15 days at the lighthouse can feel like an eternity when you’re away from family. You feel as though the whole world rests upon your shoulders, and in Static Dread, it literally does. A slow build with a catastrophic climax, there are so many ways this adventure can go.
What reality can you trust, and who will you leave to succumb to the darkness, wasting away on the all-consuming ocean floor?
In true cosmic fashion, it’s not very clear just how many endings Static Dread has. As the entire game moves into a new branch every time you make an important choice. There’s also no obvious default or canon ending, as your first playthrough will likely look different from mine. To add to the confusion, there’s only really one achievement tied to all but two endings. “The End?” achievement is unlocked when you beat the game, regardless of your outcome.
While there’s a lot of variety, there are very strict paths you traverse down that lock you into smaller branches, and all of them bring you to the same place: the Necronomicon. Static Dread starts rather open-ended and gets increasingly narrower in its design because of the choices you’ve made throughout.
Static Dread: All endings guide
We have exhausted all options on the fifteenth day, so we can confidently tell you that there’s nothing else you can do but talk to The Darkness and choose what you’re willing to sacrifice. While you can either attack The Great Old One or strengthen it, both lead to the same path, where you must release what the Old Keeper lost his mind protecting. You can only use the lighthouse beam three times against or for the benefit of the otherworldly entity. The dialogue repeats until you’re locked out of using the radio, where (after talking to the Village Elder) you’re forced to touch the Necronomicon.
If you choose to empower The Great Old One, the cultists will take over Blackfort when Darkness is released from the lighthouse (so long as the city remains intact).
No Way ending
The Unknown (Old Keeper) will speak to you on night one, commanding you to leave the lighthouse. Listen to its words and go into the bedroom, clicking on and confirming the “Give up” prompt on the bed. The Lightkeeper quits before anything truly begins. But what kind of home will he return to? A place of denial and loneliness isn’t much different than the isolation of working in that very lighthouse. With no Keeper to fill his shoes, Blackfort succumbed to the very darkness you could have fought against.
Darkness ending
We recommend loading into day two to get this ending, as it gets harder for the Darkness to consume you the stronger the Great Old One gets. Turn off all lights (including your flashlight) after starting the night shift and wait for the darkness to overwhelm you (red brain icon shows when you’re about to lose consciousness). Then keep choosing dialogue options that favor the wife and daughter so the Lightkeeper falls asleep to the sound of their voices. Reality becomes a mere concept to the Lightkeeper as he descends into the abyss, unable to pull himself away from his past.
Nuclear codes ending
This is the hardest ending to unlock, as you need to collect information as you play.
The most important note you need for this ending is found on the tenth day. I sided with Blackfort and the soldiers throughout my playthrough to get this ending. The fax page for the nuclear codes is distorted, borderline unreadable. Colonel Edwards thinks the launch codes were destroyed, but the three-digit set is just about legible on the fax you were sent. Directly underneath and slightly overlapping the words “Top Secret” at the center of the page is 74 20 73. You will receive the Aircraft Carrier Tempest frequency by playing, but you don’t need to activate the nuclear warheads yet.
Receive the Commander’s instructions by playing through the fifteenth day and siding with the soldiers throughout your playthrough so that they successfully make it to the old village. Set the frequency to 18.9 between attacking The Great Old One’s eyes and setting course for nearby ships. Follow these dialogue prompts to destroy the deity:
- Apply Military Encryption
- Activate Voice Control
- 357 – Alpha – 57
- Activate emergency control
- 800 – 15 – 32
- Launch torpedoes
- Turn off the pump
- 357 – Omega – 32
- Disable torpedo launchers
- Supply power to strategic weapon systems
- 800 – 15 – 57
- Enter Launch Codes
- 74 – 20 – 73
- Activate nuclear warheads
Klaatu Barada Nikto ending
Either let in or scare away the Fisherman’s dog on night seven to get the basement key. Find the two glowing pieces near the rotation device at the top of the lighthouse and under the wooden floorboard in the bedroom (needs the crowbar from the generator room). Place the glowing pieces on the basement door (which activates only at night). Reach the fifteenth night.
On the final night, play until you speak to the Village Elder. Enter the basement to release the Darkness and make one last wish. The Keeper will automatically insert the Cthulhu-looking mark onto the door. Select “Touch the Necronomicon,” “Let go of the darkness, banishing it from the lighthouse,” and “Dispel the barrier protecting the lighthouse” to achieve this ending. The cultists win, transforming what remains of Blackfort into mutants who worship The Great Old One. A new world has begun.
Note: this ending achievement will unlock the very first time you choose to touch the Necronomicon, whether you made a final wish or not.
Family ending
Following the same route as the previous ending, touch the Necronomicon but select “I want to ask the darkness for one last wish.” This is where the remaining endings in Static Dread await. In this instance, choose “I will sacrifice the Old Keeper” to “be with my family.” Much like the Darkness ending, the Keeper succumbs to this greater evil to be with his family, as he was unable to move on and come to terms with his own mortality.
An alternative to getting this ending is to sacrifice the city to save your family. This results in the same cutscene as sacrificing the Old Keeper for your family, but at the cost of wiping out Blackfort.
Selfless ending
Touch the Necronomicon to sacrifice yourself to save your family. You haven’t put an end to the nightmare, but your family is alive. Having traded places, they must now learn to move on without you.
Sacrifice ending
Touch the Necronomicon, but choose “sacrifice myself.” Choose either “I want this monster to disappear” or “Bring back the old world” to get this ending. The events repeat as the world reverts back to how it was, but this time, a new Keeper has to replace you. Both options result in the darkness becoming stronger than The Great Old One.
Alternatively, you can sacrifice the Old Keeper and choose either dialogue option for your wish. The darkness will still win, but bringing everything back to the old world means you will wake up at the start of the game, realizing that the cosmic nightmare will always happen no matter what. Human prevention cannot do much against concepts far greater than our understanding.
Destruction ending
The last ending we obtained was to sacrifice Blackfort so that The Great Old One could be destroyed. This leaves the Lightkeeper by himself, knowing that the Darkness still escaped, and took an entire city with it. No more cultists, mutants, and the acceptance that his family is gone, the Lightkeeper has to find a new meaning to life now that his duties are over.
