WAD: Sunlust
Map: 30
Skill: 4
Category: UV-Max
Exe: Dsda-Doom 0.29.4
Time: 18:37

Author: 	Kinetic
Demo Date:	May 21st, 2026
Attempts:       84
Practice:	1 hour
Grind:		7 hr 30 min
Goal:          	19:59 (ideally 18:59)
Satisfaction:   :D :D :D

- complevel 9

Comments: 

Well I saved the last map for last. I tinkered with a few different route variations at the start without the zero press, but ultimately it was both the fastest and safest method for the run. Getting the BFG early helps with the YC area, which is dangerous and slower without it. I got great infighting in the cathedral in this run, probably my bet ever, as going back to clean it up with 490 kills is absurdly good, although it wasn't uncommon for me to have 400+, which is always pretty good.

There is not much to say about the final area of the map aside from the fact that I was lucky to survive both entering the southwest wing, and lucky to survive exiting the southwest wing. I have died trying to get into there many times, so a little luck is fine by me there. I stopped playing like a bum though and did the southeast wing hitless outside of the 150 damage 2 rev rockets did that followed me into the southeast wing. It got dicey with the vile cubicle but I pulled through, saw the time, and it was my best split there by probably a good 20+ seconds. This was my fastest pace run for sure, the infighting at the cathedral helped a lot and I wasn't too slow anywhere else.

I had one attempt where I had all kills and was likely going to exit under 19 minutes, but cutting it within seconds, so I tried to rocket boots while running to the exit and killed myself due to low HP. 1000% my stupidest death in a demo attempt ever. Almost as bad as when ancalagon failed the platforming on jf67 max after killing everything. I had another attempt where I was going to be under 20 minutes by 30+ seconds, but an enemy had rezzed at the chaingunner PG fight after teleporting to the final area.

Since this is the last demo of the pack, I will provide some stats and reflection. Yes, I copy-pasted from my Scythe demo pack with some edits:

*************************************************************************************************
*   General Info:										*
*												*
*	Sunlust UV-Max Demo Pack								*
*	Player: Kinetic										*
*	Date: Mar-May 2026									*
*	WAD: Sunlust										*
*	Category: UV-Max								     	*
*	Exe: Dsda-Doom 0.29.4								     	*
*	                                                                                     	*
*   Fun Stats & Info:                                                                           *
*	                                                                                     	*                                        	
*	Total Attempts: 			6449                                         	*
*	Average # of Attempts per run: 		238                                          	*
*	Most attempted run: 			Map07 (1000)                                  	*
*	Hardest run:				Map24						*
*	Total Grind Time:			80 hr 25 min                                  	*
*	Average Grind per run:			2 hr 58 min                                   	*
*	Longest Grind:				Map24 (13 hr 4 min)			     	*
*	Total Shaved Time:			17 min 38 sec					*
*	Most Shaved Time:			Map30 (4 min 44 sec)				*
*											     	*	
*	Most Satisfied Runs:			Map22, Map17, Map10			     	*
*	Least Satisfied Runs:			Map24, Map23, Map32			     	*
*	Best Demo:				Map17 (smoothest run, no significant errors)	*
*	Worst Demo:				Map25 (why submit a run with this ending)	*
*************************************************************************************************

Note: Every map was UV-Maxed, except for 01, 08, 26, 27, and 29, since I had done all of those in previous years. Map32 I posted earlier for a funny meme opportunity. I would go back and do Map32 to take back from vile, but I think it's clear shock wants to have record on that map, so I'm not going to be greedy and fight to own it.

Sunlust is my favorite wad ever, so I had to do this at some point. The map I had underrated the most in Sunlust was Map22, having done the UV-Max for it now, it plays super well. The map I had overrated the most is Map24, the start is just so obnoxious. Some maps were more frustrating than anticipated to get the goal I wanted + satisfactory play/routing on my part, but obviously the maps are all phenomenal to figure out a route for and then they almost always play like butter. I am not sure how many of these I would defend my time on, it's a lot of ground to cover.

I came away most impressed with some of the runs I ended up beating actually. Twilight's Map24 run was actually crazy strong for no reason, I really did not expect it to be that tough to beat, let alone beating it by any substantial margin. I had watched their demo and did not think they were doing anything too crazy, but it concealed how many ways there are to die in the run for sure. A few of j4rio's runs from the mid and late 2010s I thought would be much easier to beat than they ended up being, most notably Map12, and Map19 somewhat as well. It's not that they took a long time to beat, but that it is difficult to beat them by a large margin. I think for every other run I did, it was not so much about beating the time, it was about optimizing the maps to much better times. DV2 next!, my second favorite wad maybe?
