Doom II Walkthrough

Part 3

The final phase of Doom II sees the protagonist fall through a portal into the netherworld, traversing the grounds of Hell to apprehend the source of Earth's destruction once and for all. This phase coincides with a change to a fiery red sky; though because of a bug in the game, the sky change doesn't take effect unless the player's game is saved and reloaded again. (This issue is fixed in newer source ports.)

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.

MAP21: Nirvana

Doom II's first level of Hell is a bit of a breather. You begin in a square "courtyard" surrounded by exterior walls facing in. A poor skinned man hangs before you. Take the teleport closest to him, and find your way out of the cocoon of curved walls. A switch in the southwest corner will lower one of the barriers you emerged from. Step through the teleport: You'll emerge in a brown stone room with wall sconces, plus a control box with four switches in the corner. Each switch ratchets up a bank of chevron-shaped platforms in the middle of the floor, one step at a time. Push all four, and the platforms raise out of sight. You might think you're stuck...but the lowest platform step is a lift, letting you easily climb aboard. ▶ You can run and fetch a rocket launcher atop the control box.

On the opposite side of the room, there are two teleports. The one on the left simply brings you back to where you were before. Take the one on the right: It leads to a multi-layered room with dividing walls that retract into the floor like doors. You'll find a backpack in one corner, and the [yellow key] yellow key in another. ▶ Take the teleport back to the room you were in before, hit the switch on the right wall, and go back: The platform with the megasphere will be lowered, letting you pick it up. Make your way back to the room with two teleports, and push the matching switch on the left wall: It opens a passageway leading back to the starting area.

Step into the teleport farthest from the skinned man: It leads to a [yellow door] yellow gate at the edge of a toxic underground pit. You'll find three radiation shielding suits in the pit, along with six retractable pillars with ammunition items and an invulnerability sphere atop. Take one of the columns to the platform in back: You'll find the [blue key] blue key.

Find your way back to the platform you entered on, and follow it around to another section of the pit. Drop down to the platform beyond the end, and hit the switch on the wall: The platform in the opposite corner of the room will lower like a lift, letting you reach the [red key] red key.

Find your way back to the platform you entered on again, open the [blue door] blue gate and [red door] red gate, and teleport out. You'll be launched into another room with outside windows looking in...and a hole to drop down through in the opposite corner.

"Nirvana" contains no secret sectors. Thus, the only possible end-of-level tally is 0%.

Gallery

The fall-through exit portal.

MAP22: The Catacombs

The Catacombs begin in a room with torches encased in niches. The walls seem solid...but there are narrow slits that enemies can shoot you through. 1 ▶ There's a recessed door in the near left corner that leads to a room with rockets and armour. 2 ▶ Push on the green torch: It's a switch that lowers a door in the corner, granting access to the ambush area where you'll find a plasma gun.

Take the teleport (or the caged lift in the starting area), and you'll be transported to a central courtyard with an enormous compass rose on the floor, and lifts in each corner. Take the northwest lift, and hit the switch on the wall to raise a vertical platform in the courtyard. Grab the Berserk pack, follow the passage to the end, and look for a door on the south face of the T-shaped steel structure. It covers a teleport leading to the east side of the courtyard, and the [blue key] blue key.

Using the newly-erected platform, you can grab a rocket launcher from the niche on the west side. Next, take the northeast lift (the one with baron portraits) to a subterranean area with a [blue door] blue door next to a barred gate. Hit the switch in the room and the gate will retract. Walk down the arched tunnel to the evil eye, drop into the pit on the left, and hit the skull switch: A door will retract, revealing a Baron on higher difficulty levels. There are two more skull switches within: One of which triggers the door, and the other of which triggers a lift letting you reach the [red key] red key and escape from the pit. 3 ▶ In the first corner of the passageway, you'll see a baron portrait on the right: This is a secret door, hiding a teleport linked to the ambush room near the starting area.

At the end of the south corridor (right of the arched tunnel), there's a switch that will lower the gate that secures this area. Hit it, and take the lift out. You've been to all corners of the courtyard...but one. Take the southeast lift, and go through the [red door] red door: The exit portal (opening to either a giant pneumatic tube or a railcar) is in the corner beyond.

Gallery

The central courtyard's enormous compass rose.

MAP23: Barrels o' Fun

Exploding barrels are a fact of life in Doom and Doom II...and while they're useful for setting off chain reactions that can neutralize an entire room of enemies with one shot, they can be very dangerous at close range.

Suffice to say, there's a lot of danger on this level. ⚠ You start on an illuminated square...and as soon as you step off, an enclosure will open behind you unleashing a Mancubus ready to blast the whole room to kingdom come. To minimize injury, shoot at one of the widely spaced barrels on the right, and get out of the way before the Mancubus makes a shot. There's a shotgun on a pedestal, in case you need one. Run to the end of the corridor, open the panel behind the exploding barrel, and take the teleport.

The next room requires foresight to escape without injury. Do not shoot at the barrels from your starting position: Instead, run past the Hell Knights to the end of the corridor, turn around, and shoot back at the barrels from there. Comb through the room and you'll find two backpacks, a Berserk pack, numerous chainguns, and a computer area map. Plus a teleport, to get you out.

The third corridor contains widely-spaced barrels and non-explosive flaming barrels, making it difficult to set off a chain reaction. Shooting the right wall will cause it to open like an overhead door, revealing a course of enemies along a parallel passageway. Hit the switch at the end, and drop down into the "pit" between the passages: You'll be back in the starting area of the level. The exit on the south end is now covered by a massive pointed enclosure: Push on it, and it will lower like a lift. Ride to the top, walk onto the stepped platform to your left, and follow it to the north wall where it splits into two narrow passageways. 1 ▶ Take the right passage to the point where it opens outdoors, then step onto the "median" between the passages and turn around: You'll see a hidden alcove with a megasphere.

Both the alcove and the passageways open to a near-circular pit with a raised stone platform in the centre, and two teleports that automatically transport you to an adjacent platform. Drop into the right side, and take the southeast teleport in the blood: It will open into a stark oval-shaped arena with two openings leading to a looped passageway. Follow the passage until you see a cave opening on the inboard side: There are plenty of rockets and medikits to be found. 2 ▶ One branch of the cave has a satyr panel on the wall: Open it, and you'll find a soul sphere within. Make your way back to the arena and a third wall will have opened up, revealing Arachnotrons, the [yellow key] yellow key, and a teleport planting you on the opposite side of the blood pit.

Follow the dark and winding passage to a hellgrowth platform with a BFG9000: You can lower the weapon by pressing the eye switch on the side. Continue to a room with two teleports, and step through the one on the left: You're almost out of the Land of the Barrels, but you have one more corridor full of them to finally endure! The safest way to get out of this situation is by running down the corridor before the chaingunner hits the barrels, walking through the door at the end, then turn around and shooting back. The vestibule of the exit portal contains a teleport back to the area with the BFG, but there's no need to return there. Head through the [yellow door] yellow door on the left: You'll see another hole in the floor, taking you further into Hell.

Gallery

How not to detonate barrels.

MAP24: The Chasm

Depending on your point of view, "The Chasm" is either the single most breathtaking level of Doom II, or an excruciating grind of tightrope-wide platforms, deadly pits, and enemy spawns that obstruct your progress and sap away your drive to go on. It's distinctive for its lack of Hell textures, suggesting that it was originally conceived to appear earlier in the game.

You begin in a niche near the centre of the map, opposite a narrow, winding walkway over a deep toxic waste pit. Follow the walkway to a structure enveloped by a slime waterfall, and explore the nooks and crannies inside to find rockets and the [blue key] blue key.

▶ Return to your starting area, and follow the walkway to the left until you see a column of rock with a medikit on it. Walk out onto the column, and step off the back: You'll land on a lower platform with a rocket launcher, that will promptly rise letting you return. Continue down the walkway until it ends at the west wall, and go through the door on the right: You'll reach an extension of the walkway leading to a rocket box. ▶ Directly opposite the door on the south ledge is a thin and spindly walkway leading to an equally-thin circular enclosure. Keeping your balance, walk out to the pedestal with the shotgun on it: An ambush room in the south wall will open. 1 ▶ Next, leap into the ambush room: You'll hear a platform rise. Drop down into the toxic pit, and look for a teleport between the beige platforms. You'll be transported to the series of red columns in the southeast corner of the room, which lead you to a teleport on the east wall.

The next room opens into an electrical control area with multiple branching paths. Go left, and then left again to reach a switch that re-opens the door you arrived through. Follow the wall into an east branch to a reach a switch that raises a stair step elsewhere in the level. Finally make your way to the south passageway: The lights will go out, and an ambush will open up behind. Defend yourself, hug the wall, and you should reach Berserk pack and a third switch that also raises a stair step. To get out, walk through the teleport you came in on, drop into the pit, run to the teleport on the floor due ahead of you, then take the first four red columns to the east end of the central platform. You can now access the interior area.

2 ▶ Walk the steps into the interior of the central structure, and look around: You'll see numerous side passages that lead to items and enemies. 3 ▶ There's a square computer console on the right side of the room. Push on it to activate a switch that lowers a lift on the opposite wall, letting you access a hidden platform with rockets and other items. ▶ The second passage on the left leads to a switch that will lower the platforms with radiation shielding suits, and reveal a hidden alcove with a megasphere. ▶ Next take the passageway in the northwest corner, and push on the wall console near the end: A wall panel will open, revealing a chaingun and ammunition. Be mindful of ambush rooms as you make your way back out.

"The Chasm" has a secret area with a BFG, and now is as good a time to visit it as any. Hang a left on the central walkway, follow it to the north end, and drop into the pit. There's an opening on the west wall leading to a four-way staircase with health bonuses, a Hell Knight, and the BFG9000. You'll find a radiation suit in the space behind behind. Head out, and take the closest teleport on the floor: You'll get transported back to the series of red columns. Drop down after the fourth one, and you'll be back on the central walkway again.

Retrace your steps, following the walkway northwest to the [blue door] blue door. It opens to yet another large pit, divided by boxed sections with two-inch-wide balance beams to walk upon. Follow the balance beam before you to the south pedestal with the plasma gun: A platform filling the interior of the adjacent "box" will rise, making it easy to get out. 4 ▶ Next work your way along the beams north and then west to the boxed section near the middle of the pit: There's a pillar inside with an invulnerability sphere on top. Fall to the bottom of the "box" and another platform will rise, stopping before the top edge. Push on the outside walls several times and the platform will raise in increments, letting you climb out.

▶ Follow the balance beam west from the boxed section with the invulnerability sphere...then fall into the pit. If you want to explore, you'll find a scattering of ammunition items plus an alcove to the south with two radiation suits...but there's no obligation. Instead, run to the teleport immediately to the right: You'll be transported to a platform in the southwest corner with a rocket box and radiation shielding suit. Step off the platform to get back to where you were before.

Follow the balance beam north until you reach the first cross in the path. Turn left to reach an alcove with items, and turn right to reach an interior passage. Go into the passage, push on the skull-panel barriers to lower them, and work your way past the Berserk pack and Mancubus to the wall console on the north end: It's a switch that raises a platform at the north end of the pit. Find your way back to the balance beam, and walk it north to pocket the rockets and megasphere on the back wall.

There's one section we skipped...and it's time to visit it now. Follow the balance beam south, then east, then north to the boxed section in the northeast corner of the pit. As you step onto the column with the backpack and medikits, another "filler" platform around it will rise. North of the "box" is a platform extension with a man being hanged above it: Step this way, and you'll be teleported to a lower pit with yet another maze of balance beams. ⚠ If you fall into the pit, you cannot escape.

The north wall of the lower pit contains a platform with red and silver teleports. Step onto the silver teleport: You'll be transported to an eerie "underwater" room with platforms and switches in four cardinal directions. Turn right and hit the east skull switch to lower the west platform, then hit the west skull switch to lower the north platform, then hit the north switch to retrieve the [red key] red key. Finally, hit the switch on the south end, where you came in from: The platform will lower, revealing the teleport back to the lower pit.

Time for one more balancing act! Follow the beam's serpentine path to the platform on the east end: As you step off, the interior of the pit will fill in and rise, making it easy to backtrack if you so desire. Go through the [red door] red door: You'll find a second door behind it, followed by an exit portal with a hole in the floor to the next level of Hell.

Gallery

One of the Chasm's many balancing acts.

MAP25: Bloodfalls

You begin in a dark, square room crossed by a T-shaped stream of blood. Go straight ahead, and drop down through the east drain. ▶ In the pit at the bottom, you'll see a bloodfall to the right. Walk through to find a barrel-ridden passageway with a chaingun and megaarmour, then return. The east end of the pit opens to a courtyard with a central blood fountain. ▶ The fountain plume can lower like an elevator. Walk across to the opposite side, lower the lift on the back wall, and enter the torch-lit cave. Look for a plasma gun to the right, then bear left until you find a teleport. Walk through.

After being transported, you'll find yourself in a steel-panelled room open to a bloodfall with the [blue key] blue key. This opens to a large room with a blood floor resembling an auditorium. Drop down, and look for an unhidden megasphere is available in the niche at the centre. Exit the room through the door at the top of the stairs.

Beyond the auditorium door is a descending staircase. 1 ▶ Halfway down, look for a green panel on the left: It's a hidden door concealing an area with energy cell packs. Continue following the staircase to the blood pit, then walk through the teleport at the opposite wall: It will lift you above the bloodfall, returning you to your starting room.

Go straight ahead through the east drain yet again...and this time when you reach the courtyard, ride the lift up to the concentric platform and head through the [blue door] blue door. It opens to stepped chamber, with a passageway in back. Follow the passageway to a lift, followed by a gallery. 2 ▶ On the left wall of the gallery, you'll see a section of wall where the skull moulding is missing. This is a hidden door, revealing a compartment with a BFG9000. Next, go down the stairs and activate the lift at the opposite wall: It drops down into a torch-lit cluster of waterlogged jail cells. ▶ An invisibility sphere is accessible through the passage on the right.

To get out of jail, activate the hidden lift on the back wall and ride it to the top: It brings you into an open-air arena with columns. Look out for the Arch-vile! Hit the skull switch on the northeast column to lower the enclosure in the middle, revealing the stepped teleport serving as the level's exit.

MAP26: The Abandoned Mines

"Stay away from abandoned mines:" Not in Hell!

You start in a shaft, facing a switch flanked by barred doors. 1 ▶ Turn around and looked for an embossed panel on the back wall: It opens to a passageway leading to a caged-in catwalk over a larger square shaft. ▶ Drop into the shaft through the first opening on the right, and look for a teleport pad: It will transport you atop a pillar in the middle, from which you can reach a lower pillar with a plasma gun. ▶ Drop down to the floor of the shaft: There's a teleport in the inner area that will transport you to a pillar in the outer area with an energy cell. You'll also find a rocket box and radiation suit in the outer reaches of the pit floor.

2 ▶ Return to the starting area, hit the switch on the wall to lower the floor of the shaft, then look for an embossed panel on the right wall: It's a hidden door leading to a passage that leads to a backpack and a pit. ▶ Drop into the pit, and head through the opening on the other side. It will lead to a lift with health bonuses. ▶ Open the electrical panel on the south wall: It's another hidden door, leading to a second lift. Ride the lift to reach a third hidden area with health and armour bonuses, a chaingun, and an automatically-opening alcove with medikits. There's also a gargoyle panel in the back that opens into the starting shaft. Step through the teleport when you're done.

The teleport transports you to the mouth of the mineshaft, with an invisibility sphere for the taking. Drop down (you'll find a rocket launcher here), bear towards the right wall, and turn a hairpin turn into the slime pit: You'll find a platform in the southeast corner with a radiation shielding suit. Hit the lion switch, and a door will open on the opposite side of the pit. Head through it and you'll be on a walkway next to the red door.

Follow the walkway up the stairs, turn left at the crossing, and continue until you reach a gargoyle switch on the back wall. Hit it, then turn around and look for a newly-opened door at the first turn of the passage. This door leads out to a ledge where you'll find the [red key] red key. Don't fall into the pit or hit the gargoyle switch on the back wall: Instead, turn around and follow the passage back the way you came. Turn right at the crossing, open the [red door] red door, and cross the lava pit. Once you reach the opposite landing, be alert: The lights will go out, a Baron of Hell will emerge, and the [blue key] blue key will present itself in a niche behind. 3 ▶ The rear panel of the blue key niche is a secret door covering a skull switch. Hit the switch and quickly return to the lava pit you crossed earlier: A pair of lifts on facing sides of the room will lower. Run onto the left lift to reach an alcove with megaarmour. 4 ▶ The east wall of the alcove contains a panel with vertical embossing. This is a secret door leading to a soul sphere and a teleport. Take the teleport, and you'll be transported to an adjacent walkway.

Find your way back to the crossing, and take the east fork. It leads to a large vaulted area with a winding walkway, leading to the [blue door] blue door. You'll find an open-topped shaft on the other side, with a Mancubus guarding the [yellow key] yellow key. Luckily it's weak, and there are plenty of medikits at its feet to relieve any ill you suffered fighting it. If you'd like to avoid having to backtrack, just drop into the pit and step on the teleport: It's a shortcut that instantly returns you to the northwest end of this area.

Return to the crossing, turn right to take the north fork, go up the stairs to the left, and find your way to the [yellow door] yellow gate. The exit portal is on the other side.

Gallery

A winding walkway that beckons the player to an abandoned shaft, typical of John Romero's style.

MAP27: Monster Condo

"Monster Condo" is unique in that the level contains a timed secret only accessible in the first half-minute of play time. So be fast!

You begin at the edge of a canopied balcony overlooking a condominium courtyard in Hell. In the centre of the courtyard is a slime-filled swimming pool. 1 ▶ To get the timed secret: Step onto the platform near the right end of the pool, then run at a diagonal towards the end of the dividing wall. There's a very narrow ledge here, and if you aim right, you should be able to cross to the north side without difficulty. Next, run to the northwest corner of this area, and open the door. The first thing you'll see inside is the cutout of an arrow pointing left. Follow the arrow, and you'll see an illuminated corner of floorspace with ammunition items laid out. After 30 seconds, a wall will drop down hiding the items from view. If you get trapped inside, the wall can be opened like a door.

To backtrack to our starting area, either run over the east corner of the pool and slip past the dividing wall again, or jump into the pool, hit the switch to lower the column with the rocket launcher on top, and use it to jump onto the south edge. With the timed task done, we're free to explore this section of the level on a more systematic basis. ▶ Just east of your starting position is a second, identical alcove. Step into the illuminated semicircle, then check the west wall of the surrounding area: Two wall panels behind a chaingun will have disappeared, unleashing an ambush. ▶ Walking into the ambush room will cause a second wall behind to retract, revealing a few medikits in the process. ▶ Entering this area will cause a third nested ambush to open, giving you a second chaingun.

Directly opposite the nested ambush is a door opening into a library. Approaching the rocket in the corner of the room will cause the stacks to drop down, revealing a much larger library with bonus items available in the back. You'll soon discover that the library is a veritable Russian nesting doll of compartments. On the south end of the room, there are two bookstacks with skull switches on the ends: ▶ Hit the switch on the left to make the stack retract, revealing a Hell Knight, invulnerability sphere, plasma gun, and the [yellow key] yellow key. 2 ▶ The skull switch on the opposite end of the stack will open a panel in the opposite wall, revealing ammunition items and a switch that reopens the stack. ▶ Grabbing the yellow key will cause the wall behind to rise, exposing an ambush. ▶ Back in the main reading room again, hit the skull switch on the right stack. A third stack will retract, revealing a Revenant and invisibility sphere. ▶ Stepping into the puddle of light on the north wall will cause the right stack with the switch to retract into the floor. ▶ Stepping close to the blue torch in the southwest part of the room will cause the northeast wall to retract, revealing even more items.

▶ Climb the staircase protruding into the slime pool. After stepping onto the platform with the rocket launcher, jump off to the poolside and look in the northwest corner: A room full of bonus items will have opened up, including a backpack, light amplification visor, and second invulnerability sphere. Afterwards, make your way to the corridor extending east of the pool: 3 ▶ Stepping in the "spotlight" at the end of the passage will retract the rear wall, exposing an Arachnotron. (This counts as a secret sector even though on low difficulty levels, there are no items to gather here.) Walking close to the orange skull rock will open two hidden doors in the north wall, letting you access the north side of the pool. 4 ▶ Approaching the evil eye in the corner of this area will cause three panels in the east end of the aisle to retract, revealing a second light amplification visor and invisibility sphere.

Now it's time to return to the "arrow room" where you accessed the timed secret earlier. ▶ To the left of the arrow is a cross-shaped bookcase. Hit the skull switch on the end to make the bookcase on the north end of the room retract, netting you a few items. Next, activate the switch on the west wall: The floor below will retract, exposing the door to an underground room. The [yellow door] yellow door leads to an open-air arena with a green marble walkway on three sides. 5 ▶ Hit the skull switch on the right wall to cause the left wall to retract, revealing Mancubi, a Berserk pack, a soul sphere, and a computer area map. Do not step into the teleport in the middle of the arena. Instead grab the [blue key] blue key, and shoot the wall behind it: It rises, exposing a hidden area with energy cells and a switch reopening the yellow door. On your way out, hit the switch on your right: A staircase will rise, letting you return to the arrow room. Be forewarned that an ambush on the east end will have opened, unleashing multiple Revenants even on low difficulty levels.

If you do step through the teleport in the centre of the arena floor, you'll be in for a world of surprise. You'll come out in an arena identical to the one you left...except there's a soul sphere in place of the blue key on the north platform, the Mancubi are still alive, and none of the items around them have been claimed. 6 ▶ Although the left platform area is already open, the sector is tallied as a secret. Since you can only pick up one computer area map, you'll have to leave the other one behind...making 100% items impossible on this level.

To get out of this dastardly duplicate arena, hit or shoot the wall with the baron portrait: As before, it will expose a hidden area with energy cells and a switch opening the front door. What's beyond it will be a little surprising: A chickenfoot-shaped passageway surfaced in lava. Follow the middle passage, and open the panel in the back wall. A lift with an invisibility sphere, followed by a passageway with an invulnerability sphere. The baron portrait on the left opens to the starting area, and lowers like a door...but walking through it will activate a teleport launching you to the east end of the "arrow room."

In the northeast quadrant of the room, there is a [blue door] blue door. Open it and hit the skull switch behind: An enclosure behind you will lower, revealing enemies, a soul sphere, and the [red key] red key.

To the left of the blue door, there is a door with the UAC logo. Unfortunately, what's inside is an absolutely nightmarish scene: The sight of dozens of human beings hung, dismembered, and mutilated. A mezzanine will open as you cross the room, and you'll also find a chainsaw on the floor if you need one. 7 ▶ Hit the skull switch on the right blue panel jutting from the back wall: A section of the floor forward of the entrance will lower, revealing a passage to a teleport transporting you to the mezzanine area. (Interestingly the teleport pad itself is flagged as a secret sector, although it's impossible to register in normal gameplay.) You'll find plenty of bonuses up here, plus a BFG9000. Drop down and hit the skull switch on the left blue panel: The floor will sink around it, revealing an underground area with three ammunition backpacks and yet another soul sphere. If you want to return to the rest of the level, there's a teleport here linked to the east edge of the "arrow room." Otherwise open the [red door] red door, and fall through the hole in the floor to the next level of your journey.

This is the first level since MAP15 in which the chainsaw appears. Due to errors made by the map designer in encoding sectors, the highest percentage of secrets on this map that can be achieved in normal gameplay is 87%.

Gallery

The cutout arrow points to an illuminated corner of the large north room, a secret area that closes off after 30 seconds.

MAP28: The Spirit World

You start in a dirt-walled room with a chainsaw on the floor. Head out through the left of the two accessible doors, and follow the passage until it drops down into a cave with fissures of blood in the floor. ▶ There's a box of rockets stored on a semi-hidden shelf in an east alcove. Look out for the Arch-vile at the south end of the cave.

Getting out of the cave isn't exactly obvious. On the southeast end (near the Arch-vile), you'll see several cracks in the side rock. One of these cracks is wide enough to squeeze through to a subterranean blood pool, and an underground river leads to a lower cave with glowing walls and a molten ceiling. You'll find a BFG9000 to the left, and an invulnerability sphere behind the column on the finger of rock. Drop down to the low level, and defeat the horde of Arachnotrons and their "parents." There are energy cell packs and two more invulnerability spheres, should you need them.

The central column has a yellow door on the back, but you can't go through it yet. 1 ▶ Head up the stairway in the middle of the bloodfall on the opposite side to a room with animated columns, then step onto the throne at the far end: The red blood-stained cylinder in the middle of the room will lower, letting you climb aboard and reach a pair of discreet skull switches on an upper moulding. ▶ One switch lowers all four columns, and exposes a hidden niche in the back wall with an invulnerability sphere. 2 ▶ The niche also contains a teleport that will transport you to the ledge on the opposite end of the room with the megasphere and invulnerability sphere. The other switch opens the door leading out, where you'll find the [yellow key] yellow key.

The passageway out is a revolting spectacle wallpapered in a web of flesh and bone that scrolls by like on a conveyor. 3 ▶ When the passage turns right, feel the left corner for an alcove with a plasma gun hidden behind a holographic panel. 4 ▶ There's a second holographic alcove on the right wall beyond the turn, with health bonuses and ammunition within. The passage leads through a room with "satanic" symbols on the walls, then exits to the southwest corner of the large cave you were in before.

Now it's time to fool around with locked doors! Take the lift by the green torches walk back to your starting position: A narrow [yellow door] yellow door is on the rear wall, with the [red key] red key behind. ⚠ As soon as you touch the key, an ambush with two or more Revenants will open up behind.

The starting room contains an unexplored passageway to the north. ▶ Go this way until you reach the entrance to a blood-logged shaft, then open the skull panel on the left. It leads to a room with a chaingun...but the weapon is rigged, and the lights will go out and an ambush will open the instant you collect the weapon. You can turn the lights back on again by pressing a switch in the left niche on the east wall.

Follow the blood-logged shaft to a rough-cut room with five columns. Three alcoves with enemies will open. Each alcove contains a hidden nested closet with one or more bonus items: 5 ▶ Open the left panel of the southwest alcove (the only one without a candle) to reveal a soul sphere. 6 ▶ Open the left panel of the southeast alcove to reveal four backpacks and a medikit. 7 ▶ And open the right panel of the northeast alcove to get a Berserk pack.

If you return to the lower blood pit, you now have access to a second [yellow door] yellow door granting easy access to the upper platform from below. There's no need to go this way, however. Instead backtrack to the southwest corner of the large cave, and walk through the wall where you emerged from the hellgrowth passage: It's holographic.

Return to the room with "satanic" symbols: There are secrets to explore! ▶ Shoot or hit the wall panel with the symbol resembling a rotated "4:" The column in the middle will rise, revealing a rocket launcher. Next, do the same with the wall panel resembling the letter "Λ:" A hellgrowth door will open, revealing a skin-papered room with a megasphere and the [red door] red door. Fall through the hole in the floor to exit the level.

The disjointed feel of this level stems from the fact that it originated from two unfinished maps that were fused together during the design process.

MAP29: The Living End

You've almost reached the end of your journey through the depths of Hell! "The Living End" was designed by John Romero...and it's typical of his style, with a phased progression around a large complex, narrow platforms, and judicious use of the vertical dimension. Similar to "Gotcha!" earlier in the game, it contains no keys.

Collect the chaingun in front of you: The platform will automatically lower, placing you within sight of a stepped central structure surrounded by a vast pit of blood. (Should you fall into this pit, there are five teleports that will return you to this platform or another area in the vicinity.) Hit the switch on the wall behind you to raise a platform, connecting you with a series of caves to the left. Collect the Berserk pack, follow the passage to the steel plates at the end, then turn around: A panel over a skull switch will have opened, letting you lower the barrier and reach a platform scaling the pit wall. Follow it to a backpack and a teleport. ▶ If you fall into the pit just right of the teleport, look for a passageway on the west side of the stone pillar leading to another teleport, leading to a platform with a plasma gun. Teleport back, and you'll be taken to an otherwise-inaccessible gallery area with cell charge packs.

Return to the platform scaling the pit wall, and proceed through the teleport at the end. You'll be taken to an inset platform slightly north in the same pit. Walk up the stairs to the far edge of the platform at top, then turn around: A door in the opposite corner will have opened, revealing a chamber with a Hell Knight. Hit the lion switch, then return to the edge of the platform: A barrier will have retracted, letting you run across the chasm to a pillared platform in the pit. Collect the soul sphere and hit the gargoyle switch: A walkway will rise, connecting you to several caves.

Follow the walkway to the second path branching off to the left, collect the megaarmour from the ledge, then drop into the pit: There's a radiation shielding suit for your benefit, plus a skull switch in an opposite niche that raises a walkway. Get onto the walkway by lowering it like a lift, and follow it to the pit in the north. There are two skull switches in this area, too, both of which trigger continuations of the walkway. Follow it to the fiery platform, and hit the skull switch on the column: It triggers a door elsewhere on the level.

Return to the exterior walkway, and follow it southwest to the next branch. The door is now open, and it leads into a wood-panelled room with staircases and platforms not unlike the one in MAP15. The room is a bit of a puzzle: First look for a skull switch hidden in an central alcove, hit it to trigger a rising platform, then ascend the stairs to the penthouse at top where you'll find an Arch-vile and Berserk pack. Hit the second skull switch, and descend the stairs: A new platform will have risen, connecting a branch of the staircase to yet another skull switch on the opposite wall. Hit it, then drop down, return to the exterior walkway, and make your way to the northeast branch of the path: A barrier will have retracted, letting you proceed to the next stage of the level. The northeast passageway leads through a skull-festooned door to a cul-de-sac where a Baron of Hell teleports in and out. ▶ In the centre is a wooden enclosure with scratches on one side. Open the panel with the scratches: It's a hidden door leading to a teleport, taking you to a limestone cave on the northeast side of the map. It's brimming with Revenants and other enemies, so be prepared!

The central chamber of the cave has branches that split off in three directions. The right branch is impassable, due to three barriers blocking the way. Take the left branch: It leads to a lion switch that retracts one of the barriers. Return to the central chamber (there's a lift on the north corner of the lava pit, if you need one), and follow the middle branch to a gargoyle switch that retracts barrier number two. The third switch is located outside the cave itself: Return to the central chamber, drop down to the lower platform at the beginning of the right branch of the cave...then turn right and leap through the opening in the cliff wall to the pillar of rock facing you below. There's a gargoyle switch here, as well as a lift connecting you to an upper ledge that lets you easily drop down into the cave again when you're done.

Follow the right branch of the cave: All the barriers should be retracted now, letting you reach a teleport transporting you to the stepped platform you faced at the beginning of the level. Follow the walkway to the top: A platform will rise from the floor with a Mancubus (and on higher difficulty levels, a Cyberdemon); Hell's last-ditch attempt to block you from passage to the inner sanctum. The exit is located through the hole in the floor beyond.

"The Living End" contains no secret sectors. Thus, the only possible end-of-level tally is 0%.

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"The Living End" ends with the last "fall through the hole" exit portal of Doom II.

MAP30: Icon of Sin

In your journey to avenge the plight of humanity, you've fought thousands of demonic enemies on Earth, in Hell, and on Mars' moons. You've traversed as many as 67 levels, all of them in strange and unpleasant surroundings. You're ready to battle anything...even an adversary so big, so powerful, and so surprising that it defies explanation.

Of course, this battle is also the moment where the game falls apart. In their quest to make the final boss monster of Doom II as big, powerful, and surprising as the limits of their technology allowed, the developers of Id Software created a timed level: An unfun exercise of chaos and frustration minimally-related to any of the gameplay skills the player had been honing in the other 31 levels of the game. To legions of players in the 1990s, the Icon of Sin was the map that obstructed their progress; that corrupted their game saves; that thwarted completion; that drove them to cheat; that trivialized the whole game.

But it is doable. Ready? Hang in there.

You begin in a small room surrounded by violently-mutilated corpses. On the floor before you, you'll find every weapon in the game, plus a megasphere. The battle may be fierce, but you can fight it well-equipped.

⚠ Save your game before you leave this room. Do not overwrite this game save. If you save your game later in the level, the game will probably crash and your game save will be corrupted. Some newer source ports like Crispy Doom may mitigate this, but don't take chances.

The niche in the north corner contains a teleport transporting you to the lower of three steps in an enormous slime-walled pit. The boss monster (a hideous skull-faced monstrosity; presumably, the leader of Hell) is built into the wall before you. As soon as it notices you, it will let out a backmasked message and begin its assault. The boss fights you by hurling cubes from a hole in its head, which are a threat in two ways:

They will kill you instantly, if you get hit by one.
They metabolize into enemies when they hit the floor...which obstruct your player's shots, belt you with projectiles, push you off platforms, and deplete your ammunition reserves.

A new enemy spawns every 8 seconds, effectively making the level a timed ordeal. By the time two or three minutes have passed, the room will be so thick with monsters that the player will barely be able to fight or move at all.

Before you can fight the boss, you'll have to reach the top. Follow the platform you're on to the baron portrait on the west end, and push on it to lower the platform above. Do the same thing on the east end on the next level (collecting the soul spheres along the way), and make your way to a niche in the back where you'll find a switch mounted to an enormous skull. Hit it, and a column in the pit below will rise.

Once the column stops rising, run down to the pit below. On lower difficulty levels, you'll find four invulnerability spheres around it...which are useful, but not nearly enough. Push the column to lower it like a lift, then climb aboard and wait for it to rise. ▶ From the lift's top position, you can leap to a ledge on the north wall with a megasphere, Berserk pack, and two radiation shielding suits...but it's not worth grabbing them. None of them are useful for defeating the boss...which in contrast to the rest of the game, can only be done one way.

To defeat the boss monster, you must inexplicably shoot rockets through the hole that inexplicably exists in its skullish forehead. As far as I know, this cannot be practically done with the plasma gun, BFG, or any bullet weapon. (So why were there so many weapons on the floor of the starting area?) And since the game will not auto-aim at the hole, you can't shoot the boss from the top of the lift, nor from any of the platforms at the back of the room. The only way you can defeat the boss is through this rote, repetitive, yet difficult chore:

Lower the lift.
Board the lift.
Stand on the front edge, as far as you can go without falling off.
Make sure your rocket launcher is selected.
Watch carefully as the lift rises. As soon as the muzzle of your gun touches the boss's chin (or just a teeny hint beyond), fire! If you're lucky, the rocket will go through the hole and you'll hear a horrid groan.
Drop down to the pit, and repeat steps 1-5 three or more times until the boss monster explodes. (Or you're dead, which is far more likely.)

Repeating these steps is a nerve-wracking ordeal. The lift takes an excruciatingly long time to lower...and you'll have to stand in a damaging lava pit every time. You'll also have to cope with floating enemies and projectiles at your back, which have a dastardly tendancy to push you off the lift. And of course, you can't save in the middle of this, lest you risk corrupting your game. In a level where every second counts and every new enemy spawn makes progression more difficult, it's brutal.

But once you get through it all, you'll have resolved the game...and be treated to a nice slide show. Hell has been destroyed, Earth will be rebuilt, and what's left of humanity will live happily ever after.

As a development "easter egg," Id's developers left several references to John Romero in this level that are not noticeable in regular gameplay. The dialogue said by the boss monster is a processed reversal of the words "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero." Meanwhile, the boss monster's forehead backs into an inaccessible room with a sprite of Romero's head impaled on a pike. It's possible to see this bizarre sight by disabling clipping.

"Icon of Sin" contains no secret sectors. Thus, the only possible end-of-level tally is 0%. Meanwhile due to enemy spawns exceeding the number of enemies placed on the map, your "kills" tally can and will exceed 100%.

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John Romero's head, not visible in ordinary gameplay.

The end of Doom II.

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