ending and get every trophy, you’ll need to play the game two or three times, depending on if you want to save scum or not. 
• The NG+ ending is considered by most to be the “true” ending for Cronos, as it provides a sense of closure for Weronika and ties up the story instead of reiterating the cycle. 
• At its core, Cronos is a story of obsession and an unwillingness to let go, tied into a wider arc about a devastating plague that ripped through humanity. The Pathfinder is obsessed with Weronika and is perpetuating the story by continuing to try and “save” her.
• A standard playthrough of Cronos: The New Dawn should take roughly 15-18 hours, with a completionist run taking slightly longer.  

How to get every ending in Cronos: The New Dawn

There are three endings to pick up in Cronos, with two of them being attainable in the standard game mode and one only being accessible in the NG+ game mode. This third NG+ ending is considered to be the “true” ending for the game. 

For both of the default endings, you’ll need to blast your way through the game until you reach the Clocktower boss battle. If you’re planning to save scum (we did) to see both default endings in one run, make sure you save in the final safe room before heading in.

“Shoot” ending

To get the first ending, known as the “shoot” ending, you’ll need to shoot the Pathfinder. This sets the future on the same path as the past, ensuring that The Change will continue to rip through humanity and sending Weronika back in time. 

Choose the “Shoot him. End it here” option when prompted. This will give you the I Am Free Trophy.

“Spare” ending

For the second ending, dubbed the “spare” ending, you’ll need to spare the Pathfinder by choosing the “Spare him. Let them go” option when prompted. This will result in Weronika undergoing Extraction once again, even though this is not what she wanted. You’ll get the A Flicker of Hope Trophy here.

Both of the default endings are hopeless. Whichever path you go down here, The Change will continue, and Weronika will be used as a tool despite her wishes. It fits the dark, dismal aesthetic of the game, but there’s a better ending available.

True ending

The NG+ ending is referred to as the “true” ending. To get this, you’ll need to play through a NG+ save file and get to the Clocktower, choosing “Begin anew” when prompted at the end of the battle. This rewards you with the Free From All the Scars Trophy.

The final ending provides more closure than the others. Instead of letting the Pathfinder continue to shape the future loop around his obsessions, a new path is hesitantly carved, with ND-3756 and Weronika leaving together. Thus, a new Vocation begins – but without the Pathfinder’s influence.

The game takes roughly 15-18 hours to complete all in all, but it’s worth seeing each ending for yourself, especially if you’re a completionist and want to nab all the Trophies. 

What happens in Cronos: The New Dawn?

The story in Cronos: The New Dawn is dark and melancholic, with some elements that are left open to interpretation. The summary below is our best interpretation of it all, based on the cutscenes, audio logs, and notes scattered throughout the world.

The game kicks off with The Traveler, a strong and stoic figure, waking up to begin her Vocation – a mission for a mysterious group named The Collective. 

The Traveler must work her way across the desolate wastelands and track down key people to Extract through time rifts that lead to 1980s Poland. Extracting a person is akin to removing their consciousness. 

The protagonist is not the first of her kind, and depending on the ending you get, she certainly won’t be the last.

The world in Cronos has been ravaged by a horrific virus called The Change, turning humans into gnarled, mindless creatures called Orphans. If Orphans can get to a dead body before it gets burned, they can merge with it and become even stronger. 

The aim of the Collective appears to be to stamp out The Change or, at the very least, delay it, but this gets murkier as the game unfolds.

A character named The Pathfinder is discovered, who ends up being the root cause of The Change continuing to re-emerge as an inevitability. He lost faith in The Collective and became infatuated with Doctor Weronika Kamiński, a crucial character from the Steelworks area. 

The Pathfinder’s experiments and unwillingness to let Weronika succumb to The Change have kept the cycle of the plague going, with The Traveler herself seemingly being the result of one of these Extraction experiments. 

Cronos: The New Dawn is a dark yet mesmerizing survival horror with heavy themes of time travel, corruption, and the cyclical nature of humans. While there are two endings to see when completing the game, the third and final ending from the NG+ mode is considered to be the “true” ending as it breaks the Pathfinder’s cycle. 

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