Resident Evil Requiem's Two Endings — What Happens When You Destroy or Release Elpis

Quick answer: Choose Release Elpis in the central chamber of the ARK facility to get the canonical good ending, which includes the final boss fight, Leon's survival, and the "Hope and Requiem" trophy/achievement. Choosing Destroy Elpis triggers the bad ending where Leon is killed, and no trophy is awarded.

How the ending choice works

Resident Evil Requiem's finale takes place deep beneath the ruins of Raccoon City in a secret installation called the ARK. During the final stretch, gameplay alternates between Leon Kennedy and FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft. After Leon clears out Lickers and infected enemies in the Bioweapon Repository while waiting for an elevator, control shifts back to Grace, who must reach the ARK's central chamber. There, a terminal poses a question: "What does the creator desire?"

You're given two options — Destroy Elpis or Release Elpis — and a confirmation prompt follows to make sure you're committed. Nothing you did earlier in the campaign affects which options appear or what happens next; the entire ending hinges on this single binary decision. If you want the flexibility to see both outcomes, save manually before Leon rides the elevator, since that's the last point of no return.

Destroy Elpis — The bad ending

Picking Destroy Elpis is the non-canonical conclusion. Leon attempts to fight Zeno, the Wesker-like antagonist hand-picked by The Connections, but he's already weakened by Raccoon City Syndrome and can't keep up with Zeno's superhuman bullet-dodging reflexes. Zeno overpowers Leon and shoots him in the head, killing him instantly while Grace watches in horror. The ARK facility begins to collapse, and Grace barely escapes alive, boarding a helicopter in a state of shock.

This ending awards no trophy or achievement. After the credits, the game offers a prompt to reload a system-generated autosave right at the moment of the Elpis decision, giving you a clean do-over without needing to replay anything. You can safely skip this ending entirely if you'd rather go straight to the canonical outcome.

Release Elpis — The good ending

Releasing Elpis is the correct, canonical choice. Throughout the campaign, files and dialogue establish that Elpis is a powerful antiviral agent developed by Umbrella co-founder Oswell Spencer — essentially a universal cure capable of neutralizing bioweapons. Grace inputs Spencer's password, and the antiviral is deployed. She administers it to Leon, curing his Raccoon City Syndrome infection and restoring his strength.

Zeno is furious, but he doesn't last long. Victor Gideon arrives, dismisses Zeno as a "cheap imitation" of Albert Wesker, sprouts tentacle arms, and decapitates him. Victor then mutates into a Nemesis variant, triggering the final boss fight with Leon.

The Victor/Nemesis boss fight

Victor's transformation plays out in two phases. The first phase features tentacle arms that mirror the humanoid Tyrant form of the original Nemesis. In the second phase, Victor becomes a massive, blob-like monstrosity reminiscent of Nemesis' final form from Resident Evil 3, complete with glowing pustules you need to shoot. Leon finishes Victor off by blasting the creature's core with the Requiem weapon, reducing it to a puddle of organic matter.

Post-fight cutscenes and story resolution

After Victor is destroyed, Leon and Grace are trapped inside the failing ARK facility. Just as escape seems impossible, BSAA agents from the Wolf Hound Squad arrive from above. Leon is told that Commander Redfield — Chris — is looking for him. This is a significant moment for long-time fans, as it confirms Chris successfully reformed the BSAA following the corruption cliffhanger at the end of Resident Evil Village.

Grace and Leon share a brief conversation while riding a helicopter to safety. A separate scene shows Sherry Birkin, who appears to also suffer from Raccoon City Syndrome, smiling at the news that Elpis can serve as a cure. News broadcasts then report the discovery of a bioweapons lab beneath Raccoon City, with the US president denying government involvement — though the in-game files tell a very different story.

A young girl named Emily, who was earlier encountered in a monstrous cocoon form, is shown alive and recovering after being rescued from a bio-terror site in Rhodes Hill. The cocoon that encased her slowly unravels, implying that Elpis reversed her transformation.

Post-credits scene and epilogue

After the credits roll, a short scene shows Grace back at her FBI desk, happy and settled. Two photos sit on her desk: one of her late mother Alyssa Ashcroft, and another of Emily. Grace is on the phone with Leon, casually discussing what she's been teaching Emily, confirming that she's now the girl's guardian.

But the story doesn't end on a purely hopeful note. A final stinger shows mercenaries arriving at the ruins of the ARK. One of them radios in to report that all BSAA operatives on-site have been eliminated and that they've "acquired their target." Whether that target is a fragment of Victor's remains, something related to Zeno, or another asset entirely is left deliberately ambiguous — a clear setup for future installments. The Connections, the shadowy criminal organization first introduced in Resident Evil 7, are far from finished.

Lore revelations from Grace's Report

Only the Release Elpis ending unlocks Grace's Report, an in-game document accessible from the menu that recaps and recontextualizes key events across the entire Resident Evil timeline. Several major retcons and revelations are embedded in it.

The Connections orchestrated the Raccoon City missile strike. The thermobaric attack that destroyed the city in 1998 wasn't purely about containing the outbreak. The Connections lobbied for the strike to sever the relationship between the US government and Umbrella, shifting all blame onto Oswell Spencer. This allowed The Connections to seize Umbrella's assets, including the ARK facility itself.

Spencer was partially a scapegoat. While Spencer bears genuine responsibility for Umbrella's atrocities, the game reframes his downfall as something engineered by The Connections and elements within the US government. Albert Wesker, linked to Tricell (which had deep ties to The Connections), presented evidence against Spencer during his trial. Grace concludes that significant external pressure influenced the proceedings.

Spencer sought redemption in his final years. The report reveals that journalist Alyssa Ashcroft interviewed an infirm Spencer late in his life. During that meeting, Spencer entrusted a baby — Grace herself — to Alyssa. Grace was a foundling, completely unaltered by any experiments. Spencer considered her his "hope," which connects directly to Elpis, the Greek word for hope. Spencer developed the Elpis antiviral as a way to render bioweapons inert, though whether this was genuine altruism or a posthumous act of vengeance against the forces that destroyed him remains an open question.

President Benford's assassination was connected to The Connections. In Resident Evil 6, President Adam Benford planned to reveal the US government's ties to Umbrella before being killed. Grace's report adds that Benford also knew about The Connections' involvement, and Zeno himself remarks that Benford had to be eliminated to protect the organization.

Unlocks after completing the game

Resident Evil Requiem's ending structure is straightforward compared to some earlier entries in the franchise — there's no complex branching based on earlier gameplay decisions, no hidden requirements, and no secret third path. The Destroy Elpis route exists mostly as a grim "what if" scenario, while the Release Elpis path delivers the full narrative payoff, the final boss encounter, and the lore-heavy epilogue that ties together threads stretching back to the very first game. If you only play through once, Release Elpis is the way to go.