Hollowbody is a short survival horror game that takes you on a panicked run through whatâs left of 22nd-century England, 60 years after a terrorist attack infected its west coast with an unknown biological agent. As smuggler Mica Holloway, you have less than 20 hours to find your partner Sasha and escape the quarantine zone around the UK. Otherwise, your forged security credentials will expire and youâll get shot down by the defense grid before you can make it home. Thatâd already be a tall order, and then the undead monsters start showing up.
Hollowbody features three unique endings to its story. Naturally, this canât help but involve spoilers. Weâll try to keep them as mild as possible.
The Stranger on the Roof
Only two of Hollowbodyâs three endings are available on a fresh run through the game, and both are tied to a mandatory conversation at the end of its first area.
When you reach the top floor of the apartment building, Mica will end up face-to-face with a suicidal human survivor.
The fate of this survivor, the Stranger, is the single primary branch point for Hollowbodyâs story. Depending on your conversation with him, heâll either jump off the roof or elect to come with you. That determines which of the two conventionally available endings youâll receive.
If the stranger dies
If he dies, youâre locked in for the Reunion ending, and the achievement of the same name. However, thereâs also an exclusive achievement on this path.
Once youâve found the pack of fuses in the Star supermarket, backtrack all the way to the apartment building. While this may initially seem impossible due to a blocked tunnel in the sewers below the church, you can check the passage near the ladder to find a new alternate route. Just keep looking around and you should end up back in the drainage area near the church exit.
Back at the apartment building, use one of the fuses on the fallen security shutter. This raises it so you can get back into the rest of the building. Among other things, you can now return to the parking lot via your initial entry point in the storage room.
The strangerâs corpse can be found against the wall of the building. Search his body to retrieve the exclusive memo Record of Events.
At time of writing, this isnât required for the Logomaniac achievement, which is earned by finding every other memo in the game. However, it does unlock the secret achievement Living With Ghosts
If the stranger lives
If he lives, it puts you on track to get the Riven ending, and the achievement of the same name.
Getting the stranger to step down from the ledge can be tricky. Heâs guaranteed to jump if you opt to answer Taxâs radio call instead of continuing the conversation, but thatâs not the only trigger. The key appears to be showing him sympathy, instead of trying to change the subject or shake him down for information.
Weâve found that the following choices in this conversation will get the stranger to survive:
âExcuse meâŚâ
âBad things donât always make you a bad person.â
âDo you live up here?â
âIâm looking for someoneâŚâ
(Ignore radio)
Be careful during this sequence and donât skip dialogue. It can be easy to get the stranger killed by accidentally picking the first dialogue option on a menu.
If the stranger turns away from the ledge and sits down, heâs out of danger for the time being.
The stranger will now follow you throughout most of the rest of Hollowbody. Fortunately, enemies donât seem to notice him, he doesnât take friendly fire, and despite his wounds, he moves as quickly as you do. Just go through the rest of the game as you ordinarily would and youâll get the Riven ending.
The Secret Ending
When you clear Hollowbody on Casual or Intended difficulty, you unlock a new setting: Punished.
On Punished, Mica takes substantially more damage, to the point where she can only take two or three hits from standard enemies before dying.
Slain enemies also wonât stay dead unless you burn their bodies with Micaâs Lighter or the Flamethrower. There are relatively few other changes, but you have much less room to make mistakes.
If you can clear Punished difficulty while using three Repair Sprays or fewer, including the one that you take from the ambulance at the start of the game, youâll receive a new ending. This unlocks the secret achievement Woof, which also serves as a nod to a running gag in the Silent Hill series.
It may be helpful to make a âdry runâ at Punished before you try for Woof. Your reward for beating the game on Punished is a new melee weapon, the Scissor Blade, which can be a big help.
You also donât have to worry about any other factors besides the amount of damage youâve taken, so save-scum to your heartâs content. As long as youâve healed Mica three times or fewer by the time you defeat the final boss, youâre on track for Woof.
The solo developer on Hollowbody has teased that he might not be done with the game, but for now, thatâs how you can get all three endings and their related achievements.
