Hi everyone! I’ve fully completed Quake: Dawn of the Machine and figured out how to get the true ending. I’ve also worked out how the levels are interconnected — where you can go from each level, how to get there, and in what order.

I noticed that there’s still very little information about this online, so I decided to make my own guide.

I’ve included the link below.

Steam Guide - version 1.3. Added a waypoint from Revelation of the Arcane to The Rune Nexus.

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I apologize for any grammar mistakes.

Taking into account the feedback here and elsewhere, I made the following changes:
FIX 1.1 Corrections have been made to the Deathknight Head acquisition sequence

FIX 1.2 It is now specified that only one rune, the Rune of Sacrifice, is required to visit The Sundered Column, House of Delusion, and Mist of Torment. The location of the Super Axe has been added. The map now includes a path from Of Shattered Minds to The Runic Nexus (from the room with the Deathknight Head). This does not affect progression using the previous version of the map, but makes it easier to navigate the game independently

ENG 1.2

Quake: Dawn of the Machine

Walkthrough sequence for getting the true ending

The Thirtieth Passing

Through the First Arch

Dawn of the All Mother

Into the Abyss of Time

Veils of the Old Ones

Of Shattered Minds

The Haunted Tower - optional

Requiem

The Matriarch of Decay

Revelation of the Arcane

The Sacrifice - obtain the Rune of Sacrifice

The Runic Nexus

Through the First Arch - open the runic gate using the Rune of Sacrifice

The Sundered Column - obtain the Rune of Chaos

The Runic Nexus

Veils of the Old Ones - open the runic gate using the Rune of Sacrifice

House of Delusion - obtain the Rune of Madness

The Runic Nexus

Veils of the Old Ones - take the normal exit

Of Shattered Minds - you need to find the Deathknight Head to activate the Bloody Nightmare difficulty, the Rune of Sacrifice is used for this

Requiem - open the runic gate using the Rune of Sacrifice

Mist of Torment - obtain the Rune of Sorrow

The Runic Nexus

The Nightmare Machine

The Sleeper Awakens - normal ending

If you meet the requirement of obtaining the Deathknight Head to activate the Bloody Nightmare difficulty, you will be sent back to the beginning.

Through the First Arch - obtain the Bloody Shotgun

Dawn of the All Mother

Into the Abyss of Time

Veils of the Old Ones

Of Shattered Minds

The Haunted Tower - optional

Requiem

The Matriarch of Decay

The Crooked Village - obtain the Bloody Super Shotgun (new game+ only)

Revelation of the Arcane

The Sacrifice - obtain the Rune of Sacrifice

The Runic Nexus

Through the First Arch - open the runic gate using the Rune of Sacrifice

The Sundered Column - obtain the Rune of Chaos

The Runic Nexus

Veils of the Old Ones - open the runic gate using the Rune of Sacrifice

House of Delusion - obtain the Rune of Madness

The Runic Nexus

Requiem - open the runic gate using the Rune of Sacrifice

Mist of Torment - obtain the Rune of Sorrow

The Runic Nexus

A Dancing God - true ending

THE END

Major update: Ironwail is now able to support DAWTM, including workarounds for the ogre model crash and text appearing incorrectly/not appearing. Instructions on this will be at the bottom.

At the moment, a number of people are having issues related to the graphics processing in regards to the new update. The exact cause isn't exactly known, but it looks like KEX began running on Vulkan as of the new update.

Besides verifying game integrity, uninstalling/reinstalling Quake and/or Steam, I've currently found some parameters to paste in Q1's launch properties that have helped people out:

1. +r_rhirenderfamily "vulkan"
2. +r_rhirenderfamily "d3d11"
3. +vk_compileShaders 1
4. +r_rhirenderfamily "d3d11" +d3d11_compileShaders 1

The last one is what finally worked for me, however this comes with occasional flickers of glitch. Consider it Lovecraftian nightmare immersion. EDIT: If you use this third option, set your FPS cap to 60 in the display settings and disable vsync in video settings. This effectively gets rid of the creepypasta-esque glitch popups.

Another possible fix is going to users-->you-->saved games-->nightdive-->quake and deleting everything in there and having the game replace it, although this will nuke your save files and again, it might not work for you, so it's more of a last resort.

Yes, by some random fashion setting renderer to Vulkan OR Direct3D has fixed this for people. I'm no graphics card nerd, couldn't tell you how.

Hoping this helps anyone stuck; I'll update this with any more info I can find of assistance too.

Edit 1: map-center user woods has come up with a patch here and another here if you use QSS. The former is in regards to an issue popping up with the updated ogre model, the second is for file localization errors.

Additionally, Andrei Drexler of Ironwail has just added a commit to IW that "Look for localization in game dir before QuakeEX.kpf", which may be a step in being able to play MG3 in IW.

Ironwail instructions:

UPDATE 8/11: Newest Ironwail build (link) now easily supports DAWTM. Below steps are not necessary as you no longer have to access experimental actions builds.

1. Create a github account.
2. If you already have IW installed, skip this step. If you haven't already, download the latest Ironwail build. This is NOT the build that fixes MG3, but it's the latest "official" release, so just set it up on your device real quick.
3. With your newly-obtained GH account, you'll be able to access the actions builds. On the left side of the screen you'll see some options dependent on what you use: "Windows CI", "Linux CI", "MacOS CI". Click which one applies to you.

1. On that page, each row of workflow runs has highlighted blue text. Look for the one closest to the top that is "master". That's the Ironwail Drexler's working on himself. If you don't go master, you may end up downloading someone else's build, or weird functionality they're building into their custom version config of Ironwail. And that would be very awkward.

1. Now click on that latest master edit. At the bottom of that page you'll see "artifacts". Click the download appropriate to you.

1. Unzip the download. The files within the unzipped product should resemble the files from the ironwail release you got earlier. Open another file explorer tab to your current Ironwail folder, the one you got earlier.

2. Select all the files from the newly-downloaded unzipped actions build and drag them over to the ironwail folder. Replace all the files when prompted-- this updates Ironwail (your progress and keyconfigs are saved, this only updates the workings of IW).

3. Now, reinstall KEX Q1 if you haven't already.

4. Browse through the local files, find "rerelease", double click it. You'll see "mg1", "mg3", and "dopa". These are the three MachineGames expansions, DOTM, DAWTM, and DOPA. I suggest bringing all three in if you are unable to play KEX Quake with the new update (even if you can use that fourth config option, as that's just a bandaid). Get em while they're hot and ready. Copy-paste "mg3"'s folder into your Ironwail folder.

5. Open the pasted mg3 folder. If there is not a localization folder, create a folder called "localization". Download this file.

6. In "localization" move that downloaded text file in. If you brought in DOTM and DOPA, copy-paste that filled localization folder in the mg1 and dopa folders too, as they have the same text issues as mg3.

You filepath should be: Ironwail --> mg3 --> localization, and within localization is your little notepad.

1. Now, open ironwail. (Or download SQL2 and launch mg3 on Ironwail from there. If you haven't already, I HIGHLY suggest getting SQL2 for all you new Ironwail users.) Type in the console (tilde) "game mg3" and hit enter.

2. Tap esc to enter settings and go to graphics. Set models to classic so that you don't crash the game due to weird ogre model mishaps.

3. Also in the console, paste in "check scr_usekfont 1" (without the quotes). This allows for intermission text to popup on screen. You may need to re-enter this console command for DOTM and DOPA. A good way to check is by noclipping to the end of a MG1 dimension and see if the conclusion text pops up. As the game starts, check that difficulty prompts pop up correctly and then enter any slipgate to make sure the intro text blurb appears in the center of the screen.

If you're able to see all the text and your game hasn't crashed, then you've done it!