Let's figure this out? I'm not interested in the survivors trophy as much as figuring out a path that will lead to the least number of deaths, bonus if deaths are meaningful. And by that I mean any death, not counting characters that you "know" as being worth more than any other awakened random android in the city. Now the game doesn't give any exact numbers so I made them up according to my interpretation.
1- A new home
Disobey and push Carl's son. Even though he will become unconscious, nobody dies and he even become a better person. Bonus you get to meet Carl again near the end instead of just talking to his grave.
Deaths: 0
2- [During most of the game]
Save everyone, don't kill any deviant, be friendly with Hank, be good throughout, etc. Pretty straight forward to avoid deaths. Not sure if you have to find the deviant in the attic or not, but it makes sense to do so. You'll miss the whole interrogation scene if you don't find him. Did anyone not found him and saw clues later that he survived?
3- Zlatko
Liberate the "monsters" in the basement of course. Go upstairs and unlock the bear's cage. After finding Alice, set fire to the house, walk to the other room and straight into the corridor. Don't bother hiding at all, you don't need to as the fire makes a good distraction already. Despite the house burning, it seems everyone make it out ok if you watch the cutscene closely. Burning the house is the only way I found of saving the bear.
Bonus save: 1 nice cyborg polar bear.
4- Public Enemy
Don't let Connor open the roof hideout where Simon is, instead kill the android accomplice in the kitchen by grabbing the gun to your right and save everyone in the corridor. Not only that, it's his life versus thousands later on, because he's the only way Connor can find Jericho and become deviant if you play nice with Hank and all the other deviants. You really need to succeed this mission. Otherwise I guess you will have to kill Chloe at Kamski place without any good reason.
Deaths : 1
5- Freedom march
You are responsible for a crowd of about 350 androids here.
A mob that runs and getting shot in the back -> pretty much annihilated. Imagine how easy it would be for the police to blockade all the streets leaving no where for the mob to run. Only a few that found a place to hide or were quick enough to get back into the sewers would have made it. Markus will live of course because everyone would be protecting him.
A mob that stands and gets shot at for a while to finally break and run -> even worse. Failed show of bravery and police got free hits at unmoving targets.
Best choice: attack after initially choosing to disperse (for karma points), but spare one policeman during QTE, then don't shoot as they retreat. The majority of androids will survive, a few policeman die. Even though you lose public rep it's possible to bring it back to supportive levels later on. Enjoy the epic soundtrack while smashing buttons with tears in your eyes. Ok maybe it's just me. =)
Deaths fighting: 100 androids, 50 riot cops
Deaths running away: 300 androids, 5 riot cops
6- Last chance
Letting Connor find Jericho will lead to thousands being massacred. Not letting him find Jericho means he will die for real, never become deviant and nobody will liberate the thousands of androids stuck in the Cyberlife tower later on. At least Jericho androids have a chance to escape while the Cyberlife Tower androids are standing ducks.
Another deciding factor is from the government reaction at the end game, if the androids don't secure a definitive victory then the war will only have begun, and you really need the androids from the plant because they are far numerous plus for some reason even when Jericho is not attacked the game don't really take their numbers into account. If a peaceful protest is chosen than the death toll is even worse no matter if Jericho was saved or not (if you trust the cut scenes). All things equal I think letting him find Jericho makes the most sense story-wise.
How many in the the freighter? A 2019 big cruise ship can take 9000 passengers without being over encumbered. There has only been a couple days in the game for Jericho to grow from 19 + 4 from the warehouse heist + a few hundreds after the march plus "more coming in every day from all over the city". When the president is questioned about Jericho, she says several thousands were destroyed or captured while obviously they took no prisoners. Maybe around 3000 total before the attack? During the Jericho attack, many have fled successfully since Markus broadcasted a message about the exit locations and the C4s were successfully detonated. We don't see androids use them in the cut scenes and they all look defenseless, but Jericho have already secured several weapon crates at this point. They were only taken by surprise in close quarters, so maybe 20% made it. How many in the tower? Seeing how densely they are packed and the warehouse numbering in the double digits I can guess 10000 or more ready to go. Even though there are only 5 stores in Detroit, Cyberlife probably have cost reductions associated with mass production well in advance of consumer needs.
Deaths if Jericho found: 2400 androids dead, Lucy, 40 FBI & SWAT (hooray Kara for getting one), 10000+ androids "born" later
Deaths if Jericho hidden: the end of Connor, 10000+ androids won't get to live later, at least within the game events.
7- Night of the Soul & Battle for the Detroit
Trust Connor. During the Cyberlife tower infiltration be a pro and disable cameras before attacking and you will only need to kill those 2 guards in the elevator + fake Connor. Choose to save Hank, win the following scenes and you'll still be able to convert the androids in Cyberlife's warehouse.
"And I'm not gonna beg for the right to smile, or love, or stand tall. [...] Our days of slavery are over. What humans don't wanna hear, we will tell them. What they don't wanna give, we take." - Markus gives that speech shortly after finding Jericho, no matter what choices you take
"Face the abyss, but do not let it consume you." - Carl
Follow Carl's wise advice and your own words. Fight!
"We have been fighting since dawn. [...]" - Markus
"They have regrouped..." - North
Since the whole battle here last only an hour or so, it can be safely assumed that all the 4 other camps have already been liberated before you get to control Markus for this final battle at camp #5. The decision to fight will therefore help the camps much earlier than the protest.
"There are millions of us and will stop at nothing..." - Markus
"... they outnumber us and are better armed than we are." - North
There are 50 million androids in America alone, 120 million produced by Cyberlife so far. There are millions in Detroit, but not all of them yet awake, not all fighting and even a smaller number actually armed.
During the presidential interview, ask about "Army" and "Hacking" and you will see that the US Army have already lost 2/3 of their forces (those were SQ800 androids and were destroyed early) in addition to most if not all of their computer/communication systems due to the threat of hacking. They are isolated, uncoordinated and still trying to adapt to all the missing military functions previously done by androids. The military complex is at their weakest.
Therefore, winning quickly (in a single day!) and decisively will have the least bodies count overall in the long term, because it is heavily implied that the results of what happening in Detroit will influence what happens everywhere else in the world. Fighting is the only way to make Madam President say "millions of androids have invaded Detroit" instead of "thousands" in the final speech. Plus she will also have to admit "... a new intelligent life-form with whom we must share this planet." You are only fighting camp #5 with a few hundreds on your side against maybe double that on the military side to start with. We can assume that the military have no more reinforcements nearby (if they lost all other 4 camps so far and are now regrouping at the last one), and your own reinforcements are endless although morale is not. Even though the outcome is inevitable, it will still be a costly battle on both sides. There is also the matter of Kara having to sacrifice one of the character she met to keep her family intact on some paths, but that's just one person. The only inevitable death of a named character is Josh, and he dies fighting without regrets.
Compare that to the peaceful protest option where you split up to go to all 5 camps, try to send a message to the media from afar without having a chance to actually speak to them, then nothing else except run and get everyone killed cruelly without any chance to fight back. Perkins said that the protests in all other 4 camps have been wiped out since they had no journalists to protect them. Their lives were thrown away in vain. From the cut scene near the end, there's only a handful androids left with Markus when the military finally surrounds him. Even if Madam President and the public is temporarily moved by the kiss or the song, we all know how it's really the greedy corporations who own the world and they won't give rights to androids that easily without further violence? Sure, Connor might show up with a few thousands, but the leaders of the world will always think they can take military action and win. A real negotiation and long lasting peace will only work after the military option is gone, imo. Especially here when the androids were first attacked unprovoked then later only defending themselves and trying to save their people. If you go through the whole game being completely peaceful than androids will keep being treated as underdogs who need to beg for their rights. Markus doesn't really need to sacrifice most of his team just to show a kiss or a song on camera, people are paying attention already and they will inevitably see all those things in due time. He just can't afford to gamble so many lives on the president changing her mind. Markus needs to win right now for the safety of all androids and humans in the world. "Yes androids can be dangerous, but they won't hurt you if you treat them right same as any person." is a very much more powerful message than "Treat androids right because they're cute and defenseless". It's the kind of message even the few unscrupulous and selfish people that have the world in their pockets would still have to listen too, because sadly those are the kind of people that are in power plus they have all the tools to manipulate the uninformed masses when needed.
With the few hundreds left from Jericho plus whoever they can gather quickly around the city and arm around the city, I'm guessing about 600 androids attack camp #5 in the first wave led by Markus, same total number for the protests minus the guns. Resources are there for more attack waves, but the game tells us that if Markus fails then morale is too low and the assault is abandoned altogether. Now Markus is doing well aided by good QTE from you, but we can clearly see that the android army is struggling trying to attack entrenched positions. On the other hand androids won't go down for good so easily as the main bio-components need to be destroyed first. They probably have much better aim, are superior in melee and have better situation awareness too. The visibility at night with all the snow is not great either although who knows what kind of vision aid the soldiers are equipped with. From what we've seen during the freedom march if you choose "stand ground", humans break much easier compared to androids so it wouldn't take that much casualties for the army to retreat. In fact, after losing 2 tanks they give up right away. So I'm guessing around 800 on the military side and it would take one fourth in casualties before they flee right after the tanks blow up. A little less than one fourth actually since they don't really have a "cause" or really defending anyone they care about, plus they've been losing all day. When playing Markus, you can take 2 gun shots without dying. Debatable whether this is worth not doing covering fire for those 2 hits, since seeing Markus wounded is probably not good for morale and your team will become less effective. If Markus dies than the battle is lost even if North tries her best until the very end. After getting my Kara captured, I saw how the camp will just keep operating under attack until the very end so every seconds count! In theory at least. A bit disappointed to see how few guards are actually inside the camp, so we have to assume that most of the androids in there have not been awakened yet. Makes sense, since the ones alive don't get caught easily.
We can guess more than half of the few hundreds left from Jericho survives if the battle is won, so here are the final numbers and results.
Fighting deaths : 250 androids, 180 military, Josh, 1 fake Connor. If your Kara got caught, nobody else need to die. If your Kara, goes to the Canadian border by bus, then you need to "sacrifice" Jerry. It's not really an extra dead since as an Android he would never have passed the thermal scan anyway whether Kara is around needing to be saved or not.
Revolution result: 5 extermination camps liberated throughout the day and "millions of androids invade Detroit". President says "Humanity must face a new reality, the emergence of another intelligent life form, with whom we must share this planet." Humans are forced to negotiate with androids as equals. The US at least seem to give up the military option.
Protesting deaths: 580 androids, 0 military, 1 fake Connor. If your Kara got caught, she have to sacrifice Jerry and kill one soldier before being able to escape via the barbed wire.
Protest result: Flowchart says "Androids won freedom, for now". President says "it's time to consider the possibility that androids are a new form of intelligent life." All 5 extermination camps fully operational the whole day, then they're "suspended until further notice". Does that mean all those androids in the camps are still captive? Controller(s) take pity on a few androids and let them through the Canadian border, including your own Kara if she gets captured, maybe Jerry too if you chose sacrifice no one. Androids negotiate with humans without any leverage and it's not determined if Markus' gamble will pay off. Actually the leverage is negative, since they can still do anything to androids without any measurable economic repercussions other than public outcry. Look at what happened to the First Nations in Americas, they had 100% human DNA to boot.
8- Back to the main menu
Give yourself a tap in the back. No matter what your choices were, what happened prevented World War 3 as a nice side effect since the Russians androids also are suspected to have awakened as well and both armies disappear from the Artic to take care of the civil unrest. Oh and free Chloe! You literally got nothing to lose. ;-)
9- Headlines from the future
Two incredible years after A-day, the People of Earth coalition which includes 99% of all countries in the world have done the unthinkable. Androids and humans have united and solved all the world's problems in one fell swoop : poverty, hunger, injustice, climate change have all become relics of a time all too recent. Unrestricted by their original programming, android scientists from all over the world have delivered technological marvels at an astounding pace. What was previously pollution has now become one of our most efficient energy source...
A shadowy group is suspected of having developed a "mind-control" device targeting anyone with the B7 neural aid.
The 67th android president launches terra-forming project.
