Co-op and Ascent Guide
PEAK lets up to four players climb the same daily map together using spatial proximity chat, the Helping Hand pull, boosts, and shared items. Dead players become ghosts, and a living player has to use an Ancient Statue to bring them back, since reaching a campfire alone does nothing and each statue only works once. Difficulty is chosen at the Gate Kiosk, where Tenderfoot and Peak are available from the start and clearing Peak opens the seven Ascents above it.
PEAK is playable solo, but it was built for co-op. The climbing system, item sharing, and revival mechanics all reward teamwork. Beyond the base game, the Ascent ladder strips away safety nets, adds hazards, and tests whether your team can climb under real pressure.
Co-op Fundamentals
Up to four players can join a session. Everyone starts on the Shore together and climbs the same mountain on the same daily map.
Proximity Chat
Voice chat in PEAK is spatial. The closer a player is, the louder and clearer their voice. As players spread out, voices fade to nothing.
How to use it:
- Stay within earshot. On complex sections, climb close enough to hear each other. Calling out hazards, rest spots, and route options is the difference between coordinated climbing and chaos.
- Shout for help. If you fall behind, yell. Teammates above you might not notice you are struggling unless you call out. The audio fades at distance but carries far enough for emergencies.
- Coordinate tool use. "I'm placing rope on the right wall." "Bugle in three seconds." Quick callouts prevent wasted items and let the team capitalize on buffs.
Teammate Interaction
You can physically interact with other players:
- Helping Hand. With empty hands, press right click to extend a hand toward a teammate. Once they are close enough it pulls them to you. Two limits worth knowing: it only works while they are climbing and you are above them, and it drags you slightly toward them as well. It also frees teammates stuck on cacti or caught in spider webs. A fully unconscious scout cannot be hand-pulled, only carried.
- Boost a teammate. Crouch, let your friend stand on top of you, then jump. The boosted player gains height without spending any stamina, so this is the cheapest vertical movement in the game for them. Only the boosting player pays. They can then extend a Helping Hand to pull you up after.
- Share items. Drop items on the ground near a teammate. They can pick them up. Split food, tools, and healing items based on who needs them most for the next section.
- Block paths. Scouts are physically simulated and have collision. On narrow ledges, one person can accidentally block another. It also means you can deliberately stack scouts into a tower.
Assign roles before the climb starts. One player carries healing items. One carries rope and pitons. One carries the Bugle. One carries food for the group. A team that divides resources outperforms four players who each carry one of everything.
Death and Revival
When a player dies, they become a ghost. Ghosts are spectators locked to a living scout, not free-flying cameras. You orbit whoever you are watching with the mouse, zoom with the scroll wheel, and switch scouts with A and D. You cannot roam the terrain independently, so a ghost is not a scout.
Revival rules:
- Ghosts are not revived at campfires. A living player must use an Ancient Statue to bring them back. Reaching a campfire alone does nothing.
- Each Ancient Statue works exactly once. Its head crumbles afterward. There is no second attempt at that statue, so do not burn one casually.
- Revived scouts come back with Hunger at 30 and +5 Curse, so plan to feed them immediately.
- If everyone is alive when you use a statue, it gives a random Mystical Item instead of a revival.
- The Kiln is the only biome with neither a campfire nor a statue at its end. Whoever is dead when you enter the Kiln stays dead.
- Ghosts keep their voice, and living scouts can see and hear them. Use them as spotters. Note that unconscious players, who are down but not yet dead, cannot be heard at all.
If your whole team dies, the run is over. There is no team-wide respawn at the last campfire. The end-of-run Scouting Report marks it with the red ribbon "YOUR BODY WAS NEVER FOUND". Keeping at least one scout alive is the single most important thing a team does.
Revival Items
Three Mystical Items interact with death, and two of them do not do what their reputation suggests.
| Item | What It Actually Does |
|---|---|
| Scout Effigy | Resurrects one random dead or unconscious player at the spot where you place it. Harmless to you, and the only revival that still works on Ascent 7. It cannot spawn in solo play, and it is wasted if you place it with no ghosts around. |
| The Book of Bones | Revives the target, not you, and brings them back as a living skeleton with +5 Curse. Skeletons shrug off most status effects but take roughly 8x injury from most sources and die outright instead of passing out. Since patch 2.01.a, spiders, flytraps and arrow traps do affect Skeleton Scouts, with arrow traps called out by the developers as the ones to be careful around. Used on yourself, you become the skeleton. |
| Cursed Skull | Revives nobody. It kills you instantly and grants every other player in a wide radius +50 bonus stamina while clearing their afflictions except Curse. It is a sacrifice buff, not a resurrection. Ancient Luggage only, and it cannot spawn in solo play. |
The Ancient Statue and the campfire are not always in the same place. The Mesa update (patch 1.20.a) quietly moved the Caldera campfire forward into the volcano just before the Kiln, while the Ancient Statue and the cluster of Luggage stayed behind at the top of the Caldera temple, separated by a bridge and a tunnel. Revive and loot before you walk to the fire.
That split applies to the Caldera itself. Since August 11, 2026 the Caldera cycles out with a variant biome, so check where the statue sits before you count on it.
Team Roles
Four-player teams work best with assigned roles:
| Role | Responsibility | Key Items |
|---|---|---|
| Pathfinder | Climbs first. Scouts the route. Calls out hazards. | Binoculars, Compass, Rope |
| Support | Carries healing items. Patches up teammates after falls or hazard damage. | Bandages, First Aid Kit, Cure-All |
| Anchor | Places pitons and ropes. Creates safe recovery points for the group. | Pitons (many), Rope Spool, Rope Cannon, Chain Launcher |
| Quartermaster | Manages food supply. Cooks at campfires. Distributes food before difficult sections. | Food items, access to campfire |
These roles are flexible. On two-player teams, one person is Pathfinder/Anchor and the other is Support/Quartermaster. Solo players do everything.
Ascent Difficulty Tiers
Difficulty is chosen at the Gate Kiosk in the Airport before you launch an expedition. Two options are available from the very start, Tenderfoot and Peak. Clearing an expedition on Peak unlocks Ascent 1, and each clear opens the next rung up to Ascent 7, which has been the ceiling since patch 1.25.a.
How Ascents Work
- Modifiers compound from Ascent 2 upward. Every tier from 2 onward reads "and all previous modifiers", so Ascent 6 is running five stacked penalties at once.
- Completing a tier unlocks the next. But you can skip ahead by joining someone else's run: only one player in the lobby needs the Ascent unlocked, and everyone in a successful group banks every sash up to that tier regardless of their own history. A new player who joins an Ascent 5 run and escapes with the group unlocks Ascents 1 through 6.
- Each completed tier awards a sash, which is a Passport cosmetic you can equip and re-equip at will. The game also tracks a Scout Rank alongside it.
- Progress is permanent. Any unlocked Ascent can be re-selected at the Gate Kiosk at any time.
Ascent Tier Breakdown
The animal names are sash names, not tier titles. The tiers themselves are just called Peak and Ascent 1 through 7.
| Tier | Modifier | Sash Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Tenderfoot | 30% lower stamina consumption, 30% slower hunger growth, no fog time limit, and no zombies. | None. Tenderfoot grants no sash and no rank. |
| Peak | The default. No modifiers. | Tadpole Scout Sash (green) |
| Ascent 1 | All fall damage is doubled. | Rabbit Scout Sash (mustard yellow) |
| Ascent 2 | Hunger grows 60% faster. | Raccoon Scout Sash (black) |
| Ascent 3 | Flat +2.5 weight on every item except the Backpack. | Mule Scout Sash (brown) |
| Ascent 4 | No Flares spawn atop the Peak. You must bring your own. | Kangaroo Scout Sash (red) |
| Ascent 5 | The night is Cold, around 100 Cold damage over a full night at 2.5 every five seconds. | Owl Scout Sash (purple) |
| Ascent 6 | Climbing costs 40% more stamina. | Wolf Scout Sash (gray) |
| Ascent 7 | Ancient Statues can no longer revive the dead. | Goat Scout Sash (gold), plus the Goat Horns hat |
Ascent 7 is not simply a recombination of the tiers below it. It adds the harshest single rule in the game: statues stop working, so a dead teammate stays dead unless you find a Scout Effigy, which still functions. Plan an Ascent 7 run around nobody dying instead of around recovering from deaths.
Ascent 5's cold night is often described as globally lethal. It is neither. It stops applying from the Caldera onward, and around 100 total Cold across a night is survivable, to the point that a common tactic is to deliberately pass out from cold overnight and warm up in the morning.
Ascent Tips by Tier
Ascent 1-2: Doubled fall damage rewards conservative climbing. The 60% faster hunger growth at Ascent 2 is the real wake-up call, since you burn through food dramatically faster. Carry extra and cook everything.
Ascent 3: The +2.5 weight on every item forces hard decisions about what to carry. Split resources across the team and drop anything non-essential. Note the Backpack is exempt.
Ascent 4: No Flares spawn at the Peak, so your team must hoard illumination from earlier biomes. Arriving at the top without a Flare can end the run outright.
Ascent 5-6: Cold nights are survivable if you plan around them, and they stop mattering once you reach the Caldera. Ascent 6's 40% climbing stamina penalty is the harder of the two and the point where practiced routes start to matter more than reflexes.
Ascent 7: Statues stop reviving. Bring a Scout Effigy if you find one, since it is the only revival that still works, and otherwise treat every death as permanent.
Practice specific biomes on lower Ascent tiers before attempting them higher up. And if a friend is further up the ladder than you, join their run. Everyone who escapes banks every sash up to that tier, so you do not have to grind the rungs in order.
Sash Progression and Cosmetics
Sashes are Passport cosmetics. You can equip any sash you have unlocked at any time.
Be aware that Ascents give you almost nothing but the sash. The only cosmetic item in the game awarded by an Ascent is the Goat Horns hat from Ascent 7. Every other hat, accessory and outfit in the Passport comes from a badge, not from a difficulty tier. If you have seen a list promising a Raccoon tail at Ascent 2 or an Owl feather headband at Ascent 5, those items do not exist.
Two that come close and cause the confusion: the Bandana is the High Altitude badge reward, and Wolf Ears come from the Lone Wolf badge. Neither is tied to an Ascent.
Cosmetics are visual only. No sash or outfit provides gameplay advantages. The sash is purely a display of accomplishment.
Custom Runs and Mini Runs
The Play It Your Way update added a second mode that sits alongside the Ascent ladder instead of replacing it. You reach it from the same kiosk in the Airport.
Custom Runs let you build your own difficulty. Several of the settings are simply the Ascent modifiers broken out individually, so you can dial in hunger rate, fall damage, other damage, cold at night, item weight, whether Flares spawn at the Peak, and climbing stamina cost. On top of that you can switch off individual hazards and remove items from the luggage spawn pool. Two novelty modes ship with it: Grapple Mode, which gives you an infinite golden Rescue Claw at quadruple stamina cost, and Kick Mode, which replaces the Helping Hand with a kick.
Patch 2.01.a fixed the Glider. It had been ignoring the custom run and ascent level stamina usage modifiers, and it now respects them, so a Custom Run that raises climbing stamina cost applies to the Glider as well.
Mini Runs are an expedition type inside the same menu. You pick one of today's biomes and win by clearing just that one, which makes them the right choice when you do not have a couple of hours free.
Campfire autosaves let you leave an expedition and pick it up later from your most recent campfire. The save lasts until you win, lose, or start a new expedition, and it is erased if a patch removes the map you were on.
Badges and sashes are both disabled during Custom Runs. Nothing you do in a Custom Run counts toward the 54 badges or toward Ascent progress, so use it for practice and for fun, not for completion. Mini Runs sit inside the same menu and carry the same restriction.
Co-op Etiquette
A few unwritten rules that make public lobbies better:
- Wait at campfires. Waiting is free now. Since the Play It Your Way update, a lit campfire stops hunger growth and halts the fog entirely, and it will not go out until a scout leaves. There is no longer any cost to regrouping properly, so do not rush past a fire while teammates are still below it.
- Do not waste statues. Each Ancient Statue works once. Agree as a group before someone uses one, because a premature revive means the next death sticks.
- Share food. If you are full and a teammate is starving, drop food for them. Their survival is your survival.
- Communicate falls. If you fall, say so. Teammates who are counting on you for a rope placement or boost need to know you are gone.
- Do not grief. Blocking narrow paths, stealing items, or intentionally triggering hazards near teammates ruins the run for everyone. The community self-polices this aggressively.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many players can play PEAK together?
Up to four players can join a session. Everyone starts on the Shore together and climbs the same mountain on the same daily map.
How do you revive dead teammates in PEAK?
A living player must use an Ancient Statue. Reaching a campfire is not enough, and each statue only works once before its head crumbles. Revived scouts return with Hunger at 30 and 5 Curse. The Kiln has neither a campfire nor a statue at its end, so anyone dead going into it stays dead.
What happens if the whole team dies in PEAK?
The run ends. There is no team-wide respawn at the last campfire, and the Scouting Report marks it with the red ribbon reading YOUR BODY WAS NEVER FOUND. Keeping one scout alive matters more than anything else a team does.
What is the hardest Ascent tier in PEAK?
Ascent 7. On top of every modifier below it, Ancient Statues stop reviving the dead entirely, which makes it the only tier where a death is effectively permanent unless you are carrying a Scout Effigy. It awards the Goat Scout sash and the Goat Horns hat.
Does Tenderfoot mode make PEAK easier?
Yes. Tenderfoot cuts stamina consumption and hunger growth by 30 percent each, removes the fog time limit, and removes zombies entirely. The trade-off is that it awards no sash and no rank, and the Undead Encounter badge cannot be earned on it because zombies never spawn.
Do PEAK sashes give any gameplay advantage?
No. Cosmetics are visual only. Note also that Ascents award only the sash, apart from the Goat Horns hat at Ascent 7. Every other hat and outfit in the Passport comes from a badge.
What to Read Next
- Climbing and Survival Mechanics. Shared stamina and item management.
- Biome Walkthrough. Route planning for a full team.
- 100% Badge Guide. Co-op badges and Ascent tier unlocks.
- Tips and Tricks. Hand pull limits, skeleton revives, and the statue that moved.