The Citadel is the last biome standing between you and the summit in PEAK, and it swaps the rising lava of The Kiln for a tower packed with medieval traps. There are no roaming enemies to grab you here. Everything that wants you dead is built into the walls, floors, and bridges, and the whole biome runs straight up with almost no room to move sideways.
Quick answer: Climb the outer walls and the edges of the central spiral, stick to ladders and chains to save stamina, watch every trap cycle before you commit, and reach the top without being touched by a mechanical trap to earn the Medieval History Badge.
When the Citadel shows up in your run
The Citadel arrived with the Final Ascent update as a second option for the fifth biome, sitting alongside The Kiln. Which one you get depends on the fourth biome. Gloom leads into the Citadel, while Caldera leads into the Kiln. During the launch rotation, the map cycle is centered on Gloom and the Citadel, so that window is your best chance to learn the tower before it folds into the wider randomized rotation.
Treat those runs as practice rather than speedruns. The Citadel can be one of the harder biomes in the game, but once you know its rhythms it also plays cleaner than late additions like Mesa or Roots.
The climb is fully vertical
Every biome makes you go up, but the Citadel removes the horizontal breathing room entirely. You are climbing a tower straight to the top, so ladders, ledges, and chains become your only real rest points. Start in the middle when you arrive, since there is a set of stairs leading up, then scan every side to find the cleanest route to the next central bridge.
Ladders and chains drain stamina far slower than normal climbing, so lean on them whenever they line up with your path. The central structure also adds a fresh set of tiles you can use instead of hugging the outer walls the whole way.
Every trap in the Citadel and how it works
Each trap chips away at your stamina, and most of them run on a fixed cycle. The best habit is to let a trap trigger once from a safe spot, watch the full sequence, then move on the beat you have learned. The interior of the central spiral is usually the most dangerous place to be, so the safer lines tend to run along the outer walls and outskirts.
| Trap | How it behaves and how to pass |
|---|---|
| Lasers | Walking through a laser fires an arrow into you, which then has to be pulled out and deals a chunk of damage. Step around them. |
| Pressure-plate spikes | Some floors release spikes when stepped on, but there is a short delay, so a fast sprint gets you across before they rise. |
| Saw blades | These move up and down along the walls on set positions to block your climb. Time your movement around their travel. |
| Spiked pendulum | A spiked ball swings left to right in the center of the tower. Wait at a bridge until it swings the other way, then cross. |
| Sweeper arms | Spike arms rotate in a circle. Run between them or jump onto the safe zone at the center of the rotation. |
The spike floors get denser the higher you climb, which shrinks the number of truly safe tiles near the top. Since these traps do not move, the answer is always to slow down and check where you plant your feet before you mantle onto anything flat.
Petrify rocks and the Gloom
The glowing white rocks along the walls are not traps, but they still matter. Standing on them builds Petrify on your bonus stamina meter, and it climbs quickly the longer you stay in contact. If that bonus stamina fills completely with Petrify, you die. Scout amulets can also apply this effect during a run.
Tip: Petrify only affects your secondary stamina bar, which you use far less often, so you can afford to tank a little of it to reach a better route. Interacting with the campfires at the end of each biome is the way to reduce this status.
The Gloom is the fog carried over from the previous biome, and it begins creeping upward through the Citadel once you reach a certain height. It is much less punishing than rising lava. It only applies a sleep effect to your stamina bar, and simply climbing to higher ground clears that sleep within a few seconds. Depending on difficulty, its rise doubles as a soft timer that keeps you moving.
Best items for the vertical climb
Because there is no natural food in the Citadel, your stamina and traversal items carry the run. The gaps between platforms are often large, so anything that grants stamina or extends your reach upward is worth holding onto.
| Item | What it does | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Scout’s Tenacity | Grants temporary immunity and removes all stamina ailments, but adds around 10% Petrify in exchange. | Found on a Scout Statue by following the blue lights in each biome. |
| Scout’s Ambition | Gives you and any ally in range 7 seconds of infinite stamina, useful near the top when there is no clear exit. | Found on a Scout Statue by following the blue lights in each biome. |
| Big Lollipop | Gives 11 seconds of infinite stamina, enough for one dangerous vertical stretch. Pairs well with an Energy Drink. | Found in Luggage. |
| Rope Cannon | Shoots a rope you can climb to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. | Found in Luggage. |
| Chain Launcher | Bridges gaps you cannot jump so you can climb across to a new set of tiles. | Found in Luggage. |
| Jetpack | Flies you across gaps or straight to the middle to find a new route. Needs an item to burn as fuel. | Found in Luggage. |
| Anti-Rope Spool | Reverses gravity so you can place it over 20 meters above and climb directly upward beyond normal stamina range. | Found in Ancient Luggage and Ancient Idols. |
| Anti-Zooka | Fires anti-gravity bubbles that launch you up; chain three to reach high, blocked spots. | Found in Ancient Luggage and Ancient Idols. |
| Rescue Claw | Pulls you up ledges and lets you save stranded teammates. | Found in Luggage. |
The Jetpack stands out here, since flying past an entire trap section is often safer than trying to time it. Just manage fuel carefully, because burning the whole tank mid-climb can leave you drifting into a pendulum. The Big Lollipop is the reliable stamina fallback for a single long push upward.
Tips to finish the Citadel
- Do not split up. If one player reaches the top, they can pull everyone else up, and branching into separate paths just burns resources. This matters even more on later Ascents.
- Favor the outer walls and the outskirts of the central spiral. The interior is usually crowded with traps and dead ends.
- Climb ladders and chains whenever possible, since they drain stamina slowly.
- Do not fear the Petrify rocks. They only touch your bonus stamina, so tanking a little to reach a better line is fine.
- The Gloom will not end your run on its own. Get to higher ground and the sleep effect clears in seconds.
- Keep momentum. Slow is fine, stationary is not, because the rising hazard rewards steady upward progress.
Medieval History Badge and Archery Badge
The Citadel has two badges, and they pull in opposite directions, so you cannot earn both in a single climb.
| Badge | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Medieval History Badge | Climb past the Citadel without being hit by any trap. Touching the Petrify rocks is allowed, since they do not count as traps. | Knight Hat and Knight Outfit |
| Archery Badge | Remove 10 arrows from yourself by walking into the lasers and pulling out each embedded arrow. Doing this cancels out the Medieval History Badge. | Arrow Hat |
For the Medieval History Badge, the game is strict about what counts as trap damage. An arrow clipping you, a spike catching your foot, or a pendulum grazing your character can all fail the attempt, and even the arrow trap near the endgame campfire can end it. You know it worked when the run completes and the badge unlocks with no trap hit registered. The Archery Badge is the opposite mindset, since you deliberately trigger arrows and pull them out ten times, so run that only when you have given up on a clean climb.
Learn the trap cycles, hug the outer routes, and lean on ladders and stamina items, and the Citadel turns from a wall of panic into a tower you can read floor by floor on the way to the summit.
