MAP04: Ratamahatta (Memento Mori II)

MAP04: Ratamahatta is the fourth level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Florian Helmberger and uses the music track "Interphaze" by David "Tolwyn" Shaw.

Mission briefing
According to both the text file and the Infopack:


 * You are being sent to a place quite deep in hell which is inhabited with monsters of all kinds (you didn't expect that, did you?). We have sent Duck Nukem in to scout the area. He seems to not have achieved that much (nothing but cool talk). Anyway, we include [sic] the last picture of his HeadCam(tm) with this file - his last transmited [sic] words were: "This really pisses me off!".


 * Go in there, kick butt and get out alive soldier!

Walkthrough

 * Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Other points of interest
Right after dropping down into the northeastern hole in the south of the map start room, there is a branch-off from the central passage to the north with an alcove to the east, containing the wad's first and this map's only backpack you see in front of you. A little bit more eastern in the central passage, there is a branch-off to the south where you find an alcove with a green armor. Another little bit more eastern in the central passage, there is an alcove in the southern wall with a computer map. Approaching the backpack to grab it shuts the computer map's alcove for good and vice versa, so you have to decide to benefit from having the backpack right now at the cost of not reaching 100% of the items. After carefully grabbing one of the goodies you still can get the green armor, since only fully entering (not necessary to get the item) the backpack's or the computer map's alcove closes the armor's alcove. (Approaching the armor shuts the computer map's alcove, fully entering the armor's alcove shuts the backpack's alcove.)

Secrets

 * 1) In the room with the crushers, the second crusher from the south has an opening on its east side. This leads into a secret room (sector 108) containing ten health and armor bonuses, (a chainsaw on Hurt Me Plenty or higher,) five troopers and two sets of shells. At the southeast of this room is a cavern with two more health bonuses and two imps that leads into a cage where (if not killed before) an imp and (skill dependant) none/one/two chaingunners are and a box of bullets, a box of shotgun shells and a green armor can be obtained. Entering this cage lowers two pillars in the secret room with two imps and medikits.
 * 2) From the western or central stone walkways in the northeast cavern, jump into the tower, and then onto the bloodfall to the north. You will discover a secret cavern (sector 232). Proceeding northwards after registering this secret lets a sergeant (on easy and medium skills) or a chaingunner (on hard skills) teleport into the tower. Enter the northern tunnel, where some enemies will spot and attack you: from the east one/two/three sergeants and from the west two/four/seven spectres and one/two/two imps. On the tunnels' eastern end are two bullet boxes. The first inset in the west of the tunnel contains two imps (not on easy), two sergeants and two boxes of bullets. Upon entering it, on hard skills a demon at the tunnel's western end probably spots and attacks you. The second inset contains one/two/three spectres, four/six/nine imps, one/one/two demons, four medikits and a green armor. Upon entering it, on medium and hard skills another demon at the tunnel's western spots and attacks you. At the tunnel's western end are two sets of shells. Finally, from the western end, you can drop down the bloodfall to acquire a berserk pack.

Routes and tricks
There are two tricks that can be used to sharply cut down the time needed to finish the level. The first is to use strafe50 to pass over the linedef at the beginning that closes three of the four passageways, allowing you to access them early. The fastest path to the exit, which requires access to the northeast and then southeast passageways, requires you to perform this feat twice, which requires a fair bit of luck to pull off.

The second trick is performed after reentering the starting area from the northeast passageway area, and leaving the chapel accessed from the southeast passageway. While the middle pillar in the blood pit to the south is rising, you can still jump onto it. If you do this after raising the southern pillar (from the area accessed from the northeast passageway,) you can then access the exit room without having to raise the northern pillar first. This is used in both the record-holding UV and NM speed demos for this level.

In UV max runs, secret #2 can be used to access the northwest passageway area after the northeast one without having to backtrack to the four passageways room.

Current records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia
The appearances of "Duck Nukem" in both the mission briefing for this level, and a gravestone in the level itself, are evidently jabs at Duke Nukem 3D, released in 1996 six months before the megawad, referencing the game's title character. This is further supported by his use of "This really pisses me off," which is one of various things Duke can say in the game upon being killed. An additional shot at the game appears in the mission briefing for MAP18: Regulate in the form of the equally ill-fated scout, "Ken BUILDerman," whose name is a reference to Ken Silverman, programmer of the Build engine on which the game runs.

The health and armor bonuses in the room with the four passageways are arranged in the shape of the Nine Inch Nails logo.

Ratamahatta is also a song by Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura.