Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous‘ Inevitable Excess DLC has several endings. Still, just like the base game’s campaign, there’s one particular conclusion that has numerous requirements and hidden flags. In turn, you’re not necessarily achieving balance, but a twist to what’s expected of you. Here’s our Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Inevitable Excess Paradox secret ending guide to help you with all the necessary tasks.
Note: For more information, check out our Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous guides and features hub. Likewise, please be reminded that this guide contains spoilers.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Inevitable Excess — Paradox secret ending guide
Unlocking the Paradox secret ending
There are several major components to unlock the Paradox secret ending in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Inevitable Excess. The gist is that your actions will lean toward either Order or Chaos. These two conflicting sides are represented by Valmallos (Upholding Order quest) and Ssila’meshnik (She Who Sows Chaos quest). However, there’s another outcome, one where you’ll learn that this bubble dimension has another Excess: Areelu Vorlesh.
To do this, complete A Threat to This World/Other Side of Threshold dungeon. You’ll have a chat with Valmallos. You can exhaust most dialogue options, but don’t attempt to attack or end the conversation prematurely. These are the most important tidbits:
- “I have a lot of questions for you.” -> “What is this world?” -> “What else do you keep here…”
- [Perception 61] “Why did you take the Commander’s power but not Areelu Vorlesh’s?” – You must pass this high Perception check to make the next response appear…
- “Answer me directly, yes or no: is Areelu’s excess mythic power also in your repository?”
If you do it right, once you leave your hub in Threshold, you should see an option to “find Areelu’s excess mythic power” via the storybook panel. If you click on it, nothing will happen, as though it didn’t work. Eventually, though, you’ll notice a Knowledge (Arcana) 48 check. If you pass that, you’ll be transported to Areelu’s Hut.
A Meeting in Areelu’s Hut
Inside Areelu’s Hut, you’ll find a bunch of objects that you can interact with, as well as the Retchweed for the His Majesty’s Anguish sidequest. Pick up the Laconic Note and the four items inside the chest. The note should say something about the power of half-truths. It means that you need to place two items in the correct container, and the other two in the wrong spots. Here’s an example:
- Cradle – Doll (correct).
- Table – Drawings (correct).
- Vase – Frying Pan (wrong).
- Stove – Flowers (wrong).
This will cause a vision of Areelu to materialize. Exhaust all dialogue options, but don’t attack and don’t finish the chat prematurely. This will make the Paradox quest appear in your journal.
Errands and Keystone Rifts: An Equal Number of Order and Chaos Points
The next step to getting the Paradox secret ending in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Inevitable Excess is to consider your Order and Chaos points, as you’ll want to have an equal number (i.e., eight each). These come from the DLC’s nine errands and seven Keystone Rifts:
- Keystone Rifts – This is fairly straightforward, as you simply select Reinforce Reality (Order) or Tear Reality (Chaos). You can learn more in our Keystone Rift locations guide.
- Errands – These sidequests have some contextual clues as to what you need to do for a particular outcome. You can learn more in our errands/sidequests guide.
To avoid confusion, a good idea is to Tear Reality/go Chaos for all the Keystone Rifts. Then, pick the Order result for all but one of the errands (and that last one will be for the Chaos outcome). This should help you remember the choices you’ve made while playing.
Threshold Changes
In any case, doing the above steps will bring you closer to the Paradox secret ending in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Inevitable Excess. Either of the two main quests (i.e., Upholding Order or She Who Sows Chaos) will fail depending on what reaches eight points first. However, the Paradox quest should get completed once you receive eight points for the opposing branch. Your camp in Threshold will undergo dramatic changes:
- Chaos (first to eight points) – The same wasteland tileset but with lightning strikes all over the place.
- Order (first to eight points) – The clock/machinery environment.
- Paradox (after both are at eight points) – A combination of the two (i.e., clock/machinery with lots of lightning strikes), as seen in the featured image. Moreover, most NPCs will have clones. One is the normal variant, and the other is their counterpart.
From here, you can go ahead and fight Inevitable Darkness, an optional boss. Lastly, to see everything through to its conclusion, you’ll still need to clear the Valmallos Threshold dungeon.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is available via Steam.
Published: Jan 13, 2023 07:50 am