Lewonx Posted August 27, 2021 (edited) One thing I've been constantly thinking about for the last two months is how do you scale map/wad difficulty in Doom. What do you say to someone when he asks how hard a certain map/wad is, what is the hardest/easiest map/wad. There is a lot of problems with answering that question. The difficulty in Doom depends on many things: what difficulty level did you choose (obviously), what do you count as beating the map, whether or not you are using saves, continuous vs pistol start and even your sourceport settings. Since covering every variation of those things will drive anyone insane, some rules need to be established. Rules: 1. Ultra Violence difficulty. 2. Pistol start. (Unless the wad is designed for continuous only). 3. 100% kills and secrets. 3.1. Broken secrets/kills don't count. 3.2. Broken kills/secrets, that Zero Master found an insane way to get don't count either, but I will try to give them a separate ranking. 3.3. Kills in levels with monster spawners don't matter. I know that some source ports can differentiate normal monsters from the ones spawned by the Icon of Sin, but most don't, neither does vanilla. 3.4. Killing lost souls depends on whether or not intended sourceport requires it. 3.5. In maps with multiple exits, taking either exit is ok, unless the wad is continuous only. 4. No saving. 4.1. Some Zdoom maps have automatic checkpoints, these are allowed. 5. Play in a sort of intended way. Zdoom specific maps are played in Zdoom, vanilla compatible maps are played with vanilla like settings (no jumping, crouching or free aim in the Iwads). Now that we are done with the first problem, let's deal with the other one. Wads that are consistently hard vs wads that aren't as hard, except for one absolutely insane, completely out of place map (Im looking at you, Scythe). To deal with that I decided to give a difficulty ranking to each map separately, and then rank wads based on Variation (Var, the difference between easiest and hardest maps) and Intensity (the average difficulty you are be dealing with). Difficulty levels: 0 - Unlosable 1 - Easy 2 - Normal 3 - Hard 4 - Very Hard 5 - Extremely Hard 6 - Very Low Kaizo 7 - Low Kaizo These are the difficulty levels I come up with to rank anything all the way back in 2019. Unlosable is self explanatory. Easy is stuff like E1M1, you can die, but there is really nothing threatning. Normal is, well, normal, there is a threat, or some hard parts, but anyone can beat it without much trouble. Normal probably holds the most variation in thermes of what goes into the tier. Most of Doom 1 and 2 is here. These tiers are exponential, by the way. Hard is hard, it's challenging, it requires decent gaming skills, but it doesn't go too far. Most Final Doom maps are here. Very hard is another story. It will give some trouble to even an experienced gamer. This difficulty level will completely crush average players, and improving your skills from 2/3 to 4 will take an incredible grind. The hardest levels from Final Doom are here. Extremely hard is next. Stuff in this level doesn't hold back, yet it doesn't go to the levels of insanity seen in the next tier. It's kind of like a border between non-kaizo and kaizo stuff. 6 is where the madness begins. This level is completely beyond 99% of players. Most people would have trouble to even comprehend how stuff in this tier is possible. The top of level 7 is where I'm currently at. I'm not going to rank anything, that I can't beat, because it's hard to measure difficulty of one thing you can't beat, relatively to other thing, you can't beat. When something is on a higher end of that tier, .5 will be added to it. Also, 0.5 means that you can lose, only if you want to. N/A means that a map is impossible. Usually this reserved for ending maps with no exit. ? means that I haven't beaten the map yet, and the wad is only partially added. X! - means it's the hardest in the wad. Rankings: Official Stuff: The Ultimate Doom (36/37 maps) Var: 1 – 4 Int: 1.972222/1.972972 Good old classic Doom. Episodes 1-3 are fairly easy. Some of the episode 4 maps are troublesome. Spoiler E1M1: Hangar – 1 E1M2: Nuclear Plant – 1 E1M3: Toxin Refinery – 1.5 E1M9: Military Base – 2 E1M4: Command Control – 1 E1M5: Phobos Lab – 1.5 E1M6: Central Processing – 2 E1M7: Computer Station – 2 E1M8: Phobos Anomaly – 2 E2M1: Deimos Anomaly – 1.5 E2M2: Containment Area – 2.5 E2M3: Refinery – 2 E2M4: Deimos Lab – 2 E2M5: Command Center – 2 E2M9: Fortress of Mystery – 2 E2M6: Halls of the Damned – 2 E2M7: Spawning Vats – 1.5 E2M8: Tower of Babel – 1.5 E3M1: Hell Keep – 2 E3M2: Slough of Despair – 2 E3M3: Pandemonium – 2 E3M4: House of Pain – 2.5 E3M5: Unholy Cathedral – 2 E3M6: Mt. Erebus – 2 E3M9: Warrens – 2 E3M7: Limbo – 2 E3M8: Dis – 1.5 E4M1: Hell Beneath – 3 E4M2: Perfect Hatred – 3 E4M9: Fear – 2 E4M3: Sever the Wicked – 2 (Two secrets are impossible) E4M4: Unruly Evil – 2 E4M5: They Will Repent – 2 E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly – 4 X! E4M7: And Hell Followed – 2 (6 or 7 if you want to get the broken secret, that requires rocket jumping of cyberdemon’s rocket. But there is no point in getting it, since there is another impossible broken secret. The “impossible” secret is actually possible by using save glitch, but that is irrelevant here) E4M8: Unto the Cruel – 2 The Xbox version of Doom added a "new" map, which is actually an old single level wad. Xbox "exclusive": E1M10: Sewers (A.K.A. Sewers.Zip) – 2 E1: Knee Deep in the Dead – 2.5 E2: The Shores of Hell – 3 E3: Inferno – 3 E4: Thy Flesh Consumed – 4 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Containment Area - simply here, because there isn't that much ammo, and you will have to use berserk a lot. 4. House of Pain - isn't much harder than the rest of normal levels, just longer and has a few nasty traps. 3. Perfect Hatred - a combination of Baron spam, platforming, damaging floors and narrow spaces makes this way harder than anything in Episodes 1-3. 2. Hell Beneath - there is no health on this level, besides a few health bonuses, and on top of that it requires you to conserve ammo and lure a bunch of barons in a specific spot to kill them. 1. Against Thee Wickedly - this one feels completely out of place. It's like John Romero traveled back in time and put a sigil map in Episode 4. Most of the floor is covered in damaging lava, and the level isn't generous with radiation suits, or health, or armor. Shotgunners that can snipe you across half the map, constant waves of cacodemons, and barons that are just in the worst places possible make this the hardest map in original Doom by wide margin. Doom 2 (32/33 maps) Var: 1 – 3.5 Int: 2.21875/2.212 Harder than Doom 1 on average due to bigger maps and more baddies, but isn't as hard as the peak of Episode 4. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 1 Map 2: Underhalls – 2 Map 3: The Gantlet – 2 Map 4: The Focus – 2 Map 5: The Waste Tunnels – 2 Map 6: The Crusher – 2 Map 7: Dead Simple – 2 Map 8: Tricks and Traps – 2 Map 9: The Pit – 2.5 Map 10: Refueling Base – 2.5 Map 11: Circle of Death – 2.5 Map 12: The Factory – 2 Map 13: Downtown – 2.5 Map 14: The Inmost Dens – 2 Map 15: Industrial Zone – 2.5 (3.5 if you want to go for pain elemental secret) Map 31: Wolfenstein – 2 Map 32: Grosse – 1 Map16: Suburbs – 2.5 Map 17: Tenements – 2.5 Map 18: The Courtyard – 2.5 Map 19: The Citadel – 2 Map 20: Gotcha! – 2.5 Map 21: Nirvana – 2 Map 22: The Catacombs – 2.5 Map 23: Barrels O’ Fun – 3.5 X! Map 24: The Chasm – 2.5 Map 25: Bloodfalls – 2.5 Map 26: The Abandoned Mines – 2.5 Map 27: Monster Condo – 2.5 (linedef skip secret isn't that bad) Map 28: The Spirit World – 2 Map 29: The Living End – 2.5 Map 30: Icon of Sin – 2 The Xbox version of Doom 2 added a "new" map, which is actually an old single level wad. Xbox “Exclusive”: Map 33: Betray (A.K.A. BETRAY.WAD) – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Monster Condo - lots of hard enemies. 4. Suburbs - welcome to the first slaughtermap, have fun dealing with a horde of mancubi and cacodemons, after dealing with two archviles and multiple revenant traps. 3. Abandoned Mines - there is more cacodemons in this map than in the rest of Doom 2. 2. Refueling Base - big, long, non linear level with lots of secrets, traps and monsters. Ammo can be a problem. 1. Barrels O' Fun - why is this random gimmick level way harder than anything else in the game? Playing continuously it's nothing special, but a pistol start is another story. You have to fight 5 pain elementals with nothing but shotgun, chaingun and berserk, while another pain elemental, hell knight and imp are shooting at you from across the room. And after dealing with all of that, you have to punch out like 30 pinkies. Granted, after that the level is basically over, as you get a megasphere and a bunch of rockets. But why? Master Levels for Doom II (21 maps) Var: 1.5 – 4.5 Int: 2.5476 An official collection of single level wads (except for one wad that has two levels). These levels are weird, and some of them are somewhat hard (and one of them is very hard). Spoiler Attack – 2 Black Tower – 3.5 Bloodsea Keep – 2.5 Canyon – 2 Geryon: 6th Canto of INFERNO – 2 Mephisto’s Maosoleum – 3.5 Minos’ Judgement: 4th Canto of INFERNO – 2.5 Nessus: 5th Canto of INFERNO – 2 (Same broken secret as E4M7 of Ultimate Doom) Paradox – 2.5 Subspace – 1.5 Subterra – 2.5 The Catwalk – 2 The Combine – 2.5 The Express Elevator to Hell: Map 31: The Express Elevator to Hell – 4.5 X! Map 32: Bad Dream – 2 The Fistula – 2.5 The Garrison – 2 Titan Manor – 3 Trapped on Titan – 3.5 Vesperas: 7th Canto of INFERNO – 3 Virgil’s Lead: 3rd Canto of INFERNO – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Titan Manor - more known for being confusing than hard, but the yellow key trap is dangerous. 4. Trapped on Titan - very long map with a couple difficult fights, but also lots of health and ammo. 3. Mephisto's Maosoleum - has lots of revenants, annoying fights with mancubus and arachnotron snipers, and an awkward Icon of Sin battle. 2. Black Tower - the longest level in Master Levels, this one also generous with resources, but some fights are still tricky. 1. The Express Elevator to Hell - claustrophobic nightmare, prepare to get attacked by chaingunners, revenants, barons and more from multiple sides in tiny rooms and corridors. There is also two arch-vile fights, where you need to open and close doors to avoid their attacks. And to get all secrets, you have to do an arch-vile jump (thankfully, you are given the invulnerability for that). The Trooper’s Playground (9/10 maps) Var: 1 – 4 Int: 2.5/2.55 Somewhat tricky wad that likes dangerous ambushes. There is also a custom enemy called “the evil trooper” that is basically a rapid firing shotgunner with about as much health as a pinkie. Spoiler Map 1: Welcome – 2 Map 2: Intrusion – 2.5 Map 3: Simply Dead… – 3 Map 4: Going Down – 3 Map 5: Underground Temple – 2.5 Map 6: Deep Down Below – 2 (one of the secrets is broken) Map 7: Three-O-Matic – 4 X! Map 8: Star Control – 2.5 Map 9: Deliverence? – 1 Along with the main wad the package contains a bonus level: THE TROOPER’S PLAYGROUND BONUS LEVEL – 3 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Going Down – low on health and ammo at the start, has a couple of dangerous fights. Also, the only armor on this level is 5 armor bonuses. 2. THE TROOPER’S PLAYGROUND BONUS LEVEL – low on health and has multiple very dangerous ambushes. You only get armor very late into the level. 1. Three-O-Matic – the longest level in the wad and it has no armor besides 9 armor bonuses. It’s filled with shotgunner and chaingunners, has 2 arch-viles, 2 evil troopers, a cyberdemon and more mid-tier enemies than any other level in the wad. The ambushes are more deadly than ever, especially the arch-vile one. Also, there is no super shotgun and no plasma weapons. TNT: Evilution (32 maps) Var: 1.5 – 4.5 Int: 2.890625 An addon that tried to go for big, long, realistic levels. Cheap traps and lack of health/ammo are constant problems. Significantly harder than Doom 1 and 2 on average. Spoiler Map 1: System Control – 1.5 Map 2: Human BBQ – 3 Map 3: Power Control – 3 Map 4: Wormhole – 2.5 Map 5: Hanger – 2 Map 6: Open Season – 2.5 Map 7: Prison – 3.5 Map 8: Metal – 3 Map 9: Stronghold – 4 Map 10: Redemption – 2.5 Map 11: Storage Facility – 2.5 Map 12: Crater – 2.5 Map 13: Nukage Processing – 2.5 Map 14 Steel Works – 2.5 Map 15: Dead Zone – 3 (3.5 if you want to kill the “unkillable” monsters) Map 31: Pharaoh – 2.5 (both the original version and the patched version about as hard, for different reasons) Map 32: Caribbean – 3.5 Map 16: Deepest Reaches – 2.5 Map 17: Processing Area – 2 Map 18: Mill – 3.5 Map 19: Shipping/Respawning – 2.5 Map 20: Central Processing – 4.5 Map 21: Administration centre – 4 Map 22: Habitat – 2.5 (0.5 if you want to just skip this and go to the exit) Map 23: Lunar Mining Project – 2.5 Map 24: Quarry – 2.5 Map 25: Baron’s Den – 3 (feels like 4, due to how boring/annoying this level is) Map 26: Ballistyx – 3 Map 27: Mount Pain – 4 Map 28: Heck – 2.5 Map 29: River Styx – 4.5 X! Map 30: Last Call – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Stronghold - hitscan hell. 300 hitscanners, and the map isn't generous with health. 4. Mount Pain - honestly, the difficulty of this map is kind of exaggerated, that being said, the final area is definitely something. 3. Administration Centre - the biggest official map and, possibly, the longest. Thankfully, it gives you a decent amount of health and armor, but there are still some excruciatingly hard areas, like the pit of poison, that you have to revisit multiple times or the giant room with pyramids. 2. Computer Processing - this is probably the longest official Doom map. It feels like three different big maps glued together. But the length isn't your only concern, you constantly will be looking for ammo and health, while dealing with stuff like, archvile and pain elemental in an open field, army of hitscanners, chaingunners placed so high, that your autoaim barely works, long drop into a pit with a spectre that can bite you from below and way, way more. It's like they put everything that's hard about other Evilution maps into one. 1. River Styx - this might be a controversial pick, since it is considered one of the most forgettable Evilution maps, and, to be fair, in continuous it is. But from a pistol start, it has one problem - there is not enough ammo to kill everything. You have to try your hardest to cause as much infighting as possible, lure nearly everything in the best positions and don't miss any shots. And then there is this archvile in the watchtower. It's placed in way to exactly screw with you autoaim, you need good rng to kill him, there is no other way. The level constantly gives you plasma, but there is no plasma weapons, so, I think, someone forgot to put a BFG here. The Plutonia Experiment (32 maps) Var: 2 – 4.5 Int: 3.140625 An official challenge addon. Way harder than Evilution on average, but the hardest maps aren't much harder than in TNT. Revenants and chaingunners are clearly overused here. Spoiler Map 1: Congo – 2.5 Map 2: Well of Souls – 3 Map 3: Aztec – 3 Map 4: Caged – 3 Map 5: Ghost Town – 3 Map 6: Baron’s Lair – 2.5 Map 7: Caughtyard – 3.5 Map 8: Realm – 3.5 Map 9: Abattoire – 3.5 Map 10: Onslaught – 4.5 Map 11: Hunted – 2.5 (I don’t know, if it’s possible to get all kills here. Some people say it is some say it’s not. I haven’t seen anyone actually do it) Map 12: Speed – 4.5 Map 13: The Crypt – 2.5 Map 14: Genesis – 2.5 Map 15: Twilight – 4.5 Map 31: Cyberden – 3 Map 32: Go 2 It – 4.5 X! Map 16: Omen – 3 Map 17: Compound – 2.5 Map 18: Neurosphere – 2.5 Map 19: NME – 3 Map 20: The Death Domain – 3 Map 21: Slayer – 3.5 Map 22: Impossible Mission – 3 Map 23: Tombstone – 3.5 Map 24: The Final Frontier – 2.5 Map 25: The Temple of Darkness – 3.5 Map 26: Bunker – 4 (4.5 if you also want to get pain elemental secret) Map 27: Anti-Christ – 2.5 (hidden arch-vile isn’t that hard to kill) Map 28: The Sewers – 2 Map 29: Odyssey of Noises – 3 Map 30: The Gateway of Hell – 3 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Bunker - long, tedious, lots of chaingunners and revenants, ammo can run out. This is just a slog. 4. Onslaught - small map that fills up with monsters, that you are underequipped to deal with. The two archviles that can see you pretty much from anywhere is a cherry on top of the cake. 3. Speed - it begins with you fighting cacodemons and pain elementals, while underequipped. The hot start is followed by fights with a bunch of chaingunners, then a trap with teleporting archviles, then fights with a bunch of revenants. But the ending takes the cake. 20 far away chaingunner snipers. No comments required. At least, the cyberdemon can be easily cheesed. 2. Twilight - the entire map is a bunch of non stop fights against chaingunners, revenants and archviles, that take place in narrow corridors with no cover. Oh, and there is four constantly resurrecting chaingunners in the middle area, that you need to revisit multiple times. 1. Go 2 It - yes, it is the hardest Iwad map. There is 13 cyberdemons, 3 of which you have to fight in narrow corridors, over 20 archviles that will resurrect everything, hordes of revenants, pain elemental cloud and more. At least, it gives you enough health and ammo. Revolution! + MIDI Pack (33 maps) Var: 1.5 – 3 Int: 2.167 Official add-on with small, fun maps. The midi pack includes a bonus map 33. Spoiler Map 1: Carnivorous Cargo – 2 (One of the secrets is impossible to get) Map 2: Depression – 1.5 Map 3: Infestation – 2 Map 4: Phobopolis – 2 Map 5: R ‘n R – 2 (One of the secrets is impossible to get) Map 6: Wasted! – 2.5 Map 7: The Valley of Death – 2 Map 8: Rockit – 2 Map 9: Wrath of Man – 2 Map 10: Lab of the Lost – 2 Map 11: The Transporter – 2 Map 12: Utopia – 2.5 Map 13: Amok – 2.5 Map 14: Dead End – 2 Map 15: Battlegroung – 2 Map 31: Raw – 3 Map 32: ‘Zombie or Not to Be’ – 2 Map 16: Utopia Factory – 2 Map 17: The Miners – 2 Map 18: XS – 2.5 Map 19: Xenocracy – 2.5 Map 20: X Marx the Spot – 2 (One of the secrets is impossible to get) Map 21: Hausterium – 2 Map 22: Beyond the Oracle – 2 Map 23: Pyramide of Pain – 2 Map 24: The Sect – 2.5 Map 25: The Prefect – 2.5 Map 26: Phragmobasidium – 2.5 Map 27: Necrosis – 2 Map 28: Exodus – 2 Map 29: Hall of Maim – 2 Map 30: The Forgotten God – 2 Map 33: Revoltlover – 3 X! Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Utopia – there are chaingunners and revenants in annoying places and a cyberdemon fight in kind of a small room. 4. Amok – the ending has you fighting a revenant horde and then an arch-vile duo with that horde to resurrect. 3. XS – lots of damaging floors, tricky teleport puzzle and a fight that throws revenants right in your face. 2. Raw – this one has even more damaging floors than XS, on top of that it has a fight with teleporting arch-vile on a damaging floor and a crazy secret fight where you get teleported into a small area with arch-vile and chaingunnes (snipe most of those chaingunners and quickly go for the secret, before arch-vile resurrected them all). 1. Revoltlover – this one has multiple ledge walks over damaging floor, kind of low on health and ammo, and unleashes an arch-vile duo in a place with bad cover at the end. Harmony (11/15 maps) Var: 0 – 5.5 Int: 3.409/3 This is not as much a Doom mod as just a completely different game on ZDoom engine. The original release of it didn’t even require an Iwad to play. The game takes place after a nuclear war, which led to all men turning into mutants. You play as a woman, named Harmony, who goes on a quest to save her friend, who got kidnapped, and destroy the mutants. More on gameplay changes: Spoiler The game’s combat got completely rebalanced and not in your favor. All the weapons got nerfed (except the pistol, which now has infinite ammo and shoots projectiles), while most of the enemies are buffed versions of Doom’s enemies (except the revenant, who got turned into a slow robot with less damaging projectile). The shotgun got nerfed particularly hard, with less than half max ammo and less ammo from pick-ups (there is no super shotgun by the way). The shotgunner and, especially, the chaingunner on the other hand are an absolute menace with their increased health. There is also the centaur, who has less health than a cyberdemon, but shoots grenades in a way harder to dodge pattern (circle strafing won’t work, unless you are really far away) and these grenades can sometimes stay on the ground and turn into mines. The levels: Spoiler Map 1: Abduction – 2.5 Map 2: Harm’s Way – 3 Map 3: Owt Mood – 3.5 Map 4: Megalapolis – 4.5 Map 5: The Hospital – 2.5 Map 6: The Weapons Factory – 5.5 X! (getting all kills is not possible, kill only the stuff that you can’t sneak past, your only goal is to escape) Map 7: The Underwater Lab – 2.5 Map 8: Airstrip One – 3 Map 9: The Launch Base – 3 Map 10: The Radioactive Zone – 3.5 Map 11: Echidna – 4 In 2023 a version of Harmony based on the Unity port version released for other source ports. This version changes old pistol to more normal pistol with finite ammo and rebalances the levels around it. It also nerfed the centaur, he can no longer place mines, shoots less grenades and has less health. This version introduces multiple bonus levels and also nerfs map 6 so much, that it’s pretty much a different level. Harmony Compatible exclusives: Map 6: The Weapons Factory – 3.5 (getting all kills is even less possible, since you don’t have the infinite ammo pistol) Map 12: Mutopia – 3 Map 13: The Omega – 3 Map 14: -Credits- – 0 Map 15: Bonus: Rematch – 3 Map 31 -Credits- – N/A (Ending map with no exit) Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Owt Mood – the longest level in the game and it’s filled with hitscanners, which are way more dangerous than Doom’s hitscanners. You also have to fight lots of phages, who are basically more aggressive arachnotrons. 4. The Radioactive Zone – this one is filled with damaging floors and predators (those robots that replace revenants). The ending has you locked in a room with a massive horde of them. 3. Echidna – this one has you fighting a centaur in a too small of a room to fight a centaur with no entropy thrower (this game’s version of plasma rifle). Besides that, the first half of the level is hard due to health and ammo problems (especially since you need to save ammo for the centaur). The second half on the other hand is much easier, with both the second centaur and Echidna not being that hard. 2. Megalapolis – long level with not much health, sometimes low ammo, with lots of annoyingly placed hitscanners and a centaur. 1. The Weapons Factory – a centaur only level. There is not enough ammo to kill the centaurs (you have the infinite ammo pistol, but no, just no). You need to get to the end and kill, what stands in your way, just sneak past everything else. There are only five centaurs, you need to kill. The first you fight in a cramped office. The second is stationary and you have decent cover, but he can still kill you, if you aren’t careful. The third is fought, while you are in a tiny trench and he has the height advantage, it’s just about the worst possible scenario for fighting a centaur. The fourth is a stationary centaur that guards the key in a big circular room, with like eight centaurs surrounding you. Run around in a circle, shoot the one, that has the key and hope that you survive. The fifth is at the end and he has an even bigger height advantage and due to him being on the top of the stairs, both of you will have trouble hitting each other. This fight is just weird and either can be the easiest or the hardest, depending on how the game feels at the moment. But besides that, sneaking past the other centaurs, aren’t easy and you also have to deal with some platforming, including an instance of platforming while standing on a damaging floor that pushes you while being shot by lasers that push you. At the very least, it’s not a long level. Also, the Harmony Compatible version of this one removes 3 of the 5 centaurs you need to kill (and that is on top of a general centaur nerf) and removes the laser turret obstacles. But even this nerfed version of the level is no joke either. No Rest for the Living (9 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.389 Official expansion for Xbox 360 port of Doom II, later became an official add-on. Spoiler Map 1: The Earth Base – 2 Map 2: The Pain Labs – 2 Map 3: Canyon of the Dead – 2 Map 4: Hell Mountain – 2 Map 9: March of the Demons – 2.5 Map 5: Vivisection – 3.5 X! Map 6: Inferno of Blood – 3 Map 7: Baron’s Banquet – 2.5 Map 8: Tomb of Malevolence – 2 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Baron’s Banquet – lots of tough enemies, secrets hidden beyond damaging floors (there are radsuits for them though) and a big ambush at the end. 2. Inferno of Blood – same as Baron’s Banquet but harder. At the start just run past everything to SSG and plasma rifle, normal shotgun isn’t enough to deal with enemy hordes. 1. Vivisection – tight level with lots of enemies and some dangerous ambushes, including the red key fight where you get surrounded by monsters from all sides. Double Impact (9 maps) Var: 2 – 6 Int: 3.39 Episode 1 replacement with gigantic maps, that became an official addon. Most of the maps are really long, but never throw anything too insane, so, the most required skill here is consistency. E1M8 is a different type of challenge though. Spoiler E1M1: Maintenance Area – 2 E1M2: Central Computing – 2.5 E1M3: Research Complex – 4.5 E1M9: Operations – 3 E1M4: Hydroponic Facility – 2.5 E1M5: Engineering Station – 2.5 E1M6: Command Center – 3 E1M7: Waste Treatment – 4.5 E1M8: Launch Bay – 6 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Research Complex - one of the longest maps, containg 400+ enemies. Health, armor and even ammo (despite there being hundreds of hitscanners) will constantly be a problem. Shotgunners are just relentless in this map, they will shoot you from everywhere, and in the worst case scenario you might have to melee them. 2. Waste Treatment - The longest/biggest map in the wad with 550+ enemies. This one takes over half an hour to complete, and while unlike №3 it gives you enough resources to deal with everything, it's also way more demanding when it comes to combat (the yellow key ambush is especially cruel). 1. Launch Bay - move over Go 2 It, we have the new hardest official map (maybe, I haven't played other new official addons). If you don't instantly die at the start (which is probably how half of your attempts will end), you will realise that you're up against 4 cyberdemons with not enough ammo to even kill one of them. The entire level is a semi-pacifist nightmare, where you have to run around collecting stuff and pressing switches, while being chased by cyberdemons. But the level is intelligently designed around that, it's designed in a way that the cyberdemons can always corner you. Most of the enemies here can't do anything to a cyberdemon, but you still need to cause lots of infighting to have enough ammo for the cyberdemons. The only useful enemies are the 2 spidermasterminds that, if you're really lucky can kill one cyberdemon, and if you are really unlucky can kill eachother instead. Towards the end of the map you'll have around 50 rockets, 150 plasma, 80 shotgun shells and 300 bullets, have fun finishing cyberdemons with that. Oh, and there aren't really any good places for fighting the cyberdemons, the map just designed with with places for you to get splashed or stuck. Base Ganymede (27 maps) Var: 2 – 4 Int: 2.74 An official add-on with 3 episodes that mix techbase and hell levels. Most of the maps are low on health and ammo, difficulty similar to The Flesh Consumed. Spoiler E1M1: Late Arrival – 2.5 E1M2: The First Base – 2 E1M3: Entering Security Sector – 2.5 E1M9: Power Generator – 2.5 E1M4: Exiting Security Sector – 2.5 E1M5: Hunting Giants – 3 E1M6: Warped Outpost – 3 E1M7: Twitch – 3 E1M8: The Incredible Machine – 2.5 E2M1: Demonic Concrete – 2.5 E2M2: Haunted Research – 2 E2M3: Ganymede’s Core – 2.5 E2M4: Ultramarine – 3 E2M5: The Ground Became Ash – 3.5 E2M9: The Abandoned Temple – 3 E2M6: Hellish Cabaret – 4 E2M7: Synagogue of Doom – 3 E2M8: Strut – 2.5 E3M1: Cursed Complex – 3 E3M2: Monstrous Regiment – 3 E3M3: Amduscias – 4 X! E3M4: New Constructions Ruined – 3 E3M5: The Lost Dimension – 2 E3M6: Volcanic Habitat – 2 E3M9: Extraction Nightmare – 2.5 E3M7: The Keys to Hell – 2.5 E3M8: Spellbound – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Cursed Complex – very low on health and has some ambushes that can quickly drain the little health you have. 4. Ultramarine – full on Tyson level, where you have to punch out nearly everything. Also, telefragging the cyberdemon here is a bit tricky. 3. The Ground Became Ash – long level with low health, somewhat low ammo and a couple of difficult fights. The part where you get jammed between a pinkie horde and a bunch of cacos is very dangerous, same with a cyberemon fight in somewhat small arena. 2. Hellish Cabaret – long, at points low on health and ammo level with two cyberdemons and a spiderdemon. The first cyberdemon is a pain to take out. He is on a platform above the canyon that you need to run through to the other side to get enough ammo. During all this time he can shoot at you, and then you need to clear out the imps, while he’s still doing that, and only then you can kill the cyberdemon. 1. Amduscias – this level is low on ammo, has almost no health, is filled with damaging lava and contains ambushes that can instantly drain the little health you have. At the start, step back onto the beginning teleporter, it will give you a non-secret secret shotgun that you will absolutely need. Every fight is dangerous here, but the hardest one has you fight a caco cloud in a room with barely any space to move, while a bunch of imps also teleport in to deny you space even more. There is also a fight where you get cornered by a bunch of imps and a baron, you need to kill most of the imps and then somehow squeeze past the baron out of there. Back to Saturn X Episode 1: Get Out Of My Stations (27 maps) Var: 0 – 4.5 Int: 3.288 Popular wad that later became an official add-on. Most of the levels are long and difficult techbases. Spoiler Map 1: Back to Saturn X Radio Report – 2.5 Map 2: Postal Blowfish – 2 Map 3: The Room Taking Shape – 2.5 Map 4: A Good Flying Bird – 3 Map 5: Total Exposure – 4 Map 6: Mix Up The Satellite – 4.5 Map 7: Metal Mothers – 3 Map 8: Get Out Of My Stations I – 0 Map 9: Some Drilling Implied – 3 Map 10: A Proud And Booming Industry – 3.5 Map 11: The Colossus Crawls West – 3 Map 12: Underground Initiations – 4.5 Map 13: I’ll Replace You With Machines – 4.5 Map 14: Big Chief Chinese Restaurant – 4.5 Map 15: Tricyclic Looper – 4.5 Map 31: Optical Hopscotch – 4 Map 32: The Hard Way – 3 Map 16: Get Out Of My Stations II – 0 Map 17: Navigating Flood Regions – 4 Map 18: Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday) – 4.5 Map 19: Bingo Pool Hall of Blood – 4.5 Map 20: U.S. Mustard Company – 4.5 Map 21: Failed Experiments & Trashed Aircraft – 3 Map 22: Gonna Never Have to Die – 4.5 Map 23: Get Out Of My Stations III – 0 Map 24: Tough Skin River – 4.5 X! Map 25: The Unsinkable Fats Domino – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 6 hardest maps: Spoiler 6-3. A tie between Mix Up The Satellite, Underground Initiations, Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday) and Gonna Never Have to Die – a lot of the levels in these wad feel very similar, difficulty included. These four levels are all long techbases with difficult arch-vile and revenant ambushes, and they are kind of around the same level of difficuly. Underground Initiations is the longest but also the most tame where it comes to combat, Mix Up The Satellite is probably the most dangerous, but also the shortest, Cyclone Utilities has the biggest amount of dangerous enemies, but it’s also generous with power ups, Gonna Never Have to Die has the least amount of revs and archies but also has probably the deadliest traps. Idk, which one is harder. 2. Bingo Pool Hall of Blood – here is a level that isn’t like the others. It’s a city (sort of) level filled with arch-viles and lots of other foes. Attacking them head on is a death sentence, instead you need to be very quick and chain a bunch of invulnerabilities to grab a BFG and ammo for it. That is not an easy thing to do, you don’t have enough time to stay invulnerable for the entirety of weapon and ammo hunt. Once you do that, the rest is mostly clean up, except for the part where four more arch-viles get released onto city streets. 1. Tough Skin River – another long level, this one is techbase mixed with natural scenery. The beginning is a little challenging (especially the trap with like 100 imps), but then you go to the cave and… The red key fight needs to be seen to be believed. A caco cloud, over 100 fodder enemies, mancubi horde, revenant horde, multiple arch-viles and two cybers wave by wave fill not that big of an arena. There is no BFG by the way. After that battle you are not done, because there is an ambush with four arch-viles at the end. No End in Sight (38 maps) Var: 1.5 – 5.5 Int: 2.974 Big and complicated Ultimate Doom megawad. Don’t play this one blindly, if you want to max, because it’s filled with missable one try secrets. Spoiler E1M1: Terminal – 2 E1M2: Slime Trails – 2.5 E1M3: Logistics Center – 2.5 E1M9: Quarantine Silos – 3 E1M4: Abandoned Factory – 3 E1M5: Warehouse – 2.5 E1M6: Power Core – 2 E1M7: Biosphere – 2.5 E1M8: Enigma – 1.5 (getting all kills isn’t possible) E2M1: Receiving Station – 2 E2M2: Proving Grounds – 2 E2M3: Contagion Engine – 2.5 E2M4: Derelict Vessel – 2.5 E2M5: Deep Storage – 2.5 E2M9: Castle of Illusion – 3 E2M6: Poison Control – 2.5 E2M7: Gateway Labs – 3.5 E2M8: Rubicon – 1.5 E3M1: Gates of Hades – 2.5 E3M2: Emblem of Destruction – 2.5 E3M3: The Grinder – 3 E3M4: Fortuna Bridge – 2.5 E3M5: Forgotten Caverns – 3 E3M6: Anomaly Retribution – 4.5 E3M9: Lake of Fire – 2.5 E3M7: Netherworld Citadel – 5.5 E3M8: Requiem – 3 E4M1: Nexus – 3.5 E4M2: Parallels – 4.5 E4M9: Vile Cross – 4 E4M3: Square Zero – 2 E4M4: Wartorn Precinct – 4.5 E4M5: The Blood Beneath – 3 E4M6: Sanctuary of Filth – 5.5 X! E4M0: RGC Alpha – 5 E4M7: Vacuum Consortium – 4 E4M8: No End In Sight – 3 E1M0: Tom’s Halls – 1.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Parallels – this one took me an hour to complete it’s the most complicated map in the wad. The hardest part is at the start, when you need to be careful with your ammo and health, because there isn’t much of it. Once you get all the weapons and gain access to most of the map, it’s time to clean up and find all the secrets. It’s also time to deal with the hardest fight – the big ambush in the techbase dimension. 4. Anomaly Retribution – big and long map with lots of monsters and damaging floors. I strongly recommend to go get the BFG and kill the two cyberdemons guarding it as soon as possible, because it’s easily the hardest part of the map. The rest of the map is no joke either with long stretches of the level that have no health, fights on damaging floors and a ton of barons and cacodemons everywhere. The last key is also guarded by another cyberdemon. 3. RGC Alpha – this one starts innocently enough, but then throws somewhat difficult fights at you. And then, at the end it you’re faced with very difficult platforming. Firstly, you need to hop on small pillars across the moat of damaging floor, hard but you won’t get that much damage if you fall. Secondly, you need to quickly do a couple of SR40 jumps across thin platforms that start to lower, when you step on them, to get one of the secrets, and you get only 1 try at this. Thirdly, to get to the exit, you need to jump onto a lowering lift and jump through a window over the same damaging moat again and it’s somewhat tricky. But yeah, that secret is just cruel. 2. Netherworld Citadel – another very long level with lots of monsters, in fact it’s the most populated level in the wad. It’s also the most damaging floor filled level in the wad and it doesn’t have that much radsuits, and it’s a big level that relies on exploration and has you running on these damaging floors constantly. This level also features missable secrets that you need to platform to get to, and one of those platforming section has those platform that lower when you stand on them, but this time, there are enemies on those platforms (you can snipe most of them, before doing the platforming sections, but not all of them). There are also: a cyberdemon fight, a fight, where you get sandwiched between two baron hordes, platforming on slow, damaging elevators and more. 1. Sanctuary of Filth – this is a very open map that takes over 50 minutes to complete, there are 12 cyberdemons and 8 spiderdemons and your goal is to carefully manage your ammo, health, armor and power ups to kill them all. This map is just as complicated as Parallels, except it’s way deadlier. It would take forever to describe everything you need to do in this level, but most of the cyberdemons and some of the Spiderdemons are positioned in not very convenient spots. REKKR (36 maps) Var 1 – 4 Int: 2.528 A viking themed total conversion. All monsters and weapons are replaced with new ones. It’s in fact so different that later it got rereleased as its own separate game. That version added a different episode 4 (old episode 4 became episode 5) and later got a DLC episode 6. Spoiler E1M1: Sinking – 1 E1M2: Down – 2 E1M3: Flurrious – 2.5 E1M9: Pop Some Hops – 2 E1M4: Blade Swamp – 2.5 E1M5: Fielding – 3 E1M6: Rampart – 2 E1M7: Dripstone Wharf – 4 X! E1M8: Hazardous Coast – 2 E2M1: On Fire – 3 E2M2: Drained – 3.5 E2M3: Sequester – 2.5 E2M4: Metal – 2.5 E2M5: Marketplace – 2 E2M9: Addle – 3.5 E2M6: Magnus Avenue – 2 E2M7: Mistory – 2.5 (a few enemies sometimes fail to teleport in) E2M8: Audience – 2 E3M1: Isolation – 2.5 E3M2: Claustrophilia – 3 E3M3: Dungeon – 3 E3M4: Acrophobinox – 2.5 E3M5: Shine On – 2.5 E3M6: Seeing Red – 3 E3M9: Begin – 2.5 E3M7: Siege – 3 E3M8: Rok – 3 E4M1: Delusion – 2.5 E4M2: Ice Melt – 2.5 E4M9: home.wad – 2 E4M3: Quick – 2.5 E4M4: Window Pain – 3 E4M5: Mal Arena – 2 E4M6: Cliffusion – 2 E4M7: Dance Macabre – 2.5 E4M8: EyeBrawl – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Claustrophilia – a lot of fights in tight spaces and lots of crushers. Somewhat low on health. 4. Seeing Red – a level that’s just somewhat hard all the way through. Enemy placement is more dangerous than usual and there are a couple instances of platforming over death pits. 3. Drained – for about half the level you are stuck with just the bow (this wad’s equivalent to pistol), and the map is low on health and ammo. The second half gets easier, but it’s no cakewalk either. 2. Addle – there is barely enough ammo to beat the level and there is no wode and no axe (berserk and chainsaw replacements). Use as much infighting as possible and don’t let the flying eyes resurrect any other enemies. The final fight unleashes an army of mean imps (flying, somewhat tanky, fireball shooting enemies that explode when they die). You need to be very aggressive in that fight and try to cause them to damage each other with their explosions as much as possible. 1. Dripstone Wharf – an absolute marathon of a level, it’s over 40 minutes long and features multiple difficult large fights, one of them right at the very end. Deathless (36 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.111 Official add-on with small, fun levels, for the most part about as hard as original Doom. Spoiler E1M1: Contagion – 2 E1M2: Laid to Rust – 1 E1M3: Sluice Gate – 1.5 E1M9: Gods – 1.5 E1M4: Underflow – 2 E1M5: Outage – 2 E1M6: Burial Ground – 2 E1M7: Mainstay – 2 E1M8: Embolon – 2.5 E2M1: Hydroelectrics – 2 E2M2: Snake Alley – 2 E2M3: Greenhouse – 1.5 E2M4: Virulent – 2 E2M5: Repugnant Gardens – 2 E2M9: Slain – 2 E2M6: The Mad Mistress – 2.5 E2M7: City of Coal – 2 E2M8: Dukes – 2.5 E3M1: Open Wound – 2 E3M2: Salted Earth – 2 E3M3: Forlorn Morgue – 2 E3M4: Vestibule – 2 E3M5: Soul Drinker – 2 E3M6: Dire Prayers – 2 (4 if you want to go for the secret exit) E3M9: The Wastes – 3 E3M7: Wormwood Cathedral – 2.5 E3M8: Ire – 3.5 X! E4M1: Inhuman Remains – 1.5 E4M2: Fetid Site – 2 E4M9: Under – 2 E4M3: Corroded – 2.5 E4M4: Incision – 2 E4M5: Serene Shadows – 2 E4M6: Vertigo – 2.5 E4M7: Sea of Entrails – 3 E4M8: Desecrators – 2.5 E1: Lifeless – 3 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Wormwood Cathedral – lots of damaging floors and slight ammo problems at the beginning. 4. Dukes – a fight with two cyberdemons in not that big of an arena. 3. The Wastes – a way harder remake of The Waste Tunnels with a ton of barons, dangerous ambushes and a deadly cyberdemon you need to sneak past. 2. Sea of Entrails – non linear level, where you are constantly being sniped by a cyberdemon in (sort of) the centre of the map. 1. Ire – this one is just a mess, there are two spiderdemons and a ton of barons. You don’t have enough ammo to kill all the barons, so you need to make them infight with the spiders, but it’s really awkward and the spiderdemons can easily shred you. There is also no good cover to fight the spiders, and ammo is spread all over the map. 0. Dire Prayers – the secret exit requires a rocket jump. SIGIL (9 maps) Var: 2 – 4.5 Int: 3.056 Romero’s 5th episode is nothing like episodes 1 through 4. It’s considerably harder and, while mostly using old textures, looks almost completely different. Spoiler E5M1: Baphomet’s Demense – 2 E5M2: Sheol – 2.5 E5M3: Cages of the Damned – 2.5 E5M4: Paths of Wretchedness – 3 E5M5: Abaddon’s Void – 3 E5M6: Unspeakable Persecution – 3 E5M9: Realm of Iblis – 4 E5M7: Nightmare Underworld – 4.5 X! E5M8: Halls of Perdition – 3 Top 6 hardest maps: Spoiler 6 – 3. Paths of Wretchedness, Abaddon’s Void, Unspeakable Persecution and Halls of Perdition – all of these maps look extremely though, when playing blind, but not that bad, when you know, what to do. It’s just a matter of finding all secrets, choosing right paths and cheesing every cyberdemon. 2. Realm of Iblis – and here is a map, where you can’t cheese the cyberdemon and have to fight him head on, except you barely have enough ammo and you can’t land good shots on him without risk, and this map is also filled with random crushesr everywhere, that isn’t cyberdemon’s place. 1. Nightmare Underworld – as a penultimate level, it revisits the episode’s many themes and throws everything Sigil has to offer at you: deadly traps, dangerous platforming, lack of ammo at certain points, lack of health at certain points. Well, health isn’t exactly rare, but it can drain very fast. The cyberdemon can thankfully be cheesed again, but everything else, not so much. Oh, and it’s way longer, than any other level in Sigil. Doom Zero (32 maps) Var: 1 – 4.5 Int: 2.75 Somewhat strange official addon is a mix of nostalgic throwbacks, platforming (thankfully not over death pits), puzzles and some other interesting stuff. Difficulty is on par with Evilution. This wad has multiple versions with some significant changes to the maps. I played version 3.0. Spoiler Map 1: High-Rise Roof – 1 Map 2: Toxic Tower – 2 Map 3: Marble Zone – 2.5 Map 4: Triple Town – 2 Map 5: The Pits – 3 Map 6: Echo Halls – 1.5 Map 7: Claustrophobia – 3 Map 8: Module Base – 2 Map 9: Ancient Archives – 3 Map 10: Leap Gates – 3.5 Map 11: Too Close to Home – 2 Map 12: Underland – 2.5 Map 13: Tease – 2.5 Map 14: Crust – 4 Map 15: Peak Facility – 3 Map 31: Meat – 3 Map 32: Dark Roof – 1 Map 16: Natural Supply – 3.5 Map 17: The Testing Labs – 2.5 Map 18: Atom Transporter – 3.5 Map 19: Quantum Processing – 4.5 X! Map 20: Familiar Face – 2 Map 21: Starbourn – 4 Map 22: The Cracks – 3 Map 23: Atmos Caves – 2.5 Map 24: Booster Hub – 4 Map 25: Abandoned Compound – 3 Map 26: Fortification – 3 Map 27: The Junction – 3.5 Map 28: Suspension – 3.5 Map 29: The Rematch – 2.5 Map 30: The Sarcophagus – 1.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Suspension – this level is long, low on health at points and spams the wad’s signature new monster: alpha soul (a lost soul that rapid fires cacodemon fireballs). 4. Starbourn – long, somewhat low on health level that starts with you fighting lots of alpha souls with a pistol. There is also part, where you have to fight a revenant horde with just shotgun and chaingun. 3. Crust – the only slaughtermap in the wad. Prepare to fight a ton of mancubi, revenants and arachnotrons. This level also likes to release arch-viles in big, almost coverless room. 2. Booster Hub – long level with lots of hard fights. No particular moment stands out here in terms of difficulty (except maybe that trap with revenants, specters and imps near the end). It’s just hard all the way through. 1. Quantum Processing – Doom Zero’s magnum opus, this level takes around 40 minutes to complete. It has the hardest platforming, the hardest puzzles and the hardest combat. In every fight here the monsters can ambush, corner, surround or overwhelm you with numbers, and this level is not generous with health and armor. Syringe (7 maps) Var: 2.5 – 4.5 Int: 3.917 An official addon with long, difficult maps. There is an insane plot about using a giant syringe to revive a dying universe, but it’s only relevant to last two maps. Spoiler Map 1: The Well – 2.5 Map 2: Hell Spoke – 4 Map 3: The Undergrowth – 4.5 Map 4: Banana Export – 4.5 Map 5: Blast Off! – 3.5 Map 6: Acheron’s Needle – 4.5 X! Map 7: … – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. The Undergrowth – long level with tons of revenants, arch-viles and chaingunners. There is also a surprisingly difficult imp trap, where you are surrounded by like 100 imps and have to fights your way through them. 2. Banana Export – long level with tons of damaging floors and two very deadly fights, one involving a spiderdemon and two arch-viles (grab the secret BFG before blue key, otherwise you’re screwed) and another involving two cyberdemons and a caco cloud. 1. Acheron’s Needle – the longest and toughest map in Syringe. This one is similar to other two in terms of difficulty, but it’s less generous with ammo and has crusher platforming. The hardest fights this time are: a battle with a cacodemon cloud and revenant horde with no cover, and a battle with two cyberdemons and two spiderdemons with little cover (infighting is surprisingly hard to start there). Arrival (11 maps) Var: 2.5 – 4 Int: 3.3 Official addon with long, difficult maps and lots of arch-viles. Looks way harder than it actually is. Spoiler Map 1: Waste Abandonment – 3 Map 2: Saltstone Sanctuary – 3.5 Map 3: Water Putrefier – 3.5 Map 4: Free Press – 3 Map 5: The Spectre’s Manse – 3 Map 6: The Ledge – 3.5 Map 7: Shrine of Moss – 2.5 Map 8: Bloodstone Citadel – 3.5 Map 9: The Writhing Altar – 4 X! Map 10: Arrival – N/A (ending map with no exit) Map 32: Dad Bod – 3.5 (4 of the enemies are impossible to kill) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. The Ledge – starts kind of tricky, has a somewhat difficult cyberdemon fight, and then at the end you have to fight two more cyberdemons and an arch-vile that later joins in. 2. Saltstone Sanctuary – stingier with ammo than other maps, also has a triple arch-vile fight with not great cover and a dangerous double arch-vile trap. 1. The Writhing Altar – over half an hour long map with lots of arch-viles and revenants. It, thankfully, gives you a lot of health, armor and ammo, but it also saves the hardest fight with cyberdemon, two arch-viles and a horde of revenants for the end. Also, don’t fall off in the ending area, it’s a death pit down there. Anomaly Report (33 maps) Var: 1 – 4.5 Int: 2.803 Pretty solid official addon, levels are similar to ones from the four iwads, with a bit of early 2000s slaughter and some doomcute thrown in. Spoiler Map 1: Aerials – 1 Map 2: Monkey Wrench – 2 Map 3: Grasslands – 2 Map 4: Watchtowers – 2 Map 5: Canyon Station – 2 Map 6: Crosswalk – 2.5 Map 7: The Killing Arena – 2.5 Map 8: Tanker – 2.5 Map 9: Los Alamos – 2 Map 10: Pendleton – 2.5 Map 11: Countdown – 2.5 Map 12: Water Temple – 2 Map 13: The Crucible – 3 Map 14: Fortress Floodgates – 3 Map 15: Colosseum – 4 Map 31: Echoes Redux – 4.5 X! Map 32: When in Romero – 2.5 Map 16: Wrecking Base – 2.5 Map 17: Rebel Keep – 3 Map 18: Sunset Villa – 3 Map 19: Pavilion – 3 Map 20: Diamond Apocalypse – 4 Map 21: Highway Havoc – 2 Map 22: Technochasm – 3 Map 23: Deja Vu – 2 Map 24: Sting Labs – 3.5 Map 25: Nevermore – 4 Map 26: Valley of Shadows – 3 Map 27: The Trenches – 4 Map 28: Nightfire – 3 Map 29: End Times – 4.5 Map 30: Anomaly – 2 Map 33: X+Y – 3.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Colosseum – a bunch of arena fights, except some of the arenas aren’t circles that you can just strafe around. There are two difficult with no cover and a ton of mancubi and a tricky stair fight with revenants and barons. 4. Diamond Apocalypse – hardest start in the wad. You then have to fight arch-viles and revenants in complicated, cramped rooms. There is also a bunch of dangerous traps, including one that pretty much requires plasma and a megasphere. 3. Nevermore – and here comes the slaughter. This one has revenant hordes, arch-viles, a cyberdemon and all the usual stuff. It’s one of the more tame slaughtermaps, but it’s still difficult. 2. End Times – this one is just weird. The main difficulty comes from trying to clean up the main area, but the monsters are like perfectly covering each other and the place is kind of big and open, while simultaneously being small and cramped. This results in you needing to slowly pick monsters one by one, while multiple of them can shoot you at the same time from different sides. After the main area is done, there are a couple of dangerous traps (especially the one, where you get teleported into a room with four mancubi surrounding you), but it’s not that bad. 1. Echoes Redux – here’s a less tame slaughtermap. The beginning with over 100 cacodemons gives you two invulns and it’s still surprisingly difficult. Later you’ll have to deal with revenant hordes, revenant traps, hitscanner traps and a double cyberdemon fight. Scientist 2023 (20 maps) Var: 1.5 – 3 Int: 2.425 Official add-on with a couple new enemies and somewhat long maps. Plasma weapons got replaced with new ones. Spoiler Map 1: The Scientist – 1.5 Map 2: Kapital – 2.5 Map 3: Prosperity – 2.5 Map 4: Refinery – 2.5 Map 5: Reservoir – 2.5 Map 6: Shotgun Sequencing – 2 Map 7: Dark and Cold – 2 Map 8: Frostbite – 2.5 Map 9: Bio Lab – 2.5 Map 10: Frozen With Fear – 2.5 Map 11: Pure as Snow – 2.5 Map 12: Crown of Thorns – 2.5 Map 13: Scorpio – 3 Map 14: Scientific Heresy – 2.5 Map 15: Forbidden Knowledge – 2.5 Map 16: Price of Progress – 2.5 Map 17: Alchemical Warfare – 3 X! Map 18: Army of the Undead – 2 Map 19: Crown of Creation – 2.5 Map 20: Scientist’s Doom – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5/4. A tie between Kapital and Frostbite. Kapital is a long level with lots of damaging floors, a dangerous crusher trap and a spiderdemon fight at the end. Frostbite is a long level with a difficult spiderdemon fight at the start and lots of somewhat dangerous fights later. 3. Crown of Creation – a long level with a triple spideremon fight, a double arch-vile fight and a couple other somewhat dangerous fight. 2. Scorpio – one of the shorter levels, but it’s low on health and full of chaingunners, shotgunners and revenants that can quickly drain the little health you have. 1. Alchemical Warfare – another long level, but this one has harder combat all the way through compared to others and is somewhat low on health in the beginning. There is also a part where you need to drop into a hole with an arch-vile and a revenant, and quickly kill them with this new grenade weapon (which is a BFG replacement that is awkward to use and does less damage). SIGIL II (9 maps) Var: 2 – 4.5 Int: 3 Romero’s official 6th episode. Don’t play this blindly on UV, secrets are borderline mandatory, obscure and missable. Spoiler E6M1: Cursed Darkness – 4 E6M2: Violent Hatred – 2.5 E6M3: Twilight Desolation – 3 (secret exit requires a rocket jump or a precise running jump over a death pit to get, but it isn’t counted as a secret, so it’s optional) E6M9: Shattered Homecoming – 2.5 E6M4: Fragments of Sanity – 3 E6M5: Wrathful Reckoning – 2.5 E6M6: Vengeance Unleashed – 4.5 X! E6M7: Descent Into Terror – 3 E6M8: Abyss of Despair – 2 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Descent Into Terror – the map is long and there is an awkwardly placed cyberdemon that you need to kill near the end. You need to get the radsuit, run through a big building, jump to the cyberdemon lava pool, while he is shooting at you, and then quickly BFG him in not the best arena for a cyberdemon fight. At least, the rest of the map is nothing difficult, besides, maybe, the SR40 jump for a secret. 2. Cursed Darkness – this one is low on health, low on ammo, while somehow simultaneously having lots of hitscanners that can chip away the little health you got, and has a cyberdemon that you can’t kill until the end. 1. Vengeance Unleashed – this one has 3 cyberdemons, and every one of them is annoying to deal with. The first cyberdemon guards the maze, and you need to platform on the walls of that maze to get items. You need to, first, platform to get the radsuit, which you need to get the BFG near the start, and then you need to platform to get the invuln, which you need to kill the cyberdemon upclose to save ammo. The second cyberdemon appears after you grab the yellow key and while he himself isn’t that dangerous, you need to save BFG ammo for him and this map isn’t generous with ammo, so some infighting and punching out barons is recommended. Finally, at the end, you fight the third cyberdemon in a small room, and he has the high ground. Also, this map, while not really long, isn’t short either. Wads: 1 Bad Wad (11 maps) Var: 2.5 – 7 Int: 3.7 Despite the title, this is not a jokewad. It’s a colorful minimalist wad that is way harder than it looks. The levels are small, but they don’t give you any health. Spoiler Map 1: Key Hunt – 3 Map 2: Cave Story – 3 Map 3: Howl’s Moving Castle – 2.5 Map 4: Bad to the Bone – 3.5 Map 5: Amongst the Stars – 3 Map 6: We Live in a Society – 4.5 Map 7: Amethyst – 3.5 Map 8: Battle Block – 3 Map 9: Quagsire – 4 Map 10: Into Darkness – 7 X! Map 11: The End – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Quagsire – a small slaughtermap with revenants, arch-viles and a spiderdemon. This is the level, where lack of health really becomes a problem. 2. We Live in a Society – precise SR40 platforming over a death pit, and you have to do it twice. At least, this is a very short level. 1. Into the Darkness – there is a fight with two arch-viles and a horde of revenants with bad cover, and then a fight with four arch-viles and more revenants with bad cover, and then a fight with two cyberdemons in a small arena. This level is way harder than it sounds, you aren’t given any plasma weapons, until the final fight, meaning you have to kill arch-viles, protected by revenant hordes with rockets and ssg. You aren’t low on ammo, but you aren’t high on it either, so you really need to think, where to shoot. This level is very simplistic, but very deadly, cover is awkward to use, and enemies can easily overwhelm you with numbers, and, just like in almost every other level, you are given no health at all. 1 Monster Megawad (25 maps) Var: 1 – 5 Int: 3.1 A unique wad with 1 monster type per map. Spoiler Map 1: Trooper Trauma – 2 Map 2: Hangar of Evil – 2 Map 3: Sergeant Center – 2.5 Map 4: Imptech Rampage – 2.5 Map 5: Infested – 3.5 Map 6: Claws of the Imp – 3 Map 7: Arachnophobia – 2.5 Map 8: Buckshot Waltz – 3 Map 9: Chamber of Souls – 2.5 Map 10: Un-named118 – 2.5 Map 11: Mausoleum – 2 Map 12: Baron Citadel – 3 Map 13: Workin’ on the Chain Gang – 4 Map 14: Crucified Factory – 2.5 Map 15: Spook House – 3 Map 31: Castle Dorkenstein – 2 Map 16: Mancublood – 2.5 Map 17: Zumma – 4.5 Map 18: Knightmire – 2.5 Map 19: Cacophony – 5 X! Map 20: Bony Encounter – 4.5 Map 21: Cyberswat – 4.5 Map 22: Triad of the Minds – 3 Map 23: Musical Bar–B–Que – 4.5 (all kills are not possible) Map 24: The One God – 4 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Cyberswat – 10 cyberdemons. Most of them aren’t even that hard to deal with, but the level is somewhat low on health and you probably aren’t recovering from a rocket in the face. 4. Bony Encounter – over 90 revenants. This one uses revenants as both hard to hit snipers and in your face ambushes. Also, there is a onetime secret that requires SR40. 3. Zumma – 370 chaingunners – this is Stronghold on steroids. The amount of ambushes that can shred you in seconds is insane. There is also a difficult platforming section over damaging lava. 2. Musical Bar–B–Que – this one is just unpleasant. It’s an arch-vile level with really awkward to use cover. This map is completely broken, and almost half of the enemies don’t appear (which hilariously makes this level slightly better). 1. Cacophony – how is a cacodemon based level harder than the ones with arch-viles, revenants, chaingunners and cyberdemons? It’s absolutely gigantic, takes over an hour to complete, has over 400 cacodemons and is really low on ammo. You will absolutely need to chainsaw a couple dozen cacodemons and make your BFG shots as efficient as possible. At least it’s generous with health, but that won’t save you from getting cornered by cacos. Rabbithole: Spoiler If you search for a UV Max of this wad, you’ll find a 100% kills completion of broken map 23. What’s up with that? So, apparently at one point one of this wad’s creators released a fixed version of this wad in a random forum post that is now gone. But before it was gone it was downloaded by a bunch of speedrunners, who cut all the maps that weren’t affected by the fixes to econom space (why? It’s like a few megabytes). And then the speedrunners fixed more bugs themselves. So, the fixed map 23 now exists only in an unofficial speedruning version of this wad. That map is way harder and way worse. 1-Hour Speedmapping 2018 (33 maps) Var: 1 - 7 Int: 2.985 Exactly what title says - maps made in 1 hour. Difficulty is super inconsistent. Spoiler Map 1: Tasty Spleen Fisting – 4 Map 2: Goop Juice – 4 Map 3: Icky Vicky – 5 Map 4: Eden at Rest – 1.5 Map 5: Burning Fistula – 3.5 Map 6: Funkenheimer – 2.5 Map 7: Showdown at Gravel Co. – 3 Map 8: Joe is Dead – 3 Map 9: Where the Mind Wanders – 3 Map 10: Between the Job – 2 Map 11: Carotid Insanity – 2.5 Map 12: Freight Base – 2.5 Map 13: Fwoot Punch – 3 Map 14: Hamlet – 3 (all kills aren't possible) Map 15: Fist of Justice – 3 (no secret exit here) Map 16: Brick and Light – 4 Map 17: Something Something Explosions – 3 Map 18: Six Pillars – 2.5 Map 19: Smallfry – 4.5 Map 20: Huh What It’s Too Loud – 3 Map 21: Makiko – 2 Map 22: Acridity – 3.5 (One of the kills is not possible) Map 23: Dracula – 2 Map 24: Dropped – 2.5 Map 25: Slad Tech – 2 Map 26: Rocko – 1 (I don’t know how to get the secret) Map 27: Loop at the Nukage Plant – 2 Map 28: Thomas Mustard-Stain – 2 Map 29: Lure of the Grave – 2.5 Map 30: Garden of Delights – 2.5 (3.5 or something, if you want to kill cyberdemon in the death exit) Map 31: For Archi – 4.5 Map 32: For Zzul – 7 X! Map 33: Cyberdemon Massacre – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Goop Juice - A small and very cramped map. Sometimes you have to fight strong enemies with almost no place to dodge. Also, there is a sniping cyberdemon locking most of the map, and later he gets released, so you have to awkwardly shoot him from above with a shotgun. 4. Smallfry - small slaughtermap. Starts really hard, with you having to lure a horde of revenants into infighting the cyberdemons, and then finish the cybers with super shotgun. Later you, thankfully, get a BFG to fight two waves of revenants, archviles and cyberdemon pairs. And this map isn't generous with health. 3. For Archi - the beginning here is just awful. You have to grab four shotguns under four fast crushers to kill the baron. And when I sy fast crushers, I mean it. You need some precise SR40 movement to not get crushed. Then you have to fight a cyberdemon in a tight corridor. Then, after some fights with revenants, imps and an arch-vile, you have to do a bunch of platforming over an inescapable death pit. The last section has you moving down zombieman in a corridor, while running away from a cyberdemon, then it turns into slaughter, with 2 cyberdemons and lots of pinkies and zombieman, and when you deal with that, a horde of revenants gets released. 2. Icky Vicky - this one is just pure chaos. You get swarmed with almost 100 monsters at once, including four arch-viles. Grab weapons, try to kill two arch-viles with one BFG shot you're given. And then, kill everything else, somehow. 1. For Zzul - ...Zzul is the creator of Dimensions... It starts with you rocketing small horde of revenants. It's not that bad, unless the revenants decide to shoot a volley of homing rockets, or decide not to shoot and just swarm you. Then you have to fight a trio of cyberdemons - two on the floor, one standing on a higher platform. You are given 6 BFG shots and later 2 more to deal with them. Here is the problem: the map is too small to deal with 3 cyberdemons, you will get stuck or splashed a lot. And here is another of this map's quirks - there is no health or armor here. And the BFG shots aren't given to you for free, you have to run around cyberdemons and grab the BFGs. The 2 later ones require you to press a switch located in the worst place possible, so you need to lure a cyberdemon outside to do it (you need to kill one of them first, since luring out two at once is pretty much suicide. After dealing with the 2 cybers on the floor it's time for the third one. Go upstairs, shoot the switch and then try to make cybie infight with the four arch-viles, you have just released. Wait for a few minutes until archies severely damage him, then lure cyberdemon to kill them. Then grab ammo and finish him off with BFG and rockets. Try to have at least one BFG shot left. Then comes the platforming, specifically, the hardest platforming I've ever (as of 2021) seen in Doom. Shoot the switch that raises a miniscule platform for about a second, jump onto that platform, turn and shoot another switch that raises another miniscule platform for about a second, move to the side of a miniscule platform you are on and then non stop precisely SR40 to another miniscule platform, then to a platform with the blue key. Uhm... when I named difficulty levels here kaizo, I didn't think that I ever encounter a literal kaizo tier platforming in Doom. There is no death pits, but you can run out of bullets. I absolutely recommend to practice this part before any real attempts at beating the map. Then you open the blue door, see the ammo and meet 20 arch-viles. Pre fire your one remaning BFG shot and grab stacked backpacks that give you full cells. There is no good cover, and the only ways to hide from arch-viles are either run in an arch-vile infested room, to hide from another arch-vile infested room, or use slight curvature of one of the walls to hide. And don't try to hide in the staircase, the arch-viles will get to the revenant corpses and overwhelm you. If you beat the arch-viles, you win. If.............. 3 Heures d’agonie (32 maps) Var: 1 – 6 Int: 2.90625 French speedmapping compilation, lots of very unique maps. Spoiler Map 1: Upsylon-Synth – 2.5 Map 2: Unite de Traitement – 1 Map 3: Cubicombe – 2 Map 4: Petite Mort – 3.5 Map 5: Experience Interdite – 2 Map 6: Embuscades – 3 Map 7: Chambre des Supplices – 1.5 Map 8: Canyon – 4 Map 9: Zone85 – 2 Map 10: Surchauffe – 3 Map 11: Obscurite – 3 Map 12: Fourbe – 4 Map 13: Le Souterrain – 4 Map 14: L’Arene de la Douleur – 3 Map 15: Secteur Delta – 3 Map 31: Casemate – 2 Map 32: Ta Mitralleuse – 3 Map 16: Metalocauste – 2.5 Map 17: Place Abandonnee – 4.5 Map 18: Stupide Dilemme – 2.5 Map 19: Terrible Technologies – 4.5 Map 20: Archeologie – 3 Map 21: On t’as eu ! – 2 Map 22: Desastre – 2 Map 23: Apres Les Restes – 3.5 Map 24: Ruin-Tech – 2.5 Map 25: Le “Q” – 2.5 Map 26: Le Village Maudit – 2.5 Map 27: Sang Innocent – 4 Map 28: Impulsion – 2.5 Map 29: Dernier Voeu – 6 X! Map 30: Quarante-deux – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Le Souterrain – somewhat difficult slaughtermap. There is a hard fight, where you are locked in a relatively small room with lots of enemies. There is also a double arch-vile fight and an awkward cyberdemon fight. 4. Sang Innocent – very cramped slaughtermap. The beginning is deadly. When the entire map starts get filled with enemies, hide on the blue key platform and rocket them from there. The final fight has a bunch of arch-viles showing up to resurrect everything, just rocket them. 3. Terrible Technologies – not enough ammo. I had to kill arch-viles through infighting and nearly punch out an arachnotron. There is also a horrible trap with hell knights and chaingunners in a very small room. 2. Place Abandonnee – not enough ammo again, but this time it’s even worse. Chainsaw everything in the beginning, try to use as much infighting as possible, maybe chainsaw pain elementals and lost souls, and you’ll barely have enough ammo to kill two cyberdemons at the end. Also, there isn’t much health and the absolutely necessary rocket launcher is randomly hidden in a pit of poison. 1. Dernier Voeu – massive, chaotic slaughtermap. Get to the BFG as fast as possible, go get ammo for it from two areas over slime lakes and then… just do whatever you want to kill all the stuff. This map is pure chaos; the arch-viles in open fields are horrible to deal with, there are turret cyberdemons that could snipe you from very far away, and you will often be forced to run straight at or even through the monster hordes. 10 Sectors (32 maps) Var: 2 – 6 Int: 3.0625 Just like the title says, a wad that limits the number of sectors. Surprisingly, due to Boom shenanigans, there are some fairly long and complex maps. Spoiler Map 1: KUKLOPPE – 2 Map 2: HANGAR – 2 Map 3: ASTRAL DEFORMITY – 2.5 Map 4: 60 FEET UNDER – 2.5 Map 5: INTO THE FRAY – 2 Map 6: PAIN MANOR – 2.5 Map 7: DEATH VALLEY FORTRESS – 3.5 Map 8: FRENZY – 4.5 Map 9: UAC BASE – 2.5 Map 10: TENSION – 3 Map 11: DECADE-ENCE – 2.5 Map 12: A PLACE OF WARSHIP – 2.5 Map 13: SUMMERCORE – 3 Map 14: LIFT TENSION – 3 Map 15: COMPUTER COMPLEX – 4.5 Map 31: MARLE – 5 Map 32: HEXAGON – 2 Map 16: TECH BASE: SECTOR 10 – 6 X! Map 17: LORD OF THE FLIES – 3.5 Map 18: QUICK AND DIRTY – 2.5 Map 19: NUKAGE TOWN – 2.5 Map 20: GANYMEDE OUTPOST – 2 Map 21: CRUNCH! – 3.5 Map 22: STORM APPROACH - DARK CITY – 2 Map 23: HELL PREVEALED – 4 Map 24: HIDDEN FACETS – 4 Map 25: UNDER THE HORIZON – 2 Map 26: THE AQUADUCT – 4 Map 27: GAS PANIC – 3 Map 28: EVISCER-STATION – 2.5 Map 29: THE BLACK WIND OF MAYHEM – 4 Map 30: LAST CALL – 3 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. HELL PREVEALED – this is basically a Hell Revealed level, nearly every fight is difficult and you need to be careful with your ammo usage. The highlights include a cyberdemon fight in a small room and a fight with revenants in a pit of poison, but the rest are no joke either. 4. COMPUTER COMPLEX – a big and hard tech base level. It’s difficult all through and not as generous with health and ammo, as it may seem at first. The hardest parts include a trap, that locks you in a small room with a horde of hell nobles, a trap with an arch-vile in a small corridor and, of course, the ending, which unleashes a horde of revenants, hell nobles, mancubi and an arch-vile duo. 3. FRENZY – starts off as a resource conservation map with very low health and ammo (lots of infighting are required to max this one), but then at the end suddenly turns into a pacifist/platforming stage, where you need to run on these somewhat narrow ledges and telefrag cyberdemons, who are very close to you and are constantly shooting, while you are trying to run. 2. MARLE – speaking of platforming, in this level you are constantly running on ledges that vary from somewhat narrow to very thin over an inescapable death pit, while fighting monsters that are shooting at you from everywhere. There is also a part, where you need to do a series of SR40 jumps, while dealing with arachnotrons and a revenant shooting at you, followed shortly by a borderline leap of faith on a road so much below you, that you can barely see it. This level also has super annoying imps behind fake walls, some of which are an absolute nightmare to kill. One of them in particular requires you to carefully stand on the edge of a narrow ledge, while other monsters are shooting at you, and another one can only be killed from a very long range with rockets. 1. TECH BASE: SECTOR 10 – there is not enough ammo, there is really not enough ammo and there is no berserk or chainsaw. I got really good infighting and really good damage rolls, missed only one or two shots, optimized the splash damage, and I still in the end had to punch out a baron with no berserk. Also, the level is impossible, unless you at one point push an explosive barrel below one of the doors, and you can easily get screwed over by bad RNG, and the barrel just explodes. This map, by the way, takes over half an hour to complete, not because it’s really big, but because you need to slowly and carefully optimize damage and infighting, and it’s also easy to die, while doing that. 50 Monsters (34 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 3.2647 An interesting wad, with a 50 monsters per map limit. Despite the low enemy numbers it is anything but easy. Spoiler Map 1: Deported – 2 Map 2: Drowned Machinery – 2 Map 3: Going Postal – 2.5 Map 4: Down Under – 3 Map 5: That Sinking Feeling – 3 Map 6: Abridged – 3 Map 7: Dead Complex – 3 Map 8: Encased – 3 Map 9: Excessive Pressure – 3 Map 10: No Remorse – 4 Map 11: The Firemen Will Not Apologize – 3.5 Map 12: Elk Monastery – 2.5 Map 13: Snowstorm Vibration – 3 Map 14: The Room Losing Shape – 2.5 Map 15: Yesterday’s Noose – 3.5 Map 31: Red Dawn – 4.5 Map 32: Tomb of Akhenaten – 4 (2 kills are impossible) Map 16: Twisted Cistern – 3 Map 17: Ring of Fallen Skies – 3.5 Map 18: Back to Base-ics – 2.5 Map 19: Kingdom of Bones – 4.5 Map 20: Broken Planet – 4 Map 21: Peace and Hostility – 3 Map 22: Castaway – 3 Map 23: Philosopher’s Stone – 3 Map 24: Spider Rain (Right on Time) – 4 Map 25: Tomb and Gloom – 3 Map 26: Burial at Sea – 3.5 Map 27: The New Brutalism – 4 Map 28: Splinter Cell Anemia – 4.5 Map 29: The Finest Joke is Upon Us – 5 X! Map 30: Nowhere – 3 Map 33: Unnamed – 3.5 Map 35: Unnamed – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Spider Rain (Right on Time) - Starts as an open map with a bunch of revenants attacking you from everywhere and also an afrit (flying baron that shoots mancubus projectiles and revenant rockets). And then you get into the revenant/arachnotron trap arena. Circle in a specific way to mostly not get hit by anything, try to kill everything as quickly as possible, and just pray that you survive. The last building then throws a bunch of arachnotrons and a couple afrits at you. 4. Kingdom of Bones - revenant spam! The first half of the map doesn't give you enough ammo, so you have to run around semi pacifist, while being chased by revenants and sniped by arachnotrons and chaingunners. The second half throws a bunch of revenants, chaingunners and arachnotrons again, and then more of them and an arch-vile. And you'll have to go to the beginning and kill the stuff, that you run away from before. 3. Splinter Cell Anemia - it start with you getting attacked by chaingunners, revenants, arch-viles and a cyberdemon. Forget about fighting, just try to run, collect stuff, lure out monsters, that are blocking your way, and then do two arch-vile jumps to get a BFG, and only then you can fight back. Also, what does this have to do with Splinter Cell? 2. Red Dawn - this map is filled with crushers, platforming (including platforming, while being sniped by infinitely resurrecting revenants), monster teleporters and damaging floors. The enviroment here is just as hostile as the enemies. Speaking of the enemies, they are mostly consist of revenants, arch-viles, chaingunners and cybruisers (barons, that shoot cyberdemon rockets, and who you fight in narrow corridors near crushers). 1. The Finest Joke is Upon Us - this looks like a Ribbiks map. It wasn't made by him but it feels like it is. And you want to know the joke? It is as hard as a Ribbiks map (not his hardest maps, his easier stuff). The red key area has you fighting cybruisers and revenants on a narrow ledge, and then fighting cybruisers, revenants and an arch-vile with not much cover. The blue key area has you fighting mancubi, revenants and arch-viles with almost no cover. The yellow key is guarded by arch-viles, revenants and invisible chaingunners. And then , there is the final area, where you are attacked by cyberdemon from the right, cyberdemon from the left, three arch-viles from the front and a bunch of other stuff, and there is barely any cover. 100 Line Christmas (30 maps) Var: 0.5 – 5 Int: 2.741 Christmas wad with short but often hard maps. Spoiler Map 1: Toasted! – 2.5 Map 2: La Emboscada de los Cacornos – 2.5 Map 3: Unwrap Your Presents – 2 Map 4: Scary Christmas (And a Crappy New Year) – 2 Map 5: Cold Start – 3 Map 6: Oh Tannenblut – 3 Map 7: The Presents are Dead – 4 Map 8: A Second of Silence – 3 Map 9: Under the Christmas Tree – 3.5 Map 10: Hark! The Happy Cacos Fly – 2.5 Map 11: Kandy Rocketeer – 4.5 Map 12: Merry Chrimpmas! – 3.5 Map 13: Un-Holly – 2 Map 14: Ain’t no Sanity Clause! – 4 Map 15: Sledging ‘n’ Hedging – 2.5 Map 31: Save the Christmas Tree! – 2.5 Map 32: The 100 Lines of Dogefishmas – 5 X! Map 16: Crimbo Lane – 2 Map 17: Office Eggnog Hangover – 2.5 Map 18: Holly Jolly Chaos – 3 Map 19: Below the Snowbelt – 3 Map 20: Candy Pain – 3 Map 21: Pine of Despair – 0.5 Map 22: Jingle Hells – 3.5 Map 23: White Anti-Christmas – 3 Map 24: Christmas Something – 2.5 Map 25: Satan Claus – 2 Map 26: Thanks for Playing – 0.5 Map 27: Hordes of Christmas Past – 2 Map 28: Merry Christmas – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Jingle Hells – small slaughtermap with three cyberdemons in the middle and two revenant hordes on different sides. Survive and kill the arch-viles that are slowly being released. After some time a wall lowers, revealing the BFG and more cyberdemons. Grab the BFG and kill everything. Short, but deadly. 4. Ain’t no Sanity Clause! – this one is a little longer than the others, while somehow being a little smaller. It’s not generous with health or armor and has you fighting a cyberdemon, revenant horde and then three arch-viles in not that big of an arena. 3. The Presents are Dead – this one has you fighting a ton of enemies (including arch-viles) in a small room with no and later a little cover. At least, it’s a short level. 2. Kandy Rocketeer – this one is very low on ammo. At the start, make the arachnotrons infight with cacos, then finish the spiders. Rocket a revenant horde in a cave and then the map really begins. First, it unleashes a massive horde of revenants with three cyberdemons behind them. Make the revenants infight with cyberdemons and finish the ones that don’t infight with your remaining rockets. The next part unleashes a bunch of arch-viles and pain elementals that are guarding the BFG, make them infight with cybers as much as possible, since you probably don’t have much ammo at that point. Sneak past all the chaos, grab the BFG and then kill everything with it, but be careful, since you don’t have that much BFG shots. 1. The 100 Lines of Dogefishmas – this one is very small but starts with a horde of revenants that guard the rocket launcher after you and not enough ammo to fight them (don’t use the plasma rifle, you’ll need the cells later). Lure out the revenants, sneak past them, grab the rocket launcher, run back to the start and then rocket everything from there. This is not an easy thing to do, since the map is very cramped. Then, you need to arch-vile jump to get the secret megasphere. The jump isn’t simple, since the place you need to jump to is high and the arch-vile is not in a good position. You need to jump from the edge of the fountain in the middle, while moving toward the secret and the timing isn’t simple. After getting the secret, kill the arch-vile, cause some monsters below to infight, then jump down and finish them off. Kill imps and the arch-vile guarding the BFG. Grab the big gun, and a cyberdemon gets unleashed. You have three BFG shots (two if you used plasma), around 12 rockets and 50 pistol shots to kill him, be very careful with your shots. This map is very small, but very deadly. 100 Lines (64 maps) Var: 1.5 – 7 Int: 2.96875 A wad with 100 Lines limit, these maps are small, but not easy. This one is basically two wads with easier Traditional half and way harder Non-Traditional half. Spoiler Traditional: Map 1: Project Alpha – 2.5 Map 2: Century Base – 2 Map 3: Kaiser 27 – 2 Map 4: Cross the Rubicon – 2 Map 5: Convenient System Store – 3.5 (two of the secrets are broken) Map 6: 100 Shades of Flay – 2.5 Map 7: Sins – 2.5 Map 8: The Broken Gate – 2 Map 9: Quirkafleeg Performance Review – 3 Map 10: Root of Evil – 2 Map 11: Port Penbene – 2 Map 12: Shotgun Alley – 2 Map 13: Watch Your Back – 1.5 Map 14: Minimum Fear – 2 Map 15: Bridge Over Troubled Nukage – 2.5 Map 31: Wolfenstain – 4 Map 32: Sleep Town – 2 Map 16: Hunski – 2 Map 17: Phobos Aberration – 1.5 Map 18: Bitter – 2 Map 19: Green Station Fad – 2 Map 20: Logo – 2 Map 21: Centennial Mine – 2.5 Map 22: Hell’s Triangles – 2 Map 23: Slaughter Dis – 3 Map 24: The Lavaning – 2.5 Map 25: Demon Bayou – 2 Map 26: Devil’s Knot – 2.5 Map 27: Springtime in Hell – 2 Map 28: Cells – 2.5 Map 29: Charnel – 2.5 Map 30: Brink of Death – 3.5 Non-Traditional Map 1: Flow – 2.5 (all kills are not possible) Map 2: Big Butts – 4 Map 3: DOOMuda Triangle – 4.5 Map 4: Tiptoe – 3.5 Map 5: Hyperborean – 7 X! Map 6: Nukage Processing – 2 Map 7: Rooftop Rampage – 2 Map 8: abnormalize – 3 Map 9: Exquisite Guilt – 3.5 Map 10: Demon Abbey – 2.5 Map 11: Forest of Undesirables – 5 Map 12: Burrow – 6 Map 13: Trine – 5 Map 14: Banyan Tree – 3 Map 15: Aquaden – 2.5 Map 31: Centryway – 4.5 (No secret exit) Map 16: Contain Yourself! – 3 Map 17: Stares – 6 Map 18: Bloody Walls – 2.5 Map 19: Black Throne – 5 Map 20: Indulge – 3.5 Map 21: Shard Gate – 3.5 Map 22: Hunter – 4 Map 23: Spiral of Despair – 2.5 Map 24: God’s Wound – 2.5 Map 25: Cosy Nook – 3 Map 26: Welcome to the Limit – 1.5 Map 27: Springtime Slaughter – 3.5 Map 28: 100 lines of Doom – 3 Map 29: Puncture – 3.5 Map 30: Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! – 4 Map 32: Nüsse – 4 Top 10 hardest maps: Spoiler 10. Wolfenstain – the only “traditional” map to make it on the list, this one is about fighting cyberdemons in tight corridors, and it’s not generous with ammo. 9. Hunter – another map about fighting monsters in tight spaces, but this one gives you no plasma weapons. At least, there is only one cyberdemon, but he is still hard to deal with. 8. The DOOMuda Triangle – a very vertical level, with monsters constantly sniping you from above, it’s also stingy with resources to the point that you’ll almost always be on edge both health-wise and ammo-wise. 7. Centryway – a BFG only slaughtermap version of Entryway with lots of arch-viles and cyberdemons. It has lots of ammo, but not that much health. 6. Black Throne – short but deadly. This map takes place in a single big room with just two fights. The first fight throws pretty much hordes of everything at you, BFG through enemy lines, get to the throne, grab a megasphere there and deal with four arch-viles guarding the throne, then just clean up everything. The second fight unleashes a horde of 10 arch-viles on the other end of the room and lots of cybers at the sides. Pre fire a bunch of BFG shots and run at the archies like a psycho, this should kill most of them. After that maneuver is over, pick off the rest of the arch-viles and then very accurately kill the cyberdemons. At least this is one of the shortest maps. 5. Forest of Undesirables – the only somewhat long map in the wad, a big BFG only slaughtermap with over 700 enemies, including lots of arch-viles, revenants and cyberdemons. It gives you pretty much unlimited ammo and decent amounts of health. But the reason that this map made it on the list is the cave fight near the end. It drops you into a small room with no cover, three arch-viles, a cyberdemon and so many other enemies that you can barely move. This fight is very deadly and it’s near the end of not that short of a map. 4. Trine – arch-viles, lots of arch-viles with bad cover, low health and low ammo. One very important strategy is in a fight with the arch-vile and a horde of other enemies, slowly wake up and lure out to kill with SSG some of those enemies, before waking up the arch-vile. And don’t let the cacodemons to use one time teleport lines, you’ll need arch-viles to use them later, otherwise you’re toast. 3. Stares – another not short level. This one starts with a very deadly room with an arch-vile, bad cover and lots of revenants. After dealing with that and a large horde of imps, you’ll need to run up very wonky stairs that you can easily fall through. After a few fights with arch-viles, cyberdemons and revenants you’ll get to the part, where you open a wall and unleash a large horde of archies along with other enemies. As soon as you do that, immediately run and take cover and then run downstairs to the previous room and kill arch-viles through infighting and careful sniping. Clean up the rest of the enemies, kill another cyberdemon and an arch vile horde (by the way, go up and down the second stairway as much as you want, I don’t think you can fall through that one) you get to the ending. Firstly, press the switch and quickly kill the cyberdemon, clean out some of the lost souls (but don’t try to kill them all, you might run out of ammo), grab the remaining ammo, jump into a pit with 3 cyberdemons and 2 arch-viles and start spamming your BFG to kill them as fast as possible, but be careful, you could run out of ammo. Yeah, it’s one of those maps, where every fight can destroy you. 2. Burrow – this one is just you fighting a ton of enemies with no cover. There are two fights, the first one has an arch-vile, barons, hell knights, revenants, pinkies and imps. The second one has mancubi and arachnotrons surrounding you from all sides, and a cyberdemon in the middle. There is no plasma weapons. This level is horrible, try to save as much health and armor as possible for the second fight, then run around the arena perimeter, shooting your SSG to interrupt arachnotron and mancubus fire and, maybe, just maybe, you’ll survive until monsters slowly die to infighting and your occasional shots. This is one of those levels that needs to be seen to be believed. 1. Hyperborean – This map… I… Just… Why… I have no words for this one. There are three fights here, the first one is a small square arena with so many enemies that you can barely move and your only health being two medkits. It’s awful, but somewhat manageable. The second fight is a cross shaped arena with even less space to move due to monster density, in fact often not enough to move at all. This one features two arch-viles, almost no cover (and the cover that exists isn’t even remotely reliable, due to other monsters killing you, while you are hiding from arch-vile) and lots of chaingunners on the walls constantly shooting you. Your only health is a single megasphere at the beginning. There is no BFG btw. The “strat” here is to plasma arch-viles as soon as possible and then just hope to survive the rest. But the last fight is easily the worst. You are locked in a small-ish arena with your only cover being two pillars which are slightly larger than doomguy. There is no health, except the two medkits you’ll get when the final fight is almost over; this is especially great, because you’ll most of the time get there with less than 10 health. I am not joking, the previous fight is that hard. You press on a wall and it unleashes 5 arch-viles, two cyberdemons, massive revenant horde and a sniping spiderdemon all the way at the end (who is not a small threat with your health). As soon as you press on that wall, run to near the pillars and unleash as much rockets as possible at the archies, before hiding, that’ll injure most of them and hopefully at least kill one. After that, go YOLO and somehow try to deal with the rest of the fight. Dodge arch-vile zaps, revenant missiles, revenant punches, cyberdemon rockets, cyberdemon splash, while trying to kill all archies as quickly as possible, and, also, grab those medkits as soon as you feel it’s relatievely safe, before the spiderdemon oneshots you. Keep in mind, that at any point on this map, you can instantly die without even knowing, what hit you. In fact, 90% of the time you’ll die like this, other 9% you’ll spot what killed you, but won’t be able to do anything about it, other 0.9% of the times you’ll die to your own mistake, due to your nerves being pushed to their limits, because you have a chance to actually beat this map. At least, this map is short, and that’s the only not soulcrushingly difficult thing about it. 2002 A Doom Odyssey (37/38/39 maps) Var: 1 – 4.5 Int: 2.689/2.684/2.667 A classic megawad, that I don't think aged too well. One of the few wads that not only replaces all 4 episodes, but goes beyond that with extra maps. A lot of them are absolutely brutal, if you don't know where the secrets are, or how to deal with certain encounters. Lots of maps are also tight on ammo and health. That being said, even with knowledge, some levels are no joke. Spoiler E1M1: The Entryway – 1 E1M2: Helicopter Bay – 1.5 E1M3: The Doomed Lab – 2 E1M9: Lugano Base ZR–X – 2.5 E1M4: Substation 537A – 2 E1M5: Combat Station – 2 E1M6: Toxic Treatment – 1.5 E1M7: Service Base – 2 E1M8: Paradox – 2 (all kills aren’t possible) E2M1: Station Alpha – 2 E2M2: Station Beta – 3.5 E2M3: The Lost Labs – 2 E2M4: Shotgun Blues – 4 E2M9: Dungeon of Hate – 3 E2M5: Fortress of Fatalities – 3 E5M1: The Mighty Green – 4 E2M6: Between Demons n Insects – 3.5 E2M7: Puzzles to Solve – 3 E2M8: Oracle of Disturbance – 1 E3M1: Gatehouse – 2 E3M2: Caves of Bosnia – 4 E3M3: Stronghold of Damnation – 3 (Getting all kills is not normally possible here. It can be done with an exploit, that requires slowly punching cacodemons for an hour, but I’m definitely not doing that) E3M4: Halls of Ebola – 3 E3M5: De-moon Side – 4.5 X! E3M6: Obituary Written – 4 E3M9: The Lost Chord – 2.5 E3M7: System Central – 2 E3M8: Spider Temple – 3 E4M1: Play School – 2 E4M2: Back to Base X – 2.5 E4M9: Secret Wolfenstein Level – 2 E4M3: Hell Unleashed – 4.5 (One of the secrets is not obtainable) E4M4: Disreputable Stronghold – 3 E4M5: Indomitable Haunt – 2.5 E4M6: Dementia – 3 E4M7: Odious Grounds – 4.5 E4M8: Impossible Mission? – 2 In 2012 another version of the wad was released. It changed some map geometry, added 2 new maps and removed one old. 10th anniversary exclusives: Blood and Guts – 2 Unity – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. The Mighty Green - this one ends with you having to chaingun a cyberdemon. The best strategy I found is to hide in the beginning corridor and shoot at him from there. Cyberdemon can't enter there, but he can shoot you, so you'll have to dodge a lot of rockets and sneak past him multiple times to get more ammo. 4. Caves of Bosnia - lots of hard hitting enemies, not much health or armor, and a couple nasty traps. 3. Odious Grounds - not enough ammo, not enough health, fights in really tight spaces and barely any opportunity to cause good infighting. 2. Hell Unleashed - easily the most health deficient map in the wad. On top of that it has some really difficult fights, including multiple fights against barons in tight corridors, where they can easily corner or surround you. 1. De-Moon Side - a long semi-tyson map. Careful ammo management, as well as lots of berserking (including berserking multiple barons and cacodemons) and infighting are required. And it ends on cyberdemon fight, that you'll need to have enough ammo for. Aliens TC (11 maps) Var: 0 – 4 Int: 2.363 Old mod based on Alien movies. Very low on ammo. Spoiler E2M1: Landing Pads – 0 E2M2: Atmospheric Processor – 2.5 E2M3: Med-Labs and Operations – 2 (Semi-pacifist level, 100% kills are not intended, it’s still possible, but would be super annoying to get) E2M4: Med-Labs and Operations – 3 (A couple of enemies are somehow stuck in the ceiling) E2M5: Operations – 2 (all secrets are broken) E2M9: Original Host Ship – 2.5 E2M6: Atmospheric Processor – 2 E2M7: Alien Hive – 4 X! E2M8: The Sulacco – 2 E3M1: Bonus Level – 3 E3M2: Bonus Level – 3 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. E3M2 – very low on ammo semi-tyson level. 2. E2M4 – has the most enemies in the wad, on top of being low on health. 1. Alien Hive – this level is low on health and very low on ammo, to the point that it is necessary to punch out a bunch of xenomorphs and face huggers. Trying to make this thing work: Spoiler The real hardest part of the wad is trying to make it run properly. I couldn’t get the original version to work properly, since it requires an old 1.66 version of Doom, that I don’t have and don’t know how to even get. Using The Ultimate Doom and changing complevel didn’t work. I then downloaded a version of Aliens TC that is compatible with The Ultimate Doom, and it worked with some minor bugs, but then I got to E3M2, and some invisible barrier was blocking me from reaching the exit. I could kill all enemies, but I just couldn’t exit. I then tried to run this mod in different source ports; some bugs were fixed, others were added, but the invisible barrier was still there. I have found two playthroughs of this map on Youtube. One of them had no invisible barrier, but still had other bugs, the other playthrough used cheats to bypass the barrier and tried to hide it. I then downloaded another version of the wad, it still had some weird bugs, but the level was finally beatable. Maybe, one specific version of this wad in one specific version of one specific sourceport with one specific version of Doom will run properly, but I don’t know which one. Alien Vendetta (32/32/2/35 maps) Var: 2 – 6 Int: 3.828125/3.875/3.75/3.857 Known as the most influential wad of all time, and is probably the most popular wad ever. That being said, for all the newbies out there looking for their first wad, don’t even try to play this on UV without savestates. An average map in Alien Vendetta is longer than maps 20 and 21 from Evilution. But beyond just the length, a couple of maps are very, very hard. Spoiler Map 1: Sunset – 2 Map 2: Rusty Rage – 2.5 Map 3: Cargo Depot – 2 Map 4: Seclusion – 2.5 Map 5: Crimson Tide – 3 Map 6: Hillside Siege – 4 Map 7: Showdown – 2.5 Map 8: Beast Island – 4 Map 9: Castle Gardens – 2 Map 10: Toxic Touch – 4 Map 11: Nemesis – 4 Map 12: Entropy – 3 Map 13: Suicidal Tendencies – 4.5 Map 14: Overwhelming Odds – 5.5 Map 15: Bulls on Parade – 3 Map 31: Killer Colours – 4.5 Map 32: No Guts No Glory – 4.5 Map 16: Mutual Destruction – 4.5 Map 17: Nukefall – 3.5 Map 18: Lake Poison – 3.5 Map 19: Alien Resurrection – 4 Map 20: Misri Halek – 4.5 Map 21: One Flew Over the Caco’s Nest – 3.5 Map 22: Rubicon – 4 Map 23: Blood Sacrifice – 4 Map 24: Clandestine Complex – 3.5 Map 25: Demonic Hordes – 5.5 Map 26: Dark Dome – 5.5 Map 27: Stench of Evil – 6 X! Map 28: Whispering Shadows – 5 Map 29: Fire Walk with Me – 4.5 Map 30: Point Dreadful – 3.5 The first release of Alien Vendetta had slightly different map order and one different map. First release exclusive: Map 25: Valley of Echoes – 5 In 2016 an expansion called Alien Vendetta: Black Label was released. It features 2 new levels and requires Alien Vendetta to work, and it's an absolute nightmare to get it to actually work. This expansion's version of Valley of Echoes is completely different form the original. Black Label: Map 1: Levenbrech – 3 Map 2: Valley of Echoes – 4.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Valley of Echoes - the first release one. This map has over 1000 monsters and takes over 40 minutes to complete. It's not as bad as it sounds, half of the monsters are borderline harmless monster window dressing and lots of other monster will die to infighting. That being said, this map still has over 300 chaingunners, 10 cyberdemons, over 80 mancubi and almost 100 revenants. Also, there are lots of damaging floors. 4. Overwhelming Odds - this one has over 600 monsters and takes around 30 minutes to complete. This map is not generous with health and ammo, and you need to do things in a specific order to not run out of them. The fights here are also difficult, there is a fight with two cyberdemons in a river poison, followed by two caco clouds, there is a fight with a revenant horde in a corridor with no BFG or plasma, and there is a fight with a bunch of monsters teleporting in a small room. Also you need to do an arch-vile jump to get a megasphere (it's not a secret, but good luck beating the map without it). 3. Demonic Hordes - this is the longest map in Alien Vendetta. A slaughtermap with over 1300 monsters that takes over an hour to complete. It's not as hard as it sounds, since there are safe strats to deal with almost everything and way more health and ammo that you'll ever need. So, really the only ways to die is either cyberdemon hitting you in the face (and even then you'll survive if you are at 200/200 or close) or getting cornered. It would take forever to describe everything in this map, since it's so long, so watch a walkthrough, if you want to know more. One thing I would recommend to do, unlike the every video on youtube, is to clear the first fight immediately and save the invulnerability behind the window for the four cyberdemons. 2. Dark Dome - another long slaughtermap, this time with just over 900 monsters. This one is very similar to Demonic Hordes, except more confusing, and less generous with ammo, health and armor (though there's still enough of them). Monster placement is more dangerous here, and there is a very specific way you need to use every invulnerability. 1. Stench of Evil - this one is just cruel. It's a 50 minutes long resource conservation map with over 800 monsters. You'll nearly constantly be low on ammo, armor, and sometimes health. And the fights in this map are no joke either. How about getting jammed between two walls with chaingunners on them, a bunch of barons, and some mancubi, how about fighting a cyberdemon in a small, cramped room, how about a pit with 20 pain elementals and an arch-vile, or a trap that releases four arch-viles on you, and way, way more. To beat this map I had to run away from some fights, to tackle them later. And there is almost no infighting, except in the two infighting rooms, that still aren't easy to deal with. I've said that other maps aren't as bad as they sound/look, this one is the complete opposite, you'll need to try it, to know, how exhausting it is. Alkylation (13 maps) Var: 1 – 3.5 Int: 2.269 Zdoom wad based around custom monsters. Continious play only, since otherwise last map is unplayable. Spoiler Map 1: Catalyst – 2.5 Map 2: Wicked Flowers – 2.5 Map 3: The Nameless Installation – 3.5 X! Map 4: Under Pressure – 3 Map 5: Infested Starport – 2.5 Map 6: Virescit Vulnere Virtus – 1 Map 7: De Tenebris Contram Naturam – 1.5 Map 8: In Cauda Veneum – 2 Map 9: New Black Day – 1 Map 10: Dark Floors – 2.5 Map 11: Acid Attack – 3 Map 12: Nightside of Eden – 2 Map 13: Heart of Darkness – 2.5 E2: Xenothanatos - 2.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Under Pressure - trows alot of high tier enemies at you, armored chaingunners and cacoliches (cacodemons with semi homing fireball and instakill close range fire breath) are very common and really annoying. And then there is an awful armored chaingunner behind fake wall at the end. 2. Acid Attack - lots of enemies and some difficult ambushes. The part, when you're attacked on a bridge from both sides by nearly every monster type, including cyberbarons (barons who shoot cyberdemon rockets and are immune to splash damage) takes the cake. 1. The Nameless Installation - this is the map that throws the most high tier custom enemies at you. Prepare for constant fights with armored chaingunners, cacoliches, rocket zombies, cyberbarons and more. All Hell is Breaking Loose (5 maps) Var: 2 – 4 Int: 2.9 Short wad with modded op enemies and weapons, it’s not generous with health. Spoiler Map 1: Home Sick – 2 Map 2: Shaft – 2 Map 3: Bridge to Damnation – 4 X! Map 4: Cave of Death – 3.5 Map 5: Fiendish City – 3 Area 51 (2 maps) Int: 3 Two long maps, that take place in Area 51. Has a couple new enemies. Very fun. Spoiler Map 1: Main Compound – 3 Map 2: The Sump – 3 X! Full game – 4 Atmospheric Extinction (10 maps) Var: 2 – 4.5 Int: 3.056 Good looking small wad. Some maps are tough. Spoiler Map 1: Devour and Saturate – 2 Map 2: Environmental Hostility – 2.5 Map 3: Corruption – 4 Map 4: Royalty – 2.5 Map 5: The Twelve Monarchs – 3 Map 6: The Reality Binder – 3.5 Map 7: Deep Blood – 2.5 Map 8: Mount Aurash – 3 Map 9: The Land Beyond – 4.5 X! Map 10: Void – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. The Reality Binder - has over 1000 monsters. Not as hard as it sounds, since there is lots of health and ammo. 2. Corruption - long map with lots of revenants and a couple of nasty traps. 1. The Land Beyond - first half of this level is pretty standart stuff, but the second half turns into a difficult four round slaughter arena with barely any cover. Round 2 has 4 arch-viles among its roster and round 4 has the same amount of arch-viles, along with a cyberdemon. Even with a megasphere, you can die in seconds. CH Retro Episode (9 maps) Var: 1 – 2.5 Int: 1.8889 Episode 1 style episode 1 replacement. Slightly harder than original Episode 1. Spoiler E1M1: First Contact – 1 E1M2: Computers and Electronics – 1.5 E1M3: Main–Frame – 2 E1M9: Strategical Offensive Array – 2 E1M4: Command Center – 2 E1M5: Chemical Processing Plant – 2 E1M6: Primary Base – 2 E1M7: Laboratories – 2.5 X! E1M8: Old Habits… – 2 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Chemical Processing Plant – somewhat long level. 2. Command Center – kind off low on health. 1. Laboratories – long, somewhat low on health, has lots of damaging floors and a couple of dangerous traps. Cleimos (9 maps) Var: 2 – 3 Int: 2.444 Old episode 2 replacement. There is an insane story in the text file about military being trained by video games and holograms coming to life. The levels aren’t less bizarre 1994 madness. Spoiler E2M1: Advent – 2 E2M2: Trapped – 2 E2M3: Torment – 2.5 E2M4: Enclave – 2.5 E2M5: Hazard Base – 2.5 E2M9: Command + Control – 2.5 E2M6: Veil of Blood – 3 X! E2M7: Annihilation – 2.5 (This level has split paths and it’s impossible to get all kills and secrets. The routes for most kills and most secrets are different. The most kills one clearly wasn’t intended to be maxed, since it would require punching out 30 barons with no berserk, so I took the most secrets one) E2M8: The Ungathered – 2.5 (killing both bosses is very problematic, since the level ends, when one of them dies) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Annihilation – weird routing aside, there are some tough close quarters baron encounters. 2. Enclave – low on ammo at some points, has a somewhat difficult blue key fight. 1. Veil of Blood – low on ammo, you’ll have to chainsaw cacodemons to kill everything. Cleimos 2 (32 maps) Var: 0.5 – 5 Int: 2.3125 One of the first Doom II megawads has some really weird levels, and some of them are really low on ammo. Spoiler Map 1: Advent – 2 Map 2: Holding Pens – 2.5 Map 3: No Quarter – 2.5 Map 4: Torment – 2 Map 5: The Cleansing – 5 X! Map 6: Enclave – 2.5 Map 7: Bastion – 1.5 (one of the secrets is broken) Map 8: Hazard Base – 2.5 Map 9: Cauldron – 2 Map 10: Veil of Blood – 3 Map 11: Annihilation – 2.5 Map 12: Trapped – 2 Map 13: Ground-Zero – 3 Map 14: The Five – 2 Map 15: Stairway to Hell – 3 Map 31: Command + Control – 2 Map 32: Tomb of the Forsaken – 2 Map 16: Bulletproof – 4 Map 17: Sole Survivor – 3.5 Map 18: Scent of Death – 2 Map 19: Rise & Fall – 2.5 Map 20: Hip Deep – 2.5 Map 21: Full Metal Island – 2 Map 22: Rosewood – 2.5 Map 23: Castle of the Ancients – 2.5 Map 24: The Ungathered – 2.5 Map 25: Well of Fire – 4 Map 26: Release Me – 0.5 Map 27: Entr’acte – 2 Map 28: Axis – 0.5 Map 29: The Hive – 0.5 Map 30: Temple of Lost Souls – 0.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Stairway to Hell – starts kind of low on health, the unofficial secret megasphere fight is tricky, same goes for the spiderdemon infight room. 4. Sole Survivor – start is kind of difficult and one of the secrets requires an arch-vile jump (thankfully, you get a megasphere right before it). 3. Well of Fire – this level is very, very low on ammo. Punch out almost every low tier enemy, that’s not a chaingunner or a shotgunner, including dozens of lost souls, and just hope that you’ll barely have enough ammo for the rest. There is no berserk or chainsaw by the way. If you careful with your health management, use some infighting and do everything in a specific order, it’s barely possible to max this level. 2. Bulletproof – this one is mostly low on both health and ammo. In the lost soul forcefield maze room, just run, you don’t need to kill lost souls (maybe shoot a BFG blast after getting the megaarmor secret). The fight on a ring around the toxic pit is no joke, especially, since you’ll probably have low health going in. The final fight has a cyberdemon on high ground and four pain elementals among other baddies, hope, you’ll have enough cells left. 1. The Cleansing – there is not enough ammo, you’ll have to chainsaw everything: imps, pinkies, specters, lost souls, pain elementals, cacodemons, and even shotgunners and chaingunners. On top of that, this level is low on health and just like in Well of Fire, everything needs to be done in a specific order. Hide in the imp guard tower in the red key area and chainsaw lost souls from there. Don’t grab the radsuit on your first trip to the yellow key area, go there, chainsaw the chaingunners, kill the arachnotron, grab the key and get out. Make most of the lost souls kill each other through infighting, go get the super shotgun behind the yellow door, get the radsuit, go back to yellow key area, chainsaw lost souls and cacodemons, then try to kill two barons with your ssg. Then just finish the revenant in the maze with your remaining shells, if you have any, everything else remaining should be easily chainsawable. There are many low on ammo levels in Cleimos 2, but this one is just in another league entirely compared to them. Cold Front (5 maps) Var: 2.5 – 4 Int: 3.25 Short winter/pyramid themed wad. Starts out normal-ish but the last two levels get very hard. Spoiler Map 1: Cold Open – 2.5 Map 2: Glacier Caper – 2.5 Map 3: Stank Dick Island – 4 X! Map 4: Hell Freezes Over – 4 Map 5: Thank You – N/A (ending map with no exit) Community Chest 2 (32 maps) Var: 2 – 7 Int: 3.21875 A not well put together community megawad from many different mappers. Spoiler Map 1: The Furnace – 2.5 Map 2: Coolant Platform – 2 Map 3: Slige Control – 3 Map 4: Déjà Vu – 2.5 Map 5: Elixir – 5 Map 6: The View – 2.5 Map 7: To Hell and Back – 3 Map 8: The Pit – 3 Map 9: The Transformer – 2 Map 10: Intermission – 2 Map 11: Beyond Pain – 3 Map 12: Redemption – 2 Map 13: Annihilation Invention – 2.5 Map 14: Shadow of Evil – 2.5 Map 15: City Heat – 4 Map 31: Idee Fixe – 3.5 Map 32: Sodding Death – 4.5 Map 16: Spirit World - HQ – 2.5 Map 17: Through the Black – 3 Map 18: Internal Reaches 3 – 4 Map 19: The Marbelous Three – 2 Map 20: Enigma – 2.5 Map 21: Undead Nation – 3 Map 22: Thematic Elements – 4.5 Map 23: Death Mountain – 3.5 Map 24: The Mucus Flow – 7 X! Map 25: Desecration – 3 Map 26: Geist Halls – 2 Map 27: Gethsemane – 3.5 Map 28: No Room – 5.5 Map 29: Event Horizon – 4 Map 30: In Threes – 3.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Thematic Elements – long slaughtermap that isn’t generous with health and really loves to throw arch-viles at you in places with almost no cover. 4. Sodding Death – half an hour long, low on health and ammo map with deadly ambushes that often involve arch-viles. 3. Elixir – long, somewhat low on health and ammo map that starts as hitscan hell, then goes to claustrophobic fights against mid tiers and ends with a cyberdemon fight in a tiny room. 2. No Room – 40 minutes long, low on health and ammo map with a horrible arch-vile jump secret, a double cyberdemon fight and platforming over death pits. The ending of this one consists of multiple fights, where you are surrounded by chaingunners, with the last fight having an arch-vile join them. 1. The Mucus Flow – almost an hour long, very low on health and ammo map. This is an infamous one, the mysterious base among mucus covered mountain fields and one of the hardest levels to ever get into a popular megawad. There is no armor and barely any health or ammo for map this size. Not counting the turret enemies (that you can get rid of via one of the secrets) this map has over 300 monsters and most of them you’ll have to either punch out, chainsaw or kill with infighting. That includes revenant hordes, hell knight hordes, multiple pain elementals at once, an arch vile, countless lost souls and most of the pinkies and imps. The fight with 6 pain elementals in an absolutely needed secret is awful, you can either try to chainsaw them immediately and die most of the time or leave them for later and waste a large chunk of your precious ammo on them (thankfully this one is very early on). The part where you need to sneak past a wall of pinkies, chaingunner turrets, revenants guarding the door and mancubi is even worse and it comes later into the map. Right after that you’ll have to sneak into two absolutely necessary secrets guarded by two pain elementals, then sneak past yellow key teleport ambush and hell knight horde from before and escape through a secret. The entire ending stretch is also super deadly, mostly thanks to chaingunners that you can’t hit until the very end, chipping away your health, while you are dealing with pain elementals, revenants, mancubi and more. The last ambush that throws a horde of revenants and two pain elements is very likely to cheap away your remaining health, especially since you’ll need to run through the line of sight of those chaingunners you can’t hit to even get there. There are many levels that make you conserve resources, but this one is the king of them all. This wad is broken: Spoiler Firstly, this was supposed to be a Boom wad, except one of the maps wasn’t even beatable in Boom and another one, didn’t even work in Boom at the time. You can make them work in modern Boom, if you set up specific configurations for them. Some of the maps also have secrets that will only work in ZDoom, and map 20 has a secret that you can only get in some ancient versions of ZDoom (I am not going for that broken secret by the way). So, the way I decided to play this is in GZDoom with Boom strict compatibility, since it’s probably the closest you could get to intended way to play this, if there was even an intended way to play this. And even then, I lost count of the amount of broken things I ran into. Community Chest 3 (32 maps) Var: 2 – 5.5 Int: 3.40625 Awesome community megawad from many different mappers. Most of the maps are long and some of them are quite deadly. Spoiler Map 1: Ventilator – 2.5 Map 2: Ion Storm – 2.5 Map 3: Mineopoly – 2 Map 4: UAC Checkpoint – 2.5 Map 5: Living Hell – 4.5 Map 6: Foregone Destruction – 3 Map 7: Simple Complex – 4.5 Map 8: Impure Liquids – 2 Map 9: As the Doctor Sleeps – 4 Map 10: Atlantis Rising – 3.5 Map 11: The Grieving Outpost – 3 Map 12: Black Rain – 5.5 Map 13: Welcome to the Machine – 2.5 Map 14: Mountains and Mortar – 4 Map 15: Clash of Galaxies – 2 Map 31: Disarming the Mechanism – 4 Map 32: Installation 07 Warszawa – 3 Map 16: Hangman’s Noose – 3.5 Map 17: Mind’s Prison – 3.5 Map 18: Godforsaken Hole – 4 Map 19: Subduction – 3 Map 20: Huitzilopochtli – 5 Map 21: The Hero’s Return – 2.5 Map 22: Second Entry – 2.5 Map 23: Hard Attack – 3 Map 24: Amalgamation – 3 Map 25: Fate in Blood – 2.5 Map 26: Hybrid Envy – 3.5 Map 27: Ruby Abyss – 4.5 Map 28: Token Arch-Vile – 4.5 Map 29: For We Are Many – 5.5 X! Map 30: Leviathan – 3.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Token Arch-Vile – a difficult slaughtermap, where you have to run away from most fights and hope that most of the monsters die to infighting. It’s very deadly. 4. Ruby Abyss – it’s not that hard, until you get to the end. Two cyberdemons on different sides, and your best weapon is super shotgun. And if you think, that you can just lure them to the middle and circle strafe, no, thanks to monster blocking linedefs, they are the ones circling around you. 3. Huitzilopochtli – 50 minutes long level with lots of difficult sections. The hardest parts include drop into a room full of mancubi and revenants, double cyberdemon fight and a horrible arachnotron ambush. 2. Black Rain – fun fact, during development this level needed to be shortened, because it got over Boom’s limits. I repeat, it got over the limits of a limit removing source port. How do you even do that? This level takes over an hour to complete and is filled with difficult fights. Not only that, but at points it gets very low on health, ammo and armor. The only mercy is that there isn’t any cyberdemons. 1. For We Are Many – this gigantic slaughtermap takes around one and a half hour to complete. It’s a very long level, with many difficult fights, the hardest parts are: the beginning, the part where like 10 arch-viles get teleported all around an area, you just cleared, the cyberdemon fight in the maze and the battle with a teleporting revenant horde supported by arch-viles near the final door. But it’s not a specific fight, you should be worried about, but getting through all of this in one go. Confinement 512 (7 maps) Var: 2 – 4 Int: 2.5 Short size limitation wad, seems to work properly only in ZDoom. Spoiler Map 1: Acidity – 2 Map 2: Hard Drop – 2 Map 3: 512 Base – 2.5 Map 4: Brown Out – 2.5 Map 5: Hell’s Appetizer – 4 X! Map 6: Marble Complex – 2.5 Map 7: Dead Simple – 2 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Marble Complex – starts as a tyson level with a ton of imps, ends in a SSG fight with 4 revenants with not much space to move. 2. Brown Out – the most cramped level of them all, with a baron, revenants and an arch-vile. 1. Hell’s Appetizer – revenant hordes, baron trios and pain elementals in a tiny map like this is something that needs to be seen to be believed. Congestion 64 (32 maps) Var: 0 – 0.5 Int: 0.09375 A parody of size limitation wads. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 0 Map 2: Underhalls – 0 Map 3: The Gantlet – 0 Map 4: The Focus – 0 Map 5: The Waste Tunnels – 0 Map 6: The Crusher – 0.5 Map 7: Dead Simple – 0 Map 8: Tricks and Traps – 0 Map 9: The Pit – 0 Map 10: Refueling Base – 0.5 Map 11: Circle of Death – 0 Map 12: The Factory – 0 Map 13: Downtown – 0 Map 14: The Inmost Dens – 0.5 X! Map 15: Industrial Zone – 0 Map 31: Wolfenstein – 0 Map 32: Grosse – 0 Map16: Suburbs – 0 Map 17: Tenements – 0 Map 18: The Courtyard – 0.5 Map 19: The Citadel – 0 Map 20: Gotcha! – 0 Map 21: Nirvana – 0 Map 22: The Catacombs – 0 Map 23: Barrels O’ Fun – 0.5 Map 24: The Chasm – 0 Map 25: Bloodfalls – 0 Map 26: The Abandoned Mines – 0 Map 27: Monster Condo – 0 Map 28: The Spirit World – 0 Map 29: The Living End – 0 Map 30: Icon of Sin – 0.5 Full game - 1 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Barrels O' Fun - you can blow up yourself, if you try. 4. The Courtyard - you can die, if you press the wrong button. 3. Icon of Sin - you can lose, if you press anything too early. 2. The Crusher - there is a crusher, that will crush you, if you don't do anything. 1. The Inmost Dens - in this map you are faced with your hardest challenge - 5 minutes of waiting. Congestion 192 (32 maps) Var: 0.5 – 5.5 Int: 2.046875 The most restrictive serious size limitation wad. Some maps are surprisingly hard, despite the limit. Also, maps have no names. Spoiler Map 1 – 1 Map 2 – 1 Map 3 – 0.5 Map 4 – 1 Map 5 – 2 Map 6 – 1.5 Map 7 – 1 Map 8 – 2 Map 9 – 1 Map 10 – 2.5 Map 11 – 1 Map 12 – 2 Map 13 – 5.5 X! Map 14 – 2.5 Map 15 – 2 Map 31 – 1 Map 32 – 1.5 Map 16 – 3 Map 17 – 2 Map 18 – 2.5 (pacifist level, all kills are probably not possible and one of the secrets might be impossible) Map 19 – 1 Map 20 – 2 Map 21 – 3 Map 22 – 2 Map 23 – 2.5 Map 24 – 2.5 Map 25 – 1 Map 26 – 2.5 Map 27 – 2.5 Map 28 – 4.5 Map 29 – 3.5 Map 30 – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Map 16 - an elevator based level with some weird/awkward fights, including an arch-vile fight with no cover. 4. Map 21 - starts off as a puzzle map, but ends with you having to berserk tough enemies. 3. Map 29 - cyberdemon fight with barely any space to move, and you are required to kill him with 2 BFG shots. 2. Map 28 - all the floors are conveyor belts, and the level is too dark too see anything, and you have to kill 2 revenants with SSG and 8 shells. Good RNG, complete layout memorisation and insane reflexes are required to beat this. 1. Map 13 - there are no words that can describe this level. It's an arch-vile jumping RNG platforming puzzle level. What you need to do is damage the first arch-vile with the chaingun, but not too much, since you'll need ammo for later, do an arch-vile jump, grab the BFG, switch back to chaingun while simultaneously pressing a very thin switch, shoot the lost soul out of the way, grab the megasphere, switch back to BFG, shoot in a way to kill the chaingunners, finish off the first arch-vile and heavily damage the second, then grab the key card and shoot the switch, run back through 20 damage floor, while on the way grabbing medkits through a wall, do another arch-vile jump, finish off the arch-vile and resurrected chaingunners with your chaingun, do some weird platforming and you are done. The problem: LITERALLY EVERYTHING CAN GO WRONG AT ANY MOMENT. The only reason, I don't consider this map to be kaizo is, because it's like 20 seconds long. Congestion 384 (21 maps) Var: 1 – 3 Int: 1.65 Somewhat interesting size limitation wad. Most levels are really easy, but a couple of them might pose a challenge for a casual player. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 1 Map 2: Underhalls – 1 Map 3: The Gantlet – 1 Map 4: The Focus – 1 Map 5: The Waste Tunnels – 1 Map 6: The Crusher – 1.5 Map 7: Dead Simple – 2 Map 8: Tricks and Traps – 2 Map 9: The Pit – 1 (this map is broken in Zdoom, no matter the complevel) Map 10: Refueling Base – 1.5 Map 11: Circle of Death – 2 Map 12: The Factory – 1.5 Map 13: Downtown – 2 Map 14: The Inmost Dens – 1.5 Map 15: Industrial Zone – 2 Map16: Suburbs – 3 X! Map 17: Tenements – 2 Map 18: The Courtyard – 2.5 Map 19: The Citadel – 1.5 Map 20: Gotcha! – 2 Map 21: Nirvana – N/A (ending map with no exit) Full game - 4 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Dead Simple - 2 mancubi and no cover. 4. Downtown - some platforming and an annoying revenant. 3. Tenements - those two revenants at the end are really awkward to fight. 2. The Courtyard - though enemies in cramped spaces. 1. The Suburbs - long peek-a-boo rocket duel with a cyberdemon. Congestion 1024 (32 maps) Var: 1 – 4.5 Int: 2.75 The wad that started the whole size limitation trend. Some maps are surprisingly hard despite small size. Most maps are way easier in continious. Spoiler Map 1: Water Facility – 1 Map 2: Garden of the Descent – 2.5 Map 3: Dilapidation – 2.5 Map 4: Outpost 1024 – 2 Map 5: Autumn in Hell – 2 Map 6: Departure Point – 2 Map 7: Dead Small – 2.5 Map 8: A Jagged Stroll – 3.5 Map 9: Monday Morning – 2.5 Map 10: Gothika 1024 – 3 (100% kills is impossible) Map 11: Caco District – 3 Map 12: Warehouse 667 – 3 Map 13: The Focus II – 4.5 Map 14: House of Shadows – 2.5 Map 15: Bantam – 3 Map 31: Archville Madness – 3 Map 32: Nullspace Junior – 2.5 Map 16: Deja Viev – 2.5 Map 17: Omega Outpost – 2 Map 18: Tutorial #99 – 2 Map 19: Lip Service – 2.5 Map 20: Claustrophobic Sting – 2.5 Map 21: Corpse Yard – 3 Map 22: Prison Escape – 3 Map 23: Close Quarters – 3 Map 24: Zyklon B – 4.5 X! Map 25: Stein and Stahl – 2.5 Map 26: Marbelous! – 3.5 Map 27: Tower of Hades – 2.5 Map 28: A Bridge Too Far – 2.5 Map 29: Magus – 3 Map 30: Nullified Departure – 4 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Marbelous! - a map with not much ammo and some nasty arch-vile fights. 4. A Jagged Stroll - ammo management taken to it's absolute extreme. You can't afford to miss any shots and have to rely on decent infighting. Meleeing isn't an option here. At least, it's a very short map. 3. Nullified departure - probably the hardest icon of sin fight I've ever seen. You have to survive being attacked by monsters form all sides for around five minutes. It gives you a BFG, a Megasphere and 2 Soulspheres, but it's still very hard. 2. The Focus II - another resource management map with both health and ammo being a problem this time. Add in some really weird fights due to interesting monster placement, lots of hitscan and then make it the longest map in the wad, and you got one of the most cruel maps ever. 1. Zyklon B - this is a great example of a map that's hard for all the wrong reasons. It starts with an rng based arch-vile fight, then for about half the map you fight off being attacked from all sides, while there aren't much health. Then there are some idiotic pain elemental fights, where the lost souls often go way above you and abuse infinite height, and towards the end you have to telefrag a cyberdemon, except the telefrag doesn't work 90% of the time, and he will instantly kill you. This is a good contender for the worst map I've played and is the most unfair map I've ever come across. Cyberdreams (32 maps) Var: 1 – 4.5 Int: 2.453125 An interesting wad about killing cyberdemons, without attacking them directly. Lots of maps are impossible to 100%, due to some crushers not working properly. Spoiler Map 1: Warm Up: One on One – 2 Map 2: The S-2 Factor – 2 Map 3: The Bridge Between – 2 Map 4: Come on in – 1.5 Map 5: Cybers and Holes – 2.5 Map 6: John’s Lament – 2 Map 7: Unusual Friendship – 2 Map 8: Happy End? – 2 Map 9: Double Duplex – 2.5 Map 10: Escape from the Hidden Trinity – 2 Map 11: Sequential Movements – 2 Map 12: Lords of the Ring – 2.5 Map 13: After the Ring – 2.5 Map 14: Satyrs, Gargoyles, Lions… and Suffering – 4 Map 15: Four Leaf Clover – 2 Map 31: With a Little Help… – 1 Map 32: …From My Friend – 2 Map 16: Urbanity – 2.5 Map 17: Tic-Tac-Toe – 3 Map 18: The Blocked Way to Arch-Itecture – 2.5 Map 19: Arch-Itecture – 2 Map 20: Anti-Clockwise – 2 Map 21: Bleeding Woods – 2.5 Map 22: Hot Dog – 3.5 Map 23: Hard Descent, Harder Climbings – 4.5 X! Map 24: Sorry, 66% Maximum – 1.5 Map 25: Pure Blood – 3 Map 26: The Tough Twins – 3.5 Map 27: You See Me, You Don’t – 4.5 Map 28: The Floatin’ Conspiracy – 2.5 Map 29: The Way to God’s Manna – 2.5 Map 30: Resurrection – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. The Tough Twins - relatively long level, where you have to press lots of switches, while avoiding fire from two cyberdemons in a somewhat small room. 4. Hot Dog - you have to dodge rockets from a cyberdemon, that teleports around, but slowly gets closer and closer to you, until he teleports under a crusher. The tunnel you are in isn’t that big, so you could get splashed easily, and the cyberdemon somehow gets insane and starts shooting nonstop, while being crushed. 3. Satyrs, Gargoyles, Lions… and Suffering - the longest map in the wad. Run around and press lots, and I mean lots of switches, while being constantly shot at by cyberdemons. The last area has timed switches, that require SR40, and the last cyberdemon can shoot you almost immediately after you telefrag another one. 2. You See Me, You Don’t - this one has you riding a small elevator, while dodging point blank cyberdemon rockets. It’s way harder than it sounds. 1. Hard Descent, Harder Climbings - this one has you riding a slow big elevator, while dodging rockets from caged cyberdemons, that shoot you from above. The elevator makes multiple stops, where you have to make precise jumps over death pits, while being shot at by cyberdemons. The highest floor has you make an SR40 jump over a massive death pit. Then you have to dodge rockets from two cyberdemons in a small corridor, while stairs are slowly raising under you and you get splashed constantly. Then you have to do that SR40 jump again. Then you have to ride the big elevator down (thankfully, it’s way faster now). Also wait, until all the cyberdemons get crushed, before activating the other elevator that takes you to the exit, since otherwise you can get crushed, before all the cyberdemons. DBP 1: Monuments of Mars (7 maps) Var: 2.5 – 4.5 Int: 3.429 First of the many Doomer Boards Projects. Loosely themed around a game called Monuments of Mars. Spoiler Map 1: Breakout – 2.5 Map 2: Mt. Orion – 2.5 Map 3: Ares Compound – 3 Map 4: Drill Station – 3 Map 5: Mortar for Martyrs – 4.5 Map 6: Steel Militia – 4 Map 7: Geothermal Gymnastics – 4.5 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Steel Militia - has a couple of tricky fights near the end. First one has you fighting a bunch of monsters in small room with arch-vile turrets and barely any place to hide. The second one has you fighting two viles with almost no cover and then jumping, down, while a cyberdemon tries to block you from below. It's not actually that bad, since this map is very generous with health and armor. 2. Mortar for Martyrs - and this map isn't generous with health or ammo, and has you fighting a massive caco cloud with pain elementals mixed in, and later a horde of revenants mixed with an arch-vile and couple more pain elementals. 1. Geothermal Gymnastics - this map has an absolutely insane fight with 6 arch-viles and like 30 demons that they use as a meat shield in cramped spaces with damaging floors. You have to run around, blasting through enemies, grabbing rad suits and collecting more ammo, because you barely have enough. The rest of the map is not that bad, but that fight definitely puts it above everything else in this wad. DBP 2: Circle of Caina SP (8 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.875 Cool winter themed wad. Spoiler Map 1: The Chill Before The Thrill – 2 Map 2: Frostbite – 2.5 Map 3: Some Other Circle – 2.5 Map 4: The Stairway – 3 Map 5: Frosty Cream Glade – 3.5 Map 6: Cold Shoulder – 2.5 Map 7: Below Zero – 3.5 Map 8: Hot Action in Cold Igloos – 3.5 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Frosty Cream Glade – the longest level in the wad. It’s open, interconnected and has a bunch of damaging floors, movement here is not easy. 2. Below Zero – a small but tricky slaughtermap. The first half has fight enemy hordes while dealing with a ton of sniping hell knights, the second half has you dealing with a cyberdemon and like 50 hell knight coming from all sides. 1. Hot Action in Cold Igloos – another slaughtermap, this one is more medium sized. The first fight surrounds you with a ton of enemies. The cave fight is a little tricky. Then you have to do a bunch difficult platforming over damaging water and deal with a couple ambushes. The final fight is a little cramped, but it’s not that hard, if you saved some BFG ammo, and there is a cyberdemon guarding the exit. DBP 7: The Merry Christmassy Doom Project (6 maps) Var: 2 – 3 Int: 2.4 Short Christmas themed wad. Spoiler Map 1: An Unexpected Visitor – 2 Map 2: Empty Present – 2 Map 3: Evil of Snow – 3 X! Map 4: Coal for Christmas – 2 Map 5: Yule Probably Die – 3 Map 6: -endmap- – N/A (ending map with no exit) Demonfear (32 maps) Var: 1 – 2.5 Int: 1.984375 Easy-ish wad with short, small maps. Spoiler Map 1: Wolves in the Kitchen – 2 Map 2: The Colonel’s Car – 1.5 Map 3: Gettin’ Gas – 2 Map 4: Transport Nexus – 2 Map 5: Communication Base – 2 Map 6: The Ammo Dump – 2 Map 7: The Wall – 2.5 X! Map 8: The Hatred – 2 Map 9: The Bridge – 2 Map 10: The Shuttle Bay – 2 Map 11: Space Station – 2 Map 12: Edge of the City – 2 Map 13: The Underground – 2 Map 14: City Hall – 2 Map 15: The Proving Ground – 2 Map 31: White Magick – 2 Map 32: Black Magick – 2 Map 16: The Lesser Temple – 2 Map 17: Chamber of Horrors – 1.5 Map 18: The Infernal Gardens – 2.5 X! Map 19: Flood of Fire – 2 Map 20: The Greater Temple – 2 Map 21: The Gateway – 2 Map 22: Unquiet Spirits – 2 Map 23: Abandon Hope – 2 Map 24: The Scourging – 2 Map 25: Metal Hell – 2 Map 26: Detour – 2 Map 27: Hell’s Paradigm – 2 Map 28: The Fire Pits – 2 Map 29: Fortress Hades – 2 Map 30: Demonfear – 1.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Fortress Hades - this one is normal sized, rather than short, and has a cyberdemon fight, and a big hitscanner ambush. 4. The Scourging - very open map, that has a lot of hitscanners and revenants sniping you. 3. Unquiet Spirits - there is lots of lost souls, and ammo is kind of tight. 2. The Wall - this one throws lots of barons and hell knights at you, and there isn't much health and ammo. 1. The Infernal Gardens - starts with you being shot by a bunch of hitscanners and ends in a double arch-vile fight with not much cover. Doom 2 - Flashback to Hell (17 maps) Var: 0 – 4.5 Int: 2.67647 Starts off as a Doom 2 remake, but then diverges after map 11. The plot is about doomguy traveling back in time to lessen the human casualties that happened during the original Doom 2. First half is on par with Doom 2 when it comes to difficulty, the second half is more similar to Final Doom. Spoiler Map 1: Approach – 1.5 Map 2: Lower Corridors – 2 Map 3: The Trial – 2 Map 4: The Convergence – 2.5 Map 5: The Sewage Aqueducts – 2 Map 6: The Pulverizer – 2.5 Map 7: Simply Dead – 2.5 Map 8: Deceptions and Snares – 3.5 Map 9: The Hole – 4 Map 10: Recharging Station – 4.5 Map 11: Ring of Oblivion – 3.5 Map 12: Realm of Desolation – 4.5 Map 13: Where Sinners Burn – 3.5 Map 14: Symbol of Iniquity – 4.5 X! Map 15: Epilogue – 0 Map 31: Nazi Castle – 1 Map 32: Hitler – 1.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Deceptions and Snares - is very tight on ammo in the beginning and has an easily missable one time secret at the end. 4. The Hole - long level, with a large stretch in the middle, that gives you almost no health. 3. Recharging Station - you will be constantly looking for health, ammo and armor through this map, while fighting strong enemies. Secrets are pretty much mandatory here, especially the invulnerability you need to get past the cyberdemons and get the plasma rifle. 2. Realm of Desolation - this map is long and tight on ammo. Also, there is a double cyberdemon fight, and, later, a cyberdemon 1v1. 1. Symbol of Iniquity - this map has a very hard beginning, and is somewhat difficult through. But then at the end you have to BFG storm a mountain filled with monsters and fight buffed up Icon of Sin (it takes like over 10 rockets to kill it), all while being shot by two sniping cyberdemons. Doom 2 Redux (32 maps) Var: 1.5 – 5.5 Int: 3.171875 A remake of Doom 2 that tries to modernize maps from the original. Way harder than Doom 2. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 1.5 Map 2: Underhalls – 2.5 Map 3: The Gantlet – 2.5 Map 4: The Focus – 2 Map 5: The Waste Tunnels – 2 Map 6: The Crusher – 2.5 Map 7: Dead Simple – 3.5 Map 8: Tricks and Traps – 3 Map 9: The Pit – 5.5 Map 10: Refueling Base – 3 Map 11: Circle of Death – 3 Map 12: The Factory – 3.5 Map 13: Downtown – 4 Map 14: The Inmost Dens – 3 Map 15: Industrial Zone – 3.5 (I couldn’t find a way to get the secret exit, and considering the fact that this map has a stupid softlock, I won’t be surprised, if it’s broken) Map 31: Wolfenstein – 4 Map 32: Grosse – 5.5 X! Map16: Suburbs – 2.5 Map 17: Tenements – 3 Map 18: The Courtyard – 2.5 Map 19: The Citadel – 3 Map 20: Gotcha! – 2.5 Map 21: Nirvana – 3 Map 22: The Catacombs – 3 Map 23: Barrels O’ Fun – 2.5 Map 24: The Chasm – 3.5 Map 25: Bloodfalls – 4.5 Map 26: The Abandoned Mines – 3.5 Map 27: Monster Condo – 2.5 Map 28: The Spirit World – 4.5 Map 29: The Living End – 4.5 Map 30: Icon of Sin – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. The Spirit World - a slaughtermap with 400+ enemies. The hardest part is near the end, where you have to drom in canyon and deal with a cyberdemon and 100 other monsters. 4. Bloodfalls - big, non-linear, semi-slaughtery map with over 300 enemies. Blue and yellow key areas aren't that bad, but the red key area is downright sadistic. You'll have to fight cacodemons, pain elementals and revenants, while platforming over damaging floor and having almost no cover. 3. The Living End - as the penultimate map, it's long and difficult. There isn't any especially hard fight, it's just that every fight here is dangerous, so the consistency is very important. 2. The Pit - precise and fast SR40 platforming on small platforms over damaging lava. And you'll have to do it again and again, and again. Oh and there is a very precise SR40 jump over damaging slime. And the combat is no joke either. This map just loves to put you into rooms, where you are surrounded by enemies, and constantly throw groups of chaingunners and revenants at you. 1. Grosse - This is a 40 minutes long ammo and health conservation map. Not only are you have to conserve ammo, but you have to carefully conserve specific ammo types for specific rooms. Most of the fights here have ways to badly hurt you and slowly drain your resources, but beyond that there are two extremely dangerous ones. The first health drainer throws you in a room small cramped room with damaging floor (and you get no rad suits) with barons, hell knights and a bunch of fodder, and you still have to conserve ammo, while dealing with this. The second throws you into a room with a cyberdemon, a spiderdemon and a bunch of other monsters from all sides. If the infighting goes badly you are dead. If you get cornered, you are dead. If don't kill some of the monsters quickly enough, you are dead. The ending has you fighting 20 cacodemons with likely no armor left, then 20 pain elementals (it mercifully gives you a BFG and an invulnerability for that) and, finally, a herd of barons. Also, some of the secrets are basically mandatory and this map has no walkthrough. So, if anyone wants to play it: Find the blue armor behind openable wall not far away from the beginning, near a furnace. Use one of the torches behind the blue door, to lover a soulsphere. By the way, this map has absolutely nothing to do with the original map 32. Doom 2 the Way id Did (33 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 2.636 Megawad designed in the style of original Doom II. Considerably harder than Doom II. Spoiler Map 1: Loading Bay – 2 Map 2: The Compound – 2 Map 33: Hexsoil – 5 X! Map 3: Water Main – 2 Map 4: The Siltyards – 2 Map 5: The Boiler – 2 Map 6: The Gorge – 2.5 Map 7: Counterpoint – 2 Map 8: Quarantine – 2.5 Map 9: The Gambit – 3 Map 10: Reservoirs – 2.5 Map 11: The Garrison – 2 Map 12: The Shipyard – 2.5 Map 13: The Wharf – 3.5 Map 14: Flooded Library – 2 Map 15: The Causeway – 2.5 Map 31: Vorticon – 3 Map 32: Well of Wishes – 2 Map 16: Cul-de-sac – 2.5 Map 17: The Precinct – 2.5 Map 18: The Sanctum – 2 Map 19: Bedlam – 3 Map 20: Leap of Faith – 2 Map 21: Passage to Exile – 2.5 Map 22: Borderlands – 2.5 Map 23: The Crucible – 2.5 Map 24: Crushed Spirits – 3.5 Map 25: Dead Sea – 2.5 Map 26: Damned Strait! – 3 Map 27: The Bloodwash – 4 Map 28: Abyss – 3 Map 29: The Mortal Coil – 4 Map 30: Hell on Earth – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Crushed Spirits – a difficult map with lots of crushers, and fights where you are dropped in rooms filled with enemies. 4. The Wharf – a city level, where all your weapons and ammo scattered all over the city and there are a lot of damage sponge enemies both outside and inside the buildings. Also, there is a cyberdemon fight. 3. The Bloodwash – this map is low on ammo and throws you in rooms filled with enemies, including revenants and pain elementals. 2. The Mortal Coil – a long map that is difficult all the way through. The beginning is very low on health and the later fights aren’t a joke either. This map also uses way more mid and high tiers than the rest of the wad, with one exception… 1. Hexsoil – the only map not in the style of an id level, but a parody of Xbox bonus map, except it’s nothing like that Xbox map. This is an over 30 minutes long health and ammo conservation map. This map is really low on ammo, maximizing the infighting and not missing your shots is very important. In the fleshy room don’t kill hell nobles and arachnotrons, before you get the SSG. In the same room leave the horde of pinkies for later, come back and finish them after you get the chainsaw. In the stone building section, kill the (useless due to lost soul limit) pain elementals with melee and telefrags. Also, don’t kill the imps, activate the key ambush and make the arachnotrons and barons kill them, and each other. Then comes the hardest part, the lava cave section. I recommend to save the secret soulsphere for before going there, because it doesn’t have much health and is filled with 20 damage floors. Clean the cave, grab the key and then run. When you grab the key, the cave fills with enemies, fighting them head on is suicide. Make to the upper cave section, BFG the big ambush there, than slowly kill lots of the monsters below through infighting, while chainsawing occasional lost souls and cacodemons, that make it to you. Now comes the final part. Grab the secret invuln, get to the arch-vile ambush, before it runs out and kill the archies. All that’s left now is a lot of clean up, that you’ll have just barely enough ammo for. Doom Christmas 2016 (4 maps) Var: 1.5 – 2 Int: 1.75 Cute and short Christmas wad. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 2 Map 2: Christmas Halls – 1.5 Map 3: North Pole – 2 X! Map 4: North Village – 1.5 Full game – 2.5 Doom the Way id Did (27 maps) Var: 1 – 3 Int: 1.944 Community megawad, designed in the style of id's original 3 episodes. Spoiler E1M1: Communications Bridge – 1 E1M2: Military Bunker – 1 E1M3: Fuel Synthesis – 1 E1M9: Excavation Site – 2 E1M4: Treatment Plant – 2 E1M5: Engineering Bay – 2 E1M6: Reactor Complex – 2 E1M7: Logic Core – 2.5 E1M8: Transport Facility – 1 E2M1: Receiving Station – 2 E2M2: Filtration Compound – 2 E2M3: Rec Facility – 2 E2M4: Mental Ward – 2 E2M5: Deimos Command – 2 E2M9: Nebulous Origins – 2 E2M6: Foundry – 3 X! E2M7: Ore Processing – 2 E2M8: Vault – 1.5 E3M1: Abyssal Stronghold – 1.5 E3M2: City of Corpses – 2 E3M3: Malebolge – 2 E3M4: Torture Chambers – 2.5 E3M5: Chapel of Scorn – 2.5 E3M6: Depths – 2.5 E3M9: Lake of Fire – 2.5 E3M7: Inner Sanctum – 2 E3M8: Core – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Torture chambers - some ammo and item management required. 4. Depths - somewhat difficult fights and a long crusher section. 3/2. Chapel of Scorn/Lake of Fire - both are long maps with multiple difficult fights and dangerous environment. Idk, which of the two is harder. 1. Foundry - id wouldn't do a map like this. This is a non-linear map with lots of places and it requires proper routing, and even then, you can still run out of ammo or health. Seriously going the wrong way can completely screw you. But this isn't even the hardest part. The hardest part are all the crushers and damaging floors that you'll be constantly dealing with. Oh, and you need to tank damage from an unavoidable crusher to get one of the secrets. Epic (5 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.8 Great Egypt themed wad. Maps 3 and 5 are long, but the combat isn’t that hard, besides the double cyberdemon fight at the end of map 5. Spoiler Map 1: A Fool’s Paradise – 2 Map 2: Sand-Storm – 2.5 Map 3: Arc of the Pendulum – 3 Map 4: The Helltrain – 3 Map 5: The Citadel – 3.5 X! Fava Beans (9 maps) Var: 1 – 2 Int: 1.444 Episode 1 replacement from the 90s, known as being one of the easiest wads ever. Good for people, who haven't played much games before. Spoiler E1M1: Gaspa Armory – 1.5 E1M2: Hangar 18 – 1 E1M3: Impalement Station – 2 E1M9: Creeping Death – 1 E1M4: Triton Lunar Base – 1.5 (one of the secrets is broken) E1M5: Charon’s Lab – 1.5 E1M6: Shadows of Darkness – 1.5 E1M7: Titan’s Anomaly – 2 X! E1M8: Orion Outpost – 1 Full episode - 2.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Shadows of Darkness - has the most enemies. They aren't really threatening, but they are there. 2. Impalement Station - has a lot of shotgunners and doesn't give you armor instantly. 1. Titan's anomaly - this map has ambushes and enemies placed in actually somewhat threatening positions. Galaxia (The Ultimate Czech Level) (2 maps) Var: 2 – 2.5 Int: 2.25 Really good wad based on a comic book. Spoiler E1M1 – 2.5 X! (there are a bunch of caged spiderdemons that you aren’t supposed to kill and don’t have ammo for). E1M9 – 2 Going Down (32 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 3.4375 One of my favorite wads. The maps are small in size, but that isn't stopping them from being long or hard. Often, these small maps, will get filled to the brim with monsters. Harder than anything in the Iwads. Spoiler Map 1: Going up – 2 Map 2: Evil Admin – 2.5 Map 3: Crawl Space – 3.5 Map 4: Blood and Rockets – 2.5 Map 5: Time Warp – 3 Map 6: Painframe – 3 Map 7: Bad Reception – 2.5 Map 8: Hide and Seek – 3 Map 9: Broken Records – 4.5 Map 10: Trip Switch – 4.5 Map 11: Vivisection – 3 Map 12: Dead End – 3 Map 13: Deep Trouble – 4 Map 14: Secrets and Lies – 4 Map 15: Gladiator – 3 Map 31: Stair Crazy – 4.5 Map 32: Roof Rage – 4 Map 16: Black Mass – 3.5 Map 17: Rest in Pieces – 5 Map 18: Buried Alive – 3.5 Map 19: 200 Mega Hurts – 3 Map 20: The Mouth of Madness – 3 Map 21: Indigestion – 3.5 Map 22: Constipation Station – 3.5 Map 23: Demonology – 5 X! Map 24: Bridge of Blood – 4 Map 25: Forbidden Fruit – 3.5 Map 26: Insanity – 3 Map 27: Hard Cover – 4 Map 28: Necropolis – 4.5 Map 29: Demolition – 2.5 Map 30: Game Over – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Trip Switch - the quintessential let's fill this small map to the brim with monsters. At least, there is sort of a safe spot. 4. Necropolis - 1000+ monsters salughtermap. That in itself wouldn't have been that bad, if not for the fact, that about a quarter of them are revenants. Activate as much stuff at the same time as possible, then run and hope for good infighting. At least the map gives you lots of ammo and good amount of health and powerups. 3. Stair Crazy - the entire level is a narrow corridor, and you get attacked from both sides. And then there is the final fight, where you have to fight an entire army of hell knights and revenants, while getting attacked by imps from behind and archviles from the sides. These archviles by the way are teleporting, and are really annoying to hit. 2. Rest in Pieces - the title is not a joke, you will die a lot. This map is just cruel. The weapon that you will be using the most here is the rocket launcher, except the map feels, like it's designed for you to blow yourself up. The map is mostly narrow corridors, except somehow, they are designed in a way, that monsters could always flank and surround you. And then there is the ending. The entire map fills up with monsters, including archviles and a cyberdemon. There is no safe space, the closest thing to it is the secret BFG room, but even there you can get shot at by everything or ambushed by flying enemies. I can't even give any advise on this one, since due to weird architecture same fights almost always go differently. 1. Demonology - I don't know, how Cyriak did this, but he managed to make a size restricted map as long as Central Processing from Evilution, then somehow made it even more exhausting. Nearly every encounter is difficult to deal with, but the fight with an archvile and a horde of revenants and hell knights is the worst, no matter, from what room you will approach it. And then there is the ending that unleashes a bunch archviles to resurrect everything you killed. Just pray that you have enough ammo to kill everything. This legitimately feels like playing 10 hardcore maps in row. H2H-Xmas (32 maps) Var: 1 – 4 Int: 2.46875 Sequel to Xmas Doom, this time it’s a whole megawad. It’s for the most part a massive improvement over the previous one and it’s also way harder. Spoiler Map 1: Terminal – 1 Map 2: Security – 3 Map 3: Hangar – 1.5 Map 4: The Sewers – 3 Map 5: More Sewers – 2 Map 6: Water Works – 3 Map 7: Valve House – 2.5 Map 8: Outskirts – 2 Map 9: The High Rise – 3 Map 10: City Hall – 3.5 Map 11: Main Mall – 2 Map 12: The Court Yard – 4 Map 13: Town Square – 1.5 Map 14: Mini Malls – 4 Map 15: Urban Jungle – 2 Map 31: The Lot – 2.5 Map 32: Prison – 2 Map 16: Santa Co – 2 Map 17: Chopping Mall – 4 X! Map 18: Stair Master – 2 Map 19: Round-a-Bout – 3 Map 20: Hotel Hell – 2 Map 21: Loading Docks – 2 Map 22: Elf-Town – 2.5 Map 23: Elf-Town Revisited – 2.5 Map 24: Working Hard – 3.5 Map 25: Santa’s Shop – 2 Map 26: Elf’s House – 2.5 Map 27: Living In Sin – 2.5 Map 28: Main Office – 2 Map 29: Main Branch – 2 Map 30: The North Pole – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. City Hall – low on health and the fight with the mancubi in a room with bad cover near the end is tricky, same goes for the final arch-vile fight. 4. Working Hard – the beginning of this one of this one is probably the hardest fight in the wad, you have no armor, little health and there are revenants and imps attacking you from all sides. After that is over, the map is pretty normal, and it’s short anyways. 3. Mini Malls – this map has over 100 revenants and sometimes they ambush you from multiple sides. Thankfully, it gives you lots of health and ammo. 2. The Court Yard – same as the previous one, except there is even more revenants and a cyberdemon. 1. Chopping Mall – another revenant filled slaughtermap. This time it’s less than 100 of them, but their placement is more sadistic. The revenants aren’t your only problem, there are over 100 shotgunners pouring from everywhere. Unlike the others, this map has way less health, no plasma weapons, and the only way to get armor is a secret megasphere that is guarded by arch-vile, barons and another revenant horde. Hellevator (32 maps) Var: 2 – 6.5 Int: 3.3125 This fun wad is kind of like Going Down in reverse, instead of riding the elevator down at the end of each level, you ride it up. With the exception of one level, it’s easier than its inspiration. Spoiler Map 1: The Lobby – 2 Map 2: The Cafeteria Floor – 2.5 Map 3: The Greenhouse Floor – 2.5 Map 4: The Archive Floor – 3.5 Map 5: The Toxic Slime Floor – 2.5 Map 6: The Surveillance Floor – 2.5 Map 7: The Office Floor – 2.5 Map 8: The Criminal Floor – 3 Map 9: The Dance Floor – 4.5 Map 10: The Splatter Floor – 3.5 Map 11: The Isolation Floor – 4 Map 12: The Tech Testing Floor – 3 Map 13: The Shivering Floor – 2.5 Map 14: The Chemical Production Floor – 4.5 Map 15: The Restricted Floor – 3 Map 31: The Basement – 2.5 Map 32: The Subbasement – 2 Map 16: The Temple Floor – 4.5 Map 17: The Sewage Control Floor – 3.5 Map 18: The Castle Floor – 2 Map 19: The Sprawling Floor – 3 Map 20: The Molten Floor – 3.5 Map 21: The Custodian Floor – 3 Map 22: The Marbelous Floor – 3 Map 23: The Hickory Spire Floor – 4 Map 24: The Cracked Floor – 5 Map 25: The Gore Floor – 3 Map 26: The Unforgotten Floor – 3.5 Map 27: The Slaughter Floor – 4 Map 28: The Womb Floor – 6.5 X! Map 29: The Penthouse – 4.5 Map 30: The Roof – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. The Chemical Production Floor – this map has two big fights in a small toxic pit, the second of which features a very inconvenient arch-vile, and a single rad suit, that gives you barely enough time to go to the next section. And you need to get to the next section with as much health as possible, because it features a fight with a bunch of revenants on conveyor belts in a coverless room. 4. The Penthouse – the first half of the level can be easily dealt with, if you know, where the secrets are. But, in the second half, after you kill a spiderdemon, it spawns a cyberdemon, and a bunch of arch-viles in a small room, with almost no cover. If you get lucky, arch-viles will zap you onto a safe platform, from where, you can kill them through infighting. Oh, and after that fight, there is another fight with arch-viles. 3. The Dance Floor – this level has multiple fights, where you have to hide from arch-viles looking at you from windows, while a ton of other enemies attack. But the hardest part comes at the end, where four arch-viles get released everywhere. They have lots of corpses to resurrect and you have barely any cover and not that much ammo. 2. The Cracked Floor – this entire map is a claustrophobic nightmare. The beginning has you trying to quickly kill revenants and an arch-vile, while spiderdemon and others shooting at you. After a couple more though fights you get to the hardest part. You are in a really, really small pit, multiple waves of monsters, including revenants and hell knights teleport there, and there is a spiderdemon shooting at you. You need to constantly press a switch to raise a wall, that only partially protects you, while so many monsters, that you can barely move are ganging up on you. After that fight you’ll also have to deal with a revenant horde, and, later, five arch-viles. 1. The Womb Floor – this level starts with you being surrounded by revenants and a cyberdemon, desperately running, trying to hit switches and grab weapons, and gets even harder from here. You have to go through three insane challenges to get the keys. The hardest of which has you being surrounded by over 100 imps in a small corridor, while a bunch of other monsters fire at you from above. You don’t have enough BFG to kill all imps, so you have to rocket them, while trying not to rocket yourself, and, later, pinkies and revenants teleport in there, to make face rocketing even more likely. And then there is the final fight. Go into the room with the invulnerability, grab ammo, wait until cacodemons tart to come out and cyberdemon appears, grab the invuln and then push through the monster army, into a room, where the titular womb spews over 400 monsters at you. You don’t have that much BFG, so you’ll have to use rocket, but even 100+ rockets aren’t enough to stop them all. Oh, and there is a teleporter near the womb, that would teleport monsters behind you, if they get to it. And speaking of behind, cacodemons from the other room will slowly make their way to you, and attack you from behind, even if you got good infighting going in that room. When you eventually run out of rockets, try to kill as many monsters with the super shotgun, and when there becomes too much of them, run back into the cyberdemon room (there are some crushers between the rooms, they are too weak to do anything to monster, but they can definitely screw you over). Then you need to hide in a corner, where cyberdemon can’t get you, and somehow quickly kill the pain elemental from there, then somehow quickly kill the cacos, that aren’t infighting, and then somehow defeat the remains of the monster army. This fight is absolute chaotic madness from start to finish, and you need to concentrate and go all out for all of its duration. Hell Revealed (32/11/36 maps) Var: 1.5 – 6.5 Int: 3.734375/2.273/3.556 Considered to be the first really difficult wad. Absolute classic. Level quality varies drastically. Do not try to play this wad blind, proper strategies are mandatory. Spoiler Map 1: Into the Gate – 2 Map 2: Gateway Lab – 2 Map 3: The Dumpster – 2 Map 4: The Garden Terminal – 2 Map 5: Core Infection – 3 Map 6: The Round Crossroads – 2.5 Map 7: Arachnophobia – 2 Map 8: The Jail – 3 Map 9: Knockout – 4 Map 10: Chambers of War – 2 Map 11: Underground Base – 4 Map 12: Great Halls of Fire – 3 Map 13: Last Look at Eden – 5 Map 14: City in the Clouds – 4.5 Map 15: Gates to Hell – 4.5 Map 31: The Descent – 4 Map 32: Mostly Harmful – 4.5 Map 16: The Path – 4 Map 17: The Black Towers – 4.5 Map 18: Hard Attack – 4.5 Map 19: Everything Dies – 2.5 Map 20: Judgement Day – 4.5 Map 21: Siege – 4 Map 22: Resistance is Futile – 4.5 Map 23: Ascending to the Stars – 5.5 Map 24: Post Mortem – 6 Map 25: Dead Progressive – 2.5 Map 26: Afterlife – 6.5 X! (Four arch-viles are impossible to kill) Map 27: Cyberpunk – 4 Map 28: Top Hell – 4 Map 29: Temple of Fear – 3.5 Map 30: Hell Revealed – 5 Before the full wad a sort of demo version with first 11 maps was released. 4 of the maps were very different. Hell Revealed Episode 1 exclusives: Map 1: Into the Gate – 2 Map 7: Arachnophobia – 1.5 Map 9: Slime Disposal – 3 Map 11: Underground Base – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Last Look at Eden – this one has the hardest start in the wad, running past all those monsters is an absolute nightmare. Then you do a bunch of somewhat difficult fights, clean up a set of super awkward stairs/ledges. Grab the blue armor and go to the cage fight. The cage fight is more horrible than it sounds, you are locked in cage with like 50 monsters (including revenants and chaingunners) surrounding you. It is absolutely brutal. After that you just need to deal with an a revenant horde with an arch-vile supporting them and do some clean up in the first room with the cyberdemon thrown in there. 4. Hell Revealed – one of the hardest Icon of Sin fights out there, instead of one monster at a time, it shoots a ton of them. And you can’t just kill it quickly, because you need to get rid of two revenant hordes, four arch-viles and a cyberdemon. By the time you’re done with clean up, everything will be filled with random monsters. 3. Ascending to the Stars – this one is just hard all the way through, you fight enemies in cramped and difficult to maneuver spaces. None of the fights stand out in terms of difficulty, all of them are just very hard and this map is nearly 40 minutes long. 2. Post Mortem – the original big and long epic slaughtermap. It’s nowhere near as difficult as its reputation suggests. The first minute or so is pure insanity with you running for secrets and killing annoying arch-viles. After that it’s all about cleaning safe spaces and slowly getting rid of annoying snipers and pain elementals with occasional in your face cyberdemon encounters. That is until an absolutely terrifying ending with five cyberdemons attacking you at once in the only fight where you can’t run away. I hope, you're prepared to deal with this about 45 minutes in. 1. Afterlife – many of the maps in Hell Revealed are definitely difficult, but very manageable with the right strats, but there is one exception. Afterlife is just nearly 50 minutes of non-stop cruelty. There are 3 dimensions you need to travel between. The main dimension, that is filled with enemies, the tower dimension that is awful to navigate and constantly refills with strong enemies and the parking lot(?) dimension that has enemies in really advantageous position. In all of these worlds you will be constantly set on fire, shredded with bullets, and targeted by both types of rockets. Most challenging maps in HR give you a BFG or at least plasma rifle. In Afterlife you get no plasma weapons, a semi-pointless rocket launcher after the map is basically over (there are sometimes ghost monsters at the end, but you can just run away, since killing them is not required), a shotgun, a chaingun that screws you over via autoswitch and a super shotgun hidden in a horrible trap. This is all you get to go through fights where you either in a big area with almost no cover, surrounded from all sides or cramped spaces with barely any place to maneuver, or somehow both at one. There is plenty of health, but you can easily get melted from 200/200 in less than a second, without even knowing, what hit you. Not being helped by the fact, that most of it is either heavily guarded or can accidentally be picked up too early, while running away from enemies. Heretic Invades Doom (2 maps) Var: 3 – 3.5 Int: 3.25 Short wad with the crossbow and some monsters from Heretic added. The first map ends with a hard fight against a cyberdemon and a dozens of golems. The second map starts with difficult fight against a Heretic deathmatch bot. Spoiler Map 1: Heretical Base – 3.5 X! Map 2: id Tech Brawl – 3 Icarus: Alien Vanguard (32 maps) Var: 1 – 4 Int: 2.453125 Somewhat experimental wad made by team TNT after Evilution. Easier than their Final Doom contribution. Spoiler Map 1: Shuttlecraft – 2.5 Map 2: Shuttle Bay – 2.5 Map 3: Quarry – 1.5 Map 4: Engineering – 1 Map 5: Flipside – 2 Map 6: P.E.T. Rescue – 2.5 Map 7: Sickbay – 2.5 Map 8: Donnybrook – 2.5 Map 9: The Moat – 2.5 Map 10: Bridge – 2 Map 11: Feeding Frenzy – 3 Map 12: Hydroponics – 2.5 Map 13: Asylum – 2 Map 14: Fortress of Evil – 3.5 Map 15: Waste Disposal – 2 Map 31: Great Balls of Fire – 2 Map 32: Prestidigitation – 2 Map 16: Bootcamp – 3.5 Map 17: Bloodbath – 3 Map 18: Cargo Bay – 3.5 Map 19: Blessed are the Quick – 2 Map 20: War Temple – 2.5 Map 21: Engine Core – 2.5 Map 22: Nightfall – 3 Map 23: Painful Discharge – 2.5 Map 24: The Haunting – 2 Map 25: Another Fine Mess – 3.5 Map 26: Weapons Bay – 2 Map 27: Starhenge – 2 Map 28: Excavations – 4 X! Map 29: Brutality – 3 Map 30: Nucleus – 1 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Fortress of Evil - starts off very low on ammo and somewhat low on health, you'll get lots of stuff later, but some chainsawing and careful shooting are required in the beginning. Oh, and there is a cyberdemon fight. 4. Bootcamp - hitscan hell, almost 200 monsters and most of them are hitscanners. There is trap, where you have to fight a bunch of hitscanners with no cover. Oh, and there is a cyberdemon fight. 3. Cargo Bay - though enemies in a narrow crate maze, where they can easily surround you. Oh, and there is a teleporting cyberdemon fight at the end, where if you don't kill him, before invulnerability runs out, you're screwed. 2. Another fine mess - long, tight on ammo at some points, tight on health at some points and has a couple of dangerous traps. And one of the secrets requires a not so easy arch-vile jump (thankfully, you are given the invulnerability for it). Oh, and there is a cyberdemon fight at the end. 1. Excavations - not enough ammo. This map feels, like it's from a completely different wad. The fight in that tower, where you are attacked by hordes of chaingunners, cacos and pain elementals will drain all of your ammo, and you won't be able to get enough of it for the red key building fight later, which features another swarm of cacodemons and pain elementals. I managed to beat that part by initiating the infighting, hiding in cave, hoping, that lost souls kill cacos and damage pain elementals, non-berserk punching lost souls that entered my cave, and accurately sniping pain elementals. And this map also has platforming and chaingunner traps. Oh, and there is, thankfully, no cyberdemon fight. Japanese Community Project (32 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 3.046875 Japanese community megawad with unique, interesting maps. Spoiler Map 1: First Assault – 2 Map 2: Rural Mini-Base – 2 Map 3: The Sign of Armageddon – 2.5 Map 4: Thaumasia – 3 Map 5: Woodexial – 2 Map 6: Riminshi Valley – 3.5 Map 7: Confused Arena – 2.5 Map 8: 54-pit – 2 Map 9: The Three World – 3 Map 10: The Odd Encampment – 4.5 Map 11: My fav – 3 Map 12: Magnetic force apparatus – 2.5 Map 13: Bad Morning – 2.5 Map 14: G_T_Factory – 2.5 Map 15: Nandeyanen – 4.5 Map 31: Manufacturing Plant – 2.5 Map 32: Blood Fund Gang – 3 Map 16: Forlorn Defense Line – 4 Map 17: UAC energy plant – 3 Map 18: Space Port Panik – 2.5 Map 19: Remind – 3 Map 20: Escape from UAC space base – 4 Map 21: Search and Destroy – 2.5 Map 22: A den of vice – 3.5 Map 23: Thermal disposal place – 2.5 Map 24: Probably Maybe Certainly – 3.5 Map 25: Cakravartin’s miscalculation – 3.5 Map 26: Embodiment of Maliciousness – 5 X! Map 27: A resplendent emerald green – 2.5 Map 28: HeLLport – 4.5 Map 29: hazmat hazama – 3.5 Map 30: Every beginning has an end – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Forlorn Defense Line – a difficult small town map. It’s called defense line for a reason, everything is heavily guarded by monsters, including most of the weapons. The hardest fight is easily the cave ambush with revenants and an arch-vile. The ending trap is also no joke either, run behind cover as fast as you can. 4. The Odd Encampment – This one likes to give monsters terrain advantage: arch-vile in an open room, pinkies and hell nobles teleporting to a small balcony with barely space to move, a revenant horde in cramped warehouse, followed by a tiny room with chaingunners and an arch vile, and more. At least, this one gives you a free BFG. 3. Nandeyanen – another map that’s hard all the way through. It begins with a series of ambushes, then throws a hedge maze with a turreted cyberdemon and revenants. You then lower the hedgemaze, lure revenants into infighting cyberdemon, which is easier said than done, press a bunch of buttons and then get a tight timed switch secret, while dodging cyberdemon fire, and then run into baron’s room to finally crush the cyberdemon. Near the end, there is an arena fight with hordes of revenants and hell nobles, and an arch-vile that joins in later. After that there is also some platforming. 2. HeLLport – a big, over half an hour long slaughter map with 700 enemies. This one loves arch-viles, revenants and damaging floors, but also gives you lots of radsuits and health. The big red key fight would have been terrifying, if not for the secret invulnerability. If anything, the hardest fight is near the beginning, where you have to fight a bunch of enemies on lava, with limited radsuits and bad cover, while a cyberdemon is shooting at you. The rest of the map is hard, but manageable. 1. Embodiment of Maliciousness – JPCP’s hardest maps seem to be the types that just throw at you one hard fight after another, rather than having one or two stand out moments, and this map is nothing but that. Every fight in this map can destroy you in one way or another. This one has lots of revenants and arch-viles, and unlike HeLLport isn’t super generous with health (though it still gives you a decent amount). If I had to pick the hardest fight, it will be the fight in a BFG room, which throws chaingunners, an arch-vile and a horde of hell knights in a tiny room with barely any space to move. But that’s just slightly harder than the rest of this half an hour of malice. Jenesis (32 maps) Var: 2 – 5.5 Int: 3.046875 Takes heavy inspiration from both TNT and Plutonia, when it comes to both combat and visuals. Looks really good. Surprisingly, the maps are easier, than the peaks of Final Doom, with one exception. Also, this wad uses a lot of damaging floors. Spoiler Map 1: Treatment Plant – 2 Map 2: The Canal – 3 Map 3: The Oasis Facility – 2.5 Map 4: The Garden Terminal II – 3.5 Map 5: Submerged Refinery – 2.5 Map 6: Waystation – 3 Map 7: Dead Center – 2.5 Map 8: Plunge – 2.5 Map 9: Slime Vaults – 3.5 Map 10: Ruins – 2.5 Map 11: Devil’s Industry – 3.5 Map 12: Highway of Destruction – 3 Map 13: Transporter Station – 3.5 Map 14: Poisoned Ocean – 2.5 Map 15: Alchemy – 3 Map 31: Duality – 4 Map 32: Reprise – 4 Map 16: Crestfallen – 2.5 Map 17: Deadline – 2.5 Map 18: Mineshaft – 3 Map 19: Subterranean Labs – 2.5 Map 20: Into the Gate – 3 Map 21: The Other Side – 3 Map 22: Haunted Halls – 3 Map 23: The Atrium – 3.5 Map 24: Hades’ Wall – 3 Map 25: The Carcass Pit – 2.5 Map 26: The Savage Abyss – 5.5 X! Map 27: The Vulcanum – 4 Map 28: Baphomet’s Keep – 3 Map 29: Mutant Jenesis – 2.5 Map 30: Abysm – 3 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Devil's industry - a fairly long map with both a hot start and a dangerous mancubus trap at the end. 4. Duality - a fusion of TNT map 2 and Plutonia map 2. It basically fuses 2 maps, well known for being cheap on resources and then throws a cyberdemon and an arch-vile trap. Save some rockets for the final room, trying to telefrag that arch-vile isn't worth it. 3. The Vulcanum - lots of though enemies and some ammo problems. Skip the big fight at the beginning and tackle it later, since otherwise you might put yourself in an awkward situation. 2. Reprise - takes inspiration from some of the hardest plutonia maps - lots of chaingunners, revenants and awkwardly placed arch-viles. Ammo can be a problem and there is an awkward cyberdemon fight. Oh, and it ends with a very claustrophobic hell knight trap. 1. The Savage Abyss - the biggest and longest map in the wad. This is harder than anything in final doom and way harder than anything else in this wad. 300+ enemies with 80 revenants and 13 arch-viles sounds hardcore already, but their placement is utterly cruel. The big cave section, where you are surrounded by revenants above you on ledges from all sides is probably the hardest, followed by fight with a horde of revenants and an arch-vile in a corridor that you can't simply escape from, with the third place being taken by a double arch-vile fight with no cover. The rest of the level is no joke either, and it ends on a triple cyberdemon fight. Savage indeed. Knee Deep in Zdoom (10 maps) Var: 2 – 4.5 Int: 2.9 My favorite wad ever. A remake of Knee Deep in the Dead with new monsters, new weapons, and greatly expanded levels. Continuous only, since normal level select cheat doesn’t even work here. Spoiler Z1M1: Hangar – 2 Z1M2: Nuclear Plant – 2 Z1M3: Toxin Refinery – 3 Z1M9: Military Base – 2.5 Z1M4: Command Control – 2.5 Z1M5: Phobos Lab – 2.5 Z1M6: Central Processing – 3.5 Z1M7: Computer Station – 3.5 Z1M10: Penultimate Evil – 4.5 X! Z1M8: Phobos Anomaly – 3 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Computer Station – takes over half an hour to beat and, unlike previous levels isn’t generous with health. 2. Central processing – three of the secrets require precise platforming over a death pit, and one of them is near the end of the level. 1. Penultimate Evil – this super secret level takes over 50 minutes to beat, is even less generous than Computer Station and uses way more higher tier enemies (including rocket zombies and custom bosses). But the hardest part of the level is the yellow key fight, which unleashes 100 monsters at you from all sides, including a ton of hitscanners, who can easily shred you in seconds. Linear Doom (27 maps) Var: 0 – 2.5 Int: 1.315 An absolute masterpiece, the final evolution of level design. Spoiler E1M1: Hangar – 1 E1M2: Nuclear Plant – 1 E1M3: Toxin Refinery – 1 E1M9: Military Base – 1 E1M4: Command Control – 1.5 E1M5: Phobos Lab – 1 E1M6: Central Processing – 2 E1M7: Computer Station – 1 E1M8: Phobos Anomaly – 2 E2M1: Deimos Anomaly – 1.5 E2M2: Containment Area – 1.5 E2M3: Refinery – 1 E2M4: Deimos Lab – 2.5 X! E2M5: Command Center – 2 E2M9: Fortress of Mystery – 0.5 E2M6: Halls of the Damned – 1 E2M7: Spawning Vats – 1 E2M8: Tower of Babel – 1 E3M1: Hell Keep – 2 E3M2: Slough of Despair – 0.5 E3M3: Pandemonium – 2 E3M4: House of Pain – 2 E3M5: Unholy Cathedral – 0 E3M6: Mt. Erebus – 1.5 E3M9: Warrens – 2 E3M7: Limbo – 1 E3M8: Dis – 1 E1: Knee Deep in the Dead – 2 E2: The Shores of Hell – 3 E3: Inferno – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. House of Pain – starts with you pistoling a pinkie with almost no place to retreat, has two barons, and kind of a tricky part, where you need to grab a BFG. 4. Command Center – grab the secret plasma at the start, because you’ll need it for two barons. There isn’t much health on this level. 3. Hell Keep – pistoling cacodemons in a small corridor is not easy. 2. Warrens – it’s the same as Hell Keep, but there is a harmless cyberdemon at the end. 1. Deimos lab – there are two barons here and almost no health. You’re also low on ammo and need to damage one of the barons with a crusher, which is surprisingly tricky. Lunatic (5 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.9 Short, fun wad, that takes place on the moon. Last 3 maps are slaughtery but not too difficult. Spoiler Map 1: One Small Step… - 2 Map 2: Space Weapon Research – 2.5 Map 3: Rocket Zone – 3.5 X! Map 4: Super Lunarcomputer – 3.5 Map 5: The Final Countdown – 3 Moonblood (32 maps) Var: 1 – 5 Int: 3.609375 Challenging classic style wad. Don't be fooled by low monster counts, these levels are deadly and your resources are scarce. Spoiler Map 1: UAC Starport – 1 Map 2: Waste Central – 2.5 Map 3: Underground Facility – 2 Map 4: The Courtyard – 2 Map 5: Infrastructure Sector – 2.5 Map 6: Central Command – 2.5 Map 7: Industrial Zone – 3 Map 8: Sewers – 2.5 Map 9: Delta Labs Research – 3 Map 10: Toxic Treatment Lab – 3 Map 11: Logistics – 3 Map 12: Mining Site – 4 Map 13: The Village – 4 Map 14: Hellish Shrine – 4 Map 15: Decaying Industries – 4 Map 31: Archives: Dobu Gabu’s Exam – 3.5 Map 32: Archives: Iron Keep – 5 Map 16: Beta Labs Reception – 4 Map 17: BFG Experiments – 4.5 Map 18: Hidden in the Dungeon – 3.5 Map 19: Obstructed Zone – 4.5 Map 20: Moonblood Gateway – 4 Map 21: The Abyss – 4.5 Map 22: Skeleton’s Gardens – 4 Map 23: The Archipelago – 3.5 Map 24: Hanging Fortress – 4 Map 25: Helltown – 4.5 Map 26: Coliseum – 4.5 Map 27: Magma Refinery – 4.5 Map 28: Remains of Zeta Labs – 4.5 Map 29: Moonblood Ritual Site – 5 X! Map 30: The Repentant Sinner – 4.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Coliseum - This level starts with you being attacked from all sides and after you deal with that, it turns into a series of horrible arch-vile traps. The archies attack you in the open, they attack you in pairs, they attack you with the help of revenant hordes and they attack you from everywhere. 4. Helltown - it starts with you running around an open city map, desperately looking for resources, while a ton monsters (including a teleporting cyberdemon) attack you from everywhere. After dealing with that, you have to fight an arch-vile trio, and after that a revenant horde. 3. The Repentant Sinner - the final boss of this wad has more health than a cyberdemon, flies, is fast, fires mancubus fireballs, revenant rocket (including homing ones) and cyberdemon rockets. And the arena that you fight him in is small, awkward to navigate (SR40 is borderline mandatory) and has other monsters (most of which you could snipe from outside, before the boss fight starts). Those, who expect a typical anticlimactic final boss are in for a surprise. 2. Archives: Iron Keep - for the most part it plays like a typical for this wad map, but then you get to the double cyberdemon fight. You have to fight a cyberdemon in an arena, surrounded by inescapable death pits, while another cyberdemon snipes you from outside the arena. But the map isn't over after that fight, because you then have to do an absolutely ridiculous SR40 jump over a death pit. This is by the way one of the longer levels, taking over 15 minutes to get to the final room. 1. Moonblood Ritual Site - the one map in Moonblood, that has above normal monster count. It starts with you having to berserk punch a bunch of revenants to save, then for the next 80% of the level it's not that bad, until it throws a biggest revenant horde in the wad at you. But after the horde (and a spiderdemon) comes the worst part: a triple cyberdemon fight. Two teleport into a big arena, and one teleports on the side of the arena, from where he can easily snipe you in 90% of that arena. There are two small corners that the sniper can't see, but don't go to the one near the yellow door, other cyberdemons will easily kill you there. Hide it the other small corner, and BFG two cyberdemons from there, while probably taking splash damage and praying that the duo won't get too aggressive. Also, there is another spiderdemon fight after that. And, by the way, it takes over 30 minutes to get to the cyberdemon trio. NoReason’s Speedmaps (32 maps) Var: 2.5 – 7.5 Int: 4.359375 A challenge wad filled with difficult slaughter, pacifist, tyson and platforming maps. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 7 Map 2: Underhalls – 4.5 Map 3: The Gantlet – 4.5 Map 4: The Focus – 5 Map 5: The Waste Tunnels – 2.5 Map 6: The Crusher – 6 Map 7: Dead Simple – 6.5 Map 8: Tricks and Traps – 6 Map 9: The Pit – 3 Map 10: Refueling Base – 3 Map 11: Circle of Death – 4 Map 12: The Factory – 3.5 Map 13: Downtown – 2.5 Map 14: The Inmost Dens – 4.5 Map 15: Industrial Zone – 2.5 Map 31: Wolfenstein – 2.5 Map 32: Grosse – 4.5 Map16: Suburbs – 5 Map 17: Tenements – 6 Map 18: The Courtyard – 5 Map 19: The Citadel – 7 Map 20: Gotcha! – 3.5 Map 21: Nirvana – 2.5 Map 22: The Catacombs – 2.5 Map 23: Barrels O’ Fun – 2.5 Map 24: The Chasm – 7.5 X! Map 25: Bloodfalls – 3 Map 26: The Abandoned Mines – 4.5 Map 27: Monster Condo – 6 Map 28: The Spirit World – 3.5 Map 29: The Living End – 5.5 Map 30: Icon of Sin – 3.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Tricks and Traps – you are in a small room with a bunch of doors. Opening a door unleashes a wave of monster. These waves include two waves of revenants and arch-viles and three waves of cyberdemons. The only health you are given in this level is a single megasphere. 4. Dead Simple – you vs 20 cyberdemons in a big corridor. This is absolute bullet hell, sometimes there are four cyberdemons shooting at you at once. And again, your only health is a single megasphere. 3. The Citadel – 20 cyberdemons are back, but this time you are given no health, and they have a bunch of other monsters helping them. At the start just run past everything and grab a BFG, the rocket launcher is useless here. Clean all the hitscanners and mancubi and only then attack cybies. The only somewhat consistent way to fight them I found is running onto the BFG platform, shooting a couple shots, dropping down, shooting a couple more shots and repeating that process. You unfortunately constantly have to run through a puddle of damaging nukage and despite its size it can sometimes damage you, and like I said, you are given no health here. 2. Entryway – you are in a room filled to the brim with enemies, including arch-viles and cyberdemons. It starts out as a pacifist map, where you have to lure a cyberdemon into fighting hell knights to give you access to BFG, and when you get that BFG, just YOLO and hope that you win. The RNG in this level is awful; the luck required here is less than 1/100, if not 1 in 500. 1. The Chasm – uhm…I… Let’s start from the beginning, it starts with a somewhat difficult platforming section with imps. Falling means death. It’s not that bad, unless some imps fall off, then you pretty much have to restart (it’s possible to know, if an imp fell, by watching kill count at certain points). You then fight some hitscanners, platform some more and then fight a horde of cyberdemons. This isn’t that hard, since you are given a ton of megaspheres and BFG ammo. After that you fight a horde of arachnotrons. Then the level truly begins. There is a horrible platforming section with a few small doomguy sized platforms and a ton of less than doomguy’s foot sized platforms. On the other end of a platforming sequence are 35 imps that hurl fireballs of you. Can’t you just snipe the imps from safe distance? “No” – answers the autoaim. You have to platform to the last two doomguy sized platforms for autoaim to work (you can sometimes shoot from the edge of third to last platform, but it’s really not worth it). Falling means death. Being pushed to the abyss by imp fireballs means death. When you are on the last “big” platform, you can sort off line up yourself orienting by the next platform and move backwards to safety to grab stuff and escape too much imp fireballs. Failing to orient properly means death. After all the imps are dead, you can proceed to platform on platforms smaller than doomguy’s foot. Falling means death. Going too fast means death. Going too slow means death. You have to do a super tiny jump and then cancel your speed by pressing backwards button, before you slide off. Sliding off means death. Pressing backward too little means death. Pressing backwards too much means death. The gaps between all the tiny platforms are really small, except one of them. When you are on a platform, before the platform, before the big gap, you need to move in a way, so you get to the edge of the next platform. Do I need to explain, what filing to perfectly do that means? Then you need to run and jump on the next platform and cancel your momentum immediately. Do I need to explain, what filing to perfectly do that means, again? Oh, and even if you do that, you could land on that platform in a way that when you try to go to next platform, you fall anyway, which means guess what? Then you platform a little more and get to the ground. If you think that the level is over and it couldn’t get much worse, no, it gets much worse. Next is a section, where you have to go across the narrow ledges from the original chasm and do 90 degrees turns on them, while being shot by 14 cyberdemons. Falling means death. Jump on the first ledge, go to the end of it, stop and hope, that you won’t die, while you are turning, jump onto another ledge, and hope, that you won’t get hit, then run, switch to SR40, while doing a 90 degrees turn, and hope that the RNG god smiles upon you. Jump to the ledge with cyberdemons, and then fight 14 cyberdemons. There are less megaspheres this time around, and less space, and you can easily get hit by multiple rockets at once, and the rockets could knock you off the ledge to your death. Death. Death. Death. Death, this whole level it’s close, it’s always standing there, down below in a pit, always ready for you, and you know that, and you need to do some of the most precise platforming ever seen in Doom, while knowing that. Kill the last cyberdemon, turn around and look in awe at the chasm for the last time, then go to the exit and finish the level. Smile, drink some tea and be happy that you are alive. No Sleep for the Dead (10 maps) Var: 1 – 2.5 Int: 2 Vanilla style The Ultimate Doom wad. One of the easiest wads I could think of. Spoiler E1M1: Phobos Terminal – 1 E1M2: Sombrero Hoops – 2 E1M3: Biolabs – 2 E1M9: For Hell Cried Lead – 2.5 E1M4: Sludge Factory – 2 E1M5: Power Plant – 2 E1M6: Tesla/Ohm Labs – 2 E1M7: Quarantine Area – 2 E1M8: Satan’s Dychedral – 2 E2M1: As for the Cowardly – 2.5 X! Full episode – 3.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Satan's Dychedral - cyberdemon fight in not the most spacious area. 2. For Hell Cried Lead - starts with you having to berserk a bunch of imps, then for some time you have to fight hitscanners with no armor and not much health. There is also some difficult traps. 1. As for the Cowardly - you start surrounded by monster, including barons. It's not that bad later, but the beginning is no joke. Nostalgia (32 maps) Var: 1 – 4 Int: 2.640625 Vanilla-ish wad designed to feel nostalgic; gameplay-wise it’s basically easier Plutonia. Spoiler Map 1: Dragonaut – 1 Map 2: Under The Surface – 1.5 Map 3: Illuminatus – 2 Map 4: Pull The Plug – 2 Map 5: Poison Godmachine – 2.5 Map 6: Spirit Crusher – 2.5 Map 7: A Fine Day To Die – 2 Map 8: Neurotica – 2.5 Map 9: Bleed Me An Ocean – 2 Map 10: Creeping Death – 3 Map 11: Rapture – 4 Map 12: The Lion’s Den – 2.5 Map 13: Sludge Factory – 2.5 Map 14: Beneath – 2.5 Map 15: The Lotus Eaters – 2 Map 31: Powerslave – 3.5 Map 32: Retrovertigo – 2.5 Map 16: Fear of the Dark – 2.5 Map 17: Ars Moriendi – 2.5 Map 18: The Fault of the Flesh – 3.5 Map 19: Times of Grace – 2.5 Map 20: Hell Awaits – 3 Map 21: South of Heaven – 2.5 Map 22: Absolute Hatred – 2.5 Map 23: Blood Red – 3 Map 24: Flesh And The Power It Holds – 3.5 Map 25: DDevil – 2.5 Map 26: Sepulchural Slaughter – 3.5 Map 27: Whargoul – 3 Map 28: Seasons in the Abyss – 4 X! Map 29: Chambers of Dis – 3 Map 30: Nostalgia – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Powerslave – hot start, followed by a cyberdemon fight and an ending where hordes of monsters, including two arch-viles get ambush you in a tunnel with not that much place to hide. 4. Sepulchural Slaughter – a small but tricky slaughtermap with a little twist, every good weapon is heavily guarded. Go for the plasma rifle first. 3. Flesh And The Power It Holds – this one has a hot start, a hot ambush in the middle with a cyberdemon and lots of other enemies, and a very hot ending that locks you in with two arch-viles and a horde of revenants. 2. Rapture – this one easily has the hottest start in the wad and after that things won’t get much easier. The red key area throws an arch-vile with revenants and hell knights at you in a small room. The ending has you fighting hell knights and a cyberdemon in kind of a small room again. 1. Seasons in the Abyss – similar to other hard levels, with a cyberdemon, monster hordes, and an ambush in a small room with an arch-vile, except this one is way lower on health and ammo, and the only power up here is a single green armor. Orange is True Love (3 maps) Var: 3 – 4 Int: 3.5 Short, but hard Halloween themed wad. Sort of a prequel to Wormwood series. Spoiler Map 1: Bat House – 3 Map 2: What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse – 3.5 Map 3: Big Durst Energy – 4 X! Overboard (15 maps) Var: 0 – 4.5 Int: 2.7 Cool island vacation themed wad. It has 6 normal maps and 6 new game plus versions of those maps. Spoiler Map 1: Cruis’n UAC – 2 Map 2: Skeleton Coast – 3 Map 3: Depth Charge – 2.5 Map 4: Cacotoa – 3 Map 5: Archi-Pelago – 3.5 Map 6: Seaside Siege – 3.5 Map 7: C U Later, Suckers – 0.5 Map 8: Cruis’n UAC + – 3.5 Map 9: Skeleton Coast + – 2.5 Map 10: Depth Charge + – 2.5 Map 11: Cacotoa + – 3 Map 12: Archi-Pelago + – 3.5 Map 13: Seaside Siege + – 4.5 X! Map 14: The Actual End – 0.5 Map 31: Demo Island – 2.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Archi-Pelago – decently challenging slaughtermap with lots of enemies attacking you at once from all sides and somewhat difficult terrain to maneuver. 2. Archi-Pelago + – same thing, but there is a massive wave of arch-viles that requires precise invuln usage and good BFG shots. 1. Seaside Siege + – this map doesn’t hold back and just throws everything at you from the start. Run for the BFG, grab it and then just go YOLO, I guess. Perdition’s Gate (32 maps) Var: 1.5 – 3 Int: 2.328125 Commercially released wad with mostly small but action packed maps. Spoiler Map 1: UAC Main Lobby, Shipping and Receiving/Main Gate – 1.5 Map 2: UAC Executive Areas, Interlock – 2.5 Map 3: UAC Executive Areas, Recreation Area/Yard – 2.5 Map 4: UAC Executive Areas, Storage Area – 2.5 Map 5: Executive Areas, Sub-Basement Entry – 2 Map 6: Sub-Basement, Waste Areas – 2 Map 7: UAC Nukage Areas, Nukage Monitor/Flow Control Facility – 2.5 Map 8: UAC Nukage Areas, Waste Tunnels/Drainage Tunnels – 2.5 Map 9: UAC Experimentation Labs, Hangar/Storage Area – 2 Map 10: UAC Experimentation Labs, High Security Area – 2.5 Map 11: UAC Secret Teleporter Lab – 2.5 Map 12: Entryway to the Worlds of Ancients – 3 Map 13: Distant Worlds – 2.5 Map 14: Transfer Locking Area – 3 X! Map 15: Teleporter Central – 2 Map 31: World of Wonders: The Planet of Living Rocks – 2 Map 32: World of Wonders: The Sea of Radioactive Waste – 2 Map 16: The Alien Shrine – 2.5 Map 17: Interdimensional Control – 2.5 Map 18: The Throne of the Vile – 2.5 Map 19: Closer to Hell – 2.5 Map 20: The Last Stand – 2.5 Map 21: Hell’s Gate – 2.5 Map 22: The Deepest Reaches – 2.5 Map 23: Hell’s Gymnasium – 2 Map 24: The BloodStone Gardens of Hell – 2 Map 25: Hell’s Park – 2 Map 26: The Blood Tunnels – 2.5 Map 27: Hell’s Masterpiece – 2.5 (two of the secrets are broken) Map 28: High-Tech Hades – 2 Map 29: The Bomb Facility – 2.5 Map 30: The Escape – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. The Last Stand – massive revenant horde, respawning chaingunner turrets and upclose arachnotrons, without the secret megasphere this would have been the hardest level in the wad. 4. Hell’s Masterpiece – the biggest level in the wad, has a somewhat tricky cyberdemon fight. 3. The Bomb Facility – kind of low on health at the beginning and has an even harder cyberdemon fight than the previous spot. 2. Entryway to the Worlds of Ancients – this one is low on health all the way through and has some nasty ambushes. 1. Transfer Locking Area – the red key ambush is easily the hardest fight in the wad, that arch-vile can really screw you over, and he has a lot of friends to use as shields. There is also an idiotic spiderdemon outside that, I think, you are supposed to arch-vile jump to, but you can kill him through one of the holes in the walls. Phobos Anomaly Reborn (13 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 2.6923 Episode 1 replacement (with some scrapped episode 2 maps thrown in) that focuses on impressive architecture. Looks way better than it plays. Mostly normal-ish with some difficulty spikes. Spoiler E1M1: Hangar B – 2.5 E1M2: Toxin Refinery – 3 E1M3: Dissolution – 2.5 E1M9: Lost Barracks – 2.5 E1M4: Railbender – 3.5 E1M5: The Dig Site – 2.5 E1M6: Subterra – 5 X! E1M7: The Beneath – 2 E1M8: Anomaly Reborn – 2.5 E2M5: Hangar – 2 E2M6: Deimos Anomaly – 2 E2M7: Temple Consumed – 2.5 E2M8: Tower of Babel – 2.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Toxin Refinery - there is not that much ammo, not that much health and lots of barons. 2. Railbender - very claustrophobic train level, with ammo problems, though enemies and you constantly having to walk on the sides of the train, where you can easily fall off and die. 1. Subterra - starts off with a massive fight where you get attacked by 60 enemies at once. Most of my attempts ended right at the beginning. The middle of the map then becomes a game of ammo conservation because you'll need lots of ammo to later deal with the monsters from the hole, after you blow up the reactor, but be careful, since if you fall between the reactor and the broken wall, you're softlocked. Also, save the first secret soulsphere to before going into the hole, since you'll need it to go through 20 damage lava to get another secret soulsphere. And then prepare to deal with a bunch of narrow ledge walking and precise SR40 platforming over 20 damage lava. If you fall off, it's game over, and it's at the end of a 20 minutes long map. And then you'll have to fight a cyberdemon in a very cramped room at the end of a 20 minutes long map... Phobos Revisited (9 maps) Var: 1.5 – 3 Int: 2.111 Episode 1 remake with slightly more complex architecture and lots of imps. Spoiler E1M1: Hangar – 1.5 E1M2: Nuclear Plant – 1.5 E1M3: Toxin Refinery – 2 E1M9: Military Base – 2.5 E1M4: Command Control – 2 E1M5: Phobos Lab – 3 X! E1M6: Central Processing – 2.5 E1M7: Computer Station – 2 E1M8: Phobos Anomaly – 2 (all kills aren’t possible) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Central Processing – the longest map in the wad, isn’t generous with health and has some damaging floors. 2. Military Base – this one has a couple dangerous ambushes in small rooms. 1. Phobos Lab – this one is low on ammo, somewhat low on health, has a couple of dangerous ambushes and a one try platforming secret. Pirate Doom (19 maps) Var: 0 – 3.5 Int: 2.079 A pirate themed mod for GZdoom, that completely changes almost all weapons and enemies. On par with Doom 2 in thermes of difficulty. Has checkpoints. Spoiler Map 41: On Board! – 1.5 Map 42: Melee Island – 1.5 Map 43: Trezer Cove – 2 Map 44: Sunken Ghost Ship – 2 Map 45: Barnacle Bar – 2 Map 46: Circus! – 2.5 Map 47: Booty Bay – 2 Map 48: Battleships – 1.5 Map 49: Plunder Island Fort – 2 Map 50: Lost City – 2.5 Map 51: Hot Winds O’ Hell – 2 Map 52: Dead Men Tell No Tales – 2.5 Map 53: Baron Castle – 2 Map 54: Port Royale – 2.5 Map 55: House of Mojo – 2.5 Map 56: Stronghold – 2.5 Map 57: Grog Factory – 2.5 Map 58: Lechuck’s Hideout – 3.5 X! Map 59: Epilogue – 0 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Dead Men Tell No Tales - has a big hedge maze section with lots of enemies. 4. Lost City - has a nearly coverless arch-vile fight with lots of enemies, but, thankfully, it's right after the checkpoint. 3. Grog Factory - gets somewhat slaughtery towards the end with a massive fight. 2. Port Royale - big open level, that is not generous with checkpoints, and where enemies can snipe you from far away. 1. Lechuck's Hideout - as a final level ramps up difficulty significantly. There is a massive fight in a big corridor, two secrets that require arch-vile jumps while being invulnerable (thankfully, there is a check point before that part) and, of course, the final boss himself, who is no joke either. Plutonia 2 (33 maps) Var: 2 – 5.5 Int: 3.667 A fan made sequel to The Plutonia Experiment. Way harder than the original. Spoiler Map 1: Comeback – 2 Map 2: Jungle Spirits – 3 Map 3: Skull Island – 3.5 Map 4: Filth – 3 Map 5: Flooded Chapel – 3 Map 6: Collider Complex – 3.5 Map 7: Enemy Caught – 3 Map 8: Harmany – 4 Map 9: Wormhole Zone – 3 Map 10: Cosmodrome – 3 Map 11: Arch-Violence – 4.5 (getting all kills is not possible) Map 12: Imprisoned – 2.5 Map 13: Hard Facility – 4 Map 14: Charon Eclipse – 3 Map 15: Where Hate Runs Red – 4 Map 31: Cybernation – 3.5 Map 32: Go 4 It – 5 Map 16: Predatorium – 3 Map 17: Nuclear Horror – 4 Map 18: Buckets of Blood – 3.5 Map 19: Hecknology – 4.5 Map 20: Lurking Fear – 5 (all kills aren’t possible) Map 21: Assassin – 4 Map 22: Locus Perditus – 4.5 Map 23: Aztecorum – 4 Map 24: Outpost of the Evil Dead – 4.5 Map 25: Black Ice – 4.5 Map 26: Plutopia – 3 Map 27: Red Hot – 3 (all kills aren’t possible) Map 28: The Bloodwall – 4.5 Map 29: Ticket to Eternity – 5.5 X! Map 30: The Gatewatcher – 3.5 Map 33: Chocolate – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Black Ice – this one has the hardest start in the wad and it’s followed by a section that’s low on health and ammo. After that you’ll get health and ammo only then to jump into a pit full of revenants, that is overseen by cyberdemons. Then you’ll fight more monster hordes, then fight a pop up cyberdemon and then, after dealing with a cloud of cacos and pain elementals, you’ll have to run to the two cyberdemons and BFG them. Overall, just a difficult level all the way through. 4. Outpost of the Evil Dead – this might be a controversial pick, since usually it’s considered one of the most forgettable maps in the wad, but trying to max this from pistol start is just painful. It’s cramped and hard to move in, surprisingly low on ammo (if an arch-vile resurrects too much, you won’t have enough ammo), low on health (the most low health map in the entire wad) and is filled with ambushes that throw lots of monsters at you in those cramped rooms. And then, there is the cyberdemon, you’ll have to deal with him constantly through the map and yes, he can sometimes shoot a rocket through those prison bars. There is also a part, where you have to lower and ride the elevator, while he can see and shoot you. And at the end you’ll have to fight him on a not that big of a bridge, and you’ll really need to save cells for this fight and shoot him from up close. 3. Lurking Fear – this map is very open and there are a lot of times, where monsters will just attack you from literally everywhere (these monsters include cyberdemons that you need to use for specific infighting, because otherwise you’ll run out of ammo). It’s also filled with damaging floors, so be careful with your radsuit usage. Save the non-secret secret invulnerability for the part where lots of monsters spawn in the second arena and you’ll need to jump there, otherwise, that part is nightmare, and even with invuln at the start it’s not that easy. Also, this level has a lot of arch-viles, and there is a fight, where you need to tip toe on the edge of the platform over a damaging blood river, to lure arch-viles out of the cave, otherwise you’ll have to fight 2/3 of them with no cover and no BFG, and falling into that blood river means death. 2. Go 4 It – it’s Go 2 It, but with more cyberdemons and arch-viles, and an Icon of Sin fight thrown in at the end. For the most part it isn’t even as hard as Go 2 It, but dealing with the Icon of Sin in an arena with 4 cyberdemons at the end of a long slaughtermap definitely puts its difficulty above original Plutonia’s map 32. 1. Ticket to Eternity – this gigantic city map takes over an hour to complete. It starts very low on health and ammo with weapons being scattered all over the city and heavily guarded. Lots of berserking and infighting is definitely required. After you’ll get all the weapons and deal with the teleporting cyberdemon fight the middle portion of the map isn’t that hard (it still has cyberdemons, revenant hordes and arch-viles, and you’ll still need to be careful with ammo, but it’s not as bad as the beginning). But then you’ll get to the end and it throws a fight with 4 cyberdemons at you, those 4 being pairs of them on different sides of a pit. Lure the caco cloud to fight one pair, while BFGing the other yourself, after that just kill the rest. This fight is by the way an hour into the map. There is an ivuln on this map, and you can technically use it at the end, but I used it at the beginning to berserk and lure into infight monsters due to ammo problems. Plutonia 3: Going to Surface (32 maps) Var: 1 – 3.5 Int: 1.953125 A certainly interesting take on Plutonia theme. Doesn’t really play like Plutonia and isn’t as hard for the most part. 99 percent of the difficulty comes from two new enemies: rocket zombie, who is basically a shotgunner with a rocket launcher instead of a shotgun, and BFG zombie, who is basically Scythe 2’s evil marine but even faster and with a BFG instead of plasma rifle. He doesn’t just shoot a BFG ball, he also has the tracers. Spoiler Map 1: COFFIN – 1.5 (one of the secrets is broken) Map 2: FARCRYPT – 2 Map 3: TD Station – 2.5 Map 4: Swamp – 2 Map 5: Downstream of Souls – 1.5 Map 6: foggy reg: archard – 2 Map 7: Misty Daybreak.. – 2 Map 8: Arkhaim – 2 Map 9: Minecraft Daybreak – 2 Map 10: TD STATION – 1.5 Map 11: Trying to wake up – 2 Map 12: If You Could… – 2 Map 13: Russian Winter – 1.5 Map 14: Slimy Dew – 2 Map 15: Techa river – 1.5 Map 31: E2M16 – 1 Map 32: Gasp in2 it – 2 Map 16: ROSTISLAV – 1 (one of the secrets is broken) Map 17: Woods o’ woods – 3 Map 18: Pinegrove – 2 Map 19: Magic Forest – 2 Map 20: Shadowmere – 2 Map 21: Gatewatch – 2 Map 22: Moor’s tales – 1 Map 23: Shadowisle – 3.5 X! (two of the kills are impossible to get) Map 24: Kefir factory – 2 Map 25: Olegarch – 1 Map 26: Wretched – 2 Map 27: Polar lite – 3 Map 28: mt. darkrock – 2 Map 29: mt. tomtor – 2 Map 30: Gatewatcher’s illusion – 3 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. TD Station – some awkward arch-vile fights and at the end you have to fight a BFG zombie in the open with no good cover or any real strategy, just gun him down with plasma as quickly as possible. 4. Gatewatcher’s illusion – starts out with a big fight with no health, and then you have to deal with a very unpredictable BFG zombie. The Icon of Sin fight at the end is very janky and there is no indication on whether you hurt it or not, just shoot BFG and rockets at it and it will die eventually. Also, The Icon of Sin can spawn rocket zombies. 3. Polar lite – this one is filled with rocket zombies, has another awfully placed BFG zombie and there is a cyberdemon fight in a somewhat small room. 2. Woods o’ woods – this level has 14 BFG zombies, you get a BFG of your own, and later get an invulnerability to kill a few of them, but, still, you need to deal with at least half of them without the invuln. Also, you have to fight a massive rocket zombie horde at the end with an arch-vile that can resurrect them. 1. Shadowisle – this map is filled with arch-viles and rocket zombies, but they aren’t the problem. The real problem? Ghost BFG zombie. The only way to defeat him is to try to lure him into a pit and then kill him with blast damage by shooting rockets at the wall from above him. I recommend to use the pit with broken bridge in the yellow skull area. Ray Mohawk’s Manic Monday! (6 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.5 Short and fun 90s style wad. Nothing too difficult. Spoiler Map 1: House by the Bay – 2 Map 2: The Bridge – 2 Map 3: We Love Pollution – 2 Map 4: Little Oasis – 3 Map 5: Big Room with Baddies – 2.5 Map 6: The Maw of Industry – 3.5 X! Return to Phobos (9 maps) Var: 2 – 2.5 Int: 2.056 What? Really weird and cryptic 90s wad. Doesn’t work properly in ZDoom. Spoiler E1M1: Hangar – 2 E1M2: Nuclear Plant – 2.5 X! E1M3: Toxin Refinery – 2 E1M9: Military Base – 2 E1M4: Command Control – 2 (Two of the secrets are impossible to get) E1M5: Phobos Lab – 2 E1M6: Central Processing – 2 E1M7: Computer Station – 2 E1M8: Phobos Anomaly – 2 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Computer Station – the longest and most populated level with lots of damaging floors. 2. Phobos Lab – doesn’t shower you with health and armor as much as other levels. 1. Nuclear Plant – the most convoluted and possibly the longest level in the wad, there are some annoying crushers and a couple of tricky fights, including one where you are teleported into small room with four pinkies (prepare plasma rifle for that one). Rowdy Rudy’s Revenge (11 maps) Var: 2 – 4 Int: 2.85 90s style wad with custom weapons and enemies. Spoiler Map 1: Hidden Compound – 2.5 Map 2: Arbitrary Base – 2 Map 3: The Slime Trail – 2.5 Map 4: The Filter – 2 Map 5: Forgotten Installation – 2.5 Map 6: Deadly Depression – 2.5 Map 7: Smells Like Sulfur – 3.5 Map 8: Creeping Descent – 3.5 Map 9: Hell’s Doorstep – 3.5 Map 10: Satan’s Watchful Eye – 4 X! Map 11: The End! Congratulations! – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Creeping Descent - has some dangerous ambushes with revenants, hitscanners, arch-viles and more. Save the secret invulnerability for the cyberdemon and two arch-viles. 2. Smells Like Sulfur - enemies here are positioned in the worst places possible, they will constantly either surround you, or snipe you from afar, or both. Also, health and ammo are kind of tight. 1. Satan's Watchful Eye - the first half of this map is a small fortress with some nasty ambushes. The second half is a very difficult Icon of Sin fight. You have to press switches and quickly run to lowered elevators, before the go up, and it's somewhat tight. Also, enemy attacks can easily push you off the elevators and it's really easy to get telefragged here, and when you get to the spot from where you can shoot the Icon, monsters below really like to mess up your autoaim. Rowdy Rudy II: POWERTRIP! (23 maps) Var: 2 – 5.5 Int: 3.091 Awesome wad with custom enemies and overpowered custom weapons, significantly harder that the first Rowdy Rudy. Spoiler Map 1: Storming the Bayside Base – 2 Map 2: Initial Hurdles – 2.5 Map 3: Further Infiltration – 2 Map 4: The Hydrocore – 3 Map 5: In the Thick of It – 2 Map 6: Clutched Cargo – 2.5 Map 7: Secluded Rifts – 3 Map 8: Cliffside Punchout – 3 Map 9: Security Station – 2.5 Map 10: Black Gold – 3.5 Map 11: Ambush! – 3.5 Map 12: Clearing Inventory – 4.5 Map 13: Mutagen Plant – 2.5 Map 14: Rumble in the Canyon – 4 Map 15: Jungle Hijinx – 4 Map 16: Grim Sector – 3 Map 17: Plutonic Relations – 3 Map 18: Drowning Pits – 3 Map 19: Cyber Factory – 3.5 Map 20: Death God’s Shrine – 5.5 X! Map 21: The End – N/A (ending map with no exit) This wad comes with a bonus wad, containing 2 maps. These maps aren’t vanilla compatible like the rest and require Boom sourceport. Bonus maps: Map 21: Sinners’ Woods – 3 Map 22: Jungle Assault – 2.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Black Gold – this one has two main fights. One at the beginning in a small arena that fills with enemies, including flamethrower zombies and flame cacos (both can do lots of damage). The other at the end, in a very big cave arena, that throws nearly every monster type at you, including 4 arch-viles that spawn in different corners (pull out your BFG and kill them as fast as possible, this arena is too open to hide from them consistently). 4. Rumble in the Canyon – a short-ish slaughtermap that starts very mean with no armor and a fight with two cyberdemons, revenant horde and blood demon horde (they are basically recolored pinkies with slightly more health). Later through the level you’ll have to deal with arch-viles, more revenants and another cyberdemon, but it’s not as crazy as that fight near the start. 3. Jungle Hijinx – This is a difficult map all the way through. It has 13 arch-viles and 3 cyberdemons. The start is honestly the hardest part, with you getting attacked pretty much from everywhere. Most of the hardest fights become manageable, if you know, what you’re doing. 2 of 3 cyberdemons can be telefragged. The ambush in the Jungle with four arch-viles can be dealt with by staying near the stairs and shooting them from above. As for the big semi-final fight, use the secret invuln to kill the viles, grab BFG and finish the rest. 2. Clearing Inventory – it starts not that hard, even the massive revenant horde mixed with flying spiderdemon looks way scarier than it actually is. But then you get to the final fight. You are stuck in a tiny elevator with a cyberdemon, multiple revenants, two arch-viles and later a blood demon horde. This fight is very deadly, you could go in with 200/200 and still get killed immediately. And there is no BFG on this level, btw. 1. Death God’s Shrine – this one is brutal, it’s a slaughtermap with over 400 enemies, with lots of them being revenants, it has no BFG, and it’s tight on ammo. The start of this one is unforgiving, you will die a lot. The fight in the flooded cave jams you between two hordes of monsters. Grab the megasphere and then kill the two arch-viles near the cave entrance as fast as possible. The red key fight can thankfully be cheesed, thanks to the elevator that monsters can’t use. Next is the invulnerability room, press the switch near the invuln pillar and SR40 out of there as fast as possible, if you get trapped in that room, it’s game over. Then clean that room, get the invuln, and immediately run to the yellow key fight, you need to kill the revenants and the arch-vile before the invulnerability runs out. There are multiple fights you can choose to use the invuln for, I chose the yellow key one, because the arch-vile can otherwise be super annoying to kill with your limited ammo and him constantly resurrecting revenants. Clean up the monsters in the caves, get the megasphere and then go to the final fight. The final fight pins you between a horde of revenants and a horde of imps. Rocket through the imps and try not to get any self-damage, every drop of health counts in this battle. Then you need to finish off the remaining imps and revenants. The revenant horde is massive and there isn’t much space to move, if they get too close, switch to plasma. Even with your improved, overpowered weapons the odds in this map are constantly stacked against you. Rush (13 maps) Var: 0.5 – 7 Int: 3.769 "Easy" slaughterwad to get people into the genre. Spoiler Map 1: Stasis Shock – 2 Map 2: Chemical Imps – 4 Map 3: Frozen Tech – 4.5 Map 4: White Fields – 3.5 Map 5: Vile House – 3 Map 6: Delusions – 3.5 Map 7: The Chaos Heart – 2.5 Map 8: Land of the Demons – 4.5 Map 9: The Lava Heart – 4.5 Map 10: Dark Corner – 4.5 Map 11: Emission of Hate – 5 Map 12: The Destination - 7 X! Map 13: The End – 0.5 (all kills aren’t possible) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Land of the Demons - this one constantly switches between fights with revenant hordes, fights with multiple cyberdemons at once and fights with multiple arch-viles in somewhat open spaces with almost no cover. At least, it's short. 2. Emission of Hate - a short slaughtermap with a twist. You know, how slaughtermaps usually shower you with soulspheres and megaspheres? This one has 8 medkits and 2 stimpacks. That's all the health you get. Nothing else needs to be said. 1. The Destination - this is not a map for slaughter beginners, it's not a map for beginners in anything. Is this some sort of a cruel joke? This map won't get people into slaughter genre, it would crush them to the brink of despair. This is a over one and a half hours long non-linear monstrosity with over 1200 monsters. Where do I even begin with this one? How about with routing. Don't even try to beat this map blindly, watch a walkthrough, beat it with saves, and only then start to think about maxing it with no saves. The routing this map requires is absolutely insane. if you try to play this like a normal map, pick one path and go to the end, you will regret it. You need to constantly manage your resources: health, ammo, armor, everything is scarce. What route you should take? I don't know. What fight you should do next is depends on how well you did in the previous one and what resources you need to get next. You would need to constantly run all over the map, looking for resources or running away from fights, that you need to clean up later. This map is big and complicated chaotic mess, and it would take an entire essay to describe the route I used to beat it. The fights? Let's start with spectres. This map contains the most sadistic use of spectres in anything ever. The lighting here somehow makes them completely invisible, unless you bump directly into them, and, in some cases, even then you can't see them. And these specters are often mixed in with hordes of revenants and hell knights. Face rocket means death, even if you survive initial hit, you will get disoriented and overwhelmed, and even if you survive that, the lost health will bite you back later. But the spectres aren't the only enemies that got special treatment. Arch-viles usually attack in pairs, in places with no cover, or a bunch of strong corpses to resurrect. There are places, where you are just have to stand your ground at take 80 damage flames. But let's talk about the hardest fight - the room with a megasphere, cyberdemon, revenants, super mancubi (they are basically mancubi with more hp, that shoot slightly more fireballs) and imps. You get locked in that small room, you are on not that big platform, there is a pit with damaging blood and a ton of imps, in it there is a long not so thick platform, on the other side, there is another not that big platform, it has a cyberdemon and a horde of revenants, there are two columns with revenant in them and two columns with super mancubi on them, on the sides, there are two platforms with tons of imps on them. What do you do? You carefully run around shooting your small platform, BFGing side imps and column revenants, while waiting for the cyberdemon to kill the horde, while being chased by a revenant death ball. And don't even think about BFGing the horde, because if you aggro them and they won't infight, you are dead. There is no good way to get rid of the death ball on your platform, so you'll have to jump into the pit, to escape it. Then you have to BFG pit imps, and go up on the long platform via elevator and jump back to your starting platform. If revenants, super mancubi or cyberdemon, decide to target you, while you're using the lift, you are dead. If you survive al that, lure cyberdemon to kill the super mancubi and waste him with plasma. This room absolutely requires good rng, precise movement and nerves of steel. And this room is 30 minutes into the map. So, prepare to lose half an hour of progress over, and over, and over... The rest of the map includes: being jammed in a corner, while fighting off a bunch of hell knights and revenants, who want to get close to you, trying to kill an arch-vile, who has a bunch of corpses to use as a meat shield, and often hides in a place you can't easily shoot at, while trying to save as much ammo as possible, trying to pick two arch-viles in a fight, where cover somehow helps them more, than it helps you, while they have a bunch if buddies to resurrect, fighting a spiderdemon almost in the open, while trying to conserve health, being forced into pacifist mode, to lure barons and cyberdemons into infight, while dodging their shots and platforming simultaneously, sniping an arch-vile, while running away from an army of demons, while a bunch of enemies near that arch-vile confuse your auto aim, which is already wonky, because the arch-vile is way above you, squeezing through a wall of barons, while still being chased by that army and being shot at by two cyberdemon snipers, fighting over 100 revenants at once, get teleported into a room, where you are surrounded by enemies, while having barely any health left, fighting more completely invisible spectres, revenant hordes, arch-viles, cyberdemons and more, while constantly having to manage every bit of ammo, and when you reach the end, there is a chance that the map will glitch out and you get softlocked... Scythe (32 maps) Var: 1 – 6.5 Int: 2.625 Absolute classic. Starts with easy, short maps, slowly rises in difficulty to normal and somewhat hard maps, then jumps to very hard maps, and then at map 30 jumps to... Spoiler Map 1: Get Going! – 1.5 Map 2: Punchline – 1 Map 3: Up and Around – 2 Map 4: Lost Warehouse – 1.5 Map 5: Slimy Tunnels – 2 Map 6: Pressure Point – 2 Map 7: Deadly – 2 Map 8: Garden Base – 2 Map 9: Computer Storage – 2 Map 10: The Lords – 2 Map 11: Sneak Peak – 2 Map 12: Walk in the Park – 2 Map 13: Subverted Base – 2 Map 14: Power Outage – 2 Map 15: Blood Bath – 2.5 Map 31: I Dunno Torn – 2.5 Map 32: Enoz Soach – 3 Map 16: Burial Grounds – 2.5 Map 17: Book Lords – 2.5 Map 18: M/S Futura – 2 Map 19: 3000 AD – 2.5 Map 20: The Starport – 2.5 Map 21: Solitude – 3 Map 22: Despair – 4.5 Map 23: Anger – 3.5 Map 24: Hatred – 3.5 Map 25: Envy – 3 Map 26: Fear – 4.5 Map 27: Terror – 4 Map 28: Run from It – 4.5 Map 29: Hell on Earth – 4 Map 30: Fire and Ice – 6.5 X! Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Terror - don't let the low monster count fool you, a lot of them are revenants, arch-viles, chaingunners and barons. You'll have to berserk either baron, revenants or hell knights at the start, and then there isn't much ammo after that. There is some scary ambushes. And, at the end you will have to fight 3 cyberdemons and then another one. 4. Despair - is a wake up call. This is when Scythe stops screwing around. This is a health/ammo conservation map, where every shot counts and every monster is a problem. At least, it's mercifully short. 3. Fear - this map is just a single fight with 600 monsters at once, which includes lots of cyberdemons, revenants and arch-viles. At least, it gives you 2 invulnerabilities and lots of ammo and megaspheres. 2. Run From It - this is just a speed run. You need good understanding and handling of Doom movement mechanics. Getting stuck is a death sentence and constant SR40 is necessary, but, thankfully, SR50 isn't. Oh, and monsters could sometimes just block you. (100% kills are normally not possible here. I heard that it's possible to skip linedef at the beginning, but don't know much about it). 1. Fire and Ice - this is an infamous one. Fire and Ice is known as one of the hardest maps of all time, and it probably deserves it's reputation. 750 enemies, half of which are revenants. 18 cyberdemons, 20+ arch-viles and more. Taking any of the fights here head on is suicide, so you'll have to think about your every move and cause as much infighting as possible. But don't think that knowledge alone can get you through this, since one, all the manoeuvres are still very, very hard to pull off, and two, the infighting nearly always ends differently, so, almost nothing will go fully according to plan anyway. Oh, and don't waste ammo, despite there being a lot of it, it can still run out. And this map is over 1 hour long, and you can die at any point. If I were to talk about specific difficult parts, it would take forever. The yellow key area is the hardest part, and then literally everything else is the second hardest part. Also, what the hell is this map doing in a wad centred around quick small maps? Scythe 2 (32 maps) Var: 1.5 – 6.5 Int: 3.78125 Another very classic wad, this one is very influential on later wad design. For the most part it plays like a typical megawad, until map 22, when it goes crazy with ludicrously hard levels. Spoiler Map 1: CASTLE ENTRYWAY – 1.5 Map 2: ROOFTOP WARZONE – 2 Map 3: CASTLE GARDENS II – 2.5 Map 4: CURSED CELLARS – 3 Map 5: HALLS OF ANGUISH – 2 Map 6: TEMPLE ENTRYWAY – 2.5 Map 7: TEMPLE OF ISIS – 2 Map 8: GRAVEROBBERS – 3 Map 9: VALLEY OF THE QUEEN – 2.5 Map 10: PHARAOS TOMB – 3.5 Map 11: UAC BASE X – 2.5 Map 12: BATTLEGROUNDS – 2.5 Map 13: MINING PROJECT – 3 Map 14: THE HAUNTED MINES – 4.5 Map 15: END OF THE LINE – 4.5 Map 31: SECRET – 3.5 (4.5 if you want to get the secret exit, way harder if you want to get all kills and the secret exit) Map 32: SUPER SECRET – 4 Map 16: MR X – 2.5 Map 17: CANYON OF BLOOD – 3.5 Map 18: LIVING LANDS – 3 Map 19: WITHERING AWAY – 3.5 Map 20: THE GATES – 4 Map 21: DOOM GARDENS – 3.5 Map 22: THE GARDEN BASE II – 5.5 Map 23: WHISPERING WINDS – 6.5 Map 24: GAIAS TEMPLE – 6 Map 25: FORGOTTEN CITY – 6.5 Map 26: DEATH – 6.5 Map 27: AFTERLIFE II – 6.5 Map 28: NIGHTMARE – 4.5 Map 29: DUST TO DUST – 5 Map 30: HAUNTING DREAMS – 5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. GAIAS TEMPLE – over 30 minutes long map with over 250 revenants, almost 30 arch-viles, 7 cyberdemons and multiple evil marines (Scythe 2’s new enemy, they are basically constantly straferunning deathmatch bots with plasma rifles and over 200 hp). At the start you can either risk initiating a big infight or slowly take out enemy groups one by one, I personally chose the former, since you could have ammo problems at certain points (Try to get decent shots on cybers through the level). The hardest fight is definitely the one that unleashes a horde of arch-viles and other enemies in a lava tunnel, It needs to be seen to be believed (there is a way to get an early invuln for this fight via arch-vile jump, but it’s really not worth the risk and makes one of the later fights much harder. Other hard fights include an awful revenant pit trap, another awful pit trap just moments later and a massive revenant horde behind one of the doors. Beyond that, there are lots of other dangerous encounters. At least, this map has decent amounts of health and ammo, unlike the top 4. 4. AFTERLIFE II – this one is almost 50 minutes long and is not generous with health and ammo. It also, unlike other long maps in this wad, has no BFG. There is a very hard battle in the courtyard, clean the castle interior, get the secret invulnerability and then run outside like crazy, unleash the monsters, telefrag the cyberdemon and grab the secret rocket launcher and then kill the arch-vile, before your invulnerability runs out, and then run away from monster hordes, while trying to make them infight with the afrit (Scythe 2’s second new enemy, a flying baron with 2500 hp that throws enough projectiles at once to kill an entire monster horde). After that fight there is a trap, where you need to open the door, enter it and immediately step out, otherwise you get trapped with monster hordes and die. Sometime after that, there is a part, where you need to run away from the cyberdemon, and quickly clean a safe spot from revenants. In general, this map is hard all the way through, but the hardest part is almost at the end. You will go near a mountain with revenants on it, two cyberdemons will come out from the ground, make them infight with the revenants and the afrit, then kill them. Slowly make your way to the mountain, while fighting off revenants and a surprise arch-vile and then enter the teleport to the top of the mountain and then… You get teleported back, quickly switch to plasma and run away from there through the 150 or something monsters that start to teleport there, then hide in the cave, switch to rockets, and hope that you can fight back over 100 enemies, with you probably less than 50 health remaining. The rest of the map is not that threatening, besides a surprise cyberdemon teleporting behind you near the exit. 3. FORGOTTEN CITY – over 30 minutes long RNG hell, the start is awful, make everything infight and hope that you survive. Kill the arch-vile and his army of imps, grab the plasma, deal with the caco cloud and then go for the red key area. Clean the red key area, but don’t go for the key yet, rocket some of the revenants on the outside, if you have rockets left, then take the teleport, shoot the switch to open up unofficial secret megasphere, switch to plasma, grab the key and jump down. Tons of monsters start to teleport into the room, fight through the hell knights guarding the megasphere, grab it and run away, then deal with awful fight with revenants, hell knights and arachnotrons on a ziggurat in front, monsters from the previous ambush on the balcony from the left and mancubi in the building from the right. This fight is terrifying. After that nightmare, deal with teleporting cyberdemons and mancubi and then a bunch of other stuff before the courtyard fight. Save the soulsphere and cells to right before that fight (also, kill the revenants on the yellow key balcony before that). When you press the switch, the courtyard will get filled with enemies teleporting literally everywhere, fire a BFG immediately, run to the corner with health, don’t stop shooting, and hope that you survive. The RNG on this level is horrible, you can instantly die or lose too much heath in like half the fights, for no fault of your own, and every non-RNG fight has a good chance to seriously hurt you and reduce your chances even further. The exit of this map requires the very specific death exit trick, where you rocket yourself to death, and your corpse slides through a tight passage to the exit. It’s not that hard of a trick, but doing it at the end of a map like this is horrifying. 2. DEATH – a semi-tyson level that gives you almost no health and has you punching out hell knights, revenants, pain elementals and completely invisible due to lighting spectres in tight passageways. Run away from both arch-vile fights and kill them from relatively safe places, run away from a second hell knight quadruplet and fight them after you dealt with everything else. Save the ammo for arch-viles, mancubi, some of the revenants in the stair fight (punching out all of them is, thankfully, not necessary), arachnotons, a cacodemon, an evil marine (fast non-punchable enemy that deals tons of damage, exactly the kind of thing you won’t want to deal with in a map like this) and an afrit. At least, this is a relatively short map. 1. WHISPERING WINDS – over 30 minutes of pure insanity. Nearly every single fight is stupidly difficult, you need to conserve health and ammo like crazy, and you are constantly under fire from everywhere. I can’t even begin to describe this, there are tons of revenants sniping you across the entire map, a spiderdemon sniping you through the first half of the map, horrible traps that unleash tons upon tons of monsters, that you barely have health and ammo to deal with and more. The beginning is brutal, you are being shot by everything from everywhere, you need to see to believe it. The red key fight throws so, so many revenants at you. The blue key courtyard fight is almost as bad as the yellow key courtyard fight from FORGOTTEN CITY. In the bunker fight, press the switch, and run out, while firing the BFG to clear the way, otherwise you are dead. There is a trap in a temple that unleashes three or four arch-viles on you along with other monsters, and you need to deal with them, while trying to save ammo, for the revenants in the next room below. The final fight unleashes a literal army of revenants. And literally at any point in this map a revenant rocket from miles away can fly into your back and reduce you from “doing well” to “being barely alive”. This map has no mercy. Scythe X (10 maps) Var: 1 – 3 Int: 2.05 Fun and short wad. Originally supposed to be a full megawad with episodic releases, but only the first two episodes were ever released. Spoiler Map 1: SERVICE ENTRANCE – 1 Map 2: GARBAGE DISPOSAL – 1.5 Map 3: TRAINING CENTER – 1.5 Map 4: AIR CLEANSING – 2 Map 5: LONG RANGE TELEPORT – 2 Map 6: NEW ARRIVALS – 2 Map 7: HYDROPONIC RESEARCH – 2.5 Map 8: SOLAR POWER – 3 X! Map 9: HOLDING AREA – 2.5 Map 10: THE ENCOUNTER – 2.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. HOLDING AREA – somewhat low on health at the beginning and has a couple fights where you are trapped with hell knights in a somewhat small room. 2. THE ENCOUNTER – the cyber at the beginning can be cheesed but only after you sneak past him to grab ammo and then sneak back into the SSG room. After that you have to fight a bunch of custom enemies that spawn green ghost, who shoot baron projectiles. At least, this is a short level. 1. SOLAR POWER – has a hot start with hitscanners, imps and cacos shooting at you from everywhere, later the mancubi join in. This level can also be low on health and ammo at points, and has a cyberdemon fight at the end. SERENITY (8 maps) Var: 1.5 – 2.5 Int: 2.0625 Episode 3 replacement from 1994. Has some typical 90s shenanigans, but is actually fun to play. Spoiler E3M1: A Warm Welcome – 2 E3M2: Doom – The Movie – 2 E3M3: R You Lonesome – 1.5 E3M4: All the Marbles – 1.5 (4 of the secrets are unreachable) E3M5: Dungeons of the Dark – 2.5 X! E3M6: I'm Here. I'm There. Stairs Are Everywhere – 2.5 E3M7: Big Time – 2 (one of the secrets is unreachable) E3M8: Church of The Poisened Minds – 2.5 (one of the secrets is unreachable, also there is an unkillable out of bounds baron) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Church of The Poisened Minds - has dangerous teleporting barrel trap and a weird caged cyberdemon fight. Ammo can be a problem. 2. I'm Here. I'm There. Stairs Are Everywhere - this map is themed around height variation, which means, you're often will be dropped into rooms with enemies. This one also requires lots of pistol usage. 1. Dungeons of the Dark - somewhat long level that requires some pistol usage and has a couple of dangerous traps. SERENITY II aka ETERNITY (8 maps) Var: 2 – 5.5 Int: 3.375 Difficult Episode 2 replacement, requires good resource management skills. Spoiler E2M1: From Here Till Eternity – 2.5 E2M2: The Fat Imp Sings Your Blues – 4 E2M3: Totally Crossed Out – 2 E2M4: Clean & Unpleasant Danger – 3.5 E2M5: Through the Eye of the Needle – 3 E2M6: The Underground – 4 E2M7: Escape While You Can – 2.5 E2M8: Serenity Forever – 5.5 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. The Underground – low on health and requires some careful ammo management. There is also an awful spectre in a pit of poison that you need to jump to, if you want to kill him. 2. The Fat Imp Sings Your Blues – same as The Underground, except even harder. The bridge trap is awful and can drain your health instantly. The ending is also sadistic, you have to run through damaging floor to lower a platform with a bunch of hitscanners on it. 1. Serenity Forever – this level is very low on everything, it’s low on ammo, it’s low on health, it has no armor and the only weapon you get is a shotgun. And this is E2M8, so there is a cyberdemon at the end. Kill all enemies with infighting, non-berserk punches and some pistol shots, use the shotgun only when absolutely necessary, and then, just maybe, you will have enough ammo to kill the cyberdemon. SERENITY III aka INFINITY (8 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.875 The third entry in the Serenity trilogy, it’s a difficult, low on health wad, but nowhere near as Serenity II. Spoiler E1M1: Switch Bored? – 3 (two of the secrets are impossible) E1M2: Say Jazz To Another Excess – 3 E1M3: Beat It! – 2.5 E1M4: Everybody Frag Now – 2.5 E1M5: Dungeons of Doom – 3 E1M6: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? – 3.5 (One of the secrets is broken) E1M7: Blaze of Glory – 2 E1M8: StarGate Into Infinity – 3.5 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Switch Bored? – low on health and has a lot of damaging floors. 2. Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? – the longest level in the wad, has low health, dangerous ambushes, somewhat tricky to get secret, and a really hard to kill shotgunner in an inaccessible pit. 1. StarGate Into Infinity – has no armor and annoying to kill monsters behind stained glass windows. You’ll also need to be careful with your ammo and use a lot of infighting to kill all enemies. Slaughter Until Death (9 maps) Var: 1.5 – 3 Int: 2.278 Somewhat weird episode 2 replacement. Kind of meh. Spoiler E2M1: Flying Guts – 2 E2M2: Mysterious Halls – 2 (One of the secrets is impossible to get) E2M3: The Blazed – 3 E2M4: Death Pain – 2.5 E2M5: Mutilated Corpses – 2 E2M9: Arena of Punishment – 2.5 (two kills are not possible) E2M6: Damned Bastards – 3 X! E2M7: Dehumanization – 2 E2M8: Baphomet’s Throne – 1.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Arena of punishment – has the most enemies and a couple of dangerous traps. 2. The Blazed – long, low on ammo level, has a fight on damaging floor and a horrible pinkie trap. 1. Damned Bastards – starts off as a somewhat difficult tyson level, and then throws a horrible crusher at you. After you get weapons it becomes easier, but not a freebie. Speed of Doom (33 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 3.53 Semi-slaughterwad with large enemy numbers and fast paced combat, slightly harder than the Iwads. Recommend this for slaughter beginners. Spoiler Map 1: First Blood – 2 Map 2: Mysterious Cove – 2.5 Map 3: Constrained Base – 3 Map 4: Sedgemire – 3 Map 5: Cliffside Siege – 3 Map 6: Dreamscape – 4 Map 7: Simple Prison-Yard – 3.5 Map 8: Frenetic – 3 Map 9: Depredation – 3 Map 10: Vile Pain – 2.5 Map 11: Transcension – 3 Map 12: The Meat Grinder – 3 Map 13: Lucifer’s Tears – 3 Map 14: Sledge – 4 Map 15: Descent to Core – 4 Map 31: 101001010 – 4 Map 32: The Pyramid of Death – 5 X! Map 16: The Core – 3 Map 17: The Shrine – 2.5 Map 18: Silent Hour – 4 Map 19: Impure Serenity – 3 Map 20: The Path to Hell – 4.5 Map 21: Resurrection – 3.5 Map 22: Dead Echo – 4 Map 23: Poison Ivy II – 4.5 Map 24: Hell’s Honeycomb – 4 Map 25: Death’s Nocturne – 3 Map 26: Blessed Hellscape – 4.5 Map 27: Hais Temple – 4.5 Map 28: Twilight Massacre – 4.5 Map 29: The Ruins of Kalnik – 4.5 Map 30: Darkness Without End – 2.5 Map 33: Descent to Nowhere – 4.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Poison Ivy II – the start is brutal here, run to the spiderdemon place and make him infight with cacos while you make mancubus kill the arch-vile, then grab the bfg, kill revenants and hell nobles through infighting, kill the cyberdemon at the start, grab your weapons and kill the arch-vile near the start, but don’t kill cyberdemon in the tower yet, since you need him to infight with arch-viles later. Go and get the yellow key and the kill everything in the main area, the rest of the map isn’t that hard. Also, this level is kind of low on health, but at least, it’s short. 4. Hais Temple – the start here is very hard, make some revenants infight with cacos and finish the rest with plasma. The central area is super deadly, but you need to run around there for some time to get ammo. After getting ammo, run to the red key side and from there just slowly start cleaning up the map. This map is hard all the way through with cyberdemons, arch-viles, revenants and some platforming (thankfully, not over a death pit, since there is a teleporter back up). Also, use the secret invuln for the quadruple cyberdemon fight. 3. Descent to Nowhere – this map was originally supposed to be map 15, but got kicked to bonus 33 slot for being too hard. Near the beginning, you need to arch-vile jump for secrets, except you won’t get any health up to that point, so you better not take any damage until you jump. After that there is a horrible red key trap that locks you in a small room, with revenants teleporting in and other monsters shooting you through small windows. Kill the teleporting revenants with plasma and run away from there as fast as possible. And the map finale is a long elevator fight with a ton of teleporting monsters, during which you need to grab a missable secret. 2. Ruins of Kalnik – the start is similar to Hais Temple but even harder, then the rest of the map is slaughter with arch-viles, revenants and cyberdemons, and you often don’t have that much space to move. A lot of the map is covered in damaging lava by the way. At least you get two invulns, one for the quadruple cyberdemon fight, one for the arch-vile horde fight. 1. The Pyramid of Death – the first few minutes of this map are pure insanity. You start surrounded by cyberdemons, revenants, hell nobles and other enemies from all sides, and you need to fight your way through them and escape from the starting area as fast as possible, because you cannot survive there for long. After that, climb on the pyramid, run around and make everyone infight, and then run to the invulnerability area, fight your way through enemy hordes and arch-vile jump to the invuln, kill the arch-viles, then the cyberdemons. The hardest part is over, but you aren’t done yet, clean up the invulnerability area, then deal with the caco and pain elemental cloud, then clean up the two side areas, then deal with the 2 quadruple arch-vile ambushes in places with bad cover. Clean up the start, deal with one last cyberdemon and last revenant horde, then kill the arch-viles on the pyramid that are distracted with a spiderdemon, finish off that spiderdemon and you’re done. Switcheroom (36 maps) Var: 1 – 4 Int: 2.25 An interesting wad, where every level from The Ultimate Doom remade as a level from another episode. Somewhat harder than the original. Spoiler E1M1: Phobos Spaceport – 1 E1M2: The Reactor – 2 E1M3: Computer Lab – 2 E1M9: Abandoned Outpost – 2 E1M4: Sladwall Inc. – 2 E1M5: Headquarters – 2 E1M6: Against Thee Processing – 2 E1M7: Transport Station – 2 E1M8: Gomorrah – 1.5 E2M1: Excavations – 2 E2M2: Supply Overflow – 2 E2M3: Bio Processing – 2 E2M4: Mainframe Grid – 2 E2M5: Nukage Spill – 2.5 E2M9: Deimos Spaceport – 2.5 E2M6: Bunker – 2.5 E2M7: Hell is Coming – 2.5 E2M8: Eridu – 1.5 E3M1: The Baleful Fluids – 1.5 E3M2: Echo of Pain – 2.5 E3M3: Phlegethon – 2 E3M4: Hysteria – 2.5 E3M5: Temple of Demons – 2 E3M6: Mt. Terror – 2 E3M9: Dread – 2.5 E3M7: Bloody Premonition – 2 E3M8: Abomination – 2 E4M1: They that Dwell Within – 2.5 E4M2: Their Torment Ascendeth – 3 E4M9: Hate – 2.5 E4M3: Instruments of Cruelty – 3 E4M4: House of the Wicked – 2.5 E4M5: Burn Them Thoroughly – 4 E4M6: And Death Shall Flee – 4 X! E4M7: Evil is Before You – 2 E4M8: Run to Evil – 3.5 Switcheroom II (32/23/55 maps) Var: 1.5 – 5 Int: 3.015625/2.891/2.964 Has the same concept as the original Switcheroom, except this time for Doom II. Unlike the first Switcheroom, the difficulty here is way higher than in a wad it’s based on. Spoiler Map 1: Symbolic – 2 Map 2: Subjunction – 2 Map 3: Main Sewers Hub – 2 Map 4: Low Power – 2 Map 5: Tech Zen – 2 Map 6: Coolant Zone – 2 Map 7: Experimentation Lab – 3 Map 8: The Waste Pit – 2.5 Map 9: Starport – 2 Map 10: Purifier – 2.5 Map 11: The Facility – 3 Map 12: Alleyway – 2.5 Map 13: Lava Flow – 2.5 Map 14: Waterside – 3.5 Map 15: Rock N’ Roll City – 4.5 Map 31: Wolfenstein’s Monster – 2.5 Map 32: AARDWOLF – 3 Map 16: The Docks – 3 Map 17: Nukage District – 2.5 Map 18: Infected Well – 3 Map 19: Entrepreneurial Hub – 3.5 Map 20: Misanthropia – 4 Map 21: Dark Descent – 2.5 Map 22: Brutto – 2.5 Map 23: Seoreh Cinatas – 4 Map 24: Tomb of the Apostate – 3 Map 25: Unhallowed Fortress – 3 Map 26: Crunch – 4.5 Map 27: Camp Blood – 4.5 Map 28: Caustic Den – 4 Map 29: The Trickery Domain – 4.5 (one of the secrets is broken and impossible to get) Map 30: Yugoth Sins – 4.5 The same zip file that has Switcheroom II as a bonus includes Switcheroom 2: The Forgotten Maps – a collection of maps for Switcheroom II scrapped during development. Most of them are of questionable quality, but there are a couple good ones too. Also, The Forgotten Maps require ZDoom, and if you are using GZDoom, they require GZDoom’s ZDoom complevel, not the default complevel, otherwise map 16 breaks. Switcheroom 2: The Forgotten Maps Map 1: Iconic – 2 Map 2: Nukeage Underworld – 2 Map 3: The Dead Factory – 2.5 Map 4: Sector Zeta – 3 Map 5: Containment Overflow – 2.5 Map 6: Death Yard – 2.5 Map 7: Demonic Response Center – 3 Map 8: Underfactory – 3 Map 9: Ruins – 3 Map 10: Sludge Falls – 4 Map 11: Wolfencity – 5 X! Map 32: Grosse Simple – 2 Map 12: Projects – 2.5 Map 13: Abandoned Market – 2 Map 14: The Gantchlet – 4.5 Map 15: Church of Evil – 4 Map 16: Refueled Agony – 4.5 Map 17: Fellowz Keep – 4.5 Map 18: Mines of Grosse – 2 Map 19: Mines of Grosse 2 – 2 Map 20: Grosse Mines – 1.5 Map 21: Spirit Traps – 2 Map 22: “O” of Life – 2.5 Top 10 hardest maps: Spoiler 10. Seoreh Cinatas – this is just a long level with a lot of difficult fights, there is a cyberdemon, six or something arch-viles (including one that just gets thrown at you in a small tunnel with no cover, prepare plasma for that one and just tank his attack), lots of pain elementals and etc. 9. The Gantchlet – this one is short but brutal. The beginning has you fighting revenants in a small room, and then you go up the elevator and fight cacodemons, pain elementals, revenants, chaingunners, an arch-vile and hell knights with barely any cover in hard to maneuver arena. Also, there isn’t that much ammo, so use berserk when you can. The only reason this isn’t the hardest map on the list, because it’s short. 8. Fellowz Keep – a bunch of big semi-open areas with monsters sniping you from everywhere, and this level is low on health. There is also an awkwardly positioned cyberdemon, and multiple trips through lava with limited radsuits. 7. Refueled Agony – another long map that is just hard all the way through, this one requires you to be careful with your ammo and power up usage. Two of the four cyberdemons can be killed with invulnerability, and the other to aren’t that bad either. The arch-viles that usually attack in pairs, in rooms with bad cover are another story, activate them, run out of the room, kill them from there. 6. Rock’N Roll City – yet another map that is just hard all the way through, except this one is sometimes low on ammo, sometimes low on health and constantly throws arch-viles in your face. The two cyberdemon fights here are biggest danger, first one guards the secret BFG in not that big of a cave, and the second one fought in an arena with other monsters attacking you from all sides. 5. Yugoth Sins – this map has lots of arch-viles, and you sometimes have to fight up to three of them at once with no cover. There is decent amount of health and ammo, a BFG and the level isn’t long, but it’s still brutal. 4. Crunch – this level is low on health, the only armor is given to you at the beginning, and the fights here are no joke. In nearly every fight you can lose large amount of precious health and the ending of this map throws at you two arch-viles with no cover. There is, thankfully, one soul sphere, so save it for the final fight if you can. 3. Camp Blood – Downtown in hell, with hordes of strong monsters attacking you from the start. Fighting all of this head on is a death sentence. Get the rocket launcher and kill arch-vile guarding it, find SSG and green armor, go and get the secret BFG, go into the invulnerability trap that teleports you on top of the Cliffside overlooking the city, and the… just somehow fight all the stuff attacking you and slowly clear the city. Also, save the secret invuln for the final fight that unleashes arch-viles on the city streets. 2. The Trickery Domain – Tricks and Traps as a 40 minutes long map 29, where do I even begin with this one? From the start go to the cacodemon area to get the BFG, and you get the BFG by waiting and fighting off the caco cloud and a bunch of imps and pinkies with just the SSG and not that much ammo. Oh, and there is an arch-vile running in a cave above, and he could sometimes attack you. After that room is done, I hope you saved some ammo, because next is the green marble place with specters and later awful corridor trap with resurrecting chainguners, and even later a baron trap and another identical corridor trap. Oh, and if you want to revisit this area to grab health or armor, the resurrecting chaingunners are still there and there is also a crusher trap. Next is the spiderdemon room with spiderdemons, arachnotrons and barons. Wait until arachnotrons kill everything through infighting and then start killing them an pray that you have enough ammo left (you can revisit previous areas and get ammo there if you run out, you can also quickly visit some easier areas grab some ammo there and leave). Then grab the invuln, and run to the cyberdemon corridor, unload your remaining BFG shots and finish him with the rocket launcher you grabbed there if he survives. And then the difficulty drops off a cliff. Seriously the rest of the map is way easier, there are a couple of traps, a revenant horde, a couple arch-vile encounters, but you’ll have all the health and ammo you need. Surprisingly, the platforming over death pit from original Tricks and traps got removed from this level. 1. Wolfencity – long city level with low ammo, and by low ammo, I mean that there are two cyberdemons in this level, and if you don’t conserve ammo like crazy you won’t have enough for them. Cause as much infighting as possible and punch out almost everything you can: pinkies, imps, lost souls and even revenants and hell knights, sometimes even hitscanners. But even doing just that is not enough, don’t miss, kill arch-viles quickly, try to get maximum out of rocket splash, land good BFG shots on the cyberdemons, don’t give pain elemental a chance to spawn too much lost souls. And by the way, the combat in this level is not easy, there are hitscanners and pain elementals in big open areas, arch-viles in places with bad cover, a bunch of corpses to resurrect and they often pop out behind you back. The cyberdemon that guards the secret BFG is in a kind of a small room and like I said, you need to land good shots on him. There is also a fight where you are locked in an arena with monsters teleporting in from all sides and chaingunners shooting at you from above, and you, again, need to conserve ammo during that fight. And near the end there is a very deadly cacodemon trap that you really need to prepare for. In the end, not all of that ammo conservation was absolutely necessary, as I was finished the level with some ammo still remaining, but this map is still an economic nightmare. Temple of the Lizard Men (7 maps) Var: 0 – 2.5 Int: 1.714 Short mod, where you fight lizard monsters in jungle temples. Spoiler Map 1: Temple Entrance – 2 Map 2: Temple Guardian – 1.5 Map 3: Fortress – 2 Map 4: Death from Above – 2.5 X! Map 5: Mountain Temple – 2.5 Map 6: Dragon Arena – 1.5 Map 7: Freedom – 0 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Fortress – biggest and longest level with lots of though enemies. 2. Mountain Temple – this one isn’t generous with health and has a couple fights where you need to be accurate with waking up monsters. 1. Death from Above – a unique level, where you are fighting off a bunch of flying demons from a helicopter. You need to be careful with picking up ammo to have enough left for the dragon boss at the end. Temple of the Lizard Men 2 (10 maps) Var: 0 – 3.5 Int: 2.1 Harder than the first one. This one has more different enemies and more focus on the story. I played this on the hard difficulty, since it’s the closest equivalent to UV. There is a harder Hell Revealed difficulty that supposed to make enemies more dangerous, but in reality, it just makes them very glitchy. Spoiler Map 1: Dropped – 0.5 Map 2: Temple of Water – 1.5 Map 3: The Swamp – 2 Map 4: The Mountains – 2.5 Map 5: Night Fall – 3.5 X! Map 6: The Dungeon – 3 Map 7: Underground Temple – 3 Map 8: Arena of the Minotaur – 2 Map 9: The Village – 3 Map 10: Home Stretch – 0 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. The Village – this one has the most enemies, including a bunch of minibosses and the final boss. Some infighting and melee combat needed to not run out of ammo at the beginning. 2. Underground Temple – another long level with a bunch of minibosses, this one gives you less space to move. 1. Night Fall – this level is low on both ammo and health, a lot of infighting and melee required, but unlike the other melee focused levels, this one doesn’t give you the knife (this mod’s equivalent of berserk), so you have to use your fists. The Evil Unleashed (9 maps) Var: 2 – 3 Int: 2.611 Harder episode 3 replacement. Kind of meh. Spoiler E3M1: Out of Control – 3 X! E3M2: Military Depot – 3 E3M3: Lost Defense Base – 2.5 E3M4: Disastrous Unrest – 2.5 E3M5: Infernal Vortex – 3 (three of the secrets are impossible to get) E3M6: Dark Altar – 2.5 E3M9: Savage Area – 2.5 E3M7: Infested Ruins – 2.5 E3M8: Raze – 2 (killing both bosses is very problematic, since the level ends, when one of them dies) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Infernal Vortex – long, has a couple of somewhat dangerous traps and no armor. 2. Military Depot – has an awful dip into damaging floor for one of the secrets and a dangerous blue key trap. 1. Out of Control – somewhat low on ammo, has no armor and a couple of dangerous traps. Also, why is map 1 the hardest in the wad? The Lost Episodes of Doom (24/32 maps) Var: 0 – 2.5 Int: 1.729/1.765625 Old commercially released wad. The levels are very weird, but nothing hard here. Spoiler E1M1: UAC Spaceport – 2 E1M2: Fusion Power Plant – 2 E1M3: Jovian Deuterium Plant – 2 E1M4: Jupiter Planetary Control Center – 2.5 (there are 6 cyberdemons in a death pit, you can’t kill them) E1M5: Weapons Research Center – 1.5 E1M6: Halls of Injustice – 2 E1M7: Core of Evil – 2.5 E1M8: Callisto Consecration – 0 (all kills are not possible) E2M1: Io Anomaly – 2 E2M2: Io Munitions Works – 2 E2M3: Io Toxic Disposal Plant – 2 E2M4: Weapons Testing Facility – 1.5 E2M5: Io Training Camp – 2 E2M6: Io Military Garrison – 1 E2M7: The Draining Pit – 2 E2M8: Late for Supper – 2 E3M1: Jovian Stonehenge – 1 E3M2: Pillar of Peril – 1 E3M3: Subterranean Stonework – 2 E3M4: Pools of Despair – 1 E3M5: The Cat-Skinner Box – 1.5 E3M6: Somber Io Promenade – 2 E3M7: Jovian Killjoy – 2 E3M8: Jovian Deja Vu Again – 2 Episode 4: Remnants of Earth The original Lost Episodes had only 3 episodes, so what’s this then? Well, I couldn’t make the original work, so, instead I used The Lost Episodes of Doom (2.0) – an unofficial port for ZDoom that needs Doom II and adds a fourth episode. E4M1 is a Bob Carter level with Doom II stuff added to it. E4M2 – E4M7 are standalone Chris Klie levels. And finally, E4M8 is an original level by the port’s creator. E4M1: Labyrinth of Fiends – 1.5 E4M2: Underground Sector – 2 E4M3: CPU Complex – 2 (one of the secrets is not possible to get) E4M4: Hive of Evil – 2.5 E4M5: Demilitarized Zone – 2 E4M6: Perdition’s Fury – 2 E4M7: Enemy Within – 2.5 X! E4M8: Icon of Ruin – 0.5 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Perdition’s Fury – there is a somewhat tricky platforming section over death pit at the beginning, the rest of the level is a breeze though. 4. Jupiter Planetary Control Center – killing all the killable enemies near the death pit is a little tricky. 3. Hive of Evil – more tricky platforming over a death pit, but this time it’s near the end and is followed by a cyberdemon fight. 2. Core of Evil – a surprisingly difficult spiderdemon fight, you need to run, press switches and grab the BFG quickly, while the spiderdemon is constantly shooting you. 1. Enemy Within – there are imps in a death pit, and they are very annoying to kill. The rest of the level is slightly harder than this wad’s usual. The Thing You Can’t Defeat (7 maps) Var: 0 – 1.5 Int: 0.929 Is this just Knee Deep in the Dead? I can’t remember. Spoiler E1M1: Entryway – 1 E1M2: Nuclear Plant – 1 E1M3: Toxin Refinery – 1.5 X! E1M4: Command Control – 1 E1M5: Phobos Lab – 1 E1M6: Central Processing – 0.5 E1M7: Computer Station – 0.5 Full episode – 2 TNT: Revilution (32 maps) Var: 2.5 – 5 Int: 3.46875 An unofficial sequel to TNT: Evilution. Considerably harder than the original. Spoiler Map 1: Uprising – 2.5 Map 2: Geothermal – 2.5 Map 3: Access Denied – 2.5 Map 4: Blood Factory – 4 Map 5: Graveyard Shift – 3.5 Map 6: Communications Relay – 3 Map 7: No Man’s Station – 3.5 Map 8: Fortress of Bullets – 3 Map 9: Bunker Complex – 3 Map 10: Underground Activity – 4 Map 11: Pourriture – 3 Map 12: Transduction – 3.5 Map 13: Hangman’s Curse – 3 Map 14: Abandoned Port – 4 Map 15: Nukage Zone – 4 Map 31: Anubis – 3.5 Map 32: Duality – 4.5 Map 16: Devil’s Den – 4 Map 17: Spider Colony – 3.5 Map 18: Hell’s Signs – 2.5 Map 19: The Crash Site – 4 Map 20: Portal Facility – 3.5 Map 21: Bloody Garden – 4.5 Map 22: Pharaoh’s Claim – 3 Map 23: Desolation – 2.5 Map 24: REDRUM – 5 X! Map 25: Malware – 3.5 Map 26: Revengineer – 3 Map 27: The Visage of Time – 4 Map 28: Superweapon Facility – 3.5 Map 29: Across the Blood Sea – 3.5 Map 30: Malignata – 4 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5/4. Devil’s Den/The Visage of Time – the two maps are known for their sinister atmosphere, but are also somewhat interesting when it comes to difficulty. Devil’s Den is a map with lots of difficult fights that require good strategy more than anything. The beginning is low on ammo, so you’ll have to use chainsaw. The part where you need to avoid arch-vile isn’t as scary as it looks. In the fight after you solve the rocket launcher puzzle, shoot rockets at hitscanners in the middle, they are the most dangerous enemies. The dark cave fight can be cheesed, just find the switch guarded by the revenant before waking everyone up, the quickly kill the revenant, run out and now you have a good choke point to kill the monsters. In the secret fight with 4 waves of arch-viles, if you know, where they are coming from, you can quickly rocket them, before it gets to chaotic. As for the cramped final fight, just have plasma for it. The Visage of time starts very low on ammo and requires some infighting, luck and use of the chainsaw (you’ll probably have to chainsaw at least few cacodemons. The fight with 4 arch-vile gives you enough time and space to quickly rocket them before they get to you. The massive hitscanner/imp fight with cyberdemon sniping you from far away is certainly scary, but after you deal with that and kill the cyberdemon, who decides to teleport in, you are basically won. You’ll get a BFG, a ton of cells and a megasphere. Even the three arch-viles guarding the exit are barely a threat. 3. Bloody Garden – a slaughtermap with tons of strong enemies. It’s hard all the way through, but never gets too crazy, until the end, with a secret fight with a horde of 40 revenants, followed by a final fight with 100 monster, including a cyberdemon and an arch-vile walking towards you, while you have nowhere to run. 2. Duality – this map’s gimmick is that you constantly get teleported between two parallel worlds, and it just loves to teleport you into areas, where you are getting shot by enemies from all sides. Monsters can also sometimes teleport between worlds and this could sometimes get very cheap and annoying. This map is also at some pints low on health and ammo. There is also an awful triple arch-vile fight with really bad cover. 1. REDRUM – it’s the longest map in the wad and takes over 40 minutes to beat. It has 11 arch-viles, over 50 revenants and over 70 chaingunners, but for the most part it’s just long rather than hard. But then, near the end, you’ll get to the secret that requires a rocket jump. There is a rocket jump over 40 minutes into the map. It’s not a particularly hard rocket jump (I think), and you’ll probably have enough health and armor for at least 5 tries at it (I got it on my second try), but still, there is freaking rocket jump 45 minutes in. UAC Ultra (12 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2,591 A fairly standard wad with it's own take on techbase style and custom bosses. Takes place on Mars. Maps are fairly long, but not too difficult. Spoiler Map 1: Dig – 2 Map 2: UAC in Exile – 2.5 Map 3: Sifting Adjunct – 2.5 Map 4: Pyrolysis – 3 Map 5: Hardware – 2.5 Map 6: Collapsys – 2.5 Map 7: Haymaker – 2.5 Map 8: Worst Case Scenario – 2.5 Map 9: Counteraction Terminal – 2.5 Map 10: Skagway – 3.5 X! Map 11: Sick – 2.5 Map 12: The End – N/A (credits map with no exit) Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Counteraction Terminal - fairly long level with multiple cyberdemons, spiderdemons and custom boss monsters. Not as hard as it sounds, since you are given plenty of space and ammo to deal with them. 2. Pyrolysis - crusher platforming, and it's at the end of the map. 1. Skagway - 400 enemies and most of the level takes place on Mars's surface, where you need radsuits. And at the end you'll have to fight 2 cyberdemons. Ultimate Doom the Way id Did (9 maps) Var: 2 – 4 Int: 3.278 Episode 4 style episode 4 replacement. Harder than the original. Spoiler E4M1: Into the Grave – 3 E4M2: Vile Affections – 3 E4M9: Terror – 2 E4M3: Earth, Blood and Fire – 3 E4M4: Unclean Spirits – 4 E4M5: Doctrines of Devils – 3 E4M6: Molten Gods – 4 E4M7: Hand of the Heathen – 3.5 E4M8: An End to Darkness – 4 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Molten Gods - you'll constantly be low on health and ammo, while hiding from a sniping cyberdemon and running on damaging floors. And when you finally get big guns and ammo fro them, prepare to fight a cyberdemon, who got the high ground. 2. Unclean Spirits - you start surrounded by monsters, most of the map is covered in damaging floors, the main area has very little health and armor, the other area has soulsphere and blue armor, but they are guarded by a spiderdemon, and there is lots of difficult ambushes. 1. An End to Darkness - this map takes over half an hour to beat. At the beginning it is somewhat tight on health. Around the middle, you'll have to fight a very annoying teleporting cyberdemon. There is lots of annoying sniping shotgunners, and a couple of dangerous traps. And at the end, it turns into a slaughtermap with 3 cyberdemons and like 100 other enemies (at least there is an invulnerability). Valiant (32 maps) Var: 2 – 5 Int: 3.640625 Considered by nearly everyone to be one of the best wads ever. Another one of my favorites. Difficulty wise it's no joke. There aren't any absolutely ridiculous maps, but there are lots of very hard ones. The new monsters are very deadly: pyro knights - are hell knights that could easily melt you with their stream of projectiles, cybrusers - are hell knights, that shoot cyberdemon rockets, suicide bombers deal 100+ damage, if they get to you, and arachnorbs could drain your health in seconds, if you get caught off guard. This wad also loves arch-viles and buffs up all the imps, to make them much more annoying. And most of the maps are somewhat long. Spoiler Map 1: Bad Reception – 2 Map 2: No Rush – 2.5 Map 3: Tiers of Pain – 2 Map 4: Moonlit Stroll – 3 Map 5: Aggrovator – 2.5 Map 6: Engineering Disaster – 3.5 Map 7: The Mancubian Candidate – 3.5 Map 8: Bushwhacked – 3 Map 9: 14 Angrier Archviles – 4.5 Map 10: Candlecove – 4.5 Map 11: Yesterday’s Insanity – 4 Map 12: Bane Capitol – 4.5 Map 13: The Netweaver – 4 Map 14: Implosion – 3 Map 15: Screams Aren’t a Crime… Yet – 4 Map 31: Cyberwar 7734 – 4.5 Map 32: Ghosts of the Old Kingdom – 2.5 Map 16: Toxic Traverse – 3.5 Map 17: Precipice – 3.5 Map 18: Crush Depth – 4.5 Map 19: The Popes of Roam – 4 Map 20: Swept Into Immolation – 4.5 Map 21: Skindustrial Zone – 4 Map 22: Spiraling Into Nether – 3 Map 23: Genocide Motor – 4.5 Map 24: None More Merciless – 4.5 Map 25: The Eagle Has Landed – 3 Map 26: Blast Wave – 3.5 Map 27: Rocket Zone II – 5 X! Map 28: A Lightbridge Too Far – 4 Map 29: Red Shift – 4.5 Map 30: Electric Nightmare – 3 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Bane Capitol - you are constantly either being attacked from all sides and above, or dealing with dangerous arch-vile ambushes. And the ending that traps you in a cramped space with chaingunners and pyro knights is a cherry on top of the cake. At least, it's one of the shorter maps. 4. None More Merciless - this endurance test throws at you nearly everything Valiant has to offer. None of the fights here are super hard, but they always have ways for something to go horribly wrong. 3. Red Shift - this penultimate dose of adrenaline offers 20 minutes of non-stop fighting with though enemies. Thankfully it's very generous with health and ammo (at least, if you know, where to go). 2. Cyberwar 7734 - 40 minutes long slaughtermap with over 1500 monsters. Thankfully, it's more of a power trip than anything. It showers you with health, ammo (don't overspam BFG, you can run out of cells) and invulnerabilities. It's still very difficult, but not as much, as you would expect. 1. Rocket Zone II - beeffed up versions of two maps from Skillsaw's older wad Lunatic fused together. This one takes the number one spot, by being two very hard maps in one. This map loves to trap you with though enemies in the worst places possible, and there is always something ready to explode in your face. As for the secret arena fight. Quickly fight off first few waves, grab BFG, and then just try to run around and survive. Vanguard (13 maps) Var: 2 – 4.5 Int: 2.9615 Very fun medium sized wad. Starts with normal maps, but slowly turns into slaughter with massive enemy numbers. Spoiler Map 1: Overgrown Sepulcher – 2 Map 2: Drowned Shrine – 2.5 Map 3: 13 Angry Archviles – 2.5 Map 4: Hangman’s Paradise – 2.5 Map 5: Forgotten Village – 2.5 Map 6: Punchline – 2.5 Map 7: Dead Symmetrical – 2.5 Map 8: Cratastrophe – 2.5 Map 9: Free Parking – 3.5 Map 10: Superstructure – 4 Map 11: Temple of Asmodeus – 4.5 Map 12: Infernal Chasm – 4.5 X! Map 13: Punch-Out – 2.5 Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Superstructure - slaughtermap with 800+ enemies. Not as bad as it sounds, since there is plenty of health, ammo and space to move. The only really hard area is the beginning room. 2. Temple of Asmodeus - slaughtermap, that loves to surround you with monsters. There is plenty of ammo and health, but it won’t matter, if you get cornered. The hell knight fight in a dark cave is especially troublesome. 1. Infernal Chasm - long slaughtermap, that takes place in a cave with damaging floor. There is plenty of radsuits and health. Ammo isn’t a problem most of the time, but you could sometimes run out of some ammo types. The enemy placement here is much crueler than in the other maps, especially the part where a bunch of arch-viles teleport everywhere. Whitemare (19 maps) Var: 1.5 – 4.5 Int: 2.972 Winter themed Russian community wad. Spoiler Map 1: Ice Canyon – 3 Map 2: North Base – 2.5 Map 3: Sacrifice – 3.5 Map 4: LDFXGESA – 2.5 Map 5: The Ancient Mysteries – 2.5 Map 6: Frozen Point – 2 Map 7: Ledges of Pain – 2 Map 8: Ice Cavern – 4.5 X! (getting all kills isn’t possible) Map 9: Coldblood – 2 Map 10: Sweet House – 1.5 Map 11: Nord Keep – 4 Map 12: Kleptomania – 3.5 Map 13: The Abandoned Base – 4 Map 14: Hopeless Joy – 3 Map 15: Arctic Heart – 4 (getting all kills isn’t possible) Map 31: Ice Riff – 3.5 Map 32: Mogor’s House – 3 Map 16: Depraved Feast – 2.5 Map 17: The End – N/A (ending map with no exit) Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Ice Riff – a platforming level with no enemies. At one point you have to very quickly SR40 platform over a death pit. 4. The Abandoned Base – this one has some really dangerous ambushes, mostly involving chaingunners, revenants and arch-viles. The hardest fight is the yellow key ambush with two archies in a small storage room with lots of strong enemies for them to resurrect. The ending is no joke either, it gives you a megasphere, but then has you fight two arch-viles and a revenant horde with no cover. 3. Arctic Heart – this one is over 30 minutes long and has 3 cyberdemons in it. The hardest part is a plasma rifle ambush close to the start that has you first dealing with a cyberdemon and then with a revenant horde. The rest of the level isn’t anything crazy, but still long and difficult. 2. Nord Keep – starts out somewhat difficult with a bunch of up close fights with revenants and hell nobles. But then you enter the final part of the map and you are given exactly one megasphere of health to deal with a difficult revenant ambush, followed by a cyberdemon fight in a not the best room for a cyberdemon fight, and then followed by an ambush with 3 arch-viles and another horde of revenants (quickly hide in one of the switch rooms and shoot rockets from there to deal with arch-viles). 1. Ice Cavern – over 40 minutes long semi-tyson level with weapons being hidden in very distant corners of the map and somewhat low health. Half the level takes place in dark cavers, where you can barely see in front of you. Said cavers have you punching out spectres, and dealing with hard to see chaingunners, that have very advantageous positions. You also have to punch out hell knights, barons and revenants to have enough ammo for the enemies you can’t punch. And then it throws a double arch-vile fight at you near the end. Winter’s Fury (12 maps) Var: 0 – 3 Int: 2.167 Winter themed GZDoom mod with ice versions of monsters and lots of boss fights. Utilises GZDoom to its fullest with cutscenes, custom enemies, checkpoints, scripting, special effects and lots of boss fights. I played the September 2023 update version, since this wad still gets updates over 10 years after release. Spoiler Map 1: You Are Here – 2 Map 2: Unexpected Losses – 2 Map 3: Frostbite – 2 Map 4A: Afterburn – 2.5 (100% kills isn’t possible, you’re just supposed to survive to the end here) Map 4B: Highway to Hell – 2 Map 5A: D.A.R.K.ness – 0 Map 5B: Cold Snap – 2.5 Map 6A: Hypothermia – 2.5 Map 6B: Cryophobia – 2.5 Map 7A: Blizzard Conditions – 2.5 Map 7B: Void – 2.5 Map 8: Absolute Zero – 3 X! Top 3 hardest maps: Spoiler 3. Blizzard Conditions – this one introduces the ice arc-vile, who will make you wish, you fought the normal one, requires platforming over a death pit to get a secret, is not generous with checkpoints and has a boss fight at the end. 2. Void – the miniboss fights against those flying, teleporting, cloning barons are tricky, especially with kind of low health and ammo. There is also a fight with two ice arch-viles at once. 1. Absolute Zero – the final level is a bunch boss fights in a row and you need to be careful with picking up ammo through them, to have enough of it for the final fight. You also have to be good at dodging, because the bosses have lots of health and can do a ton of damage with some attacks. Wormwood (3 maps) Var: 4 – 7.5 Int: 5.75 Super hard Halloween themed wad. Spoiler Map 1: Copse – 4 Map 2: Revenge of Demon House – 7.5 X! Map 3: … – N/A (ending map with no exit) Revenge of Demon House Spoiler This map is scary, it’s a 30 minutes long map where almost every fight can absolutely destroy you. It starts with a semi-pacifist section, were you need to run and make the cyberdemon kill everything, except the two pain elementals and the clump of imps that guards one of the switches (you most of time have to take care of them yourself). It’s a hard fight and often you’ll get killed by all the stray infighting projectiles. After doing some SR40 platforming, while cyberdemon is sniping you, to get a soulsphere it’s time for the second fight. This map is non-linear, but the best route is to go to the red key, because, well, I’ll talk about it later. The second fight has you fighting an arch-vile, a revenant horde and two barons in a corridor with no cover, while the cyberdemon is sniping you. In any other map this would have been the awful scary fight, but here, it’s like the easiest… yeah. After killing some mancubi (through infighting with cyberdemon most of the time, but you can get unlucky and have to kill a few of them yourself). It’s time for the most RNG fight in the map. The third fight requires you to sneak past the cyberdemon and a horde of monsters behind him, kill the arch-vile, press the switch, run back through the same horde with cyber and get out. The best strategy I found for this fight is press the switch, grab plasma, hide in the corner, switch to the rocket launcher, peek out and fire a couple rockets at the pain elementals, then switch to plasma, wait for the cyber to start shooting (or not, if the other monsters get too close, rush to the arch-vile immediately), hid in the corner again, then maybe peek and try to made cyber shoot again, or, start to rush towards the arch-vile (it really depends on where the monsters are), plasma the vile, press the switch, run out and jump down to the next fight. Fight number four. Press the switch and quickly kill the two arch-viles before the rest of the monsters arrive. You then need to survive for some time, while dealing with cacodemons, revenants, mancubi, and imps, while the cyberdemon is sniping you. After the gate fully lowers, run up to the higher part of the outside area and do some clean up, including the cybers. After clean up, it’s time for the fifth fight. Press the secret teleporter switch and you get to a boxing ring arena with the caged cyberdemon in the centre and sleeping cacos, pain elementals and revenants on the sides. Grab the megasphere, run, wake up the cyber and press the switch immediately. Don’t fire a shot, stay pacifist and let the cyber infight with everything. And when the cyberdemon cage opens, run in to telefrag him (don’t wait for him to infight more, you have enough ammo, it’s not worth the risk). After killing the cyber, run out the arena and clean up the rest of the enemies. Then it’s time to kill any remaining enemies in the starting arena, a pointless spiderdemon, two semi-pointless arachnotrons (just don’t kill them on the stairs or they become a problem later). Grab the BFG and any remaining cells, but don’t grab the blue armor, you’ll need that for later. Got to the yellow key arena, grab the megasphere, platform to the switch and it’s time for the sixth fight. Press the switch and run to the hiding place with rockets on the side with arch-viles. A bunch of monsters will lower on both sides, if you’re fast enough, you get to the hiding place, before they wake up. One side has revenants and hell knights, the other has pinkies, mancubi and arch-viles, later a caco cloud floods the arena and one pain elemental shows up from somewhere. Shoot some rockets at pinkies, then run out, hide behind the furthest pillar from arch-vile zaps, then rush and BFG the viles as fast you can. After the archies are dead, survive, until enough monsters die and cluster in the center, so you can circlestrafe and clean up. Now comes the fight number seven. Press the skull switch on the ground first and then press the one on the elevated platform. A wall lowers and a cyberdemon teleports in. Don’t fire a shot, carefully lure the cyberdemon onto the stairs, then run and pre-fire a BFG when you close to the corridor. There are a bunch of arch-viles in that corridor you need to hit them with your pre-fired shot and then hit them with another shot immediately. But don’t pre-fire too early, or they run out of the corridor. After that, hide in the hiding place with rockets, but not on the side with a cyberdemon. Then run out and finish the viles with your remaining BFG ammo. After that just ssg the cyberdemon. Grab ammo, health and the remaining blue armor, and it’s time to go to the final arena. Fight number eight. Press the switch, and run and hide, using a wall near the soulsphere. The switch unleashes a ton of area denier arch-viles and 3 sniping cyberdemons. Lots of hell knights, imps and later cacodemons start to teleport into the arena. Run around the arena a little and fire some rockets at imps, to maybe, get a couple of cyberdemons to infight with hell knights. When it gets too crowded, go to the megasphere area, stay in a corner near the megasphere and fire rockets at the hell knights. The cyberdemons can’t see you there and can’t hit you with a direct rocket, but they can sometimes hit you with splash when you dodging hell knight projectiles and one of them notices you. Grab the megasphere if your health gets low. After you run out of rockets, BFG your way out of there, get more rockets and then get back and finish rest of the monsters that try to get there. Then kill the rest of hell knights imps and cacos, also kill the caged baron if he’s still alive. Now you need to run into baron cage press the switch and run out (all of this while the cybers are sniping you). Another baron cage opens, kill the baron and the same. Third cage opens, kill the last baron and grab the remaining soulsphere if you aren’t close to 200 health. It’s time for the finale, run into the last baron cage, press the switch, run out and stay inbetween the closest cyberdemon column and the wall, there is a spot right on the edge near the damaging floor, where neither the area denier archies or the cybersnipers can target you. When you pressed the switch, the stairs lower and turn into a trench, five arch-viles and a cyberdemon are at the end of that trench, the cyber can’t get out, but the arch-viles can, prepare the BFG, time it so you run in to the top of the stairs, right before the archies pour out into the main arena, get a good BFG shot on them, and immediately run back to your hiding spot, then spam the BFG at the viles, if you had good health management you can take a few archie zaps or hiding on damaging floor. After killing the viles, heal up, grab the soulsphere or megasphere if you have one left, switch to BFG, even if you don’t have ammo for it, and then run into the trench, grab the BFG ammo that the cyberdemon guards, kill him and press the switch that crushes all the snipers and area deniers. This trench fight is, by the way, one of the deadliest in the map, have fun doing this 30 minutes in, after getting through everything else. After that, heal up, run through a little bit of damaging floor and kill the Romero head. This level… Every one of these fights is very difficult on its own but very doable with good strats, but getting through all of this in a single run is pure insanity. Xmas Doom (3 maps) Int: 2 Short Christmas themed wad, pretty meh. Spoiler Map 1: Entryway – 2 Map 2: Underhalls – 2 Map 3: The Gantlet – 2 X! Full game – 2.5 Zaero: Episode 1 (3 maps) Var: 2 – 3.5 Int: 2.5 Short Zdoom wad with 3 somewhat large green techbase maps a a couple custom enemies. Designed for continuous play only. The last level is somewhat tight on ammo and has a difficult boss fight with 4 and then 2 afrits, whose projectiles do a ton of damage. Spoiler Map 1: Entering Zaero – 2 Map 2: The Installation – 2 (one of the secrets is broken) Map 3: Outer Perimeter – 3.5 X! Zone 300 (33 maps) Var: 1 – 3 Int: 2.1667 Fun size limitation wad with short maps. About on par with Doom II in therms of difficulty. Spoiler Map 1: The Spaceport – 2 Map 2: Control Facility – 2 Map 3: The Alleyway – 2.5 Map 4: Canyon Hub – 2 Map 5: Skybase 300 – 2 Map 6: Whispering Corridor – 2 Map 7: Heavyweight – 2 Map 8: Waste Disposal Plant – 2 Map 9: Nuclear Power Station – 2.5 Map 10: Cargo Bay – 2 Map 11: Simbattle – 2 Map 12: Villa of Pain – 2.5 Map 13: Dark Crypt – 2 Map 14: The Circle – 2.5 Map 15: Trouble Town – 2.5 Map 31: Creepy – 2 Map 32: Condemnation – 2 Map 16: Bruiser Fortress – 2 Map 17: Constriction – 2 Map 18: Zombie Hideout – 2.5 Map 19: Invasion – 2.5 Map 20: Death Row – 2 Map 21: Blood Lust – 2.5 Map 22: Firestorm Tomb – 2 Map 23: Dungeon of Inferno – 2.5 Map 24: Cavern of the Evil Spirit – 2 Map 25: Hellucination – 2.5 Map 26: Valley of Brimstone – 2.5 Map 27: Dissect – 2 Map 28: Unholy Demise – 2 Map 29: Den of Torture – 3 X! Map 30: Eternal Core – 1 Map 33: Zerstörung – 2 Top 6 hardest maps: Spoiler 6/5/4. Zombie Hideout/Invasion/Dungeon of Inferno - idk, which of these is harder, all three are low on ammo and contain a couple of tricky fights. 3. The Circle - starts with you having to rush into a small corridor to grab a super shotgun guarded by revenants. After that you have to run around, collecting ammo and fighting a bunch of strong enemies. Also, this map is kind of low on health. 2. Hellucination - this one takes the cake in therms of being low on ammo, you might have to chainsaw a cacodemon. 1. Den of Torture - this one is sort of low on ammo, has a cyberdemon fight, has a fight with a bunch of cacodemons and a couple pain elementals, and has an arch-vile duo near the end. Oh, and you need an arch-vile jump to get a secret. Zone 400 (33 maps) Var: 2 – 4 Int: 2.862 Sequel to Zone 300, the levels are way harder and more complex than in the original. Levels now are more medium than small, and some of them don’t even feel like they have any line limit. Spoiler Map 1: Coombe – 2 Map 2: Tait – 2 Map 3: Dial – 2.5 Map 4: Allambie – 2.5 Map 5: South – 2.5 Map 6: Oates – 2 Map 7: Jerling – 3 Map 8: Natasha Ozone Research – 3 Map 9: Cath’s Communications – 2.5 Map 10: Katherine Space Security – 2.5 Map 11: Tanya’s Cybernetics – 2.5 Map 12: Dagon – 2.5 Map 13: Lipperhey – 2.5 Map 14: Dulcinea – 2 Map 15: Majriiti – 3 Map 31: Spooky – 2 Map 32: Devonian – 4 X! Map 16: Hypatia – 3 Map 17: Ugarit – 2.5 Map 18: Halla – 2.5 Map 19: Viriato – 3.5 Map 20: Janssen – 3 Map 21: Plethodontidae – 2.5 Map 22: Lithobates – 3 Map 23: Tridactylum – 3 Map 24: Rhinella – 3 Map 25: Gymnophiona – 2.5 Map 26: Phyllobates – 3.5 Map 27: Ambystoma – 3 Map 28: Taricha – 2.5 Map 29: Dermophiidae – 4 Map 30: Alleganiensis – 2 Map 33: Gangajang – 2 Top 5 hardest maps: Spoiler 5. Jerling – one of the longer levels with 2 arch-viles, a spiderdemon and 11 revenants. Ammo is not generous and a couple fights are tricky. 4. Viriato – a surprisingly somewhat long slaughtermap that starts off kind of low on health and ammo. 3. Phyllobates – the start here is crazy, with monsters attacking you from all sides and low ammo, good infighting is necessary. There is also a couple of tricky fights in the middle. 2. Dermophiidae – this one has the craziest start of them all with over 100 monsters attacking you from literally everywhere at the start. The ending is also no joke, an arena with a spiderdemon, a cyberdemon (no way to make the two infight), four teleporting arch-viles and a caco cloud. 1. Devonian – the super secret map that has no line limit. This one is way longer than any other level in the wad. From start to near the end it’s low on ammo, chainsawing and infighting are necessary. Towards the end, it turns into a slaughtermap with monsters coming from everywhere, including a cyberdemon on a mountain. Single map wads: Spoiler Amalgama - 4.5 A very long map made by youtuber MrThejoshmon form multiple of his scrapped maps. The transitions between different areas are done really well and the map nicely flows together. The difficulty mostly comes from the length, however, there are a few difficult fights, the hardest of them being spidermastermind and arachnotron assault in the city. Amalgamation 2: Cairo A.D. - 5 Longer and harder sequel to Amalgama has over 700 monsters and takes over an hour to complete. There is lots of platforming over death pits (thankfully, in the first half of the level) and some dangerous traps, but the hardest part is the arena fight at the end with three waves of monsters that can easily kill you. First wave has cyberdemon and imps, second - pinkies, cacos and arachnotron snipers on top, third - hell knights, barons and mancubus snipers on top. At least, this map is very light on revenants (they appear only near the end) and has only one arch-vile. Bermuda Triangle – 5 A really long map from the 90s. Takes over 40 minutes to beat. This is map is basically an ultimate marathon, because it's got everything. There are hitscan hell sections, exploration sections, some slaughter, some platforming (including platforming over inescapable pits), damaging floor sections, dangerous traps, a boss fight with a cyberdemon and more. What makes all of this harder, is that this map is very stingy with health and armor (the second half of it is almost entirely carried by a single megasphere), especially towards the end, when it also throws a bunch chaingunners and pain elementals at you. As for the ammo, I won't say, that there is lack of it, but don't waste it. Also, since there is no walkthrough of this map, to get the rocket launcher, jump on one of the side platforms, the platform with a rocket launcher will lower, grab the rocket launcher and another side platform will lower, ride it, and you're done. Don't mess up, since the pit is inescapable. CHORD1 – 3.5 Starts out very low on health and ammo, some very careful berserking required. Later, after grabbing the megasphere and dealing with the arch-vile trap, gets easier. CHORD2 – 4 Long, low on health and ammo level, unlike the first CHORD, this one stays hard all the way through. Also, snipe at least some tower revenants before going into the final fight, since they otherwise teleport in and make it harder. CHORD3 – 6 The hardest entry in the Chord series. This map has no armor, barely any health (and when it gives you health, prepare to immediately lose most of it) and very low ammo. For the first half of the level you need kill with mostly punches and infighting a bunch of revenants, hell nobles and arch-viles, with your only health refills (besides the berserk that you need to grab very early) being 1 medkit and 2 stimpacks. Even the imps are a serious threat with the amount of health you have (that’s why I think, the best strat is to grab the chaingun and then run to the room with imps and berserk, chaingun the imps and only then grab the berserk, otherwise the imps will do too much damage to you). You get more health and ammo in the second half, but the level won’t become easy, in fact there is a crazy fight near the end, where after grabbing a soulsphere you will get surrounded by chaingunners and an arch-vile. The health from that soulsphere can disappear in literal seconds. CHORDG – 4 Short but difficult low on ammo level. You need to berserk lots of barons and revenants, and don’t let arch-viles to revive anything. You need all the ammo you could get for the hell knight horde at the end. CHORD_NG – 5 Don’t let the low enemy numbers fool you this is an extremely hard claustrophobic, low on health and ammo level. Every fight can either drain your ammo, drain your health or trap and kill you. But the two hardest fights are saved for last. First is the fight where you get teleported into the starting arena and are surrounded by revenants. It gives you a megasphere, but it’s still brutal. I recommend to somehow escape that area on one of the elevators and camp the revenants from there, which is way easier said than done. And then comes the last fight. You are trapped in a small descending elevator with four barons and a bunch of caged chaingunners. Kill the chaingunners as fast as possible and try to not get cornered by barons while doing so. After you deal with that, an arch-vile gets released into the same elevator and you have almost no cover. Citadel II – 2.5 Confusing 90s map filled with unmarked secrets. Not that hard, but has a wonky SR40 jump. I couldn't find one enemy, I'm not sure, if it's unkillable or hidden in some super obscure unmarked secret that even automap can't see. This isn't a sequel to Citadel from Doom 2, but a sequel to a map from a wad called "BEYOND" by the same author. I can't find BEYOND anywhere, so it might be completely lost. Citadel of Sorrow – 3.5 A homage of Citadel from Doom 2. Just as confusing, harder and longer. It's completely non linear and filled with both marked and unmarked secrets, some of which are mandatory. Has some tough fights and deadly traps. CRESTFALLEN - 3 Small but tricky level. Crossing Acheron – 2 The sequel to Dante's Gate and the prequel to Dr.Sleep's Master Levels entries. Pretty atmospheric map, but a bit confusing. Average difficulty. There are lots of versions of this map, the link is to the last one. Curvular – 7 A short but deadly slaughtermap. The beginning can be easily cheesed, but the rest not so much. There are two absolutely insane fights. One has you dealing with a ton of cyberdemons, afrits (flying barons that shoot mancubus fireballs and revenant rockets), arch-viles and mancubi with almost no cover. Another one has you dealing with a bunch of nerfed cyberdemons, revenants and pain elementals in a small arena with no cover. You have no BFG for these fights, so you have to almost completely rely on infighting. Good rng, precise movement and nerves of steel are absolutely mandatory here. One wrong move and it’s over. I recommend to do the cyberdemon/revenant/arch-vile/mancubi fight first, since it’s way more rng reliant than the other one. After these two fights you finally get a BFG and have to fight four arch-viles and a bunch of barons in a small room. Usually that would be terrifying, but after previous fights, it’s nothing. Dante’s Gate – 2 The first map in Dr.Sleep's INFERNO series (based on The Divine Comedy). The sequel Crossing Acheron can be found above. Maps 3-7 became master levels and map 8 became E4M7 of Ultimate Doom. The map itself is just typical abstract 90's stuff. Also, one of the secrets is impossible. There are lots of versions of this map, the link is to the last one. Dark Labs - 2 A fairly standart short techbase map, that uses Doom 3 textures converted into Doom 2 textures. dead.wire – 4.5 A bizarre and difficult horror map. All of the weapons are replaced with new ones (the plasma rifle replacement is kind of op, but others aren't much weaker or stronger than originals). Half of the monsters are spectred, including the cyberdemons at the end. There are two dangerous traps, one teleports you to a room, where you are surrounded by pinkies and arch-viles, and another one that unleashes a horde of revenants, surrounds you with arachnotrons and spawns some mancubi. At the end there is a 3 wave arena fight, with the last wave being 2 invisible cyberdemons. Oh, and there are some platforming over death pits. Also, all kills aren't possible. DEEPATAK - 3.5 Bizarre cryptic 90s map, build to demonstrate the capabilities of Deep editor. In thermes of of difficulty it is all over the place. It gives you lots of health and armor, so you are never at risk, except for all the death traps (wich include both combat traps and inescapable death pits). So, it's mostly trial and error. And by the way there is no walkthrough. Also, I couldn't get 2 kills, they might be impossible. Demonastery – 4.5 A long, architecturally detailed map, set in a crumbling monastery made of marble and corpses. In thermes of gameplay, fells like Final Doom with it's frequent use of revenants and chaingunners, but also adds some difficult arachnotron and mancubi fights. It's also low on health. And look out for secrets, because you will need them. Oh, and there is a difficult massive arena fight at the end. Doom City - 2 A realistic city (more of a small town) map. Short and fun, but has a hot start. Doomsday of UAC - 2 The first truly impressive map, looks good even today. Pretty normal, when it comes to difficulty. Doxylamine Moon: Overdose – 3 Atmospheric exploration based map. Weapons are far away from each other, and the map can get a little stingy with health and ammo at points. Technically has a second map, but that one is just an ending map with no exit. Frozen Time – 5 Gigantic winter map that takes almost an hour to complete, it’s so detailed that even Prboom+ can lag. For around the first half the level is low on ammo, the secret berserk and some infighting are necessary. The level is also very open and enemies can snipe you from miles away. After clearing out most of the main area, you’ll get access to lots of ammo, but then the map starts throwing arch-vile ambushes at you. The final fight pits you against two cyberdemons in a kind of small area. Also, don’t try to play this map saveless blind, the secrets, including the unofficial ones, are not optional. Green Inferno – 2 Normal episode 4 style map. Replaces E4M1, but fells more like E4M5. Looks good and plays nice. HELLRUN - 5.5 A gigantic nonlinear map, filled with tough monsters, deadly traps and lots of damaging floors. It would take forever to describe everything that's going on here, from claustrophobic revenant encounters, to precise platforming, to navigating toxic tunnels, to a massive fight with an army of shotgunners, to a massive revenant slaughter, to a battle with unreachable high ground cyberdemon trio in a poison river. This map takes over an hour to complete, and it has a lot of places, where you could die. Proper routing here is absolutely mandatory. Doomkid weren't kidding, when he said, that even today's players would struggle with this. This might be the largest 90s map and one of the hardest 90s wads. Also, I haven't found 3 secrets, so they might be broken. Kick Attack! – 2 A promotional map released to advertise Kick soda. It has new monster sprites and sounds. Average difficulty. Magnum Opus - 2.5 Despite the name, isn't that big. More notable for it's architecture than anything else. Has a couple interesting fights. Mercury Rain - 2.5 Beautiful looking somewhat non-linear map. Save the soul sphere for the room with a bunch of revenants. Origwad - 3 (1, if you don't care about maxing) Usually considered to be the first wad ever made (there is apparently some debate about that). Super short map, but maxing it requires non-berserk punching a Baron to death. Outer Base - 3 Short, very detailed tech base map. There aren't much enemies, but they are tough and health can be a problem. Phobos Mission Control - 2 E1M4 replacement made by John Romero. A fairly standard map. Prison Camp - 2 A realistic prison escape map. The only enemies here are hitscanners, but you are given lots of health to deal with them. Punisher - 3.5 Made by Dario Casali before Plutonia. A way easier predecessor to Go 2 It. Enemy numbers are massive, but most of them would just infight, and there are lots of powerups, health and ammo. Serenity III -- Map11 – 3.5 Decent map. Low on health and ammo. Tech Gone Bad – 2.5 Big E1M8 replacement. First of the new John Romero maps. It might look hard at first, but it actually isn't, if you know, where the secrets are. The Unholy Trinity - 2 The first example of a real place being recreated in a doom map (though I highly doubt, that the real Trinity college has a lava cave underneath). Average difficulty. The Zdoom Community Map Project Take 1 – 3 A single gigantic community map for Zdoom. Takes over 1.5 hours to complete, but, thankfully, has checkpoints. For the most part it isn't that hard. The difficulty comes from the massive warehouse fight and the long arena fight for the yellow key. The later has no cover but throws a wave of chaingunners and a wave with two arch-viles at you. Toxin Refinery Remake - 3 A massive remake of e1m3 for gzdoom. Uses only the enemy types found in the original map. Despite large enemy numbers isn't that hard. In fact, the hardest part is annoying platforming required for a secret. That's all so far. I will play and add more wads later. Here is the top 100 hardest maps so far. Top 100 hardest: Spoiler The Chasm (NoReason's Speedmaps) Revenge of Demon House (Wormwood) The Destination (Rush) Into Darkness (1 Bad Wad) Hyperborean (100 Lines) For Zzul (1-Hour Speedmapping 2018) The Mucus Flow (Community Chest 2) Entryway (NoReason's Speedmaps) Curvular (Curvular) The Citadel (NoReason’s Speedmaps) Fire and Ice (Scythe) WHISPERING WINDS (Scythe 2) DEATH (Scythe 2) FORGOTTEN CITY (Scythe 2) Afterlife (Hell Revealed) AFTERLIFE II (Scythe 2) Dead Simple (NoReason’s Speedmaps) The Womb Floor (Hellevator) Stench of Evil (Alien Vendetta) Tricks and Traps (NoReason’s Speedmaps) Monster Condo (NoReason’s Speedmaps) CHORD3 (CHORD3) Burrow (100 lines) Launch Bay (Double Impact) Dernier Voeu (3 Heures d'agonie) GAIAS TEMPLE (Scythe 2) Stares (100 Lines) Post Mortem (Hell Revealed) Tenements (NoReason’s Speedmaps) The Crusher (NoReason’s Speedmaps) TECH BASE: SECTOR 10 (10 Sectors) Map 13 (Congestion 192) For We Are Many (Community Chest 3) Dark Dome (Alien Vendetta) Ticket to Eternity (Plutonia 2) Sanctuary of Filth (No End in Sight) The Weapons Factory (Harmony) Black Rain (Community Chest 3) Demonic Hordes (Alien Vendetta) The Savage Abyss (Jenesis) Death God’s Shrine (Rowdy Rudy II: POWERTRIP!) Grosse (Doom 2 Redux) Serenity Forever (SERENITY II aka ETERNITY) HELLRUN (HELLRUN) Overwhelming Odds (Alien Vendetta) Netherworld Citadel (No End in Sight) The Pit (Doom 2 Redux) The Living End (NoReason’s Speedmaps) THE GARDEN BASE II (Scythe 2) No Room (Community Chest 2) Ascending to the Stars (Hell Revealed) Go 4 It (Plutonia 2) Valley of Echoes (first release of Alien Vendetta) Amalgamation 2: Cairo A.D. (Amalgamation 2: Cairo A.D.) Whispering Shadows (Alien Vendetta) Moonblood Ritual Site (Moonblood) REDRUM (TNT: Revilution) Elixir (Community Chest 2) Hexsoil (Doom 2 the Way id Did) The Cleansing (Cleimos 2) Lurking Fear (Plutonia 2) Demonology (Going Down) Rest in Pieces (Going Down) Hell Revealed (Hell Revealed) The Finest Joke is Upon Us (50 Monsters) Suburbs (NoReason’s Speedmaps) The Courtyard (NoReason’s Speedmaps) Icky Vicky (1-Hour Speedmapping 2018) The Focus (NoReason’s Speedmaps) Last Look at Eden (Hell Revealed) Subterra (Phobos Anomaly Reborn) Archives: Iron Keep (Moonblood) Emission of Hate (Rush) The Cracked Floor (Hellevator) Rocket Zone II (Valiant) Frozen Time (Frozen Time) DUST TO DUST (Scythe 2) Trine (100 Lines) Wolfencity (Switcheroom 2: The Forgotten Maps) Cacophony (1 Monster Megawad) HAUNTING DREAMS (Scythe 2) MARLE (10 Sectors) Forest of Undesirables (100 Lines) CHORD_NG (CHORD_NG) The Pyramid of Death (Speed of Doom) The 100 Lines of Dogefishmas (100 Line Christmas) Embodiment of Maliciousness (Japanese Community Project) RGC Alpha (No End in Sight) Huitzilopochtli (Community Chest 3) Bermuda Triangle (Bermuda Triangle) Black Throne (100 Lines) Stair Crazy (Going Down) Hard Descent, Harder Climbings (Cyberdreams) Go 2 It (The Plutonia Experiment) Map 28 (Congestion 192) The Repentant Sinner (Moonblood) The Gantlet (NoReason’s Speedmaps) Sodding Death (Community Chest 2) Ruby Abyss (Community Chest 3) The Trickery Domain (Switcheroom II) Full Wad/Episode Rankings Spoiler Congestion 384 Area 51 Thy Flesh Consumed (The Ultimate Doom Episode 4) No Sleep for the Dead Inferno (The Ultimate Doom Episode 3) The Shores of Hell (The Ultimate Doom Episode 2) Lifeless (Deathless Episode 1) The Shores of Hell (Linear Doom Episode 2) Knee Deep in the Dead (The Ultimate Doom Episode 1) Xenothanathos (Alkylation Episode 2) Fava Beans Inferno (Linear Doom Episode 3) Xmas Doom Doom Christmas 2016 Knee Deep in the Dead (Linear Doom Episode 1) The Thing You Can't Defeat Congestion 64 Overall maps beaten: 2467 Edited May 8 by Lewonx Added some wads 44 Quote Share this post Link to post
Dusty_Rhodes Posted August 27, 2021 Wow, I'll love to see you check out other wads like Alien Vendetta or Scythe. Cool little thread here. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted August 28, 2021 On 8/27/2021 at 9:58 PM, Dusty_Rhodes said: Wow, I'll love to see you check out other wads like Alien Vendetta or Scythe. Cool little thread here. Scythe is definitely on my to do list. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
BaileyTW Posted August 28, 2021 Plutonia's map 12, Speed, always surprises me with its relative difficulty when I get to it. The Twilight and Go2It are obviously some of the most difficult of the set for memorable reason, and when i get to Speed I think "well the cyberdemon is cheeseable, I understand the archevile fight, and that plasma should let me coast by the beginning", and yet in most of my playthroughs I have more deaths to Speed than I do to Twilight and even Go2It. Go2It is obviously harder, but I dunno there's something about Speed. Maybe it's not taking it as seriously as I should that does me in. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Bri Posted August 28, 2021 Personally, I think Go2It is not as hard as it appears. There's heaps of cover, ammo and plenty of wiggle room to strategize the fights. Generally the only concern is getting the numbers down. Some of the earlier levels I think are much harder because they are more purposefully built and push the player to think and react in a second. Go2It can't really catch you off guard as such. 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
P41R47 Posted August 28, 2021 Interesting thread. Nice read also. Will you cover the official add-ons? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
garu32 Posted August 28, 2021 Unholy Massacre + Respawning enemies 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Jacek Bourne Posted August 29, 2021 I think you should increase the scale going to 10 so you'll be able to more accurately scale wads such as flotsam or dimensions. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
BaileyTW Posted August 29, 2021 2 hours ago, Bri said: Personally, I think Go2It is not as hard as it appears. There's heaps of cover, ammo and plenty of wiggle room to strategize the fights. Generally the only concern is getting the numbers down. Some of the earlier levels I think are much harder because they are more purposefully built and push the player to think and react in a second. Go2It can't really catch you off guard as such. Maybe this is just me, but for the way I play it I'd say it'd be more accurate to say that as you get better, Go2It gets more easy compared to other maps. You reach Go2It your first time and you're absolutely floored by it. The "solution" to it is something that up to that point you probably haven't done a whole lot of. So to put it short, with Go2It there's a lot more stuff you just haven't done or are new to (assuming you haven't played much else like i did, before Plutonia I only played Doom 1 and 2), whereas with other maps in Plutonia, they at least resembled stuff you have done before. Forward to now and I've played many maps since then that expect more of what Go2It expects from you to beat it. So while Go2It started out way harder in comparison to other maps in Plutonia, and while all the maps have gotten easier for me over time, this goes even more so for Go2It. Still like, I little harder than the other maps of Plutonia, but maybe not for long, most of my deaths come from those 1 on 1 cyberdemon fights in the same corridor. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Bri Posted August 29, 2021 2 hours ago, BaileyTW said: Maybe this is just me, but for the way I play it I'd say it'd be more accurate to say that as you get better, Go2It gets more easy compared to other maps. You reach Go2It your first time and you're absolutely floored by it. The "solution" to it is something that up to that point you probably haven't done a whole lot of. So to put it short, with Go2It there's a lot more stuff you just haven't done or are new to (assuming you haven't played much else like i did, before Plutonia I only played Doom 1 and 2), whereas with other maps in Plutonia, they at least resembled stuff you have done before. Forward to now and I've played many maps since then that expect more of what Go2It expects from you to beat it. So while Go2It started out way harder in comparison to other maps in Plutonia, and while all the maps have gotten easier for me over time, this goes even more so for Go2It. Still like, I little harder than the other maps of Plutonia, but maybe not for long, most of my deaths come from those 1 on 1 cyberdemon fights in the same corridor. Good points. I was thinking more in the now. I definitely remember feeling overwhelmed by Go2It back in the day. Come to think of it, I don't even know how I finished the whole Plutonia wad back then... 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted September 17, 2021 Massive update: - Added 4 new wads: 1. Scythe 2. Double Impact 3. Alkylation 4. UAC Ultra - Updated the rules to include wads designed only for continious play - Top 50 hardest turned into top 100 Sorry that it took me so long, I had no internet on PC for a few weeks, due to moving to a new home. If anyone wondering, stuff I'm planning to cover soon: - Jenesis (currently halfway done) - A bunch of different congestions - Doom 2 Redux - 1 Monster - E1M3 remake - Skillsaw stuff (Valiant, Vanguard, Ancient Aliens) - Knee Deep in Zdoom - Zpack - Lillium - Comatose - Rowdy Rudy 1 and 2 - No End In Sight - Doom 2 in the Name Only - Serenity - Back to Saturn X - Fava Beans - Hellevator - No Chance (if I can beat it) 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Jacek Bourne Posted September 17, 2021 You should add ribbiks releases as well as sunder and dimensions. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted September 17, 2021 12 minutes ago, Jacek Bourne said: You should add ribbiks releases as well as sunder and dimensions. I will probably play Stardate 20X6 and Sunust in the future. I have no intent to play Sunder, since it's still unfinished. I am not ready to take on Dimensions and probably won't be for a long time. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post
Jacek Bourne Posted September 17, 2021 Just now, Lewonx said: I will probably play Stardate 20X6 and Sunust in the future. I have no intent to play Sunder, since it's still unfinished. I am not ready to take on Dimensions and probably won't be for a long time. Understood. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Dusty_Rhodes Posted September 17, 2021 Glad to see your project still going. I enjoyed reading this. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Captain POLAND Posted September 18, 2021 Can you add Alien Vendetta? And will there be difficulty levels above 7 if you run into them? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted September 19, 2021 8 hours ago, Captain POLAND said: Can you add Alien Vendetta? And will there be difficulty levels above 7 if you run into them? I will do Alien Vendetta in the future, though I'm not sure when exactly. There is definitely wads above 7. 7 is the hardest level I can currently beat. Dimensions is probably an 8 and Oukuplok is like 9 or 10 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted September 21, 2021 Update: - Added 4 new wads: 1. Jenesis 2. Fava Beans 3. Origwad 4. Toxin Refinery Remake - Added single map wads category 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
UnclePhil Posted September 21, 2021 This is nifty. As a lifelong player who is no higher than about a 3 on the scale presented, it's humbling and impressive but I like reading about what skilled players are doing. Rock on, boys. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Captain POLAND Posted September 22, 2021 Can you do the Doom 64 levels? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Nefelibeta Posted September 22, 2021 You'll really need a difficulty above 7 when it comes to the danger zone wads. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted September 22, 2021 10 hours ago, Captain POLAND said: Can you do the Doom 64 levels? I don't know, definitely not the original N64 version. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
Jacek Bourne Posted September 22, 2021 Deus Vult 1 and 2 are more mapsets you should add. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted September 30, 2021 Update: - Added 4 new wads: 1. Congestion 1024 2. Doomsday of UAC 3. Magnum Opus 4. Pirate Doom Stuff I'm planning to cover: 1 Monster 10 Sectors 2002 A Doom Odyssey Aliens TC Alien Vendetta Ancient Aliens Antaresian Reliquary Back to Saturn X Episode 1 Back to Saturn X Episode 2 Base Ganymede Bloody Steel Burgeois Megawad Cleimos Cleimos 2 Comatose Community Chest Community Chest 2 Community Chest 3 Community Chest 4 Congestion 64 Congestion 192 Congestion 384 Cyberdreams Deathless Deus Vult Deus Vult 2 Dimensions (if I can) Doom the Way Id Did Doom the Way Id Did: the Lost Episodes Doom 2 in Spain Only Doom 2 in the Name Only Doom 2 Redux Doom 2 the Way id Did Doom Zero Hellbound Hellevator Hell Ground Hell Revealed Hell Revealed 2 Heretic Invades Doom Icarus: Alien Vanguard Italo Doom (if I can) Epic Knee Deep in Phobos Knee Deep in Zdoom Lillium Linear Doom Lunatic Master Levels Memento Mori Memento Mori 2 Miasma Moonblood Mordeth No End in Sight No Chance No Rest for the Living Okuplok (if I become a doomgod) Overdose Phobos Anomaly Reborn Phobos Mission Control Phobos Revisited Requiem Rowdy Rudy Rowdy Rudy 2 Scythe 2 Serenity Sigil Speed of Doom Stardate 20x6 Stardate 20x7 Strange Aeons Struggle - Antaresian Legacy Sunlust (not sure, if I can beat this) Swim with the Wales Tech Gone Bad Temple of the Lizard Men Temple of the Lizard Men 2 Temple of the Lizard Men 3 Temple of the Lizard Men 4 The Refinery The Ultimate Torment and Torture THT Threnody TNT Revilution Trinity College Valiant Vanguard Whitemare Whitemare 2 Winter's Fury Zaero Zdoom Community Map Project Zdoom Community Map Project 2 Zone 300 Zone 400 Zpack Obviously, I'll probably never cover all of these and cover other stuff, but this is just what to expect from me in the future in general. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Captain POLAND Posted September 30, 2021 (edited) Great job, keep up the good work. I have suggestions for new difficulty levels too: 8 - Mid Kaizo 9 - High Kaizo 10 - Very High Kaizo (just following your lead here with these) 11 - Nigh-impossible (The kind of map that even very good players would need hundreds of tries to beat, perhaps not realistically possible with pistol start or on higher difficulties or without save scumming) 12 - Absurd (The kind of map that even Zero Master would have a lot of trouble beating, even on low difficulty levels) 13 - Inhuman (Theoretically possible to beat, but not realistic without cheats or TAS) 14 - Unwinnable (Maps with no exit, or that are literally impossible to complete for other reasons) Edited September 30, 2021 by Captain POLAND 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted October 14, 2021 Massive update: - Added 7 new wads: 1. 2002 A Doom Odyssey 2. Congestion 64 3. Congestion 192 4. Congestion 384 5. Phobos Mission Control 6. Serenity 7. Tech Gone Bad I need to take a break. Probably won't be updating this for at least 2 months. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Captain POLAND Posted October 14, 2021 Nice. Although you forgot to put an exclamation mark next to de-moon side. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post
Lewonx Posted October 14, 2021 4 minutes ago, Captain POLAND said: Nice. Although you forgot to put an exclamation mark next to de-moon side. Fixed! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
GarrettChan Posted October 14, 2021 On 9/30/2021 at 12:29 PM, Captain POLAND said: 12 - Absurd (The kind of map that even Zero Master would have a lot of trouble beating, even on low difficulty levels) This is a weird way to define a rating. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Captain POLAND Posted October 14, 2021 Just now, GarrettChan said: This is a weird way to define a rating. Well it's just an idea. Feel free to come up with something better. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post
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