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Biome Walkthrough

By ScotUpdated

Tactical Quick Answer

Ten biomes exist in PEAK, but any single run uses six of them in fixed slots: Shore, then Tropics or Roots, then Alpine or Mesa, then two volcanic slots, then the Peak. The Final Biome Update added the variant biomes GLOOM and THE CITADEL on August 11, 2026, and they cycle out with CALDERA and THE KILN. The map rotates daily at 17:00 UTC, drawn from a pool of maps the developers pre-bake and ship in the build.

PEAK's mountain runs in fixed slots. Ten biomes exist, but a single expedition contains six:

  1. Shore
  2. Tropics or Roots
  3. Alpine or Mesa
  4. Caldera or a variant
  5. The Kiln or a variant
  6. The Peak

The variants in slots four and five are GLOOM and THE CITADEL, added by the Final Biome Update on August 11, 2026.

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The announcement for that update named the two biomes and said they cycle out with CALDERA and THE KILN, and gave nothing else. Patch 2.01.a on August 13, 2026 is the first source to describe anything inside either one, and it covers a single GLOOM hazard and one level generation fix in THE CITADEL. The Caldera and Kiln sections below still describe those two biomes as they were.

Five of those are climbing biomes. The Peak is the hazard-free finish line. Roots and Mesa are alternates, not additions: Roots stands in for the Tropics and Mesa stands in for the Alpine, so you never see both halves of a pair in one run. GLOOM and THE CITADEL cycle out with the Caldera and the Kiln on the same principle, so a run still contains six biomes.

How the Daily Rotation Works​

The map changes every day at 17:00 UTC. What changes is which map you are given, not the terrain being invented on the spot. Maps are randomly generated by the developers, baked, and shipped inside the game build, because generating one requires lightmap baking that cannot run on your machine. The daily rotation picks from that finite pool, which patch 1.65.a raised from 21 to 42.

The two pairs rotate differently. Alpine and Mesa alternate every other day, deterministically, ever since patch 1.27.a fixed a bug that had pinned the Alpine for a week straight. Tropics and Roots rotate randomly by map seed.

Each biome also rolls a weighted variant, and this is the real source of run-to-run variety. The Shore has variants like Jelly Hell, Black Sand and Snake Beach. The Mesa has Cactus Hell and Dynamite Hell. The Roots has Clearcut, Deep Water and Deep Woods.

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The pool is finite and pre-baked, so community trackers that document today's capybara, tomb and beehive locations genuinely work. Volunteers walk the maps and record what is where. That is only possible because the geometry is fixed per map and never generated fresh for each player.

Shore​

The starting zone. You wash up on a beach surrounded by plane wreckage and scattered luggage.

Terrain: Sandy beaches, low rocky outcrops and shallow cliffs. Forgiving angles and plenty of ground.

Hazards:

  • Jellyfish. Inflict Poison 5 and ragdoll you for about two seconds. They are scattered across the whole biome, not just the shallows, and on the flat Backshore they are the only hazard there is.
  • Giant Urchins. Inflict Poison 10 for every second of contact. These appear on the Cliff section and not at the waterline.
  • Bridges. Breakable, with weight limits of one to five scouts. Cross one at a time if your team is heavy.

What to do here:

  1. Loot everything. The crash site has a fixed spawn list, so a Backpack, Lantern, Flare, Bugle, Compass, Guidebook, Binoculars, Flying Disc and Bing Bong are all guaranteed to be there somewhere.
  2. Take the Backpack first. Four extra slots for no weight is the best trade in the game.
  3. Read the Guidebook.
  4. Cook what you find at the crash-site fire.
tip

Coconuts are excellent food but weigh 12.5, the heaviest food in the game. Break one open into two Half-Coconuts and eat or share them instead of hauling the whole thing up the mountain.

Tropics​

A dense, humid jungle. The terrain steepens and rain introduces the first real mechanical challenge.

Terrain: Thick vegetation, vine-covered walls, tall trees and narrow ledges. Vines are pure traversal aids, grabbed like ropes, and nothing about them is a trap.

Hazards:

  • Rain. Wet surfaces slow your climbing, cost more stamina, and make you slide even while holding still. Storm duration is not documented, so read the weather instead of trusting a timer.
  • Poison Ivy. Inflicts Poison 2.5 on contact. Visually distinct from safe growth.
  • Thorny Giant Ivy. Inflicts poison and knockback, but it is also solid, so it doubles as a stepping stone once you know to expect the damage.

Strategy: Rain is the biome's real threat because it affects every surface at once. Between storms, climb aggressively. During them, hold a ledge.

This is also where Big Trees live, the thick-trunked ones you can climb to the top of for the Arborist badge. Luggage sometimes spawns up there.

Roots​

Added in patch 1.40.a on November 5, 2025. A shrouded redwood forest that replaces the Tropics.

Terrain: Massive redwood trunks, static Giant Shelf Fungi that work as platforms, hanging vines and dense canopy.

Hazards:

  • Wind. The biome's defining hazard and the one players most often overlook. Harsh gusts threaten to knock you off the cliffside.
  • Spores. Fungal clouds build up the Spores status. This is what the Tread Lightly badge asks you to keep under 25%.
  • Spiders. When a scout walks below one, it descends straight down and grabs, inflicting Web 25 and then Poison every second while it hauls you up. Mash jump to break free, since each press removes 5 Web, and expect a long fall afterward.
  • Beetles. They chase and throw scouts. They deal no damage themselves, so the danger is entirely where you land.
  • Zombies. Only present on Peak difficulty and above, never on Tenderfoot. A bite gives Injury 10 and Spores 10, plus an infection worth 0.5 spores per second that self-cures after 60 seconds. It does not spread from player to player. What does matter: dying with 50 or more spores turns you into one.

Strategy: Zombies are far less catastrophic than their reputation, and patch 1.42.a nerfed them further. Treat spores as the real resource to manage and keep an Antidote or Cure-All handy. Watch above you for spiders, not ahead of you.

Alpine​

Cold, exposed and unforgiving.

Terrain: Snow-covered slopes, icy rock faces and exposed ridgelines.

Hazards:

  • Blizzards. These arrive at random and last several seconds, not minutes. They inflict Cold. Sheltering in darker or covered ground reduces their intensity.
  • Ice Rocks. These inflict Cold, at 2.5 per 1.75 seconds standing and 2.5 per 0.525 seconds climbing. They do not reduce your grip, which is a common misconception.
  • Icicles and Flash Bulbs. Additional Alpine hazards worth watching for.
  • Geysers. These inflict Heat and remove Cold, which makes them useful and not purely dangerous. They do not cook anything.

Strategy: Cold decays on its own once you are out of the cold, so you do not need to burn an item every time it ticks up. The cheapest cure is huddling: standing within about three meters of a teammate removes 1.5 Cold per second for free. Carry a Lantern for the gaps, remembering it goes out when you stow it.

The Hot Spring is here, home to three capybaras and a guaranteed Yellow Winterberry on one of their heads.

Mesa​

Added in patch 1.20.a on August 11, 2025. Arid desert that replaces the Alpine.

Terrain: Sandstone formations, arches and open plateaus, with more horizontal traversal than other biomes.

Hazards:

  • The Blazing Sun. Inflicts Heat 5 per second on anyone in direct line of sight. This is the biome's defining hazard, not a mild drain. Counter it with shade, a Parasol, Sunscreen or Aloe Vera.
  • Tornadoes. The Mesa's area hazard.
  • Antlions. Sand traps baited with fake Explorer's Luggage. Approaching within about 19 meters triggers the attack.
  • Cacti. Inflict Thorns and stick you in place. Five stuck to you at once earns the Needlepoint badge, and will also knock you out.
  • Scorpions, Dynamite and Tumbleweeds round out the list.

Landmarks: The Oasis is a cold water pool with two capybaras that removes Heat. The Mesa also produces mirages, of luggage and even of whole oases, which are unique to this biome. And the Tomb is a secret location whose entrance is open on roughly half of Mesa maps, containing a torch-lit hall, a blocked maze, a Challenge Chamber, and the Ancient Idol.

Caldera​

The volcanic zone.

Terrain: Dark volcanic rock, obsidian and lava flows.

Hazards:

  • Lava. It inflicts Injury on contact without killing you outright, and it rises and falls periodically, uncovering hot ground as it recedes. Crossing burning ground deliberately is a real tactic, not a mistake.
  • Hot Rocks. Glowing surfaces that inflict significant Heat.
  • Eruptions. Rocks glow, then burst into a vertical inferno inflicting Heat. This is the hazard to watch for, and the one that catches people who are scanning for lava instead.

Strategy: Route planning matters most here. Scan with binoculars, identify the cool rock, and plan a path that connects it. Carry something for Heat.

info

There are no thermal updrafts in PEAK, and no steam vents in the Caldera. If you have read advice about riding rising hot air for free height, it describes a mechanic the game does not have. Geysers are an Alpine feature.

The Kiln​

Inside the volcano. Tight walls, long climbs, and a clock.

Terrain: Narrow volcanic shafts and vertical chimneys. Rest spots are harder to see and not absent: most embedded rocks are climbable and standable, they just do not read as ledges from below.

Hazards:

  • Rising lava. This is on a timer, not a trigger. It begins three minutes after you light the Caldera campfire and takes about twenty minutes to reach the top, whether you climb or not. Standing in it costs roughly 25 Injury and 30 Heat per second. It applies on every difficulty except Tenderfoot.
  • Lava Rivers. A separate hazard from the rising pool.
  • Hot Rocks. The ambient heat here is significant, not mild.

Strategy: Twenty minutes is generous if you keep moving and brutal if you sightsee. Eat before you enter so your bar is full, and do not stop to reorganize your pack. Look harder for standable rock than you would elsewhere, because it is there.

warning

The Kiln has no campfire and no Ancient Statue at its end, and it is the only campfire in the game with no guaranteed Backpack at the start. Anyone dead when you enter stays dead for the rest of the run, so revive before you commit.

GLOOM and THE CITADEL​

Two variant biomes added by the Final Biome Update on August 11, 2026. They cycle out with the Caldera and The Kiln, so a run that draws one climbs it in place of the biome it stands in for.

The announcement that named them gave the names and the cycling relationship and no more. Patch 2.01.a on August 13, 2026 added the first concrete detail about either biome, and it is thin.

GLOOM​

GLOOM holds a Big Ghost, and a set of stairs leading up to the Citadel.

Patch 2.01.a capped how far forward the Big Ghost can spawn, to stop it appearing inside those stairs and ambushing you from below. Nothing else about GLOOM's terrain or hazards appears in a first-party source.

THE CITADEL​

THE CITADEL had its level generation improved in patch 2.01.a to prevent floating obstacles. No first-party source describes its terrain, its hazards, its campfire or Ancient Statue placement, its loot, or whether it runs a timer the way The Kiln does.

Treat the Caldera and Kiln sections above as describing those two biomes only, and go into a variant run reading the terrain instead of a route you already know.

Campfires​

Campfires sit at the top of every biome except the Kiln and the Peak. They gate progression, and lighting one dissipates the fog wall.

They arrive unlit. Every player must be within about 25 meters before one can be lit, and that makes campfires a natural regroup point instead of a place you pass through.

A lit campfire grants a Morale Boost with two or more scouts nearby (+25 bonus stamina and 20 healing each), halts hunger and the fog entirely while it burns, and autosaves your expedition.

warning

Patch 1.20.a quietly moved the Caldera campfire forward, into the volcano just before the Kiln. The change was logged as undocumented. The Ancient Statue and the luggage stayed behind at the top of the Caldera temple, and a bridge and tunnel now separate them from the fire. Revive and loot at the temple before you walk through.

Biome Difficulty Summary​

BiomeDifficultyPrimary ChallengeRecommended Items
ShoreEasyLearning the controlsBackpack, food
TropicsModerateRain and slick surfacesPitons, Antidote, food
RootsHardWind, spores and spidersAntidote, Cure-All, food
AlpineHardCold from blizzards and iceA heat source, food, pitons
MesaModerate-HardThe Blazing SunSunscreen or Parasol, Aloe Vera, food
CalderaHardHeat and eruptionsBandages, Cure-All, food
The KilnVery HardA twenty-minute lava timerFood, pitons

GLOOM and THE CITADEL are still missing from that table. Patch 2.01.a named the Big Ghost as a GLOOM hazard, and no source gives a difficulty rating or a recommended item list for either biome.

Frequently Asked Questions​

How many biomes are in PEAK?

Ten exist, but a single run uses six: Shore, then Tropics or Roots, then Alpine or Mesa, then two volcanic slots, then the Peak. Roots and Mesa are alternates that replace Tropics and Alpine, and the Final Biome Update added GLOOM and THE CITADEL on August 11, 2026, which cycle out with CALDERA and THE KILN. Five of the six are climbing biomes.

What are GLOOM and THE CITADEL in PEAK?

Two variant biomes added by the Final Biome Update on August 11, 2026. They cycle out with CALDERA and THE KILN, so a run draws one of them in place of the biome it stands in for and still contains six biomes. The announcement gave their names and that cycling relationship and nothing else. Patch 2.01.a later named a Big Ghost in GLOOM and a set of stairs there leading up to the Citadel, and improved level generation in THE CITADEL to prevent floating obstacles.

Does the PEAK map really regenerate every day?

The map you get changes daily at 17:00 UTC, but it is not generated on your machine. The developers pre-bake maps and ship them in the build, and the rotation picks from that pool, which patch 1.65.a raised from 21 to 42. That is why community daily-location trackers can exist at all.

Which biomes do Roots and Mesa replace?

Roots replaces the Tropics and Mesa replaces the Alpine. Alpine and Mesa alternate every other day deterministically, while Tropics and Roots rotate randomly by map seed.

How does the rising lava in The Kiln work?

It is on a timer, not a trigger. It starts three minutes after you light the Caldera campfire and takes about twenty minutes to reach the top whether you climb or not. Standing in it costs roughly 25 Injury and 30 Heat per second, and it applies on every difficulty except Tenderfoot.

How do you deal with Cold in the Alpine?

Cold decays on its own once you are out of the cold, so you do not need an item every time it ticks up. The cheapest cure is huddling within about three meters of a teammate, which removes 1.5 Cold per second for free. Shelter in darker ground during blizzards, which last only a few seconds.