Firewatch story and ending, explained

Firewatch’s ending may be a bit of a punch in the stomach, but it’s a game about paranoia, guilt, and, ultimately, the human condition. Here’s everything you need to know about Firewatch and its ending.

Walking simulators are perhaps best known for their cozy, relaxing atmosphere. With a peaceful scenery and soundtrack to match, games like Firewatch are a great escape from reality. But amongst the peaceful atmosphere that lures you into its grasp, its narrative-driven story is often filled with intrigue, mystery, and emotion. Firewatch is no stranger to this. With beautiful scenery to explore, the story is a rollercoaster and one that hits you hard, like the first five minutes of Up.

How many endings are in Firewatch?

Firewatch follows Henry, an everyday guy whose story we learn about within the first 10 minutes of the game. His life with Julia, the decisions you made for our protagonist, and Julia’s inevitable illness led Henry to escape for an entire summer. You connect through Henry, Julia, and fire watch officer Delilah, who talks to Henry every day to help one another through their current struggles.

Despite its short length, Firewatch has a lot of twists and turns, much like Two Forks itself. From investigating a firework display, having your watch tower vandalized, hearing about two young women disappearing inside Two Forks, and getting knocked out by a stranger who transcribed Henry and Delilah’s conversation all summer, Firewatch has multiple moments that make you forget you’re simply playing a walking simulator.

Firewatch only has one ending. This walking sim is an entirely linear experience. The conclusion is set in stone, but what you experience along the way is altered purely through dialogue choices. in every conversation with Delilah and while exploring Two Forks as much as you can. The “secret ending” is unlocked by remaining at Two Forks when the helicopter arrives. Stand close to the rescue helicopter and wait between two to five minutes. The helicopter will leave you behind, and the screen cuts to black, ending your Firewatch playthrough.

The “secret ending” isn’t so much a secret nor an official ending for Firewatch. The game is intended to end with its canon ending where you fly away on the rescue helicopter.

Everything you may have missed in Firewatch

Delilah brings up the Goodwins around two hours into Firewatch. You think nothing of it, as your main concern at the time is the stranger who attacked Henry. While there aren’t many obvious hints about Brian Goodwin or his father, Ned, you hear a little about his story from Henry and Delilah’s conversation. It is revealed that something happened to Brian Goodwin at Two Forks. The event happened three years ago, and he managed to get out of the forest alive with his father. Or did he?

Henry and Delilah’s paranoia grows as their conversations are recorded and transcribed. Firewatch demonstrates the effects of cabin fever, with Henry slowly believing what he’s experiencing isn’t real. These ideas, however, were planted in his head by Ned Goodwin, who briefly appeared on day one when Henry came across a stranger in the forest at night.

Henry finds a tent with an earthquake monitoring system, a wave receiver, a map tracking position across Two Forks, and a subject list. On close inspection, the subjects on the clipboard outline food intake, conflict with “other mates,” and avoidance behaviors. Later, you find an alarm box, which is unusual when you look at every other piece of evidence pointing toward Henry and Delilah being stalked. But a closer inspection of the tent, and what is later revealed in the game, is that the surveillance tent was observing Elk.

Henry finds a folder about himself and Delilah with an emphasis placed on their susceptibility to manipulation. Paranoia reaches an all-time climax after hearing about the missing girls, Henry being attacked by a stranger and uncovering the surveillance tent.

Firewatch‘s ending, explained

The truth is that Ned Goodwin (the former lookout Delilah mentioned towards the beginning of the game) lost his son, Brian, in a cave accident. Brian and Ned went spelunking, and Brian unfortunately died because he couldn’t use the rope anchor properly. His body remained at the bottom of the cave Ned fought so hard to ignore and hide from, similar to Henry running away from Julia. Ned, guilt-ridden, didn’t leave the forest for three years and aimed to stop anyone from finding the truth about his son (who Henry believed had survived and was now in high school.)

The drunk teens’ tent being destroyed, the vandalism inside Henry’s tower, and a man later appearing inside it was Ned from the beginning, trying to scare everyone away from finding out the truth. People were getting too close to the cave where Brian’s body remains, and Ned feared they’d find it.

Firewatch ends with the fire (presumably set by Ned) engulfing the forest. Delilah and Henry leave in separate rescue helicopters. Their connection ends as quickly as it began. Henry returns to his sick wife, Julia, and Delilah runs out on Henry before they see each other after 79 days of developing a close, likely romantic bond.