All Signalis Endings Explained: Promise, Memory, Leave and the Secret Ending

Signalis, rose-engine's 2022 survival horror game, has a false ending partway through and four real endings: Leave, Memory, Promise and a secret ending the results screen calls Artifact. All of them end at the same place, the cryo pod on the Penrose-512, where Elster finally reaches Ariane Yeong. This page covers what happens in each, how the game picks one and what each might mean. It has full spoilers; for the whole plot first, read Signalis story explained. (Signalis)

The false ending#

After the flesh maze of Nowhere, Elster climbs out at a red gate where Adler sits wounded. He tells her that the commander, Falke, crossed the gate and came back sick and changed. Elster goes through anyway, across a red desert past the bodies of other Elster units, to the wreck of the Penrose-512. Two questions fill the screen: who are you, and what are you looking for? (Signalis)

Flashbacks from her template's life show the war on Vineta and a soldier beside Alina Seo, and the answer arrives. Elster was never looking for Alina. She was looking for Ariane. She climbs the ship, tears her arm off on the door, falls and dies. A short credits roll follows, and the title screen shows her eye lifeless. Choosing any option drops her back onto the Penrose, where the story carries on. The achievement for reaching it is called "Das Ende" with the description "Fail"; the one for carrying on is "Gestaltzerfall", "Return". (Signalis)

Yuri Stern has said the team did not expect many players even to reach this ending, and that it works in a way as an ending for players who stop there. (How the Silent Hill-Inspired SIGNALIS Tried to Forge Its Own Identity)

How the main ending is chosen#

You never pick an ending. After the last fight, the game gives one of the three main endings based on how you played; Barbara Wittmann has said endings are based on the player's overall playstyle. Players who have looked into the game's files found three hidden tallies, one for each ending, fed by your statistics. The game does not explain any of this, so treat the details below as what the community found, not what the game states. (Signalis; How the Silent Hill-Inspired SIGNALIS Tried to Forge Its Own Identity)

• Promise rises with violence and suffering: a long play time, lots of enemies killed, lots of damage taken, many deaths and long spells near death.
• Leave rises with care and curiosity: talking to people, keeping your health high for most of the game, checking locked doors and spending time aboard the Penrose in the memory section.
• Memory starts with a head start and wins any tie, so it is what you get if neither of the others pulls clearly ahead. A short play time adds to it.

(Signalis)

The secret ending is different. It is not scored; you choose it in Ariane's room. (Signalis)

Leave#

Elster reaches the Penrose-512 but cannot go in. On screen she tells Ariane that in the end she had to leave her behind; she wanted to see her again, but it's too much, and asks forgiveness. She takes off her armour plating and walks out across the planet's surface, now under a blue sky. She collapses, curls up and dies. (Signalis)

What it means. The plainest reading is that Elster cannot face what keeping the promise would cost, and chooses not to look. Some players read the blue sky as Vineta's, so that she dies inside her template's memories rather than her own, walking out of Ariane's story and into the soldier's. The game never confirms either reading. (Signalis)

Memory#

Elster opens the cryo pod and wakes Ariane, but Ariane does not know who she is and has no memory of their promise. Elster tells her it's all right. Text in German says she is herself again, but Ariane is no longer Ariane, followed by "Perhaps, this is hell." Elster asks to stay by her side a little longer and slumps against the pod, and before she dies Ariane rests a hand on her head. Ariane is still alive at the end. (Signalis)

What it means. Nothing is resolved. Ariane is left alive and suffering, which is what the promise was meant to prevent, so most players read Memory as a loop that carries on: the dream continues and another Elster will come. "Perhaps, this is hell" is the same line used for the achievement for reaching the mines, which links the two. Others read it more gently, as Elster accepting that the person she loved is already gone. (Signalis)

Promise#

Elster wakes Ariane, and this time Ariane remembers. Elster says she can't do it. Ariane says, in German, "You promised," and tells her it is time to end this. Elster puts her hands around Ariane's throat while a countdown runs down, says she is sorry, and when it reaches zero the words "thank you" appear. Elster kisses her and tries to leave, but she is too badly hurt and dies beside the pod. (Signalis)

What it means. This is the only ending where the promise is kept, and it matches the Penrose Program's own last message, which told officers to ask their Replika to spare them a slow death. The achievement for finishing the game is "Versprechen", with the description "Remember our Promise". Many players see Promise as the one that frees both of them and ends the loop, since the dreamer, if Ariane is the dreamer, is finally at rest. The game does not say so outright. (Signalis)

The secret ending (Artifact)#

How to get it#

The secret ending can only be reached after finishing the game once. On that second run, three keys appear that cannot be found the first time, and each one needs the radio tuned to a frequency at the right spot. (Signalis)

• Key of Love: In the isolation room on the workers' floor of S-23 Sierpinski. Tune to a frequency in the mid-90s (guides disagree on the exact number) and check the lower right cage.
• Key of Eternity: In the Storch dormitory on the eighth floor. Tune to 65.000 and check the bookshelf by the left bed at the far end of the room.
• Key of Sacrifice: In Rotfront, in the back room of the Itou bookstore. Tune to 240.000 and check the bookcase to the left of the book Song of the Gods. Pick this up before taking the Death tarot card from the next room, or the area closes off.

(Signalis)

Carry all three keys when you solve the north wall puzzle in Rotfront. In Ariane's bedroom, instead of picking up The King in Yellow, use the keys on the three padlocks of the safe, then enter the 20-digit code 39486 60170 24326 01064. The code is the start of the numbers station broadcast heard on the title screen and in Rotfront, and it appears on screen the first time Elster enters Ariane's room at the start of the game. Inside is a pot of white lilies. Taking them starts the ending. (Signalis)

What happens#

German text paraphrasing the Book of Revelation says that in those days people will seek death and not find it. Elster carries the lilies to a dark, fleshy place, lays them at a ritual site and dies there, among other dead Elster units around a glowing object at the centre. A second line says the mystery of this god is fulfilled, as she announced to her servants, the prophets. Then the scene shifts to the wrecked Penrose-512 with a huge red eye hanging above it, the words "Remember our promise", and Elster and Ariane dancing together in Ariane's quarters before they embrace. (Signalis)

What it means#

This is the most argued-over ending. The game states only what is on screen. (Signalis)

• A completed ritual. The ritual site and the glowing object echo the design on the back of The King in Yellow and the game's own logo, and the achievement for earning every other achievement is "Achtung", described as "Complete the Ritual". On this reading the cycle of Elsters was always feeding something, and this Elster finishes the work.
• Reunion. Elster gives up the book, refuses the fight and the promise, and is rewarded with Ariane, the dance Ariane once tried to teach her. Whether that reunion is real, an afterlife or the red eye's dream is left open.
• Horror. The red eye watching over the dance suggests the reunion happens inside whatever has been dreaming the world, and that neither of them is free.

(Signalis)

The keys themselves carry hints. The Key of Love holds Ariane's notes about teaching Elster to dance and falling in love. The Key of Eternity asks if Elster is "still looking for answers where there are only questions" and warns that there is nothing but heartbreak at the end. The Key of Sacrifice describes a star falling into the sea, like the flashbacks of the war on Vineta. (Signalis)

Is there a true ending?#

No. Barbara Wittmann has said it was not the team's intention for players to replay the game for another ending, and Yuri Stern has said he gets a bit sad when he sees players label the endings good or bad. Each ending is one version of how this Elster's search ends. Which one you get reflects how you played, not which one is canon. For the order of events behind all of it, see the Signalis timeline. (How the Silent Hill-Inspired SIGNALIS Tried to Forge Its Own Identity)