The Cave Diver gives you an ending decision almost immediately, then hides the longer ending behind three connected tests: the cave route, a four-ore lift puzzle, and a flooded ruin that ends with an orb delivery. If you only want the short Ascension ending, do not break through the boarded descent. If you want the Flower and the Descending ending, remove those boards and follow the lantern-to-lantern route below.
This walkthrough follows the full PC release available on August 15, 2026. Steam identifies AppID 3004390 as the Ovsko-developed and published game released on August 12. No public build number was visible in the reviewed official material, so landmark positions are the route boundary; if a later patch moves an object, trust the current lantern, note, lever, and level labels in your client.
Make the ending decision at the boarded opening
Crawl right from the shack and use the teaching signs to settle into the two-hand movement. The first bridge can break under you; the fall is recoverable. Continue to the movable boulder and drive it toward the right-hand cavity. Once the rock plugs that opening, your body can pass without repeatedly dropping into it. Loose stones farther on are scenery and collision, not reliable handholds, so test the dark solid rock instead of exhausting yourself on pieces that will not take a grip.
The wooden boards ahead are the campaign split:
- Ascension ending: leave the boards in place, climb onto them, scale the cliff above, and continue along the long upper crawl to its endpoint.
- Full descent: pull the boards out of the opening and enter the lower passage. This commits you to the Caves, Mines, Ruins, Lou sequence, and the verified Descending ending path.
Do not dismantle the boards on an Ascension attempt and do not spend time climbing above them on a Flower run. This is a route choice, not a puzzle that requires both actions.
Use lanterns as route locks through the Caves
The early Caves section tries to make every branch feel important. Most of the safe route can be remembered as a sequence of physical states: narrow fork, gorge, four-way junction, weighted platform, rope drops, feet-first shaft, loose-rock bridge, then the collapse into the Mines.
Take the high catch in the gorge
After the first tight passage, the two-way fork reconnects, so neither side is a permanent commitment. The next note warns about three possible lines through a gorge. As you drop, extend a hand early enough to catch the upper route. Follow that first line through another squeeze. Pass the ditch rather than descending into it, then work through the tightening corridor until a lantern confirms the exit.
Two continuations sit to the right of that lantern. Choose the upper one. At the next chamber the cave presents four openings; use the one on the right. Follow it until a downward sign points into a crevice. Drop there to reach the seesaw-like platform.
Load the platform before you trust its right edge
The platform cannot hold the useful angle by itself. Search left of it, climb the upward branch, and pull the lodged boulder free. Bring that rock back onto the left side of the platform. Its weight raises the opposite edge, but your own body will begin to tip it back when you travel right. Grab the hanging rope before moving onto the elevated side, build a controlled swing, and release toward the right wall.
A lantern marks the next fall. There is a rope in the drop; catch it if possible. Missing it is inconvenient rather than final because you can climb and make another reach. Use the rope to gain the right cliff, then treat the next hanging line as a climb rather than a jump. The destination is the ledge from which that rope is suspended.
Enter the warned shaft feet first
The nearby note gives the important posture for the hole: feet first. Lower yourself while catching the side walls so the weak surfaces do not swallow your shoulders. If the body begins rotating head-down before you are committed, back out and reset; forcing the wrong orientation is how the narrow shaft becomes a body trap. A lantern waits beyond the squeeze.
From that light, travel right and climb into the upper pocket containing small rocks held by a wooden brace. Dislodge the brace so the rocks spill. Move roughly three usable pieces toward the right side of the chamber and arrange them as intermediate support for the climb. You are not solving a count puzzle; you are building enough height and grip access to reach the solid wall. Past the top, accept the next fall and enter the long small tunnel. A shifting floor eventually removes the route behind you and drops the diver into the Mines.
Make the mine lift read four pieces of ore
The mine is one inventory puzzle spread across several lift landings. Your final state must be four silver pieces inside the cart. One piece is collected before the numbered descents, two are moved directly from numbered levels, and the smallest piece must be dropped from one floor and recovered on another.
At the first chains, cross to the pair of levers. Leave the first lever alone and operate the second. That change opens the route on the left. Climb through it, locate the cart, and ride or drag it back down to the lever machinery. Move the cart onto the pressure platform to unlock the continuation on the right. Before committing to the lift, take the nearby ladder upward and collect the accessible silver; this is the easy piece players often omit when their final count stops at three.
| Ore step | Where to search | How it reaches the cart |
|---|---|---|
| Upper starting piece | Above the early mine machinery, reached by ladder | Carry it down before beginning the numbered lift circuit |
| Level 300 bracket | Right of the lift, resting on an iron support | Swing across the metal holds, take the ore, and return |
| Level 300 small piece | Through the narrow opening left of the lift | Throw it into the floor opening; retrieve it from the left route on level 500 |
| Level 400 piece | To the right, beyond the cart route | Put it in the metal vessel, operate the lift lever, then throw it left to the cart |
Level 300 creates a delayed pickup
On level 300, collect the ore on the right-hand iron bracket first. The swing is easier to repeat without carrying the small piece from the other branch. Return it to the cart, then examine the tight opening left of the elevator. You can pull the tiny silver piece through that tunnel, but its shape will not travel back the way your body came. Drop it through the opening in the floor. Do not follow it; the lift circuit delivers you to its recovery side later.
Level 400 uses the metal vessel as a freight elevator
Take the cart right from level 400 and secure the visible ore. The return geometry blocks a simple carry. Load the silver into the iron bowl or cauldron-like carrier and use its lever to raise the piece. From the upper position, send it left toward the cart. Confirm that it has actually settled inside; a piece on the floor beside the cart contributes no lift weight.
Level 500 closes the count, then receives the key
Travel to level 500 and climb the left route. The ascent is the hardest ore retrieval, but the object at its top is the small piece dropped from level 300. Return it to the cart and count all four pieces visually.
With the complete ore load, ride back to the highest landing the lift allows and push the cart to the right. The added mass opens the weighted route to a giant key. Wrestle the key into or alongside the cart, then take the lift down to level 500. Throw the key against the locked iron gate there. Once the gate releases, continue straight and squeeze through the extremely small exit into the Ruins.
If the lift or weighted door refuses to advance, the diagnosis is local: inspect the cart. The common missing item is the starter silver above the ladder or the small level-300 piece that must be collected on level 500. Re-running levers cannot replace missing mass.
Cross the Ruins one air pocket at a time
Water reverses the usual movement problem. The diver is pushed upward while the useful passages often continue below. The red screen is an air warning, not a direction marker. Memorize the next pocket before leaving the current one, and reset at the nearest lantern instead of trying to improvise a blind second route.
First lantern to the movable floor block
- Enter the water to the right of the first Ruins lantern. The current ejects you near dry ground; climb the right bank and drop through its hole.
- Swim left beneath the surface. Pass the note and enter the next downward opening head first. This descent places you in the lower ruin water.
- Move right until the next lantern, then reverse direction on land. Ignore the first pool encountered while going left and enter the second one.
- Use the nearby air pocket to reset. On the next dive, fight downward and locate the underwater exit on the left. Climb onto land and take the hole leading farther below.
- Continue right to another note. The immediate right branch beyond it is a dead end. Instead, move the stone slab set into the floor; the opening under it is the actual continuation.
- Enter that small passage head first, move left through the water to air, then use the hole on the left to reach the next lantern.
The floor slab is the key route check. If the corridor after the note simply ends, you have not missed a distant switch; return to the movable stone at your feet.
Second lantern to the tower note
Leave the lantern toward the right, pass the pointed formations, and submerge. Descend below the visible building instead of trying to enter its upper silhouette. The underwater corridor continues right to an air pocket.
The next breath is the dangerous crossing. Dive again, find the passage to the right, follow its bend left, then correct right. Your view may be almost entirely red before the small pocket appears. Treat the bend sequence as the instruction; chasing a bright edge when the warning covers the screen can send you back into the previous chamber.
From that pocket, drop once more and follow the submerged right route until two pillars become visible. Do not climb the pillars. Use the wall on their right to reach the chain above, swing across the dry ledge, and keep working toward the upper-right chains. They lead to a lantern beside a note about an orb at the tower top and an altar below.
Bring the tower orb down without taking the shipwreck detour
The note describes a longer shipwreck approach, but it is not required for this route. From the lantern, go right to the chain, swing back toward the cliff on the left, and climb until another chain lets you cross right. Pass the next note and ascend the steep section. Stop one tier below the apparent summit: a right-hand opening crosses a large gap and continues the real climb.
After the gap, climb until an upward arrow appears. Use the rope above that sign to travel left to another lantern. The tower route now doubles back upward:
- Climb the wall to the left of the lantern through the patches of weak stone.
- Use the rope above to reach the small solid hold on the left.
- Continue upward past Lou’s note, climb the chain to its supporting platform, and launch from that platform toward the left wall.
- Keep ascending. A shift toward brown rock indicates that the orb chamber is close.
The orb must reach the altar physically; reaching the top alone does not solve the tower. Grip the orb and descend with it. At the awkward slope near the bottom, push the sphere into the incline, release when your body position blocks its roll, then regrip from the other side and work it toward the right-hand drop. Follow it down, drag it to the altar, and place it on the receiving surface. The route below opens only after the orb registers there.
Let the Lou dead end change before you leave it
Drop through the altar opening and crawl through the new caves. Lou is the serpent moving in the background, but this first part is not a chase puzzle. Continue through several lantern-and-note checkpoints until the rightward route ends at a sign pointing left.
Obey the sign and turn around. The important event is the changed leftward route, so a familiar-looking return is not evidence that you missed a switch. Read Lou’s notes in sequence. The ground eventually collapses and drops you into water; from that moment, prioritize speed and the right-hand route. Lou appears behind you in parts of the escape.
Continue right until the skeleton-filled obstruction stops normal movement. The floor gives way, followed by a white transition. Do not restart at the skeleton pile unless the scene has genuinely frozen; the fall is the expected handoff to the Flower area.
The verified Flower path ends by continuing down
You wake in a cleaner underground pool. Crawl right until a skeleton, a note, and a dried flower appear together. Read the note, then continue right to the final descent choice. Taking the route farther downward produces the Descending ending.
The reviewed walkthrough evidence verifies that downward choice, but it does not document every outcome of refusing it. This guide therefore does not assign a name, achievement, or hidden trigger to an unsupported alternative. For the other confirmed ending, use the Ascension route at the opening boards on a separate attempt.
Route recovery checks
- The right side of the cave platform will not stay raised.
- Recover the boulder from the upper-left pocket and leave it on the platform’s left side; use the rope before your body tips the balance back.
- The mine cart reaches the lift with only three ore pieces.
- Check the ladder above the starting machinery, then confirm the small level-300 piece was dropped and later collected from the left side of level 500.
- The level-500 iron gate is still closed.
- Four pieces must first open the cart-weighted route at the highest landing. The giant key from that route is then carried down and thrown against the gate.
- A Ruins note leads into a wall.
- The right branch is deliberate misdirection. Move the stone block embedded in the ground near the note and enter the passage beneath it.
- The tower altar does nothing.
- The orb itself must be brought from the brown upper chamber and placed on the altar. Merely visiting both locations is not enough.
- Lou’s route ends at a left arrow.
- Turn back. The return route changes, the notes advance, and the collapse starts the escape.
The full descent is dependable when each transition has produced its intended state: boards removed, cave floor collapsed, four ore pieces visibly in the cart, giant key used at level 500, orb seated on the altar, Lou’s return route changed, and the final choice taken downward.
Sources and credits
Game identity, release date, mechanics, and screenshots were checked against the official Steam page for The Cave Diver. The route was independently reconstructed from a post-release verified walkthrough reference; community imagery was not reused.