From the moment the Technician picks up the guitar at the end of Act 1 inThe Alters, it’s clear that things are about to go very wrong, very quickly. The sudden appearance of the Alters' brain condition means that all of them have days to live, unless you can find a cure.

Given the lack of time and resources, you have only two options - trusting Maxwell’s unsettling treatment using living brain tissue, or taking the risk of letting Lena in on the situation. How you handle this situation will heavily impact the rest of the game, so choose wisely.This guide contains spoilers.

jan and the scientist prepare to extract tabula rasa’s brain in the alters.

Maxwell’s Cure

The default cure proposed by Maxwell is toresearch QC Hackingand reprogram the Quantum Computer to create a Tabula Rasa - an Alter with no memories or awareness - and harvest healthy brain tissue to treat the Alters. Regardless of which path you choose, youmust create the Tabula Rasato continue the storyline.

Tabula Rasa has been extracted from the Womb Module, you havethree daysto make your decision; if you haven’t spoken to Lena, or haven’t crafted enough Brain Implants for every Alter in the base by that time, you’ll beforced to use Maxwell’s cure by default.

jan watches as the scientist injects himself with a neural implant in the alters.

Maxwell’s curekills the Tabula Rasa,but permanently cures the Alters' condition and prevents it from manifesting in any future Alters that you create. As long as Lena was kept out of the loop, Maxwell remains in charge of the situation and will oversee your extraction in Act 3.

Lena’s Cure

After Maxwell proposes his cure, you’ll have the option of pursuing theSecond Opinionside quest; you cancall Lenaand tell her the truth about the Alters, and ask for her help. The next day, she’ll call you back with designs forneural implantsthat you can craft in the Workshop. If you have enough to give one to each existing Alter by the end of the third day after creating Tabula Rasa, you can choose to use Lena’s treatment instead.

There are two main consequences to this decision:

Additionally, the implants give Ally Corporation the ability to track the Alters when they return to Earth, an idea several of them will hate. However, in Act 3 Lena willfind a way to disable the trackers, which you can use to convince the rebels (including the Technician) to return - see below.

Major Consequences

The Alterswon’t all agree with your decision;most of them feel strongly about one cure or the other, and any Alter who disagrees with your chosen cure will becomepermanently alienated.Their mood will belocked to the lowest possible level, causing them to work as few hours in a day as they can get away with, and they willrefuse to talk to you, even if you have gifts or quest objectives to give them.

Additionally,every Alter that disagrees with your decisionwill leave the base at the end of Act 2; theycannot be replaced with new Altersunless you still have slots available in the Quantum Computer, so if the crew is leaning heavily toward a particular cure, you should consider that one so that you don’t find yourself short-handed.

Jan and the Technician face off at the rebel base in The Alters.

Creating an Alter who disagrees with your decision after the fact willstill cause them to dislike you, locking you out of their storyline for that playthrough.

Which Alters Favor Each Cure?

TheTechnician always disagrees with your decision, while theScientist and the Guardwill always support your choice. Since Maxwell’s cure requireskilling Tabula Rasa, he can only join your crew if you choose the neural implants.

If you know ahead of time which cure you plan to use, it’s helpful topick your crew based on who will agree with you.Lena’s cure is generally easier to work with, but it locks you out of the Miner and Worker,both of whom have excellent skills.

The Shrink is only availableafter creating the Doctor, and since they’re on separate sides of the issue one will always rebel if you create both.