Crake: the rebel leader, and every way his story can end
His first move is to have you tied to a tree. Earn his trust and he leads one of the game's endings — if you keep him alive long enough to see it.
Crake leads the Manumits, the human rebellion against Brencis, and Crake is not his real name — Polygon and PC Gamer both give it as Marat. IGN describes him as untrusting of Coen at first, which is putting it mildly: you meet him bound to a tree after his people have been watching you. His plan, as PC Gamer lays it out, is to open the way for Catalin Dragosti, the heir waiting outside the valley with an army. He is one of the three people Coen can romance, alongside Anca and Lacra.
The main steps of his questline
1. The Firebrand
Starts at Vlad's hut in the village centre during Smoke and Ashes. Talking to Mert at Stoneward Post is enough to finish it, per Polygon.
2. Under Watchful Eyes
Optional
Polygon: if you also want to rescue Mert, this comes next.
3. Shadows in the Woods
Starts automatically after meeting Mert. You wake tied to a tree and meet Crake, Drogos and Sara. IGN warns to finish within two days of starting it, or Sara may not survive.
4. Where Loyalty Lies
Starts alongside, but stalls until you are Notorious — Infamy level 4. GameSpot: at that point the hideout opens and you can join the Manumits.
5. Old Friends, New Friends
Optional
A short one, if Vlad survived: talk to him at the hideout, per PC Gamer.
6. What Hunts the Night
The quest where IGN says to comfort Crake rather than blame him.
7. What Moves the Dead
Save Crake from the Murohn, then offer to walk him back to the hideout. Polygon: it costs a segment and is optional, but skipping it loses a good deal of flirting.
8. Distant Shadows
Follow Ascar in Tantari. GameSpot says Ascar is Crake's father, who left over Crake's sexuality. Polygon says this one does not arrive by itself: ask Crake at the hideout what he wanted to discuss.
9. A Closer Look
Follow Crake to the cliff south of Svartrau City. Polygon calls it timed, and GameSpot says to finish it within the same phase — you cannot let the day turn over.
10. Who Pulls the Strings
Optional
The tower investigation that leads into Home Sweet Home. Polygon says it is not required for the romance.
11. Rise at Dawn, then Fall Before Dusk
The Manumits' assault on the castle, and his ending.
The romance
Polygon's condition comes first: he asks you to become Notorious and you will not see him again until you are. GameSpot frames the same level 4 as what opens Where Loyalty Lies and the Manumit hideout, so Infamy gates his whole line rather than the romance on its own. The trap is ordering. Polygon warns that starting Rise at Dawn before Distant Shadows ends the romance for good, while Who Pulls the Strings and Rise at Dawn themselves are not needed for it.
The decisive moment is the same in Polygon, GameSpot and PC Gamer: tell him that nothing he says can change the way you see him, and kiss him back. Who moves first is told differently — GameSpot has Crake kiss Coen and Coen startle, PC Gamer has Coen back off, and IGN simply offers you the kiss. Whatever the framing, GameSpot’s warning for the final stretch holds: finish it within the same phase.
The Manumits, and the offer to sell them out
Joining them is what Notorious Infamy buys you, per GameSpot and Polygon, and their line is what takes you into the castle alongside them. The other side of it arrives at maximum Infamy: GameSpot says Brencis invites you to a parley and offers your family’s freedom if you betray the Manumits. PC Gamer describes what taking that deal does in A Deal with the Devil — Brencis murders the Manumits, drags Crake into the street, drinks from him and takes him away.
Where he ends up
His line ends in The Knyazmaker, Fextralife's name for beating Brencis with Crake and the Manumits. Whether it is a good ending is where the guides split hardest: Fextralife labels it the good ending, PC Gamer calls it one of the worst, and Wikipedia describes the valley ruled afterwards by the cruel returning nobility. PC Gamer's reason is the epilogue, in which the new ruler orders a genocide of the Uriashi — though it is also the only epilogue where you can speak to Crake in Laslea. The rest are on the endings page.
His real name, the romance and his death
- Is Crake's real name Marat?
- Yes. Polygon and PC Gamer both give Marat as his real name, and GameSpot says you learn it during one of his quests at the cost of a time segment.
- How do you romance Crake?
- Get to Notorious Infamy first — it opens the Manumit hideout, and Polygon says he will not see you again until you do. Then follow his line through A Closer Look, and when the moment comes say that nothing he says can change the way you see him, and kiss him back. Polygon, GameSpot and PC Gamer all give that same line.
- What locks you out of Crake's romance?
- Starting Rise at Dawn before Distant Shadows, per Polygon. And letting him die — which can happen in three separate places.
- Can Crake die?
- Yes, in three places. Polygon: fail to help him escape the Middens and he dies, and as a vampire you can kill him outright if you talk to him low on blood. PC Gamer: in the throne room at the end of Rise at Dawn, let Brencis go for Catalin and Crake dies throwing himself in the way.
Keep going