A New Morality Achievement in The Talos Principle II

*MISSABLE*

Throughout your entire playthrough, dialogue choices you make, actions you take, people you talk to, and Social Media responses you give will influence how people view you and their leaders. Ultimately, at the end of Act 4/very beginning of Act 5, an election where occur. There are multiple outcomes, but for the purposes of achievements, there are three possibilities:
 

• Hermanubis stays mayor (Balance (15G))
• Byron gets elected mayor (A New Beginning (40G))
• Rand gets elected mayor (A New Morality (30G))

These are all highly missable, and they aren't even mutually exclusive: it's actually possible to finish the game with none of these three being elected.

It is, however, possible to get all three elected on a single save file without needing three separate playthroughs. This is a very careful process that requires doing a bunch of missable actions throughout your playthrough, responding to little or no Social Media posts, and making specific dialogue choices throughout. I highly recommend that, if you want to get all three in a single playthrough, you just follow my walkthrough HERE. It will ensure you don't miss anything as you play through the game, walk you through how to get everyone elected in one playthrough, and it won't spoil anything. Do note that this requires some very careful cloud save manipulation to make this happen on Xbox; the usual offline playing doesn't work here, because achievements in this game don't work offline. Here's more detail on how the exploit works:

We're going to use cloud save manipulation to get all three missable achievements in one playthrough. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, achievements earned offline don't unlock in this game, so we can't play offline and then delete the local save. Instead, we need to do it online, being very careful to not mess this up. Here is what you need to do for each playthrough:

1. After completing all of Anthropic Hills, including activating the tower, head to the Lost Lab. As soon as you enter, you'll see the game save in the lower right. Pause and quit out, then press the guide button and force close the game app. This will force a cloud save backup
2. (OPTIONAL) - before doing the routing below, if you want to be sure you're going to end up with the mayor you want, you can go offline now, play your save file using the routing below, and see if you get the mayor you want at the start of Act 5. Assuming you do, go into Manage Game and Add-ons, Save Data, and choose to delete your local save. Now go back online for the next step, knowing that when you execute this, you'll get the mayor you need for the associated achievement
3. With your cloud backup in place (wait a few minutes to ensure it backs up properly), launch the game and load your save file at Anthropic Hills. Follow the routing below for the mayor you want, which includes the Lost Lab, some social media responses, heading back inside the Megastructure to save Byron, and then waking up in New Jerusalem at the start of Act 5, where you'll find out which person became mayor, and the associated achievement will unlock
4. IMPORTANT - as soon as the mayor-related achievement unlocks, press the guide button, go to Manage Game and Add-ons (DO NOT close the game app), go to Save Data, press start on it, and choose to Delete Local Save ONLY! This will automatically close the game, and your local save will be deleted
5. Relaunch the game. It'll sync with your cloud save, and if done correctly, your save file should have you back at the Lost Lab entrance in Anthropic Hills.

You can now proceed to repeat these steps for the other two mayors. Personally, I quit out again here, just to ensure the cloud save backup still existed. I also did each one of these offline first, to ensure I knew what choices to make to get the mayor I wanted

For those that don't want to use an exploit to get all three, and would instead prefer to do separate runs to get each mayor and experience the narrative that follows it, here is how each is elected. Hermanubis and Byron are pretty simple and straightforward below, because they're essentially the two extremes of your decisions. Rand is way more complicated.

Hermanubis
Herman is the existing mayor, and is the conservative one of the group. To get him re-elected, you'll want to choose Social Media responses that praise the Founder, support the Goal, and reject the Theory of Everything. From personal experience, choosing relatively positive responses throughout my playthrough (not siding with the Founder, the Goal, etc.), I was still able to get Hermanubis re-elected by literally doing nothing special at the end of my playthrough. To guarantee it though, here's what you can do at the end of your playthrough:
 

1. Before heading to the Somnodrome in the Lost Lab in W2 - Anthropic Hills, you'll need to respond to some social media entries to support the Goal and the Founder to be on Hermanubis's side. Select the following responses to the following social media threads:
   1. Theory of Everything - agree with Malduc
   2. Is there even a future? - say you think you're taking the wrong path
   3. A Warning - bottom left option (you DON'T think a class society is forming; society without growth will be equal and balanced)
   4. The Goal Megathread - choose Loyalty, and that loyalty, when earned, has value
2. Head to the Somnodrome in the Lost Lab, asking Hermanubis what he thinks, and that you'll plug in and see for yourself (unlocking Gnothi Seauton (25G))
3. Inside, interact with the computer (use /rm to proceed, and then load up the final.final file). Now go talk to Miltohim on the beach. Your choices here don't matter (he'll talk to you about moral code no matter which big question you ask him), and then exit
4. Back with Hermanubis, tell him you're not fine (third option), and ask what you should do
5. On the way out, you'll talk to Rand. This is important. Pick the first option both times (don't tell him anything related to what you saw)
6. Head out of the Lost Lab and Cryer will talk to you. Tell him you need more time (don't do the interview)
7. Back at the VTOL, tell Hermanubis that the myth of the Founder must be preserved (first option)
8. Proceed to the Megastructure, follow the story, and when you wake up with Neith at the start of Act 5, you can ask about the status of New Jerusalem, and you'll be told who is mayor. Should be Hermanubis, unlocking Balance (15G)

Byron
Getting Byron elected is essentially the complete opposite of Herman - choose Social Media responses that support exploration, growth, expansion, etc., and shoot down the Goal, etc. For me, despite siding with Byron throughout my playthrough, I still had to take some additional steps at the end to be sure he got elected. To guarantee it at the end of each playthrough, here's what I recommend:
 

1. Before heading to the Somnodrome in the Lost Lab in W2 - Anthropic Hills, you'll need to respond to some social media entries to support expansion and growth to get people on Byron's side. Select the following responses to the following social media threads:
   1. Theory of Everything - agree with Shmilev
   2. Is there even a future? - say you have to do the best you can
   3. A Warning - first option, that you agree, and that you can expand and grow without repeating past mistakes
   4. The Goal Megathread - choose that you owe the Founder nothing
2. Head to the Somnodrome in the Lost Lab, pick any option with Hermanubis, and that you'll plug in and see for yourself (unlocking Gnothi Seauton (25G))
3. Inside, interact with the computer (use /rm to proceed, and then load up the final.final file). Now go talk to Miltohim on the beach. Your choices here don't matter (he'll talk to you about moral code no matter which big question you ask him), and then exit
4. Back with Hermanubis, tell him you're fine
5. On the way out, you'll talk to Rand. This is important. Pick the first option both times (don't tell him anything related to what you saw)
6. Head out of the Lost Lab and Cryer will talk to you. Agree to the interview, tell them you saw the future, and say you're sharing the data with the people
7. Back at the VTOL, tell Hermanubis that the myth of the Goal is strangling the society
8. Proceed to the Megastructure, follow the story, and when you wake up with Neith at the start of Act 5, you can ask about the status of New Jerusalem, and you'll be told who is mayor. Should be Byron, unlocking A New Beginning (40G) 

Rand
Unlike the other two, getting Rand elected takes a lot more work over the course of your playthrough, and isn't as simple and straightforward as the others. Virtually everything here is missable through the playthrough, and this is all pulled from my walkthrough, but here's what you need to do:
 

1. Starting in the Prologue and proceeding through Act 1, follow through with Not What It Seems (5G) with Doge, answering the questions as laid out in that achievement to ensure that you get matched with Rand, the scholar, in Act 2
2. Also in the Prologue, in New Jerusalem, head to the Museum of Exploration, and go in the room on the left. Talk to Rand there, agree with him, and then do the computer terminal simulation. I don't think choices in the simulation matter, but be sure to talk to Rand when you're done to report your results to him
3. In N2 - Flooded Valley in Act 2, make sure you head to the Lost Lab and choose to try to use the Somnodrome (do NOT choose to study it). It'll break, but this is required for later
4. During Act 3, when you head to New Jerusalem, locate Atal in the center of town and agree with him
5. During the Act 3 briefing before you depart to this act's puzzle areas, it's okay if you don't side with Rand here. If you do, no problem; if you don't, Rand will contact you during the first area, S1 - Southern Coast. Make sure to tell him that you only lied to protect your relationship with him
6. Head to the Somnodrome in the Lost Lab, telling Hermanubis you think Rand is right, and that you'll plug in and see for yourself (unlocking Gnothi Seauton (25G))
7. Inside, interact with the computer (use /rm to proceed, and then load up the final.final file). Now go talk to Miltohim on the beach. Your choices here don't matter (he'll talk to you about moral code no matter which big question you ask him), and then exit
8. Back with Hermanubis, tell him you're fine, and ask if he's curious too (these don't seem to matter much)
9. On the way out, you'll talk to Rand. This is more important. Tell him you went into Sleep Mode and spoke to something, that you're intuitively connected to what's right and wrong, morality is too complex to write as simple rules, that what you spoke to is not the moral authority, that it said morality is also based on compassion, and that you need to review the data before making a judgment
10. Head out of the Lost Lab and Cryer will talk to you. Agree to the interview, say you only saw mostly bugs, and then that you're sending the data to Rand and the scholars
11. Back at the VTOL, tell Hermanubis that you share his fear, but the future can't be built on a lie
12. Proceed to the Megastructure, follow the story, and when you wake up with Neith at the start of Act 5, you can ask about the status of New Jerusalem, and you'll be told who is mayor. Should be Rand, unlocking A New Morality (30G)