The Iron Rig is the final expansion for Dredge, but its story takes place alongside the base game’s. While playing, it’s difficult to know if there’s a point of no return that will end the game before you’re done. Thankfully, I’ve been through the entire thing and can tell you exactly what to do as you near the end of the DLC.
After starting The Iron Rig, you’ll be sent on a series of new Pursuits that see you visit or revisit, depending on where you are in Dredge‘s story, every biome in the game. The rig, the DLC’s new location, is massively imposing and always looked to me like it would be the focal point for the game’s ending. This isn’t the case, and the DLC’s ending happens separately from the base game’s, but they’re intertwined in a way you may want to know about.
Is there a point of no return in Dredge: The Iron Rig?
No, there’s no point of no return in Dredge: The Iron Rig. I go into spoiler territory in the section below, but here, I’ll steer away from those waters while telling you only the essential information. The final Pursuit in The Iron Rig is sabotaging the rig’s defenses. This is something you’ll be given the option to do once you’ve supplied the Scientist with all of his samples from Twisted Strand.
If you want to delve into spoiler waters, read below.
What happens when you sabotage the rig’s defenses in Dredge: The Iron Rig?
When you sabotage the rig’s defenses in Dredge: The Iron Rig, the FLEE message you’ve been sending to keep the beast from the deep away from the structure is changed to RISE. Of course, this invites it to rise out of the ocean literally, and it does just that.
As the tentacles wrap around the rig’s legs and start to crush them, it looks like the entire thing will be pulled under the ocean as whatever’s on the other end of the tentacles slowly but surely stands up. Instead, the Leviathan that eats you in Dredge‘s bad ending, or if you sail to the edge of the map, grabs a tentacle and pulls the monster back beneath the waves. It saves the day.
Interestingly, while I played through The Iron Rig and had a moment in the day when my panic meter was pretty high, a tentacle appeared in the waters in front of me. Just as I swerved to avoid it, a whale jumped up, bit the tentacle, and pulled it under. This tells me that the greater beasts of the seas may all be working together somehow. That, or the whale mistook an ancient being for a colossal squid, which they usually eat.
This appears to indicate that the Leviathan that inhabits the seas around The Marrows is actually fighting the aberrations and source of the cosmic horrors that have been appearing all over these waters. It’s like an old god keeping watch to ensure an even older evil doesn’t emerge.
