Call me Praetor. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class 1
- {$one}
- {$two}
- {$three}
A photo of level one, the photograph's fate is unknown but it is safe to assume he's dead, which has been proven by the careful study of the 465 hours of found footage found on his dead body.
Level One is the Second Level of the Backrooms, and the most dangerous known as of yet. This is because the Level has a non-linear architecture, so when you walk too much, you lose yourself in the infinite, unchanging liminal spaces.
There is also a special event where the lights of the level disappear, and when it happens, the level becomes completely dark. It is unknown why it happens. When the lights are gone, it is too dark to see, so be careful,and use a Flashlight which is a special object in the Backrooms like Crowbars and Electrical Outlets
Did I mention the level was dangerous? It's in fact the most dangerous of all of the Backrooms. It is this way because the Backrooms are a very dangerous place, and that everything peaceful cannot exist otherwise it explodes (the source is reddit user r/johnlimpurist). The danger of the Backrooms is being lost in familiarity, so if you think you've been here before, don't. Instead, try to find an exit as soon as possible.
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs—commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
A box found by the Lead Overseer Skroutche which is rumored to be the most powerful human in the Backrooms. More information can be found on his POI page that's going to be the start of a 20 pages series when I get to it just trust me bro I'll work on it don't worry.
You can find special boxes in Level One that contain a lot of items, but usually these items are not useful, but sometimes, the objects can help you. Like food or drink. It's important to eat food and drink water to survive, so try to keep some if you find some.
If you walk for long enough, you'll find a special place where the passages are tighter, and this means this place is safe. Here you can make camps and burn almond water to Create some royal rations which can feed you for a while.
I need to make enough space for the photo to not render out of the block so now I will talk about the paintings of the level. The paintings look like Frontrooms paintings, except they portray nonsensical liminal spaces as well as weird portraits, and the portraits follow you with their eyes, which wanderers express to be very unsettling and made them get a lot of sanity because that's a thing in the Backrooms, I think. The paintings, however, can disappear when not looked at, which wanderers describe as being extremely distressing. Also, this can happen to every object in Level One, so be careful.
The smiler, who did the griddy in such a manner that I found myself enthralled, crushed me under it's chunky badonkadonk. It left me with but a short message:
"Die."
There is a special entity in the level which looks like a smiler but isn't exactly a smiler. It's named "Bacteria"1, and is extremely fast and dangerous.
If you see it, you need to use a special kind of water named super almond water which can damage it but not kill it. So if you meet it, be careful. You can also talk to it but you need to be very careful because it is easily angered. It is rumored he is a part of the Parthénon because the owner of the canon told me he would give me candies if I wrote that down.
Other than this one of a kind and unique entity, there are also Hounds and Smilers, as well as Wretches and the rest of the old popular entities that are scary. Also the Game Master is here but the lore implications are too much to talk about here. Reyday will talk about it in SAD when that comes around probably.
Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see?—Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster—tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?
An undetermined Entity in Level 2.
- If you find a pink wall you can noclip through it to arrive at Level Heaven, which is the exit of the Backrooms.
- You can also find a poster which says TIME FOR THE FUN, which will teleport you to level fun unless you're named alba and in this case it just kills you it is believed but not confirmed
- walking for long enough leads you to Level 2, which is even more dangerous because it has more entities.
For more information, please consult Lead Overseer Skroutche, who created the Reasonnably Sized Explorer Group and will be able to respond to your questions. He also co-wrote this database entry since he knows a lot about the level, but right now his whereabouts are poorly understood due to how powerful he is.