Resident Evil Requiem Endings Guide: Release Or Destroy Elpis?
Grace's final choice in the ARK laboratory decides whether Leon lives, whether there's a final boss at all, and whether the whole game means something completely different than it looked like an hour earlier.
Massive spoilers ahead for the last act of Resident Evil: Requiem. Anyone who landed here looking for early game help instead should back out now and check our Resident Evil Requiem beginners guide, because everything past this point covers the finale in full.
By the time the story reaches the deepest floor of the ARK laboratory, Leon's collapsing from Raccoon City Syndrome and effectively out of commission. Grace is left standing at a terminal, answering a question Oswell Spencer built the entire facility around. Type "HOPE" to release Elpis, or choose to destroy it. That's the whole choice, and it's the only one that matters.
There's a Canon Answer, and It's Not Subtle
Capcom didn't build a branching narrative that tracks choices made across the whole campaign. This decision comes down entirely to one terminal prompt, and nothing done earlier, documents read or rooms skipped, changes the outcome.
The game drops a hard autosave right before this room, which makes checking both endings painless. Pick one, watch it play out, reload, see the other. Worth doing, honestly, since the bad ending recontextualizes just how good the real one is.
Destroying Elpis Ends the Game Early, and Brutally
Choosing to destroy Umbrella's final project punishes that decision almost instantly. Grace triggers the ARK's self destruct sequence, and the room starts coming apart around her. Leon insists he'll follow her out, and both characters clearly know he's lying, his Raccoon City Syndrome has already gone too far for that to happen.
Zeno, furious that his shot at godhood just got taken away, pulls a long barrel revolver as the platform crumbles and shoots Leon dead while Grace watches from a safe distance. She escapes alone by helicopter as the facility goes up in flames, and the credits roll right there. No final boss, no post credits scene, nothing. It's a genuinely bleak way for the story to end, and thankfully it's not the one that counts.
Releasing Elpis Reveals What the Whole Game Was Building Toward
The interview tapes with Alyssa Ashcroft scattered earlier in the campaign hint at this, Spencer calling his daughter Grace his "hope" isn't a throwaway line. Typing HOPE into the terminal releases Elpis and flips the entire premise of the finale.
Elpis isn't a weapon. It's a cure. Zeno grabs a vial expecting to ascend into something unstoppable, and instead the serum strips every mutation away and leaves him fully human, cured of Raccoon City Syndrome entirely. He barely has time to process that before Victor Gideon drops in, sprouts a tentacle, and decapitates him on the spot.
Watching the cure work, Grace injects what's left of the Elpis into Leon. It works immediately, and he's back on his feet for the fight that was always supposed to happen.
The Actual Final Boss
Gideon mutates into a hulking bioweapon Leon identifies as a Nemesis variant, and this is the real endpoint of the campaign. He hits hard and doesn't let up, so this is exactly the moment to burn through any heavy ordnance saved up over the last several hours. Keeping distance and baiting out his tentacle sweeps before punishing the opening tends to work best against him.
Expect this fight to chew through healing items and ammo fast. Leon eventually strips Gideon of his own rocket launcher and finishes him with it, turning the mutated researcher into a fine mist.
What Happens After
With Gideon dead and the ARK caving in, Leon and Grace brace for the worst just as the ceiling gives way and sunlight breaks through. Chris Redfield leads the rescue team that pulls them out, and a news segment afterward confirms Emily, the infected child Grace spent the whole game trying to save, was recovered alive.
The credits are worth sitting through. A mid credits scene shows Grace back in civilian life taking a call from Leon, confirming Emily's been fully cured with Elpis and formally adopted. Leon survives, the virus has a real cure in the lore now, and the fallout from that reshapes a lot of what comes next for the series.
This path is also the only route that unlocks the "Hope and Requiem" narrative achievement, so anyone chasing full completion doesn't really have a choice between endings at all.
Resident Evil Requiem Endings FAQ
What happens if you destroy Elpis?
The ARK facility self destructs, Zeno shoots Leon dead as he's too weakened by Raccoon City Syndrome to escape, and Grace gets out alone by helicopter. The final boss fight and post credits content are skipped entirely.
Does Resident Evil Requiem have multiple endings?
Yes, two endings, both determined by a single choice at the terminal in the ARK laboratory's final room.
How many endings are in the game?
Exactly two. No secret third option or joke ending, just release Elpis or destroy it.
What is the canon ending?
Releasing Elpis is canon. Leon survives, the Nemesis variant gets destroyed, Chris Redfield shows up for the rescue, and a cure for the virus enters the series' lore going forward.
How do you get the good ending?
Type "HOPE" into the terminal when Grace is prompted, which releases Elpis and triggers the full finale.
What is Elpis?
Not a bioweapon. Elpis is a cure Oswell Spencer created as a final act of redemption, capable of reversing every known variant of the virus and stripping infected hosts of their mutations entirely.
