Road to Empress II contains more than 100 endings spread across two narrative tracks, and clearing them all is a project that can take dozens of hours if you approach it blindly. The good news is that the game gives you the tools to do it efficiently—you just need to understand how those tools work. This guide explains the ending system, the Storyline Map, and the strategies that make completion achievable rather than overwhelming.
Unlike Road to Empress I, where endings are distributed across a single 16-chapter narrative, RtE II splits its content into two parallel tracks from the prologue onward:
Each track has its own set of endings with overlapping numbers but completely different scenes. Main Story Ending 008 and Side Story Ending 008 are not the same outcome—they are distinct branches with different characters, consequences, and voice messages.
When you reach any ending, the game displays:
Reaching a true ending also unlocks bonus content, including Court Mode, which lets you preside over the court without re-entering the branching narrative, plus currency rewards.
The Storyline Map is the single most important interface for ending completion. It is a visual decision tree that records every node you have unlocked. Here is how to use it effectively:
Access the Storyline Map from the main menu. It displays all previously visited decision nodes as a branching tree, labelled by chapter and scene name. Nodes you have not yet reached are hidden, so the map expands as you explore.
In the lower-right corner of the Storyline Map, the Current button highlights your active path—the most recent sequence of choices that led to your last ending. This is the fastest way to identify which branches you have not yet explored. Clicking Current for the first time also unlocks the Golden Butterfly Chase achievement.
Use Current after every new ending to see where your path diverged from unexplored branches. The highlighted nodes show your exact route; the dimmed nodes branching off from your path are the ones you need to visit next.
Click any unlocked node to jump directly to that scene. The game loads the video sequence from that point, and you can make a different choice to explore a new branch. You do not need to replay anything that comes before the node—the Storyline Map functions as a universal save system that lets you resume from any previously reached decision point.
This is why the game does not have traditional save files. There is no need for them when every decision node is a potential re-entry point.
At the bottom of the Storyline Map, a slider activates Hint Mode. When enabled, landing on a bad ending gives you the option to spend coins on a Tips prompt that points you toward the correct choice. This is useful when you are stuck on a specific node and cannot figure out the survival path through trial and error.
Hint Mode spending is optional. Experienced players who prefer to deduce the correct choice from context and voice notes can leave it off. For completionists trying to clear 100+ endings efficiently, turning it on for the trickier nodes saves significant time.
Endings in RtE II follow a numbering scheme that roughly correlates with their position in the narrative:
The numbering is sequential but not perfectly contiguous. Some numbers are skipped or merged depending on conditional branches that depend on prior choices. For example, Ending 091 only appears if power shifted during the “Dismantling the Clans” section in a specific way.
The main story contains the bulk of the endings—roughly 90+ across 23 chapters (Chapters 17 through 40 in the main numbering). The side story contributes approximately 55+ endings across its 7 side chapters (Side Chapters 17 through 23).
Bad Endings dominate both tracks. Out of the 100+ total endings, only a handful are genuinely positive outcomes. The distribution roughly breaks down as:
The side story has a slightly higher proportion of positive outcomes, reflecting its theme of escape and self-determination.
Every ending triggers a voice message from characters involved in the preceding scene. These are not just atmospheric—they are functional hints. The character whose actions led to your downfall often explicitly states what went wrong. If you died because you trusted the wrong person, the voice note might have that person gloating about your misplaced trust. If you made a political miscalculation, the note might feature a minister explaining exactly why your move backfired.
The voice note system is the game’s primary way of guiding you toward better outcomes without hand-holding. It rewards attention: listen carefully to who is speaking and what they are implying, and you can usually deduce the correct choice for the next attempt.
If your goal is to unlock every ending, here is the systematic approach:
Play through either the main story or the side story to its best ending on your own terms. Do not use Hint Mode. Let the game surprise you, kill you, and teach you. This first run builds your understanding of the narrative logic.
After your first completion, open the Storyline Map and click Current. Walk through the map from the prologue forward, identifying every node where an alternate choice is available. Make a mental (or actual) list of unexplored branches.
Starting from the earliest unexplored branch, jump to each node and select the alternate choice. Watch the resulting scene through to its conclusion (usually a BE). After each new ending, check whether the new branch itself has additional decision points you have not seen—some alternate choices open entirely new sub-branches.
Many endings require failing a QTE rather than making a dialogue choice. These are easy to collect once you know which QTEs produce unique endings. Jump to the node before each QTE, intentionally fail it, collect the ending, then backtrack and succeed to continue exploring.
Some endings trigger when you let a timer expire instead of making any choice. The game does not always advertise this. Known timeout endings include:
When clearing endings systematically, if you have explored all dialogue options at a node and are still missing endings, try letting the timer run out.
While RtE II has its own achievement system (57 Steam achievements), the key milestones for ending collectors are:
Track your progress through the Feats page on the main menu, which displays your current exploration percentage and ending count.
For reference, here are the major narrative endings in the main story and where they occur:
The good endings are concentrated in the final chapters. If you are struggling to find a positive outcome, you need to survive deeper into the narrative.
The ending system in Road to Empress II is designed for methodical exploration, not brute-force replays. The Storyline Map, voice notes, and Hint Mode exist precisely so that clearing 100+ endings is a structured process rather than an endless loop. Trust the tools the game gives you, work the map node by node, and remember that every Bad Ending is just a signpost pointing toward a better one.