Doom Speed Demo Archive
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Pwad:      die.wad
Map:       MAP14
Skill:     4
Category:  UV Max
Exe:       dsda-doom 0.29.4 -complevel 9

Time:      16:00.94

Author:    scf

Comments:  Hardest map I've maxed to date. This run went about as perfectly as it could've, although I almost threw it away by fumbling the BFG fight. The rev/arachno fight in the cave isn't that hard by itself, but the enemies can behave really unpredictably and block your path, especially with the teleporter line in the center. Most attempts nver made it past there. The arch-vile room is also chaotic, and it never goes as well as it did here. Usually only a couple enemies will be infighting the cyber at most, and you have to dodge the rest until a path opens up. The revs and HKs also love infighting right in the doorway. The plasma fight is easily the hardest part and I got lucky here as well. It plays out differently every time, and you're usually forced to dodge 1-2 cybers and rev missiles until there's a chance to run up the stairs. I was pretty confident that, if I could make it past that point, I had a good chance of beating the map. The final fight takes practice, but it's pretty consistent with this strat. While you're hiding in the alcove, revs can get up the cliff and hit you, but HKs can't, so the HKs are an important buffer. Sometimes the revs will infight the cyber to your right and then it's easy, but if they aren't you then have to bail as soon as they start coming up. By that point you can normally kill the left cyber with two BFG blasts, but nerves made me miss multiple shots and I almost didn't make it. I practiced a route that passes through the megasphere here, but I didn't need it, and being out of cells meant I couldn't blast through the mancs blocking me anyway. The last scary part is the double cybers. I didn't have a super safe way of going down for more cells, but it's not *that* likely to run into a rocket there. A lot of this map was learning how to deal with the million different things that can go 'wrong', and the punishment for mistakes is very high when health is this limited. I genuinely hated this map back when I played it casually, but it's much more interesting as a practiced run.
