With The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope on our horizons, we decided to take a look back to Supermassive’s first installment, Man of Medan. The game follows a group of friends going out for a day on the boat that goes from good to terrible in the blink of an eye. Kidnapped by pirates and forced onto an abandoned military ship, your goal is to keep all the players alive and sane until they find a way to safety.
Similar to Until Dawn, the story of Man of Medan relies on your choices throughout the game. However, this time around, there are far more choices and possible paths to follow. Surviving is harder than ever, but we’ve got you covered. Here is how to find the best and worst endings in Man of Medan.
A note before moving forward: This guide works for the Theatrical Cut only, not the added Curator’s Cut. Also, many spoilers from here on out!
1) The Best Ending: Escape The Ship And Keep Everyone Alive
Getting the Best Ending will let all the characters leave together unharmed
To get Man of Medan’s best ending, you’ll need to survive the night and keep the main 5 characters (plus one pirate) alive until the end. That entails Alex, Brad, Fliss, Conrad, Julia, and Junior riding off into the sunset on the Duke of Milan.
For starters, you need to nail every QTE prompt and Keep Calm pulse events. Also make sure to find as many collectibles as possible, and keep your characters’ relationships on good terms. It’s probably easiest to follow a full guide, but here are some of the most important things to look out for.
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Alex should propose to Julia early on, and she should accept the ring during their dive.
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Conrad needs to be on the Duke of Milan the whole time, instead of trying to escape on the pirate’s boat.
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Many of the creepy monsters you encounter are actually you hallucinating due to the Manchurian Gold. Don’t attack these creatures, since they are usually your friends.
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When the Duke is first under attack, Brad will hide under one of the bunk beds. Make sure he stays hidden under there. In a later chapter, he will be able to search the ship by himself, and find the gas mask.
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Grab the engagement ring from Danny’s corpse.
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Grab the rebreather and use it to calm Junior down. Otherwise, things won’t end well for whoever he faces off against.
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Above all else, you need to have the distributor cap in your possession. Grab it away from Olsen when possible, and don’t let it go.
Following these steps will result in the crew escaping on the Duke of Milan, along with Junior. They will all discuss the crazy things they’ve been through the entire night, and Alex will put the ring back on Julia’s finger. The post-credits scene will show a few military personnel enter the ship and begin looking around. They will come across a deranged Danny who will knock them out with a sledgehammer.
2) Everyone’s Alive, Conrad’s The Hero
Conrad can escape the horrors, but return with back up to save the day.
Very similar to the first ending, but this one involves a few different key decisions. During the invasion of the Duke of Milan, Conrad has the option to escape on a speedboat. This is a bit of a risky move, but it offers a few different endings. In order for Conrad to be the hero, the group on the SS Ourang Medan need to keep their sanity through the night, but lose the distributor cap. This leads them stranded with no hope. Or so they thought. Conrad’s back and he brought reinforcements. Everyone drops down onto the Coast Guard’s boat, and it sails back to shore.
3) Conrad Gets Trapped With The Horrors
Alternatively, Conrad can escape only to be left alone with his hallucinations.
Just like in the ending above, Conrad will have to be on his own by escaping on the speedboat. This time around however, instead of letting the distributor cap go, you’ll need to hang onto it. This way, the crew can hop onto the Duke of Milan and sail away. When Conrad arrives to save his friends, he’ll go explore the ship to find them. With everyone gone, Conrad is left to face the horror that the Manchurian Gold produces. The post-credit scene shows him looking completely terrified of what he has seen. Technically, the rest of the crew survives, but Julia will be faced to wonder what happened to her brother.
4) Stranded And Insane
With no possible escape, the entire group will slowly go insane.
On the list of bad endings, this one aims pretty high. We’ve already noted how the Manchurian Gold can ruin the lives of our characters, but this ending will show just how disastrous it can really end. To get to the insane no-hope ending:
- Conrad must be part of your group, having not taken the speedboat.
- You need to not give the military your coordinates or the ship’s name; this will lead to other outcomes.
- The distributor cap needs to be destroyed or lost.
If you follow these guidelines, the group will be stuck on the ship with no ways of getting to shore or contacting anyone. Fliss and Brad will attempt to catch a current with the Duke of Milan, but eventually starve. You’ll see several clips of the rest of the characters going insane and being taunted by their hallucinated doppelgangers.
5) Military Imprisonment
Being on a lost military ship with no plausible explanation is not the best route.
Although everyone survives, this is definitely still a bad ending. This scenario relies on your conversation over the radio and collectibles found along the way. Your choices made here are closely related to a separate ending, so follow closely. You’ll get the imprisonment ending if:
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Conrad is still part of your group.
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You bypassed the clues about the ship’s name, or refused to reveal it to the military.
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The generator was not restored, so a character never blurted out the ship name.
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You mention your coordinates to the military.
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The distributor cap was destroyed during the finale.
The group will wait on the ship’s deck with no possible escape, when the military arrives. But, with no idea how civilians boarded a lost ship, the group will be taken into custody. The post-credits scene features Alex listening to his friends cry out from around him, all locked up indefinitely.
6) Military Execution
The military can and will do anything to keep their lost bio-weapon a secret.
Remember that list of bad endings? This one takes the cake. The absolute worst ending on our list is death by military execution. Unlike some others, this ending is decided by one simple decision. Reveal the name of the ship or not. To get to the execution ending:
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Conrad should, once again, be a part of your crew.
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You found the clues about the ship’s name.
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You need to reveal the ship’s name, or let another character blurt it out once the generator is restored.
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The distributor cap was destroyed.
Once the group gathers to wait on the deck, a military helicopter arrives. The characters will rush forward, thinking they’re saved, but as the screen fades to black, a wave of gunfire can be heard. The military will take any means necessary to keep the Manchurian Gold bio-weapon a secret.
7) The Bends
Decompression Sickness can ruin even a near perfect ending.
This pretty tragic ending is for one of our main characters in the final scenes of the game. Back in the early portion of Man of Medan, Julia and Alex were diving near an old plane crash. Right after Alex proposes, Julia panics about Conrad and wants to rush to the surface. Alex advises against it, saying that decompression sickness isn’t worth the risk. If you chose to surface quickly, Julia is a goner from that point on.
Julia can die from the Bends when you’ve escaped on the Duke of Milan (Best ending), onboard the Coast Guard’s ship (Hero Conrad), or right before the military comes (Imprisonment). Julia will start to breath heavily and clutch her chest while coughing up blood. The group will panic, and Alex will try to revive her, but all is for not. This will happen regardless if you’ve done everything else right. So much for a perfect ending.
8) Glowing-Eyed Terminator
Single-handedly the weirdest ending in the game. Undead terminator Olson.
Probably the weirdest and confusing ending out of all of them. If you manage to kill all of the characters before the finale scenes, then you’ll get a post-credits scene straight from your nightmares. The Curator will have a laugh at your failure, then show you Danny walking through the SS Ourang Medan’s lower decks where he’ll pick up Olson’s sledgehammer. He’ll spot Olsen, only he seems a little different. His eyes will start glowing bright red as he lifts Danny up and chokes him.
This ending is also possible to see if you escape on the Duke of Milan, the Coast Guard boat, or you did not give your location to the military.
Man of Medan is available on PS4, Xbox, and PC. The next game in the series, Little Hope, is scheduled for release this summer.
