DustFall Walkthrough — From First Descent to the Sixth Ruin

This DustFall walkthrough follows the only order the official material defines: start a descent, choose a starting payload, dig down, upgrade three ways as you go, and finish each layer at its core before falling into the next ruin. Six layers, then three endings, then Cataclysm Mode.

It is a structural walkthrough rather than a frame-by-frame one, because the store page publishes no layer names, no boss names, no map and no enemy list. Everything below is the documented sequence, and anything the official sources do not state is marked not documented yet rather than filled in.

Before Your First Descent

The setup is minimal, and the store page describes it in one line: choose starting payloads such as the Drill Round or Grenade, then shape your build through three-way upgrades during each descent. There is no class selection and no tutorial route published, so the first decision that matters is which of the named payload examples you take.

Step	Documented action
1	Begin a descent; the surface scan starts closing in from above
2	Choose a starting payload, such as the Drill Round or the Grenade
3	Blast through the strata, ignite oil and detonate powder caches as needed
4	Take three-way upgrades as they appear during the descent
5	Reach the bottom of the layer and defeat its core
6	Fall into the next ruin and repeat, across six layers

The scan timing is the one thing to internalise before you move. It begins closing in at the start of the descent rather than after a grace period, so the run is already under pressure while you pick your opening build.

Your First Run: Dig, Do Not Clear

The first run teaches the loop fastest if you treat it as a descent rather than a sweep. The store page frames every act of destruction as having two outcomes, and the goal is not the last enemy standing in a room but the bottom of the layer.

• Dig downward as the default action, and treat combat as something that happens on the way.
• Use terrain reactions instead of solving every fight with the base payload.
• Keep an eye on the material you are cutting through, because the layer defines which reactions are available.
• Head for the layer core rather than clearing side tunnels.

The reason to resist clearing is the clock. Time spent near the top is time the scan uses to find you, so a thorough first run is a slower one. The tips page turns this into specific habits.

Surviving the Scan

The scan is the phase that governs the whole descent. It starts closing in when the descent begins, and the store page says that staying too close to the upper layers gets you detected, which draws increasingly dangerous hunters down from above. Digging beyond the scan's reach earns only a brief moment of safety.

So the walkthrough answer to the scan is motion. Keep descending, do not backtrack into cleared shallow ground, and read detection as a signal to move rather than to fight harder. The hunters page covers the escalation in full.

Building Through Three-Way Upgrades

Each descent offers the same three-way choice, and the walkthrough order for taking it is driven by what the layer is made of.

• Enhance your weapon when the payload already fits the material you are cutting.
• Take a passive ability when you want a payoff that is not tied to a single shot.
• Switch payloads when the new layer's terrain makes your current tool the wrong one.

Because the store page describes freely combinable payloads and upgrades, none of those choices is permanent, and because each of the six layers has its own materials and reactions, the build that clears layer one is not guaranteed to clear layer two. The payloads page and the gameplay page cover the branches and the loop behind them.

Clearing a Layer Core and Moving Down

This is the checkpoint of the whole run. The store page says only by reaching the bottom of a layer and defeating its core can you fall into the next ruin, which makes the core a required gate: skip it and you do not advance, die to it and the descent ends.

Everything about the cores beyond that is not documented yet. There are six, they are described as core bosses, and no name, phase, arena or health value is published. What is documented is the structure either side of them, which the ruins page lays out layer by layer.

After the Sixth Ruin

Past the sixth core the campaign ends, and the store page lists three endings plus Cataclysm Mode after the ending. The endings are documented only as a count, with no names or branch conditions published, and Cataclysm Mode is documented only as existing after the ending.

That is where the documented walkthrough stops. What Cataclysm Mode changes, whether the six layers can be replayed and whether progress carries between runs are all unstated, and the Cataclysm Mode page records each of those gaps. For the achievements that sit across the whole descent, the achievements page lists the 10 names the store page publishes out of 29.