Preview: Beyond Dawn caverns and the new Liminal Protocol Story chapter
Originally published on itch.io — read the post and comments ↗
Beyond Dawn Preview and the Liminal Protocol Steam beta now include new missions, research puzzles and a playable connection between the two games. This is a preview of the current builds: the descent beneath the shelter, repairs that change Wasteland, and the first Story chapter inside Liminal Corp.
The Beyond Wasteland update is on preview now and Liminal Protocol players can try its updated beta branch on Steam. These are builds in development, and I am looking for feedback on navigation, instructions and encounters.
Beyond Dawn: beneath the shelter
The H-02 / Lower Service hatch opens a mission line through four cavern depths, ending at the foundations beneath Liminal Corp. You explore these spaces in both the city era and Wasteland, with different conditions, records and threats.
- Warm Pipe / Lower Shift: work through pressure and power controls, release a return ladder and recover the survey case.
- Unlisted Freight: restore the guide cable and lift, then recover a delivery record.
- Outside Containment: investigate the exterior inspection gallery and recover measurements from outside the facility.
- Bottom Entry: establish a return anchor and enter the service section beneath Liminal Corp.
Filing recovered records opens the next depth. Repairs and shortcuts remain available between trips, but carried evidence has to survive the return journey. The surface dawn countdown does not run underground; the descent uses its own expedition resources.
Wasteland's galleries contain hostile staff. Deeper down are six creatures from Liminal Protocol: S-DRN, Red Static, Mourner, Specter, Banshee and Warden. Their reactions to sight, cover and your flashlight differ. Contact with the Warden can take you into the Black Annex, where shifting gates and a fading return signal make finding the exit urgent.
A Warden in the lower facility. Staged viewpoint using the actual game scene.
Two new research games
Capillary Stone is a mineral core recovered underground. Rotate and strip back the specimen, select an inlet, adjust pressure and clamp leaking branches. The aim is to fill three internal chambers with tracer while keeping the central pocket dry.
Capillary Stone in an isolated test save.
The analysis reveals a Lattice trace leading to a sealed maintenance alcove. There you can recover Echo Glass, a damaged service-recorder cartridge. Seat its fragments, change their depth and angles, and test a pulse through the volume to reconstruct the recorded return signal.
Echo Glass: reconstruct the pulse to recover a service command. Test-save capture.
Repairs that change a future expedition
Below the Waterline starts with flooded stores in Wasteland. Transmit the fault, return to Beyond Dawn and repair the P-04 pump. Selecting the Dry stores future opens the drained room, its supplies and its ledger. Bringing that ledger home unlocks Wasteland's cavern missions.
The descent adds an Exterior bypass, while the Echo Glass work order leads to the L-14 controller. Repairing it unlocks The lit landing: a future with working lighting, emergency supplies and a powered return lift. The future you select stays fixed for that expedition.
The Foundry, archive and controls
The rebuilt lair brings all ten upgrade tracks into the Foundry. Compare your current equipment with the next tier, see the scrap cost before buying, and switch between owned movement rigs. The Off Duty rooms and decorating space remain separate from the workshop.
The Foundry in the main chamber. Capture uses a test balance.
The Observation Station archive keeps recovered lore, work records and known routes. It also offers Export to Liminal Protocol, which creates a code for specific discoveries you have brought home.
Recent fixes cover city doors, practice-room guidance and extraction, route pinning, Lattice readability, combat feedback and save handling. Texture patterns are more stable, and the transitions between the game and Observation Station have been smoothed out.
iPad and Android have on-screen movement and action controls, a right-side Run toggle, reachable pause menus and clearer station lettering. Desktop keeps its original lettering and keyboard/mouse controls. Vision uses V and the scroll wheel, leaving number keys available for weapon selection.
Liminal Protocol: The Unlisted Return
The Steam beta adds a three-mission Story chapter. Its walkable receiver station has an assignment console, radio contacts, an equipment bench, an import terminal and a recovered archive.
The receiver station in the current Steam beta.
- Arrival Without Dispatch: compare a seal with the register, isolate the unloading drive and recover its receipt.
- Return Circuit: compare feed and return counters, then reroute the line.
- Hold the Return: test two return paths, isolate the unverified stream and extract its packet.
Story has no floor countdown. Activating consequential machinery releases threats, and required and optional evidence must be extracted. Standard, Survey Cell and Aegis equipment offer different tradeoffs. A failed expedition loses carried evidence while retaining explored maps and records already banked. Interrupted missions also have save recovery.
Two additional investigations connect the games. Outside the Drawing follows Ruth's recovered survey after Return Circuit. Before the Waterline compares the Wasteland dry-stores ledger with the original facility after Hold the Return. An imported P-04 restoration can open a drained service route.
The current bridge supports six established discovery records. It does not transfer every cavern or research achievement, and importing a code does not complete the missions for you. The chapter resolves the receiver's immediate problem; the sender, ECHO-07 and the wider incident remain open.
Inside the updated facility
Rooms now contain more department-specific equipment: containment cells, specimen banks, large glass vessels, filtration stacks, pumps and centrifuges. Service aisles remain open around the machinery. Moving contents, fluid surfaces, rotors and gauges give the equipment visible activity.
Arrival Without Dispatch, captured from the current packaged beta.
The latest beta also updates first-person hands and interaction animations, co-op body movement, flashlight lighting and battery life. Wall-mounted fans, signs and other fixtures have corrected placement and backing.
All images show the actual games. Beyond Dawn includes staged scene and isolated test-save captures; the Liminal Protocol images come from the current packaged beta. These are screenshots, not claims of complete playthroughs.