Hazard Levels Rift Worlds: How Every Crawl Really Works

How Rift Worlds Work in Hazard Levels

Every Crawl starts with a quota and ends with a sprint for the double-decker bus. What happens in between depends on how well you read the Hazard Levels rift worlds. Each portal you tear open drops your crew into a procedurally generated dimension with new biomes, shuffled layouts, random hazards and nastier threats. The deeper you push, the stranger it gets, and the bigger the haul you can bring back to Brewdragon's secret brewery under The Fox Hole Arms.

The loop is the same in solo play and in four-player co-op:

1. Take the bus from The Fox Hole Arms to The Facility, the starting zone of every Crawl.
2. Grab ingredients with the Gravity Gauntlet and fill the nearby collection station until the quota is met.
3. Use the Rift Scanner to find a rift once the "Rift detected" prompt appears.
4. Place a Rift Stabilising Device in front of the rift, then step through.
5. Find the new collection station, fill the new quota, and repeat.
6. When the rift starts collapsing, run back to the bus before the timer hits zero.

The rift dimension you're in is shown in the top right of your screen, so you always know how deep the team has gone.

Scanning, Stabilizing and Going Deeper

The Rift Scanner is your map. It locates ingredients, rifts and enemies. Since the "A Wild Gun Appears" update, it can also show you a path to the exit. Scan often. Rifts can sit in an empty-looking room, a laundry room or right under your feet, and a squad that keeps scanning finds the next portal much faster than one that wanders.

Image: Steam / Wales Interactive

A stabilizer only opens one portal, so plan ahead:

• Bring more than one stabilizer. If you only bring one, you'll be walking back to pick up another before you can open the next rift.
• Know your restock options. You can buy stabilizers from in-rift supply stations or grab them from the bus back on floor zero.
• Drop what you're holding. If you're already carrying a stabilizer, you may need to drop it before placing the one that opens the rift.
• Ping key spots. Mark the collection station and the active rift so teammates don't get lost between dimensions. It's easy to step back through the wrong portal.

What Changes Inside Each Rift

No two expeditions match. Layouts, biomes and hazards are rerolled every time, and threats escalate as you go deeper.

Image: Steam / Wales Interactive

Rift Surges (added in 1.0)

The 1.0 launch on November 12, 2026 added Rift Surges. They can trigger at any moment in any rift. During a surge, your head might triple in size, the floor might turn to ice, or the whole world might flip upside down. Treat a surge as a cue to stop carrying fragile loot across open ground until things settle.

The Aquarium

The Summer Major Update flooded The Facility. Any Crawl now has a chance to start in the Aquarium, an underwater facility with electrified traps, flying rift sharks and glass walkways you can actually walk on. Whales drift past outside the windows. The Flying Apex, a mutated shark, lives here too.

Traps and Hazards to Watch For

Hazard Levels started as a stealth horror game, but trap rooms are now a big part of the chaos. Here's what you can run into:

Image: Steam / Wales Interactive

• Crushing pillars, including fast horizontal crushers that flatten players and loot alike
• Laser barriers
• Giant swinging hammers that launch you into the air
• Rotating fire trap room (fire is hot, as the patch notes point out)
• Electrified floors and traps, especially in the Aquarium
• Explosive barrels, which hurt you as much as the monsters

Watch a crusher room for a cycle before you cross. Once you learn the pattern, you can slip through quickly. Also handle ingredients carefully: smashing them into walls, toilets or teammates' faces lowers their value.

Rift Creatures and How to Handle Them

Each creature has its own gimmick, and since 1.0 you can study every monster you've met in the Rift Bestiary, hidden somewhere in The Fox Hole Arms.

Creature	What it does	Tip
Hollow Man	Looks like an abandoned corpse until it isn't	Don't assume bodies on the floor are dead
Tilly	A "lost child" in a trench coat who carries a knife	Run first, ask questions later
Wizard	Red-robed caster whose staff turns you into a gnome; his name glows above him	Use the glowing name to spot him early
Kevin	Extendable tongue grabs you and steals equipment, drinks, snacks and 20% to 50% of your money	Bank cash before taking risks near him
The Phantom	A spectre that inverts your controls on contact	Keep your distance and don't bump into it
Flying Apex	Mutated shark that bites and spits whirlpools	Shoot early in the Aquarium's open rooms
Spider	Web attack roots you in place	Avoid fighting it next to crushers

Since the Summer Major Update, base player health is 200 (up from 150), which gives you a little more room to make mistakes.

Gear That Gets You Deeper

Weapons and the Gravity Gauntlet

The game launched without guns but changed course. The bus now stocks two weapon types:

• Revolver: 12 rounds, and you rebuy it once they run out. It cost £4,000 when it was added.
• AKM: assault rifle with 60 starting ammo.

The Gravity Gauntlet carries 2 items by default and can charge up a harder throw. Upgrade it and your scanner at the Upgrade Bench in the pub, which offers five levels for each.

Drinks, Snacks and Rift Finds

• Perk Cocktails brewed from your loot give you abilities for your Crawls. Magnetonic pulls items to you from up to 5m away for 20 seconds. R.A.D.S gives off a toxic aura that damages nearby enemies. Since 1.0 you can throw any cocktail at a teammate to give them its effect, whether that's a heal or turning them into a toilet.
• Bar snacks boost health, slots, stamina or speed, but you lose the benefit if you die during a Crawl.
• In-rift spawns: smashable crates and slain enemies can drop Power Ups, including team heals. Supply Crates hold extra ingredients. Drink Coolers and Equipment Caches let you buy more gear mid-run. Foxy, the helpful fox, trades a random drink or piece of equipment for a small fee.

Money is tracked per player, so each crew member pays for their own stabilizers and ammo.

Escaping the Collapse

Eventually the rift destabilizes, and you'll hear "Rift collapsing. Escape to the bus." Everyone needs to get back to the bus before the countdown ends. Missing it sends the run "back to the drawing board."

• Start moving the moment the collapse begins. Last-second loot grabs are how crews get stranded.
• Use the scanner's exit path when you're turned around.
• The collapse comes with flashing lights. If those bother you, there's a graphics option to remove them completely.

At the end of each Crawl, the Post Summary Screen added in 1.0 shows the challenges you completed and how much you earned. The rift-depth achievements Rift Amateur, Rift Pro and Rift Champion are among the game's 45 Steam achievements.

FAQ

Can you explore the rifts solo?

Yes. The game is balanced for 1–4 players, and solo play works offline.

Where can you play Hazard Levels?

Version 1.0 is out on Steam, Epic, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with crossplay across all platforms. You can grab it or try the free demo on the Hazard Levels Steam page.

Can you play in third person?

Yes. You can switch between first-person and third-person views.