How to Go Back to Previous Years - The Hunt Roblox 20 Wiki
Forward travel is one-way until you reach the end of the timeline. Here is how backward travel works, when it opens, and how to recover a reward you skipped.
Overview
The anniversary hub walks you through platform history in one direction, and for the first pass that direction is strictly forward. Backward travel becomes available once you reach the final hub area, which means a skipped reward early in the run has to wait until then to be recovered.
Recovering a Missed Reward
This is the reliable route for anyone who moved forward without claiming a reward, and it works whether the missing year was two steps behind or ten full years back. The claim sequence itself is covered step by step in our UGC claim guide.
Follow that order carefully, because replaying a long objective before checking the podium first is the most common way players waste an entire evening on the Jailbreak rescue or on the pizza story quest that follows later in the timeline.
Keep moving forward
Continue the chronological climb rather than trying to reverse early, since the hub will not let you travel back yet.
Claim as you go
Collect every podium reward you pass so you do not deepen the backlog further.
Reach the 2026 hub area
This is the point where backward travel to earlier years becomes available to your account.
Return to the missed year
Travel back and walk the year area, checking the reward podium and any unfinished lobby objective.
Verify before replaying
If the badge already exists on your profile, rejoin the hub before replaying a long featured quest.
Claim and continue
Collect the reward, confirm it in your inventory, then return to your current year.
Travel Rules at a Glance
The hub treats forward and backward movement very differently, and knowing which of those rules apply to your current position avoids most of the confusion players report. Completed years stay on record permanently, so nothing here affects the badge list you have already earned.
| Situation | Can You Fix It Now? | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Skipped a reward, still mid-timeline | No | Keep going forward and claim every reward you pass |
| Skipped a reward, reached 2026 area | Yes | Travel back to that year and use the podium |
| Badge exists, podium looks locked | Yes | Rejoin the hub and interact with the podium again |
| Badge missing entirely | Yes | Return to the featured game and finish its objective |
| Tried to step back one island early | No | Wait for the later travel point instead of replaying anything |
Mistakes That Create Backlogs
Back travel exists as a safety net rather than a normal workflow, and it is far cheaper never to need it at all. Every reward you leave behind is one of the items tracked in the free items list, so a backlog is easy to spot.
These four small habits are what turn a clean forward run into a slow return trip through half of the timeline, which is exactly the kind of wasteful scenario that the claim guide is written to prevent from ever happening.
Rushing the Cube
Stepping forward the instant a quest ends skips the podium interaction and leaves the reward behind.
Ignoring the Year Counter
The hub shows which year is pending, and that number is the only reliable record of your backlog.
Replaying Out of Fear
Repeating a forty-minute objective before checking the badge wastes far more time than a hub rejoin.
Deleting Badges
Never try to clear progress to force a fix, because the hub reads those badges to grant your rewards.
Why the Timeline Is One-Way
The hub is built as a chronological walk through twenty years of platform history, and the one-way climb is what keeps the anniversary framing intact. The event pages describe progression as moving forward through eras, not as a free year selector.
That design is also why some players report being unable to step back from 2016 to 2015 during a first pass. The cube moves the active route forward, and the earlier islands do not offer a return option until later travel becomes available.
Knowing this changes the way you plan the whole run. Treat every reward podium as part of the quest itself, including the ones covered in our full UGC list, and back travel stops being something you ever need at all.
If a Returned Year Still Looks Locked
A small number of players reach the travel point and still find that an old year refuses to cooperate. Work through these four checks before assuming the objective must be redone, exactly in the order that the claim routine describes.
The order of those checks matters a great deal, because the cheapest and fastest options near the top of the list are the ones most likely to solve the problem without ever touching a featured game a second time, which is the whole point.
- Rejoin the event — Leave and re-enter so the hub reads your completion state on a fresh instance before you touch the podium.
- Confirm the account — Check the badge sits on the same account you are claiming with, since event progress does not transfer.
- Check the year counter — Read the hub track to see whether the year is genuinely pending or simply missing its claim animation.
- Replay only as a last resort — A missing game badge is the one case that needs the objective repeated, so confirm that first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you go back to previous years in The Hunt Roblox 20?
Yes, once you reach the 2026 hub area. Backward travel to earlier years becomes available at that point, so a missed reward can still be collected.
Can I go straight from 2016 back to 2015?
Not during the first pass. The early hubs do not offer a return option, and the event pages describe the climb as a forward-only walk through platform history.
What if I forgot to claim a UGC before moving on?
Continue forward and claim everything else on the way, then travel back once it unlocks and use that year's podium. Progress is never deleted, so nothing is lost.
Do completed years reset when I revisit them?
No. The event reads your existing progress instead of forcing a clean replay, which makes revisiting an old year safe at any point.
Why is my old year still locked after returning?
Check whether the game badge exists on your account first. A blacked-out podium is usually a sync problem, and rejoining the hub often clears it without a replay.
Should I replay the quest to fix a locked reward?
Only if the badge is genuinely missing. If the badge exists, rejoin the hub and interact with the podium again before repeating a long objective.
How do I avoid needing back travel at all?
Pause for ten seconds after every quest, confirm the badge, return to the hub, and claim the reward before touching the cube. Our claim guide covers the routine.
Does back travel work for secret quest rewards too?
Yes. Secret rewards use hidden statues inside their year areas, so you can return and claim them the same way once travel is open.