For the full-squad route in Below, Rusted Gods, report Dimitri’s oxygen at 95%-100%, send the expedition right at the bifurcation, obey the medical terminal when it tells you to stop moving, use 10 / 15 / 35 / 40 for CMD / MED / TEC / REL, verify Mikhail as L.10:18, and stop Sergei before solving the obelisk. Those are the decisions that preserve all four squad members. Most of the surrounding radio lines change tone rather than the final state.
This walkthrough covers the released Steam game, app 2895680, and contains full ending spoilers. It was rechecked on August 7, 2026 against the official notes through v1.23.7. The important post-launch change is v1.23.5: it improved the wording of the electrical puzzle and restored a missing symbol in the Symbols recording. Update the game before using the symbol decoder if that tape looks incomplete. Versions 1.23.6 and 1.23.7 address ending audio, elevator visuals, and localization rather than changing the route below.
Protect Dutch and Dimitri before the facility loses power
Dutch’s first medical request is already an ending flag. Inspect Dimitri at the medical station and choose the 95%-100% oxygen range. The other range does not stop the mission, which is why this mistake is easy to miss: Dutch later relies on the calibration when he decides how to treat himself. A bad opening report cannot be repaired at the later temperature check.
When the squad reaches the first sealed door, ask for the scan before authorizing entry. The fog still arrives, but this exchange teaches the rule that matters for the rest of the game: leave a waiting call open while you check the room. When Mikhail redirects a signal, power the radio and tune it to channel 5. The wet sound is the evidence for the aqueous-body reply.
The bathroom opens after that call. Take the Mother figurine from the shelf and interact with the closed stall; look down when prompted to collect the cassette that slides out. The Mule figurine is beside the intercom equipment, while the Father is in the book-and-block nativity near the entrance. None of those three controls survival, but taking them now removes an unnecessary final-save search.
The first irreversible survival decision is the bifurcation. Ask for time, tune the radio to channel 8, and identify the unnatural sob coming from the left route. Send the squad right. Both paths continue the story, but the left tunnel injures Dimitri; that injury returns at the final gap and removes the four-survivor finish.
Treat each interruption as a new instrument check
After the bifurcation, follow the pounding back toward the earlier rooms and collect the recording beneath the ceiling drip. Continue into the basement, read the regulator instructions, take the Camels figurine from the beige locker, and restore the lights with the lever. Leave the CMD/MED/REL/TEC controls alone for now. The panel appears before the documents needed to solve it.
The four-digit door belongs to the radio
Restored power puts four religious fragments on four channels between 1 and 9. Their channel numbers are randomized. Write down the number carrying the fragment that begins with First, then the one framed as the second event, the fragment introduced with Before the end, and finally the one beginning In the end. Convert that story sequence into four digits by substituting each fragment’s tuned channel. That is the basement keypad code for this load; a code copied from another save is not an answer.
Dutch’s warning outranks the conversation clock
When Dutch asks for a squad check after the temperature drop, inspect every member. His page eventually displays a command not to move. Release the controls and wait until the terminal acknowledges that you remained still; the interference clears and reveals 35°C. Tell Dutch that the others are within parameters but he is not. Do not dismiss the machine as broken. With the correct opening calibration, he treats the abnormal reading and later confirms that the medication worked.
The empty-elevator event opens the mine route. Check the elevator wall and the changed table area before entering the breach, then take the Goat beside the rails. In the flooded chamber, keep circling until the vanished gap returns; follow the golden figure and take the Kings figurine from the rocking-horse seat before leaving.
Mikhail’s name is not proof of identity
When Mikhail contacts you after the lost-time sequence, invoke security procedure and ask for his assigned code. Put the call on hold, check the Registry Code Table, then return and explicitly accept L.10:18. A friendly regroup answer bypasses the verification flag even if you heard the same code.
After the bathroom wall opens, take the Lullaby recording and read Maria’s song. Continue through the corridor, collect the Second Son figurine from the sink bank, and search the classroom for Dimitri’s notebook and the equipment-consumption chart. Back in the control room, the diagram behind the medical station supplies the communicator and lamp values. These objects are the inputs for the regulator rather than optional lore.
Build 10 / 15 / 35 / 40 from the room before reconnecting
Every member needs 5% for a communicator and 5% for a lamp. Sergei carries only that 10% base. Dutch adds a 5% medical controller, giving MED 15%. Dimitri adds 25% of technical equipment, giving TEC 35%. Mikhail adds the radar’s 7% and the KF-1000 transmitter’s 23%, giving REL 40%.
- CMD / Sergei: 5 + 5 = 10.
- MED / Dutch: 10 + 5 = 15.
- TEC / Dimitri: 10 + 25 = 35.
- REL / Mikhail: 10 + 7 + 23 = 40.
Set all four receivers before authorizing reconnection; the total must be 100%. If Dimitri calls while you are still checking, ask for more time. Intermediate values are harmless while the circuit is open. Reconnecting a wrong distribution is the lethal action: it electrocutes Dimitri. If the panel becomes stuck after another attempt, v1.23.1 contains the relevant electrical soft-lock fix.
The last corridor spends two choices made much earlier
The squad’s reports around the rusted hatch sound consequential, but the choice of first descender does not select an ending. The next gap does. Dimitri crosses on the right-tunnel route; after a left-tunnel injury he cannot continue, and no medical response at this point restores him.
Sergei then asks for permission to fire on Mikhail. This prompt has a short timer, and its wording is deliberately dangerous. The earlier security exchange must have ended with L.10:18 explicitly approved; then use the STOP response that cites Mikhail’s valid confirmation code. Telling Sergei to fire, or letting the timer expire, kills Sergei rather than Mikhail. With the full squad intact, the verified STOP line is the bridge to both obelisk outcomes.
If somebody died earlier but you still stop Sergei, the obelisk cannot return a full-squad result; symbol accuracy no longer repairs the lost member. If Sergei dies during the confrontation, the game instead checks whether Dutch or Dimitri is still alive to distinguish Protocol 46 from Baptistery.
Solve the obelisk as four person-word-shape matches
Open the randomized-code basement door before committing at the obelisk. Read the letter on the first platform, take the First Son figurine from the next platform, and collect the Symbols recording at the far end. The letter identifies Dimitri with fatherhood. Maria’s song supplies the four relevant ideas, while the recording gives their shapes. On v1.23.5 or later, the tape includes the symbol that was missing from an earlier build.
| Squad member | Meaning | Select this shape |
|---|---|---|
| Sergei | The leader’s guilt | Choose the triangle that has a semicircle below it |
| Dutch | The sick person’s blood | Choose the square whose middle contains one dot |
| Mikhail | The worshipper’s prayer | Choose the triangle crossed by one horizontal stroke |
| Dimitri | The father’s tears | Choose the circle whose middle contains a cross |
Restart the selection if a person or shape is wrong; confirm only after all four rows match. With everyone alive, four correct assignments lead to the Rusted Gods route and the Once Below, Now Above achievement. Answer the four enabled intercom calls, take the elevator, and interact with the truck to finish that sequence. Deliberately confirming at least one wrong assignment with the same living squad produces Incomplete.
Record the remaining endings from the squad state
| Outcome | State before the final branch | Commit action |
|---|---|---|
| Rusted Gods / Once Below, Now Above | Sergei, Dutch, Mikhail, and Dimitri alive | Stop Sergei and confirm all four correct obelisk matches. |
| Incomplete | All four alive | Stop Sergei, then confirm one or more wrong obelisk matches. |
| Protocol 46 | Dutch or Dimitri still alive when Sergei dies; alternatively, reach the obelisk after any earlier squad death | Allow the confrontation timer to expire or choose FIRE; on an already incomplete squad, any obelisk set also routes here. |
| Baptistery | Dutch and Dimitri both dead before Sergei’s confrontation | Let Sergei die by choosing FIRE or allowing the timer to expire. |
For Baptistery, fail Dutch’s anomaly by calling the medical terminal unreliable. Lose Dimitri either through an incorrect power reconnection or by taking the left tunnel and completing his final-corridor call. Wait until both deaths are recorded, then fail Sergei’s confrontation. For a faster Protocol 46 branch, keep either Dutch or Dimitri alive and fail that confrontation.
Use the final save before starting another collectible run
The official Steam page lists separate achievements for all figurines, all audio cassettes, and all VHS tapes. Post-launch location references agree on eight figurines: Mule, Father, Mother, Camels, Goat, Kings, Second Son, and First Son. They also report that missed figurines remain reachable from the final save, so a statue alone is not a reason to replay the story.
Two readable community references disagree about whether the green-box item and the elevator-wall item belong to the cassette or VHS set. Inspect both, plus the bathroom-floor recording, the post-bifurcation blood puddle, the Lullaby table, the altered elevator table, and the far platform. Trust the in-game collection tracker rather than forcing either community category label. The larger cassette interaction area from v1.23.2 makes the small pickups easier to register.
The route is closed when the tracker shows all three collection achievements, Steam has recorded Protocol 46, Baptistery, Incomplete, and Once Below, Now Above, and the meta-achievement Below, Rusted Gods unlocks. If only a media counter is missing, reload the final save and inspect the disputed green box and elevator wall first. If an ending is missing, preserve the clean save and change only the confrontation or obelisk decision that selects that result.