E4M1: Hell Beneath (Doom)

E4M1: Hell Beneath is the first map of Thy Flesh Consumed in The Ultimate Doom. It was designed by American McGee and uses the music track "Sign of Evil."

On Ultra-Violence, it is believed to be one of the hardest levels of the entire game (more detail here). On this difficulty, there are no medikits or stimpacks; any additional health is limited to nine health bonuses, and there is only one piece of green armor (however twelve armor bonuses doesn't sound bad). To top it off, there are lots of enemies, including several Barons of Hell. The easier difficulties have two medikits, another two that are available through a secret.

On Nightmare!, you cannot beat this level no matter what (unless you modified the E4M1 map inside the DOOM WAD file to make this level easier).

Difficulty: Hard (Medium on Hurt me plenty and easier)

Overview
The map title comes from Proverb 15:24: "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath."

Strategy
Go forward and to the left around the nukage pool past the red door to the room behind the pillars you see in front of you. Hit the skull switch on the west side of the room and a door will open across from the red door. Go through the door, and small hallway, and go right on the U shaped ledge above a nukage pool you step onto after the hall. Beware of enemies to your left behind a cage. In the center of the room is a closed in area, access it at the middle of the U by jumping down into the nukage and running in quickly. The red key is in the back area on the left. On higher levels you will meet a Baron in here, it will teleport in as you near the key. There is a raised platform on the right as you come back (was on your left at entrance) go around to the side furthest from you and press action to lower it. You can them jump across and go back to the red door at the start.

Go through the red door. There is a large wall in the back of this room, you can barely fit around, go either way and take out the imps, and grab the blue key. This will trigger many enemies, hang back in the narrow sides and you can take out the big ones and they won't be able to get to you. Now head back to the blue door on the other side of the level. (through the door across from here, and around the Nukage)

Go through the blue door. There's your exit.

Secrets
This "NIИ" logo is a reference to Nine Inch Nails, the American industrial rock band. Also, id software's next game, Quake, would feature sound and music by the band's frontman, Trent Reznor.
 * 1) Drop into the nukage pool ahead of you at the start of the level. Press the use key on the end of the platform to the right to lower it, exposing a hidden tunnel with a rocket launcher at its end. Open the wall to the left of the rocket launcher to reveal a room with a pair of teleporters. Each takes you to a corresponding ledge near the level's beginning, which has ammo and (on ITYTD, HNTR and HMP) health. It's actually possible to lower the lift while standing on it, by backing up onto the eastern edge, pressing use, grabbing the items quickly, and running into the room. This is a lifesaver, as it prevents you from taking almost any damage in the nukage, which is very important, reducing the difficulty. Not important on easier than Ultra-Violence, there is health, don't worry.
 * 2) In the room behind the red door, make your way left around the rectangular structure and press the use key on the torch. This unleashes some Barons and lowers the rectangular structure, uncovering a hidden "NIИ" logo. Walking on the ground close to the logo triggers the secret and may also trap you inside for a short time. Note that the logo is removed in console versions of Doom that feature this map, probably due to copyright concerns (except for the DOOM BFG edition).

Note: The area surrounding the "NIИ" letters is tagged as a secret sector, as opposed to the letters themselves, so this secret may be a bit tricky to register.

''Note2: Running over the "NIИ" letters will cause the walls to raise up, locking the player inside the room. However a switch is also revealed that lowers the walls.''

Non-official
There is a hidden door on the opposite side of the red key room (north wall) that allows access back onto the outside ledge. Unfortunately, it's not a secret area because it must occupy the entire ledge to be tagged for secrets percentage, while the ledge is not a secret.

Bugs
There is a small Hall of Mirrors effect visible at the top of the inside of the red door frame due to a missing upper texture. Though it is barely, if at all noticeable in the darkness. Though one might comment on the lower texture being out of place.

In Xbox port of Doom, the left torch after the red door cannot be flipped. This prevents the player from having 100% kills and secrets.

If you run into the blue key niche right after activating secret #2, you will be trapped inside.

Routes and tricks
This level is hard, as there are a lot of powerfull enemies, which you might take time to kill all of them, which is illegal in Compet-N. Also, on Ultra-Violence and harder, there are 0 medikits, making it even more harder for speedrunning. However, on I'm Too Young To Die, this map is NOT THAT bad. The most likely par time for this map would be 2:00.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are: