How Long Does Cairn Take To Beat? Average Playtime Explained
Worth every second!
Cairn is a climbing adventure where you play as Aava, an expert mountaineer, taking on the ascent of Mount Kami. As you plan routes, manage resources, and scale its unforgiving slopes, you may be wondering how long Cairn takes to beat. Here is a breakdown of its average playtime.
How Long Does Cairn Take To Beat?
If you are focusing solely on the main campaign, it takes approximately 12 to 15 hours to complete Cairn. Adding some exploration and aiming to see more of Mount Kami can push that playtime to roughly 18 to 25 hours. A free solo run can take anywhere from 25 to 30 hours, as it represents the highest difficulty.
If you are playing on the standard and recommended Alpinist difficulty, it will likely take most players around 15 hours on average to finish Cairn, as some exploration is encouraged. Since Cairn has a fairly unique control scheme, the early hours are the most challenging because it takes a while to learning Aava’s movement kit. This also contributes to the overall playtime, even though the initial tutorial section does an excellent job of teaching you the basics.
Cairn Difficulty Options and Differences
| Difficulty Setting | Key Differences |
|---|---|
| Explorer | Survival is easier. Climb with your gear and pitons. Progress is saved automatically. Some assist options are enabled by default. Go back in time (Rewind feature). |
| Alpinist (Recommended) | Survival is balanced. Climb with your gear and pitons. Save your progress at bivoauc sites. Assist options are disabled by default. |
| Free solo | Survival is balanced. No piton, no belay. No saves, death is final: You can always create a quick save to exit the game temporarily. Assist options are unavailable. |
Even though Cairn is a gameplay-first title, it does have a very riveting and personal story. If you don’t want the challenge, there is no shame in playing it on the Explorer difficulty because it still retains the core climbing aspect. You can work your way up as you become familiar with the title.
You can’t change the difficulty in Cairn during a playthrough, but you can enable assist options while you’re in Explorer or Alpinist mode.
Cairn does not overstay its welcome, and you continue to improve as a climber the more you play. It’s the perfect game for additional playthroughs as well, and the “Free solo” difficulty is something you’ll want to take on after you’ve mastered its climbing mechanics.
