MAP29: Downer (Requiem)

MAP29: Downer is the twenty-ninth map of Requiem. It was designed by Adam Williamson, and uses the music track "The Helix" by David Shaw. It is the second-largest level in the megawad.

Description
According to both the text file and the Requiem info pack:


 * I started completely fresh to create the biggest level I've ever made, and one of the biggest for Doom (there's about five, to my knowledge, that are bigger, and one is in Requiem). It's also scary and dark. Texturing influenced by map4 of mm2, one of my favourite levels.  Made with the word HARD in mind.

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.

Essentials
The red sea's fluid does not harm you, with the exception of the small patch under the super shotgun in the middle. Picking it up releases one to four additional enemies. Go up (see bugs) and into the green marble room. The gargoyle face marks a fake wall. As you approach the open door on the other side, it will close, and when you stand in front of it, the compartment in the center will open, containing a pain elemental and a switch to open the door. Go through the door (you cannot return), up the exploding barrels staircase, use the lift at the other end (no return) to the X-shaped path room. At the other side, enter the blue key room. To gain access to the blue key, you will have to use two switches, one in the west, one in the east.

In the east: Enter the green marble room, lower the lift at the other side, it can only be lowered from here. Shooting the gargoyle face on the lower left side of the lift will open a hidden compartment on the top right side. Use the path on the left to reach a red switch which will open some bars. Return to the lower part (watch out for traps!), use the red switch in the southern room to open a teleport to get back to the green marble room. Go up where the bars have opened, use the skull switch on the other side, this will activate a chaingunner behind a fake wall part above floor level behind you. It will also open bars on the other side of the room, go up there, use the other skull switch, return to the now opened bars at the first switch, go up, use the switch to open another passage to the left, in which you will find one of the blue key access switches.

In the west: Fall down and follow the path until the door in front of you is barred off. Climb up in the red stones on the left (watch out for chaingunners on the top!), run over the gap, enter the room at the top. The red fluid is harmless. Use the switch to open the door to the right of the barred off one. Behind this door, run to the other side of the room and use the skull switch to crush the raising arch-vile. You cannot enter the red doors yet. The gargoyle switch will lower two trap doors to the left and right, leading to a rocky region below. Find a satyr switch in the south-east to open the small door in the west. Behind that door, go up into the large room. Watch out for an arch-vile. Note that the inner corners of the triangular gaps are teleports. Activate the satyr switches on both sides of the central pillar, go back to the staircase where you can now reach two red switches. These will raise the western bridge in the large room, over which you can now reach the other one of the blue key access switches. The teleport gets you back to the blue key room.

Pick up the blue key, use the door back to the X-shaped path room where you enter the blue door. Follow the path until you reach a red switch. This will enable a lift next to the blue door. Ride up, run over to the cave in the middle. To both sides you have to activate red switches before you can run over to the next room. The switch on the center platform will open the door on the other side. Behind, you are in the yellow key cave. Again, the red fluid does no damage. On the other side of the cave, a skull switch opens a nearby passage for you. Those crushers are that fast, you probably have to run from one to the next. Run over the stones to the skull switch to lower the yellow key.

Enter the yellow door in the blue key room, the blue pool of water is a teleport. Use the skull switch on the altar to lower two teleports. Use the eastern one to get on the other side of the barrier. Activate the red switches at the end of both sides to open the small doors in the middle. Use the switch behind to open the pentagram image behind the altar. Lower the middle patch of the barrier, the western teleport gets you on top of the altar, do not fall into the hole, but jump into the next room. The red switch on the left will open a room to the right that is essentially just a trap. The red switch on the right will open a room to the left containing the red key and a teleport back to the blue sea behind the yellow door.

Return to the red doors in the room with the arch-vile crusher. Behind these doors, you have to make your way up to the exit teleport. Maybe you are lucky and the arachnotrons will finish off the spiderdemon for you.

Secrets

 * 1) In the room with the X-shaped path over a lava pool, there is a patch of the western wall brighter than the rest of it. Push on it to find a medikit, a rocket launcher, and four rockets. (sector 32)
 * 2) At the northwest of the map, after activating the switch on the south side of the central pillar, look southwest to find that there is a bright patch on the southwest side of the compartment you have opened. Shoot at this patch and a bridge will rise in the southeast leading into the wall. At the end of the bridge, press on this wall to find a BFG9000 in an alcove. (sector 800) Unfortunately, the sector-type-zeroing linedef action used to raise the bridge is erroneously tagged to this alcove as well. Because a sector type is used to mark a sector as secret, raising the bridge will erase the alcove's secret flag, preventing you from registering this secret.

Bugs
Because of the high amount of Things in this level, attempting to save your game in vanilla Doom II on this level will cause the program to crash.

Due to a nodebuilding error, any thing standing within 256 map units in front of linedefs 41, 106, and 107 (the cavern walls above and surrounding the demon face in the first room) will be lit at the same light level as sector 20, even though there is no beam of light visible. Additionally, if you stand at the bottom of sector 5 (the southern elevator in the first room) and face northeast at a 45° angle, all things within that range will vanish until you step out of the sector or face a different angle.

As one secret is deleted from the level before you can get to it, you can only obtain 50% Secrets on this level.

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