During the Temple Run, the final remaining team is given a chance to take whatever Pendants of Life they have won in the Temple Games into Olmec's Temple and retrieve the artifact related to the story. Before every run, Olmec will give a description of the temple and its rooms, giving the players advice on how to get through each respective one and how to complete the challenges associated with them, sometimes telling them where the artifact is. The first player to enter the Temple took in one Pendant, and his or her teammate took the remainder of Pendants won (none, one-half, or one full Pendant).
The objective of the Temple Run is to reach the room with the episode's featured artifact, grab it, and escape out the gate with it within a three minute time limit. Each room contains a challenge or puzzle the players have to complete in order to move on to the next room. Completing the challenge unlocks the doors; not all the doors in a room will open, and some remain locked. The doors that unlock or remain locked are determined by the artifact's location. The players also have to beware of Temple Guards hidden throughout the temple, three of them are assigned to protect three pre-determined rooms. If the player enters one of those rooms, the guard will jump out and catch them; to go on, the player has to give up their Pendant to the guard. If the player is caught with no Pendant, the guard will take them out of the temple, and the second player will enter. If the second player is caught without a Pendant, the run will end immediately; otherwise, they'll be safe for the remainder of the run.
If the players won a half Pendant in the Temple Games, the other half will be placed in one specific room; if the second player finds that, they will have a full Pendant and full protection. Upon reaching the artifact, all the doors of the temple will unlock, including those that are locked, and any remaining Temple Guards will vanish, allowing them to escape safely.
In Season 1, the gate is placed directly in front of Olmec, and players have two ways of entering the temple, either up the stairs to the top right shaft, or down through the bottom right shaft; from Season 2 and on, the gate is positioned to the right of Olmec, which he unlocks before the run begins. There are also two shafts placed after the stairs behind Olmec, leading up or down depending on where the player chooses to start the run.
Just for making it into the Temple, the team won a prize. If the team was able to make contact with the artifact within three/four minutes, they would win another prize of slightly higher value. If they made it out of the Temple with the artifact within the three/four-minute time period, they would win the day's grand prize (usually a trip or a week at NASA Space Camp).
Out of all 120 episodes of the original series, only 32 of them feature a Temple Run where the artifact is brought out of the Temple, making it a 27.2% chance of winning.
In the CW reboot, the Temple Run lasts for four minutes instead of three.
