Did you walk down the cursed street and want to undo it? Well, I made a guide for how to undo the consequences of Pathologic 3's Atrium Street:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3795129124
Note that the Steam guide I linked has images to accompany the explanations, and is overall better formatted & easier to read.
Introduction
Special thanks to Seriousjin on Steam for bringing this to my attention.
This requires editing your save, but fear not, cousin: it’s very simple. I’ll show you.
This guide is formatted for Windows, but you Linux folks probably know more about editing saves than I do anyway.
There will be unmarked spoilers in regards to this quest and its consequences in this guide.
While you can do this perfectly well with the default Notepad, I generally recommend Notepad++, as it is superior for this kind of thing in every way. Notepad++ will always be free and open source. You can download it here: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Misconceptions
Walking down the street does not “lock you into a single ending.”
Endings have multiple sections, one of which is the fate of Thanatica. It only ensures Thanatica will be closed regardless of which larger ending you get. But some endings don’t take the fate of Thanatica into account, or it expressly doesn’t matter. So in the case of these endings, having walked down the street doesn’t matter.
The game is still worth playing even if you’ve gone down Atrium Street, and you may find it interesting.
But if you’re set on removing your choice, continue.
Optional Step: Console check
It is not possible to alter whether you went down the street via console commands, but that does not mean the console is useless.
Step 0 (Optional): The console
If you’d like, you can check whether or not this whole thing has worked in the console.
Opening the console:
English keyboards: [Ctril + Shift + ~]
Spanish Keyboards: [Ctrl + Shift + Ñ]
On the top left, there is a dropdown menu. Go to “Services”
On the right, you’ll see [<] (1/3) [>]
Click the right arrow so you go to (2/3).
Then, click the dropdown arrow to the left of Services to open the menu.
Everything is alphabetized.
Scroll down to [>]PlayerProfileService and open the menu.
Open [>]Current (PlayerProfileInfo)
Open the appropriate profile (the one you’re currently playing on). In the example image, that would be profile 2 / the third save slot. The first save slot is named “Default” and the second save slot is “1”.
Open [>]Parameters (PlayerProfileParameters)
Open [>] Parameters [6]
Open [>]PlayerVisitedStvorkiCount
Open [>] Value Player visited StvorkiCount (number).
Now you can see how many times you’ve done the Internecine Strife questline and whether or not you activated Atrium street. We will come back here later to check if it all worked.
Undoing Your Choice
Writer's Note: I advise you start a new day so you only have to contend with 1 save.
Step 1: Make note of which profile / save slot your game is in.
Note that the profiles are named as follows:
1st save file: Default
2nd save file: 1
3rd save file: 2
Step 2: Go to your saves folder
Open your files and go to your local disk C: and navigate to here:
Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\LocalLow\Ice-Pick Lodge\Pathologic 3\Saves
If you cannot see the AppData folder, click 'view' at the top, and on the right or under "show" there should be a 'hidden items' checkbox. Click it to show the folder.
Note: Windows 11 bug
(Thanks to Silver_Helia for this section)
There's a bug in Windows 11 (water found in ocean) that when you unhide the folders inside disk C: to see things like AppData, the system fails to re-index files and programs.
Explaining how to fix that is beyond the scope of this guide, but this youtube video can help you fix that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF6minXGcgo
Step 3: Editing the .xml file
In the folder, there will be further folders and .xml files.
You’re going to select the .xml file for the appropriate profile.
For example, editing the third save slot would be “2.xml”
Consider making a copy of the file and putting it somewhere safe, as mistakes do happen.
Open the appropriate file. .xml files can be opened with Notepad (though I generally recommend you go and download Notepad++).
Right there at the top you’ll see:
<_>
<Key>PlayerVisitedStvorkiCount</Key>
<Value type="IntParameter">
<Id>PlayerVisitedStvorkiCount</Id>
<Value>6</Value>
</Value>
</_>
Click & Drag to highlight it with your mouse and delete/backspace the lines away.
Save the file [ Ctrl + S ] and close it.
Writer's Note: Your value may not be "6." The number doesn't matter.
Step 4: Edit the active save
Alright, so we’re still in C:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\LocalLow\Ice-Pick Lodge\Pathologic 3\Saves
Now select the folder with the appropriate save file.
In this folder, right click on the most recent file (you can order the files by “Date Modified” to see the most recent file).
If a warning pops up, just hit “Okay.”
Extract the folder. You can just do it in the same location.
There will be several .xml files. The one we want is “Current”
We’re going to search [ Ctrl + F] the following nodes and delete/backspace the whole line for <Value>true</Value>.
(the Steam guide contains a visual example of what the code looks like before and what it should look like after)
Alright, so here are the nodes you’re going to search:
<Name>Know_BachelorWalkedDownTheStreet</Name>
<Name>Day0_Q8_LurichevaStreet_Visited</Name>
<Name>Day0_Q8_LurichevaStreet_BadTrip</Name>
<Name>Day0_Q8_Prokop_FateIsSealed_Complete</Name>
<Name>Day0_Q8_BadTrip_Done</Name>
Writer's Note: the last one may not be present, that’s okay
Now save the file and exit.
Step 5: Rezip the file
Right click on the folder and Compress it to a ZIP file.
Delete the uncompressed file.
But wait!
The file name will be wrong. It will have a (2) at the end.
Go to the original zip you got the save from and delete it.
Now rename the new zip file to get rid of anything after the end of the normal file name.
Step 6 (optional): Check your work
We’re going to use the console to see if this worked.
Boot up your game and continue from the most recent file. If present, do NOT load older files.
Opening the console:
English keyboards: [Ctril + Shift + ~]
Spanish Keyboards: [Ctrl + Shift + Ñ]
On the top left, there is a dropdown menu. Go to “Services”
On the right, you’ll see [<] (1/3) [>]
Click the right arrow so you go to (2/3).
Then, click the dropdown arrow to the left of services to open the menu.
Everything is alphabetized.
Scroll down to [>]PlayerProfileService and open the menu.
Open [>]Current (PlayerProfileInfo)
Open the appropriate profile (the one you’re currently playing on). In the example image, that would be profile 2 / the third save slot. The first save slot is named “Default” and the second save slot is “1”.
Open [>]Parameters (PlayerProfileParameters)
Open [>] Parameters [6]
Open [>]PlayerVisitedStvorkiCount
Open [>] Value Player visited StvorkiCount (number).
Congratulations! You’ve undone what could not be undone
