Quick answer
The Old God's 
Red Eye introduces two story routes, but both converge on the final portal and battle.
Return the eye: the shorter route. Each of the six important characters needs 90 reputation.
Keep the eye: the longer dark route. Each character needs 100 reputation, three hidden blue talents, three separate dream-triggering nights and additional gifts.
After the Last Battle and installation of 
Greed, the final Go home / Stay choice determines whether the Keeper leaves or remains in the world. To keep playing after the credits, choose Stay, do not skip the completion of the credits, wait until you regain control and sleep at home to create a new save. Exiting before that sleep can leave Continue at the point before the final battle. Some console builds have also had ending-transition issues, so this is not a universal cure for every broken save.
Major story spoilers ahead: this guide names the Red Eye, the Old God, final character quests and the ending choice. If you have not reached those events, consider returning after finishing the story yourself.
How the Red Eye choice works
Once you find the Old God below the Town, he explains that repairing the portal requires:
- 1
all the necessary portal fragments;
- 2
the support of six people, corresponding to the six days of the week.
You must then decide what to do with his eye.
The option to keep the Red Eye may not appear immediately. According to the current quest data, you must first ask all seven available questions. If all you see is “Give the eye,” finish the conversation before concluding that your choice is missing because of a bug.
What happens if you return the eye?
This is the shorter, broadly light-aligned route.
You only need 90 reputation from each of six characters:
In normal progression, this means completing their main story requests and gifts. After all three pairs agree to help, later scenes with the god and the portal can trigger through sleeping and the corresponding story dialogue.
Returning the eye is irreversible. Once you hand it over, you cannot simply decide to return to the additional dark-route tasks.
What happens if you keep the eye?
On this path, 90 reputation per character is not enough. All six must reach 100.
After delivering the six normal gifts and completing the relevant conversation with the Old God, three hidden blue talents appear, named for pairs of sins:
Gluttony and Pride;
Wrath and Sloth;
Lust and Envy.
Each costs one blue talent point.
Learning a talent does not finish its quest immediately. You must then sleep, see the matching dark dream, and visit the corresponding pair for another request.
Why do I need several separate sleeps?
The dark dreams appear one per night.
Buying all three talents at once does not necessarily trigger all three scenes on your next rest. Expect at least three separate sleeps, followed by the appropriate visits and gift hand-ins.
This is a specific bed-sleep trigger, not just waiting for the in-game calendar to advance while you work around the Factory.
What do the three pairs request?
Jack and Gunter
An 
Elegant Prosthetic Hand made from:
Craft it at the 
Steel Anvil and give it to 
Jack.
Agatha and Herbert
A 
Comfortable Chair requiring:
3 Special Wood;
3 Steel Screws.
It is made on 
Woodworking Workbench II. The quest text may mention 
Agatha, but the actual hand-in uses 
Herbert's dialogue.
Linda and Albert
Their dark-route follow-up involves 
Luxury Drapes and advanced textile production. The character data places the hand-in through 
Albert.
These are late materials, so prepare your Steel, Special Wood and sewing chain before choosing the longer route if you want to avoid another huge production pause.
All six are at 90, but the hidden talents never appeared
This is one of the notable endgame blockers reported by players.
Check the exact sequence:
- 1
Did you keep, rather than return, the eye?
- 2
Have all six ordinary gifts been handed over?
- 3
Did the Old God deliver the “Six characters” dialogue?
- 4
Did you inspect the blue talent tree?
- 5
Have you slept since satisfying those conditions?
There are reports of a softlock when all six gifts were handed over before the relevant Old God conversation, leaving the later trigger unable to fire again. Community patches have discussed repairing this specific saved state, but that does not prove every missing talent screen has the same cause.
If all the conditions are satisfied but nothing triggers, stop spending rare gifts randomly. Back up the save, check the installed patch and look for a fix that explicitly matches this event.
Can you change your mind after keeping the eye?
Yes, before the final stage, the Old God continues to offer the opportunity to return it. Doing so reduces the required reputation from 100 to 90.
The reverse is not available once the eye has been given away.
This is a one-way way to simplify progression if you no longer want the additional dark-route quests.
What else is needed before the Last Battle?
The eye decision and the six allies are not the only requirements. You also need to progress the portal-fragment story and find a route into the palace.
Before the Last Battle, you can obtain 
Wrath: after the first five fragments are installed, the mirror reveals the next piece in the rubble at your own house. However, Greed is held by Keeper One in the palace and is awarded only AFTER you win the Last Battle. Requiring all seven fragments before the battle is a false progression loop; not having Greed yet is normal.
For Palace Politics, speak to Davy the Dagger at the Dockside Club and pay 5000 copper (50 silver) for the route information. Then go home and leave through the front door to meet Davy with the map.
The Last Battle appears once Davy has briefed you and all three pairs have agreed to help. On the returned-eye (light) path, also wait for the Old God's visit. Starting the battle requires four squads, 144 Defence Power, and Sloth day.
If the battle is missing, check:
whether Wrath has been found and installed (Greed is not required yet);
whether you have met Davy and seen the map conversation at home;
whether all three pairs have explicitly agreed;
on the light path, whether the Old God has visited;
whether your four squads and 144 Defence Power are ready.
After winning, enter the palace and talk to Keeper One, who gives you Greed. Return to the tower and install the final fragment to complete the portal. On the light route, remember that certain conversations are triggered by sleeping.
Final choice: Go home or Stay
After the last battle, the encounter with Keeper One, and installation of the Greed fragment, the Keeper receives the final choice.
Go home means leaving the game world. Current quest data indicates this route leads to the credits and main menu without creating a new save at the moment of the choice.
Stay means remaining in the world. Choose it if you want to keep running the Factory, building an impressive graveyard and finishing optional projects.
Do not confuse the Red Eye branch with the later Stay/Go home choice. They are separate decisions.
How to actually keep playing after the credits
October Reddit reports revealed a confusing extra step:
- 1
- 2
Allow the credits to finish — do not immediately skip them.
- 3
Wait until you regain control of the Keeper.
- 4
Go home and sleep to save.
- 5
Quit and confirm that Continue opens the intended post-ending state.
If you skip the credits and return to the menu before control comes back, the game may load your older, pre-final-battle save. That does not necessarily mean the Stay choice was reversed; a new save simply may not have been created.
Why can it behave differently on Switch?
Some Nintendo players reported being sent back to the pre-final state even after selecting Stay and watching the credits. Given recent platform-specific loading problems, do not promise one community procedure as a guaranteed universal fix.
If the expected transition fails, record the version and preserve the save instead of deleting it. See Save Won't Load — Platform Troubleshooting.
Can you experience both story paths in one save?
Do not count on a chapter-select screen appearing automatically after the ending. If you want to compare both routes without a full replay, make a separate backup before irreversibly returning the eye.
Do not overwrite that backup once you have followed one branch. PC players can preserve separate save files; console users should only use backups their platform supports.
What about rewards promised by the six characters?
Some dialogue describes useful future blueprints or additional capabilities. However, current game-data references do not find every promised item implemented as an actual reward.
Do not plan a production line around an “automatic bow blueprint” purely because an NPC mentioned it. Check that the recipe actually appears in your installed version.
FAQ
Which ending is the correct one?
The game does not identify one eye choice as the only valid route. Returning is shorter; keeping it adds dark quests.
Why isn't “Keep the Red Eye” available?
Ask the Old God all seven questions first.
Why do I have 90 reputation with everyone but no Last Battle?
If you kept the eye, you need 100 reputation, hidden talents and dream quests. On either route, finish the Davy briefing, secure all three pairs and find Wrath. Greed comes after the battle, not before it.
Why don't I have Greed before the final battle?
That is normal. Keeper One gives you Greed in the palace after winning the Last Battle.
Can I keep playing after the credits?
The Stay route is meant to allow it. Wait for control to return and save by sleeping, while allowing for platform-specific bugs.
Do I need another playthrough to see the other route?
Without a separate earlier save, switching after an irreversible choice may require replaying a substantial portion of the story.
