Bad ending guide for Road to Empress: A chilling early bad ending in which the protagonist chooses to stay in the room marked with a bloody handprint, sealing her fate before the…
A chilling early bad ending in which the protagonist chooses to stay in the room marked with a bloody handprint, sealing her fate before the story truly begins.
The Bloody Handprint is one of the earliest bad endings a player can encounter in Road to Empress. After navigating the opening palace sequence and reaching the Boudoir Choices decision, selecting the room with the infamous bloody handprint leads to immediate and fatal consequences. This ending is notorious among new players because it feels like a brave or curious choice — who wouldn’t want to investigate a mysterious room? — but the palace’s dark history makes no allowances for the bold.
To reach this ending, you must first arrive at the Boudoir Choices branch, which requires either choosing “Did I say it was intentional?” when responding to Liu Xi’s accusation or refusing to share a room with her. Once there, picking the bloody handprint room triggers an event that ends the chapter — and your playthrough — on a grim note. It serves as the game’s first hard lesson: in the rear palace, caution is not cowardice, it is survival.