Backrooms Poolrooms Guide: Level 37 Sublimity, Survival Tips & Lore

There is a level in the Backrooms that smells faintly of chlorine and feels like a summer afternoon you can't quite place. The Backrooms Poolrooms — catalogued as Level 37 and nicknamed "Sublimity" — turn the most comforting setting imaginable into an endless maze with no exit signs. If you have ever lost an evening to a wiki rabbit hole, you already know why the Backrooms Poolrooms matter: they are the most recognizable aesthetic in the entire fandom, the level most likely to appear in fan art, games, and short films.

This guide breaks down what the level actually is, how it compares to the rest of the Backrooms, and what community reports say about surviving it.

What Are the Backrooms Poolrooms?

The Backrooms Poolrooms are an expansive complex of interconnected rooms and corridors that are partially submerged in lukewarm, gently undulating water. Tiled walls rise out of the shallows into vaulted ceilings. Light arrives from nowhere in particular — bright, diffuse, and slightly blue — and the only sound is water echoing off ceramic.

There are no doors in the conventional sense, no windows, and no horizon. Rooms bleed into one another through archways and half-flooded stairwells. Some chambers are ankle-deep. Others require wading to the chest.

What makes the level so enduring is the tension at its core. It is bright, warm, and quiet — the opposite of a horror setting on paper — yet the repetition of tile and water produces a very specific dread. Community members often describe it as nostalgia with the safety removed.

The aesthetic that started it all

The poolroom look — white square tiles, cyan water, soft ambient light, impossible architecture — predates most Backrooms lore. It grew out of liminal space photography and "dream pool" digital art, where artists rendered endless tiled baths with no swimmers and no exits.

When that aesthetic was folded into Backrooms canon as Level 37, it clicked immediately. It gave the fandom a second flagship environment: the yellow rooms of Level 0 for claustrophobia, and the pools for agoraphobia in a space that somehow still feels indoors.

Level 37 "Sublimity" at a Glance

Details vary between wiki canons and fan projects, but the widely repeated baseline looks like this:

The water is the level's defining feature and its biggest trap. It hides depth changes, submerged steps, and occasional drop-offs. Because it is warm rather than cold, it also removes one of your best early warning systems: temperature shock. You can walk into deeper water without realizing it until you are already in over your head.

How the Backrooms Poolrooms Compare to Other Levels

It helps to see where the Poolrooms sit in the wider Backrooms hierarchy. The table below compares commonly discussed levels using widely shared community descriptions rather than any single canon.

Two things stand out. First, the Backrooms Poolrooms are one of the few levels where the danger is almost entirely mental. Second, they are unusually stable: the layout loops, but it rarely shifts or attacks. That stability is exactly what makes long stays so disorienting.

Why "safe" levels are still dangerous

A level with no confirmed entities sounds like a vacation. In practice, the Poolrooms strip away the things that keep people oriented: landmarks, daylight, other voices, and a sense of progress. Wander for a few hours and the brain stops trusting its own map.

Community accounts consistently mention the same symptoms — time distortion, the feeling of being watched despite the emptiness, and difficulty telling whether a corridor is new or one you have already passed. Those are not monster problems. They are navigation and psychology problems, and they are the ones worth preparing for.

Survival Tips for the Backrooms Poolrooms

Treat the level like a long hike through a flooded building, not a swim. The following table pairs each hazard with an immediate response and a habit worth building.

A practical checklist

• Mark your path. Chalk, a scratched tile, a stacked object — anything that survives water.
• Stay dry where you can. Raised walkways and dry tile edges are both faster and safer.
• Never swim blindly. If you cannot see the bottom, assume there is a drop.
• Watch the ceiling. Vaulted rooms often signal larger chambers and, occasionally, exits.
• Buddy up. Player experience suggests the level is far more manageable with a second person calling directions.
• Set a turnaround time. Decide in advance how long you will explore before retracing your steps.

The single most repeated piece of community advice is simple: the Backrooms Poolrooms do not need to hurt you to trap you. Time is the real resource, and it drains faster than you expect.

The Backrooms Poolrooms in Games and Fan Media

The level's popularity pushed it out of wiki pages and into playable form. Several projects now use the Poolrooms as a setting, and each one interprets the space differently.

For readers who want the primary community documentation, the Backrooms Wiki entry for Level 37 remains the most detailed reference and is regularly updated by contributors.

What the games get right

Interactive versions succeed because they slow the player down. Wading is deliberately sluggish. Footsteps echo. The water surface reflects light in a way that makes it hard to judge distance.

That design choice mirrors the original appeal of the Backrooms Poolrooms: the horror is not a chase, it is a slow realization. Games that add monsters to the Poolrooms often weaken the effect, which is why the entity-free interpretation keeps resurfacing in both game wikis and fan discussion.

Common Myths About the Backrooms Poolrooms

Because the level is so widely shared, rumors spread faster than canon. Here is how popular claims hold up against what community reports actually describe.

The pattern is clear: most myths come from mixing canons. Different wikis, games, and creators maintain separate versions of Level 37, and details like entity presence or exit mechanics rarely line up between them.

FAQ

Are the Backrooms Poolrooms the same as Level 37? Yes. In the most widely used wiki canon, Level 37 is titled "Sublimity" and is commonly called the Poolrooms. Some fan projects and games treat the Poolrooms as a separate or optional area, which is where most confusion comes from.

Are there entities in the Backrooms Poolrooms? The base level is generally described as entity-free in community documentation. Player experience in games varies — some titles add threats for pacing, while others keep the level empty to preserve the atmosphere.

Is the water safe to touch or drink? Touching it is unavoidable. Drinking it is not recommended under any circumstance. Even in fan interpretations where the water appears clean, the standard advice is to treat it as contaminated.

How do you leave the Backrooms Poolrooms? Most accounts describe exits as rare no-clip points rather than doors. There is no reliable method, which is why marking your route and setting a turnaround time matter more than hunting for an exit.

Why are the Backrooms Poolrooms so popular? They combine two things the fandom loves: a calm, nostalgic environment and the quiet dread of never finding the way out. That contrast is easy to render, easy to explore, and almost impossible to forget.