Contact Mr. Kerman — the first big choice
Hideout Int Center laptop. The game asks whether you accept his help to activate the keycard. This is the first ending branch.
- Map
- Hideout
- Loc
- Intelligence Center laptop
Permanent. Once you confirm the dialogue there is no in-game way to swap branches — only Prestige or a profile reset reopens the choice. Make sure you're committed before clicking.
This is the most important decision in the Tarkov story. The case is open, Kruglov's RFID keycard is in stash, and the manual that came with it tells you how to use it to escape. Mr. Kerman now radios in: ignore the manual. He'll help activate the keycard his way — in exchange for help bringing TerraGroup down from the inside.
ACCEPT keeps the door open to three of the four endings: Savior (the canon hero ending — full evidence dump, Fence assignments, BTR), Debtor (a compromise where you only deliver partial evidence and ride out on Lightkeeper's amulet), and Fallen (you betray Kerman halfway and let Prapor smuggle you out). REFUSE jumps straight to the Survivor ending — Prapor secretly arranges a port letter and you escape on a small boat, no TerraGroup confrontation, no big finale. Survivor is the simplest, fastest exit but it locks out the other three forever.
This commit is permanent. No save-scumming, no taking it back. For the Savior route (which the rest of this tracker is built around), pick ACCEPT.