Bú’s route has one lock that matters more than the heart choices: the promise outside the great hall. Keep it and you can unlock Great owl, finish the romance, and reach Winged Lover. Break it and the route diverts into Privacy, Ending 8. A save made after that door cannot repair the branch, and a save made at the final portal is already too late to turn the romance into Winged Friend.
Build note: this route was checked after the July 11, 2026 quality-of-life update. The current fast-forward toggle stops at choices but does not distinguish read text from unread text. Use it only when replaying a scene you already know, and release it before any choice named below.
Build six saves around the decisions that do not rewind cleanly
Do not overwrite one rolling save throughout Bú’s story. The gallery numbers show the result, but they do not tell you how far back the relationship or trust state was set. Six named slots make the cleanup predictable:
| Save | Make it here | What it protects |
|---|---|---|
| A — G.A.L.A. clothes | Before leaving the bathroom and committing to an outfit | Overdressed without replaying the opening route. |
| B — balcony definition | Before you describe what Bú means to you | The romance/friendship split for Endings 28 and 29. |
| C — hall promise | Before Bú asks you to guard his transformation | Great owl on the trust branch and Privacy / Ending 8 on the breach branch. |
| D — search departure | Before deciding whether to accompany the group to confront Gaueko | Unsafe house / Ending 11. |
| E — confrontation | Before choosing how to stop, support, or hide from Gaueko | Cowardice, Violence, The night for Gaueko, and Shadow daddy. |
| F — Great Stone Portal | Before accepting the return home or asking Bú to come with you | Vanish / Ending 14 versus the final stretch toward Winged Lover. |
Keep Save B even after the romance appears secure. The supplied route tried changing only a late love response and still returned to the romantic outcome; the relationship had already been defined earlier. Keep Save C separately because the privacy decision changes Bú’s ability to finish the notebook research, not merely one conversation.
Collect the party achievements before the route becomes a rescue mission
Choose Bú at the bond prompts and favor responses that visibly award his heart feedback. Hearts are the useful confirmation here: a pleasant-sounding line without feedback is not a substitute for the relationship state the ending checks.
Three achievements fit naturally into the early Bú run:
- Good night kiss: during the night scene, ask Bú for the kiss rather than ending the conversation. Wait for the Steam notification before moving on.
- Overdressed: at the G.A.L.A. preparation scene, repeatedly ask for more time to get ready instead of immediately locking an outfit. Its official description is the safety check: the request must be repeated, not merely made once.
- Matchmaker: at the party’s activity area, talk to Xana and encourage her to make the first move with Gamu. Later dialogue confirms the two are dating; do not count a friendly party exchange as the unlock.
The outfit branch is why Save A belongs before the selection screen. Once the story moves into the ballroom, reloading an autosave may return after the repeatable prompt. The matchmaker conversation is also worth taking on the romance run because the later relationship confirmation is an observable success signal.
Guard the hall all the way through for Great owl
Bú explains that his original body gives him the mental capacity needed to decipher Gaueko’s notebook, but he will only transform if the hall is protected. Agree to stand guard and make Save C before he closes the door.
- Remain outside the hall. When boredom suggests fetching a book, stay at the door.
- Turn away visitors instead of letting them pass. The route tests the promise more than once; one successful refusal does not finish the guard sequence.
- Do not take a quick look when the narration tempts you. The door is the state switch.
- Let Bú complete the research, then accept the later opportunity to see his original form with permission.
The correct branch has two separate success signals. First, Bú finishes the notebook work instead of leaving for the library in anger. Later, he transforms in front of you and the Great owl achievement appears. Seeing a partial silhouette through the door is not the same result—it belongs to the failed-trust branch.
This transformation also matters in the finale. Bú’s enlarged mental capacity is used to understand the notebook, so skipping the trust sequence changes more than an optional gallery image. If the route reaches the search with no usable notebook solution, load Save C rather than trying to repair affinity at the final battle.
Use the same hall save to isolate Privacy
Reload Save C only after the successful transformation branch is safely recorded. This time, break the promise: open the door and look at Bú while he is in his original form. Continue the branch instead of reloading as soon as he becomes angry.
The failure is delayed. Bú leaves, the notebook is not deciphered in time, and the group later returns without a workable answer to the shadow crisis. Let that sequence run until the result card appears. The card should read Privacy and Ending 08/32. If you only see the confrontation and reload before the card, the gallery may not register the ending.
This is a destructive trust choice, so it should never share the only save used for Great owl. It is also not unlocked by allowing another visitor through while you remain outside; the verified branch has the player character enter and violate the promise directly.
Separate Winged Lover from Winged Friend at the balcony
For Winged Lover, continue selecting Bú’s heart responses, keep the hall promise, accompany the group when the crisis escalates, and help reach the negotiated resolution. The supplied route then follows this finish:
- At the Great Stone Portal, do not accept a solitary goodbye. Ask Bú to come to the human realm with you.
- Take the kiss when the private scene offers it. This also produces the common On the lips achievement if it is still missing.
- Confirm the romantic commitment instead of stepping back from it.
- Continue until the gallery card reads Winged Lover, Ending 28/32.
Winged Friend is not a last-line variation of that scene. The community route places its lock at the earlier balcony conversation, where the explicit friends-only response must be chosen. Reload Save B, define the bond as friendship there, then complete Bú’s route. Confirm Ending 29/32 on the card. The supplied video series shows the late-save attempt returning to the romance, so do not spend time cycling only the final declaration.
Turn the confrontation into a seven-ending cleanup board
The Bú playthrough can reach seven numbered alternate results without rebuilding the entire relationship. They do not all branch from the same screen, which is why Saves C through F remain separate.
| Result | Load | Action that commits the branch | Failure signal before the card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy — Ending 8 | C | Enter the hall after promising to guard Bú’s transformation. | Bú abandons the research; the group later lacks the notebook solution. |
| Unsafe house — Ending 11 | D | Stay behind when the others leave to confront Gaueko, then play the branch to its end. | The injured group returns and uncontrolled shadows invade the house. |
| Cowardice — Ending 12 | E | Go to the fight, but hide instead of helping when the battle prompt appears. | The myths are immobilized while the player remains out of the fight. |
| Violence — Ending 13 | E | Choose the direct offensive plan and use Juana’s flower to incapacitate Gaueko rather than negotiate. | The shadows react to their injured master and become uncontrollable. |
| Vanish — Ending 14 | F | Accept that it is time to return home; do not ask Bú to accompany you. | Bú’s book and quill fade after the player reaches the human realm. |
| The night for Gaueko — Ending 15 | E | Allow Gaueko’s plan to continue but decline to accompany him when the last personal choice appears. | Gaueko crosses into the human world without the player. |
| Shadow daddy — Ending 16 | E | Support Gaueko, encourage the plan when it wavers, and choose to go with him rather than stop him or remain behind. | The party follows him through the portal and loses control of the shadows there. |
Do not infer success from a dramatic death scene. Wait for the title and number: the reviewed run visibly recorded Endings 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 under the names above. Several branches end with darkness overwhelming both realms, so the scene alone is not enough to distinguish Cowardice, Unsafe house, and Shadow daddy.
Negotiate first before testing the Gaueko failures
Make sure the safe branch exists before spending Save E on failures. During the confrontation, push Gaueko toward abandoning the invasion and offer a workable alternative rather than attacking or hiding. The reviewed Bú run offers him a controlled way to use a portal and then displays I can fix him. This is the route you want before moving toward the Bú goodbye.
If negotiation never appears, the problem is earlier than the final response. Load before the confrontation and keep the group capable of speaking to Gaueko; do not arrive from the hall-breach branch or the stay-at-home branch. Once the safe result is secured, reload Save E for Violence, Cowardice, The night for Gaueko, and Shadow daddy in any order.
Fast-forward only between verified stop points
The July quality-of-life update makes cleanup much faster, but its limitation is unusually important here: fast-forward ignores whether text is new. It stops at a choice or when you switch it off. That means it can carry you safely through repeated dialogue, but it can also hide the warning that explains why a later branch failed.
- Switch it off before the G.A.L.A. outfit scene, the balcony, the hall promise, the search departure, the confrontation, and the Great Stone Portal.
- After choosing a failure, let the result card load before returning to the menu.
- Check both the gallery number and the Steam achievement notification. A June 30 patch addressed cloud saves and incorrect friendship-ending trophies, so an older or unsynchronized build should not be treated as route proof.
- If the same card repeats, move back one named save level. Repeating final dialogue cannot change a trust state that was set at the hall or a relationship state set on the balcony.
Use the ending video as a visual check, not a substitute for saves
Kalla Shearwater’s fourth episode was independently matched to the supplied local file by title, channel, duration, and route continuity. It shows the Bú romance finish followed by the alternate-ending cleanup, including the numbered cards used above.
The first supplied video is explicitly a demo recording from before release, so it is not used to prove current ending logic. The three post-release episodes form the usable Bú route sequence. Automatic captions are helpful for locating scenes but contain name errors; the achievement and ending labels in this guide were checked against the visible result cards and Steam’s current achievement page.