The Levels

What is a Normal Level?

A normal level is the fundamental unit of the Backrooms. Each one is a distinct environment — a space with its own layout, atmosphere, rules, and dangers. Most tend toward the infinite: corridors that never end, fields that stretch beyond any horizon, cities with no edge. They vary wildly in habitability, from levels where small communities have managed to survive for years, to levels where no one is known to have returned from.

The laws of physics as you know them are not reliable here. Gravity may behave unexpectedly. Sound travels incorrectly. Light sources illuminate things that should not be visible, and cast shadows where there is nothing to cast them. Distance becomes unreliable — two points that appear close may take hours to walk between, or may never be reached at all.

Exits do exist. However, they are rarely obvious, and almost never convenient. The two most common methods of moving between levels are noclipping — a phenomenon where the boundary of a surface gives way and you pass through it — and simply walking. The latter often means hours, sometimes days, of travel through identical-looking space before the environment gradually shifts into something else.

Some levels contain sub-levels — distinct pockets within a parent level, denoted with a decimal point (e.g. Level 4.1). Sub-levels are not covered in this list and have their own dedicated entries elsewhere in the archive.