How to Play Dark Hours

Dark Hours is a cooperative survival horror game designed for 1-4 players where teamwork is essential for survival. The game combines elements of heist planning with supernatural horror, creating a unique and terrifying experience.

Getting Started

When you begin Dark Hours, you and your team enter an auction house with the intention of pulling off the perfect heist. However, things quickly go wrong when a supernatural event transforms your robbery into a desperate fight for survival. The building becomes your prison, and a demonic creature begins hunting you and your teammates.

Basic Gameplay Mechanics

Movement and Exploration: Navigate through procedurally generated environments using standard WASD controls. Each playthrough features different building layouts, locked doors, and item placements, ensuring no two games are identical. Explore carefully and communicate with your team about what you find.

Team Coordination: Communication is vital in Dark Hours. Use voice chat or text to coordinate with your teammates, share item locations, and warn others about the creature's position. Staying close to your team members increases your chances of survival significantly.

Equipment Management: Throughout the game, you'll find various tools including lock-picking sets, hacking devices, flashlights, and crowbars. Choose your equipment wisely and share resources with teammates. Each item serves a specific purpose in solving puzzles and escaping danger.

Objectives and Win Conditions

There are two primary ways to survive Dark Hours:

1. Find the Exit: Work with your team to solve cooperative minigames, deactivate security systems including lasers and cameras, and discover the secret exit. This requires coordination, problem-solving, and careful exploration.

2. Survive Until Morning: If finding the exit proves too dangerous, your alternative is to hide from the creature and survive until daylight. Find secure hiding spots, stay quiet, and wait for the dark hours to pass.

Stealth and Survival

Making noise attracts the creature's attention. The more loot you carry, the louder you become, making stealth increasingly difficult. Walk carefully, avoid running unless absolutely necessary, and be mindful of your inventory weight. If you need to move quickly, consider dropping some items temporarily.

Difficulty Modes

Dark Hours offers three difficulty levels to suit different player preferences:

• Normal Mode: Balanced challenge suitable for first-time players and casual sessions
• Hard Mode: Increased creature aggression and fewer resources for experienced players
• Nightmare Mode: The ultimate test of survival skills with maximum difficulty

Choose your difficulty based on your team's experience level and desired intensity.

Tips and Tricks for Dark Hours

Master the art of survival in Dark Hours with these essential strategies and insider tips that will help you and your team escape the nightmare alive.

Essential Survival Strategies

Stick Together: The golden rule of Dark Hours is to never separate from your team. Solo players become easy targets for the creature. Maintain visual contact with at least one teammate at all times, and regroup frequently to ensure everyone is safe.

Manage Your Noise Level: Every item you carry adds weight, which increases the noise you make while moving. Be strategic about what you collect. If you're playing the stealth role, keep your inventory light. Save the heavy lifting for teammates in safer positions.

Use Light Wisely: Your flashlight is essential but draws attention. Turn it off when hiding or when the creature is nearby. Learn the building layout in lit areas so you can navigate in darkness when necessary. Coordinate with teammates so at least one person has their light on to guide the group.

Advanced Tactics

Decoy Strategies: When the creature is pursuing you, consider dropping valuable items to create distractions. The creature may investigate dropped loot, buying you precious seconds to escape or hide. Use this tactic sparingly and only in emergencies.

Optimize Item Distribution: Designate roles within your team. Have one player carry lock-picking tools, another focus on hacking devices, and distribute flashlights and crowbars among the group. This specialization makes your team more efficient and ensures you're not wasting inventory space on duplicate items.

Learn the Creature's Patterns: The entity follows certain behavioral patterns. It investigates noise, checks common hiding spots, and grows stronger as the night progresses. Pay attention to its movements and share observations with your team to predict its next location.

Cooperative Mini-Game Success

The building contains various cooperative puzzles that require multiple players to solve simultaneously. Before attempting these challenges:

• Clear the surrounding area and ensure the creature is far away
• Assign specific roles to each team member
• Practice coordination in easier puzzles before tackling complex ones
• Have an escape plan ready in case the creature arrives mid-puzzle

Resource Management

Prioritize Essential Items: Focus on collecting tools that help you escape rather than accumulating valuable loot. While scoring high is fun, survival should always be your primary goal.

Share Information: Call out item locations, especially rare tools like hacking devices and lock-picks. A tool in the wrong player's inventory is useless if another teammate needs it urgently.

Emergency Supplies: Keep at least one healing item or defensive tool available for emergencies. Don't use all resources immediately, as the later stages of the night are typically more dangerous.

Pro Tips for Experienced Players

On higher difficulties, the creature becomes more aggressive and intelligent. Experienced teams should develop hand signals or code words for silent communication, establish fallback hiding spots throughout the building, and practice quick item transfers between players. Remember that sometimes the best strategy is knowing when to abandon the current objective and prioritize survival.

Why Play Dark Hours?

Dark Hours delivers an unforgettable cooperative horror experience that stands out in the crowded survival horror genre. Here's why this game deserves a place in your Steam library.

Unique Gameplay Combination

Dark Hours masterfully blends heist mechanics with survival horror, creating a gaming experience unlike any other. You begin with a clear objective—rob an auction house—only to have everything spiral into chaos when supernatural forces intervene. This unexpected twist transforms a straightforward mission into a desperate fight for survival, keeping you on edge throughout every session.

True Cooperative Experience

Unlike many multiplayer horror games where cooperation is optional, Dark Hours makes teamwork absolutely essential. You cannot survive alone. The game's design forces meaningful cooperation through shared objectives, collaborative puzzles, and resource management that rewards strategic coordination. Playing with friends becomes an exercise in trust, communication, and collective problem-solving.

Exceptional Replayability

Thanks to procedural generation, no two playthroughs of Dark Hours are identical. Building layouts change, item locations vary, and the creature's behavior adapts to your strategies. Combined with three difficulty modes and multiple escape routes, the game offers virtually unlimited replayability. Whether you're playing your tenth or hundredth session, Dark Hours continues to surprise and challenge you.

Atmospheric Tension

The developers at Piece of Cake studios have crafted an incredibly immersive atmosphere that keeps your heart racing. From the meticulously detailed auction house environments to the terrifying sound design that signals the creature's approach, every element contributes to building unbearable tension. The game excels at psychological horror, making you fear what might be lurking around the next corner.

Accessible Yet Challenging

Dark Hours welcomes both horror veterans and newcomers to the genre. The Normal difficulty mode provides an approachable entry point, while Hard and Nightmare modes satisfy experienced players seeking brutal challenges. The learning curve is smooth, with early sessions teaching fundamental mechanics before ramping up the intensity.

Active Development and Community

Since its release in October 2025, Dark Hours has maintained an impressive "Very Positive" rating on Steam with 84% positive reviews. The developers actively support the game with regular updates, listening to community feedback and continuously improving the experience. The vibrant community shares strategies, creates content, and welcomes new players.

Perfect Social Gaming Experience

Dark Hours shines as a social experience that creates memorable moments with friends. The combination of tension, cooperation, and occasional chaos leads to genuine emotions—from screaming in terror when the creature appears to celebrating when your team successfully escapes. These shared experiences forge lasting gaming memories and inside jokes that will be remembered long after you've closed the game.

Whether you're looking for your next great multiplayer experience, love survival horror games, or want something fresh that innovates on familiar formulas, Dark Hours delivers on all fronts. Available now on Steam for Windows and Steam Deck.