PEAK is a difficult game, but with teammates, you will be able to take advantage of numerous mechanics to help each other complete each biome every day. If you play PEAK on your own, you won’t be able to rely on your teammates to pick you up when you falter. In solo play, even small mistakes can cost you the entire run.
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This list offers eight tips to beat PEAK on the normal difficulty as a solo player. If you understand how your priorities change without teammates, are able to find useful tools and manage your Hunger meter, and know the perils of each biome (and how to avoid them), beating PEAK solo is not as hard as it seems.
1
Don’t Hold Onto Bandages Or Medkits
If You Fall Or Take Damage, You Should Probably Just Restart
If you tumble down the side of the mountain or take a lot of HP damage from other sources, you probably aren’t going to be able to recover and continue the run. In team play, you would have someone else to offer a helping hand or lower a rope for you if you don’t have enough stamina to get back to where you fell from. But in solo play, a lowered stamina bar is a death sentence.
Because major HP damage is bad when playing PEAK solo, there’s no real reason to pick up Bandages or Medkits during a run. Instead, pick up useful tools that will help you avoid falling and food to manage your Hunger meter. If you are losing stamina at regular intervals, look around your body by turning the camera downward to find and remove a Tick that is causing damage instead of using a bandage.
2
Look For Ropes, Chains, Shelf Shrooms, and Pitons
Ropes, Chains, Shelf Shrooms, & Pitons Allow You To Save Stamina While Climbing
In solo play, stamina management is especially important as you don’t have any teammates to help you get up each biome. You’re entirely on your own. One of the best ways to save stamina while playing PEAK solo is to look out for ropes and chains in the environment, and pick up items like Pitons that will let you conserve stamina.
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Ropes and chains use less stamina than climbing, while Pitons will let you recover stamina in the middle of a vertical climb. When on your own, keep a keen eye out for Rope Launchers and Chain Launchers to get up normally insurmountable paths, and keep an eye out for Pitons that will essentially give you a full stamina bar recovery in the middle of a climb.
3
Backtrack If You Can’t Reach Flat Ground
Climbing Down Uses Significantly Less Stamina
If you are playing with teammates, falling is not necessarily a death sentence because, even with low stamina, you can catch up with your team thanks to the help action and other items. Falling in solo play can be a run-ender, though, as it can be incredibly tricky to make it back to where you fell from on your own, especially with HP damage and an enclosing Fog wall.
In general, you must be much more careful when climbing on your own in PEAK. If you find yourself at an impasse, and your only route forward is to take a chance on a tall surface that you could fall from, it’s safer to backtrack and search for an alternate route.
4
Equip A Backpack For More Storage
Store More Tools & Status Effect Items
If you have a varied set of items, you will have more tools to deal with the hazards and obstacles in each biome. By default, players have only three item slots, which isn’t a lot of room when one must keep consumables, tools, and other useful items that can save your run.
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By equipping a backpack, you’ll be able to carry another four items on top of your normal slots. Be careful not to put too many high-weight items into your inventory, though, as every item you carry will contribute to your equip load, which in turn reduces your usable stamina.
5
Always Loot The Ancient Statue For Mythical Items
The Ancient Statue Always Rewards A Random Mythical Item
In solo play, if you make it to the end of a biome, you will always be able to get a random Mythical Item from the Ancient Statue. Normally, the Ancient Statue is used to revive dead teammates. But if no one dies in a run, it will grant a Mythical Item instead. Because you are on your own, you never have to worry about teammates dying on the way to the top – and if you die in solo play, the run is over anyway!
When you make it to the campfire at the end of each level, remember to look for the Ancient Statue and interact with it. It will explode and reveal a random Mythical Item from the list of rare items. This can be anything from Pandora’s Lunchbox, which grants a random effect on consumption, to the incredibly powerful Cure-All, which has multiple doses, cures just about every status effect, and heals HP.
6
Save Strong Consumables For Later Biomes
Cook Consumables & Hold Onto Them Until Caldera & The Kiln
On the beach in Shores and at the end of each biome, you will find a campfire which can be used to cook items. You can also find Portable Stoves, which weigh a lot but can give you a way to cook food you find on the ascent.
Every single consumable item in PEAK can be cooked to increase its healing properties, including berries, mushrooms, packaged foods, and consumables that you wouldn’t normally think could be cooked, like the Sports Drink bottle.
One of the best tips for solo players in PEAK is to cook everything you find in the early biome and save them for later levels. In Shores and Tropics you can find and cook all manner of natural vegetation. Bring at least two cooked items into Alpine and Caldera (where food is more scarce) to have an easy way to combat Hunger in these inhospitable biomes.
7
Avoid Environmental Hazards – Your Life Depends On It
Keep A Keen Eye Out For Bees, Poison Bushes, Urchins, Ice Crystals, & Other Hazards
If you play PEAK with a team, you will have more people to provide healing items and save you from environmental hazards. In solo play, because you don’t have anyone to rescue you, environmental hazards are much more dangerous. One errant move too close to an exploding spore bush could be the end of your run as you take significant poison damage or, in the worst-case scenario, get knocked off the side of the mountain.
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Generally, you must be much more observant as a solo player and always look for a way to avoid dangerous obstacles. Consider your route carefully and don’t be afraid to backtrack if it means lowering the chance you will come into contact with a run-ending hazard.
Turn The Difficulty Down On Your First Attempt To Learn The Map
Though you can brute force progression through PEAK in multiplayer, soloing PEAK on the normal difficulty is only possible if you take an efficient route that can be completed without any aid. Instead of jumping into PEAK on the normal difficulty, solo players should turn down the difficulty to Tenderfoot for their first run of each day to learn the lay of the land and come up with a strategy.
The layout of each island changes every day. Check the top-right corner of the main menu to see how much time is left for the current iteration.
In Tenderfoot difficulty, the Hunger meter builds slowly, and you do not have to worry about the Fog closing in behind you. Without the stress of a timer or a rapidly building Hunger meter, take your time to assess good paths upward in Tenderfoot difficulty before you jump into normal mode. It might take some extra time, but your solo run will be much more efficient if you get some practice in easy mode first.
