DERELIKT Secret Ending: The Enlightened Route
How to unlock the secret ending in DERELIKT: the alien cube, the glyph set, the NPC saves and the choice at the final boss.
DERELIKT has two endings and the game does not tell you which one you are heading for until the final conversation. The standard ending destroys the station. The secret ending, tied to the Enlightened achievement (10.6%), answers the signal instead.
The requirement is not a single choice. It is a set of conditions accumulated across the campaign, and the game checks them at the last boss. Miss one and the secret ending is unavailable for that save.
If you are still missing achievements after the credits, the full achievement list→ shows which ones can be mopped up.
The three conditions
1. The alien cube
The cube appears in the Exo Labs hub after the coolant section. Picking it up is optional, and the game gives no objective marker for it.
- It sits on the hub display, next to the upgrade bench.
- It occupies a 2×2 grid slot.
- It cannot be dropped once picked up.
Without the cube, the final boss's core phase ends in the standard destruction sequence regardless of anything else.
2. The glyph set
The secret ending requires the translated glyph set, not just the fragments. The game checks whether the glyphs have been translated at the bench, not whether they are slotted.
- Translate every glyph you find before the reactor.
- The reactor locks the hub and the bench with it.
- Partial translations do not count.
This is the condition most players fail, because fragments are easy to collect and easy to leave untranslated.
3. The NPC saves
Savior complex (10.1%) is checked at the ending. The survivors you rescued appear in the closing sequence, and the secret ending requires the full set.
The rescues that matter:
| NPC | Level | How to save |
|---|---|---|
| James Park | 1 | Return his lost tape |
| The Exo Labs survivor | 4 | Open the 8465 door before finishing the level |
| The bar NPC's partner | 6 | Find him in the crew quarters |
| Louis Hartman | 3 | Complete the battery puzzle |
If any of these are missed, the ending still plays but the secret variant is locked.
The final choice
At the end of the Dr. Shivers fight, the core opens and the game presents a choice. The choice is only visible if the three conditions are met; otherwise the sequence plays out automatically.
- Destroy the core: standard ending, Phyrric victory.
- Answer the signal: secret ending, Enlightened.
The second option is not labelled as the secret ending. It reads as a dialogue line about the song, which is the game's way of hiding it in plain sight.
The game does not let you return after the credits. Save at the maintenance lift and reload for the other ending.
Why the achievement rate is misleading
Enlightened sits at 10.6%, while the final level achievement sits at 0.2%. A secret ending cannot be ten times more common than the level it happens in. The likely explanations:
- The demo build awarded Enlightened for its own ending, and demo achievements carried into the retail stats.
- An early patch flagged the achievement on a different trigger.
- The achievement was awarded for finding the ending's location or dialogue, not for completing it.
None of this changes the requirements in the retail build. Treat 10.6% as a launch-week artifact.
What the signal actually is
The station's glyph is a translation key, and the song is the signal it was built to read. The standard ending treats the signal as a threat and destroys the station before it can answer. The secret ending treats it as a message and lets the core transmit.
The game never explains who or what is on the other end. That ambiguity is the point: the secret ending is not a "good" ending, it is the one where the crew's research is finally used for what it was built for.
Step-by-step checklist
- Rescue James Park on Level 1.
- Complete the battery puzzle on Level 3.
- Open the 8465 door and talk to the survivor on Level 4.
- Find the bar NPC's partner on Level 6.
- Collect every glyph fragment you pass.
- Translate all glyphs at the hub bench before the reactor.
- Pick up the alien cube from the hub display.
- Finish the reactor and Maintenance.
- At the core, choose the dialogue line about the song.
FAQ
Can I get the secret ending without the cube? No. The cube is the flag that unlocks the choice.
Do I need all 27 achievements? No. Only the glyph set, the cube and the NPC saves.
Does the secret ending change the boss? It adds a phase to the core sequence and changes the closing cinematic.
Can I get both endings in one save? Only by reloading a save from before the maintenance lift.
Reviews that reached the ending disagree on how explicit the choice is, which is consistent with the game hiding the secret option inside a normal dialogue line.
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