Editorial Policy: How NPC Tips Labels Evidence

Evidence labels used by the Endings guide

OFFICIAL: A developer or official platform source directly confirms the stated fact. An official achievement name does not by itself confirm its trigger.

OBSERVED: Public release-version footage visibly connects the stated action, state, or result. A screenshot supports only what is visible in that frame; a sequence claim requires a continuous segment.

REPORTED: A third-party guide or community source describes the step, but the reviewed footage does not show the full chain.

CONFLICTED: Sources disagree, so this guide shows the conflict instead of selecting an official answer.

Two labels for new pages

NPC Tips is moving every guide to one shared set of six labels: the four above plus two more. No published page uses the two new labels yet; they will appear as pages are written or reviewed.

DATA-MINED: Read by NPC Tips from the game files of a named build. It supports what that build contains, not how a later patch behaves. Content found in the files but not yet released in the game is marked as unreleased and kept behind a spoiler fold.

TESTED: Checked by NPC Tips in our own play on a named build, with the date of the test. It supports what happened in that test, not every possible run.

Which sources can support a claim

Sources are ranked by how directly they show the point. Official statements, in-game text and our own reading of the game files come first. Public gameplay footage can confirm what it visibly shows. Developer messages in community spaces can support a claim when the author's role is clear. Other guide sites, video transcriptions and community posts are leads: they tell us what to check, and on their own they can only support a statement labelled REPORTED.

Numbers in data tables come only from official sources, in-game text, the game files or our own tests. We do not copy values from other guide sites into a table, and we do not name the guide sites we checked.

How a page is made

A page starts from the questions players actually ask. If the evidence we can find does not answer the main question, the page waits; we do not fill it with disclaimers instead of answers.

Drafting tools may help with research and wording. Every page, and every later change to its public wording, is reviewed and approved by the editor before it is published.

How we handle conflicting evidence

There is no automatic rule that one label always defeats another. We compare scope, date, build, directness, and whether the source actually demonstrates the disputed point. A current observation may reveal that older official wording is no longer accurate; official text may explain a result that footage alone cannot explain.

When reliable sources still disagree, the page should name the conflict, narrow the conclusion, or leave the point unresolved. We do not silently average incompatible claims or promote a repeated community report into an official rule.

What versions and review dates mean

A review date records when the cited material was checked. It is not automatically the date of the game build, recording, announcement, or underlying event. When a source identifies a version or build, the page states that boundary beside the affected claim. When the version is unknown, the page says so instead of assigning one by inference.

The evidence review date is also separate from the page's publication and modification dates. An editorial or layout change does not imply that every game-related statement was re-verified.

Where this method applies

Mission guides use the shared mission-guide vocabulary above. The Endings guide retains its separately defined OFFICIAL, OBSERVED, REPORTED and CONFLICTED vocabulary, now explained here. Page-specific evidence and version limits remain on each guide.

CONFLICTED marks disagreement about a statement, numbering or route; it is not a source type or a confidence score. It is not interchangeable with IN-GAME TEXT, REPORTED or UNVERIFIED. Labels from different vocabularies should not be mapped one-to-one.

Some parts of the site use different vocabularies for different jobs. Roadmap status, demo verdicts, Field Data classifications, and mod availability describe their own states; they should not be treated as aliases for these evidence labels.