The Terrible Lizards endings are one normal ending and one secret ending. You get the normal ending after level 4, when Jordan and DJ ride the crew lift to the surface. The secret ending is a short scene after the credits, and you unlock it by placing all four plush toys on their pedestals. No choice changes either one, and this guide spoils both.
What You Will Read:
Terrible Lizards Endings: Quick Answer
| Ending | How you get it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Ending | Finish Level 4: Get the crew lift key from cavern B and escape with DJ | Jordan and DJ reach the surface, and DJ recognizes Auntie Stella’s car |
| Secret Ending | Place all four plush toys on their pedestals, one per level | A short scene after the credits, with a lizard at a piano |
How many Terrible Lizards Endings are there?
The developers say the game has one main ending. WDR Studios planned branching decisions early on and cut them because the team is small and the scope got too big. A different playthrough will not give you a different ending.
The secret ending is a bonus scene, not a second version of the story.
What Happens in the Normal Ending
The normal ending covers the end of level 4, from Jordan finding DJ to the car on the ground.
How Does Jordan Find DJ and What Does He Tell Him About Dalton?
Jordan finds DJ in the deep caverns. DJ says Dennis took him and will take him again, and he asks Jordan to get his Allosaurus tooth fossil back from Dennis’s lair. Dennis is the creature DJ calls his friend and his parents dismissed as imaginary.
Once Jordan has the tooth, DJ asks where his dad is. Jordan tells him that Dalton tried hard to reach him, fell and did not get back up. Jordan told Stella over the headset that Dalton was dead. Dalton’s fate is spelled out in his recordings and in a farewell letter to Elena, DJ and Stella.
How Do You Get to the Crew Lift?
The crew lift is locked when you reach the crew lift camp. Restore the camp’s lights first, then go for the crew lift key in cavern B.
Cavern B is blocked, so take the dynamite from cavern A, plant it at the entrance and fire it with the plunger. Inside, you link wall-run panels and hanging bars up to the high ridge. The key sits beside the body of Dr. Jonathan Fellows at the top, next to his last note.
A Project Pilgrim recording explains why the key is so far from the lift. The expedition’s survivors cut themselves off from the surface and took the key to cavern B, because nothing in the lift system works without it. Jordan has to undo a decision that was meant to keep the creatures underground.
What Happens in the Final Chase With Dennis?
Jordan starts the Crew Lift with DJ aboard, but Dennis attacks before they can escape. DJ tells Dennis they are no longer friends and that he cannot follow them. Dennis knocks Jordan away from the rising lift. It makes him to climb back using the cavern walls and overhead bars. When Dennis grabs the platform, Jordan kicks him off, and sends him into the cavern below. Jordan and DJ survive and continue toward the surface.
What Does the Scene With Stella’s Car Mean?
The game does not explain it. DJ runs ahead into the night, and Jordan tells him to get away from a car. DJ says it is Auntie Stella’s. Someone says “Hey, kid,” and the credits start with “Yellow Line” by The Civil Swingers.
The scene never shows what is wrong with the car or why Jordan warns DJ. It also does not show that Stella is dangerous, that DJ is a disguised creature or that the escape failed. The one solid fact is that Jordan and DJ reach the surface alive.
How to Get the Secret Ending
The secret ending plays after the credits. The rules are short:
- Each of the four levels has one plush toy.
- Each toy goes on a pedestal further along in the same level.
- You need all four placements. A toy you find does not count until you place it.
- The four placements also unlock the You Go Here achievement.
The pedestals are easy to miss. The Level 1 plush toy is in the little tent above the reception area, up a nearby ladder, and a pedestal sits on the route back from cavern B in Level 4. You do not need that pedestal to start the crew lift. If you miss a toy, I’d use Level Select to go back to that level instead of starting a new run.
The scene is short. A lizard sits at a piano, and the song repeats a line about how terrible the lizards are. There is no spoken dialogue, and nothing in it changes the normal ending.
What Questions Does the Ending Leave Open?
The rescue is complete, but the game leaves most of what lies under Dalton’s Dinos unexplained.
The ending never confirms whether Dennis survives his fall from the crew lift. His origins also remain a mystery, especially the human face inside his mouth. For more about the creature’s identity, his relationship with DJ, and his uncertain fate, read our Terrible Lizards Dennis guide.
What Is the Black Goo and What Was Project Pilgrim?
The black goo is the tar-like material that fills the deeper caves, and Project Pilgrim is the old expedition that studied it. Dr. Jonathan Fellows, the scientific lead, says the material has organic properties. Later, he admits that the longer the team researches it, the less they understand. He floats an ancient impact, a foreign injection and deep time contamination, but says each needs huge leaps of speculation. The game confirms none of these ideas.
What Do You Unlock After Beating Terrible Lizards?
When you beat the game, New Game Plus unlocks with four modifiers. A new one unlocks for every fourth amber you find, and you can combine them.
| Modifier | Effect |
|---|---|
| Body-cam mode | Changes the game’s visual presentation |
| Slippery surfaces | Makes every surface slippery |
| Die if you stop moving | Kills you if you stop for more than a couple of seconds |
| Low gravity | Lets you skip parts of levels or break their sequence, and the developer calls it probably the most chaotic one |
New Game Plus changes how a run plays. Nothing shows it changing the ending.
Terrible Lizards
