Inside the Backrooms: Survival Guide

This guide covers Inside the Backrooms, MrFatcat's co-op horror game for 1 to 4 players: how the survival systems work, how to handle each entity safely, a level-by-level overview including the hidden Poolrooms and Trainstation route, and tips for puzzles, difficulties and achievements.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Early Access patch 0.7.3 (17 July 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

The game is still in Early Access, and level layouts, puzzles and entity placement change often. Update 0.7 (28 June 2026) reworked most levels, and 0.7.3 added a Sewers puzzle and a new progress-saving system. Puzzle solutions are randomized every game, so this guide explains how each kind of puzzle works rather than listing codes.

Quick Start

• Puzzle answers change every run. Codes, numbers and colour orders from videos won't work. Find the notes and documents in the level and work it out.
• Read every note. Documents and notes are how the game gives you clues. The Hotel temperature note was bad enough in 0.7 to soft-lock the level until the hotfix, which shows how much the notes matter.
• Stay quiet and learn each entity's rule. Every entity has its own trigger (sound, light, eye contact, proximity). Once you know the rule, you'll survive far more often.
• Manage stamina. Sprinting drains it, and it drains faster while you're being chased. Stamina was raised slightly in 0.7, but it still runs out mid-chase.
• Almond Water heals and Pills calm anxiety. Keep at least one of each for emergencies.
• Flares are essential in the Caves. They light your route and distract Death Moths. Don't use them all in the first tunnel.
• Use the Protection Suit in radiation areas. Since 0.7, equipping it also turns on the VHS camera effect, which is intended.
• Dying isn't the end. Since 0.7 you respawn after a few seconds with your items, and dead players can use Spectator Mode while they wait.
• In co-op, split up to solve puzzles but not to explore dark areas. Proximity voice chat means you can only hear teammates who are nearby. Use radios for distance.

Core Systems

Controls worth knowing

Action | Default

Crawl | Z

Slow walk (quieter) | Hold ALT

Equip radio | R (as added in patch 0.1.5, so check your keybind menu)

Sprint, interact, inventory | See the in-game settings; rebind as needed

Crawling gets you through vents and the narrow crawlspaces in the Caves. Walking with ALT (added in 0.6 alongside a general speed increase) keeps you quieter, which matters around sound-sensitive entities like the Death Rat.

Health, anxiety and sanity

• Health is restored by Almond Water.
• Anxiety builds in scary situations, and Pills bring it down. High anxiety distorts your perception and makes things worse.
• Sanity matters for the Smiler specifically. Patch notes say it can only kill you when your sanity is very low or you get too close.
• Bleeding (added in 0.6) is a status effect caused by the Hound and the Caves' newer creature. Deal with it before it adds up.
• Moth Jelly is a rare consumable that gives an energy boost for two minutes, and there are only a few in the whole game. Save it for a long chase or a long puzzle stretch.

Inventory and items

Your inventory is limited, so you'll be choosing what to carry. Items listed on the store page and in the patch notes:

Item | Use

Almond Water | Restores health

Pills | Reduce anxiety

Radio | Talk to teammates beyond proximity range

Flashlight | Lets you see in dark areas (in the Christmas event it was also the only way to repel the Elf)

Protection Suit | Protects against radiation; turns on the VHS effect since 0.7

Flares | Light plus a distraction for moths

Documents and notes | Puzzle clues and lore

Moth Jelly | Temporary energy boost, very rare

Quick-access items stay equipped after you revive (since 0.6). Version 0.7 added an item inspection system, so use it on anything with writing on it.

Difficulty

Progress is tracked separately for Easy, Normal (listed as Medium in some patch notes) and Hard, with a best completion time for each level. Entity counts scale with difficulty. The Caves' spawns were tied to difficulty in 0.7.3, and the Bacteria only appears in the DarkRooms on Medium and Hard.

Entities and How to Survive Them

The store page describes each entity as having "different ways of attacking and manifesting". Here's what the official patch notes say about each one's behaviour:

Entity | Where | What you know | How to handle it

Entity in Level 0 | The Lobby | Behaviour improved in 0.7 | Keep moving, keep your distance and don't make noise

Bacteria | DarkRooms (Medium/Hard, since 0.7.3) | Classic Backrooms stalker | Avoid line of sight and use the darkness

Hound | Various | Causes Bleeding; since 0.7 it gets scared if you keep looking directly into its eyes | Face it and hold eye contact. Don't turn your back and run

Death Rat | Sewers | Hunts by sound (its sound detection was reworked in 0.6.3) | Walk (ALT) or crawl, and don't sprint near it

Aranea Membis | Parking | Since 0.7 it walks across the ceiling while stalking you | Look up, and check the ceiling before you cross open ground

Smiler | Some Parking areas | Can only kill you when your sanity is very low or you get too close | Keep sanity up with Pills and give it plenty of room

Receptionist | Hotel | Leaves right after a kill (0.6.3), so it can't camp the death spot | After a death, regroup and try a different approach

Death Moths | Hotel, Caves | Drawn to flares (the distraction radius was adjusted in the 0.6 hotfixes) | Throw a flare away from your path to pull them off

Caterpillars | Caves nest area | Numbers reduced in 0.7 | Move through the nest quickly and quietly

Newer Caves creature | Caves | Causes Bleeding | Treat it like the Hound: get distance and heal

Skin Stealer | Previously in the Hotel | Removed from the Hotel in 0.6.3 | Older guides that mention it there are out of date

Golden rule: most deaths happen when two entities catch you at once, and the store page warns about exactly this. If one is already chasing you, don't run into unexplored rooms.

Level Overview

The store page lists five main levels, which are the ones the "Escape" achievements count, plus two secret mini-levels that lead to a secret ending. Patch notes add several more areas. The table covers the areas named in official posts. The main route starts in the Lobby, but check your in-game level select for the current order, since reworks have shuffled things before.

Area | Notes

The Lobby | The starting level (Level 0). Fully reworked in 0.7, with a new start zone in 0.6.6. Has a hidden exit to the Poolrooms

Abandoned Office | Colour puzzle (fixed for 4-player lobbies in the 0.7 hotfix). The old camera puzzle was removed

DarkRooms | Very dark. The Bacteria returned in 0.7.3 on Medium/Hard

Sewers | Home of the Death Rat. Its puzzles were fully fixed in 0.6.3, and 0.7.3 added another

Parking | Aranea Membis on the ceiling, plus the Smiler in some areas. Puzzles adjusted in 0.7

Abandoned Hotel | Receptionist and Death Moths. Temperature note and boiler room machine-number puzzles

Grassrooms | Puzzles simplified in 0.7. A respawn-door bug was fixed in 0.6.3

Caves | Added in 0.6. Crawl spaces, underwater sections, pitch-black corridors, Death Moth variant. Elevator has manual buttons (0.6.6). Hands-and-substances puzzle

Poolrooms | Added in 0.7. Exploration-focused, reached through a hidden exit in the Lobby

Trainstation | Added in 0.7. Unlocks after finishing the Poolrooms

Fun Level, Run for Your Life | The two secret mini-levels (added in 0.2.0); each leads to a different ending. Redesigned in 0.5, and anxiety drops automatically in Run for Your Life

Level 931 | Added in 0.4: bright vegetation hiding dark puzzle areas

Level-by-level tips

The Lobby. The fluorescent yellow rooms all look the same, so leave yourself landmarks by remembering where you dropped or used items, and move in straight lines. Once you've done the main route, go back and search for the hidden exit to the Poolrooms.

Office. The colour puzzle needs coordination in co-op. Have one player read the clue while the others set the inputs.

DarkRooms. Keep your flashlight disciplined. On Medium and Hard, remember the Bacteria is in here. Brightness can be adjusted in settings (added in 0.6.6), and a colorblind filter was added in 0.7.3.

Sewers. This is the sound level. Walk or crawl everywhere near the Death Rat and never sprint through water where it can hear you.

Parking. Check the ceiling. Aranea Membis stalks from above, and the stairs were fixed in 0.6.3, so older "stuck on stairs" reports no longer apply.

Hotel. Read the temperature note and the boiler room numbers carefully. Both were bugged in the past, so if the logic really doesn't add up, check whether you're on the latest patch. Use flares to pull Death Moths away.

Grassrooms. The puzzles are simpler since 0.7. The open space makes sightlines longer, so spot threats early.

Caves. Bring flares and healing. You'll dive through submerged tunnels, crawl through tight gaps and cross total darkness. If you hit an infinite black screen, that was fixed in 0.7.3, so update the game.

Puzzle Approach (Randomized Solutions)

Because solutions change each game:

• Collect every note before you try anything. Clues are often split across several documents.
• Photograph or write down clues. Screenshot numbers and colour sequences so you're not running back through danger.
• Split roles in co-op. One player guards or watches entities, one reads clues over the radio, one enters inputs.
• Read the patch notes if something seems impossible. Several puzzles (Hotel temperature, Office colours with four players, Sewers, Office camera) have had bugs that made them impossible until they were fixed.

Achievements Worth Planning

Achievement | Requirement (from the official December 2025 update)

Easy Escape | Complete the 5 main levels on Easy

Normal Escape | Complete the 5 main levels on Normal

Hard Escape | Complete the 5 main levels on Hard

Speedrunner | Complete all 5 main levels with record times

Top Survivor | Linked to the Escape achievements (check the Steam achievements page for the exact wording)

The per-level stats screen shows completion status on each difficulty and your best time, so you can track Speedrunner progress there. The "ENTITY ## VICTIM" achievement was bugged until 0.7.3.

Seasonal events have included a limited-time, multiplayer-only Christmas mini-level (December 2025 to 10 January 2026): race to deliver 5 gifts to the tree, freeze rivals with snowballs, and drive off the Christmas Elf with your flashlight. Its rewards were time-limited.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Following a video's puzzle answer. Answers are randomized every game.
• Sprinting everywhere. You drain stamina and alert sound-based entities.
• Running from the Hound. Since 0.7 you're supposed to hold eye contact to scare it off.
• Wasting flares early in the Caves. You'll need them in the pitch-black sections and against moths.
• Hoarding healing until it's too late. Drink Almond Water before a chase, not in the middle of one.
• Splitting the team in dark areas. Proximity chat cuts out and you lose each other.
• Playing an old build. Many "impossible" levels were bug fixes that have already been patched.

Advanced Tips

• Speedrunning: learn the puzzle types rather than the answers. The quickest runs come from recognizing the clue format immediately.
• Hard difficulty: more entities spawn, and in the Caves the count scales with difficulty. Go slow, walk with ALT and use crawl to break line of sight.
• Voice chat: the radio filter was improved in 0.7.3. Radios are the only way to coordinate across a map, so keep one on each player on Hard.
• Save system: 0.7.3 added a new progress-saving system to stop progression loss. If you lost progress on an earlier build, that's why.
• Mods: since 0.4 you can build custom levels and entities, and mods load straight into the main menu (0.6). Turn them off when chasing achievements or reporting bugs.

FAQ

How many players can play? One to four, in online co-op with proximity voice chat.

Are puzzle answers the same every time? No. Solutions are randomized each game.

How do I get to the Poolrooms? Find the hidden exit in the first level, the Lobby. Finishing the Poolrooms unlocks the Trainstation.

What happens when I die? Since 0.7 you respawn after a few seconds with your items, and you can spectate teammates in the meantime.

How do I deal with the Hound? Look it directly in the eyes and keep looking. Since 0.7 that scares it off. It can cause Bleeding, so heal afterwards.

Is the Skin Stealer still in the Hotel? No. It was removed from the Hotel in hotfix 0.6.3.

Is the game finished? No. It's still in Early Access, with regular patches through 2026 (latest 0.7.3 in July 2026).

Sources

• Steam store page
• Steam news hub (patch notes 0.1 through 0.7.3)
• Steam News API feed for the game