DERELIKT Level 3 Walkthrough: Anomaly Surface
Every step of the Anomaly Surface mission: mission reports, the monolith, Empty Proxy escapes, the Derelict Campsite rifle and Louis Hartman's battery job.
Anomaly Surface is the only level that takes place outside the station, and it is the point where DERELIKT stops being a corridor shooter and becomes a survival horror game with a map. The asteroid surface is dark, the flashlight is weak, and the first Empty Proxy you meet cannot be killed with the pistol you brought from the station.
The level has three jobs: find the missing excavation team, pick up the Assault Rifle at the derelict campsite, and run Louis Hartman's battery errand. Do them in that order and the route is straightforward. Do the battery errand first and you will walk the same cliff path three times with a dying flashlight.
The APC at the end of the surface section feeds directly into the battery puzzle→, which is the next thing you have to solve.
The route, room by room
1. The landing zone
You arrive at the surface with the pistol, the Worm V.1 if you did Preston's trade, and whatever ammo survived Level 1. Take the ammo box on the left, then follow the ridge to the first body.
- Mission Report 1 is on the crate to the left of the first drop.
- M. Crawford lies at the bottom of the first jump. Search the body for a document and a code fragment.
- The twin pillars ahead are a scripted drop. You cannot climb back up, so clear the ledge before you jump.
2. The excavation trench
The trench is a loop: down the stairs, through the tunnel, up the stairs on the far side. Two bodies carry the story of what happened before you arrived.
- Dr. Seligman is on the upper walkway with Mission Report 4.
- Kraft is at the bottom of the steep descent, next to his log. Take Kraft's Log from the tunnel on the left.
- Mission Report 5 is on a crate beside the excavation equipment, just before the tunnel exit.
Rock Worms patrol the open ground between the bodies. They spit acid in a straight line, so strafing sideways is enough. Do not waste rifle ammo here; the worms die to two shotgun blasts or a pistol magazine.
3. The monolith
The trench ends at a black monolith standing in a crater. Approaching it triggers a cutscene: something detaches from the stone and attaches to you. That something is an Empty Proxy, and it is the reason this level has a reputation.
The Proxy cannot be killed in the first encounter. The game wants you to run:
- Turn around and sprint back into the tunnel.
- Take the upper-left branch, not the way you came.
- Break line of sight behind the rock outcrop and wait for the Proxy's laser sweep to pass.
- Climb the slope, jump the gap and keep moving until the scripted event ends.
If the Proxy catches you, its heat blast takes most of a health bar. There is a medkit on the slope above the tunnel mouth, which is the game's way of telling you the chase is survivable.
Shooting it drains ammo and does not stop it. Later Proxies can be killed with the Assault Rifle, but this scripted one is invulnerable until the chase ends.
4. The derelict campsite
Past the chase, the tunnel opens onto a camp built around a crashed lander. This is the level's safe point and its biggest reward.
- Assault Rifle on the central crate. This is the first rifle in the game and the answer to Proxies.
- Science Report on the table.
- A storage box with ammo and a medkit. Players have reported the box contents respawning after a reload; take what you need and move on.
- A save station at the back of the camp.
The rifle changes the level's math. Proxies take damage from rifle rounds, tentacles can be shot off the walls, and the Rock Worms die in one burst. Do not leave the camp without it.
5. The APC site
The path continues over a series of pillars to APC Site 2, where Louis Hartman is waiting. He is the only living NPC on the surface and the start of the battery quest.
- Talk to Louis. He asks you to retrieve a replacement battery from the first APC, the one you passed at the landing zone.
- Take the lug wrench lying next to him. Without it, the battery housing will not open.
- Open the battery compartment on the APC beside him and loot the storage box. This is the APC that needs the battery, not the one that has it.
The walk back is the level's worst backtrack. The good news is that the route is now clear of scripted enemies, and the Proxies you kill stay dead.
6. The cliff collectibles
Before you return to Louis, detour to the cliff edge east of APC Site 2:
- Climb the central rock platform and take the right-hand rock bridge.
- Insight sits at the very edge, where the bridge narrows.
- Drop down to the lower ledge for Shriver's Notes 6/13 and another storage box.
- Follow the ledge to the end for a second Insight.
Both Insight pickups are easy to miss because they do not glow and the ledge looks like scenery. They add engraving slots, which is the difference between a two-perk build and a four-perk build by the reactor.
Collectibles on this level
| Item | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mission Report 1 | Crate at the landing zone | Before the first drop |
| Mission Report 4 | Dr. Seligman's body | Upper trench walkway |
| Mission Report 5 | Crate by the excavation gear | Before the monolith |
| Kraft's Log | Tunnel left of Kraft's body | Story document |
| Science Report | Derelict campsite table | Next to the rifle |
| Shriver's Notes 6/13 | Lower cliff ledge | After the Insight bridge |
| Insight ×2 | Cliff edge and ledge end | Engraving slots |
Combat notes for the surface
The surface introduces two enemy types that punish the wrong weapon.
- Empty Proxies hover, fire a laser sweep and close for a heat blast. Use the rifle at mid range and strafe during the sweep. If one gets close, backpedal and fire; do not try to crowbar it.
- Tentacles grow from the tunnel walls and swat you as you pass. They die to a single rifle burst and they do not respawn once killed, so clear them before you loot a room.
- Rock Worms are the only enemy the pistol is efficient against. Save the rifle ammo.
Sentry robots do not appear on the surface, which makes this level a good place to learn the rifle's recoil before Central Security.
Before you leave
- Battery retrieved and delivered to Louis.
- Assault Rifle equipped and at least two full magazines.
- Both Insight pickups collected.
- Shriver's Notes 6/13 in the bag.
- Save at the campsite station.
- Check the mission log for the return-to-station objective.
Visuwyg's own post describes the outpost as sitting on "an anomalous derelict asteroid in orbit around Saturn", and the surface section is where that idea pays off: the asteroid is not scenery, it is the source of the signal the crew has been hearing.
FAQ
Can I skip the battery puzzle? No. Louis opens the route back to the station, and he will not do it until the APC has power.
Where is the first APC? At the landing zone, before the twin pillars. The battery housing is on its rear panel.
Is the Assault Rifle missable? The campsite is on the main route, but the rifle is on a crate you can walk past. Pick it up before the APC site.
Do Proxies respawn? The scripted one does not. Later Proxies respawn at save-station reloads like normal enemies.
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.
- Into Indie Games' Anomaly Surface walkthrough ↗ — a second independent route check for the surface.
Official source: Visuwyg — DERELIKT announcement post ↗, 8 September 2025.
"grafted onto an anomalous derelict asteroid in orbit around Saturn" — Visuwyg, DERELIKT announcement post, 2025