Deciding whether to spare De Vries in is the culmination of your journey through Arcadia so far, but despite what you might've expected, it's not the end of the game by a long shot. After chasing the rogue Earth Directorate agent, you finally corner her in Greater Tranquillity Substation, where she's about to perform her biggest gambit yet: assassinating peace representatives from Auntie's Choice and the Order.
This leaves you with three choices: kill De Vries, spare De Vries, or spare De Vries and let her assassinate the representatives. Each option [[link]] has its own set of consequences, so I've laid them out below, including the path you need to take dialogue-wise to get De Vries to stand down.
Should you [[link]] kill or spare De Vries in The Outer Worlds 2?
The simplest way to resolve the situation is to kill De Vries and stop her from assassinating the peace representatives. The immediate outcome for doing this is surprisingly similar to sparing her; you can take her Simplifier rifle from the stand, the rift event still occurs so you have to escape the station, and the peace reps live, which opens up some possibilities.
If you've discovered enough info about Augustine De Vries during your journey, such as talking to her friend, Savannah Lockwood, in the Excogitation Chapel on Paradise Island (during the Stalking an Associate of Angry Ascendance quest), you can actually make her surrender instead.
You'll also have this option via unique dialogue if you spared Victor at the N-Ray Range (or, I assume, Wiley at Alexandra Chapel). You'll also need either Speech Level 5, Leadership Level 5, or Speech Level 3 and the Sickly trait.
Essentially, you just need to:
- Talk to De Vries until Niles asks for the order to kill her: refuse or convince him it's a bad idea.
- Select "There's another way to help the order. You just haven't considered it yet" when it pops up.
- Choose "Not true. Your friend Savannah believes in you. She says that you deserve a second chance," or
"Surrender, and I'll let you walk away. I made the same promise to Victor. He accepted." (There is likely a variation of this if you talked down Wiley).
- Choose the Speech or Leadership Level 5 option, or the Speech Level 3 and Sickly Trait option, which is: "Honestly? I'm tired of fighting. I don't want another death on my conscience."
De Vries will stand down and abandon her plans to assassinate the reps. Same as before, you'll be able to grab De Vries' unique rifle, and the rift disaster will occur, meaning you have to escape the station. Presumably, De Vries will appear again later in the main story. When you arrive back on the ship, if you didn't convince him, Niles will be unhappy with your choice to spare De Vries, but he won't leave your crew, and will forgive you after as short time.
The main consequence of killing De Vries or convincing her to stand down is that the peace representatives live and send you invitations. If you meet with Vice President Gertie Hewett on The ACS Undisputed Claim at Head Office Tower, it'll unlock The Equitable Arrangement quest, which allows you to form an alliance between Auntie's Choice and the Order to liberate The Archive [[link]] from Protectorate control. I imagine this might potentially have an impact on the game's ending, too.
Should you let De Vries assassinate the representatives in The Outer Worlds 2?
If you agree with De Vries and let her assassinate the peace representatives, it actually has quite a significant impact:
- Niles will turn on you and you'll have to kill him.
- With the peace representatives dead, you'll no longer have an option to form an alliance between Auntie's Choice and the Order in liberating The Archive.
- De Vries will survive.
Beyond that, you'll still get De Vries' rifle, and the rift event will occur, meaning you need to escape the station. There won't be any rep penalties with either the Order or Auntie's Choice, though.