First part of Level 289, representing the maze. (Credits to Pezo von Ellrichshausen.)
(WIP, I'll finish the level soon)
Level 289 is the 290th level of the Backrooms. This level is known for its distinguished nature, as most of the explorers who visit this level say that they had never seen something like that. Level 289 is divided in layers, with each layer varying on properties, survival difficulties, entities and looks. The entry to this level is only recommended in case you want to die fast or if you want to raise your levels of adrenaline, but not in a good way.
Contents
Description
Level 289 is a very big level compared to the others present. Instead of being just an infinite place like Level 0, or a very big and populated city, like Level 188, this level is subdivided in part, with a start and an end. It consists of a maze on the first part and a "find the exit" part with houses on the second part. After you pass these two parts, you'll go to the "real" part of the level. That last part is sub-divided in rooms, varying in every backrooms characteristic you've seen until now.
The house part of Level 289, unknown photographer.
The very first part of the level consists of a big outdoor maze. The floor is made out of concrete, covered by leaves from somewhere, and the walls are blue, with a poorly made linear pattern. There is no ceiling present, and the natural lighting present from the "Sun" will help you move through the labyrinth. The architecture of the maze is very different from regular ones, as the rooms are circular and intersected with each other, creating some rooms that are very narrow and other main ones that are very big, with little to no obstructions. The rooms seem to be in a form of an unique pattern of size, but it's still being studied.
When you enter the level, you will probably be in the smallest room present (at least from the ones we have documented so far). It's the most common room to no-clip in. There is no food or almond water whatsoever in this part, so very few people actually survive and pass to the rest of the level. Lighting is a very big issue to, as there is a day/night system exclusively there, and in the night, entities may appear. There are no colonies or outposts there either.
If you're lucky enough to pass that horrendous maze, you'll see yourself in a scenario full of padronized houses, similar to the ones encountered in the USA. Outside the houses, you can see a very plain grass field, that apparently extends infinitely. The ones who saw it said that it is a very boring sight. There are some easter eggs that you can find in this part, like a giant Aztec monument (destroyed, but it's still a beautiful place) approximately 404 kilometers away from the start.
Most of the houses have pratically the same structure: living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen, nothing special, kinda like a The Sims 2 community lot-style. You can rarely find 500 milliliter bottles of almond water and cans of food on the kitchen area, but check them to see if they're still edible. If not, you may suffer food intoxication, and without proper treatment, you will die. This part also separates the tough ones from the weak ones, with many giving up exploring this level, with their mental sanity affected.
The maroon house basement to go to The Abyssimus Rooms. Unknown photographer. The ladder leads to nowhere.
The houses are divided in streets and avenues. It's hard to tell where is each street, but everything is oriented by how far from the house that you came in is. However, they aren't made of concrete. As people continued to walk between the houses, the grass started to erode and form natural paths. For example: the exit is located in the 20 Avenue.
The characteristic that makes this part so difficult is that this part only has one known exit in the whole 1651123340 square decameters present there. One of the multiple maroon-colored houses has a hidden basement. To get there, you need to move one of the disguised bookshelves with a room behind.
Once you get there, find the patch on the floor that's slightly lighter than the rest – you won't find it already open, because the house has regenerating properties –. When you cut it open, you'll see a narrow hole with stairs on the side. One thing that you need to be aware of is that it becomes very dark once you go down the stairs, so bring lanterns or flashlights.
Be really careful with the ambient down there too, as it's very dirty and you might contract diseases. The basement is relatively small compared to the structure of the house above, but there isn't much to do, as your only exit is a small hole. You'll probably take some time trying to fit in it, but once you pass, you'll go to the real part, of the level, The Abyssimus Rooms.
The hallways present in the "final" part of Level 289. Unknown photographer. (Credits to u/ChiefJ98)
The Abyssimus Rooms
The Abyssimus Rooms – abyssimus is the superlative of abyssus, nowadays known as abysm – is Level 289 per se, the other parts were just to separate the weak ones from the strong ones.
When you first enter these rooms by the hole in the basement (there is no other way to go in, by the way), you'll see a collection of hallways. It may look like some other levels that people have already explored, but this isn't even 10% of the level. The hallways are very plain, with an autumn-themed carpet with a dark blue and indigo background in all of it, yellow wallpaper, similar to the one found on Level 0, modern wall lights and a beige ceiling. The main hallway and the smaller ones are like this.
The only way you'll find almond water and food on this part is by trying to find rests of bottles and cans that other people threw away. Either you advance to the other rooms to survive, or you'll keep depending on scraps. The Wi-Fi signal there is non-existent too, so you won't make contact with your friends, even if you have mobile data.
The structure of this level is mainly one big hallway with smaller ones on the side. The whole main hallway measures around 65 meters from the start to the end. The smaller ones measure around 10-15 meters. But now you may ask: Why is this level so special if the main part is so small? Don't panic, little one. We're still going to talk about it.
Non-Euclidean Geometry
The "anomaly" of this level revolves around non-euclidean geometry. The whole concept of non-euclidean geometry bases on an axiomatic system, modifying the parallel postulate or relaxing the metric requirement, getting either elliptic or hiperbolic geometries. Saying in more common terms, the whole concept of space and dimension is distorted, so the area/volume of a certain room may be bigger or smaller than it seems. This video is a good representation of this phenomenon.
Explaining a bit more, if you go to apparently a very big tunnel and you apparently travelled one tenth of the supposed length, this is non-euclidean geometry being applied. Contextualizing this concept to Level 289, although the hallways and the rooms that you enter may appear very small, they're actually a lot bigger in the inside, fooling the majority of the wanderers who came to this level.
Returning to the rooms now, they are divided in 5 types:
- Per Impossibile: Rooms that may seem impossible to those who visit, defying the laws of physics and even common sense.
- Infinitum: Rooms that go forever. You may have the illusion of progress, but you'll never reach the true end (liminal spaces wiki-worthy).
- Natura: Rooms that simulate the nature or the normal world, generally populated.
- Periculum: Dangerous rooms, generally inhabited with entities. Anomalies may or may not be present there.
- Inaccessibilis: Rooms that are still not accessible, maybe due to the entities, or just because the room door is locked.
Below, we'll describe all the rooms present in Level 289.
Fractal Room
Survival Difficulty
Class 0 | Katoikísimos | Type Infinitum
"Katoikísimos class are levels that are completely devoid of entities, has abundance in resources and pose no danger or hazardous properties." [Safe, Secure, Devoid of Entities]
The Fractal Room is based, obviously, off of fractals. But first, what are fractals?
Fractals
Fractals are a type of geometrical figure that keeps repeating its parts, going on practically infinitely. You can find one example here. This phenomenon can also be found in plants, like flowers and broccolis, although they are more like a Fibonacci sequence than fractals, but we won't talk about that today.
Contextualizing this to the level, as you might've already deducted, The Fractal Rooms goes forever and forever, with the same composition as the Abyssimus Rooms. Floor, walls, lights, ceiling, you name it. The rooms repeats itself almost perfectly, and we mean it when we say almost.
Some anomalies can be seen in some sub-rooms there. The most respected theory about why that happens is: When it all started, the room multiplicated easily, but as it was going, the power of "propagation" decreased, so the level of fidelity to the Abyssimus Rooms also fell.
Some of the different sub-rooms present are:
Red Fractal Room
Nothing very special about this one, it's simply a section of the Fractal Room that all structures are deep-red colored. The only entity present there is the adult Faceling, but they aren't very powerful. It resides around the Sub-Room 22 (Yes, sub-rooms are leveled here too).
Destroyed Fractal Room
One part of the Fractal Rooms seem very destroyed. The walls are semi-demolished, the carpet is very dirty and ripped off in some places, and the lights are destroyed too. It is unknown if it was caused by humans, entities or other natural causes.
Room 404 Not Found
Survival Difficulty
? | Inacessible | Type Inaccessibilis
The URL you requested was not found. Maybe you would like to look at: Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley, or SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE - Tyler, The Creator.
Description
The page you were trying to reach does not exist, has been moved or you don't have enough permissions to access it. You can return to the home page.
Survival Difficulty
10 | Μυθικός | Periculum
"Μυθικός class are levels that are impossible to explore. These levels usually have more entities than a Paráfron class. These levels have little to no items that can help you survive. Levels with this class usually require invincibility! This class is also known for causing massive sanity problems, even after leaving the level the class was on. Sometimes, the insanity can cause headaches." [Anomalous Hazards and Extremely Unsafe, No Security, Severe Entity Infestation.]
Description
Room 404 Not Found, also known as Arena Room, is a room that only authorized personnel can enter, if we count on everyone's good will and the absence of brute force. This room is protected for the safety of the adventurers who eventually visit Level 289. As said before, Room 404 Not Found is kind of an "arena". It takes place in a basketball stadium, similar to the ones encountered in real life. In there, a lot of entities are present in different parts of the room. You can find from Facelings, to Hounds, and even Clumps.
If you really want to explore this part, it is advised to go heavily equipped, preferably with powerful weapons and armor, if possible. No almond water, food or shelter available. Once you go there, you need to defeat all entities to "win". When you do that, you'll be transported to Level 188.