Story Spoilers: Prepare Pavel Before the Final Choice
Story spoilers: Choose replies that teach Pavel loyalty to the state, avoid provoking the Resistance into taking him, and check his final correspondence before heading to the train. Successful player accounts connect that setup with choosing Varenka for Your Own Executioner in Potato Please.
Start paying attention when Pavel's letters begin arriving. The achievement route described by players depends on earlier replies, so selecting the right destination at the end may not be enough. The instructions below follow those player accounts; the developer-confirmed ending-replay feature is explained separately.
Follow the Reported Pavel Route
- Choose state-loyal advice in Pavel's letters. Successful players describe replies that encourage obeying authority, reporting misconduct, handing things in, and putting the law before family. This is the shared direction of the reported routes.
- Choose “Tell what you know” when the Director's Questions letter appears. The detailed player guide names this response as part of its route toward a Pavel who remains loyal to the state.
- Keep or hide the Resistance notes you find instead of reporting them to the Ministry. Player guides recommend hiding the notes, and a Steam discussion warns that antagonizing the Resistance can lead to Pavel being kidnapped.
- Leave Varenka residents unreported when that decision appears. The detailed achievement route includes this choice among its precautions before the ending. Treat it as guidance from that reported route.
- Read Pavel's last letter before going to the train. Look for a reference to attending school near the capital, which the detailed guide uses as a checkpoint for its successful route.
- Inspect the latest Resistance correspondence for “Your son is with us.” The reported route calls for that phrase to be absent. Finding it means your mail differs from the route's recommended checkpoint.
- Make a manual save at the levers in the train cab. The Steam player guide recommends this location so you can return to the destination choice and try another ending without repeating the entire shift.
- Select Varenka as the train's destination. This sends the shipment to the villagers and is the destination shared by the detailed achievement guides and the broader Steam account describing this unlock.
Where the Money and Ending Advice Differs
| Decision | What to Do With the Different Accounts |
|---|---|
| Sending money to Pavel | The detailed guide recommends sending money whenever Pavel asks, while a Steam player who reported unlocking the achievement says they never paid for him. Do not discard your save solely because you handled money differently; compare the final mail clues. |
| Choosing the final destination | The detailed guides specify Varenka. The Steam discussion also describes sending the shipment to the Resistance. Use Varenka for the route described here because it is the destination those accounts share. |
| Following an exact response formula | The explanation involving a state-alignment score comes from player guides. Follow the shared reply themes and check the correspondence in your save; the developer announcements do not establish that scoring formula or the precise response combination. |
Read the Mail as a Checkpoint
Check Pavel's school letter and the Resistance message together. The reported Varenka route looks for schooling near the capital alongside the absence of the message claiming the Resistance has your son. These are concrete details you can compare with your own mail before committing to the ending.
If your correspondence differs, check any earlier save you already have before deciding to restart. Keep a note of the replies you remember choosing so you can identify what you would change on another attempt. A different money decision alone is not a useful reason to abandon the run, given the conflicting successful accounts.
Why Varenka May Not Unlock the Achievement
Choosing Varenka may be insufficient because the player guides also tie Your Own Executioner to Pavel's earlier correspondence and loyalty to the state. If the villagers' ending finishes without the achievement, compare Pavel's last letter and the Resistance correspondence with the checkpoints above. Repeating the destination choice does not establish that those earlier conditions have changed.
Golden Horn Studios confirmed that finished saves can replay the ending in Hotfix 1.0.1. Use that feature to revisit the final sequence, but do not assume it lets you rewrite Pavel's earlier replies. Keep the distinction in mind before spending time repeating the same ending.
Ending Spoilers: The Outcome Players Describe
The Steam player's account describes the shipment reaching the villagers or the Resistance, followed by your execution sentence. Pavel is then revealed as your executioner after being raised to obey the state. Read the ending report for that detail and check whether Your Own Executioner has unlocked.