Gameplay Mechanics

**Enter The Backrooms** has several gameplay mechanics reminiscent of other pre-existing games, such as Health, Stamina, Sanity, your Flashlight, and its Battery. It also has other, more unique mechanics, such as Stability, all of which can be affected as you wander throughout the backrooms. If you want to view all of these statistics in-game, you have to open the advanced HUD by pressing G.

## Gameplay Mechanics:

### Health

In the backrooms, Your **health** starts at 100. However, you can increase it by picking up Level 3's Artifacts. Coming into contact with any entities will reduce your health by a set amount, running out of sanity will damage you, and sometimes the levels themselves can reduce your health. (eg. Level 5 Event)

As your health lowers, your vision will get bloody and you will begin to hear your heartbeat. Upon reaching zero health you will be sent to the game over screen where you can either return to your previous checkpoint or return to the main menu. You can restore your health by using Almond Water, or by using a First Aid Kit.

### Stamina

Your **stamina** indicates how long you can sprint without tiring out, with the standard sprint lasting 5 seconds. You can, however, increase its duration with Level 0's Artifacts and restore rate with Level 7's Artifacts. Stamina is the only statistic shown in the default HUD of the game. Your stamina does not return while walking. Instead, you must either stand in place or consume Sugar to restore your stamina.

Normally walking is fast enough to outpace any entity, however sprinting is an easy way to lose sight of entities altogether and allow them to despawn, although you might accidentally run into one of the Boiled.

### Sanity

Your **sanity** is one of the concerning factors in the Backrooms where you’ve always needed to be attentive. Sanity lowers slowly over time and can change depending on the sanity drain of that level. Also, entities and level events can reduce the player's sanity. As your sanity gets lowered, your FOV begins to increase, and your screen turns red, along with the possibility of hallucinations occurring. If the player’s sanity reaches zero, you will start taking damage over time until you restore it.

The player's sanity is restored by simply meditating (holding down space), which forces you to sit still for a certain amount of time, or by using a book, one of the many items you can find within the backrooms, to refill it instantly.

### Flashlight

Upon using your flashlight in-game, you will see a battery icon appear that dictates how long your flashlight can continue to operate. With the default flashlight lasting around 1 minute and 20 seconds, you can increase its duration by picking up Level 1's Artifacts.

Using your flashlight not only allows you to see further, but also slows down the movement of Dullers while it is active, making it a useful survival tool, and a necessity on darker levels of the backrooms (eg. Level 6)

### Crouching + Hiding

The player will only crouch to dodge Death-moths through indoor levels. Although crouching is unnecessary, it will be necessary to trace notes, and some Levels will require you to crouch the whole time. (eg. Level 19)

Throughout the Backrooms, you might come across several tables, and crouching underneath them will identify you in a hiding state where any entities will be unable to harm the player and start to roam away from the player.

### Saving

Throughout the Backrooms, you might come across several chairs, and interacting with these chairs will save your progress. This is the only way to save progress except for using rifts, a Memory Jar, or entering a level. Please note that chairs seem to glitch and not save when entering a level from The Hub, as of version V.

Save files and screenshots are located at:

C:\Users\username\Save\Enter The Backrooms\

## Negative Levels Mechanic: (Spoiler)

**Spoiler warning - Click to reveal.**

**Click to close spoiler warning.**

### Stability

Stability is a hidden mechanic that only affects the player when they are in Negative levels of the backrooms. As you spend time within the Negative Levels of the backrooms, your stability will lower, only restoring once you reach a new Negative level. As your stability decreases, your vision gets impaired by glitch effects, and your HUD elements will shake.

Stability can also be triggered by accumulating many artifacts on a single floor since artifacts increase your maximum stability, not your current stability. Upon reaching zero stability, you will get sent back to Level 0.

As of version V, there are 2 new ways of depleting and increasing stability: by touching Corruptors or Menders, two new entities exclusive to the negative levels. Upon touching a Corruptor, you will lose 10 stability. Upon touching a Mender, you will gain back 10 stability. Note that on Level -10, there are only Corruptors present, and no Menders. Upon using the Mender Spawner in Level -10 using Sandbox Mode, it will spawn a Corruptor instead.