Doki Doki Literature Club is not a traditional visual novel. This being the case, the amount of actual endings to the game are different to what the game lets on. You may see the ‘End’ screen a number of times throughout your playthrough, but some of these aren’t endings at all, but more like checkpoints.
The game has three actual endings: a bad ending, a best ending, and an alternate special ending.
Obvious spoilers ahead. This is your warning.
Bad Ending
This is the ending that most players will receive on their first playthrough. There aren’t any special requisites to obtaining this ending; all you have to do is reach the end of the game. None of the dialog options that you choose will affect this.
Since this isn’t a traditional visual novel, you cannot just cruise through the game by reading. Sometimes the game may appear to be frozen or looping, but there’s usually a fourth wall breaking solution. Here’s how to get through some of these segments:
- When the game hints that you can fix something by reloading the game, just carry on playing as normal. To get the bad ending, you’ll never have to reload an old save file.
- After getting the first ‘End’ screen, the game is not over. Simply select the option in the main menu that has replaced the ‘New Game’ option.
- During the scene with Yuri where the textbox keeps producing gibberish, press the ‘skip’ command and wait for some time to pass to advance.
- During the scene with Monika towards the end of the game, she will tell you how to advance. You must delete the ‘monika.chr’ file in the game’s files directory. If you’ve downloaded the game from the website, simply find the file in the characters folder that is located in the same folder that you use to launch the game. If you’re playing the Steam version, right-click Doki Doki Literature Club in the my games section of your Steam library, then click properties, local files, browse local files…, characters.
- When the game progresses to the title screen, select ‘New Game’ and continue playing until you reach this ending.
Best Ending
NOTE: If this is your second playthrough, you will have to reinstall Doki Doki Literature Club and select “yes, delete my existing data” to replay the game.
In order to get the best ending, you will have to find all of the CG images before deleting the ‘monika.chr’ file. This can only be done by saving and reloading at specific parts of the game. Your save states are deleted at certain points, so it is vital that you reload your save before this happens.
Play the game as normal up until the point where you have to construct your first poem. SAVE YOUR GAME. If everything is done correctly, this is the only time you’ll be required to save, as the three different paths split from here.
Sayori’s Path
- At three different points, you’ll have to write a poem by selecting a series of predetermined words. Selecting a word that Sayori likes will cause her icon to bounce up and down. Make sure that a majority of your selections are words that Sayori likes. Here are some words that will work: adventure, alone, amazing, awesome, beauty, bed, bliss, broken, calm, charm, cheer, childhood, clumsy, color, comfort, cry, dance, dark, daydream, dazzle, death, defeat, depression, embrace, empty, excitement, extraordinary, family, fear, feather, fireflies, fireworks, flower, flying, forgive, friends, fun, grief, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, hopeless, hurt, joy, laugh, lazy, loud, love, lucky, marriage, memories, misery, misfortune, music, nature, ocean, pain, party, passion, peaceful, play, prayer, precious, promise, rainbow, raincloud, romance, rose, sadness, scars, shame, silly, sing, smile, sparkle, special, sunny, sunset, sweet, tears, together, tragedy, treasure, unrequited, vacation, warm, wonderful.
- Some time after the third poem, you’ll be asked which girl you’d preferably like to help with the festival. Select “Yuri.”
- When you’re talking to Sayori after hanging out with Yuri, select the option “I love you.”
- Once you get the CG image of Sayori hugging you, reload your save.
Natsuki’s Path
- Now center your three poems around words that Natsuki likes: anger, blanket, boop, bouncy, bubble, bunny, candy, cheeks, chocolate, clouds, cute, doki doki, email, fantasy, fluffy, games, giggle, hair, headphones, hop, jump, jumpy, kawaii, kiss, kitty, lipstick, lollipop, marshmallow, melody, milk, mouse, nibble, nightgown, papa, parfait, peace, pink, playground, poof, pout, puppy, pure, ribbon, shiny, shopping, skipping, socks, spinning, sticky, strawberry, sugar, summer, swimsuit, twirl, valentine, vanilla, waterfall, whisper, whistle.
- After the third poem, when asked who you’d preferably like to help with the festival, select “Natsuki.”
- When Sayori shows up after Natsuki leaves, reload your save.
Yuri’s Path
- Center your three poems around words that Yuri likes: afterimage, agonizing, ambient, analysis, anxiety, atone, aura, breath, breathe, cage, captive, climax, contamination, covet, crimson, desire, despise, destiny, determination, disarray, disaster, disoriented, disown, dream, effulgent, electricity, entropy, essence, eternity, existence, explode, extreme, fester, fickle, flee, frightening, graveyard, heavensent, horror, imagination, incapable, incongruent, infallible, inferno, infinite, insight, intellectual, journey, judgment, landscape, lust, massacre, meager, melancholy, philosophy, pleasure, portrait, question, raindrops, secretive, sensation, starscape, suicide, tenacious, time, uncanny, uncontrollable, unending, universe, unrestrained, unstable, variance, vertigo, vibrant, vitality, vivacious, vivid, whirlwind, wrath.
- Select whichever options you want until you are asked to tell Sayori that you love her. Select “I love you” again. Don’t reload your save!
- Carry on playing until the last scene with Monika. Do not immediately delete the ‘monkia.chr’ file when prompted. Instead, let the dialog play out. Monika will ask you to write a poem for her, after which the dialog will carry on. Eventually the textbox will disappear and you’ll be left with Monika staring at you. This counts as a CG image. At this point, you can safely delete the ‘monika.chr’ file.
Following these paths will net you all of the CG images. Carry on playing until you are taken to the title screen, then select ‘New Game’ as normal. From here, you will be taken to the best ending.
Alternate Ending
The alternate ending is a strange little inclusion that ends the game before it even begins. To receive this ending, launch the game, and before selecting ‘New Game,’ delete the ‘monika.chr’ file. You can now select ‘New Game,’ and after a couple of lines of dialog the game will crash. Launch the game again to be treated to a special screen. The only way to fix your game after this is to reinstall it.
