Avowed endings explained: Sapadal choice, political ramifications, and how to avoid the final boss battle

For the answers to all that and more, read on for our handy guide to the Avowed ending! Let’s get to it.

We've also got video versions of your options, which were made by Cole Luke. The first video, focused on the Sapadal choice, can be watched above. The other parts, you’ll find below.

Avowed endings explained: All your choices have consequences

In the final hour or so of Avowed, there are three major ways in which you can change the course of history in The Living Lands: there’s the Sapadal choice, the Political choice, and the choices you make in the final confrontation with Inquisitor Lödwyn.

How you act in all three situations will feed majorly into the final montage of scenes that you’ll see before the credits roll.

It’s also noting that your earlier choices in the game — like whether you killed or spared Ygwulf, whether you saved Fior mes Iverno or watched it burn, and where you ended up with all the Avowed companions’ storylines — will also feed into this montage.

In terms of the things you can still influence at this late stage, we’ll explain all the choices for you below. We've even got a video for each stage!

Sapadal Choice: Should you free or kill Sapadal?

If you want to see the happiest ending, we’d recommend that you free Sapadal. In our playthrough, this had a very chilled impact on the final montage. Sapadal comes good on its promise to be better.

The choices played out like so for us:

Free Sapadal - this is the happiest ending, with Sapadal being a peaceful presence in The Living Lands.

Kill Sapadal - this ending is kind of dark, but it still works. Nothing breaks and none of your companions mind too much.

Merge with Sapadal - this ending is very dark. Your character gets overtaken by Sapadal, with your own personality being pushed below the surface. This also ruins any potential romance you have brewing with Kai.

Try to encourage Sapadal into taking vengeance - this didn’t work for me. Sapadal remembers that I spared Ygwulf, and now wants a similarly peaceful outcome. I wasn’t able to test what would happen here if I’d made darker choices earlier in the game.

Political Choice: Should The Living Lands become a colony of Aedyr?

If you want to see the happiest ending of Avowed, we would recommend that you Unite the Living Lands.

This definitely plays like the most positive outcome in the epilogue, keeping all the locals happy, but it’s hard to know if there could be consequences later if Avowed gets a direct sequel. Aedyr could strike back, of course.

Having save-scummed all the endings to this political choice, we can reveal the following findings:

Unite the Living Lands – this definitely plays like the happiest ending, with all the local leaders getting behind the idea. If there are any dark consequences for this, we won’t see them unless Avowed gets a sequel.

Become an official colony of Aedyr – the local leaders are a little annoyed, and the epilogue is slightly downbeat in places, but it works out fine for the most part.

Attempt a grefram – this one works pretty well, and is what the local leaders will actually vote for if you give them the chance. It definitely feels like a compromise, with neither side particularly thrilled, but it works just fine.

Join the Steel Garotte – there’s no surprise that joining the baddies is quite a dark ending. All your companions will leave you and all the leaders will all be annoyed. Romance with Kai won’t work. In terms of what actually happens, you essentially see a darker epilogue where the Steel Garotte are strongly implied to be ruling with an iron fist and subjugating the people of the Living Lands.

Boss Battle Choice: Should you join Lödwyn?

For most play-throughs, the best option at the end is simply to fight Inquisitor Lödwyn and put her down for good.

It’s a decent boss battle that shouldn’t give you too much trouble. Once she’s fallen for the last time, the epilogue will start.

Having save-scummed this section, as well, we can report that these are all your options and what happens if you pick them:

Fight Lödwyn - the easiest way to end the game is simply to fight Inquisitor Lödwyn one last time. After being revived a few times, she’ll finally collapse and the game will end.

High Intelligence ending - If you have 15+ intelligence (which should be a fairly easy respec if you’ve got the money), you can argue with Lödwyn until they lose faith in their god and drop dead on the spot. The game will then end and you’ll get to watch the epilogue.

Kneel before Lödwyn - this is the darkest ending for sure! If you join the Steel Garotte and kneel before Lödwyn, she will chop your head off. You’ll see a very brief epilogue where the baddies win.

Usurp Lödwyn - this is a more fun dark ending. If you join the Steel Garotte but don’t kneel to Lödwyn, the baddies win but your character is still alive this time. You’ll get to see an epilogue where the Envoy now commands the Steel Garotte.

According to some Avowed experts online, there is an ending that let’s you become BFFs with Lödwyn and rule the Living Lands together (rather than getting your head chopped off), but it requires some big decisions all throughout the game as well as passing a resolve check when you meet them again at the end of the game.

And that’s pretty much all you need to know! All of these final-hour choices, and your decisions from earlier in the game, will then feed into the final epilogue montage.

If you have romanced Kai and avoided the options he doesn’t like (merging with Sapadal and joining the Steel Garotte), you’ll get an extra scene in your montage that confirms Kai and the Envoy became a couple.

The status of the local rebels depends on whether you killed or forgave their leader Ygwulf earlier on, and whether you left Aedyr in charge of The Living Lands.

The status of the different locations depends on your actions earlier on. For example, Fior mes Iverno will remain a smouldering pile of rubble if you didn’t save it earlier in the game. And the dwarf society will have a different leader depending on your choices in that section.

The status of the different companions will depend on your earlier actions. For example, Yatzli had the chance to study with a legendary mage — if you encouraged that earlier on, her ending scene would tweak accordingly.

You can save-scum the Sapadal and political decisions fairly easily, which is a fun way to see some different permeations at play.

But you will need to go way back into an old save, and play large chunks of the game differently, to influence everything!

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