Should you choose Tabula Rasa or The Implants in The Alters?

Should you choose Tabula Rasa or The Implants in The Alters? If you've reached the point in the story where you're faced with choosing Tabula Rasa or the second option, creating the implants, here's what each choice does. This guide contains major spoilers, so only read on if you're happy knowing what happens in both scenarios.

When you reach the end of Act 2 in The Alters, your alters start showing signs of sickness. It's the same illness that caused Molly the sheep to pass away and is only present in your alters. To cure this, you'll need to make a decision. You're going to upset your alters either way, but here's how to keep hold of the best alters in the game.

Tabula Rasa is the first option you're given. It's presented by the Scientist, and it comes from the concept that humans are born as empty vessels. Pretty bleak. The idea is that you'll use the Womb to grow another Jan and then utilize the healthy brain tissue to cure your alters. The problem is, they're not very happy with this, but they're not very happy with anything, so you can choose to press on despite their issue with using a living human to extract brain tissue.

If you do choose Tabula Rasa, you'll make several of your alters very unhappy, and you'll be locked out of interacting with them. It'll also upset Lena, who wants you to choose the second option. Choosing Tabula Rasa also has major repercussions on the story, with those unhappy alters deciding to knock you out and take off with the supplies.

The good news is that you'll always be left with the Scientist, as he is mission-critical. The bad news is, depending on which alters you've unlocked, you won't have much of a team left to fulfil tasks at your base. In one playthrough, the Technician, Botanist, and Refiner left when we chose this option, and the Miner stayed.

The Implants

You are given a secondary option of talking to Lena, who advises that you can craft implants to inject into your alters' brains. This option still causes unhappy alters, but it isn't as severe as what happens when you select Tabula Rasa.

If you choose this option, you need to craft the implants in the Workshop and then make the decision when you meet by going with the implants. The Technician takes off in both scenarios, but you'll still be left with the Scientist if you choose this option, as well. In one of our playthroughs, the Miner and Technician left when we chose this option, but the Botanist and Doctor stayed.

Once you've decided which option to pick, here's how to improve the moods of your alters left behind and how to defeat the difficult The Alters anomalies you'll find in Act 3.