The Relentless Plague – Analyzing the Endings of Pathologic 3
We are used to dividing game endings into conditionally "good" and "bad." In the case of Pathologic 3, everything is different: that very resolution that would satisfy the majority simply does not exist here. Even the most logical outcome cannot be called perfect—and that is the hallmark of Ice-Pick Lodge. In this article, we will not only list the endings of the new "Plague" but also analyze the price the hero pays for each of them and why a perfect option is deliberately not provided.
Let's try to understand what the "ice picks" have offered players this time.
The Price of Choice
Pathologic 3 honestly strips the player of the illusion of a flawless outcome. Sometimes the city perishes, sometimes the miracle is devalued, sometimes Daniil Dankovsky himself betrays everything that was dear to him. Each ending clearly shows the priorities set by the player controlling the Bachelor: what he does with the responsibility for thousands of lives, how he reconciles his own beliefs, the miracles of the steppe Town-on-Gorkhon, and Thanatica—the goal for which he got involved in this story in the first place.
In the classic "Plague," the ending was much more a matter of taste. If you want, save the town; if you want, preserve the Polyhedron; if you want, choose the Changeling's ending and don't choose at all. You could try to sit on all chairs at once: if the miracle is guaranteed in the end, why sacrifice anything at all?
Now the scheme is different. The game is deprived of the possibility to win everything at once—you can no longer save both the Polyhedron, and the town, and Thanatica simultaneously. The ending is assembled like a puzzle from two major layers: what we did for the town and what we did for Thanatica. You can brilliantly save the Town-on-Gorkhon but return to the capital to a ruined laboratory. Conversely, you can shamefully shirk responsibility—and still live to a ripe old age, continuing to pursue science.
- Pathologic 3 Review – the town that cannot be saved
"Miracle-Seeker" – From Skeptic to Mystic
"Miracle-Seeker" is the most controversial of the conditionally favorable endings. Mechanically, it's almost a reward for careful and meticulous playthrough. By the twelfth day, Dankovsky has the epidemic under control, understands the nature of the miracle and the Sand Plague, consciously chooses to save the tower, but still loses it: either he didn't save Karminsky from Andrey Stamatin's assassination attempt, or he didn't stop Aglaya in time. As a result, the Polyhedron is demolished. Living blood, necessary for Burakh's panacea, seeps from its ruins. The town survives, children play in the streets again, and life gradually returns to normal.
However, this is the Haruspex's resolution, not the Bachelor's. In the capital, the Inspector formally praises Dankovsky and declares that his efforts saved Thanatica. Only, the hero himself no longer needs it.
The journey through the Polyhedron (finally, you can wander freely outside all dimensions) becomes an initiation. Daniil literally dies and is reborn: he lies down in a coffin, wakes up in it, meets Simon, and assimilates his main principle—to endure the trial to become stronger. After this, the Bachelor perceives the tower not as a curiosity on the riverbank but as a device that breaks the usual flow of time and turns consciousness inside out. The Bachelor's non-linear story scatters him across several points in space simultaneously, thereby making him immortal. At the moment of this realization, Dankovsky becomes Simon Kain.
Having followed in the teacher's footsteps, the Bachelor changes his life's vector: he becomes disillusioned with his own Thanatica and returns to the capital only to leave again almost immediately. He is drawn to a new northern town and the anomalies there—now he seeks immortality not in laboratory flasks but in miracles. Thus, the physician grasps the essence of the question but is unable to comprehend it fully.
To many players, this turn seemed like a breakdown of the character—too sharp a leap from skeptic to almost obsessed mystic. From a rational point of view, it indeed looks like the final nervous breakdown of an already broken man, finished off by stress. Nevertheless, "Miracle-Seeker" is my favorite ending. For all its illogicality, Dankovsky still retains the drive for new research. And at the same time, it's an organic hook for a possible sequel—the hypothetical "Adventures of Bachelor Dankovsky" in a new town.
"The Price of a Miracle" – Aesthetics for Aesthetics' Sake
"The Price of a Miracle" is obtained by the player if they choose the Polyhedron without ever having been inside. The tower is formally saved, but without understanding its essence, it remains merely a beautiful lantern that violates gravity. No insights about existence, no breakthroughs—bare aesthetics for aesthetics' sake.
The price for preserving an incomprehensible miracle is new plague outbreaks across the country and the death of Thanatica. In the laboratory, we are met by infected colleagues with only hours left to live. Beyond the university's stained-glass windows—the capital, devoured by the Sand Plague. Dankovsky can no longer fix anything.
This ending is a quite fair response from the game to a beautiful, seemingly correct, but essentially empty decision. The player saves the Polyhedron not as a vessel of immortality but simply because in the classic "Plague," the Bachelor seemed to have defended the tower. Didn't understand what you were protecting—here you go, sign for it.
- "Time jumps are an opportunity to skip pages in the middle of a book" – interview with the lead game designer of Pathologic 3
"True Immortality" – Great and Eternal
"True Immortality" is formally the best ending the hero could dream of. Here, he not only understands Simon and the nature of the tower but actively fights for it: he saves Karminsky and thwarts Aglaya's investigation. In the capital, the Inspector reproaches him: why wasn't the town saved? But now the Bachelor doesn't care. He doesn't just touch immortality—he becomes it.
In this version, the tower's potential is fully revealed. Dankovsky's consciousness dissolves into the tower. All interrogations, conflicts, pressure, and doubts turn out to be part of his internal debate with himself, locked inside the Polyhedron. He sorted the task into shelves and found the answer. After that, he became truly free.
From the perspective of the hero's dream, this is the ideal outcome: he achieved immortality. Unlike "The Price of a Miracle," here the town's death is not felt as payment for a whim. Dankovsky chooses the miracle not blindly, but because he has grown to understand it.
"Academician" – Comfort Instead of Utopia
"Academician" is the most rational and, perhaps, the most "joyful" of the favorable endings. The playthrough is almost flawless: Dankovsky honestly fights the plague, learns that the Sand Plague kills other diseases,