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The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Edition revisits a lot of the original game's endings and secrets, but one such story path has eluded many players since 2013. Nine years later, the updated re-release hides an optional encounter that manages to shed light on the Escape Pod ending and give it some well-deserved closure.
The Escape Pod Ending Legacy
In the original build of The Stanley Parable, which was based on a Half-Life 2 mod, it was possible to seemingly break the game by walking back through some closing doors at a crucial moment and cutting off the Narrator, leaving the player unable to progress.
The subsequent HD Remix and Ultra Deluxe Edition acknowledge this glitch by opening up a path only accessible by backtracking, which leads to an escape pod that can apparently be used to leave the office. However, before the player can get inside the escape pod, it suddenly cuts to black and restarts the game, which can be considered rather underwhelming after all the effort required.
This feeling is shared by many players, some of whom have re-created the ending using the game's engine to add more to the apparent escape pod's story arc, with happy/sad outcomes that even features special dialogue recorded by the official game's narrator.
The development team Crows Crows Crows has apparently seen this and subverted player expectations by including a secret ending that impacts a specific future playthrough.
The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket
Once a player has experienced several Stanley Parable endings, a door will randomly appear before reaching the Two Doors Room that clearly displays the words "NEW CONTENT."
Entering this door leads to a literal on-rails showcase of The Stanley Parable's history, but ultimately leads to some deliberately disappointing content. After this path has been fully explored, the game will reset.
This new playthrough, however, will lead the player to the "NEW CONTENT" door again with some added neon signs and arrows that allows the Narrator to show Stanley his own updated path with new content to explore.
This is best experienced first-hand, but the linear path will eventually lead to an open-plan expo for an apparent sequel.
All of this is a necessary path to take, because amongst the expo layout with various comedic game features is an item called The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket. Picking up this item and playing through to the end of the "New New Content" path will subsequently allow the player to pick up this bucket on future playthroughs.
While this sounds like a silly aversion to game companions like the inanimate Companion Cube from Portal, carrying the bucket through any ending path will dramatically change the original outcome.
The New Escape Pod Ending
Once those new paths have been explored, players will find the Reassurance Bucket atop a pedestal in the second office room on Stanley's journey to the two doors.
For the Escape Pod ending, the bucket can be picked up before or after the "double door" trigger has been activated. Dialogue will change for locations depending on whether Stanley is wielding the bucket, but the process required to achieve the Escape Pod ending remains the same.
With the bucket in tow, Stanley needs to head left at the two doors, then up the stairs to the Boss's Office. The next step is crucial to achieving the Escape Pod Ending and may require a few attempts for new players.
Go through the double doors to the Boss's Office but then immediately back out to lock Stanley out of the office. If done right, the doors will close and the Narrator will get cut off mid-dialogue. The way ahead is now permanently locked off, so the player is forced to backtrack along the same path through the offices until they arrive back at the start, where the door labeled 428 is now open.
Heading inside will transport the player to a stairwell that leads up six floors to the Escape Pod. On an ordinary run, the game resets before Stanley can reach the escape pod, as mentioned above.
But this time, Stanley is not only able to get to the location without a hard reset, but also Stanley will place the bucket inside the pod and jettison it off to apparent safety, leaving him behind. This completes the Improved Escape Pod ending, finally resetting Stanley back to his office for a fresh playthrough.
Retrieving The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket
Once the bucket has been put into the escape pod, it will be absent from the usual spot for several resets and playthroughs. The player needs to reach an ending two or three times before the game provides a replacement bucket.
Picking it up now will result in a snarky comment from the Narrator telling you not to lose it again, along with being able to take the bucket on to more nonsensical and dramatic story paths.
This Escape Pod ending is considerably more noteworthy than most other bucket endings, specifically because most new endings are self-contained entries in the Ultra Deluxe Edition.
The Improved Escape Pod ending receives an eventual callback once players reach the epilogue. Out in a brightly lit desert area of the map, a red escape pod can be found that contains the bucket sent away by Stanley earlier. This brings an unusually profound addition to the end of the game's new content and emphasizes that The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Edition is full of numerous secrets.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.