"When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left."
— The Narrator's line that establishes the Big First Choice that leads to almost every possible ending in the game
Practically the whole point of The Stanley Parable is for the player, as Stanley, to try to discover as many scripted endings as possible based on how much and when he decides whether or not to follow the Narrator's dialogue.
Additionally, in Ultra Deluxe, when holding the Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket added after the Sequel ending, almost every single ending changes. Some changes are more drastic than others, like the final branch before the Zending and Games endings being removed, and the Real Person ending turning into a lesson on jokes and comedic timing, removing most of the seriousness from the original ending.
Left door endings
NOTE: Any of the left door endings can be accessed via the right door if Stanley traverses the Maintenance Room instead of proceeding to the Warehouse area.- Freedom: Stanley follows the narrator's directions exactly, and turns the mind control device off, exiting the building into a woodland area as the Narrator declares, "And Stanley was happy."
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the doors to freedom close half-way through, as the facility itself refuses to part with the bucket, trapping Stanley on the catwalk. The Narrator then remarks that the bucket will comfort Stanley even when he's trapped in the darkness.
- Countdown: Stanley follows the Narrator's instructions closely, but turns the mind control device on instead of off, causing the Narrator to set the entire building to self-destruct. Stanley has no means of ending the countdown, and nothing in the room will do anything to stop it or allow him to escape, and so runs around helplessly as the Narrator delivers a crushing speech about how futile your choices are and how there is literally nothing that you can do to save Stanley, until the timer runs out.
- Having the bucket will change the ending to Silly Birds: If you press ON in the Mind Control Facility, the Narrator says the bucket pressed it. But it reveals that the facility was only for observing silly birds. The ON and OFF buttons turn into bird icons, and you can scroll through various visuals of birds until the game resets.
- Insane: Stanley follows the Narrator's instructions until the staircase to his boss's office, at which point he goes down instead of up, leading into an endlessly looping basement. Stanley walks around aimlessly as the Narrator describes him slowly becoming self-aware, which eventually causes Stanley to break, screaming that he is real, before he collapses and dies. The ending concludes with the Narrator briefly describing a woman, Mariella, gazing upon Stanley's dead body.
- In the original mod, Stanley finds himself walking in circles. The moment he starts to become aware of the Narrator, all exits suddenly close on him.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley wanders through the looping basement and realizes that the bucket doesn't provide comfort and warmth anymore. Then he reaches the conclusion that the bucket is not his, and begins hallucinating tons of other buckets in the looping rooms, desperate to find his own. He then realizes that the bucket was literally inside him all along, and dies. In the conclusion, Mariella is gazing upon Stanley's body while clutching a bucket of her own. The Narrator argues that the reason Stanley went mad is because he didn't have a bucket of his own, before describing how Mariella is soothed by the bucket during her difficult work and resetting.
- Escape Pod: Stanley listens to the Narrator's instructions until arriving at his Boss's office, at which point he backs out of the room at the last second, allowing the doors to close him out of the room. Immediately following this, all narration ceases. Stanley leaves the area and walks all the way back to his office, where a nearby door has opened. Inside is a room with the words "You Are Now Leaving" written on the wall, and Stanley climbs up several flights of stairs in order to reach the escape pod at the top of the building. Unfortunately, the escape pod only works if both Stanley and the Narrator are present; as the Narrator was left behind, the game restarts before Stanley can reach the pod.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley mournfully places the bucket in the escape pod, and the game resets. Notably, the bucket is absent from its usual spot, until several restarts later a replica is given to the player.Narrator: And try not to lose this one too, you dolt.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley mournfully places the bucket in the escape pod, and the game resets. Notably, the bucket is absent from its usual spot, until several restarts later a replica is given to the player.
- Museum: Stanley obeys the Narrator, but digresses when he reaches the Mind Control Facility, turning left at a sign that says "Escape" instead of the facility. The Narrator repeatedly warns Stanley that he will die if he proceeds down the path, and at the end of it, he falls through a hole into a conveyor belt, which pulls him closer and closer to two metal jaws set to crush him. Just before he dies, a female Narrator halts time, dropping him out of the conveyor belt and pondering the goals of the original Narrator. As she does so, Stanley wanders through a Developer's Room containing cut content and other things from the main game (in the original mod, this is instead a hallway of items from throughout the office). After flipping the switch to turn the game off, he is placed back where he left off, with the female Narrator pleading with the player to quit the game to break free from the Narrator's clutches as the metal jaws come closer and closer, causing Stanley to be crushed to death before the female Narrator can finish speaking. The game restarts.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley walks into a museum which describes various types of buckets and depicts numerous rituals of bucket worshipping while the female Narrator monologues about how much potential the bucket had and how arrogant Stanley was for trying to claim that bucket as his own. After the player attempts to grab the bucket stranded from the ceiling, Stanley is placed into the conveyor belt while female Narrator urges the player to let Stanley die.
- Broom Closetnote : Stanley follows the normal pathway until reaching the Broom Closet, which he enters and stands in for several minutes. The Narrator grows more and more annoyed, until finally concluding that the original player must have died. He calls for a second player, and tells the player to exit to the hallway when they're ready, at which point his narration stops. If you do this over multiple resets, eventually the Narrator will have had enough, and will nail the broom closet shut with wood planks so you can't go back in.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the Narrator claims the broom closet wants to take Stanley's bucket, and if the player stays in it, the Narrator will attach two stickers to the bucket to assert Stanley's ownership of it. Both stickers remain on the Bucket for all subsequent resets, and every time you enter the broom closet thereafter, the Narrator tells you he doesn't have any more stickers for you, and nothing else happens until you leave.
- Bottom of the Mind Control Facility (Ultra Deluxe only): By using the props in the Mind Control Facility, Stanley can go out of bounds and fall to the bottom. The Narrator explains that this was a glitch in the original version, but he now considers it an official ending, and plays some victory music.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley lands on the bucket and lives. With no way out of the pit, Stanley and the bucket make themselves a home down there. At first, they live a comfortable life, but eventually Stanley loses his mind due to not being able to fully explore the Mind Control Facility and the home is left dilapidated. The bucket grows concerned at this, but is certain some sort of ending will eventually come. Like the Coward ending, the Narrator says they wait for "a very long time" before it resets.
- Elevator (Ultra Deluxe only): After taking the elevator down to the Mind Control Facility, Stanley can take the elevator back up to his boss' office. By going back down the elevator and up again several times, you unlock a new ending where Stanley is taken to a press conference to give a speech on the "nature of surprise in storytelling and what it means to craft a truly unpredictable narrative".
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley attempts to illustrate the beauty of pressing number 3 on the keypad, but the bucket is unresponsive, so Stanley throws a press conference dedicated solely to pressing number 3 repeatedly on the keypad. However, no one shows at the conference and the Narrator describes Stanley falling out with the bucket and going back to being completely alone and unloved.
Right door endings
- Confusion: Stanley takes the door on the right, and takes a lift to the basement, where it's revealed the Narrator has no idea where they're going. After wandering into The Reveal of the Freedom Ending by mistake, the Narrator restarts the game, and employs the Adventure Line™ to try to keep Stanley on track. But it leads back prematurely to the Mind Control Facility, showing the game is corrupted. They continually restart the game and wander around, hunting for the story, until they finally discover a large screen with the words "The Confusion Ending" written in bold at the top. The Narrator panics, realizing that, like Stanley, he is just a character in a game, and someone is controlling his actions as well. He reacts with conviction, protesting their pre-written destiny, before a loud, unexpected alarm buzz
interrupts his tirade, and the game is hard-reset.- Having the bucket will change the ending to Bucket Destroyer: After taking the lift to the basement, Stanley is confronted by a group of "characters" from the original Stanley Parable: the broom closet, Stanley's mannequin "wife", cardboard cut-out baby from the Games ending, and the Adventure Line™. The Narrator then tells that they are concerned that Stanley is abandoning them all in favor of a bucket. As the Narrator remarks that the fans would prefer the continuation of the old jokes and gags, The Line™ leads the player into a chamber with the Bucket Destroyer, which the Narrator calls a "very fleshed-out character" despite its sole personality trait being the destruction of buckets. Then Stanley is urged to get rid of the bucket, but it's not actually possible in the game, so the player can only stand around and wait as the Bucket Destroyer overheats and explodes. The Narrator mourns it and resets the game.
- Apartment: Stanley disobeys the Narrator's instructions, taking the other pathway and arriving at a warehouse with a lift. The Narrator insists that he's not Stanley's enemy, and takes him to a room with a phone. If Stanley answers the phone, he is taken to an apartment complex, where the Narrator has a mannequin posing as Stanley's "wife." The player is prompted to press certain keys as the Narrator jeers at Stanley, the room shifting to show the office building again, and the Narrator recites the Madness Mantra, "And I tried again. And Stanley pushed a button. And I tried again. And Stanley pushed a button," until the game resets.
- In the original mod (known as the Pawn ending due to a lack of apartment), Stanley reaches this ending by taking the red door as he would in the Zending path. The game is reset, forcing Stanley back into his office, but all exits are now sealed as he is prompted to do nothing but press keys.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the Narrator tells a story about Stanley's obsession with the bucket, while the bucket itself forces the player to push buttons. As the story goes on, the Narrator himself develops an obsession with the bucket and tries to force Stanley to give it to him before the game resets.
- Powerful: Follows the same path as the Apartment ending until Stanley reaches the lift, at which point he throws himself off of it, catapulting to the ground and dying. The Narrator sarcastically applauds this choice.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the Narrator says that Stanley killed himself to avoid parting with his bucket before saying "How deeply touching".
- Cold Feet: Follows the same path as the Apartment ending until the lift, where Stanley backs off at the last second, remaining on the platform as the lift leaves without him. The Narrator remarks that the lift isn't coming back, so Stanley's only choice is to try jumping down to the bottom of the warehouse.note The Narrator gets more insistent the longer Stanley waits, asserting that Stanley can definitely make the jump. When Stanley does finally jump, inevitably falling to his death, the Narrator casually remarks, "Whoops, looks like I was wrong. How clumsy of me."
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the Narrator claims the buckets are used as cushioning devices and urges Stanley to jump down.
- Real Person: Stanley disobeys the Narrator's instructions, following the same path as the Apartment Ending until he arrives at the telephone, where he pulls the plug out. This catches the Narrator completely off-guard, who notes that this choice should have been impossible, as it is the only "incorrect" course of action. This makes him realize that there is actually a real person controlling Stanley. He has the player watch a non-sequitur video on decision-making, then guides Stanley back to the two doors. Taking the right door again leads to the narrative contradiction overcoming the game, and it takes two resets for the game to restore again. Taking the left door forces Stanley to go to the Boss's office, where the keypad is replaced with a voice-activated lock—which the game lacks the mechanic for the player to operate, further angering the Narrator. Once both paths have been taken, the player is ejected from Stanley's body, causing the player to view the game from an outside perspective, watching Stanley's body from above the ceiling as the Narrator pleads with his empty shell to make a choice. This is the only ending to display the game's credits.
- Having the bucket will change the ending to Joke Timing: When you pull the plug for the telephone, the Narrator gets exasperated, saying Stanley following the bucket's orders was supposed to be a joke. They watch a non-sequitur video about telling a joke. The Narrator guides Stanley to backtrack all the way to the first two doors. The door on the right comes immediately to the room with the phone, after which it resets. If you take the door on the left, Narrator blames Stanley for ruining the joke, and it resets. Once you do both, the next reset shows the player ejected from the story, like the Real Person ending. At this point, the Narrator is trying different jokes, and takes Stanley's lack of response without the player as him simply not being amused by the Narrator's jokes as Ultra Deluxe's credits roll.
- In both of these endings, fences are put up on the cargo lift and in the warehouse area to prevent Stanley from jumping off them and killing himself on the way back from the telephone. This happens regardless of whether or not Stanley had achieved the Powerful ending previously. In the Real Person ending, the Narrator explains that he can't have the hero of the story dying prematurely. In the Joke Timing ending, the fences are completely ignored by the Narrator, as he's too busy rehearsing his "joke".
- Zending: Follows the Apartment ending until Stanley reaches the lift, where he jumps off and makes it to the other landing, normally inaccessible. The Narrator chastises him for this, stating that he just wants both he and Stanley to be happy. To prove it, he asks Stanley to take the nearby red door. If Stanley does, the Narrator leads him to the Starry Dome, and begs him to simply stop moving and appreciate its beauty. Stanley then walks to a nearby high landing, jumping off of it repeatedly even as the Narrator pleads with him to stop, before eventually killing himself and restarting the game.
- Games: Follows the Zending until Stanley reaches the colored doors. When the Narrator asks Stanley to enter the red door, Stanley enters the blue door. The Narrator tries to force Stanley to take the red door, but Stanley keeps following the blue one, until the Narrator finally shows him what is behind the door - an empty room of exposed developer textures. The Narrator decides to experiment with some additional edits to the game while asking Stanley's opinions, until he finally decides that Stanley can't be pleased and chooses to play some different games instead - namely, Minecraft and Portal in the HD Remix, or Firewatch and Rocket League in the Ultra Deluxe edition. When the Narrator abandons Stanley at the end of the Portal section, he can jump down the elevator shaft (Or jumps into one of the ball return pits in the goals in Rocket League while the Narrator is messing around with the balls, though the Narrator will also abandon him here once he interacts with the balls), bringing himself to the abandoned office area of the original Half-Life 2 mod, where he wanders around until the game resets, after the Narrator comments on Stanley being unable to do anything without his guidance.
- In the original mod's variation, Stanley is sent to Half-Life 2 without the narrator offering a rating board or baby game. The Narrator eventually gets frustrated over there being nothing else to do on the map. Stanley finds an exit that takes him back to the office, but can't make any further progress after reaching the boss' office, the downstairs area, or the elevator shaft. The narrator talks about the It's the Journey That Counts trope, declaring himself happy to be the destination rather than the journey, and the game resets.
- In the Bucket variation, Zending and Games are unavailable; instead, jumping onto the catwalk will lead to Bucket Quiz: Stanley's path is blocked by a sign that prohibits any buckets, and the Narrator says that Stanley needs to know what is and isn't a bucket. The player is lead into a lounge where Is This a Bucket? offers several objects and asks the player whether they are a bucket or not. However, the questions are mostly Non Sequitur and by the end the Narrator comes to the conclusion that if nothing is not a bucket, then everything is a bucket. Frustrated at this, the Narrator attempts to delete all the buckets in the game, but ends deleting the whole world, proving that everything except for him and Stanley is indeed a bucket. The Narrator then asks to Let Us Never Speak of This Again and resets.
- Tape Recorder (Ultra Deluxe only): At the point with the cargo lift, there is a small vent hidden in one of the walls. By jumping down to it and crawling through it, Stanley has gone so far off track that the game is beginning to mess up. The Narrator's voice starts to glitch out, and then Stanley comes across a tape recorder. The Narrator then mocks Stanley (and the audience in general) for thinking that the whole thing was in his imagination, and that such a "twist" could only be fascinating to simple-minded people.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the camera is fixed on the tape recorder as someone is rambling about the tempting power of the bucket and how he plans to profit off of it. Then the man announces that something named Gambhorra'ta has come for him and tape cuts short.
- Art: Follows the Games ending until the Narrator starts up the baby game. If you manage to complete all four hours of the game, you are greeted by the essence of divine art, who promises you a heavenly reward for all of your hard work, and informs you that they love you. The game then restarts.
Pre-two doors room endings
These endings can be achieved before entering the room with two doors.- Coward: Stanley closes the door before even leaving his office. The Narrator talks for a bit about Stanley's cowardice, before restarting the game.
- In the bucket variation of this ending, Stanley rushes back into the office with his bucket and locks the door behind him. He decides he's had enough of looking for more bucket endings, and decides to wait for the true sequel to The Stanley Parable instead. The Narrator encourages Stanley to keep waiting, and then the game restarts.
- Window: Stanley leaves his office and jumps onto desk 434, falling through the window into a white void where the Narrator proclaims that, even though Stanley believed he'd found a glitch, it was actually part of the game all along. The Narrator has some extended dialogue before asking if Stanley has gotten sick of the joke, at which point Stanley can pick YES or NO. Regardless of what he picks, the player is stuck in the room until they reset the game.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, the bucket reveals its dark past and monologues about redemption and atonement. Stanley goes insane and begins ranting while the bucket reveals that the evil wizard named Gambhorra'ta turned it into a bucket. Then it reveals its true form and Stanley kills it in an off-screen battle. The Narrator shows the blood-stained corpse of the bucket and congratulates Stanley on his victory before resetting the game.
- Whiteboard: At a random chance, the game can begin with the office looking completely different, with a more blue appearance instead of its usual yellow. At this point, Stanley can open door 426, revealing a whiteboard with the words "Whiteboard Ending!" written on it, as well as the instruction to write ] bark in the console. After doing so, the game will make frequent barking sounds as Stanley walks around. This is replaced with a toggle-able button on the whiteboard in Ultra Deluxe.
- Serious: If the player attempts to activate cheats by typing sv_cheats 1 into the console, they are teleported to the Narrator's "Serious Room," in which he lectures the player for attempting to cheat at the game, and condemns them to spend one hundred billion trillion years in the Serious Room. If the player tries to use cheats again, the Narrator again lectures the player, and intensifies their punishment by sentencing the player to "infinity years" in the Serious Room. It should be noted that this the only ending that was removed for Ultra Deluxe, due to this version being built in Unity instead of Source, which does not include a command prompt console like the latter does.
- Heaven: Stanley comes across five computers, all bearing the message "awaiting input," in different areas of the game. He clicks them all in a specific order while restarting between each one. After clicking the last computer, he is teleported to a white room with a spinning ring of buttons surrounding him, and the text "Welcome Stanley, to Heaven" appears. This ending won't restart until the player does so themselves. Once this is achieved, Stanley can go to Heaven at any time from the console in his office at the beginning of subsequent runs.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, Stanley and the bucket are instead taken to a darker area surrounded by towering pillars that reach into the skies, as a choir ominously sings the word "bucket" in various tones.
Progression Endings
Narrator: Ohh! New content? What does that mean - new content?
These endings are used in the story of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, and can usually only be achieved once. As of an update, however, the New Content Ending, Skip Button Ending and The Stanley Parable 8 can all be replayed via the boss's bathroom after completing them all, simply by interacting with the pictures on the bathroom mirror.
- New Content: After a few playthroughs of the original game, a door leaving the second cubicle room gets "New Content" painted on it, and is open for Stanley to enter. Initially excited, the Narrator is disappointed that it's basically just a number of elevator rides and a small circle that lets Stanley jump a limited number of times before ending with an small empty room with a sign board thanking them for enjoying the new content. The narrator decides to go back to his story, and the game resets.
- In the Bucket variation of this ending, which is made available after the Epilogue, Stanley and the bucket enter the "New Content" door, and the Narrator realizes that Stanley must have already seen everything he had been planning for the sequel if he already has the bucket. Once they reach the final room, the Narrator concludes that the bucket was enticing enough to qualify as new content, and that he made the perfect sequel. He thanks Stanley for carrying the bucket everywhere, and gloats about his victory.
- Skip Button: After completing New Content for the first time, the Narrator gives Stanley the option of entering a vent rather than continuing with the story. He takes Stanley to the Memory Zone to reminisce over glowing reviews of the original release, but a poor user review inspires the Narrator to add a skip button feature. However, the exit to the button's room vanishes and the skip button skips over increasingly long periods of time, leading the Narrator to Go Mad from the Isolation and eventually stop talking. Stanley presses the skip button until erosion creates a path out of the room, where the world outside has now been reduced to a vast desert wasteland; he steps outside and wanders this desert for a while before the game resets by itself.
- Sequel: After completing Skip Button, Stanley enters the New New Content door, where the Narrator declares that he is going to make The Stanley Parable 2 instead of being satisfied with an Updated Re-release. He shows Stanley to an expo hall with the new features, including collectible figurines, an infinite hole, a machine that automatically gives an achievement that was accidentally unachievable in the original game (but is currently broken), balloons around the office, and the Reassurance Bucket. When the Narrator tries to show Stanley how all these elements will come together into a game they never quite do, and the Narrator decides to just integrate the new features into the existing game, and it resets. Subsequent runs include the Bucket and balloons around the office, as well as spawning the collectibles; the title screen is also different.
- Infinite Hole: One of the new features in the new features showcase the Narrator is showing off is an infinite hole. When Stanley falls down the hole, the Narrator tries to get him to teleport back up in a hurry... as the hole is not infinite. Teleporting back and falling into it again repeatedly then shows the hole has become shorter each time, to the Narrator's confusion, until it's just barely thigh high in depth. Going into it in this state however reveals that the Teleport function has now broken and since Stanley can't jump, he's stuck in there. As the Narrator goes off to do something else, the hole starts to move down and the player can now see Stanley in the third person, and change stuff about the scene, music, and Stanley himself... then the Narrator comes back and tells Stanley to stop falling asleep and he will come to keep him awake, before he goes off and the hole moves again before the game restarts back to the start of the Sequel exhibits. The "Bucket" version is the ending least changed by the Bucket's presence, with the only difference being that the bucket is also visible at Stanley's feet in 3rd-person.
- In the Bucket variation of the overall "Sequel" ending, which is made available after the Bucket version of the New Content ending, once Stanley and the bucket enter the room demonstrating the Reassurance Bucket, the Narrator panics as the second bucket is lowered into the room, claiming that the warmth and reassuring power of two buckets is too powerful to comprehend. He destroys both of them to spare Stanley the mental anguish. This does not change the bucket reappearing in subsequent resets. In addition, the Narrator is initially dumbfounded that the achievement machine is now fixed. He then quickly claims it was working all along. And the Collectibles section is closed off, since you've already collected them all.
- Collectibles: After completing Sequel collectible figurines of Stanley appear throughout the building. After getting them all and restarting the Narrator takes Stanley back to the Memory Zone to relive the experience of collecting the figurines. The Narrator then takes Stanley back through the Memory Zone and all the way back to his office, deciding that he doesn't need Stanley to provide companionship anymore, but allowing one more run through the office for old times' sake.
- Epilogue: Unlocked as a separate menu option after completing the Collectables ending and exhausting all the game's boot-up settings and dialogue. Continuing off from the Skip Button ending, Stanley wanders through the desert alone for several daysnote until he comes across the ruins of the Memory Zone. Inside, he comes across a negative review for The Stanley Parable 2, and another blog post stating that the developers have stopped work on The Stanley Parable sequels. After dropping down into an office room deep underground, he comes across a computer where he interacts with the same unseen entity from the game's boot-up sequences, who decides to make each subsequent boot-up a new 'sequel' to The Stanley Parable (complete with a new subtitle each time) as well as fixing the achievement machine in The Stanley Parable 2 showfloor. From this point, the title screen changes again to a randomized scene, starting with a cartoon car driving across the desert wasteland, with each subsequently-chosen title and subtitle.
- If the Escape Pod ending had been achieved with the bucket, then the crashed escape pod with the Reassurance Bucket inside will be outside the ruins of the Memory Zone, and Stanley can take the bucket with him into the Memory Zone. If this is done before Stanley receives the replica bucket after the Escape Pod ending, then the bucket will return on the next reset without the Narrator replacing it.
- The Stanley Parable 8: Available after the Epilogue ending, and once the sequel number iterates to 8. The game boots to a small inescapable room with a button that only enunciates the number eight (which originated in the Demo). The Narrator is dumbfounding at the normal game being missing. If you keep pressing it, the Narrator expresses offense at your fascination with the button, and eventually leaves you to the button until you reset the game.
