The Backrooms Decrypted: In The Habitable Zone, Monster Encounters (Level 1)

The Habitable Zone is another name for Level 1 of the Backrooms. It is SAFE, SECURE, and contains a MINIMAL ENTITY COUNT, and it has a survival difficulty rating of CLASS 1. Large warehouse on Level 1 with exposed rebar, concrete floors and walls, dim fluorescent lighting mounted on the walls, and low-hanging fog with no apparent source. Contrary to Level 0, Level 1 has a steady supply of water and electricity, allowing wanderers to stay there indefinitely as long as the proper safety precautions are taken. With its staircases, elevators, solitary rooms, and hallways, it is also much larger.

By InfoPublished 3 years ago • 4 min read

The Backrooms Level 1 (The Habitable Zone, Monster Encounters)

Welcome, Explorer. If you're seeing this, it means you're one of the select people who have been able to no longer clip into the backrooms. You ought to give yourself a pat on the back for that. You're one of the winners here. You just made it to Level 1, the Habitable Zone.

You take a deep breath, sucking in a waft of thick, metallic air that tastes like an oil slick. Your first impression is that it looks a little like an abandoned warehouse that's seen better days, or one of those spooky parking complexes you were always afraid to walk through after late shifts at work. But here, fear isn't an option.

Fear, like Dune, is the mind killer. You lose your head here, and you might also lose your life. That's why you decide to venture cautiously into this new concrete mess of an environment, propelled by mixed curiosity and the hunger nagging at your belly. There has to be something here. It isn't the same featureless nightmare that the last place was; maybe here you can find some well-deserved goodies.

You continue to walk as the concrete world reels past you. The longer you spend here, the more reality starts to feel slightly altered. You notice that it's oddly cold in here, so much so that in some areas, deposits of mist hang close to the floor. In other places, the mist has thickened into slick sheens of condensation or dark, reflective puddles on the ground. The wrongness of a place like Level 1 isn't as obviously evident as Level 0, but over time, the creeping sense of dread seems to rise.

Every open space ahead is illuminated by flickering halogen lights. With every long, dim corridor with phrases like "Welcome to Hell" and "No One Escapes" spray-painted on the walls. With each hall, dotted with massive concrete pillars that could be hiding anything, your heart rate begins to rise. You begin to wonder: were there meant to be people on Level 1? You were sure that you read that back in the Manila Room on Level 0.

The document had said, "Level 1: Reaching this level should be your next goal." Our primary base, which is one of the safest locations for you, is located here. Level 1 gives the appearance of an infinite warehouse stocked with crates full of supplies. You haven't seen any of those mythical supply crates yet, but you're holding out hope, because what else can you do? That thing about the primary base was also encouraging. That means other humans are out here, possibly even in force.
Safety in numbers wouldn’t that be a fine thing? Your stomach grumbles painfully again, and you keep walking. After what could have been hours of more walking, your heart flutters. You see a person in the distance, standing beneath a flickering light. And look at that; they're standing over what looks like a crate of supplies. At long last, it seems like your luck is turning in the backrooms.

You break into a steady clip and make a beeline for the only human you've seen in days. You call out, saying you're here and you're human too. You can already taste the energy bars and the delicious almond water. It'll taste so good. But you can't help but notice the person leaning over the crate in front of you isn't moving. They aren't reacting to anything you're saying, like they're a store window-clothing mannequin just fixed into place.

In an instant, you feel this unassailable dread wash over you. You grind your heels into the ground and come to an abrupt stop. As if sensing you now, the stranger jolts to life and begins to turn. There's something terribly wrong with his face—namely, the fact that he literally doesn't have one. Just a smooth, slightly domed, egg-like face with no features whatsoever. Moving almost robotically, the faceless man begins to walk towards you. You scream and run as fast as you can, perhaps sensing wisely that there is safety in the light.

The entity you just encountered is a Faceling, a being commonly documented in The Backrooms.These frightening tricksters come in a variety of terrifying flavors, and if you don't want your time in the backrooms to be abruptly cut short, you're best off staying away from them at all costs. Not that you need to be told. You're already running for the hills, not even bothering to look where you're going, taking entryways and corridors at random, doing whatever you can to put greater and greater distance between you and it.

By the time you actually feel safe enough to stop, you're in another place you don't recognize, and the Faceling is nowhere to be seen. Thank goodness for that, right? However, you realize that there is no end point. You start running erratically until the sounds of the Skin Stealer are no longer audible behind you.

You hardly even have time to think. However, as soon as your mind settles and starts to function normally, you become aware of your location. You are in a lengthy, dark hallway that is crisscrossed with enormous, hissing pipes. While you are hot outside, you are cold on the inside. Exactly as it appeared in your dreams, you are familiar with this location. Congratulations, Explorer! You've just reached Level 2. Stay tuned as we continue our investigation into the Backrooms. How much deeper is this Liminal Abyss?

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