A spoiler-light Terrible Lizards walkthrough through all four chapters, with the parkour rules, creature encounters and collectible timing that matter.
Terrible Lizards Walkthrough
Terrible Lizards is four chapters long, and the game changes genre slightly in each one. Chapter 1 is a haunted attraction. Chapter 2 opens into mining country and a lake. Chapter 3 is flooded industrial space. Chapter 4 is a vertical escape. The walkthrough below keeps story spoilers out of the route descriptions until the final chapter and flags the points where the difficulty actually jumps.
The most important thing to understand before you start: Jordan cannot fight. There are no weapons, no dodge roll and no health bar. Most hazards kill in one hit, which means a failed jump costs you the same as a failed stealth section. The game is a platformer first and a horror game second, and the platforming rules are consistent enough to learn.
Official source: Terrible Lizards dev interview on PlayStation Blog — the studio describes the game as a first-person platformer with fixed top speed, aerial control, wall runs, slides and ledge grabs.
The parkour rules worth internalizing
Jordan has a fixed maximum running speed. You cannot build momentum by sprinting for longer, so the timing of a jump is more important than the length of your run-up. Aerial control is generous: you can adjust direction mid-air, which makes most gaps recoverable if you react early rather than late.
Four moves carry the whole game:
- Wall run. Approach a marked wall at speed and keep the input held. Wall runs are yellow-painted or lit, and the game rarely asks you to guess.
- Slide. Used under low gaps and into some wall-run chains. Sliding also lowers your profile during a chase, though it does not make you invisible.
- Bounce. Certain surfaces launch you upward. The bounce is scripted, not a player move, so treat these surfaces as level geometry rather than a technique.
- Ledge grab. If your hands reach a lip, Jordan catches it. This is the most forgiving move in the game and the reason a slightly short jump is usually survivable.
There is no stamina meter and no fall damage outside of lethal drops. Falling from a lethal height triggers the "How was the fall?" achievement, which 88.4 percent of players have earned, so you will probably see it whether you want to or not.
The accessibility menu can disable the game's hint prompts. They are genuinely useful while you are learning the wall-run and bounce language. Turning them off early makes the first Bronto pursuit harder than it needs to be.
Chapter 1: the attraction
Chapter 1 is the museum, gift shop, backstage corridors and the power system. It teaches every move except the ones the story introduces later. The pacing is dense: the first two hours are the most consistently scary part of the game, partly because the park is still recognizable as a place people visited.
The chapter ends when Jordan goes underground, which unlocks "Welcome to the Underground." The achievement completion rate for that step is 76.7 percent, so roughly a quarter of players stopped before the end of the opening chapter. If you are stuck, the usual cause is a fuse or a door that needs power rather than a hidden route.
Chapter 1 is also where the four Paleo Pals talk boxes live. Interacting with all four unlocks "Paleo Pal Review" and is easy to miss because two of the boxes are off the critical path. The characters page maps Benji, Alistair, Stephanie and Dennis to their species.
Chapter 2: mining outposts and the lake
Chapter 2 is the longest chapter and the one that decides whether you finish the game. It moves through mining outposts, a gondola cable car and the Lake Cave, and it introduces the Bronto as a roaming obstacle rather than a scripted chase. There are two boulder pursuits in this chapter; both are checkpoints for your understanding of the wall-run timing.
The collectible count jumps here. Chapter 2 alone contains 24 notes, and one of them, the middle "Adrenaline Junkie" entry, sits above the hole just after the balance-beam tunnel exit. It is the most commonly missed note in the game and the reason many players finish with 23 of 24.
The full route, including the gondola sequence and the Lake Cave, is on the Chapter 2 walkthrough. If the Bronto keeps catching you, read the Brontosaurus file before retrying; the pursuit is about line choice, not speed.
Chapter 3: flooded power and the Allosaurus
Chapter 3 is the industrial low point of the park. The rooms are flooded, the power is out, and the chapter is built around four fuse circuits that have to be restored in sequence. Water changes the platforming: some surfaces are slippery, some gaps require a committed jump, and several rooms flood while you are working.
The Allosaurus is the chapter's pressure valve. It appears in arena-style hunts where the space is closed and the exits are limited. You cannot outrun it in a straight line, so the solution is almost always vertical: get above it, break line of sight and move along the wall or catwalk it cannot use.
The black biomass starts here as well. It is not just set dressing; it is the substance the story keeps circling, and the reason the underground sections look the way they do. The Chapter 3 walkthrough covers the fuse order and the arena exits.
Chapter 4: the ascent
Chapter 4 is the shortest chapter and the most chase-heavy. It is also where the story pays off, so this page stays vague. The route is vertical, the Crew Lift key is in Cavern B, and Dennis becomes the active threat rather than a background presence. The final sequence asks you to climb moving structures while being attacked.
The chapter unlocks "Finally" and, on completion, New Game Plus. If the final chase is breaking for you, the Chapter 4 walkthrough covers the climb in detail. The ending explained page handles what happens after.
Players have reported frame drops and broken chase triggers during the final ascent on Xbox Series X|S. If a trigger does not fire, reload the checkpoint rather than trying to force the sequence. The 1.0.9 patch fixed a title-screen softlock and a Stella call lock, not every performance issue.
How long it takes and what to do after
A first run is roughly 6 to 10 hours depending on how much you explore. The how long to beat page breaks that down by chapter and play style. Completionists should expect closer to 12 hours because the amber and note sets require backtracking through chapters you have already cleared.
After the credits, New Game Plus adds four modifiers tied to amber collection: a body-cam visual mode, slippery surfaces, a modifier that kills you if you stop moving, and low gravity. They can be combined. The New Game Plus page explains how to unlock each one and which combinations are actually playable.
A sensible order for a first run
Play the chapters in order. Do not restart for missed collectibles until you have finished the story, because the game does not lock you out of chapter select after the ending. Pick up amber when it is on the route, interact with every Paleo Pal box you see, and do not spend twenty minutes on a note that requires a jump you have not learned yet.
If you are following achievements, the achievement guide orders them by completion rate. The four chapter completions are common; the collectible sets are not. Only 0.1 percent of players have the full collectible achievement, which tells you how much cleanup is involved.
The all monsters page is the best single reference during a chase, and the bosses page explains why the game's "bosses" are encounters rather than health-bar fights.
FAQ
How many chapters are there? Four.
Can you replay chapters? Yes, through chapter select and New Game Plus.
What should I do before finishing the story? Clear each chapter's upper routes and interact with the four Paleo Pals in the museum.
Sources
More Terrible Lizards Guides
Terrible Lizards has no health bars. These are the real boss encounters: the Hybrid, Allo, Bronto, Pterry and the final Dennis chase, with survival notes.
The Bronto in Terrible Lizards: how the roaming Brontosaurus works, how to survive both boulder pursuits, and why it was the hardest creature to build.
Every major character in Terrible Lizards: Jordan, Stella, Dalton, Elena, DJ and Dr. Fellows, plus the four Paleo Pals mascots and their species.
Every collectible set in Terrible Lizards: 16 amber samples, audio tapes, notes, stuffed animals and the Chapter 2 note that most players miss.
The Terrible Lizards demo has two parts: a story section and a gameplay section. What it covers, where to get it and what carries over.
Who is Dennis in Terrible Lizards? The mascot suit, the entity under Dalton's Dinos, DJ's imaginary friend and the evidence behind the main theory.
What happens at the end of Terrible Lizards: DJ, Dennis, the Crew Lift, Stella's car and the questions the game leaves open. Full spoilers.
How long Terrible Lizards takes: 6 to 10 hours for the story, 10 to 12 for completion, chapter-by-chapter estimates and what makes runs longer.