Guardians, Area 61, and the ending

The 1.0 announcement gives the main-story prerequisites: repair the boat on the main island, sail to Far Island, defeat the guardians at the port, RNA Lab and automated factory, and collect their three access devices to open Area 61. It does not prescribe an order among those three guardians. The boat cabin carries your stored items between islands.

The named guardians are the Augmented Security Captain at the port, the Corpse Amalgam at the lab and the Factory Warden at the factory. Each guardian defeated restores another section of railway power. Call a train at a station and choose a stop on its route map as you work through the island. These names and access-device requirements have one official source.

Area 61 includes surface and underground facilities. Defeat its three-phase final boss and escape aboard the submersible to reach the ending; the announcement says you can continue the current save afterwards. The 7 Nov 2026 1.0.5 post identifies that boss as Supreme Intelligence: phase two fires three sonic waves, phase three gains a crossing sweep, and the defeated wreck drops a Resonance Core for each player present in co-op. Saves that already completed the fight receive a one-time replacement in the Computing Core (one official source).

4Gamer independently confirms the new island and co-op release. Exact coordinates and a mandatory order among the three guardians are not published. Use the PDA waypoints for your generated map; the giant mutant lizard is a separate encounter described in its own October update.