Veronika from the Bazaar to the observatory complex beyond the dam, then The Breakthrough for Frank, up to the door that starts the epilogue: the last cleanup, the save backup and the point of no return.
This stretch is the 19th and 20th story quests. Veronika takes you back to Old Villedor by fast travel, to the Bazaar and a hideout in the far north of Houndfield, then out past the dam west of Garrison to a GRE complex under the observatory. The Breakthrough starts at the Fish Eye and ends at a door that begins the epilogue: Now or Never and X13 then run back to back with no free roam until the credits. You have every tool, and the whole map is open until you open that door. The section ends with the cleanup before it: what the door locks, Afterparty if your journal shows it, and a save backup outside the game for the second ending. Keep your Inhibitors unspent.
Veronika: the Bazaar and the Courtesan Row Street hideoutHidden spoiler – activate to revealQuest stepMinor spoiler
Location
Old Villedor · Houndfield – Out of the church, you report to Frank by radio; see him in the Fish Eye canteen to end Nightrunners, and on the roof afterwards stay and talk with Lawan. Veronika starts then: fast travel to Old Villedor and go into the Bazaar, to the old medical area at the back, where Barney or Sophie (depending on earlier choices) points you to a Renegade hideout on Courtesan Row Street, in the far north of Houndfield. Get in through a first-floor shutter or a window one floor up, clear the Renegades on both floors (a lockpick opens the way), then pick the lock of the white door downstairs: Vincenzo is in the small storeroom behind it, and a radio talk follows.
AfterpartyHidden spoiler – activate to revealQuest stepMissablePoint of no returnMinor spoiler
Location
Central Loop · the Fish Eye – After the talk with Lawan on the Fish Eye roof, check your journal: if Afterparty is there, follow its marker and finish it before Veronika's trip to Old Villedor, and in any case before the door at the end of The Breakthrough. Lawan gives it; the journal shows where it starts.
Why you can lose it
Its deadline is unknown; to be safe, treat it as closing with the epilogue door.
Point of no return
Opening the door at the end of The Breakthrough (the game warns that the epilogue starts)
A side quest from Lawan that opens only on this route: Snipers' Alley finished, the transmitter to Frank, and every line from the warnings in The Shoe and the church.
Memento: Newspaper Article – January 23rd, 2022Collectible
Location
Central Loop · Outlands – Leave the hideout by the boarded window upstairs and fast travel back to the Central Loop. Go west of Garrison to the dam you crossed in Observatory: steer round the minefield in the woods or climb along the dam walls. Cross to the far side from the city and go down beside the water to a small building, where Veronika waits; the newspaper is in that building. It may instead be on a console next to the tunnel entrance into the observatory.
Central Loop · Outlands – Down at the foot of the dam, by Veronika's building: the blueprint is in a room at the bottom of the dam, in its south-west corner.
Veronika: the dam, the observatory complex and the databaseHidden spoiler – activate to revealQuest stepMinor spoiler
Location
Central Loop · Outlands – Talk to Veronika in her building, then again by the observatory walls and agree to her plan. Her injection lets you cross the yellow chemicals for a short time: run straight through them to the observatory and climb the wall between its two buildings. Debris and Ashes pops once you are through. Swing across on the rope, grapple the yellow points round the second dome and open the hatch on its roof. Inside, go down to the door at the bottom; with the UV Flashlight active, run through the infected to the gap in a broken door. Climb to the generator and start it, then fetch the cable from the room across the walkway to the panel by the generator, and ride the elevator with Veronika. In Block C, go through the ceiling panels and vents to the green buttons, then carry the cable to the receiving panel. Use the red panel in the Officers' Room, crawl back through the ceiling and vents, and enter the Central Database. A timer starts: climb to the balcony over the entrance, grapple across and take the blocker from the first-aid box in the next room. Then clear two waves of Renegades and follow Veronika's footprints back to the elevator and up its shaft.
Waltz, first duelHidden spoiler – activate to revealBossMinor spoiler
Location
Central Loop · Outlands – At the top of the shaft, a chase begins: run back the way you came without stopping (in the stairwell room, turn right at once and go up) to the hatch. Outside, fight until about half his health is gone. Fire doesn't slow him; block or dodge his normal blows and always dodge the strong ones, the ground sweep he throws from range and the leap that ends in a blast. Scenes then end the quest, and Brush with Death pops.
Central Loop · the Fish Eye – The Breakthrough starts when you wake after Veronika; talk to Lawan and head back to the Fish Eye. Before you go to Frank's room, look in your own sleeping quarters, the safe zone outside the canteen: the tape is in the open drawer of the desk.
After the fight at the meeting, Frank is hurt and you choose what to do. Pick the option to stay and help Frank, not the one to go after the truck. Only helping him keeps the route's endings open; the van chase comes either way, after the cure. Then the run back to the Fish Eye is timed. Back with Frank, a short timed line lets you tell Lawan what you know about the poison: take it.
The Breakthrough: help Frank (Margaret's herbs, Culvert Island)Hidden spoiler – activate to revealQuest stepMinor spoiler
Location
Central Loop · Garrison – Open the door to Frank's room in the canteen, then after the scenes talk to Juan at the bar and Jack Matt upstairs, and meet Juan outside on the roof above the meeting point. Watch the meeting. When it turns into a fight, jump down and help the Peacekeepers kill the Renegades before the timer runs out, then run to Frank and choose "I can't leave him. (Help Frank)". Juan sends you to Margaret in her hut on Culvert Island, Garrison's eastern tip. She needs 5 aquatic herbs: dive in the water around the island and use Survivor Sense, which only shows them up close; several grow together off the island's south-west corner. Then hurry back to Frank's room at the Fish Eye before the timer ends (get out of the water and run; there is time to spare) and hand them over.
The Breakthrough: Frank's meeting, Margaret's herbs, the van chaseHidden spoiler – activate to revealQuest stepMinor spoiler
Location
Central Loop · the Fish Eye – After the scene in Frank's room, chase the Renegade van: take the elevator by the Fish Eye up to the rooftops and follow the marker over the roofs, gliding where you can. Stay high, or the tracker's signal drops and the chase can fail; at one point the marker sends you up a building by its winch to pick the signal up again. The van ends in a building's garage. Climb the vehicle parked outside and grapple over to the open window on the upper balcony: inside is the door. Don't open it yet.
Opening the door starts the epilogue: Now or Never and X13 run back to back, with no free roam until the credits. The city opens again after the credits (with enemies scaled to your level), but the epilogue's own areas don't, and to be safe treat these as lost: Journal of a Nightrunner #6 and the Inhibitor in the antenna skyscraper by Metro: Waterside (the building comes down in the finale), the Mantis Blades blueprint from the man by the VNC Tower, and the side quest The Living Dead. Finish Afterparty too if your journal has it, and everything else this guide routes before here. Walking away from the door is allowed: the game warns you before it opens. Then back up the save.
Back up the save before the epilogue doorOther
Location
Central Loop · The van's building – Only when the list above is done, stand at the door without opening it and back up the save outside the game. On PlayStation, upload the save to PS Plus cloud storage from the console's Saved Data settings (on PS4 a USB drive also works), with auto-sync of saved data turned off so the cloud copy isn't overwritten; on PC, copy the save folder (inside Steam's userdata folder) somewhere safe. Xbox works differently: see the note. The game only autosaves, at the start or end of a quest or a quest stage, so the copy holds your last autosave, which may sit a little before the door; anything done after it is undone when you restore, so finish the cleanup before The Breakthrough's last stage. If a backup won't restore, the second X13 ending needs one more New Game+ run after run 2 (a third run), because run 2's own X13 choice is for the third ending. The in-game Backup Save added in an early patch is unconfirmed for this, so don't rely on it.
A copy of the save from outside the game, made at the door. Restoring it after the credits lets you play X13's other choice for the second ending; it also undoes everything after that save.
Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Xbox has no manual copy: force a cloud save instead. Go offline, move around in the game for a few seconds, go back online and check that the save has uploaded. From then until you restore, don't quit the game (quitting can overwrite the cloud copy), and stay online, since achievements don't unlock offline. To restore, delete the game's saved data from the console under Manage Game, Saved Data (repeat until it is gone) and start the game again: it downloads the cloud copy.
The door to the ride to the StrongholdHidden spoiler – activate to revealQuest stepMinor spoiler
Location
Central Loop · The van's building – With the backup made, open the door in the building where the van went. Confirm the warning: The Breakthrough ends and Now or Never begins.