Doom II Walkthrough

Part 2

Although Doom II is not divided into episodes as such, the game nevertheless has three distinct "chapters" delineated by boss battles, intermission screens, and sky textures. MAP12 begins the second phase of the game: The protagonist has defeated the Arch-vile in the Circle of Death, disabled the flame barrier preventing escape, and enabled the evacuation and preservation of humanity. But there's still unfinished business to tend to...and the base of the invasion is in the heart of the player's own city.

This walkthrough is focused on the objective of exploring all areas. Throughout the page, ▶ points to "official" secrets counted in the end-of-level tally, and ▶ points to other hidden areas.

MAP12: The Factory

"The Factory" is the first in a series of maps trying (somewhat unconvincingly) to replicate real-world locations. The player begins on the edge of an industrial lot with five structures in view: A grey-block "factory," a Hell-corrupted brown-block sanctuary, and three smaller outlot buildings.

The smallest of these is an octagonal tank just ahead of the player's starting position. Enter through the north side. ▶ Climb the steps by running from diagonal to diagonal, and you'll find an invisibility sphere and armour at the top.

Also nearby is a brick structure with a second-floor loading bay accessible from a lift. As you walk through, three lifts on each side of the floor will rise, unleashing an avalanche of imps at your back. Open the door on the far wall to access the elevated platform that surrounds the factory.

If you follow the platform to the south edge of the map, you'll see a beige-block warehouse with an unlocked door. By now, you're probably familiar with how you can run across the tops of platforms and crates...so you probably know what to do here. 1 ▶ You'll find a Berserk pack, and a switch-operated lift in the middle of the stack that lets you reach a chaingun and other items. The platform with the chaingun counts as a secret sector. When you're done, take the teleport at the top of the stairs: It will transport you to a claustrophobic cross-shaped chamber on the factory floor.

2 ▶ Push the skull switch, and the platform you're on will rise to the top of a pedestal...but you'll notice that the building you're in doesn't look much like a factory. Corridors branch off in four directions, all of them nicely finished in marble, tile, and wood wainscoting. Evidently, the denizens of Hell have done some remodelling work! Take the south corridor to the wall, then turn right and follow the narrow hallway to the [blue key] blue key...watching out for Mancubi and Arachnotrons along the way. At the opposite end of the same hallway, you'll find a small office flanked by red banners: Open the door, and you'll find the [yellow key] yellow key within.

There are four doors in the central area of the building, three of which have gargoyle faces and two of which require the blue key:

The northeast door is unlocked, and leads into a storage room of haphazardly-stacked metal boxes. Climb over them and you'll be confronted by a Mancubus, a super shotgun, and a switch that reopens the door.
The southeast door will give you déjà vu. Remember the puzzle from Doom E2M2 where you followed a ceiling pattern across a damaging pit? You're doing the same thing again. Follow the pattern of lights on the ceiling: A series of platforms will rise, keeping your toes dry and letting you reach the switch on the opposite wall. Flip the switch, then turn around: An ambush by the entrance will have opened, with ammunition and a door switch inside. You'll also find two radiation shielding suits in the room, plus a medikit in the back corner.
There is no door in the northwest corner. Or is there? 3 ▶ When you return from the southeast room having flipped the switch, a secret area in this quadrant will have opened up. Enter this space, and you'll find jagged walls and a BFG9000.
The southwest door leads to a trap. Grab the armour, then RUN as fast as you can to the ledge with the charge pack before the platform below you drops out of sight. ⚠ You cannot reach the ledge after the platform lowers. The room below contains a zombie ambush, plus a backpack and teleport. ▶ There's a hard-to-see switch hidden in an alcove to the left of the teleport, with an unclear purpose. The teleport will transport you to the building roof. 4 ▶ Fall through the hole in the roof and you'll land on a platform with ammunition, counting as a secret sector. Otherwise, you're free to leave.

Since we're done with the factory building, we'll now visit the "sanctuary" building to the north. Open the skull door on the east end, walk down the steps, and approach the green-panelled door. This door deserves close scrutiny: It's controlled by a yellow key from the front and a red key from the back, despite the unlabelled jambs. ⚠ Since no red key appears on this map (at least in version 1.9), this means that the player is blocked from returning to the rest of the level after entering the sanctuary.

The sanctuary floor is bordered by lifts on three sides, with one Cacodemon apiece. Flip the wall switches in all four corners of the room, plus a fifth switch in the second lift from the left on the back wall. A door in the northeast corner of the room will open up and barriers will clear, granting access to the exit teleport.

Gallery

MAP12's reprise of the "ceiling pattern puzzle" from Doom E2M2.

MAP13: Downtown

Much like a real city's map, the layout of "Downtown" is plotted out on a grid. For convenience, we'll treat each block as if it were a spreadsheet cell:

A1 B1 C1 D1 A2 B2 C2 D2 A3 B3 C3 D3 A4 B4 C4 D4 A5 B5 C5 D5 A6 B6 C6 D6

The player starts on the south end between blocks C6 and D6. Behind you, you'll find a stubbed-off tunnel with armour bonuses.

You may wish to start your exploration of the city by simply roaming around, collecting ammunition and bonus items off the street. You'll find an invisibility sphere in the open square at C3-C4, plus two more invisibility spheres and an invulnerability sphere in the northern reaches of the map. Of course, you may wish to save these high-value items for later.

There are also several "extracurricular" spaces and buildings on the map:

The sleek tower at A2 has a plasma gun under the canopy, but be quick picking it up: A pair of crushing ceilings will activate overhead!
1 ▶ At the midpoint of the north wall of C2, you'll find a secret door with a megaarmour within.
The office building at D2 is built around a ground-level courtyard with a bank of teleports. Step this way, and you'll be transported to the upper ledge of building B4. ▶ Walk around to the gap in the railing, and fall in: You'll land on a platform with a BFG9000.
The staircase at the foot of the squat grey-block tower at D3-D4 leads to a bizarre room with lava on the ceiling (!) and a complementary rocket launcher.
A door on the ground floor of A5 opens to a mostly-empty room.
A lift at the corner of D5 brings you to a penthouse. 2 ▶ Leap across the pit in the floor to reach a secret platform with a computer area map. If you fall through the hole in the floor, bear towards the outer wall: A teleport will be activated, transporting you to a stepped building at C2 while a curtain wall retracts.

To get the level done, however, we'll have to follow the arrow. Go to the arrow set into the pavement at C6: You'll find an (ambush-triggering) Berserk pack in the alleyway, as well as a staircase leading to the back door of the brick building alongside. Go this way: You'll come in through a UAC stockroom straight out of Doom I, with bonus items on the crates and floor. 3 ▶ Look for a crate near the southwest corner, pinned against the wall: It will retract into the floor as you approach it, revealing two switches. One opens a door to a stubbed-off portion of the back alleyway, while the other raises a set of stairs in the stockroom leading to a teleport. 4 ▶ Take the teleport: It will transport you on top of the concrete barrier next to your starting position. Run off the north edge of the barrier, and you'll be able to collect the soul sphere at C5.

Return to the brick building, and follow the passageway in the northwest corner of the stockroom. It leads to a lift bringing you to an upper-floor room in building A5. 5 ▶ One of the gargoyle panels on the wall covers a closet with shotgun shells. Fall down the shaft to the left of the teleport: It'll take you to an underground passage leading to A4. You'll find the [blue key] blue key in the corner, but be careful not to walk into the teleport behind it. Instead, go up the stairs on the opposite side of the room: You'll see a door to the left (leading to a ledge with a backpack), plus a 6 ▶ second teleport that will transport you to the top of B2. You'll find several ammunition bonuses here. Lift the enclosure in the middle of the floor to get down.

You can now access areas of the map that you didn't have access to before. 7 ▶ Start by entering the striped building at B3: The staircase leads up to an inset balcony, and a [blue door] blue door leading to a "secret" platform on the opposite side. There isn't much to see here...but, there's more. Retrace your steps through the brick building at B6, to the passageway, to A5...and this time, take the teleport. You'll be taken to the elevated ledge of the beige building at B5. Follow the ledge to the west face, and go through the [blue door] blue door. It opens to yet another UAC stockroom. You can run across the crates to collect the invulnerability sphere. 8 ▶ To lower the chainsaw, look for a switch on the side of a box. Take the teleport when you're done: You'll be transported to the highest ledge of C2, where you'll see the [red key] red key.

The [red door] red door is located in the jet-black tower at D6. Enter the lobby, and board the slow-moving lift with the Berserk pack on the back wall. From there, you can leap down to one of two stepped architectural formations brimming with bonus items. Ammunition bonuses are to the left, and the [yellow key] yellow key is to the right. ⚠ The lift will break if you activate it, de-activate it by walking away, save your game while it's in motion, and then restore your game.

The [yellow door] yellow door is located in a jet-black office tower at A3, identical to the last. You'll find another Berserk pack, and a lava pit serving as the exit.

Gallery

It's a city. Not a very realistic one, mind you...

MAP14: The Inmost Dens

"The Inmost Dens" is set in and around a medieval castle. How this fits into the "city" theme of MAP12 through MAP20 is anyone's guess.

You begin on a parapet walk, overlooking a chapel wall with four windows. Enter the chapel by following either walkway around, and collect the megaarmour from the central well. ▶ The front wall contains a recess that opens like a hidden door, revealing a box of rockets inside. The upper parapet walk is surrounded by a lower walkway and moat. ▶ You can leap into the moat by exiting the chapel through its northeast entrance, and running through the north window. Once you're in the water, head to the retractable pillar in the northwest corner and hit the skull switch at the top. A panel to the left will open, revealing a waterlogged chamber with a rocket launcher and a switch on the wall. Hit this switch to activate a lift, returning you to the area where you started. Of course, we're not done with the moat: Follow the right wall to the staircase, and run off the edge into the water yet again. Swim to the north edge of the moat, and you'll find a narrow passage leading to a room next to the chamber you were in earlier. You'll find several stimpacks, a one-way door out, a skull switch (triggering the same door as the last), and a floor pad that activates a crushing ceiling in the chamber.

Follow the lower walkway to its terminus north of the chapel: You'll find a Berserk pack here. Next, cross the bridge to the east: It will lead to a four-walled fortress encircled by another walkway and moat. You'll find a chaingun inside, along with a hole in the north wall that lets you leap across to a drawbridge crossing the wall. Go this way, and follow the walkway to the left: You'll find items in the niches, and the [red key] red key at the end.

Backtrack to the lower walkway on the south face of the chapel, open the [red door] red door right of the obstructed bridge, and hit the red switch. The red skull posts blocking the bridge will retract, letting you pass through to a second fortress with a walkway and moat. To the left and right, you'll see free-standing battlements. ▶ Enter the battlement on the left through the lift and door on the rear face, and you can pick up an invisibility sphere. ▶ Do the same thing with the battlement on the right, and you'll find a pair of medikits. Now go through the front door of the fortress: You'll see an altar with the [blue key] blue key on the right end.

Now it's time to get our feet wet yet again. ▶ Drop into the moat from the rear corners of the second fortress, and follow it the northeast corner where you'll find an alcove and retracted skull posts. Go through the door, turn right, and approach the gate you see ahead: The bars will retract, letting you pick up the soul sphere from the platform behind. Drop down from the window, then head for the retractable pillar on the right: Once it rises into position, you'll be able to leap down to the walkway encircling the first fortress, planting yourself on dry ground once more.

Go back inside the first fortress, and leap through the hole in the north wall onto the drawbridge once more. After crossing the first wall, drop down into the right half of the moat, swim to the window on the far end, and engage the lift that juts out into the water. Follow the passageway that leads beyond until you get to a bridge leading to a third fortress with a blue door. ▶ Follow the ledge left to a recessed panel on the side wall: It's a hidden door concealing a medikit.

Finally, go through the [blue door] blue door. It opens to yet another church-like interior with a passageway cutting through layers of stone behind the altar. Run this way (leaping across the gap), open the wooden door, and hit the skull switch on the wall. The level will end.

None of the hidden areas in this level are flagged as secret sectors. Thus, the highest "secrets" percentage possible is 0%.

MAP15: Industrial Zone

You begin in the upper floor of a small building near the north edge of the map. Go through the door at left, and take the lift down: It leads outside, where a complex of industrial buildings stands on an isthmus between a harbour and a moat of molten rock.

Turn left, and hit the switch on the pedestal in front of the enormous quarry block. The block will lower, revealing a hollow inner core with a stone staircase and lava pit. ▶ There's a megaarmour at the top, and a radiation shielding suit hidden in a crevice.

Follow the gap between the grey steel wall and beige building at right, and you'll see a massive steel-framed staircase surrounded by yet another lava pit. There's a rocket launcher at the top. ▶ Turn and face the west edge of the landing: You'll see a teleport in the steel tower ahead of you. Run across the gap, and you'll be transported to a ledge on the building to the north. ▶ Now run off the east end of this ledge, aiming for the lion switch on the next building over: You'll land on another platform. Hit the switch to lower a divider, and enter the storage room: ▶ If you're careful, you can land on top of the crate with shotgun shells and run across to pick up a medikit atop another. Step into the teleport in the corner (it transports you to an upper platform of the western building), then turn around and go through it again. You'll come out on top of the farthest set of crates, next to the [red key] red key. 1 ▶ Drop down to the floor level just right of the key, and you'll find a Berserk pack. One of the crates will drop to the floor if you "use" it from this angle, letting you get out. ▶ Take the teleport again, and this time follow the high platform out to a recessed shaft along the left wall. This will drop you to the floor level of the western building, where you'll find several medikits. As you leave, you'll hear a platform rise. ▶ Go back to the building with the storage room (there's a switched lift on the north side, if you don't want to take the long way in), take the teleport to the high platform, and fall down into the shaft yet again. This time, you'll land on a lower platform that didn't exist before. 2 ▶ From here, you can run across a gap to a third platform with a chaingun.

Just east of the building with the storage room, you'll find an irregular grey-and-beige block structure with a lift on the west wall. Hit the satyr switch to lower the lift, then go through the [red door] red door: You'll come out on a balcony with an invisibility sphere. 3 ▶ Just before the passage narrows, there's a secret door on the left wall. It opens to a blood pit containing a backpack and a pair of switch-operated lifts that open out to a ledge on the north wall. Return to the balcony when you're done, and follow it to a teleport transporting you to a wooden ledge in the massive tower straddling the edge of the molten moat.

▶ Follow the platform clockwise and take the switch-operated lift to access an alcove on the east end with numerous items. Continue the loop to the west end, and you'll find the entrance to the tower. A BFG9000 is perched on a platform inside...but watch out for the Baron of Hell! Approach the back wall and a panel will open, revealing the [yellow key] yellow key. A pedistal with a skull switch will rise from the centre of the floor: Hit it and a staircase will rise, letting you return to the ledge that encircles the tower. ▶ Take the lift behind the baron portrait on the north end to reach a platform with a soul sphere. ▶ Take the companion lift on the south end to reach a megaarmour. ▶ Now, stand on the south ledge. If you aim carefully, you can drop down and land on a tiny "island" in the middle of the moat. 4 ▶ Do this, and hit the switch: A door at the east end of the moat will open, giving you access to a secret passage leading to a platform with an invulnerability sphere and a trigger enabling a passageway to a secret level. To get out of the pit, there's a teleport tucked into a corner on the southwest side of the tower...it will take you back to the room with the BFG again. Whew!

Now, we'll get to the south side of the moat...the easiest way is by standing on one of the lifts in the southwest corner of the tower, and simply dropping down. Enter the [yellow door] yellow door of the castle to the right: It opens to a wide corridor with a molten river cutting through the floor. ▶ You'll find a radiation suit in the first cave to the right, and a computer area map (and Hell Knight) in the second. Follow the molten river through the opposite wall. Where you choose to go next depends on what you want to do:

Exploring the level, and reaching the regular exit

Continue through the passage to a platform with a lion switch on the right. The lights will go out. Hit the switch, and return to the corridor: A skull-encrusted staircase on the right wall will have risen. ▶ On the first landing of the stairs, you'll find a hidden door in the wall concealing a teleport...but don't go through it unless you want to backtrack to the north side of the level! (This door is also flagged as a secret sector, but it's impossible to register in normal gameplay due to technological limitations.) ▶ The third landing opens to a pit where you'll find a Hell Knight, backpack, and invisibility sphere. Follow the stairs to the top, and hit the gargoyle switch: A lift will lower, letting you access a gargoyle switch on the right and a lion switch on the left. 5 ▶ After hitting the lion switch, drop down as fast as you can and run to the cave where you picked up the radiation shielding suit earlier: A platform will have lowered, giving you access to a hidden platform with a plasma gun. Re-enter the castle corridor when you're done: You'll see a new arrow on the floor, pointing to a recess on the west wall where you'll find the [blue key] blue key.

Leave the castle, and walk across the grass to the bridge with barred windows. Open the [yellow door] yellow gate, and continue until you reach a blood-stained yellow door into a wooden building full of passages. Enter, and walk towards the blue torches: A platform will lower, exposing a staircase. Follow the stairs until you get past the next moving platform, then turn around: 6 ▶ A panel will have opened up on the north wall, dropping down into a secret passage. 7 ▶ Follow the passage to the blue skull switch, and hit the switch: A teleport will open, transporting you to a secret platform with a chainsaw.

Drop down, and find your way back up the stairs: As you reach the second landing, you'll hear a door open. Continue past a second moving platform to a side area on the left, and make a hairpin U-turn: You'll see an alcove with a Berserk pack and chaingun tucked inside. 8-9 ▶ This alcove is open to the back, and if you're fast you can run across the gap to a second alcove further back with a megasphere. The second alcove closes after four seconds...so getting in there may take several tries.

Go back up the stairs (again!), and return to the side area where you left off earlier. The back wall contains a vertical shaft. ▶ Fall in, and you'll land in a subterranean passageway with a molten floor. Follow it out to find a platform with medikits and rockets, and an exit leading outside.

Return to the wooden building, and go back up the stairs (for the fourth time!). The passage leads to an unmarked blue door at the top, beyond which is a caged-in platform surrounded by a gauntlet of enemies attacking you on all sides. Touch the lava pit to advance to MAP16.

Secret exit

If you activated the switch on the "island" of the moat and grabbed the invulnerability sphere hidden in the east wall, you will have also activated a secret passageway in the southwest castle. 10 ▶ Follow the molten river south from the corridor, and look left for a fork with yellow lava glowing between red rocks. This leads to the teleport that serves as the portal to both of Doom II's secret levels.

Because the central tower can be accessed from the moat teleport without the red key, the red key is not actually necessary to complete this level. In addition, due to technological limitations relating to the way encoded sectors are registered, the highest percentage of secrets on this map that can be achieved in normal gameplay is 90%.

Gallery

To activate the passageway to the secret exit, the player must first leap onto a small "island" with a switch, then retrieve an invulnerability sphere from another hidden area.

MAP31: Wolfenstein

The first of Doom II's secret maps is a point-by-point replica of the introductory level in Id's 1992 WWII thriller Wolfenstein 3D: Evidently, a carbon copy of Wolfenstein Castle has been erected in Hell.

Unfortunately, "Wolfenstein" was translated poorly to the new medium. The map was scaled to be twice as large as it should be, resulting in pint-sized Schutzstaffel running amok in "jail cells" the size of ballrooms. Wolf3D's E1L1 was a modestly-sized map, yet Doom II's version is actually the largest map of the entire game.

The player begins in the same starting position as B.J. Blazkowicz...and if you played Wolf3D before, you'll know the way out by heart. Exit your cell, and turn left. The cell in the kitty corner from your starting room contains an invisibility sphere. Follow the corridor through two sets of doors into a stone-walled room (that inexplicably has trees growing in it), then turn towards the door on the right. This was where the dog kennels were in Wolfenstein 3D...but the dogs have been replaced by demons. 1 ▶ Follow the right fork to the room beyond, and look for a niche on the right behind a stack of impaled skulls. This leads to a secret door not in the original game, opening into an imaginatively-shaped room with a curving staircase where you'll find a BFG9000, megasphere, and other bonuses. This room is a startling contrast from the 64x64 orthogonal grid that defines the rest of the "Wolfenstein" map, and serves as a forceful demonstration of how quickly computer game technology was evolving in the 1990s.

Backtrack to the stone-walled room, and turn right into the wood-panelled corridor. ▶ The niche on the left contains a hidden door leading to a weapon upgrade...just like in the original game. Turn left in the next room, then follow the stone corridor to a room with green torches. ▶ There's a hidden door on the right wall, with armour bonuses and a plasma gun within.

Go south from the last room through two sets of doors, then turn right in the nondescript room with three Nazi banners. This leads to an L-shaped corridor with inset rooms. Follow the corridor right, and you'll find a Berserk pack through the door on the end. Follow the corridor left, and you'll reach the elevator...er, exit.

Of course, this is the regular exit. Wolfenstein 3D's E1L1 had a secret exit accessible through a nested thicket of secret doors...and Doom II also follows suit.

Secret exit

2 ▶ When you enter the room leading to the exit portal, feel the wall for a hidden door in the near right corner. 3 ▶ You'll find a medikit to the left, and a second secret door to the right. This will lead to the room where you can take the exit. 4 ▶ But before you go, feel the left wall first! There's a third secret door leading to a soul sphere.

Gallery

Tiny Nazis! If they were any smaller, the player could crush them under their foot.

MAP32: Grosse

"Grosse" continues the Wolfenstein theme with a double-size replica of that game's first-episode boss level, E1L9. Collect the Berserk pack and rocket launcher off the floor, and head into the gallery with the pillars. Though this map is generally accurate to the layout of its Wolf3D forbear, there are some areas that are different. 1 ▶ A new secret room was installed at the midpoint of the east wall, with an invulnerability sphere. 2 ▶ 3 ▶ 4 ▶ 5 ▶ In addition, the four pillars in the room's outboard corners now lift up, revealing a host of desirable items including a megasphere and BFG9000. 6 ▶ Wolf3D's E1L9 contained a large secret room on the west side with medikits and ammunition. Doom II's version is a bit dimmer, but contains all the resources you could care for...including a plasma gun.

The antagonist of Wolf3D Episode 1 was Hans Grösse...a relatively manageable foe. ⚠ Doom II's replacement is the Cyberdemon...and unfortunately for you, he's just as dangerous and rocket-happy as ever. Fight him the way you did in Doom I (the plasma gun is a must), and you should be able to clear the room.

Wolfenstein 3D featured a hidden door in the right wall of the boss area leading to an extra-life bonus...but this area is not present in Doom II. Id's break with its past is completed by the upsetting sight in the next room: Four effigies of Commander Keen, hung high on a platform over Hell. The player is given no choice but to "kill" the effigies, setting off a cacophony of 8-bit chirps and retracting the enclosure over the exit switch.

Due to the presence of Nazi iconography, both Wolfenstein 3D levels were omitted from the German release of Doom II.

Gallery

What did Commander Keen do to deserve this? Nothing, other than being the scapegoat of Adrian Carmack's frustrations towards Tom Hall.

MAP16: Suburbs

We're back to Earth in another of Sandy Petersen's "realistic" levels. You begin in an ersatz barn or garage, with a staircase to a loft with a chaingun. Go out: The building you're in is surrounded by a massive black wall, and there's a tangible house next door with an attached garage. There are items in the garage, and secrets on the main floor. 1 ▶ The waist-high cabinet in the library lowers like a lift. Climb on top, and shoot the flaming recess in the wall. The corner of the room will open, revealing a megasphere. 2 ▶ The wall sconce is a switch allowing a partition to retract into the ceiling, letting you climb atop another waist-high cabinet that lowers like a lift. Shoot at the creepy pair of sinister eyes peering through the wall: A wall panel will retract, revealing a backpack.

Now leave the house, and walk through the gap in the south end of the black wall: We're going to explore the neighbourhood. To the right, you'll see a toxic waste pit surrounding a wooden tower. Go up the tower, and you'll find rockets, a radiation shielding suit, the [blue key] blue key...and a trigger for a horde of teleporting monsters. If you get overwhelmed, just head to the two caves north of the pool: There's an invisibility sphere in one, and an invulnerability sphere in the other.

North of the caverns is a cul-de-sac with two "battlements:" ▶ There's a soul sphere in one, and a shotgun in the other. Next to the battlements is a grey block building accessed from a set of massive stairs on the south face. ▶ Go inside, and head to the back: You'll find a barred area with a rocket launcher and Berserk pack. Head through the [blue door] blue door next: The [red key] red key will be inside. ▶ Hit the satyr switch on the windowsill, and return to the main room: A "fireblu"-surfaced enclosure will open, revealing a teleport. Follow the teleport to reach a platform with four plasma guns.

Directly north of the platform with the plasma guns, you'll find a red block building with doors on all four sides. Opening any door will reveal the most disturbing scene of the game: A floor-to-ceiling pile of dismembered skulls, stacked high. 3 ▶ The skulls in the east window are actually a holographic barrier that you can walk through, revealing a room with a hellgrowth-covered floor resembling human intestines. 4 ▶ Touch the grey wall on the right and a lift will lower, allowing you to drop into a recess behind the left wall. Hit the skull switch, and the enclosure will lower, revealing a secret room with energy cell packs and a BFG.

The exit is surprisingly difficult to find. Go to the black grid "building" (or block pile, as it looks like) in the northeast corner: The two square columns at centre are retractable lifts. If you operate the inner lift from the outboard corner or the platform behind (but not the ground), the wall panel behind will lower, revealing the [red door] red gate leading to the exit portal.

Gallery

One of the most disturbing scenes in Doom II is this red block building filled with dismembered skulls and hellgrowth...a poignant reminder of the massacres the player is seeking to avenge.

MAP17: Tenements

Of the six maps that John Romero contributed to Doom II, "Tenements" is by far the densest. It's also the only level in which card-type and skull-type keys coexist.

You enter the level at the edge of a toxic waste pit. Follow the walkway across to a lobby with a set of stairs. ▶ Over on the right wall, an electrical panel will open to reveal the view over a lower area. Go west, and walk across the zigzag platform dangling over the pit of blood. You'll find the [red key] red key on the back wall...but look out for ambushes.

Each half of the blood pit contains two barely-visible teleports peeking out from under the side wall. ▶ Drop into the north half of the pit, and take the grey teleport: It will transport you to an overhead platform with a shotgun and medikit. ▶ If you run from the ledge, you can cross the walkway to drop into the south pit. A grey teleport will take you to a second overhead platform, with the same contents as the first. Drop down again and take the red teleport to return to the main lobby.

The [red door] red door is located at the top of the left stairway...so go this way, and hit the switch in the room at the top. Next, make your way up the right stairs: An enclosure in the corner will have opened, revealing a satyr switch. What follows is a game of "One Thing Leads to Another:" Hit the satyr switch to trigger a lift. Ride the lift to the room below, collect the Berserk pack...and follow the ledge of medikits to a hidden alcove with a gargoyle switch. Hit this to trigger a second lift to a platform overlooking the toxic pit where you started the level. Hit the prominent UAC-style toggle switch, then look for a semi-hidden lion switch in the opposite corner to open a wall panel that drops you into the room below.

The front door of the building is now open, and we're free to leave...so make your way into the slime-filled courtyard, turn right, and proceed into the foyer of the east building to a staircase leading left and right. Time for another round of "One Thing Leads to Another:" Turn left, drop into the pit, hit the switch to lower the lift, then hit the switch on the shaft wall. A passageway on the back wall will open in line with the entrance. Follow this passageway up a set of stairs to a megaarmour and a lion switch that will raise a narrow platform across the opposite pit. Take the platform to the landing on the other side, then fall into the crevice before you: There's a gargoyle switch down here that will raise the floor, and raise a platform elsewhere in the building. Turn around towards the pit: There are stimpacks on the windowsill if you need them. 1 ▶ Drop into the pit and hit the switch on the wall: The lift behind will lower, revealing a hidden side alcove with armour bonuses, a smaller lift leading to a platform with two chainguns, and a connection back to the south building you were in earlier. Drop back to the east building's floor, and return to the north pit: A narrow platform has now risen, letting you pocket the [blue key] blue key on the opposite landing.

Next on our itinerary is the west building. Return to the courtyard, and cross through to the [blue door] blue door. It will open to the interior of a dark and gloomy castle with a central atrium. Go up the staircase to the left, then turn around: A door will have opened at the foot of the stairs, revealing a soul sphere. Collect this item, and turn around again: A skull switch will rise on the opposite landing, letting you open the other staircase.

Find your way up the north stairs: You'll find a wealth of armour bonuses at the top, along with a torch-lit passageway leading to an aqueduct filled with health bonuses. Follow it north, and you'll find a backpack. Follow the left wall south, and you'll reach a pit with an invisibility sphere, opening out into the alcove where you found the soul sphere earlier. You can also use this passageway to access the central atrium of the castle, where a lift will lower yielding the [yellow key] yellow key.

Return to the courtyard, and make your way towards the entrance of the north building with baron portraits on the upper wall. Open the [yellow door] yellow door in the small kiosk before the entrance, and hit the satyr switch: The skull posts will lower, granting entry. The central pathway leads to an forked platform over a toxic waste pit, overlooked by a Revenant. 2 ▶ Fall into the north side of the pit, and push on the end of the central platform: It will lower like a lift, revealing a lion switch on the far wall. Push this switch and a wall panel will open, leading to a hidden passage with a BFG9000.

Take the west fork of the path, and run across the gap at the end to a torch-lit platform. Turn right, and go up the stairs through the skull-encrusted door: It'll open to a perimeter walkway around a central caged platform with a flame-happy Arch-vile. ▶ You'll find a hidden door on the west side, opening to the aqueduct you were in earlier. Follow the walkway to the end, hit the skull switch on the wall, then return to the base of the stairs: A door on the opposite side of the foyer will have opened. ▶ Hang a right, and walk through the teleport: It will transport you atop the obelisk in the central courtyard, where there's a soul sphere.

Return to the north building and take the east fork of the path, running across the gap at the end as you did before. Enter the newly-opened side room to the left, and hit the skull switch: A platform will lower. 3 ▶ Carefully watch the south wall as the lift rises: You'll pass a mid-level alcove leading to a secret passage with a megasphere and chaingun, opening into the east building. Return, take the lift, defeat the Hell Knight (and Arachnotron, on higher difficulty levels)...and get ready to traverse an end-of-level puzzle of ever-lengthening sectors. Start by picking up the plasma gun on the floor: It will open an alcove to the left. Following the alcove to the end will activate a trigger for a second, right alcove. Walk into the right alcove, then return to the left, then right, then centre, then right, then centre. Once the last sector is clear, the exit teleport will be straight ahead.

MAP18: The Courtyard

"The Courtyard" is a mindscrew. The player starts off in a small room with a locked exit door, and no obvious way to get out.

Of course, if there's a will, there's a way. Open the lion panel by hitting or shooting it, then enter the massive stone gate to your left. It leads to a large courtyard surrounded by an "X" of health and armour bonuses. As you collect them, several ambushes will open up. ▶ The square enclosure at centre contains an invulnerability sphere...and a Mancubus, so watch out!

Now, let's explore the nooks and crannies around the edges of the room. The east side is bounded by a raised wooden platform with columns: There's an invulnerabililty sphere in the north corner, along with a grey enclosure with a cross-shaped footprint. 1 ▶ Hit the switch on the northeast side of the enclosure: A lift in the alcove north of the platform will lower, revealing a teleport that will transport you to a secret platform with rockets and medikits. Open the gargoyle panels to get out. ▶ On the south side of the same cross-shaped enclosure, there is a lion panel. Shoot or hit it to open a door, revealing the ammo and Cacodemons inside.

Further back on the east platform, you'll find three doors. The left one leads to a small room with a rocket launcher...and no surprises. The second door contains a Berserk pack...and a trigger for a booby trap blocking you in. ▶ To get out, look for a discoloured panel in the corner hiding a hidden door leading to a small maze. 2 ▶ Walk straight ahead to the back wall of the maze, and turn left: You'll see a skull switch that opens a compartment with a chaingun. Turn around and follow the right wall, and you'll reach a second skull switch: Hit it and a panel will open, revealing an extension of the maze. Walk this way, and follow the passage past an inaccessible ledge to a teleport. This transports you to a small room off from the trap room. Hit the switch on the wall, and open the lion panel to get out. By now you're probably feeling a bit dazed, so be forewarned that the third door will offer still more surprises: Walking into the room will cause you to be teleported to the back wall, face to face with a Hell Knight. But you do get a plasma gun for the trouble!

Over in the southwest corner of the field, you'll find an alcove with a backpack. The wooden platform along the west wall contains two doorways: One leading to a small room with rockets and stimpacks, 3 ▶ and one leading down an overgrown passageway to a BFG. Hit the switch on the wall to get out when you're done.

In the courtyard's northwest corner, you'll find the [yellow key] yellow key. 4 ▶ Opposite from the key, you'll notice a dark spot on the ground: Step onto it, and you'll be teleported to the ledge with a computer area map that you saw in the maze earlier! To get out, just drop down and retrace the same steps you took earlier.

Now it's time to check out the platform on the north side. Climb up, and you'll find two grey storage units...one of which contains two invisibility spheres. Turn to the canopied grey building on the right, and open the front door: You'll find a soul sphere...and a trap causing the side walls to retract. When you're done, wander to the back, open the [yellow door] yellow door, and step into the teleport. You'll come out in a hexagon-shaped room filled with Cacodemons and health bonuses galore. Look for the [blue key] blue key behind one pillar, and a switch behind another: It will cause a staircase to pop up, letting you teleport out of the room.

Return to the starting area, and go through the [blue door] blue door. A water pit is inside, serving as the exit.

This level contains 182 items that count for the end-of-level tally, the most of any in the game.

MAP19: The Citadel

Great: Another maddening fortress to contend with! Enter the gatehouse through the door between the torches, and step into the room on the right: There's a switch here that controls a barrier to the main castle. Walk over the bridge, and do a loop around the castle: You'll find armour here, as well as health bonuses and stimpacks galore. When you're ready, enter the inner gatehouse. 1 ▶ Look for the lion panel on the left: It's a door leading into a peculiar stepped room with a switch in the middle. Hit it, and a door on the south wall will open. Quickly enter the door, run down the passageway until you hear a door open, then run back to the stepped room. A portal in the west wall will have opened, revealing a staircase. Follow the stairs to a niche at the top, and you'll find the [yellow key] yellow key and a switch that will reopen the doors.

Go through the door in the south wall again, and follow the passageway to a battlement with two skull switches. Hit the switch on the left to open a teleport leading to the northwest tower. The east passage is accessible through a time-delayed lift, but there isn't much to see in that direction. Instead take the south passage, and follow the right wall: You'll find a Berserk pack, then a niche with an ammunition box, 2 ▶ then a battlement with an invisibility sphere. (Stay out of the closet on the left with the soul sphere: You can't get it from this direction.) 3 ▶ Now backtrack to the niche, and look for a clean wall panel flanked by steel bands: It's a hidden door hiding some armour. 4 ▶ Open the rear panel (which bears the UAC logo, for some reason) and a lift will lower, granting access to a shaft leading outside. 5 ▶ Run out, bearing slightly to the left: If you're good, you'll land over the wall in the moat.

Climb the stairs to the red altar, and enter the passage on the left: You'll find a skull switch that opens a facing door. 6 ▶ Walk through the door, and an ambush will open on the front steps. Step onto the ambush platform: It's a secret sector with a computer area map. Next, enter the right passage: It will lead past a crusher to a large room with upper galleries. Walk up the staircase to the elevated platform, and hit the skull switch: A portal in the north wall will open up. Follow it into a waterlogged room: You'll see five teleports, arranged over a facsimile of the castle layout. ▶ The centre teleport will transport you to the marble pedestal at the centre of the inner ward, with a rocket launcher atop...of course, if you go this way, you'll have to backtrack again. The other four are linked to a location in each of the castle's corner towers (though the southwest corner teleport is inert on lower difficulty levels). 7 ▶ Take the northeast teleport to the northeast tower, and drop down two levels: You'll get the [blue key] blue key.

Find your way back to the inner gatehouse on the south end, and go through the lion panel on your left (opposite from the side you went through before): It leads to another room with a mounted switch. Hit the switch and a staircase will rise. ▶ Walk to the top landing, then turn around and return to the room: A platform in the corner will have lowered, revealing a chaingun and medikit. Walk to the top landing again: A skull switch on the right leads to a passage with armour bonuses, while the door ahead yields a glorified monster closet. ▶ On the left wall, look for the panel between the satyr heads: It's a hidden door leading to a set of stairs. ▶ Walk to the top of the stairs, then look left for a wall panel jutting out with switches on both sides: One of these raises the poison pit to the right of the stairs, while the other raises a pedestal in the middle of an adjacent demon pit in increments. ⚠ It's possible to raise the pedestal too high to climb on it. Two or three increments is plenty. ▶ Fall into the pit, taking care to land on the pedestal, and run across to the platform in the corner of the room: You'll find a backpack, and a teleport leading to a niche in a west passageway containing a soul sphere. Step out, and re-enter the niche: You'll get teleported to a marble pedestal in the southeast tower. Shoot at the enemies on the southwest platform with a projectile weapon: This will trigger a rising platform in the northwest corner. (Non-projectile weapons have no effect on this switch, making it easy to get stuck if you're fighting with rockets and are unfamiliar with the ideosyncracies of the level.) 8 ▶ Run across to the rising platform, and go through the door: It leads to a corridor decorated with satyr heads. The [red key] red key at the far end...along with an arachnotron. Strangely, this sector counts as an official secret even though it's required for completion.

Now that we have all three keys, we can do a bit more cursory exploration. Drop down into the centre ward: Once you're there, you can hit a switch on the north wall that lowers a platform with a super shotgun. ▶ If you feel like backtracking to the demon pit, drop in and look for the panel with a ventilator grate: It covers a hidden passage leading to the inner ward of the castle.

Now leave the castle, and find your way to a stone structure on the north edge of the moat. Inside you'll find a threshold blocked by a [yellow door] yellow gate, a [red door] red gate, and a [blue door] blue gate. To squeeze through, only two-thirds of the gate needs to be open: In other words, the difficult-to-find blue key is not required for level completion. A lava pit is inside, serving as the exit.

Gallery

The triple-barred door gating the exit. Only two of the three gates need to be released.

MAP20: Gotcha!

"Gotcha!" is an unorthodox level by John Romero that has the player traverse stone structures in an enormous pit of blood. It contains no keys.

▶ Instead of going through the door in front of you, turn around and lean over the south edge of the landing you're on. A large ring-shaped platform will rise out of the pit, connecting to the landing. Follow it around to reach a door leading to the back of the battlement it surrounds, with a super shotgun. ▶ If you stand on top of the lowered door and ride it to the top, you can reach a hidden ledge with armour and medikits. 1 ▶ Fall into the left half of the inner ring, and you'll discover an alcove with an energy cell pack and radiation shielding suit. To get out, follow the pit to a teleport on the other side.

The blood pit also contains other hidden areas waiting to be discovered. ▶ Facing north on your starting platform, drop into the right half of the pit. There's a passageway below leading up a set of stairs to a panel emblazoned with "satanic" symbols. Hit or shoot the panel and it will rise, revealing an exit passage overlooking a sunken lava pit on the east side. ▶ Drop down into the pit, and walk around to the east side of the four-sided brown stone structure: You'll find a soul sphere here. Next, make your way back to the platform and skull switch on the west face: A lift will lower, letting you enter the structure. Follow the passageway and you'll find three more lifts, bonus items, and a Berserk pack. 2 ▶ Just before you reach the teleport, feel the left wall: There's a hidden door here leading to a secret teleport, letting you bypass the biggest fight of the level if you so desire. But we're exploring the entire level...so turn around, and take the red teleport to the starting area.

Now enter the door between the torches, and find your way to the central arena. Two platforms will lower, with an old, familiar acquaintance on each one: The Spider Mastermind, and the Cyberdemon! With a little luck, you can goad them into fighting each other instead of you. Run up on the platform when they're done, and you'll find megaarmour, a rocket launcher, and a switch that opens the door to the next room. ▶ Drop into the gap between the platforms to find a soul sphere.

What's in the next room? Surprise! More enemies from your past. Dispose of the Arch-vile and Baron, then make your way through the door to a loop-shaped platform that drops down into the blood. ▶ In the inner pit, there's an alcove that contains a radiation suit and a switch that lowers the square column.

▶ To get one of the next secrets, you're going to have to apply "moon logic" straight out of a bad 1980s adventure game: Walk to the Baron portrait at the apex of the walkway, and shoot into the air between the columns west of it. Now drop down into the outer blood pit, make your way to the structure in the northeast corner, and walk around until you find a crevice with an orange skull rock. A staircase ascends next to it, leading to a teleport transporting you to the interior of the column in the northwest section of the map. Hit the gargoyle switch to reach the top. If you triggered the "shoot into the air" puzzle, an alcove will be open with a BFG9000. 3 ▶ 4 ▶ Feel the north wall: There are two secret doors here, with an Arch-vile in one and an energy cell in the other. 5 ▶ Feel the inboard side wall to reach a nested compartment with a soul sphere. Now hit the gargoyle switch on the opposite wall, and head into the teleport: You'll get transported back to the loop-shaped platform.

Step onto the platform with the Baron's portrait: It will teleport you to an elevated platform in the northeast structure. ▶ Turn around, and you'll see a hidden box of UAC rockets. ▶ Drop into the right side of the blood pit: There's a teleport on the south wall that will take you to a secret elevated room with megaarmour. Drop down onto the staircase, and leap from the bottom step into the dark passageway. 6 ▶ Feel the left wall, just before the passageway turns: There's a side passage hidden in the dark, leading to a teleporter that will transport you to a column with a megasphere overlooking the area where you were before.

Take the Baron teleport (again) and retrace your steps to the dark passageway: The main fork also leads to a teleport, transporting you to a hitherto-unseen structure on the map's west side. Grab the medikit on the platform: As you do so, a section of the wall ahead will lower, revealing a tunnel. Follow it to an interior chamber with a staircase rising in the middle: There's a plasma gun on the top landing. 7 ▶ Drop down to the right side, and look for the electrical panel on the wall: It's a door that hides a soul sphere. ▶ Head back, and run to the west end of the room: A steel platform will rise and you walk over it, and beyond it you'll find a niche with several bonus items. ▶ Hit the gargoyle switch to lower the platform, run over it, then hop back on as it rises: There's a raised platform with an energy cell pack in the south corner that you can access. ⚠ But be quick: The platform will crush you into the ceiling if you don't hop off in time! ⚠ Once the platform rises to the ceiling level, you cannot lower it again from the east side. Head out of the room through the same passage that you came: The door will have closed, but a new teleport will have opened up to the left.

The next room has a staircase at centre leading to a zigzagging platform. ▶ Each of the four square pillars has a rocket or energy cell on it, although they're difficult to pick up because of the torches in the way. ▶ As you ascend the stairs, a door will open in the southeast corner, revealing armour bonuses and a teleport that lets you return to the map. However, our work on MAP20 is done...so drop through the hole in the floor. You've finished the second phase of the game...and you're heading back to Hell.