The front of Level 296's laboratory
Level 296 is a large courtyard housing a seemingly unremarkable laboratory. Despite its lack of a sun or moon, the level possesses a regular 24-hour day-night cycle making it an ideal place for resting. Due to its safe environment and complete lack of hostile entities or anomalous objects, a moderately-sized community has been established on this level. This community has stocked the laboratory with furniture, household goods, and other amenities.
Description
The courtyard is large and pleasant, surrounded by a 4-meter tall brick wall with plants and fountains. Peering over the walls reveals that there is nothing outside of the courtyard and that the level appears to be suspended in the sky — or more likely, a sky-blue void. Falling past the walls does not appear to result in no-clipping, as anyone who has fallen into this void has never been seen again.
Upon its discovery, no equipment nor furniture was present within the building. Due to the lack of dangerous entities, a moderately-sized community has populated the building and filled it with furniture. Said group claims that the building never requires any upkeep as it never deteriorates. On the upper floors, it is possible to find doors that should lead beyond the structure of the building but instead lead to instances of one of the level’s anomalous lab rooms. There are exactly 23 of these doors but only 21 of them are accessible, each leading into different instances of the different labs. Of these, 7 doors lead into Lab 1, 10 lead into Lab 2 and 4 lead into Lab 3. So far it seems the different instances of these labs are not connected at all, e.g. entering through a Lab 2 door will never lead you out of another Lab 2 door. Next to each lab door is a sign with unidentified symbols written across it. While signs of the same type of lab are similar, none are the exact same for an unknown reason.
All of the labs seem to have a similar style of architecture as the laboratory, but are significantly larger in area, have more furniture, and possess anomalous properties. It is theorised that a community that once lived here would somehow perform experiments manipulating the properties of space, including the quantity/location of it, movement through it, and the perception of it. This is further implied by the greater number of doors to Lab 1 and the even greater number of doors to Lab 2, both of which have more practical uses than Lab 3 and the inaccessible Lab 4.
According to the locals, it was once possible to “access” a 4th type of lab room through the remaining two doors, in which movement/motion did not exist, dubbed "No Space" by the locals. Anything that enters said lab would immediately cease motion upon passing the crossing point between the two sides of the doorframe. Due to this anomaly, any matter that touches this point is completely irretrievable. For example, attempting to insert a piece of chalk through the door causes it to rapidly decrease in speed halfway through. Pulling on it will snap off the majority of the chalk but at least a small, thin portion of it will remain floating in the doorway, completely irretrievable. Because of the curiosity and constant testing by random wanderers upon Level 296's initial discovery, Lab 4's doorways have been almost completely plugged up with random debris. It is still possible to see through some of the remaining gaps in the doorways but nothing remarkable can be seen in the main room.
Bases, Outposts and Communities
This level houses a single community, its size limited due to the finite space within the building.
Laboratory Community
- Being a small, safe community, its people know each other well and are friendly to wanderers.
- Several members of the community actively trade with passing wanderers.
- Passersby are welcomed, but permanent residence is only granted when current residents leave the community, to ensure the level doesn't become overpopulated.
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
Entering the level from Level 295 will lead one through the front gates of the courtyard, on a concrete path to the entrance of the laboratory.
Exits
Labs 2 and 3 have exits leading through to Level 297 and Level 298 respectively, in the form of an out-of-place doorframe somewhere in the middle of one of the rooms.
Lab 1's style is generally the same as Level 296 but with naturally occurring furniture present throughout. A spatial anomaly allowing for the creation of new space exists throughout the whole lab. The layout of the Lab does not conform to Euclidian geometry and is prone to change, both with and without external influence.
Description
For simplicity, the term "frame" will be used to describe any area within Lab 1 where direct view of an area is cut off. For instance, if a plank of wood is leant against a wall, the gap it creates may become a new ‘frame’ the next time it is unobserved. If there is an object in the middle of a room that stretches from the floor to the ceiling, walking around it will lead into a new, separate area. Anywhere a ‘frame’ greater than ~0.6m² can appear, one almost certainly will appear. The only exception is the natural architecture of the area, e.g. doorways, corridors, etc.
Frames lead to a different area within the lab, separate from the current one. The space beyond a frame can overlap with the space before it. When a frame becomes too small or irregular of a shape, it will suddenly fade out. Attempting to recreate the frame may lead to the same area or more likely, a completely new one. Frames can also be created on their own. Sometimes the furniture in unobserved rooms may arrange itself in a way that allows for a new frame to be made.
Only two entities are known to roam Lab 1, Facelings and Wormlings. Neither of these will pose much of a threat to wanderers and escape is incredibly easy. If a wanderer enters a frame and disassembles it from one side, the other side of the frame will either fade away or lead to a completely different area.
Lab 1 is by far the most often visited for scavenging and dumping or acquiring new furniture due to having a low entity count and a guaranteed way to keep safe whenever rest is needed. Separating from a group here is heavily advised against as going through even a single frame alone is enough to lose the group, at which point the safest option is to get back to Level 296 as soon as possible; it is much easier for another person to notice that you have been bitten by a wormling than it is for you to notice yourself, given their effect. Wanderers have discovered two incredibly useful ways to abuse the anomalous behaviour of the area. They have been dubbed the "locked box cheat" and "fast travel cheat" by wanderers and Level 296 residents.
Locked Box Cheat
To perform the locked box cheat one simply needs to create many frames until they create one that leads to a dead-end or other finite space. Once found, the wanderer simply needs to enter and disassemble whatever is making the frame on the other side to "lock" the space. Please note, however, that if you are to destroy whatever objects made the frame inside the locked box, it may become impossible to assemble the pieces into a large enough shape for another frame to appear.
Fast Travel Cheat
It is easily possible to abuse Lab 1's properties to quickly find a way out by lining up several long objects along a wall (for instance planks of wood, doors, tables, etc.) and looking through them to see if any of the frames that were created because of this lead back to the entrance of the lab. They can be shuffled around or arranged differently to make them lead to different areas without needing to collect more resources to make frames with.
Bases, Outposts and Communities
The spatial anomaly present throughout the entirety of Lab 1 makes it very safe in the right conditions but also difficult to inhabit permanently and as such, no permanent groups or communities exist in this lab.
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
Entering the lab from any of the associated doors on Level 296 leads you through a door in the middle of a breakroom. Keep an eye out for breakrooms if you wish to return to Level 296 when exploring.
Exits
This lab does not have any known exits.
Lab 2's style and internal structure are generally the same as Level 296 but with naturally occurring furniture present throughout. Several spatial anomalies related to movement exist at different areas within this lab.
Description
Instances of Lab 2 are very large and the only lab type known to be finite in size. No instance of Lab 2 has been found to connect to another instance of Lab 2, despite there being 10 of them. Given that several of these labs have been completely mapped out, it is likely that every lab of any kind in Level 296 is indeed a different location.
Certain areas in the lab feature strange spatial anomalies that can affect things like the direction and strength of movement. It is theorised that those who occupied Level 296 before it was discovered by wanderers were looking for practical applications for their likely imperfect and still-developing space-warping abilities. This is even further implied to be the case when it is taken into consideration that spatial anomalies present within Lab 2 in particular tend to be contained within a room or set of rooms and only exist at/past the entrances to them. Additionally, anomalies in Lab 2 specifically relate to movement in space, unlike the other labs of Level 296, implying they could have been separated like this intentionally to better experiment with the different anomalies.
Unlike Level 296, this lab has been known to house a few of the more common entities that can be found in The Backrooms, so far including Wormlings, Skin-Givers and some of the less dangerous variants of Facelings. Exploration is generally safe as long as wanderers are aware of the anomalies they may encounter and how to get past them, you can find documentation on an M.E.G. team's encounters with these anomalies below.
Documented anomalies
Axis Rotation
| Avery's (MemberC's) account |
Anomaly 1 is an area in which gravity rotates, and attempted movement along one ‘axis’ will instead cause you to move along another. It is most often encountered in long corridors and smaller rooms.
Matt entered a long and visually unremarkable corridor about 15 meters in length, but was suddenly pushed back by an unknown force. Upon him ‘standing up’ we realised it was gravity pushing him back. Standing on nothing he seemed a bit wary and we started to panic for him, realising that the 15 meter-long corridor he was in essentially just became a 15 meter-deep hole. Luckily, before he could come to the same conclusion as us, he attempted to walk towards the floor “below” him, but went up? He was still about a meter away from the floor, but now further into the hallway. We all experimented a bit further with this and managed to safely walk to the other end and through some more rooms until eventually he fell flat on his face after passing through some other door, gravity having returned to its normal direction.
Local Height + Looping
| Matthew's (MemberA's) account |
Anomaly 2 only occurs in rooms of a symmetrical shape. Stairs lead out of opposite sides of the room and ascending or descending these stairs takes you back to the opposite end of the same room but to others, you appear higher or lower, either partially inside the floor, or floating in the air.
We came across an unusually shaped room (think a square, 4-panes, symmetrical window) with each outer edge having a staircase on each end, one going up and one going down. As I watched from behind, Finn walked up a staircase, turned left to go up another that was there, went up and left again, then up and left one more time, and as they went up the 4th flight of stairs, I saw them seamlessly come out of the wall and floating 3 meters above me! They claimed they couldn’t see me and so I went up after them to find them in the room from before, looking exactly the same. We informed the rest of our team and did some tests, and as it turns out, each flight of steps will bring you to the exact same room but 0.8 meters higher, though to everyone else you will be displaced that distance above or below the ground. You can appear to have gone beyond the ceiling or floor! Something else creepy we didn’t realise immediately, if you look past a staircase and across the room you can see yourself! It's actually kind of embarrassing, I didn’t make anything of it at first thinking it was one of our other teammates, what with these matching uniforms and all.
Amplified Movement
| Rhett's (MemberD's) account |
Anomaly 3 is a room in which, the further in you go, the more exaggerated and amplified any form of movement becomes. Going through amplifies your movements, potentially causing accidental bodily harm or muscle strain.
When entering the common room we’d noticed that Avery had gotten really far away from us, and we called out to her to stick closer to the group. She apologised and started a slow jog back to us except she started moving at breakneck speeds despite her legs only moving slowly. It gave us a fright but luckily she slowed as she got back to the entrance with us. It appears movement in any direction is greatly amplified in this room. Matthew jumped and hit his head against the roof 4 meters up, then of course Avery tried from further into the room and she ended up halfway into the now-broken ceiling. She’s okay, but we’ve sat her down for the time being and checked for a concussion. Finn also commented that they had trouble crouching without falling over, but getting back up was remarkably easy. In a big enough room we believe this would be incredibly dangerous as further towards the center attempted movement could make you move so fast you damage muscles or violently throw yourself into something.
Collective Motion
| Finn's (MemberB's) account |
Anomaly 4 usually occurs in larger areas, and its effects span across several rooms. In certain areas, movement will seem to move the world around you, rather than moving your body. e.g. one person walking inside this anomaly's area of effect will cause all other people and objects in the area to also move in the direction they are walking.
As a group we were walking through the lab when past a certain point we all began to move at 4 times speed. We thought it may have just been the previously documented anomaly but soon realised that this was not the case. It appears that in this area you and others remain completely still, but the room and all the furniture within it move around in relation to your own attempted movements, if that makes sense. For instance, from the top-left of a T-junction hallway, Rhett walked towards the junction and we all went with him without actually moving. With us a few meters behind him, he then turned right and walked down the perpendicular hallway; this pushed us all at once up against the wall in the direction he was walking. Avery was having fun with this and did another test. She and Rhett walked the same speed at eachother and the equal speeds in opposite directions cancelled eachother out, so they never got any closer together. This area is very disorienting so from here we’ve designated Matt as our ‘primary walker’ just in case we come across this anomaly again.
Bases, Outposts and Communities
No permanent communities exist in this lab however residents of Level 296 frequent the more well-mapped instances of the lab looking to dump or find furniture. Typically it is encouraged to share less important resources with passers-by such as excess food and water as the area poses little danger but is still easy to get lost in for long periods of time.
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
Lab 2 is accessible from Level 296 by going through one of the unusual doors on the upper floors. Level 296's locals know which doors go to which labs.
Exits
Some rooms far into the lab may have a doorframe somewhere in the middle of the room. Each of these leads to a different area in Level 297.
Lab 3 in its entirety appears to be inside of a 10m x 4m x 10m common-room. No matter how far one travels in any direction, it is impossible to get any closer to the walls or ceiling. This entire lab is affected by spatial anomalies relating to perception.
Description
This lab is a white room that appears to be roughly 10m x 4m x 10m in size. Present throughout the entirety of the lab are a few anomalies related to the perception of space. The walls, despite seeming only meters away, have never been reached and are presumably unreachable. It is very likely that the lab is infinite in size.
At first, it will appear as though there are tiny objects in the distance (usually unnaturally sized furniture), but upon approach, it becomes apparent that they are much larger than they seemed to be. Despite the floor of the lab having no curvature whatsoever, distant objects will eventually appear so small that they cannot be seen. Because of this, it is strongly advised that you keep to the path or take note of the direction you came from when exploring. Shadows don’t exist here, so it is difficult to get a proper grasp on distance, size, etc.
If a wanderer were to reach out and attempt to 'grab' a distant object, the object would suddenly appear in their hand and would be much smaller. Inversely, letting go of an object while holding it out in a way that would make it seem like it is in the distance will cause it to appear in the distance, and become much larger. Unfortunately, this anomaly cannot be abused to infinitely create more and more water and food, as objects whose size has been changed maintain the same density. Understandably, wanderers began using this trick to deal with entities, by picking them up from a distance, and either placing them at their feet, making them essentially harmless or by placing them really far in the distance, causing their limbs and bodily functions to fail due to the extreme increase in size.
Lab 3 is home to many Facelings, however, these are far from being the greatest danger to wanderers in the lab. Using the same trick used to deal with entities, any other person in the lab that can see you is able to pick up and kill you in mere seconds. While the residents of Level 296 try to keep these kinds of people out, there will always be those who successfully hide their ill intentions and make it through to the lab so it is important to stay wary (but not paranoid) of other people when passing through.
Bases, Outposts and Communities
Due to the higher entity count in comparison to the other labs and the potential danger malicious people can pose to wanderers, no communities exist within this lab. Groups are advised to stay either very close to or very distant from other groups they run into.
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
Entering Lab 3 from any of the associated doors on Level 296 will lead you out of a doorframe standing on its own. Given the infinite size of this lab it is important you remember the direction you came from, as straying too far can result in the entrance becoming too small and distant to see.
Exits
Any lone door that wasn't the one leading into the lab will lead to Level 298. Wanderers and residents of Level 296 have used gravel from the courtyard to leave trails leading to most of the currently known exits.
