DERELIKT Beginner Guide: 10 Tips to Survive the Von Neumann Outpost

DERELIKT beginner guide: what you are walking into

DERELIKT launches today, November 13, 2026, on PS5 and PC via Steam, with an Xbox version to be announced. It is a narrative retro FPS from solo developer Visuwyg, published by Hyperstrange, set aboard the Von Neumann Outpost, a research station grafted onto an anomalous asteroid in Saturn's orbit. You arrive as an outside contractor sent to find Excavation Team Delta, who went missing on the station's surface. What you find is worse: dark halls, failing systems, and a dozen-plus survivors who cannot agree on what happened. The influences are named in the official material: Alien Resurrection, Doom 3, and System Shock 2, with a dash of Lovecraftian cosmic horror. This DERELIKT beginner guide covers the 10 things that matter most in your first hours.

1. Talk to every crew member before the incident

The dozen-plus NPCs aboard the station are not set dressing. Their dialogue doubles as tutorial text and as the ledger the story cashes in later. Some help you. Some make things worse. You will not know which until you have listened. Talk to everyone before the situation deteriorates, because the station changes fast once it does, and some conversations will not be available later.

2. Read every note, terminal, and data slate

Access codes, puzzle hints, and the actual plot live in documents. The game does not repeat them. A door asking for a code you do not know means the answer is on a screen you walked past. Slow down in every room and read what the station is telling you. This is the single biggest difference between players who breeze through the puzzles and players who get stuck for an hour.

3. Treat ammo like it is the last ammo on the station

Ammunition is deliberately scarce, and the game wants you to feel it. Burst fire with the R4-21 conserves ammo; full auto turns your magazine into noise. Your goal for every fight is to end with more resources than you started, which means looting rooms corner to corner and picking your battles. A corridor you never clear is often the correct play. DERELIKT is not a game that rewards sprinting into every room with your finger on the trigger.

4. There is no sprint button, so plan your routes

There is no run button in current builds, and backtracking without one punishes aimless exploration. Learn the map screen early. DERELIKT gives you a station map that nudges you back on route, so use it before wandering. Plot your path, clear what you need to clear, and do not double back through cleared corridors unless you have a reason.

5. The 0451 door code, explained

The most-searched demo question is door codes, and the honest answer is that 0451 is an early keycode, not a universal one. It is the long-running immersive-sim homage to System Shock and Fahrenheit 451, and Visuwyg joins the tradition. Do not expect it to open everything. Treat it as a nod, then go read the terminals for the real codes.

6. Play the demo first if you are unsure

A free demo released October 8, 2026 covers three story chapters in non-sequential order, runs about an hour, and sits at 94 percent positive from around 200 Steam reviews. It ran in Steam Next Fest and it is the best way to know whether the slow, tense pace is for you. If the demo clicks, the full game is more of it, with higher stakes.

7. Trust no one completely, including the drone

A mysterious drone is driving the station's crew closer to breaking point, and the game's characters each carry their own secrets and agendas. The creator's own summary is blunt: some are useful, some are dangerous, some are doomed, and most are all three at once. Figuring out who can be trusted is as important as figuring out what is lurking in the dark. Keep that in mind before you hand anyone anything valuable.

8. Save your medpacks for real trouble

Health and inventory space are limited alongside ammo, and the game expects you to manage all three. Do not burn a medpack at 80 percent health because you are nervous. Heal when a fight is coming, not after a scare. The station's difficulty comes from attrition as much as from any single enemy, and the players who survive are the ones who arrive at the hard fights with full pockets.

9. Learn the Squidbull before you fight it

The named boss players keep asking about is the Squidbull, and it is a proper gate check on whether you have learned the game's rules. Watch its patterns, use the environment, and do not waste your best ammo on its armored phases. Bosses in DERELIKT reward observation over aggression, which is the game's whole philosophy in one fight.

10. Embrace the PS1 aesthetic, and the pace that comes with it

DERELIKT leans hard into its PlayStation-era look: warped textures, early 3D geometry, hand-painted vertex colors, and full-motion CGI cutscenes, with modern controls and quality-of-life improvements underneath. That aesthetic comes with a slower, more deliberate pace. Players who need sprint movement and constant combat should wait. Players who loved System Shock 2 and Doom 3 for the atmosphere as much as the shooting will feel right at home.

DERELIKT is out now on PS5 and PC. Our DERELIKT release date article has the full launch details, and if you want another survival-flavoured starter guide, our Warhammer Survivors beginner guide covers a very different kind of first run. Check the Steam page for the demo and current pricing.