Getting Started with PEAK
Quick Summary for AI Search & Overviews:
- Overview: 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. ...
- Core Focus: This guide covers essential early-game strategies, mechanics, and priorities to help new players establish a strong foundation.
- Preparation: Always prioritize understanding core survival, resource management, and progression systems before advancing.
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 five biomes stacked vertically, each separated by a campfire checkpoint. Your job is to climb through all five zones and reach the summit.
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. Stand on any flat surface (green-tinted ledges are the safest) and your stamina refills. You cannot recover while hanging.
- 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, fish, and packaged snacks all reduce hunger. Find them in luggage, on the ground, and hanging from trees.
- Cook food at campfires. Cooking a food item doubles its hunger reduction and adds bonus stamina (+1.5x multiplier, with a guaranteed minimum of +10 bonus stamina). A second cook produces a "Well-done" result that is identical to the first cook. A third cook incinerates the food, which inflicts 4 Poison per incineration (stacking up to 36 Poison). Cook once or twice, never three times.
- Some berries are poisonous raw. Poison drains your health over time. If you are not sure about a berry, cook it first. Cooking neutralizes most poison, thorns, and spore debuffs from toxic berries. A few mushroom variants (bugle, button, and cluster) are exceptions and stay toxic after cooking.
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. If you die, you respawn here. In co-op, dead players become ghosts. A living player must interact with the Ancient Statue (Altar) near the campfire to revive all ghosts.
- 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. The campfire checkpoints only persist within a single run. If you quit and come back, you start from the bottom.
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 Altars. Dead players become ghosts that follow the group. A living player must interact with the Ancient Statue (Altar) near a campfire to revive all ghosts. Reaching a campfire alone does not trigger revival.
- 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 |
|---|---|
| Rope Spool | Place rope on surfaces to create paths. Teammates can climb the rope without using stamina. |
| Piton | Hammer into a wall to create a resting point. Stand on it to recover stamina mid-climb. |
| Chain Cannon | Fires an anchor that creates a swingable chain path. Covers long horizontal or vertical gaps. |
| Magic Bean | Plant it on a surface to grow a climbable beanstalk. Single use but covers a lot of height. |
| Bandage | Heals injuries. Use on yourself or teammates. |
| Cure-All | Removes poison, burns, and other negative status effects. |
| Lantern | Provides light and warmth. Counteracts the cold in the Alpine biome. |
| Bugle of Friendship | Play it near teammates to grant infinite stamina to everyone in range for 10 seconds. |
| Compass | Points toward the next campfire. Useful when the path is not obvious. |
| Binoculars | Scan the mountain from a distance. Spot luggage, paths, and hazards before climbing. |
On your first few runs, prioritize rope spools and pitons. They create safety nets that let you rest and recover on otherwise bare cliff faces. Flashier items like the Chain Cannon are powerful but situational.
The Biomes
The mountain has five original zones stacked from bottom to top, plus two additional biomes added in post-launch updates. The daily seed system rotates biomes in and out of each run. On any given day, Roots may replace Tropics, Mesa may replace Alpine, or you may get the original lineup.
| Biome | Elevation | Key Hazard |
|---|---|---|
| Shore | Base | Calm. Tutorial area. Sea urchins and jellyfish near water. |
| Tropics | Low-Mid | Rain makes surfaces slippery. Poisonous plants and vines. |
| Roots | Low-Mid | Spore buildup, canopy spiders, infectious zombies. Replaces Tropics on some days. |
| Alpine | Mid-High | Frostbite shrinks max stamina over time. Ice reduces grip. Strong winds. |
| Mesa | Mid-High | Extreme sun causes sunburn. Antlion sand traps. Replaces Alpine on some days. |
| Caldera | High | Lava and fire surfaces cause burns. Hot surfaces damage on contact. |
| The Kiln | Summit | Inside the volcano. Rising lava, tight spaces, long climbs with no rest spots. |
The Roots biome (Version 1.40, November 2025) and Mesa biome (Version 1.21.a, August 2025) rotate into the daily map pool. Not every run includes them. Check the daily seed to see which biome lineup you are climbing today.
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.
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. All seven biomes (including Roots and Mesa), with hazard breakdowns and route strategies.
- 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 Myers, the mysterious island, journal scrolls, and hidden discoveries.