How to Play Darkest Hours

Darkest Hours is a cooperative Roblox horror game by CaptainSpinxs and Oculus Inc, positioned as a spiritual successor to Midnight Horrors with heavier emphasis on teamwork and liminal-space atmosphere. You are a prisoner sentenced to endless trials across rotating maps filled with hostile entities. Each session runs four rounds: three objective-focused trials followed by a mandatory Escape Trial. Success requires balancing objective progress, entity avoidance, stamina management, and teammate support.

The game is in pre-alpha as of July 2026, meaning mechanics, entity rosters, and map pools change between playtests. Treat this guide as a framework that stays valid even when individual numbers shift—trial structure, downed/revive flow, and sound discipline remain core skills. Before your first match, review Darkest Hours controls and skim the entity index so callouts during chases make sense.

Every run follows the same macro loop. Rounds 1–3 assign an objective—Collect scrap, Capture control points, or simply survive until the timer expires. Completing objectives shaves time off the five-minute trial clock (10 seconds per scrap milestone, 30 seconds per capture point). Round 4 is always Escape Trial: red arrows guide you toward a white eye portal; reach it before entities overwhelm the group.

Between rounds, your squad votes on the next map. Difficulty stars (1–3) hint at layout harshness—open sightlines, trap density, and entity spawn pressure. New players should vote for easy maps like Grocery Store or Corridor while learning movement fundamentals. See how to complete objectives for Collect and Capture specifics.

Each trial spawns at least one entity chosen from a pool of 51 active threats. Entity difficulty scales with map rating, player count, and the trial difficulty system introduced in v0.2. When a teammate goes down, you have a limited window to revive them before they die permanently for that round—details in our revive guide.

Your health bar tracks damage from entities and environmental hazards. The first time you hit zero health, you enter the downed state instead of dying outright. Downed players can crawl slightly, display a red icon teammates can see, and cannot be targeted by most entities—but environmental kill zones still end your run. A second health loss while downed or after revival is fatal until the next trial.

Stamina governs sprinting. Exhausting stamina locks sprint and jump briefly and causes audible wheezing that sound-sensitive entities exploit. Read the full stamina and sound guide for recovery timings (~20.3 seconds of sprint, ~17.35 seconds full regen while walking).

Items appear in three random slots each trial during pre-alpha (a future shop is planned). Prioritize utility on Fog/Blackout rounds—Radar and Camera Monitor—and defensive tools when the entity roster includes S-tier threats like Defect or The Founder.

Before queueing: Confirm default keybinds, disable unnecessary Roblox UI sounds, and agree on map vote strategy with your squad.

Round 1–3: Assign roles—one player watches flanks with Radar while others focus objectives. Call out entity types using wiki names (e.g., "RED44 spawned—no staring"). Complete objectives efficiently to shorten exposure time.

Round 4: Save Speed Coil or Riot Coil for the final sprint. Do not stop for scrap unless the timer allows. Follow red arrows, skirt portal camp spawns, and extract together when possible.

When only one prisoner remains, Last Prisoner Standing modifiers apply—study that page before solo-clutch attempts. For entity-specific counters, continue to how to survive entities and the entity tier list.