How to Get to the Backrooms

• Look for a wall that’s the wrong color or seems “off” and think pleasant thoughts as you lean against it to get into the Backrooms.
• You’ll only break into the Backrooms if you “noclip” through the wall the same way your character might noclip through a wall in a video game.
• If you’re going to try entering the Backrooms, prepare for the trip. The Backrooms are dangerous and there’s no telling when (or if) you’ll be home.

Accessing the Backrooms Intentionally

Find a wall that’s slightly “off” from the others around it. This might actually be the hardest part of the process—you need to find a wall or corner that just has something wrong with it. Not like it’s dirty or anything, it has to be “wrong.” A lot of explorers have luck looking for walls that are too dark or too light compared to the other adjacent walls. Walls that have a strange texture, seem to be blurry, or irregular curves may also be excellent portals. Only do this at your own risk. The Backrooms are not only dangerous—they’re deadly. They’re also nearly impossible to get out of it you don’t really know what you’re doing.

Relax and think about something pleasant. You will not get into the Backrooms if you actively think about the Backrooms or have a troubled thought on your mind. Clear your head, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths. Then, think about a beautiful meadow or a warm, comfy bed—wherever you go in your mind’s eye when you’re going to your “happy place.” Hold that pleasant image in your mind. Unless you’ve discovered one of the rare open passages to the Backrooms, you can’t just enter and exit at your own will. You have to be in the right headspace for the Backrooms to let you in. This is why most people fall into the Backrooms on accident—the more you think about the Backrooms, the more evasive they become.

Lean against the wall and walk through it. Gently and casually put your body against the wall you’ve found that’s slightly “off.” If you’re lucky, you’ll fall right into the Backrooms. If you don’t fall in right away, don’t panic. Reset your headspace and try walking or falling into it again. Once you feel that “falling” feeling and find yourself on the ground of a damp office space, you’ve made it. You know in video games when your character gets “stuck” on a wall or falls through the map? That’s no clipping. This is what you’re doing when you fall through the wall—you’re not clipping out of reality. If you can’t get into the Backrooms no matter what you do, the wall you found probably isn’t a doorway to the Backrooms. Sometimes, a dark wall was just painted poorly.

What to Do Next

Stay calm, quiet, and cool. If you start making a bunch of noise freaking out, or celebrating that you actually got into the Backrooms, you might attract the wrong crowd of explorers (or something worse). Most of the Backrooms is empty, but there are people who live there because they can’t come back, and not all of them are friendly. There are also pirates, roving bands of raiders, and people who have gone mad. There are also other entities you don’t want to attract. Work on documenting all of the entities in the Backrooms is still ongoing. The biggest explorer group in the Backrooms is the MEG (Major Explorer Group). This organized group of explorers is always welcoming newcomers if you can find one of their outposts. Just how empty the Backrooms may be is still up for debate. Some explorers have projected the space to be roughly 600,000,000 sq mi (1.6×10 km), while others believe the space is infinite.

Move cautiously and listen carefully. You cannot sprint through the Backrooms. For reasons still not understood, running will eventually cause the randomly generated offices to start looping around on one another. Instead, go slow and keep your ears open. If you hear anything outside of your damp footsteps and the low hums of the fluorescent lights, be careful. If you do hear what might be an entity or group of dangerous explorers, duck around a corner or slide behind one of the many randomly placed office desks and wait to see who it is.

Use your supplies sparingly. There is no way of knowing how long you’re going to be down here. In fact, it may be months before you stumble across anybody who’d be willing to trade supplies with you. Do not burn through all of your food, water, and supplies quickly. Many people perish in the backrooms simply because they can’t find anything to eat. If you do need food, look for Backshrooms (the mushrooms that grow in the especially damp and dark corners). You can also eat Moth Jelly—the secretions of the Death Moths that nest above the drop ceilings. If you need water, do not drink the fluid soaked into the floor or dripping down the walls (it will make you nauseous and dehydrated). Instead, look for Almond Water. It randomly appears in puddles and bottles throughout the Backrooms.

Do not stay long if you find The Manila Room. If someone travels long enough in the Backrooms, they’ll eventually stumble on The Manila Room—an office with manilla flooring and wallpaper that’s distinctly different from the yellow hues of the rest of the Backrooms. If you stumble on The Manila Room, do not linger. Explorers report becoming fixated by the room and ultimately perish there.

What to Bring

Backpack Fill it up with supplies. You’ll free up space in your bag as you go through supplies. That empty bag will come in handy as you explore. Store excess food, weapons, and clues as you stumble on them.

First aid kit The Backrooms are dangerous. People get hurt all the time down here (or up here? Where are the Backrooms anyway?), so you’ll need so isopropyl alcohol, bandages, antibiotics, and tweezers.

Watch and calendar The fluorescent lights in the Backrooms will never shut off and there are no windows. As a result, your sense of time will become distorted. Use a watch and calendar so that you can figure out when to go to bed, how long you’ve slept for, and how long it has been since you last ate or drank.

Sleeping bag All of the gray-beige carpet in the Backrooms is dampened by an unknown liquid leaking out of the walls. Needless to say, it’s not pleasant. Having something dry to sleep in will really keep you from going insane.

Comfortable waterproof boots You’re going to be doing a lot of walking down in the Backrooms. You’ll need something that fits your feet, is comfortable to wear, and won’t get soaked in the nasty carpet water.

Flashlight Most of the Backrooms is very bright. Obnoxiously bright, actually. However, there are areas where you may run into darkness. Some entities can manipulate light, and some corridors are artificially darkened by explorers to indicate trading posts are nearby or mark certain routes.

Permanent markers The empty office spaces that make up the Backrooms all look basically the same. However, the Backrooms are large and sprawling, and there are dead ends everywhere. Bring some markers so that you can mark the walls periodically as you walk. This way, you won’t get turned around after making miles of progress.

Getting Out

Stumble on a glass door to go to Level 27 and find the wood door. If you find a glass door in Level 0, going through it will lead you to Level 27. This is a series of rooms with a maze-like quality. The walls and floors are all wood, and explorers often develop motion sickness while exploring Level 27. However, if you find a wooden door in Level 27, it may lead you out of the Backrooms and back into reality. Level 27 has no food or water, so once you enter its hallways, you’re on a timer. Do not take your time!

Take any downward path to Level 1 and find an exit. If you happen to stumble across any stairs leading down, taking them will lead you to Level 1—an infinite sequence of wet warehouse spaces filled with fog and the cackling of electrical circuits. Rumors suggest that you can find The Hub in Level 1, a manmade complex that can theoretically take you to any level (even reality).

Break through the walls to access Level -1 and get lucky. The murky hallways of the first area of the Backrooms (with the damp carpet and lights) are known collectively as Level 0—the first layer of the Backrooms. But there are other levels! One of them, Level -1, surrounds Level 0. Break the drywall of Level 0 to step into the tight, concrete halls of Level -1. The doors in these hallways lead to random levels, but if you’re lucky you might find the door back to reality. This is not advised as an exit strategy, since you’re more likely to get lost in a deeper layer of the Backrooms than accidentally find your way out. It’s normal for the colors of the walls and floors to change as you walk through Level -1. Do not open any doors if you hear something on the other side.