Last updated: 5 September 2026

Resident Evil Requiem All Endings Explained

Resident Evil Requiem comes down to one decision near the end of the game, and it changes who lives, who dies, and whether the story is left open for a sequel. This is a full spoiler breakdown of both endings, the exact choice that triggers each one, and which ending Capcom and reviewers treat as canon.

01Spoiler Warning

Everything past this point covers the final act of Resident Evil Requiem in full, including how the game ends. If you haven't finished the campaign yet, bookmark this and come back after the credits roll.

02How Many Endings Does Resident Evil Requiem Have?

Two. Shortly before the final confrontation, Grace Ashcroft is given a direct choice: release Elpis or destroy Elpis. That single decision determines which of the two endings you get. There's no secret third ending or additional condition layered on top.

03Release Elpis — The True Ending (Canon)

Choosing to release Elpis leads to the ending most reviewers and outlets treat as canon:

• The antagonist Zeno gets hold of the released Elpis and injects himself with it, expecting it to make him even more powerful. Instead it strips away his mutations — Elpis turns out to be an antiviral cure targeting progenitor-virus-derived infections, originally developed by Oswell Spencer as an act of atonement, not the weapon Zeno believed it was.
• With Zeno weakened, Victor Gideon kills him.
• Grace uses Elpis to cure Leon, who has been dying from Raccoon City Syndrome (also called Latent Onset T-Virus Syndrome) — a late-developing, ultimately fatal reactivation of the original T-virus that has already killed several other Raccoon City survivors.
• The story moves into a final battle where Leon defeats Victor Gideon, who mutates into a Nemesis-like form for the fight.
• As the ARK facility comes down, Chris Redfield's Hound Wolf Squad arrives to extract Leon and Grace — a direct, named link to the wider Resident Evil cast rather than just an implied tease.
• Elpis is left framed as a potential broader cure against progenitor-virus-derived bio-weapons going forward.

This is the ending that keeps both leads alive and explicitly sets up where the series goes next, which is why it's the one most coverage treats as the true/canon outcome.

04Destroy Elpis — The Bad Ending

Choosing to destroy Elpis instead leads to a much darker outcome:

• Leon, still dying from Raccoon City Syndrome and without a cure, fights Zeno as the ARK facility begins to self-destruct around them.
• Zeno overpowers Leon and shoots him in the head at point-blank range, killing him.
• Grace escapes the facility alive, but the ending closes on her devastation at not being able to save Leon.
• Because the confrontation that resolves the true ending never happens here, both Zeno and Victor Gideon are left alive as unresolved threats, and there's no Chris Redfield rescue or sequel setup — the story doesn't move forward from here.

This is the game's bad ending: it's grimmer, it removes a long-running franchise protagonist, and it deliberately leaves both villains standing, which is the clearest signal that it isn't the canon outcome.

05So Which Ending Is Canon?

The release-Elpis ending is the canon one. It's the only outcome where the story actually continues — Leon survives, both villains are dealt with, a direct sequel hook is planted through Chris Redfield's forces, and Elpis is set up as a recurring plot device. The destroy-Elpis ending exists as a genuine alternate outcome you can reach on any playthrough, but it's a dead end for the story rather than a branch Capcom is building on.

06Do You Need New Game+ or a Specific Difficulty to See Both Endings?

No. Both endings are available on a single playthrough at any difficulty — the choice is a straightforward prompt near the finale, not something gated behind hidden requirements. If you want to see the ending you missed, the fastest route is loading your last save before that choice (if the game auto-saved nearby) or starting New Game+, which lets you carry progress into a fresh run so you can reach that point again quickly.