Have you done any challenge runs of the IWADs?

[DoomGappy]

I'm about to start a no running UV playthrough of Doom, and I wonder what crazy challenge runs people have come up with over the years. The idea came from trying to make a more horro oriented Doom gameplay mod. Have you done any challenge runs? Which ones?

Edited May 24, 2024 by DoomGappy
Typo on title

[fruity lerlups]

Andy Challenge sounds like the the next Doomkid character

[Doom-X-Machina]

4 hours ago, fruity lerlups said:

Andy Challenge sounds like the the next Doomkid character

The name's Challenge.
Andy... Challenge.

Edited May 24, 2024 by Doom-X-Machina

[yakfak]

i've beaten the first three episodes without activating any secrets. was just a way to correct for the preponderance of ammo and soulspheres in the original maps and create a bit of tension. in doom 2 and tnt i think there's mandatory secrets which prevent this??? maybe i'm wrong? and in episode 4 the margins are much tighter

[MFG38]

I played through Doom E1 with pistol starts once.

[DoomGappy]

5 hours ago, fruity lerlups said:

Andy Challenge sounds like the the next Doomkid character

Damn, a typo. I'm getting worse at spotting those. 

[DoomGappy]

1 hour ago, yakfak said:

i've beaten the first three episodes without activating any secrets. was just a way to correct for the preponderance of ammo and soulspheres in the original maps and create a bit of tension. in doom 2 and tnt i think there's mandatory secrets which prevent this??? maybe i'm wrong? and in episode 4 the margins are much tighter

I feel like eventhat might not have been enoug. E1M2 is full off boxes of ammo laying around, I feel like I could have 800 bullets if not for the ammo cap. This is also probably why I hate ammo starvation as a design concept, the original games spoiled me.
 

1 hour ago, MFG38 said:

I played through Doom E1 with pistol starts once.

That must get tough on the later parts of the episode. That's also a run I'd like to do some day. 

Edited May 24, 2024 by DoomGappy

[Kinsie]

Someone once dared me to beat E4M1 of Heretic on the hardest difficulty. I managed it, though admittedly it took most of the afternoon and required more savescumming than one should probably admit to in polite company.

 

I don't speak to that person anymore.

 

I also completed a challenge to knock out E1 of SNES Doom on... I think it was HMP. Which doesn't sound like a challenge until you try and fucking play it in the year of our lord 2022. Zombiemen were the most dangerous enemy in the game, somehow? I'm not sure how that works out in the grand scheme of things, all I know is I found it alarmingly painful.

[Lila Feuer]

Wand starts on skill 5 in Heretic without save games was a huge mistake, Raven do not supply you with nearly enough ammo and most maps do not feature all the weapons. E4M9 was so bad I had to use the rarely seen crushers to kill Iron Liches.

 

Pistol starts on skill 4 in Doom 1 and 2 with fast monsters and no save games was also really hard. D2 was harder overall but D1's hardest hards were the hardest in id's games. You have to alter your usual routine and take different routes on multiple levels. The Factory was particularly awful for that and even then there's parts in both IWADs that are very RNG based on whether or not you'll live or die.

[SiFi270]

I once tried to go through UD with minimum secrets but maximum kills and items. I gave up after E1M2 because I spent too much time just waiting in the red key area for the shotgunners outside to walk somewhere shootable. Of course, I've got no one to blame but myself for writing the rules the way I did and not actually thinking it through.

[Li'l devil]

If you consider saveless play (as in, if you die, you always start the level over) a challenge run, then that's how I play everything, and how I played the IWADs as well. Recently I also began playing everything from pistol starts, but haven't played the IWADs yet. That being said, I'm also playing everything on ITYTD now, but stuff can still get really challenging in many wads.

[stephyesterday]

I really enjoying trying ironmans/d2all attempts and have attempted them on a few iwads, and write down my farthest map each time as a sort of high-score. Usually i do this with pwads, though, but for doom 2 i've reached map11 like this and for freedoom phase 2 i've reached map09. Not great records but hey, that's not as embarrassing as when i was ironmanning ichinichi and I died to shooting the barrel that says 'DON'T SHOOT' on it in huge red letters. pro tip don't shoot that barrel

[mrthejoshmon]

I did a consecutive non stop run through Doom 2 out of spite when someone said it only took 20 minutes (then proceeded to link a video to the world record).

 

It took 4 hours.

 

Outside of that I did a Nightmare run of Ultimate Doom for Xbox 360 leaderboard ranking, was fun but ain't doing it again.

Edited May 24, 2024 by mrthejoshmon

[DiavoJinx]

All throughout the years I only have played Doom 1, Doom 2, and Heretic by only saving at the start of each level (or if I have to step away for a while) and I only reload if I completely die to 0%.  I've never save scummed a Doom game, been surprised how prevalent that is these days. This is how I've always done it; notably with the many, many shareware games I used to play in the 90s.

 

I recently discovered Corruption Cards!

The next time I'm going to play one of the IWADs it'll be with Corruption Cards set to custom so I'm not getting merely shown-3-pick-1.  It can show up to 8 at once, it can let you set how many you must select (up to all 8) and if the effects persist through levels or reset each level.

After all these years and just finding these is month, this finally feels like something actually new for Doom, for me. I love it, it's wild.

[GarrettChan]

 

Even I looked back at this after all these years, I still think this is one of the stupidest run I've ever done.

[Stupid Bunny]

I once tried a proper deathless run of Doom 1 on UV where I would quit as soon as I died, just to see how far I could get. I think E2M5? Was fun but not something I’d try again.

 

Ive done a bunch of attempted playthroughs with no mid-level saves, on both HMP and UV, which for some folks I know is the preferred way to play. It does have a satisfaction to it but at the end of the day I don’t want to repeat the same shit forever just to satisfy this condition.

 

Also tried a Nightmare! run of UDoom once got as far as the zig zag room in E1M1 before giving up

[DoomGappy]

I always forget to reply to my threads, but thanks to all the answers. Didn't know what an ironman was, had seen the ironman league posts but never participated. This community is so full of intricacies, it's delightful. Thanks to all!

[Immorpher]

We got a couple Doom 64 challenge runs!

First we got a challenge to get through the IWAD, on the hardest difficulty, fast monsters, pistol starting, with no mid-level saves: 

We recently discovered that there is one difficulty higher than hardest via command line. So that will be a new challenge.

Now we also have a challenge called BG8, which uses corruption cards (that give enemies various boosts). Each level enemies get 8 new permanent cards, so they quickly become very challenging as you progress. To compensate its on the easiest difficulty. The challenge is to see how far you can get, I think the furthest anyone has gotten is 11 levels in before its too hard or the cards break the game. However the Lost Levels seems very do-able!

 

[DoomPlayer00]

Last year I beat Doom 1 & 2 + Sigil & AQ2 without manually switching weapons at all (idea came from this thread). I had to rely on the game automatically switching weapons for me whenever I picked up a new gun/berserk or ran out of ammo.

 

It was a pretty interesting playthrough as your success heavily relies on both map knowledge as well as knowledge of gameplay mechanics you normally wouldn't care about (what weapons game prioritizes when switching between them, when does the game automatically switch away from fist, pistol or chainsaw, etc.)

 

I recorded the Ultimate Doom playthrough if you're curious to see how gameplay differs from normal. Link to playlist:

 

[Austrian Oak]

GET TO THE CHOPPA!

[kalensar]

The only one I cn think of that is close to a challenge was playing EDay Vanilla 2019 in the style of Vanilla on HMP. Never beat it entirely in that format, but its doable upto the point of Icon of Sin where I think is mostly doable. THe main problem is that it is the Brutal Doom Icon and not the Vanilla Icon so its really easy to die.