Like other games in the Metro series, Exodus includes a hidden moral points system that affects its ending. You can gain or lose moral points depending on your actions throughout the game. You’ll probably get a bad ending if you kill everybody mercilessly and do nothing to help anyone. If you amass enough moral points, however, you’ll see the happier of the two Metro Exodus endings at the end of the game. These are nine moral points in Metro Exodus that all count toward the game’s happier ending.
Read also: 11 Metro Exodus Tips for New Players
Free the Prisoners at the Bandit Hideout (The Volga)
This is a moral point you can gain by completing an optional objective on the Volga map. When you meet up with Duke in his hideout to reach the Terminal, he’ll mark a bandit base on the map you can choose to clear out. There the bandits are holding some prisoners you can set free after clearing out the hideout. Freeing those prisoners will get you some moral points.
Find Nastya’s Teddy Bear (The Volga)
Finding Nastya’s missing teddy bear is another optional mission you’ll receive on the Volga map when Miller assigns Artyom to get the railcar from the Terminal. The location of the missing teddy bear is marked near the bottom right corner of the map. Make sure you set aside some time to retrieve Nastya’s bear from the demon’s nest to gain more moral points.
Nastya’s teddy bear
Get the Job Done Quietly on the Tug Boat (The Volga)
At the end of the Volga level, Artyom must infiltrate a tugboat with Duke to access bridge controls. Make sure you infiltrate the tugboat stealthily without setting any alarm bells ringing. To do so, try to knock out every enemy guard you can or use knives to take them out quietly. Aside from amassing some more moral points by doing so, it’s also very important to get the job done quietly for Duke’s sake. He’s one of three characters whose fate impacts the game’s ending.
Duke on the tugboat
Don’t Kill Saul (The Caspian)
Shortly after Artyom arrives at the Caspian Desert, you’ll be sent to a bandit base with an antenna. There the raider Saul attacks you on the top floor of that output. When Artyom gains the upper hand, you’ll be given a choice to either kill or spare Saul. Spare Saul by knocking him out to score another moral point.
Your choice to kill or knock out Saul.
Retrieve the Picture of Giul’s Mother (The Caspian)
You can gain this moral point in Metro Exodus after Artyom meets up with Giul in the Caspian. Just before you venture into the communications center alone, Giul asks Artyom to find her mother’s family photo within the facility. Have a good look around the archive rooms of the communication center to find the corpse of Giul’s mother clutching the requested picture. Then pick up the photo from Giul’s mother so Artyom can return it to her when he leaves the communications center.
Free the Slaves at the Derelict Ship (The Caspian)
After you leave the communications center and meet up with Anna in the Caspian Desert, she’ll mark two optional mission locations on the map along with the primary objective. One of those optional locations is a derelict slave ship on the sea’s coastline (don’t confuse it with another shipwreck on the left of the map). There you can rescue some slaves by pulling a lever at the far end of that derelict ship to increase your moral score. Be careful not to kill any slaves there while you’re at it.
The derelict ship
Avoid Killing the Children of the Forest (Taiga)
On the Taiga map, Artyom must get through Pioneer and Pirate camps. The Pioneers and Pirates are two separate factions of the Children of the Forest. The Pirates are the more aggressive Children of the Forest faction that will usually attack you. Avoid killing as many Children of the Forest (both Pioneers and Pirates) in those camps when you can to gain moral points. To get through the Pirate swamp camp without killing anybody, it’s best to go at night by sleeping in the bed just before it.
Aside from moral points, needlessly killing Children of the Forest has a big impact on the ending of the Taiga map. Aloysha is another of the characters (along with Duke and Damir) whose fate impacts the ending. If you kill lots of Pioneers and Pirates, something will happen to Alyosha. To ensure that something doesn’t happen, make sure you get through the two Children of Forest camps reasonably quietly.
A pirate
Free the Pioneer Prisoner in the Bandit Camp (Taiga)
You’ll need to move through a bandit camp in between the two Children of Forest camps there. There, there’s a captured Pioneer prisoner within one of the larger buildings in the center of that camp. Finding and freeing that prisoner is yet another way to rack up a moral point. You’ll probably need to bring out the guns to kill at least some of the bandits guarding that building around the camp. However, you won’t lose moral points for killing armed bandits.
Never Kill Enemies who Surrender (All Chapters)
Remaining human enemies often surrender at the end of larger dogfights when you’ve killed off most of their colleagues. Sometimes only one remaining enemy might surrender, but other times two or three may say they’re giving up and put their guns down. When that happens, never shoot the surrendering the hostiles if you want to see the happier ending in Metro Exodus. Instead, knock out (don’t knife) the surrendered enemies to pick up ammo from them.
It’s a bit easier to get the good alternative ending in Metro: Exodus than in Last Light. You’ll get many moral points in Metro Exodus if you avoid killing people (knock out armed human hostiles) and complete optional objectives. It’s especially important to gain the third and seventh moral points mentioned above to ensure nothing happens to two of Artyom’s three Spartan friends.
