E2M6: Halls of the Damned (Doom)

E2M6: Halls of the Damned (MAP14 in PSX/Saturn/Jaguar/3DO/GBA/32X, E2M4 in SNES) is the sixth map of The Shores of Hell in Doom. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and it uses the music track "Sinister." The par time is 6:00.

The base featured in the level is likely (despite its hellish name) man-made and is perhaps supposed to resemble an underground bunker or tunnel complex such as the real Cheyenne Mountain base.



Walkthrough
From the start point, continue into the room and then turn right and open the door. Kill the Cacodemon and Demon and press the switch. You should see a new opening near the start. Get to the switch, press it to raise stairs to the berserk pack. Picking it up, you should see a new opening in the nukage, follow the tunnel to a switch that opens up another wall near the path. You will pass the three exit doors, cannot be opened because you don't yet have the keys, instead open the door to the right to get into the hallways. Follow the instructions for the skull keys.

Blue key

The blue key is simple to get. All you have to do is follow the path southeast and then northeast to the blue key. Once you get it, however, two traps will open up: Two monster closets containing Demons and Imps, which aren't a problem if you're good with the berserk fist and have good reflexes. A switch, however, can pre-maturely open these closets up before you get the key and you can snipe the enemies through the small window with your firearms.

Red key

The red key is more complex to get. First of all find the opening to the southwest to a dark maze, which you'll most likely need light amplification goggles for (a room with a Cacodemon and two Lost Souls near this maze has a pair). Be careful in the wooden part of this maze, since there is a monster closet with four Demons and a Baron in it. Near the south of this maze is a door. Open it and follow northwest then southwest, and then somewhere should be the red key.

Yellow key

Go just north of the entrance to the maze, then immediately open up the door to the left. Follow the path to another door, into a small corridor with a 'No Humans Allowed' sign. Press the switch to the right to open the wall up. Follow the path to a crossing with eight paths. Take the south path and open the door, to emerge into a vine room. Go around the structure in the middle to access the yellow key. Then escape through the yellow door (you require the yellow key if you are opening the door from the yellow key room) and backtrack to the door to the hallways. Beware though, after getting the yellow key, more monster closets will open up, releasing several Demons and Barons of Hell.

Exit

Open the blue, red and yellow doors in front of each other and press the exit switch.

Official

 * 1) In the north end of the map is an octagonal grey brick room with exits in the four cardinal directions (as well as the entrance you came from in the southwest). Go through the door in the west; the area behind it counts as a secret. Beware of the crusher here. To exit, either quickly return through the door, or flip the switch in the western alcove.
 * 2) From the octagonal hub mentioned above, go through the door in the north. Step onto the raised platform in the next room to trigger the secret, as well as an enemy ambush, consisting of a Cacodemon and Lost Souls.
 * 3) After getting the yellow skull key, follow the winding corridor in the east of the octagonal hub. Open the yellow door and flip the "exit" switch. It is a fake, and will lower you into another enemy-infested area, full of Cacodemons and Shotgun Guys. Go through the door ahead of you to get back up. This secret has a computer area map.

Non-official

 * 1) There is a chainsaw in the monster alcove across from the blue skull key.

Bugs

 * The "hanging leg" decoration in the starting area (Thing 274) has no flags set for any of the difficulty classes, so it does not actually appear in the level.
 * In the hidden alcove between the blue key and wood maze (Sector 158), two extra Demons appear in Ultra-violence on top of two other Demons, rendering them immobile. This blocks the Baron of Hell until one of the Demons is killed.
 * The crossable linedef 302, located in the wood maze to the left of the backpack, has line type 2 "W1 Open Door" on it. Because the line also features a non-zero, but unused tag (11), crossing it has no ill effects on the level.
 * Like in many of the preceding areas, there is an "entrance door" (DOOR3) right behind the player's start location. However on this level, there is a corridor running right behind the start room leaving no room for even a possible teleporter pad behind the door. While not being a proper bug, it is rather an oddity in level design.
 * The eastern corner next to the blue key can be passed through if approached at a precise angle. Doing so causes an effect similar to that of No Clipping, but you cannot return to the normal map. With a bit of luck, you can use the exit switch from outside the room; the fastest time for completing the map this way is 0:26 (as of December 11 2013). An example of this can be found here.

Routes and tricks
As stated above, it is possible to complete the level without any keys at all via the "void glide" trick, which is near the blue key. Navigate to the exit switch, then try your best to press the exit switch from outside, by repeatedly pressing use, and in the correct angle. This saves a lot of time for the speedrun, which is done by most Compet-n speedrunners.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia

 * The music track "Sinister" for this level is inspired by the track "Going After Newt" by James Horner (Aliens Sountrack).
 * Interestingly this music was used in Justin Fisher's Aliens TC total conversion mod, for the E2M6: Atmospheric Processor level where the object is to find Newt.