MAP30: Excalibur (Eternal Doom)

MAP30: Excalibur is the thirtieth and final level of Eternal Doom. It was designed by Bob Evans.

Walkthrough
You enter the level on a bridge (already a first secret) in the south.

Open the main gate by shooting the switch to the left. Enter the castle's main hall and go north to the door.

If you want a secret: Turn around and open the pillar with the blue flag for a Megasphere (secret).

Open the door, around the fire/tree block, open the gate, in front of you is a silver knight statue. Behind it, there is an open arena, but its entrance on the far side is blocked.

Turn around, you are now looking at the tree plateau. Climb onto the narrow part of the plateau just in front of the right pillar, carefully move to the right and go into(!) the gray wall's narrow side. Inside the gray wall, activate the skull, which will lower a part of the border to the brown water area behind you. So quickly turn around and use the lift to stand on the border.

Walk on top of the border to the very left, where you can jump down into the edge. You reach a room to the left, one of the walls can be lowered, now just follow the way (fighting Hell Knights and Barons and using the teleport) until the walls around you vanish. Jump down into the brown water. At one end, the wall's bricks are misaligned, lower this wall to reach the area behind. You can open the big pillar for a Megasphere. Do not use the teleport to the main hall, but open the gate, climb the stairs, lower the wall at the other end, ride it up. To the left, there is a handle behind a pillar to lower it again.

At the other end of the room (two devil faces), take the gallery to the left without falling down. After a few steps, there is a single skull and opening to your right. Activate it to have a lift rise up to the opening (useful after getting the BFG9000, mark your position on the map). Go further left until you see three skulls and a distant blue circle to your right. Activate the right skull, this allows entrance to the silver knight arena.

Go back to the two devil faces and go north between the ornamented pillars. Go to the end of the footbridge, on your way back you will automatically be transported to the western part of a high structure. Turn left such that you face east.

Optional: You can use very small steps to fall right into the center with the BFG9000, jump down, then use the activated lift to get back to the high structure.

Run forward to reach the eastern part of the structure, which is a teleport to the red keycard (must-have secret). Walk around until a lift lowers to bring you out.

Go back to the fire/tree block, either the way you came (using the handle behind the pillar and the teleport), or by jumping down from the gallery and making your dangerous way to west.

You can now enter the silver knight arena, activate the skull on the silver knight's base, quickly activate the red button on the lowered platform in the arena's center, this will enable the left skull on the bridge to the blue circle.

On the fire/tree block, again enter the gray wall etc. to get on top of the border to the brown water area. This time, directly jump down into the water. You can get another Megasphere inside the big pillar. Open the gate, activate the skull to the right, enter the lowered lift, activate the skull in front of you, ride up, you are now in a room with six imprisoned Arch-Viles.

On the other end of the room, do not come too close to the rotating stones. On the left, there is a blue keycard symbol for later use, on the right side a skull must be switched to lower the entrance lift. For each key you got (not by cheating), you can activate the respective Arch-Vile chamber here, which will not only release the Arch-Vile, but also enable the respective key switch at the blue circle bridge.

For now, activate the red keycard chamber, do not kill the Arch-Vile, but wait until he teleports away. Go back to the castle's main hall (using the teleport in the brown water area), go all the way east (not up into the eastern arena) until you can see the dark blue horizon outside the castle. Stand right next to the low outer ledge and let the Arch-Vile's attack lift you on top of this ledge (because I don't know how to get there else?!). You do not need the Arch-Vile any longer.

''If you want a secret: Staying on top of the ledge, climb up the stairs, through the tunnel, to the round room at the other end. One of the walls has brown texture on it. After several pushs, the wall gives way. Go up the stairs to a room, go up the other stairs, activate the red button, return to the room, between the stairs a dark opening appeared in the wall. Run forth and back several times into it, until all the walls inside have risen, do not fall down into the gaps. On the other end is a room with a Megaspere (secret). Return to the lower part of the ledge.''

Staying on top of the ledge, go to its northern ending. Standing at the wall, run north-north-east such that you fall into the small opening right below the ledge. On the left, there is a skull on one of the sides of a wooden column. Activate it to lower a wall in the eastern arena.

Optional: One of the walls to the right can be opened, go to the room at the end, push the handle at the right window opening a Megasphere column outside, stand on the stairs until they go up again, go back and jump out of the opening, collect the Megasphere, use the lift to the left of the Megasphere column to get back in the opening below the ledge.

You can now jump out of the opening, use the lift to the left of the big column to get back onto the ledge, jump down the other side, go up into the eastern arena and through the lowered wall into the room behind the eastern arena.

If you want a secret: One of the walls to the right of the wall lowering skull can be opened (secret) for a faster access to the room behind the eastern arena.

Go through the door in the north, a guard room will open high above behind you, lower the wall below to reach this room. Activate the skull. Now you can go up the stairs into a room with two fires. Go up the next stairs, then return to room with two fires. There should now be tunnels a few steps from the fires.

Activate the face stone inside the eastern fire and quickly enter the opened door in the tunnel. Activate the red keycard symbol to lower the red skullkey. There is also a secret door nearby, but I don't know how to open it. Activate the yellow skull switch to open the door you came in.

From the room with two fires, go up the stairs into another room. You can leave out the balkonies, go forward between them, all around the big brown stone building at the end, which will open. Approach the blue keycard, it will transport to a column out of reach.

Go back. The door will be blocked. When you are at some spot, some of the three stones on each side will lower, ride one up and position yourself on the stone next to the blocked door. Jump down onto the stones beside the door.

Go down to the room with two fires. Activate the skull inside the cobweb under the ceiling, this will lower a wall at the end of the green stones on the left. To the left and right from the cobweb, you can (with a distinct angle) jump over to the other side with the green stones.

''If you want a secret: Jump to the green stones on the right side, shoot the half-covered yellow skull with your pistol, raising a wall, then step backwards (or do not jump but try to shoot the skull with the double-barrelled shotgun from further away). Jump into the hole for a plasma gun (secret).''

Jump to the green stones on the left, jump into the hole at their end, turn around and activate the skull, turn around and jump into the blue water, collect the lowered red skullkey, lower the wall to the left of the green torch, go all around. A Cyberdemon is hiding behind one of the gray pillars. Use the handle at the back of this pillar to lower a lift on the same pillar's opposite side. Ride it up for the transported blue keycard.

Return to the red skullkey's place, to the right is another opening in the building, the rightmost wooden pillar has a handle on its right side (you must stand on the right to see it), activate it to open a teleport in the wall to the right, now you are back in the eastern arena.

Return to the castle's entrance bridge. The railing on one side is insecure, step over it. Use various ledges to go along the castle's outside wall without falling down into the castle-moat. At the end, you reach a lift.

Activate the skull to lower the lift. On the lift, activate the other skull to ride to the top, push the rectangle in the metal wall (attack from behind!), enter, you will be teleported to a circularly shaped room. Go through the door. There is a structure with a chess board pattern column in the middle part. Under the structure, stand on the western side of this column and try to go further to the west into the gray stone. There will be a crack and now you are below floor level. Activate the face stone to enable the blue handle for later, use the red button for a lift out.

Return to the lift that brought you all the way up. Jump down over the lift, go back into the tunnel, but only half-way, then push the brown wall to the right, it will open. Jump down, follow the tunnel, activate the blue handle behind the wooden boxes (will open the water area around the yellow keycard). (There is a computer map hidden in one of the upper wooden boxes, but I don't know how to get up there.) Return to where you jumped down, the biggest box can be lowered, jump over.

Return to the lift, activate the skull to lower it this time all the way down, jump down, get the yellow keycard, return to the lift, activate the skull to lower the lift again. Standing on the lift, use the handle on the bars to let the lift go up again.

Return to the castle's main hall, explore the western part until you are in the room with a well. (On the way up to this room, there is some switch hidden on one of the pillars, but I don't know how to get up there and what it does.) To the left of the well, there are stairs to a bridge-like construction leading to a Cyberdemon.

Do not ascend the bridge, but walk on the right side of it all the way to the blocking bars and back. This will open a door to a balkony to the left of the bridge. Lower the wooden pillar to the left of the balkony, stand on the right side of the pillar and ride up to the balkony. Activate the face stone to lower the bridge bars.

Go on the right side of the bridge to its end, activate the yellow keycard symbol, lowering a lift to the Cyberdemon's room, where you get the yellow skullkey.

Now go back (to main hall, to fire/tree block, into gray wall, lower border, jump down to the right, etc.) to the room with the six (now five) Arch-Viles.

At the end of the room, activate the blue keycard symbol next to the left rotating stone. The stone will open, and you can go through to get the blue skullkey.

Do not forget to activate the yellow skull for the lift out. Then release the remaining five Arch-Viles (can be attacked before they transport).

If you want a secret: Let one of the Arch-Viles throw you through the big cross-like window in the western part of the castle into an area (secret) with a big cross, then use the lift back out.

Now go back (to main hall, to fire/tree block, into gray wall, lower border, jump down on the left, etc.) to the gallery with the blue circle. Activate the left yellow skull to raise the bridge (takes some time), activate all six key symbols on the wall to raise the blocks, walk into the blue circle, you will be teleported with no chance to return.

In the final arena, there are four narrow gray columns you can lower and ride up on, shoot rockets just before you are at the top. High up on the surrounding walls, there are two face stones, a gray rectangle, and a black rectangle. First, shoot rockets into both of the face stones, until the big gray rectangle opens, revealing fire and a demon spitter. Ride up again and fire rockets (at least three) into the middle of the fire until the demon spitter explodes.