This page describes all of the endings that you can see in Chrono Trigger, with explanations of how to get each one. This page contains many spoilers.

Summary

Here is a brief list of how to get each ending. If you want to read a description of what happens in each ending, scroll down.

• Bad Ending: Allow all of your characters to die in battle.
• The Dream Project: Defeat Lavos during the first encounter at the Ocean Palace (only possible in a New Game + or by spending a lot of time increasing your levels before you reach that point in the game), or defeat Lavos in a New Game + using the sparkle in the telepod before saving Queen Leene and rescuing Marle.
• The Successor of Guardia: In a New Game +, use the sparkle in the telepod after saving Queen Leene and rescuing Marle.
• Good Night: After you reach Spekkio for the first time and walk around the room like he asks, talk to the old man in the End of Time. Then, before you go to 600 A.D., either use the bucket, or go through Heckran Cave and use the telepod to fight Lavos.
• Legendary Hero: After you go through Heckran Cave and go to 600 A.D., use the bucket or telepod to fight Lavos.
• The Unknown Past: As soon as you get the Hero Medal from Tata, use the bucket or telepod to fight Lavos.
• People of the Times: After you recover the stolen Gate Key and returning to the End of Time from 65,000,000 B.C., use the bucket or telepod to fight Lavos.
• The Oath: After you give Frog the Masamune and he becomes a fixed member of your party, use the bucket or telepod to fight Lavos.
• Dino Age: After you defeat Magus in his castle, use the bucket or telepod to fight Lavos.
• What the Prophet Seeks...: After you defeat Azala and BlackTyrano but before you go to the Ocean Palace, use the bucket or telepod.
• Magus Summons Lavos: Let Magus kill you in the battle at North Cape.
• A Slide Show?: After you watch Schala open the door with her pendant, but before you power up your own pendant, use the bucket or telepod.
• Beyond Time: Defeat Lavos any time after you resurrect Crono. Whether you crash Epoch or not will change this ending, and there are many other variations depending on your choices during the game.
• Reunion: If you didn't resurrect Crono, defeat Lavos any time after the Black Omen appears. Whether you crash Epoch or not will change this ending, and there are many other variations depending on your choices during the game.

Bad Ending

How to get it: Lose the game at almost any point. The only exceptions are when Lavos kills you in the Ocean Palace or if you die fighting Magus on North Cape.

Lavos bursts from the ground, shooting spikes everywhere. A group of people in the Truce dome command center see that Porre, Choras, and Medina have all been destroyed. Then their own dome is attacked and the director tells the operators to run away. Stunned, he stands there while the command center collapses around him. The planet is shown with explosions all over the surface, and it fades to black and white, with the message that "the future refused to change."

Beyond Time

How to get it: Defeat Lavos any time after you resurrect Crono. You can see an alternate version of this ending by using the gate in Lavos to return to the End of Time, then use Epoch to go to 1999 A.D. There are many other variations on this ending depending on choices you make during gameplay (explained in more detail below), so you will want to do things differently in the New Game + to see everything.

Crono is awakened in his room (where your Poyozo Doll and clone will be if you have them) by a soldier from Guardia Castle. Crono is to be executed. In the throne room, the King and the Chancellor (or Pierre if you didn't free the Chancellor) discuss Crono's fate. Eventually, key figures from the various eras appear. The King knows Crono and his friends saved past, present, and future, and Crono is given a full pardon.

You'll see the Moonlight Parade in Leene Square. After a circuit around the square, you control Crono and Marle and can talk to people around the square, including Taban and Lara, who is either standing or sitting depending upon whether Lucca changed history. To continue, go north to the telepod.

All the characters go back to their original time through the gate. Magus will be there if you didn't kill him. If you killed Magus, Frog will be in human form as Glenn.

If you didn't crash Epoch to reach Lavos, Crono's cat(s) and Mom disappear through the gate. A soldier summons you to the King. Go south and talk to the king, and he unveils Nadia's bell. Marle departs. Taban sets off fireworks and the credits roll. You see Epoch flying around (looking for Crono's mom and cat(s)) and it flies by various eras and scenes (again, Magus is shown if you didn't kill him).

If you did crash Epoch, Crono's cat(s) and Mom don't appear at all. The King unveils the bell, Marle helps put it up but starts to float away with some balloons. Crono grabs on to her and the two float away together over the world map and some clouds, and into the moon, as the credits roll.

Reunion

How to get it: If you didn't resurrect Crono, defeat Lavos any time after the Black Omen appears.

Everyone wakes up at the End of Time. Talk to the old man and he will warn you to return to your own time before the gates all close. Walk around and talk to everybody, and Marle will urge everyone to save Crono, but they are more interested in returning to their own time.

There are several variations on what happens next, depending on whether you learned about the Time Egg from Gaspar already, and whether or not you crashed Epoch. Marle goes to the Moonlight Parade and encounters Gaspar and the other player characters. They depart to find Crono.

Eventually, Marle makes it back to Death Peak, where she sees Crono's shadow and rushes up to meet him.

The Dream Project

How to get it: Either defeat Lavos the first time you encounter it in the Ocean Palace (impossible without a New Game + or spending a very long time leveling up), or defeat Lavos at the very beginning of the New Game +, using the sparkle in the telepod. As stated earlier, for an additional challenge, wait until Crono is by himself before Marle uses the telepod. This lets you face Lavos alone.

This ending takes place at the End of Time. There are many people and characters around. Interact with all of them. They are actually the game designers in disguise. To the left of the eight pillars, there is a spot that you can step on that takes you to the Magus statue, which you can check on to see more dialogue. If you go east and north from Epoch's dock, there are two more sprites. The eight pillars take you to different rooms, with more game designers in the form of sprites.

After you have talked to everyone, talk to the old man again and he will unlock Spekkio's room. The door now leads to a chamber with the Dream Team. Talk to all of them from left to right. The credits roll very quickly ("since you blew through the game so fast"), and "The End" shows up.

The Successor of Guardia

How to get it: In a New Game +, after you save Queen Leene and rescue Marle, use the telepod to fight Lavos.

In this ending, you start in Leene Square, and can walk around and talk to people. Everyone says strange things about Marle wearing a disguise, after which you hear a frog croaking sound. Go talk to the guards by the entrance and you find yourself in Guardia Castle. The King says some strange things, there are more frog sounds, and even some hopping. The King says that he has found a wedding album from 600 A.D. You see the credits, and an old movie of Leene and Frog getting married.

Good Night

How to get it: After you reach Spekkio for the first time and successfully walk around his room, talk to the old man at the End of Time. At this point, you can get this ending. You can either fight Lavos immediately by using the bucket, or you can go through Heckran Cave to reach the sparkle in the telepod in Leene Square (since there is no pillar in the End of Time to Leene Square when you first arrive.) Just make sure not to go to 600 A.D. after you go through Heckran Cave if you want this ending.

The credits roll and you see a Nu, a frog, and a Kilwala doing various silly things, and eventually all three fall asleep at the end.

Legendary Hero

How to get it: Use the bucket or the telepod after you arrive in 600 A.D. the second time (after you go through Heckran Cave and learn about Magus).

First, you see Robo emerging from a gate in a futuristic Leene Square, where he bumps into Atropos. Then they appear on a ledge in an area that resembles the Denadoro Mountains (another ending suggests that this is actually a region in "the new future," i.e. a hopeful future where Lavos never destroyed the Earth).

Then the ending shifts to show Tata in the Guardia Castle throne room, with the King and some soldiers. Tata leaves to confront Magus. But in Magus's Castle, Crono is sitting in the throne and Lucca and Marle draw their weapons against Tata while Crono laughs fiendishly.

The Unknown Past

How to get it: As soon as you retrieve the Hero Medal from Tata, use the bucket or the telepod and beat Lavos.

This ending shows various scenes that represent what would take place over the normal course of the game, including Crono, Lucca, and Marle's entrance to the Mystics Village, the battles between humans and Reptites in 65 million B.C., and more.

Finally, Robo runs around the screen before making "The End" appear, and then he runs off screen.

People of the Times

How to get it: Defeat Lavos after you recover the stolen Gate Key and return to the End of Time from 65,000,000 B.C.

On a black background, the credits appear, and each screen shows snapshots of game sprites from various eras.

The Oath

How to get it: Use the bucket or telepod after you give Frog the Masamune and he joins you (at this point he is a fixed member of the party).

This ending starts in Lucca's house, where she is fixing Robo. Eventually Frog says that he has some unfinished business. He heads out to confront Magus on his own, and you see him fight Ozzie, Flea and Slash, then see him meet Magus. The screen fades to black with the credits rolling, and you hear the sound of Frog and Magus fighting. At the end, you see a lone figure atop Magus's Lair. There's no way to be sure whether it's Frog or Magus.

Dino Age

How to get it: Use the bucket or telepod after you defeat Magus in his castle.

The ending opens with the game's normal opening sequence of Mom waking Crono up for the Millennial Fair, except Mom and Crono are Reptites. After that, you see the introductory scenes of the game, where all humans are replaced by Reptites (and in the case of the Reptite who normally races around Leene Square, it's now a human). In other words, since you never defeated the Reptites in the past, they defeated the humans and became the dominant species. The final screen shows Azala getting knocked down by the words "The End".

What the Prophet Seeks...

How to get it: Defeat Azala, but don't go to the Ocean Palace.

Frog approaches a statue of Magus. Then the prophet approaches Schala and Queen Zeal, who laughs evilly. Tata wanders around the pub while Toma drinks and Frog flexes his bicep. The prophet walks through a hallway in Zeal Palace with Schala and Janus, and Janus's cat Alfador meows at the prophet. The prophet arrives in the Ocean Palace.

Ayla drinks at the Millennial Fair while Robo, Crono, and Marle watch. Lucca watches a strange-colored Nu.

Magus flies down an elevator shaft in the Ocean Palace.

Lucca accidentally sets Crono's kitchen on fire while Crono, Crono's mom, and Marle look on. Robo plays with Crono's cats.

The prophet approaches the door to the Mammon Machine in the Ocean Palace and says

Magus then warns Lavos that he is approaching.

Magus Summons Lavos

How to get it: Let Magus defeat you at North Cape.

Magus turns around and summons Lavos, and you hear Lavos's cry.

A Slide Show?

How to get it: Use the bucket or telepod after you watch Schala open the door to the Queen's chamber in Zeal Palace, before you up your own pendant.

Marle and Lucca appear and talk about boys, critiquing various male characters from the game as they walk by. Then Crono appears, and actually talks!