How Many Levels Are in Run 3? The Explore Map, Side Tunnels and Infinite Mode

"How many levels are in Run 3?" is the question this site has been asked most. The short answer is: more than you will finish in a week, and one mode that has no end at all. Here is how the game is actually put together, read from the level files the browser version loads.

Two modes, very different sizes

Run 3 has Explore and Infinite. Explore is the game with a map, a story told in short scenes, and levels that are always the same. Infinite is a single run that goes on until you fall, stitched from a pool of levels chosen as you go. The Infinite pool alone holds more than three hundred level layouts, so two Infinite runs rarely look alike.

The Explore map

Explore starts at Level 1 in the main tunnel and goes on for dozens of levels in a straight line. Along the way, finishing certain levels opens side tunnels. They are named with letters — Level A-1, B-3, W-2 and so on — and each branches off at a fixed point. Side tunnel T opens after the second level, A and W after the ninth, M after the 33rd, B and U after the 40th, G after the 49th and L after the 55th, to name a few. Some side tunnels open further tunnels of their own.

Then there are the named areas, which play more like chapters: Winter Games (ice everywhere), the Low-Power Tunnel (dark, lit only near you), the Box Storage Area, The River, The Crystal Gallery, the Memory Evaluation and Coordination Challenge, and the long late-game stretch that starts with The Way Back and splits into Plan A and Plan C, then The Way Onwards and The Runway. Some of these only let certain characters in.

Counting every path, the Explore file describes roughly forty separate tunnels and over four hundred level layouts. Most players meet only the main tunnel and a few side tunnels before they stop; the named areas are where the long game is.

What unlocks what

The map itself shows it: a side tunnel appears as a branch once you pass its entry level, and a named area opens when you finish the path before it. If a branch you have heard about is missing, you have not yet cleared the level where it starts. Power cells collected along the way buy characters, and some areas are easier — or only possible — with the right one.

How long does it take?

A single level lasts between a few seconds and a minute. The main tunnel is an afternoon for a confident player. Clearing every side tunnel and named area is a project of many sessions, and the late game is much harder than the first fifty levels.

Which one should you play?

If you want to see everything, play Explore and follow the map. If you have ten minutes before class, Infinite is better: no map, no scenes, just tunnel and a distance to beat. Both save in your browser, so you can switch between them without losing anything.