Slay the Princess

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Remember, this is a quest to save the world (or save the Princess who will destroy it).

This page contains unmarked spoilers for the full release of the game! Beware!

• The Adversary & Eye of the Needle routes:
  • Both the Player and the Adversary, after doing each other in, can will themselves back to life in order to continue fighting each other.
  • The Player can choose to fight her unarmed and keep coming back for more through sheer willpower alone. She'll be stunned at how you can keep going despite how grievously injured you are.
  • Defeating the Eye of the Needle in combat. You get to watch the Stubborn and the Hunted pull off impressive teamwork to help you take down one of the physically strongest iterations of the Princess without breaking a sweat.
    • It's even more impressive when you consider that this is one of the few instances where a battle with a combative Princess DOESN'T end with a Mutual Kill or a Curb-Stomp Battle in her favor. Separately, the Stubborn could only stalemate her, and the Hunted could only flee from her. But together, their combination of instinct and determination let you endure her blows and counter her attacks in a deadly dance of death. Even when she manages a counterattack, the Narrator explicitly states that it wasn't enough to kill you, and the Eye of the Needle succumbs to her wounds and admits defeat. While most of the other Chapter 3 Princesses require the Shifting Mound's intervention to save you from the Princess' new form, the Eye of the Needle needs it to save HER from YOU.
      The Eye of the Needle: Hah. You've outplayed me, haven't you?
  • If you have him in the Eye of the Needle, the Hunted gets to show that his survival skills go well beyond just primitive instinct. As soon as you arrive at the cabin, he quickly deduces the Princess' key strengths and weaknesses (she's stronger and tougher then you, but you're faster and she's emotionally unstable) and comes up with a sophisticated strategy to exploit those weaknesses - and sure enough, if you follow his instructions to the letter, you get one of your few outright victories over the Princess. Not bad for a character whose plans normally begin and end with "Run for it".
    The Eye of the Needle: You can't run from me! No matter where you go, I'll follow!
    Voice of the Hunted: Good.
• The Player killing the Beast from within. Even with aid from the Hunted, you can only outmaneuver her for so long before she catches and eats you alive. But if you still have the Pristine Blade with you, you can hack your way through her stomach (while being digested, mind you) and pierce her heart from the inside.
• The Den route:
  • With the help of the Voice of the Stubborn, you can take the Den head-on and, should you choose not to embrace the instinct, land a decisive strike into her heart, as the Den, even as she tries to heal herself by eating pieces of you, is rendered unable to remove the blade lodged into her chest and piercing her heart.
  • If the Voice of the Skeptic is present, he can form a plan to trap the Den in the tunnel by luring her out of the shadows, resulting her in getting stuck and rendered helpless. From that point on, you can choose to slay her easily as she's rendered helpless and unable to get out.
  • Alternately, instead of slaying her, you can choose to show the Den mercy and opt to free her from the cabin. The Narrator, of course, doesn't take it kindly as he attempts to use his Author Powers to start a tunnel collapse to do whatever he can to keep both you and the Den trapped. However, the decision to show the Den mercy pays off as she shields the Player from the collapsing tunnel, what follows next is the amazing (and simultaneously heartwarming) display of teamwork as you and the Den are actively working together to free yourselves from the collapsing cabin and overcome whatever obstacles the Narrator tries to come up with before you both ultimately manage to dig your way out and step into your freedom.
    • Credit where it’s due to the Narrator in this route if you choose to escape with the Princess; while in all the other routes, the Narrator's powerlessness is completely ensured the moment you choose to rescue the Princess, here, however, he takes full advantage of the Author Powers to establish himself at his most dangerous, causing the cave-in, and then threatening the Player and the Den with asphyxiation and complete collapse of the cave, while also trying to make the ordeal as difficult as possible in a way that presents genuine stakes as far as the Narrator's obstacles go. And that makes it all the more amazing when you and the Den still manage to overcome his obstacles and secure your freedom, with the Narrator simply resigning himself and admitting that at the very least he tried.
• The Nightmare route:
  • The Paranoid continuously keeps your body from shutting down from fright through manually maintaining your organs' functioning. He can apparently continue to do so forever, and while he grumbles, he only ever falters when the Nightmare deliberately tries to break his concentration. The Hero, when he tries it himself, seems to have much greater difficulty.
  • The Player stabbing the Nightmare in the heart if you choose the Slay The Princess option. It's a little more so if you let her lead you up the stairs first, as you've essentially tricked her into letting you out of her basement dimension.
    • This, mind you, is when your organs are failing from sheer dread at the potential impossibility of felling such a foe, only to face your fears and go for the kill.
    • The Nightmare is momentarily stunned silent when you do this, as if she genuinely couldn't fathom you having the courage to attack her.
• You and the Prisoner can work together to put one over on the Narrator. If you hand her the blade, she will decapitate herself, and the Narrator will assume she's dead. However, if you decide to take her head (presumably) as a trophy, once you open the door, the Narrator will interrupt himself in the middle of his Good Ending speech upon seeing that the world still exists around the cabin. Cue the Prisoner's eyes regaining focus as she smirks and compliments you.
  The Prisoner: Well played.
• Both variations of the Razor's defeat. The Player clears his mind, evicting every voice out of it (including the Narrator), and brings both himself and the Princess back to the basement, and then the Construct in the process. With the blade, the Player moves on his own to fight the Razor, and the duel for the two of them eventually leads to a Mutual Kill that nonetheless elicits genuine awe from the Razor and is described as a "good ending" by the narration. Without the blade, the Player loses his body and becomes formless, and not only does he resist the Razor's attacks, but he somehow folds the blades of her body in on himself. This is the only thing that ever evokes actual fear from this particular Princess.
  The Razor: You're incredible.
  • Before that, in the "No Way Out" route, you have the Voices of the Hero and the Cheated, joined by those of the Contrarian and the Broken. Once the Razor has both swords for arms, you can try talking her out, flirting with her, or letting her stab you. Whatever option you chose, she skewers you... and then realizes that you are still alive, as one of the seven voices (Paranoid, Opportunist, Cold, Hunted, Skeptic, Smitten or Stubborn, depending on what you did) arrives to protect you from dying for a short time. She tries skewering you again, and it appears as if you Feel No Pain at all, as the other six voices are milked out one by one with each skewer. You and she both wonder how much more you can take while she still makes witty comments. By the time she gets to the final skewer, your body finally gives out as you collapse and die in front of her. You gotta admit, though, they all care for you to make sure that you stay alive for a little longer.
• The Tower & Apotheosis routes:
  • The Tower not only notices the Narrator's protestations, she hijacks him and the two of them narrate the rest of the scenario together.
    • You have to give props to the Narrator, though, before the hijacking. When he sees you being compelled by the Tower to pick up the blade and stand, he continues as if nothing's wrong with you. But when she compels you to slit your throat, he starts to get a bit flustered and tells you not to listen to her, but to "end this"; and gets even more flustered before telling you to "end her" when the Voice of the Broken makes you bring the blade to your throat. If you decide to "slay yourself", though? That's when the line gets crossed, and he puts his foot down and tries to talk you out of slitting your own throat, even using his Author Powers to firmly lock your Pristine Blade "and the hand that wields it" into place "until you change your mind and decide to do literally anything else" (keyword being "tries"). The gambit seems to work, as the Tower sees you "quaking against my will, an ant defying a god," not noticing anything amiss at first and telling you that resistance is futile... Until she sees that you're not the only one resisting, and eventually catches the Narrator in the middle of saving your life. Though he tries to brush it off as best as he can by saying that she's not supposed to be able to interact with him, she hears him, tells him that there's nothing he can do to stop her, and uses her Compelling Voice to hijack him for his trouble, leaving you defenseless without him as a protective shield against a Slashed Throat this time. Still, you gotta admit that at least he did his best in standing up to her and saving you as an act of bravery and courage.
  • The Player managing to kill the Tower. Despite the godlike power that allows her to trim your dialogue tree and forces you to only mutilate yourself if you resist the compulsion to slit your own throat.
    • You sever the Tower's Achilles' tendon with your blade, and then, when she falls to her knees, stab her in the heart in utter defiance. The Tower proceeds to have a massive Villainous Breakdown over her godhood's defilement by a "little bird's" attack.
  • The Apotheosis is a Physical God who utterly dwarfs you. To the point that, due to the sheer magnitude of her presence, the very earth around her is drawn up into her orbit. But you can nonetheless choose to take up the Pristine Blade and try to fight her anyway, despite the seeming futility of defying such a being. After, when the Shifting Mound has collected the Apotheosis as a vessel, she notes that in your dealings with her, your will was never broken.
    The Apotheosis: Even now, you defy me. Do it, then. Show me what you think it takes to end what's destined to end everything.
    Voice of the Hero: Yeah. Do it. Show her.
    [End this.]/[Assail the unassailable.]
  • The Pristine Cut expands on this route with a few permutations in how you choose to defy the Apotheosis.
    • If you have the Contrarian with you, your meager Pristine Blade barely dents her skin. But you can still do what the Contrarian does best: throw the blade, which lands right in her eye, breaking her cocky attitude.
    • Bonus moment of awesome for Contrarian: after hearing the Apotheosis and the Narrator order you back and forth and constantly stripping you of your volition, he starts coming up with ideas to make neither of them happy. Running away out of spite has rarely been so empowering, and when it doesn't stick, he spites the Narrator by embracing your new goddess. And then, with your help, the Contrarian defies the Apotheosis' attempt to escape and drags her back into the construct.
      Voice of the Contrarian: So much for spiting her. Spiting Him it is.
    • If the Voice of the Paranoid is present, he picks up on the power of perception they all have. First enabling the Pristine blade to create a Sword Beam that knocks her back, along with dazing her momentarily. The coup de grâce of it all? He manages to rally the Voice of the Broken into dropping his worship of the Apotheosis, which ends up transforming the Pristine Blade into a Pristine Sword. It gets stopped by her psychic barrier at first, but the collective Heroic Willpower between all three Voices pushes through and smashes it, gaining the Apotheosis' earnest respect.
    • When the Pristine Sword fails to draw blood, the Apotheosis begins picking at the barrier at the edge of the construct, which causes untold anguish to you. If you resist and choose to turn it on her, even the redeemed Broken relishes in the ability to stand up against his false idol, eventually unraveling the Apotheosis as a unique outcome to this route.
• The Fury Route:
  • The Pristine Cut turns the encounter with the Fury from a Hopeless Boss Fight into a Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fight and shows just how powerful The Stubborn can be. He forces you to keep fighting her even after she reduces you to the atomic level by forcibly resetting the loop back at the fight instead of in the woods. With help from the Cold, you power through nonexistence to pierce her heart once again, invoking a second This Cannot Be! from the Fury (if you came from the Tower)!
    The Narrator: But it doesn't last. You are disintegrated. Everything goes dark—
    But there is no you to die.
    The Fury: How many times do I need to pulverize you before you finally understand[?!] You are nothing! An empty void that dared to dream it was alive!
    Voice of the Cold: That feels... right.
    Voice of the Stubborn: IF WE'RE NOTHING, THEN WHY ARE WE STILL HERE?!
    Voice of the Cold: Because we always have been.
  • The Adversary-to-Fury encounter is less intense but just as awesome.
    • Despite being torn apart and stretched to infinity, the Stubborn and Broken or Cold can manage a Victory by Endurance holding on by sheer willpower until the Fury loses the will to continue, with the Broken and/or Cold dauntlessly enduring the torture even after The Stubborn has given up. The Cold seems positively bored by the whole experience, responding to the Fury's monologues with a Shut Up, Hannibal!, while the Broken finally puts his unshakable faith in you.
      Voice of the Cold: "Do I have to keep answering?"
      Voice of the Broken: "I'm going to stick around as long as you need me to."
    • Much like working with Cold above, the Stubborn can work with the Contrarian to push being a Determinator to its limits. You lose your skin, your muscles, your organs, and yet you still keep going. When the Fury completely destroys you, the Narrator vanishes and it seems like the end. But you're still there, so you're not finished. With the Contrarian and the Stubborn, you go the distance and pierce the Fury's heart.
      Something, or nothing, bursts forward from the place that is you. Threads in the shape of pristine blade. They pierce her heart.
      The Fury: Huh… I felt that.
      Voice of the Hero: We actually did it.
      Voice of the Stubborn: We… actually won.
      Voice of the Contrarian: I always knew we had it in us!
    • Even if she ends up losing her will to fight right after, The Fury manages an impressive consolation prize by making The Stubborn concede. No other Princess can make that claim.
• The Witch route:
  • The Narrator describes the Player holding his own against and The Witch in a brutal brawl that breaks every rule of honorable combat and sinks past the lowest of the lows in terms of tactics.
  • The Witch revealing that she could've slipped her chains the whole time.
  • The Player having the sheer stones to give up the blade to the Witch as a peace offering. Granted, it ends up with him dead but it does shake the Witch's mistrustful nature and opens the door in the next chapter for true reconciliation with her as the Thorn.
• If you ignore the Narrator's attempts to turn you and the Princess against each other and instead choose to "turn inward" and find your freedom during the Wild route, you and the Princess use your roots to stretch throughout the woods to the outer edges of the Construct, seeking out a flaw. You finally find it: a plane of glass that buckles under your combined pressure into a crack in the world. The Narrator panics, demands that you stop, warns and threatens you with what he'll do if you don't, but it's all in vain. Pushing against the crack, the two of you widen it into an opening that gives you a glimpse of something. Something outside the Construct.
  • This route is notable in that the opening in the Construct is one of the few instances of color in the game, and it's the only one that isn't red. It's a green-yellow light glowing from beyond the crack in the world. The only other time you see this light? When you and the Shifting Mound awaken in the "There are no endings" ending and break free of the Construct. This moment where you work with the Princess in the Wild route is a hint at the power you both have together.
• In the Cage, the Paranoid manages to figure out that the Construct changes based on perception. With the Hero's help, he manages to break the chains binding you with sheer force of will, freeing you and saving your life.
• Some of the possible final interactions the Player can have with the Narrator are this.
  • Simply smashing the mirror shards instead of even bothering to hear the Narrator's exposition period. Or after hearing his justifications for his actions. To his credit, he simply accepts his loss, but not before giving one last jab, referring to you as petty for that last act of defiance.
  • Telling him that you're finding a way of saving the Princess instead of slaying her.
  • If you went through the Happily Ever After route where that Narrator came to regret trying to defeat death, you have the option to tell him so. While he tries to dismiss it as one simple insane version of him, he's audibly shaken by the revelation: for one moment, you made the stubborn and petty Narrator hesitate in his purpose.
• The "There Are No Endings" ending where you decide to join the Shifting Mound in godhood may mean the death of the universe someday, but it also brings returns the possibility of rebirth. Yet despite the cosmic significance of what you both do, it feels small in comparison to the two of you breaking free. What gives you the strength to shatter the walls of the Construct? The quiet Love Confession of the Shifting Mound. In the face of The Power of Love shared between two gods, the Construct collapses.
• The "And? What Happens Next?" ending is as awesome as it is heartwarming. The Player can just reject the options forced upon him by the Narrator or the Shifting Mound. Instead, the Player, with the Voice of the Hero's help, can be brought to the heart of the Shifting Mound where the Princess is waiting for the Player's final choice.
  • During the Shifting Mound's attempts to bring the Player around to her perspective, the Voice of the Hero is able to pierce through the noise, reach out to the Player and lead him to her heart, where the Player can speak with the Princess and resolve things once and for all; definitively proving himself worthy of his namesake.
  • What makes the Voice of the Hero's role in resolving this conflict so awesome is that he did it by being The Heart. During the game he couldn't grant any supernatural abilities to the Player like some of the other Voices could, and in the end he shows that Heart Is an Awesome Power by being the one to grant the Player the option to end the conflict between the two by to simply talking it out.
  • When you meet with her in the cabin, the Player can convince the Princess to leave together with the Player to face this next unknown as mortals. All done through The Power of Love from the Player, the Voice of the Hero's assistance and the Shifting Mound's willingness to trust the Player. Break from the Creator's Construct without slaying the Princess and it all adds up to one crowning moment of awesome.
• The "Your New World" ending provides a victory option for those who fully sided with the Narrator, a "Good Ending" done properly. Consistently reject the Princess over the course of the game— kill or abandon all her vessels in whatever ways you can — and you can unlock new options in the final debate where you refuse to debate with her. After all, nothing's changed. You're here to do a job, and you're going to slay the Princess and save the world. Keep doing this, and the debate breaks down to an actual fight between you and the Shifting Mound, with you being swarmed by her wave of bodies...and winning, overwhelming her with your sheer power and wiping her from existence. You create the world anew, ever moving, never decaying, a world of uninterrupted experience, averting the horrible stasis of the Narrator's vision as the construct opens, revealing not a dying star but a vast ocean glimmering under the light cast by the horizon of a black hole. You did it, hero. You saved the world.
  • Unlocking this ending usually includes achieving many of the above triumphs, like defeating the Apotheosis or the Razor. But there are other possible paths too, including the otherwise humorous and/or uncomfortable derealization of the Damsel. If you bring it up again as an insult toward the Shifting Mound, you boast that your thoughts alone reduced her to nothing. And if you commit to destroying her, she vanishes the instant you make your choice, proving you can do and have done it again.
• The Princess and the Dragon chapter gives a potential retroactive level of awesomeness for the princess. You see what the Long Quiet looks like from her point of view, and realize that she saw this strange unchanging creature and beat the crap out of it to escape. May also count as a mixture of a funny moment to realize the tiny girl was cold clocking a bird-dragon man wreathed in shadow as tall as the ceiling, and heartwarming given how liable the protagonist is to think of her as a threat regardless considering the true nature of the Princess.
• The "Sharp" version of the Princess going in and retaliating against the Opportunist's bullshit provides some excellent comeuppance against him.