DERELIKT Level 11 Walkthrough: Maintenance and Final Boss
The last level: Dr. Shivers, the maintenance gauntlet and the two endings, including the secret ending achievement Enlightened.
Maintenance is the shortest level in DERELIKT and the only one with a boss that talks. It is also the rarest achievement in the game: finishing it sits at 0.2%, which means roughly two in a thousand players have seen the ending screen.
The level is a straight run through the station's service corridors, a conversation, a boss fight and a choice. The choice is where the two endings split, and the secret ending is not the one the game advertises.
What happens after the final boss is covered in the endings guide→, including the unlock condition for the hidden one.
The maintenance gauntlet
The level opens in the service corridor under the reactor. The route is linear:
- Corridor A. Two Abominations and a broken door. The door opens with the crowbar.
- Corridor B. A sentry patrol and a steam vent. Wait for the sentry to pass, then cross.
- The junction. Left goes to the boss arena, right goes to a supply room with a medkit and a storage box. Take the right first.
- The lift. The lift down to the arena is the point of no return for the level.
There are no documents in the gauntlet, but there is a Shriver's Note in the supply room. If you are chasing Librarian, this is the last one you can collect before the ending.
Dr. Shivers
The final boss is Dr. Shivers, the station's lead researcher, and the fight is the game's only real set piece. The arena is a circular maintenance shaft with a central platform and four pillars.
Phase 1: the conversation
Shivers does not attack immediately. He talks, and the dialogue options change what he says but not what happens. When the conversation ends, he mutates and the fight starts.
Phase 2: the pillars
Shivers teleports between the four pillars and fires a beam that tracks you for two seconds. The beam cannot be outrun in a straight line; you have to break line of sight behind a pillar.
The pattern is: teleport, charge, beam, pause. During the pause, he is vulnerable. That is your damage window.
Phase 3: the adds
At half health, Shivers stops teleporting and summons Abominations from the floor. He also starts using a radial burst that knocks you back.
- Clear the adds with the shotgun, not the rifle.
- Use the radial burst's knockback to reposition behind a pillar.
- The grenade launcher is the best phase-3 weapon if you still have shells.
Phase 4: the core
At a quarter health, Shivers stops moving and the arena's central platform opens. He is attached to the core and the fight becomes a damage race. He fires a continuous beam that sweeps the arena; the only safe spot is directly behind him.
The fight ends when the core is destroyed or when Shivers' health reaches zero, depending on whether you picked up the alien cube.
The two endings
The ending is determined by the alien cube and by the glyphs you translated.
| Ending | Requirement | Achievement |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Finish the boss without the cube | Phyrric victory |
| Secret | Bring the cube, translate every glyph | Enlightened |
The standard ending is the one most players see: the station is destroyed, the survivor count is read out, and the credits roll over the wreckage.
The secret ending requires the alien cube from the hub and a complete glyph translation set. It replaces the destruction scene with a longer sequence in which the signal is answered. The achievement Enlightened sits at 10.6%, which is higher than the level's 0.2% completion rate; the likely explanation is that the secret ending can be triggered from an earlier checkpoint in some builds, or that the demo's ending flagged the same achievement. Either way, do not treat the percentage as a difficulty signal.
The game does not let you return to the station after the credits. If you want both endings, save before the boss and reload.
Achievement notes for the final level
- The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning (0.2%) for finishing Maintenance.
- Phyrric victory (55.1%) for beating the game on any difficulty. This is far more common than the final level achievement, which suggests most players finish on an earlier build or the demo.
- Enlightened (10.6%) for the secret ending.
- Savior complex (10.1%) is checked at the ending, so any NPC you failed to rescue locks it permanently.
Pre-boss checklist
- Alien cube in the inventory, if going for the secret ending.
- All glyphs translated.
- Both medkits from the supply room.
- Shotgun and grenade launcher loaded.
- Save at the maintenance lift.
FAQ
How many phases does Dr. Shivers have? Four: conversation, pillars, adds and core. The last two are a single continuous fight.
Can I get both endings in one run? No. Save before the lift and reload.
Does the secret ending need all achievements? No, it needs the cube and the translated glyph set.
Why is the completion rate so low? The final level sits at 0.2%, the lowest in the game. The reactor and coolant sections filter out most players before they reach it.
The final level is short enough that most reviews do not cover it in detail, which is why the achievement rates are the most reliable public data on how many players reach it.
Sources and further reading
The pages below are the sources this guide checks against. The store page and the developer's post are primary; the reviews are secondary and are used for enemy names, weapon names and the state of the game at launch.
- DERELIKT on Steam ↗ — the store page, system requirements and the 27-achievement list.
- Visuwyg's announcement post ↗ — the developer's own description of the outpost and the PS1 rendering work.
- DERELIKT on Metacritic ↗ — the aggregated critic score and review index.
Official source: Visuwyg — DERELIKT announcement post ↗, 8 September 2025.
"grafted onto an anomalous derelict asteroid in orbit around Saturn" — Visuwyg, DERELIKT announcement post, 2025