Getting Started with PEAK
PEAK is a cooperative climbing game where you play a nature scout stranded on an island and climb the mountain to reach the summit and get rescued. Stamina and hunger drive everything, because hunger shrinks your maximum stamina bar and an empty bar makes your grip fail. The map rotates every 24 hours, so routes, item placements, and hazard locations differ on every run.
PEAK is a cooperative climbing game by Aggro Crab and Landfall Games. You play as a nature scout stranded on a mysterious island after a plane crash. The goal is simple: climb the mountain and reach the top to get rescued. The execution is anything but simple. Every handhold drains stamina, every fall can kill you, and the mountain changes its layout every 24 hours.
The game released on June 16, 2025, on Steam for Windows. It supports solo play and online co-op for up to four players. A first successful summit run takes between 45 minutes and two hours depending on the daily map and how many times you fall. The badge hunt and Ascent difficulty tiers push that to dozens of hours.
PEAK uses daily rotating maps. The mountain layout you play today will be completely different tomorrow. Routes, item placements, and hazard locations all shift with each rotation. If a run feels impossible, try again the next day for a fresh layout.
How the Game Works
You start on the Shore at the base of the island. The mountain is divided into biomes stacked vertically, each separated by a campfire checkpoint. Your job is to climb through them all and reach the summit. Ten biomes exist in total, but only six appear in any given run, since Roots and Mesa rotate in as replacements for Tropics and Alpine, and the variants GLOOM and THE CITADEL cycle out with the Caldera and the Kiln.
Here is the basic flow:
- You wash up on the beach after the plane crash. Grab supplies from the wreckage and nearby luggage.
- Start climbing. Hold the grab button to grip surfaces. Your stamina bar drains while you hang.
- Find flat ledges and rest spots to recover stamina. Eat food to restore hunger (hunger shrinks your max stamina).
- Reach a campfire to checkpoint your progress and cook food.
- Repeat through each biome until you reach the Peak.
There is no combat system. The enemies are gravity, hunger, environmental hazards, and your own stamina bar. Death sends you back to the last campfire. If you are playing co-op, teammates can revive you.
Controls and Climbing
The climbing system is physics-based. Your scout grabs any climbable surface when you hold the grab button (left click by default on mouse). Movement while grabbing drains stamina continuously.
The rules:
- Hold to grab. Release the button and you let go. Let go on a cliff face and you fall.
- Stamina is everything. Climbing, jumping, sprinting, and grabbing all drain stamina. When the bar empties, your grip fails.
- Jumping costs stamina. You can leap upward or sideways from a wall by pressing jump while grabbing. The leap covers good distance but eats a chunk of your stamina bar.
- Resting recovers stamina. Get onto solid ground and your stamina refills at a flat 20 per second, starting about a second after you stop spending it. You do not have to stand still, since it recovers while walking too, and it also recovers while you hang on a piton. There is no color-coded indicator for safe ledges, so read the ground by its material.
- No fall damage limit in most zones. You can survive long falls onto solid ground, but falling into water, lava, or off the map kills you.
Before you start climbing a wall section, scan the path upward. Look for flat rest spots where you can stand and recover. Planning your route before you grab the first handhold is the difference between reaching the next campfire and falling back to the last one.
Stamina and Hunger
Stamina and hunger are connected. Your hunger meter slowly fills over time. As hunger increases, your maximum stamina shrinks. Full hunger means a tiny stamina bar, which means you cannot climb more than a few meters before your grip fails.
How to manage it:
- Eat food regularly. Coconuts, berries, mushrooms, honeycomb, and packaged snacks all reduce hunger. Find them in luggage, on the ground, and hanging from trees. There is no fishing in PEAK.
- Cook food at campfires. Cooking doubles a food's hunger reduction and multiplies its bonus stamina by 1.5, with a guaranteed minimum of +10 even if the raw item gave none. A second cook produces a Well-Done result identical to the first, so it costs you nothing. A third makes it Burnt, which only loses 5 hunger value. The fourth cook incinerates it, inflicting 10 Poison per incineration up to 90. Cook everything, and stop before the fourth.
- Some berries are poisonous raw, and cooking fixes that. Since the November 2025 cooking overhaul, cooked poisonous berries are safe to eat. If you are unsure about a berry, cook it. Mushrooms are the opposite case: you cannot cook the poison out of a mushroom, so a toxic mushroom stays toxic no matter how you prepare it.
Hunger is a slow killer. It does not damage you directly, but a shrunk stamina bar makes even short climbs fatal. Eat before you are hungry, not after.
Campfires and Checkpoints
Campfires sit at the boundary between each biome. They serve three purposes:
- Checkpoint. In co-op, dead players become ghosts. A living player must use an Ancient Statue to bring them back, and each statue only works once before its head crumbles. Reaching the campfire alone does nothing.
- Cooking station. Hold a food item and interact with the campfire to cook it. One or two cooks are safe. A third cook incinerates the food and makes it toxic.
- Regrouping point. In co-op, campfires are where you wait for teammates, share items, and plan the next section.
You cannot select which campfire to start from. Every run begins at the Shore.
Since the Play It Your Way update, campfires also autosave your expedition, so you can quit and pick the run back up from your most recent fire. The save lasts until you win, lose, or start a new expedition, and it is erased if a patch removes the map you were playing. Lit campfires also stop hunger growth and halt the fog while they burn, and they will not go out until a scout leaves, so regrouping at a fire costs you nothing.
Co-op Play
PEAK supports up to four players online. Co-op changes the game significantly:
- Proximity chat. Voice chat fades based on distance. Stay close to communicate, or shout from across a cliff to coordinate routes.
- Grab teammates. You can grab another player and pull them up. If a teammate is dangling and out of stamina, grab their hand and haul them to safety.
- Share items. Drop food, tools, and gear for teammates. Inventory is limited, so splitting resources matters.
- Revive at Ancient Statues. Dead players become ghosts who spectate a living scout and never roam freely. A living player must use an Ancient Statue to bring them back, and each statue is single use. If your whole team dies, the run is over.
- Speed varies. Faster climbers can scout ahead and drop ropes for slower players. The team moves at the speed of its slowest member unless someone falls behind a checkpoint.
You can play PEAK solo. The game does not require co-op. Solo runs are harder because you have no one to save you from a bad fall, but every biome and badge is fully completable alone.
Tools and Items
Your inventory is small. You carry a limited number of items, so choosing what to bring matters.
| Item | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Backpack | Occupies a dedicated fourth slot and adds four more. One spawns at the crash site and at every campfire except the Kiln. Weighs nothing. Take it every time. |
| Rope Spool | Anchors a rope others can climb using less stamina than a bare wall. Holds 12.5m. |
| Piton | A handhold you hang from to recover stamina mid-climb. One scout per piton. |
| Chain Launcher | Deploys a chain up to 80m, climbed like a vine. Lateral only, so it crosses gaps without gaining height. |
| Rescue Claw | A three-use grapple, 48m up or 64m down. Also drags unconscious teammates to you. |
| Magic Bean | Drop or throw it and a beanstalk grows about 12m after a short delay. You climb it at double speed for no extra stamina. |
| Bandages | Heal injuries. Use on yourself or teammates. |
| Cure-All | Clears status effects and heals 35 Injury. Three uses, so it is better than it looks. |
| Lantern | Light and warmth, 60 seconds of fuel. Note it goes out when you put it away, so it only burns while dropped. |
| Bugle of Friendship | Gives other players nearby short bursts of infinite stamina. Tap it instead of holding it. Co-op only. |
| Compass | Points toward the Peak, not the next campfire. |
| Binoculars | Scan the mountain from a distance. Free, no charges. |
On your first few runs, grab the Backpack before anything else, then prioritize rope spools and pitons. Remember that everything you carry adds Weight, which eats directly into your stamina bar, so a full pack is a real trade and not free preparation.
The Biomes
Ten biomes exist, and a run uses six of them in fixed slots. Roots and Mesa are alternates and not extra zones, so you climb five biomes and then finish at the Peak.
| Biome | Elevation | Key Hazard |
|---|---|---|
| Shore | Base | Calm. Jellyfish across the whole biome, Giant Urchins on the cliff, and breakable bridges with weight limits. |
| Tropics | Low-Mid | Rain makes surfaces slow and slick. Poison Ivy and Thorny Giant Ivy. |
| Roots | Low-Mid | Harsh wind, Spores, spiders that drop on you, and beetles that throw you. Replaces Tropics. |
| Alpine | Mid-High | Cold from short random blizzards and from ice rocks. Icicles and geysers. |
| Mesa | Mid-High | The Blazing Sun inflicts Heat on sight. Tornadoes, Antlions, cacti. Replaces Alpine. |
| Caldera | High | Hot rocks, eruptions, and lava that rises and falls. |
| The Kiln | Near summit | A twenty-minute lava timer that starts when you light the Caldera fire. |
| GLOOM | Not documented | The Big Ghost. Cycles out with the Caldera and the Kiln. |
| THE CITADEL | Not documented | Not documented. Cycles out with the Caldera and the Kiln. |
| The Peak | Summit | No hazards. Light a Flare to call the helicopter. |
The Mesa arrived in patch 1.20.a on August 11, 2025 and the Roots in patch 1.40.a on November 5, 2025. Each replaces a zone instead of adding one: Mesa stands in for the Alpine and Roots for the Tropics. Alpine and Mesa now alternate every other day, while Tropics and Roots rotate randomly by map seed.
The Final Biome Update followed on August 11, 2026 with GLOOM and THE CITADEL, two variant biomes that cycle out with the Caldera and The Kiln. The announcement gave their names and that relationship and nothing about what either biome contains. Patch 2.01.a then named a Big Ghost in GLOOM, and the rest of both rows stays blank until a first-party source fills it.
Your First Run
- Explore the Shore. Grab everything you can from the plane wreckage and nearby luggage. Food, tools, and gear are scattered around the starting beach. Take your time here.
- Read the guidebook. The in-game guidebook (accessible from the pause menu) explains mechanics specific to the current daily map. Read it.
- Climb conservatively. Do not sprint up walls. Climb in short bursts, rest on ledges, and keep your stamina above half before attempting long sections.
- Eat before you climb. Top off your hunger at every campfire. A full stamina bar is worth more than an extra item slot.
- Watch the environment. Rain, wind, and temperature changes telegraph themselves visually. If you see dark clouds rolling in while you are on a cliff face in the Tropics, find a ledge and wait it out.
- Die and learn. Your first run will probably not reach the summit. That is normal. Each attempt teaches you how the biomes work, where rest spots tend to spawn, and how to read the terrain.
The Kiln has rising lava. If you stop moving, it catches you. Keep climbing upward without long breaks. Running out of stamina in the Kiln usually means death with no recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a full PEAK run take?
A first successful summit run takes between 45 minutes and two hours depending on the daily map and how many times you fall. The badge hunt and Ascent difficulty tiers push that to dozens of hours.
Can you play PEAK solo?
Yes. The game supports solo play and online co-op for up to four players. Solo runs are harder because no one can save you from a bad fall, but every biome and badge is fully completable alone.
Why does the PEAK map change every day?
PEAK uses daily rotating maps. Routes, item placements, and hazard locations all shift with each 24 hour rotation. If a run feels impossible, try again the next day for a fresh layout.
How many times should you cook food in PEAK?
Cook everything at least once. The first cook doubles hunger reduction and boosts bonus stamina, and a second gives a Well-Done result identical to the first, so it is free. A third makes it Burnt and only costs 5 hunger value. The fourth incinerates it and inflicts 10 Poison per incineration, up to 90.
What items should new PEAK players carry first?
The Backpack above all, since it adds four slots and weighs nothing. After that, rope spools and pitons, which let you rest on otherwise bare cliff faces. Bear in mind that everything you carry adds Weight, and Weight subtracts directly from your stamina bar.
What to Read Next
These guides cover every system in depth:
- Climbing and Survival Mechanics. Stamina math, cooking rules, every tool and item, and advanced climbing techniques.
- Biome Walkthrough. Every biome with hazard breakdowns, route strategies, and how the daily rotation actually works.
- Co-op and Ascent Guide. Co-op strategies, Ascent difficulty tiers, and sash progression.
- 100% Badge Guide. All badges with unlock conditions, tips, and the recommended completion order.
- Lore and Secrets. Scoutmaster Myres, the journal scrolls, the Tomb, and the Airport easter eggs.
- Tips and Tricks. Short mechanics the guides cover in passing, from hunger to cooking.