The Swapper Ending -- No Commentary -- SPOILERS

Second Option: 1:54

The Swapper is a masterful game worth playing to the very end, but there is no way to go back to get a different ending once finished.

In this video are the endings available in the game without audio commentary. The first one is the "Swap" ending. The second one (starts at 1:54) is the "Stay" ending.

More Information on The Swapper:

[nathanc]

So, this blew my mind... If you pay attention to the crew logs in this game, one log documents that the first time two crew members tested the Swapper between themselves they had pretty much total memory loss. They are even listed as casualties in that crew log. Keep in mind that being a casualty doesn't necessarily mean a person has died. Injured people and those otherwise unable to perform their duties due to extraneous circumstances are also considered casualties. The same crew log states that using the Swapper on clones, which is all your character has done up to this point, does not cause memory loss. It allows you to retain your self identity.
So if you decide to live at the end of this game you immediately lose your memories and therefore all sense of self which so far you have managed to preserve. Also, if you swap at the end, you have whiped the memories and the identity of an innocent person who was only trying to rescue you.
If you decide to die on the planet, you get to retain your own mind, memories, and identity for those precious last seconds before you hit the ground. It's said that a person's entire life flashes before their eyes right before they die, and in a split second they relive their entire existence. If so, that experience is priceless compared to the instant loss of one's own mind.
So which choice truly allows for self preservation in this scenario? Twitch instinct tells us to Swap and keep breathing at all cost, but is that really the correct answer? It's a really deep freaking game....

[Plo-nfrd]

you can really call it a much deeper ending, the second one

[alistairpage-mcgill]

Jumped off, realised that if I wanted to see the other ending I'd have to play the ENTIRE game again, came here

[NightNord]

My take is that both theories are right - mind is just a chemical process and there is something more as well. The "something more" is actually being a process. Not just some random reactions, but chain of reactions, a loop. If loop is broken and then restored - that's someone else is now.

So The Swapper should actually be called "The Linker" or "The Chainer", because it doesn't swap souls, but instead link brains. When you create a clone, you create a clone which brain is linked to yours - running the same process across two brains. I found operation systems analogue pretty close - it's like an OS running across multiple physical machines over the network, but with all the connection done on low-level. So for high-level OS it's just like once machine with multiple CPUs.

So, when you are cloning yourself, you are not multiplying your mind - it's still you, just running across multiple bodies. When a clone dies it's just like OS losing a CPU. Unless that was a CPU kernel was running on - that's ok. But if that was a CPU kernel was running on - the operation system will crash. So when you dies - game over. Same goes here - your mind is running across multiple brains, but one brain is a "host" one.

So the second option of The Swapper is send an energy jolt somehow forcing your mind process to swap the host brain. An OS kernel is usually capable of doing so, so,   in OS with hotswap CPUs, you may move the kernel to other CPU and disconnect the one it was just working on. It's being done by sending a command to the kernel. The Swapper is such a command of kinds.

But it becomes interesting when you disconnect a clone from your brain without killing it - like when Scavanger jettisoned her clone (probably just because being afraid of what happened - hence clone swinging hands in panic). When a clustered OS loses connection between two parts it may became two OS each thinking it lost some of it's resources. It doesn't happen in case of hardware-level clusters, because there is only one kernel, but probably that's where the analogue stretches to it's limits. Human brain always runs a process even if it's just a part of bigger multi-hosted process. And if there is no host - it becomes a host. Like P2P games - host lost, new host. Some information is lost in a process and the result will probably be different from the original, but that's ok because it's not you anymore. It's someone else.

So The Watchers, I assume, were not intelligent initially. The only one was - The Head. Others were just reflections of his intelligence - his brains in a chain. But when humans came and started to bring them to the station, they became disconnected one by one and established their own intelligence - sometimes trivial, sometimes more complex - depending on what part of the process they where running and how much processing power they had. When humans took The Head from the planet in lost most of it's brains and processing power. It also reconnected with lost ones, but decided not to suppress their new minds for some reason, but it was capable of doing so (they talk to each other, but when The Trio swaps into The Head they all start talking as a trio).

Instead it's attempted to make new brains by connecting humans working around. That's the technology humans reverse-engineered into The Swapper. But human brain is not up to the constant connection. It needs rest to function properly. And The Head is a huge stone - it doesn't need rest. So once a human becomes connected to the chain, it sees strange dreams and become more and more tired. Eventually brain just switches off due to exhaust - that's the "sickness" that was killing the crew symptom of which was an ability to talk to/to hear The Watchers.

And the last part - when The Scavanger used The Swapper on brains she doesn't swapped with one of them. Instead - she created a connection between them. So they've got three processes running across three brains and one body. Each got enough processing power to think their thoughts, but only one was capable on controlling the body. So they did not merged - we know that human brain is capable of running two processes at the same time - hence split personality. When they've swapped/linked to The Head, they've just suppressed it (probably due to dominant human intelligence - sick humans were not "possessed" by The Watchers, they've only experienced mildly odd dreams when most of their brain should be switched off) and suppressed all other linked watchers. But they've got problems with that when station crashed into the planet - human mind is not used to work across so many hosts, so probably they've just assimilated in. The strongest mind (the aggressive one) was concentrated/focused enough to give you the last "advice".

I think it was possible to split them back by creating a clone, "swapping" the current host process into the clone (pushing other processes away from it and pulling the current process into it) and then instantly breaking the link somehow. Not an easy task and "pushing other processes" part is tricky, but that's the experiment that was clearly missing. Maybe it will work if there are three clones and you "swap" to all three  at the same time - each mind goes to one and then link is broken. But maybe other processes leftovers (as only hosts/kernels are moving) will mess you up anyway.

So with all that the endings are pretty much logical. If you stay/jump off the ledge The Watches (who also are a community of minds now, as The Head was disconnected from them) will say that you've chosen to preserve identity, even for a short period. If you've swapped - you are not "swapped and killed Marcus", you've linked two brains, pushed your mind into Marcus' brain (and that the tricky part with the experiment proposed above - either you've pushed Marcus mind back into your body or you've just taken a place along with it.). Probably Macrus ended up with a split personality or it's you, but with Marcus identity partially merged into your process - creating a new person essentially.

Anyway, what's missing here is an ending when you swap-jump into the shadow below the blue light and "what the hell??!" run into the ship saving yourself and preserving your identity. You'll be probably save out of planet's reach and will also grant humanity The Swapper - a key to immortality and body change (as long as body doesn't posses it's own mind at the moment of swap)

[ousooners]

I don't think dignity has anything to do with it. I think it's more about posing the question, "what would you give up to survive?" The antagonist, the 3 minds in one body, is the logical extreme of this argument. Of giving up your very identity to survive. And each mind has a different idea of what life is worth once you've given up that identity. More existentially, it also asks the question "is the mind more than the brain?" to which the story offers many divergent conclusions. All in all one of the most beautifully crafted, engaging and emotional games I've ever played. 

[ehnoycv]

This amazing game is based on the ancient Greek ''PARADOX OF THESAUS''. After Thesaus had killed the Minotaur in Crete and returned to Athens as a hero, they kept his Ship as a monument of Heroism, to remind people of his Courage. As years went by, the wooden parts of the Ship started to fall and then they decided to REPLACE the former wood parts with new ones. THEN the question was raised: AFTER THE REPLACEMENT, WAS IT STILL THE SAME HEROIC SHIP OR HAD IT LOST ITS GREATNESS?

[normanosbourne]

I swapped out of reflex because I was prompted but I immediately regretted it.

[niklassoderberg]

You can't go back. You can stay and die. You can jump and die. You can swap and (if you had a choice, go left and die) go right, the other dude will to. Always will someone die. They always try to rescue a person, that jumps to her/his death. One of the best endings in a game ever.

[Darmesis]

I handed my controller to someone else and went to Gamestop and traded in some old games. Don't know which ending they picked - when I got home there was just a controller lying in the middle of the floor...

[ivanbelic]

I knew the right thing was to stay on the planet, not to endanger crew of a rescue ship and maybe whole human kind...yet...i was weak...fear of death overcome me so i swapped :-P

[RMJ]

Why cant bigger companies learn from indie devs. there really are some amazing indie devs out there, that know how to make a freaking emotional ending "the stay on the planet one" This was the one i took, i havent tried the other, im quite happy with this ending.
Also amazing game.

[ElectricityTaster]

Philosophically it is a bit contradictory. Our identities are made out of our memories and the continuity between these memories. Call this continuity "the chain" if you will. By swapping to your own clone, you break this chain. From the perspective of the original body (the conscious you), you die. The clone gets a copy of you up to your last second and feels as if there is continuity, but your clone feels it, not you. For everyone else, the clone is exactly the same as you. In fact, the clone will say it was you and will talk about how the experience of swapping bodies was over in an instant and did not hurt at all.
Think about it, where where _you_ while you were in the process of being swapped, while the swapper beam was halfway between brains?
This is where the Watchers get it wrong: At the end, _you_ don't die to protect your identity, your _clone_ does. _You_ committed suicide the very first time you swapped into a clone of yourself.

[eggsandchips]

A rescue ship without any basic rescue abilities besides "hey you, hop on board"!? Bit of a plot whole but to be honest it doesn't matter. Game was fantastic, I decided to stay

[lilkonna]

I feel as though the majority of people swapped but at the time it wasn't a hard choice as I knew right when it gave the option that I wouldn't swap. I'm with Dennett's mindset, our mind is our brain and if we swap consciousness we would lose who we are and not even know it. 

[nightcawc]

When they say that's the third one this month at the swap ending. You know that the others on the ship have all been swappers in the past. 

WHAT A TWEEST

[jhrtelem]

I stay on the planet because i tought i could swap later into a rock. Then, with the other three, do something to make contact with Earth, explain what happen and go back to human form with clones.

We would have a lot of time to try. But the game killed me. It gave me one more chance, but i didn´t change my mind.

[danhorus]

Holy shit, the other ending was just as powerful. I loved this game!

[bundeligafan]

If you think about the two endings, they are actually just one ending. In both endings the person on the left falls down (jumps), and the person on the right walks back to the ship. The only thing that changed is that you swapped your playable character.

[ariaandkia]

Funny thing, I had one clone left at this point since I set myself up to kill off a clone for just in case during that last puzzle.  It wouldn't let me use the cloning machine T_T .  Funny though that after the swap, you have control over both bodies still just like a normal clone.

[PetionC]

second option is so deep that they almost find oil down there