After managing to inadvertently knock both of them off the ship, Rufus discovers she was knocked unconscious when she landed in Kuvaq and that the town's residents seek to have the honour of looking after her. Argus reveals to Goal he intends to keep her quiet and prevent her informing others of what she saw, forcing Rufus to try to rescue her. While aboard, he witnesses the Organon, led by Baliff Argus, pursue a young Elysium woman named Goal, who is shocked that they have been covering up the fact that Deponia is still inhabited by humans. After a mishap causes the rocket to break up in mid-flight, Rufus manages to land on a cruiser run by the Organon - a militant organisation that terrorises the inhabitants of Deponia and regularly dumps trash on its surface with their craft. Seeking to follow in his father's footsteps, Rufus, a young man living in the town of Kuvaq, constructs a makeshift rocket in his latest attempt to travel to Elysium.

For the remaining humans left behind, their home planet became a dumping ground for those who ascended, leaving them to make settlements amongst the trash that is regularly dumped on the surface's landmasses, with communities managing to thrive as best they can, and clean water considered the most valuable commodity for them. Over time, the Elysians forgot their origins and past with the planet, assuming it to be nothing more than an uninhabitable world. The game's story takes place on the planet of Deponia - a world which originally was inhabited by a large human population, until the majority ascended towards living in a utopia-styled floating city called Elysium. The game's unique elements are special puzzles that the player can skip if they cannot solve them, a tutorial phase at the beginning, as well as a unique, humorous option available after completing the game, which when activated causes descriptions/names of objects and people, and all spoken dialog, to be changed to being only 'Droggeljug'. The game's main interface features a simple system connected to the mouse, in which the player left-clicks an object/person to use it/talk to, and right-click it to examine it, while a hint system, indicating interactive elements, can be activated by holding down the mouse's middle button. At times, the player encounters people in the game who can be talked with for clues and trivia. Objects in the game can be manipulated, or picked up to be used to overcome obstacles or combined with other inventory items to make a new item to use.

Like most forms of graphic adventure games, players take on the role of a character who must solve a variety of puzzles.

Deponia esrb