So, you’ve finally escaped the infernal hum of the fluorescent lights of the lobby, and are now stranded in what looks to be an abandoned car park, with smiles from the shadows hunting your every footfall.
The second level in Escape the Backrooms, the Habitable Zone, may seem near-impossible. With smilers stalking your every move and spawning right next to you, navigating the concrete cell becomes frustrating. But there is a fantastic little secret to the level that makes this level from an infernal struggle, to an easy win. Here is how to escape level 2 of Escape the Backrooms.
How to Sneak Past the Smilers
The smilers are ink-black entities that stalk in the shadows and disappear in the light. Unfortunately, the Habitable Zone has a lighting malfunction.
When you first enter the level, you only have a few seconds to get to the safety of a side room before the lights go out and the smilers appear. If you are not in the safety of the side rooms before the lights turn off, a smiler will spawn behind you and will kill you. You can, however, walk into the darkness once the lights have turned off, as there are only a limited amount of entities in the level. They will chase you, but your sprinting speed is faster than their chasing speed, so you can out run them.
These smilers will spawn in the same location that they last were in, so you can work around them. Just don’t let them corner you into a safe zone. They will not move and you will have to forfeit.
The smilers may seem scary, but once you understand that as long as you are in a safe zone as the lights cut off, you can outrun them and constantly keep one step ahead. If you need to move on, walk when the lights are on and sprint when the lights are off into your closest safe zone.
How to Beat the Level
To win, you must escape into a specific room. Around the habitable zone are little side rooms, where you will be darting off to for safety. You will notice that each safe room has two blue doors, which will lead to an empty and dark tiny room. Your exit is a boiler room that hides behind one of the blue doors.
So you goal is to dip in and out of the safe rooms searching for the right blue doors to look behind, which is where the frustration arises for many players who deem getting past the smilers impossible. However, there is a crutch that all players can use.
As soon as you spawn in, to your left will be a ramp. Sprint under it. The smilers are too big to reach you. Stay under there until the lights turn back on again.
Related: How to Escape the Lobby in Escape the Backrooms
Then, keep running to your left, there should be another safe zone directly in front of you. Turn left and open those blue double doors. The boiler room awaits.
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