Fathom

Ruin

A brass city at the bottom of the sea. Its founder is gone; his signs still point the way.

At a glance

Kind of world	Ruin
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	None: bring spare Serum
Quests	None

Screenshot comingfathom-arrival

The Grand Concourse of Meridian: marble floor, brass pillars, the Founder's statue with its arm raised, and black sea pressing on the great window walls

What happens when you arrive

The Box sets you down in a hall of marble and brass at the bottom of the sea, and the sea is still out there, leaning on every pane. This was a city once: Meridian, built down here by one man so that nobody above could tell him what to build. His statue still stands in the Grand Concourse with its arm raised, and his signs still point the way.

There's a Portable Radio waiting in the chest where you arrive. Pick it up, and it switches itself on. A man's voice, warm and polite, says hello. He has a few errands for you, if it's no trouble.

The rule: a drowned city that fights back

Meridian is six districts, each in its own great hall, joined by glass tunnels with the open sea outside. There is no sky, just a lid of rock far above the water, and the clock means nothing down here. Around the halls you can see a whole steampunk town on the seabed through every pane, lit spires, copper domes and boiler works, but none of it can be reached. The hatches are all dogged shut from the far side.

District	Direction from the Concourse	What's there
Grand Concourse	(where the Box stands)	The statue, the signs, the way out to everything else.
Mercy Wards	North	Hospital wards where the surgeons never stopped operating.
Gilded Arcade	East	Shops, slot machines and a roulette wheel.
The Foundry	South	Boilers, pumps, pipes and the Ironclad Divers.
Lyric Hall	West	The theatre. It's never quite empty.
The Founder's Sanctum	Past the wards	Behind a brass gate that nothing you carry will scratch. Only the end of the story opens it.

Don't break the glass. The water outside comes in faster than you can run.

The city's lost

The halls are full of hostiles. They come out of wall and ceiling vents in a burst of steam, or step out of elevators (listen for the ding). Every enemy you kill pays out Fathom Tokens, the city's coin. A room that has seen a run of kills goes quiet for a few minutes before anything new comes in. The Sanctum is always safe.

Screenshot comingfathom-vent

A wall vent bursting open in a cloud of steam as a Masked Reveler drops out into a tiled ward

Enemy	Where	What it does	How to deal with it
Masked Reveler	Everywhere; the commonest.	A party-goer with a cargo hook. From 3 to 7 blocks away it shrieks and lunges; if the lunge lands, it hits 3 harder.	The shriek is your warning: sidestep.
Masked Marksman	Everywhere.	Keeps 6 to 14 blocks away with a revolver. The arm comes up and the hammer clicks, then a 5 damage shot. Worse aim at range. After 6 shots it stops for 3 seconds to reload.	Close in during the reload.
Chorus Player	Lyric Hall.	A performer in stage mask. While it fights, every 10 seconds it rouses the crowd: every hostile within 12 blocks gets Speed for 6 seconds.	Kill the singer first.
Ward Surgeon	Mercy Wards.	A scalpel that makes you bleed for 4 seconds, and a syringe it uses to heal hurt allies (8 health) from up to 12 blocks away, even mid-fight.	Kill surgeons first, or every fight in the wards drags on.
Pipe Crawler	Ducts and ceilings.	Clings silently upside down to a ceiling until you walk under it, then screams and drops on you. Scuttles fast and climbs walls.	Look up in rooms with high ceilings.
Ironclad Diver	The Foundry.	A hulk in a brass diving suit with a drill arm. Not hostile until you hurt it. Then its porthole goes red: the drill hits for 13, and up close it rears on one boot and stomps (10 damage within 5 blocks).	Leave it alone. If you do anger it, lose it for 10 seconds and it calms down.
Security Turret	Here and there.	A brass tripod that never moves. When its lamp turns red it sounds an alarm for 1 second, then fires bursts of 3 rounds (3 damage each) while it can see you, within 18 blocks.	Get behind something when the alarm sounds. Stun it with the Shock Gauntlet, or hack it with a Tamper Kit.

The city's hostiles never fight each other, with one exception: a hacked turret guards whoever hacked it and shoots the rest.

Your quest: the man on the radio

The radio lines play only while you carry the radio. If you go quiet on an errand, the man speaks up by himself. Use the radio to hear his last line again. A brass compass on your screen points to each objective.

Errand	Title	What to do
1	The Concourse	Follow the promenade to the Commercial district's Concourse.
2	A Coin for the City	Buy anything from a vending machine.
3	Restart the Pumps	Pull the 3 pressure breakers by the boiler hall in the Foundry.
4	Quiet the Wards	Kill 8 hostiles in the Mercy Wards.
5	The Last Reel	Take The Last Reel from the film vault backstage at the theatre.
6	The Great Doors	Carry the reel to the great doors of the Sanctum. They grind open.

Listen to him

Every time he asks you for something, he says the same ordinary little phrase. Pay attention to it.

Inside the Sanctum (spoilers)

The man is waiting at his desk in his office at the bottom of the city. His name is Silas Calloway, and he built Meridian. When you step into his chamber, a scene plays and he takes the controls from you (nothing can hurt you while it runs).

He has watched you since your box came down past the glass. The friend in the static was him all along, and every errand ended with the same phrase: "if it's no trouble". It was never a courtesy. It was a leash. He hands you his father's Golf Club, says the phrase one last time, and you do as you're told.

"The city is yours now. Someone will be along to tell you what to do with it." You keep the club.

The dungeon chain

Separate from the errands, each district has a small dungeon behind a brass gate. The key at the end of each one opens the next. The chain is shared: once a gate is open, it is open for everyone, and the first player to reach a pedestal takes its prize.

Order	Dungeon	Prize at the end
1	Mercy Wards (open from the start)	KOKey of the Gilded Arcade
2	Gilded Arcade	KOKey of the Foundry
3	Foundry	KOKey of the Lyric Hall
4	Lyric Hall	The reward: a Rivet Gun, 24 Steel Rivets and 40 Fathom Tokens

Carry the right key anywhere in your inventory and right-click the gate. The key is used up and the leaves swing open. Keys never burn or despawn if dropped.

Screenshot comingfathom-dungeon-gate

A brass dungeon gate with the district emblem across the top swinging open, the key pedestal glowing beyond

The Coinsworth vending machines

The Coinsworth Automatic Provisioner takes Fathom Tokens. On top of the list price, every sale adds a depth fee of one sixth of the price (at least 1 token). Prices below include it.

Article	Count	You pay
Dr. Halloway's Restorative Tonic: heals at once (and makes you dizzy)	1	14
Gauze Bandage: Regeneration II for 6 seconds	2	8
Tinned Sardines	2	5
Fathom Fizz: Night Vision for 90 seconds and Speed for 30	1	7
Air Capsule: Water Breathing for 2 minutes	1	10
Flash Bulb: blinds and all but freezes every mob within 8 blocks	2	12
Service Key: opens a service door	1	52
Revolver Rounds	8	4
Buckshot Shells	4	5
Steel Rivets	12	4
Tamper Kit	1	23
Shock Gauntlet	1	40
Pipe Wrench	1	17
Harbor Revolver	1	46
Sawn Double-Barrel	1	64
Rivet Gun	1	81

Screenshot comingfathom-vending

The Coinsworth vending machine screen open, the receipt itemising the depth fee

Weapons and gadgets

Item	How it works
Guns (Harbor Revolver, Sawn Double-Barrel, Rivet Gun)	Right-click fires; sneak + right-click reloads. An empty gun reloads itself if you carry ammunition. Guns never wear out. Rivets can be picked up again from where they stuck.
Pipe Wrench	Slow and heavy. A full-strength blow staggers the target (Slowness II for 1.5 seconds) and knocks it far back.
Surgeon's Scalpel	Quick and light; every cut bleeds for three seconds.
Rusty Cargo Hook	The Revelers' weapon; they sometimes drop it.
Shock Gauntlet	Right-click throws an arc up to 7 blocks: 4 damage (double if the target stands in water or rain) and a 3 second stun. Kills a turret's head for as long. It also presses buttons, flips levers and swings doors, iron ones too. No ammo: it recharges in 2 seconds.
Tamper Kit	Use on a Security Turret to make it guard you and shoot the city's hostiles. 12 uses.

Enemies mostly drop ammunition besides their tokens, so a fight pays for the next one. Residents sometimes drop the weapon in their hand.

What to bring home

• Every Fathom block has an item: Polished Brass, Riveted Iron, Verdigris Copper, Deco Tile, Meridian Marble, Velvet, window walls, portholes, brass pipes and deco lamps make a superb underwater build.
• Supply chests in each district: paper, bottles and golden carrots in the Wards; gold nuggets, emeralds and books in the Arcade; coal, iron, copper, redstone and an iron pickaxe in the Foundry; gold, red wool, amethyst, candles and even music disc "13" in the Lyric Hall.
• The guns, the Shock Gauntlet and the Tamper Kit come home with you.
• Fathom Tokens are "legal tender below the waves, and nowhere else" (though Port Threshold's market takes them too).

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Each district's supply chest has a 1 in 4 chance of another.
• There is no native Serum ingredient.

Tips

• Pick up the radio straight away. The errands are your map of the city.
• Spend your first tokens on a Pipe Wrench or a Shock Gauntlet before taking on the Wards.
• In the Lyric Hall, kill the Chorus Player before anything else.
• Never hit an Ironclad Diver unless you mean it.
• A Tamper Kit on a turret turns the most annoying enemy in the city into a bodyguard.

Everything this world adds

44 blocks and items (click to open)

Polished Brass

Brass Trim

Riveted Iron

Verdigris Copper

Deco Tile

Ward Tile

Stained Ward Tile

Meridian Marble

Deco Pillar

Velvet

Velvet Stairs

Iron Grate

Window Wall

Porthole

Tunnel Glass

Brass Pipe

Leaking Pipe

Deco Lamp

Lit Window

Boiler

Medicine Cabinet

Writing Desk

Pressure Door

Meridian Sign

Wards Sign

Arcade Sign

Foundry Sign

Theatre Sign

Sanctum Panel

SGSanctum Glass

Sanctum Gate

Aged Brass Hull

Gear-work Panel

Lit Porthole

Sealed Airlock Hatch

Bubbling Vent

Seabed Lamp

Pipe Valve

Gear Plate

SPSea Pipe

Lamp Post

Glow Anemone

Lantern Coral

Neon Sign Plate

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

The Box set me down in a hall of marble and brass at the bottom of the sea, and the sea is still out there, leaning on every pane. This was a city once. The plaques call it Meridian, built down here by one man so that nobody above could tell him what to build, and his statue still stands in the concourse with its arm raised. His signs still point the way: north through the glass to the Mercy Wards, east to the Gilded Arcade, south to the Foundry, west to the Lyric Hall. Past the wards a gate of brass shuts off the Founder's own rooms, and nothing I carry will scratch it. Do not break the glass: the water comes in faster than you can run. The machines in the halls still take the city's coin, if you can find any. I have not met a living soul here, but something walks the wards when the lamps buzz, and the theatre is never quite empty.