Doki Doki Literature Club is an indie horror visual novel disguised as a cutesy dating sim. Not only will players enjoy the main story, but they'll also uncover the secrets found in the game's heart — the game directory. It takes interactivity to the next level by allowing players to manipulate its game files so they can unlock its other endings. It's easily one of the most off-the-wall and amazing video games that any fan of unique experiences should definitely check out.
Despite the unavoidable events in the game, there's a good ending in Doki Doki Literature Club, also known to be the special ending — it's a happy ending version of the game, and the players will receive a special letter from Dan Salvato, the genius behind Doki Doki Literature Club. Of course, the steps to unlock this ending can be quite extensive, but the end result makes it all worth it. Players who are struggling to unlock the events required to witness DDLC's good ending can do some research beforehand, and they shouldn't feel guilty for doing the same — the manner in which players achieve this ending is pretty obtuse and not really something that most players would figure out easily.
Updated on August 6th, 2023, by Ritwik Mitra: The visual novel genre is unfairly labeled by many to be an uninteresting experience, with these video games basically telling players to read pages of text and make some decisions somewhere down the line. While classic visual novels may suffer from this one-dimensional gameplay, there are many modern franchises that have added their own interesting spins to this concept. These include titles like Phoenix Wright, Danganronpa, and, of course, Doki Doki Literature Club!
No one expected a free visual novel with a cute art style to turn into a horror title midway through, but that's part of the reason why this game is so special. The fandom for this game is massive, falling in love with the four main girls and developing many fangames that allow players to spend more time with these characters. As fun as this game is, getting the best ending possible can be a headscratcher if players have no clue what they need to do here.
What to Do in ACT 1
First, the player needs to reset their game back to the beginning to make sure they're starting a fresh New Game (can be found here, at the end). Next, they'll have to unlock nine CGs in ACT 1 and at least two CGs in ACT 3. While this might sound like a substantial task, save-scumming and repeated playthroughs can make these events quite attainable indeed.
Finish with Sayori's route before taking Yuri's and Natsuki's. The goal is to unlock three CGs from each of them before the end of ACT 1.
If the player wants to skip directly to writing the first poem, go to Settings, mark Unseen Text and After Choices, then select Return and Skip.
Sayori's Route
- Save the game before writing the first poem.
- Write perfect poems for Sayori. There are three poems to write in Act 1. The player will be able to unlock two CGs of her before the Literature Club plans for the festival.
- Always choose Sayori first during the poem-sharing club activity.
- When Yuri and Natsuki fight, choose the option: 'Help me, Sayori!!'
- When asked who to walk home with, choose the option: 'I would still walk home with Sayori.'
- It doesn't matter who the player chooses to help during the weekend, although it's recommended to take the route of whoever is chosen after Sayori's to avoid confusion.
- When Sayori confesses her feelings on Sunday, choose the option: 'I love you' to unlock her final CG. Wait for them to release each other.
- Go to Settings, select Load Game, and go back to writing the first poem. If players have chosen to help Yuri, take her route next; otherwise, take Natsuki's.
Poem Words for Sayori
- A: adventure, alone, amazing, awesome
- B: bed, beauty, bliss, broken
- C: calm, charm, cheer, childhood, clumsy, color, comfort, cry
- D: dance, dark, daydream, dazzle, death, defeat, depression
- E: embrace, empty, excitement, extraordinary
- F: family, fear, feather, fireflies, flower, flying, forgive, friends, fun
- G: grief
- H: happiness, heart, holiday, hope, hopeless, hurt
- J: joy
- L: laugh, lazy, loud, love, lucky
- M: marriage, memories, misery, misfortune, music
- N: nature
- O: ocean
- P: passion, peaceful, pain, party, play, prayer, precious, promise
- R: rainbow, raincloud, romance, rose
- S: sadness, scars, shame, silly, sing, smile, sparkle, special, sunset, sweet
- T: tears, together, tragedy, treasure
- U: unrequited
- V: vacation
- W: warm, wonderful
Yuri's Route
- Write three poems for her. Sometimes the player can't find any of her preferred words. In this event, the second-best words are mentioned in parentheses below, which can serve as a last-ditch solution for players who are striving to unlock Doki Doki Literature Club's best ending.
- Always choose Yuri first during the poem-sharing club activity.
- During her fight with Natsuki, choose the option: 'Yuri.'
- When asked who to walk home with, choose the option: 'I would walk home with Yuri.'
- By now, players should have unlocked two CGs of her. When deciding who to help with during the weekends, choose the option: 'Yuri.' to unlock her final CG.
- During Sayori's confession, choose the option: 'You'll always be my dearest friend.' If the player still needs to romance Natsuki, go to Settings. Select Load Game, and go back to writing the first poem.
- If the player has already unlocked all nine CGs, they can continue to ACT 2 without any worries.
Yuri's Preferred Words
- A: afterimage, agonizing, ambient, analysis, anxiety, atone, aura, (alone)
- B: breathe, (broken)
- C: cage, captive, climax, contamination, covet, crimson, (calm, cry)
- D: desire, destiny, determination, disarray, disaster, disoriented, despise, disown, dream, (dark, daydream, death, defeat, depression)
- E: effulgent, electricity, entropy, essence, eternity, existence, explode, extreme, (embrace, empty)
- F: fester, fickle, flee, frightening, (fear, forgive)
- G: graveyard, (grief)
- H: heavensent, horror, (hope, hopeless, hurt)
- I: imagination, incapable, incongruent, infallible, inferno, infinite, insight, intellectual
- J: journey, judgment, (joy)
- L: lust, landscape
- M: massacre, meager, melancholy, (misery, misfortune)
- P: philosophy, portrait, (pain, peaceful, prayer)
- Q: question, raindrops
- R: (rose)
- S: secretive, sensation, starscape, suicide, (scars, shame)
- T: tenacious, time, (tears, tragedy)
- U: uncontrollable, uncanny, unending, universe, unrestrained, unstable, (unrequited)
- V: variance, vertigo, vibrant, vitality, vivacious, vivid
- W: whirlwind, wrath
Natsuki's Route
- Write three poems for her. Sometimes the player can't find any of her preferred words. In this event, the second-best words are mentioned in parentheses below.
- Always choose Natsuki first during the poem-sharing club activity.
- During her fight with Yuri, choose the option: 'Natsuki.'
- When asked who to walk home with, choose the option: 'I would walk home with Natsuki.'
- By now, players should have unlocked two CGs of her. When deciding who to help with during the weekends, choose the option: 'Natsuki.' to unlock her final CG.
- During Sayori's confession, choose the option: 'You'll always be my dearest friend.' If the player still needs to romance Yuri, go to Settings. Select Load Game, and go back to writing the first poem. One last time.
- But if the player has already unlocked all nine CGs, the player can continue to ACT 2.
Poem Words for Natsuki
- A: anger, anime, (adventure, amazing, awesome)
- B: blanket, boop, bouncy, bubbles, bunny, (beauty, bed, bliss)
- C: candy, cheeks, chocolate, clouds, cute, (charm, cheer, childhood, clumsy, color, comfort)
- D: doki-doki, (dance, dazzle)
- E: email, (excitement, extraordinary)
- F: fantasy, fluffy, (family, feather, fireflies, fireworks, flower, flying, friends, fun)
- G: games, giggle
- H: hair, hop, headphones, heartbeat, (happiness, heart, holiday)
- J: jump, jumpy
- K: kawaii, kiss, kitty
- L: lipstick, lollipop, (laugh, lazy, loud, love, lucky)
- M: marshmallow, melody, milk, mouse, (marriage, memories, music)
- N: nibble, nightgown, (nature)
- O: (ocean)
- P: papa, parfait, peace, pink, playground, poof, pout, pure, puppy, (party, passion, play, precious, promise)
- R: ribbon, (rainbow, raincloud, romance)
- S: skirt, swimsuit, shiny, shopping, skipping, socks, spinning, sticky, strawberry, sugar, summer, (sadness, silly, sing, smile, sparkle, special, sunny, sunset, sweet)
- T: twirl, (together, treasure)
- V: valentine, vanilla, (vacation)
- W: waterfall, whisper, whistle, (warm, wonderful)
What to Do in ACT 2
- Select the now scrambled New Game to begin ACT 2.
- Players can play through it however they want. Or breeze through it using the Skip and Auto options.
- Wait for Monika to 'fix' the game to proceed to ACT 3 to unlock her first CG. Keep in mind that this event is going to be pretty jarring, so be prepared for the worst.
What to Do in ACT 3
Monika's Route
- Wait for her confession and choose the only option: 'Yes.'
- Listen as to how she was able to manipulate the game.
- Write one perfect poem for her.
- Read her poem.
- Delete her to unlock her second CG.
- Let her express her regrets and proceed to Act 4.
Poem Words for Monika
- M: Mo ika, oni a, M o n a, onik , Monik , M nika, ni a, M n ka, M nik , o ka, M n k , Monika, M n a, M ka, Moni, Mo i , i a, M ni, o ika, onik , Mo ik , o i a, onika — don't worry, choose anything — it's all Monika.
How to Delete Monika Through Steam
- Go to the Steam Library, and right-click on Doki Doki Literature Club.
- Select Manage, then select Browse Local Files.
- In the game directory, open the character folder, and delete monika.chr
How to Delete Monika Through the in-Game Library
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! features an in-game desktop that streamlines the process of deleting Monika's file while also allowing players to check out a wealth of additional goodies, including an in-game music player!
- Exit to the in-game desktop of Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! and go to Files.
- Go to the Characters folder.
- Find and delete monika.chr.
What to Do in ACT 4
- Start a New Game without Monika.
- Let Sayori give her thanks and say goodbye.
- Listen to Monika's song and let the credits roll
- Receive a special letter from the one and only Dan Salvato.
If players follow all the steps, then congratulations are in order because they've successfully 100% completed Doki Doki Literature Club! The game might turn from a cliched visual novel into one of the most horrifying video games of all time, but the manner in which it twists its events is so compelling that the game's quality reaches impressive levels as a result. 100% completion might not be necessary, but it's definitely worth it just to witness the amazing words of inspiration from Dan Salvato.
Doki Doki Literature Club was released on September 22nd, 2017, for PC. An enhanced version called Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! was released on June 30th, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.