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Lore and Secrets

By ScotUpdated

Tactical Quick Answer

PEAK tells its story through eight Torn Pages from Scoutmaster Myres's diary, found in Scrolls at campfires. He and his troop were stranded when their ship crashed, and in the Alpine he ate a Napberry, fell asleep, and his scouts left him behind. He is not a distant narrator: he returns as a hostile skeletal enemy who hunts whoever climbs too far ahead of their team.

PEAK does not front-load its story. You crash-land, you climb, you escape. Underneath that is a short, bleak narrative about the scoutmaster who came before you, told through scattered diary pages, and it has a payoff most players meet the hard way.

Scoutmaster Myres​

Note the spelling. It is Myres, not Myers, confirmed by the developers in their own update posts and merchandise.

Myres spent more than forty years as a Scoutmaster. He wrote the Guidebook you find at the crash site, and his diary makes up the eight Torn Pages you collect during a run.

What actually happened to him:

  • Myres and his troop were stranded on the island when their ship crashed. This was not a training exercise.
  • They climbed together, and he kept writing as they went.
  • In the Alpine, he ate a Napberry, fell asleep, and his scouts left him behind.
  • He woke alone, lost his mind over having been abandoned, and is presumed to have died on the mountain.
  • Whether he ever climbed past the Alpine is left unclear.

He returns as the vengeful skeletal thing that now hunts the mountain.

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You absolutely do meet him. Scoutmaster Myres is a hostile enemy, not an offscreen narrator.

He spawns on a check every 30 seconds with roughly a 10% chance, and only when there are at least two active players, the highest is below 1320m, and that player is at least 160m above the second highest. He then chases the leader, grabs them for 25 Injury, and throws them for maximum fall damage. Your screen fills with static when you are his target.

Getting within 40m of him while you hold his attention earns the Mentorship Badge. If you would rather choose the moment, the Scoutmaster's Bugle summons him deliberately.

Finding the Scrolls​

Journal scrolls contain the Torn Pages. They spawn at campfires, and only at campfires. There is no need to search caves, overhangs or off-route rock faces, and there are none in the Kiln, which has no campfire at all.

Opening 8 Scrolls completes the diary and earns the Bookworm Badge. Progress is per player and carries across runs.

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Scroll behavior changed at some point after launch. Pages now arrive in chronological order regardless of where you find them, and a scroll has a chance to spawn every run instead of being fixed by the daily seed.

Looking up today's scroll locations is a holdover from the old daily-seed system and no longer works.

The eight Torn Pages are also separate from the eight-page Guidebook at the crash site, which is a different collectible.

The Island​

The mountain's behavior is odd, though less mystically than it first appears.

The map does change daily, but the developers pre-bake maps and ship them in the build, and the daily rotation picks one from a finite pool. That is why volunteers can document today's capybara and tomb locations at all.

Environmental detail worth noticing:

  • Rusty Pitons are embedded in Alpine cave walls, and old Pickaxes in Mesa cliffs. Both are usable, and both break after about six seconds, so they are a real if brief handhold and not pure decoration.
  • Campfires arrive unlit. Every player has to be within about 25 meters before one can be lit, and lighting it is what dispels the fog wall. Nobody is out here tending fires ahead of you.
  • The crash site does not vary between runs. It has a fixed spawn list including the Backpack, Lantern, Flare, Bugle, Compass, Guidebook, Binoculars, Flying Disc and Bing Bong.

Ancient Statues​

Stone statues stand near the campfires. Each is sculpted as a faceless Scout with its hands held out, all to the same design.

What they do:

  • A living player uses one to revive dead teammates. Reaching a campfire alone does nothing.
  • Each statue works once, then its head crumbles.
  • If every scout is alive when you use one, it gives a random Mystical Item instead. There are eight at roughly 12.3% each, including the Book of Bones, with the Scoutmaster's Bugle far rarer at about 0.8%.
  • On Ascent 7 they cannot revive at all.

Two unusual ones exist: a larger statue in the Tomb's Idol Room, and a partly buried, mossy one behind the Peak holding a Strange Gem.

The Tomb​

The Mesa hides a genuine secret location. Its entrance sits on the plateau and is open on roughly half of all Mesa maps.

Inside is a torch-lit hall lined with statues you cannot use, a blocked maze, a Challenge Chamber, and an Idol Room containing the Ancient Idol. The Idol weighs 40, the heaviest item in the game, but it grants invincibility while you are actively holding it. Carrying it to the Kiln and throwing it into the lava earns the 24 Karat Badge, and picking it up at all earns Esoterica.

Bing Bong​

The plush spawns at the crash site on the Shore, and also inside the Airport photobooth.

He is not the pure dead weight he is often described as. He weighs 5, which is a real cost, but carrying him off the island unlocks the Bing Bong Badge for your whole group. Since the DILLYDALLY update he also answers yes or no questions through a voice box.

Squeeze him with left click to play one of roughly 28 voice lines. He does not squeak when you jump.

Capybaras​

Capybaras appear in exactly two places: the Alpine's Hot Spring, which holds three, and the Mesa's Oasis, which holds two. The Oasis is a cold pool that removes Heat, not a hot spring.

Playing any bugle near one earns the Animal Serenading Badge. Just as usefully, a Yellow Winterberry always sits on one capybara's head, which is the only reliable way to get one for the Gourmand badge given its 0.5% spawn rate on Alpine trees.

Locations are randomised per map seed. In the Alpine, look for rising smoke. In the Mesa, be aware the Oasis can appear as a mirage.

Airport Easter Eggs​

The Airport rewards a close look more than the mountain does.

The Gate and Invite Kiosks display a flight number reading 1.8.13.6.1.14.13.6. Run those numbers through the RFC 4648 Base32 alphabet and they spell BINGBONG. It is static and never rotates, so you can check it yourself right now.

The boarding pass carries more. From: ACG, for Aggro Crab Games. To: LFG, for Landfall Games. The PDF417 barcode encodes peakpeakpeak.com. And the airline is, of course, BingBong Airlines.

Escaping the Island​

Reaching the Peak is not the end. Light a Flare at the summit and an orange rescue helicopter arrives and drops a rope. You get a 10 second countdown, extended to 30 if players are still missing, then a short cutscene of the living scouts boarding, the Scouting Report, credits, and back to the Airport.

If your whole team died, the Scouting Report says so with the red ribbon reading YOUR BODY WAS NEVER FOUND.

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A few widely repeated "secrets" are worth setting aside. There is no island silhouette visible in a summit camera pullback, and no cave wall drawings referencing Myres's expedition. The eerie voices some players describe in caves are PEAK's proximity chat working as designed, since it deliberately simulates echo and the Doppler effect. And for daily capybara, tomb and beehive locations, the community resource the wiki itself points to is Steam guide 3553972295.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Who is Scoutmaster Myres in PEAK?

A Scoutmaster of forty years who wrote the Guidebook and whose diary makes up the eight Torn Pages. He and his troop were stranded when their ship crashed, and in the Alpine he ate a Napberry, fell asleep, and his scouts abandoned him. He woke alone, lost his mind, and returned as the skeletal enemy that now hunts the mountain. Note the spelling is Myres, not Myers.

Can you actually meet the Scoutmaster?

Yes, and he is hostile. He spawns when one player climbs at least 160m above the rest of the team, then chases them, grabs for 25 Injury and throws them. Getting within 40m of him while you are his target earns the Mentorship Badge, and the Scoutmaster's Bugle summons him on demand.

Where do you find the journal scrolls in PEAK?

At campfires, and only at campfires. There are none in caves, on cliff faces or in the Kiln, which has no campfire. Opening eight scrolls completes the diary for the Bookworm Badge, and since a post-launch change the pages arrive in chronological order with a chance to spawn every run.

Does the Bing Bong toy do anything?

Yes. Carrying him off the island unlocks the Bing Bong Badge for the whole group, and since the DILLYDALLY update he answers yes or no questions. Squeeze him with left click for one of about 28 voice lines. He weighs 5, so the inventory cost is real.

Where do capybaras spawn in PEAK?

Only at the Alpine's Hot Spring, which has three, and the Mesa's Oasis, which has two. Play any bugle near one for the Animal Serenading Badge. A Yellow Winterberry always sits on one capybara's head, which is the reliable way to get one for Gourmand.