MAP09: The Pit (Doom II)

MAP09: The Pit is the ninth map of Doom II. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and uses the music track "Into Sandy's City".

Difficulty: Very hard

Walkthrough
From the "+"-shaped platform in the center of the slime (A), lower the lift to the north and ride it up. Continue straight to the end of the corridor and flip the switch at the end, raising a chunk of the floor behind you. Ride the nearby lift up, flip the switch at the top, and jump across to the raised floor. Creep along the east wall and into the raised corridor now reachable via the newly heightened floor. Head outside and kill the enemies (B). Return to the previous area to find that a new section of wall has opened up. Flip the switch here to lower two more walls, unleashing a monster ambush. Once the last of the enemies have been dealt with, flip the last switch in the western alcove to open the nearby wall. From where you are, drop down onto the Hell Knight's platform and flip the switch. This causes a stair to raise, allowing you to reach this platform from below as well. Walk off this platform and a nearby lift will lower, allowing you to get the blue keycard (C). Open the blue door back on the platform and flip the switch to open the northwest wall. Climb the stairs and hop through.

Inside this next area you'll be faced with a three-sided switch (D). The west and southeast faces open optional areas, some of which contain secrets. Whether or not you decide to explore them, you'll ultimately need to flip the northeast switch, which opens the southwest wall (E). Drop into the slime pit and go left into the stone tunnel. Flip the switch to lower another platform in the slime pit area, and step onto it before it rises again. Pick up the yellow keycard in the back (F), then turn left and flip the switch at the end of the short tunnel. This lowers the third platform in the slime pit, so once again drop down and get on before it rises. Flip the last switch (G), located on the wall, to lower the first platform once again. Ride it back up to the three-sided switch room. Open the southeast wall of this room as you would a door, and head all the way back to the platform you started the level on.

Once back in the starting pit, lower the east or south lifts and go through the yellow door at the top (H). Kill the enemies in your way and drop into the darkened pit. Pick up the health bonuses on the bright red cross (I), then head through the exit door and flip the switch.

Secrets

 * 1) Take the tallest (J) lift at the start of the level and follow the narrow passageway at the top to its end. The inner walls of the passageway open up, revealing a much larger room with a brown slime pit in its center. Step in the middle of the lower southwestern triangle shaped platform, face the rocket launcher and cross the edge into the slime to raise a bridge over the pit. The rocket launcher platform midway across this bridge counts as a secret. When crossing the bridge, be careful not to fall off the bridge from the side and into the brown slime pit on either side because both sides of the brown slime pits are inescapable.
 * 2) Continue across the bridge from secret #1 (K). The ledge on the far side is a secret.
 * 3) In the northeastern corner of the map, there is an outdoor area containing a circular structure surrounded by a moat of brown slime. Fall into the moat to cause the platform surrounding the circular structure to lower (L).
 * 4) Follow the platform from secret #3 around the circular structure to its north side, which has a door leading to another secret area inside the structure (M).
 * 5) Inside secret #4, open the wall with yellow lights at the bottom (N) to reveal a closet containing a BFG 9000.
 * 6) After hitting the blue switch, a new area opens up in the previous room. Inside this new area is a triangular column with a switch on each of its three sides (O). Flip the switch on the western side of this column to open a door in the northeast of this room. In the next area, there is a fork in the path. The right side leads down a staircase to a teleport taking you back to the fork (P). Instead, take the left; a series of tall "stairs" that is actually made of lifts. When you move onto the first "step", the next one lowers; when you move onto the second the third lowers, and so on. When the final "stair" lowers, a secret platform will be revealed (Q). Take the goodies here and step through the teleport to be taken back to the top of this area (R).

Bugs

 * 1) On the Ultra-Violence or Nightmare! skill levels, there are more than 21 lost souls already on the level, so some of the first pain elementals encountered are unable to attack.
 * 2) The hexagonal outdoor room shows an example of projectiles triggering linedefs, where the Mancubus fireballs, when crossing any of the type 88 linedefs, lower the lift in the center.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia

 * The music for "Into Sandy's City" is inspired by the track "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots.
 * According to Bobby Prince, the harpsichord segments used in that song originally used a piano, which was was turned down by the rest of id Software as they didn't like the idea of a piano in any part of the music. As a joke, Prince swapped out the piano with a harpsichord, but the change proved popular with id Software (much to Prince's surprise) and it was kept in the final release.