The Black Bell Good Ending: Leave the Pearl and Take the Escape
The good ending in The Black Bell Chapter 2 comes from leaving the Black Pearl on the altar and taking the ESCAPE tunnel. Here's the exact choice and result.
To get the good ending in The Black Bell, refuse the Black Pearl: leave it sitting on the ritual altar untouched, walk past it, and drop into the escape tunnel on the ESCAPE route. Grabbing the Pearl instead takes the other branch — in one recorded run the screen went dark right after the grab, with the players calling it the bad ending.
Where the final choice happens
The choice closes out Chapter Two. After you break the seal and open the wooden double doors, you step into a grand ritual hall with the Black Pearl displayed on an altar. The game puts the decision on screen in plain terms: "CHOOSE. THE PEARL OR ESCAPE AND LIVE". Graffiti scrawled nearby warns "DONT TRUST HIM" — and it's aimed at the voice that has been guiding you all chapter. The full route up to this room is covered in the Chapter 2 walkthrough.
The action that triggers the good ending
- Leave the Black Pearl on the altar. Don't pick it up, even though the whole chapter has been steering you toward it.
- Walk past the altar and follow the ESCAPE route, dropping down into the escape tunnel.
That's the entire requirement. The moment you turn away, the radio voice — Arthur Gray — starts protesting: "Get back up there... You can't leave the pearl. Don't you dare." Keep going. His tone is helpful only while you work toward the Pearl, and it turns hostile the instant you refuse it, which is your confirmation that the graffiti was right.
What the good ending shows
Climb the exit ladder to a circular valve hatch that opens to the surface in daylight, then ride a black pickup truck down a forest highway. A final scare puts the monster on the windshield, the scene cuts to Arthur Gray's headstone, and the results screen appears showing GOOD ENDING and ESCAPED THE HOUSE alongside your run time — 11:24.172 in one recorded run — before the closing "Thank you for playing" card.
What happens if you take the Pearl
Grabbing the Pearl takes the other branch. In one recorded two-player run, the screen went dark right after a player grabbed it at the escape point — a bad ending the players describe as being "consumed by the pearl" — while Arthur's voice admits, "You took it. I'm sorry. I had no other choice." If you want the GOOD ENDING screen, the Pearl has to stay on the altar.