Ah, gotcha! 
My theory on the ending
Considering how if you’re in Puppet’s body, Ace’s precog abilities straight-up tell you to run, the fact MC absolutely freaks the fuck out when their body starts waking up, the fact that Rebirth had to relive a memory of someone in critical condition that the narrative explicitly says aren’t your memories…
Heartbreak is alive. On the edge of death, intentionally or not, it must’ve survived by moving into the MC’s subconscious, dormant and asleep. Trauma is stated to be something that can affect telepathy, so the crash must’ve given just enough of a nudge to wake Heartbreak back up. Whichever body you feel is more you is the one your consciousness is sent to, while it parades the other like a puppet.
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Yes, but replaying Rebirth honestly might be easier. Increasing your telepathy stats is a lot harder now, and getting those last few points in time will require doing something rather specific, like turning off Jake’s power at the auction (if you have telepathy boosters and are willing to leave without the regenerator or following Argent), or facing down the Catastrofied without your suit (if you’re a tactician and willing to reveal yourself to Mortum, and then provoke him enough to shoot you).
Regarding the ending, I also think it’s Heartbreak. Among other things, there’s one line that describes Heartbreak as “Someone desperate for things that they didn’t have. A working body. And they wanted yours.” Heartbreak was also wearing hospital scrubs and medical equipment – the body snatcher calls the smell of disinfectant and chemicals “familiar”, and they won’t stop screaming in the ending where they wake up trapped in a hospital.
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Kitbug on the discord just made a new guide about puppet_individuality and pcv(The stat that determines which body you end up struck in)and with their permission I added to my list of guides at the top of the thread
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Damn did I love this one. All the sprinklings in that some more is happening besides being a ReGene. The stream of consciousness writing style really shines through on this one, especially with all the italicized parts, very good at helping us feel trapped inside the MC’s head (as they do) and as lost and confused as them. Also just love the checkpoints, so glad that I can go back when I want to, instead of hoping for death like other (still great) IFs, or just having to restart. Easily in the upper echelons already. Excited asf for Revelations.
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Anyone else thing that at the end of book 2 when
[details=“Summary”] puppet/MC are awake at the same time. It’s because the person from heartbreak went inside us before dying and is now awake in whichever body you are not occupying?
[/details]
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We know thats not the case because the puppet is showing signs of their own ability and personally i believe that the victim from heart break could have easily overwritten our mind if that was the case.
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Im more curious about the mc’s connection to the literal most powerful criminal in the city. They look similiar ,at least they do if you play a male character, to us and they have a memory involving us as a little kid. Second thing i want to point out because ive seen a few people mention our character personality being different than when he was a hero isnt because of ths heart break incident but more due to the fact that we were kidnapped by a goverment backed organization, if its not part of the government itself, and both psychologically tortured and physically tortured.
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Oooh wait, there’s a way to end up in MC’s body??? I ended up as Ace, it doesn’t make a difference who I choose in the mirrors, or who I choose to go talk with HG. Maybe I couldn’t because my scar was suicidal? I was thinking all this mess happened to define Ace’s (“new”) personality, or something like that.
If we are able to end up in Cyrus body and Malin will write 2 pov’s… 3rd book will be waaaaaaaay longer and… MAN HELL SO FUN HELP I’M OVERREACTING ALREADY FOR REVELATIONS
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You can end up in your MC’s body in the end. You just need to choose choices throughout the story that show that you prefer being in sidestep’s body and that the puppet is just a tool
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The mc is related to hollow ground. We seem to have memories that dont match up with us being made artificially so my guess is that maybe the mc was taken at a young age and had his memories tampered with instead of however those like mc are made usually. at least thats my personal theory about the hollow ground similarities.
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There’s a hidden stat in the code that decides it. If you pick choices that are basically the MC not wanting to be in the puppet, or in that vein, You’ll be in MCs body.
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Question about romance (Herald lub Ortega).
Is there an option to… uh, spend the night with one of them? I mean, I remember it from the alpha demo (After the action, you could choose RO and have a date), but I read Retribution and the romance was limited to kissing.
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When you visit the Ranger HQ after the auction, you can say you’re there for Ortega, then have some dinner with them, leading to some fun. I don’t know about Herald, but I’m working on a have fun with everyone run, might make a guide for it.
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I had a grand total of 4% arrogance at the end lol. Caution was at like 80%, though, and my Sidestep was at 56% ruthlessness. So not quite as much of a goody gumdrops as she could be.
I have my suspicions why Steel turned so quick.
Aww, my Subtle’s at 79 and I’d like it to be at 80.
eyes save editor
Perhaps…
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In the case of Herald there wasn’t fun XD when I revealed that MC is Re-Gene, MC said they had enough and left 
In the old demo there was an option to stay! Maybe it’s been removed? :v
does ortega break up with you for killing anyone, or is there a certain threshold?
What the gates things mean? I only seem to got one and I didnt understand what it is
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You get then when Step runs into more traumatic telepathic events as for what they will do nobody knows yet but it probably won’t be good. The most popular theory is that Step turns into Heartbreak 2.0 when you unlock all of them which you can’t do in Retribution
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Please please tell me this’ll have a harem, i know this may be a same detail considering how much the story has developed and the long writing it took, but i do not want to have to choice between the three girls. I know it seems indecisive and childish and yess its a great story but its also fantasy and the characters are really great so please font let me have to choose between the girls:joy:
, lol i sound a bit childish but these stories are always great
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