The Alters – Can Maxwell’s Cure Save the Alter

At the end of Act 1 in The Alters, the atmosphere becomes decidedly blacker when the Technician plays the guitar and begins to manifest symptoms of Systemic Neurodegenerative Disorder, an incurable neurological disease. It soon becomes apparent that this illness is affecting no single Alter, giving all of them mere days to live unless Jan can effectively find a cure.

Contents

Understanding Maxwell’s Cure Pursuing Lena’s Cure Consequences of Your Cure Choice Which Alters Favor Each Cure?

It is here at the turning point that the player has to choose whether Jan will adopt Maxwell’s brutal but efficient solution or take a chance in revealing the truth to Lena and look for a superior way of going forward.

Understanding Maxwell’s Cure

Maxwell provides his answer as the most efficient and direct means of rescuing the Alters. His answer is to learn QC Hacking in order to reprogram the Quantum Computer to produce a blank Alter—Tabula Rasa. The Jan does not have a memory, identity, or self-awareness and is hence a blank slate that can be harvested for organs.

You must create Tabula Rasa, whether you wish to proceed down the line you will be going or not, as it is required in order to continue the story. After the vacant Alter has been reclaimed from the Womb Module, you are under severe time constraints. If you fail to call Lena or generate adequate Brain Implants for the existing Alters within three days, Maxwell’s method becomes the standard.

Maxwell’s cure is then followed by euthanising Tabula Rasa and transplanting its brain tissue to cure the rest. The treatment successfully puts an end to the Alters’ neurological degeneration once and for all, as well as protecting any subsequent Alters created later in the game. The choice nevertheless firmly sets Maxwell in control for the remainder of the story and assigns him as your handler in Act 3.

Pursuing Lena’s Cure

If you choose not to get a second opinion, you can initiate a side quest by calling Lena and reporting the Alters to her. The next day, she calls back with revised schematics for a medical solution—neural implants. These can be built in the Workshop and must be implanted in each of the current Alters before the third day elapses.

Following Lena’s suggestion changes the story direction. Since she’s been informed, the Alter’s secret is now disclosed to Ally Corporation management. Maxwell and Lucas are fired as a result, replaced in Act 3 by corporate executive Agatha, even though you won’t necessarily end up using the implants later in your life.

If you use Lena’s solution, then all subsequent Alters created thereafter will require one of these implants, which will increase the cost of producing them by one implant above the normal 20 Rapidium.

But implants have a downside. They allow Ally Corporation to track every Alter upon their return to Earth. That tracking ability is a pivotal plot device in Act 3, when Lena learns at last how to disable the trackers—information that can be leveraged in an effort to restore the rebellion’s faith, particularly in the Technician.

Consequences of Your Cure Choice

All Alter will not respond the same way to your decision. Each has a firm personal opinion, and their loyalty depends on which road you choose. Those who oppose your cure of choice will be left forever disillusioned.

Alters who disagree will:

Lock their mood to its lowest level, decreasing their daily output.
Refuse to talk to Jan, even with gifts proffered or story goals.
Break at the end of Act 2, scaling down your staff permanently.

This can equate to your ability to man the base and progress through optional stories being severely disabled, especially if many of your Alters reject your decision. If your Quantum Computer slots are small, you will need to consider which way your existing crew will likely lean.

Better still, even recently founded Alters will remember these gripes if they don’t like your past choices, and you can no longer continue their stories in that playthrough.