What are the hardest maps you've ever played?

As per the thread title, what maps have you always regarded with fear, always struggled with, perhaps never beaten on UV?

For most of my Dooming life, Afterlife - map 26 of Hell Revealed - has been my albatross. I haven never been able to get anywhere at all on this map on UV, even when playing through consecutively and starting with all weapons. I never, ever thought I could beat this map from a pistol start. Except on Thursday, I did. Now any map seems possible.

I know there are more infamous maps even in Hell Revealed and its sequel, but I have beaten nearly all of them from a pistol start and am now confident I can eventually beat anything. I feel like I'm turning into a Doom God.

Please think of "proper" maps that you genuinely fear, not ridiculous uber-maps like Nochance.

17 minutes ago, MajorRawne said:

perhaps never beaten on UV

None really spring to mind as much as the first Phocas Island.

I nope'ed out of Hell Revealed MAP32. It was mostly because it used spawn cubes, and I hate an endless flood of foes to kill.

7 minutes ago, Chopkinsca said:

 

None really spring to mind as much as the first Phocas Island.

 

I nope'ed out of Hell Revealed MAP32. It was mostly because it used spawn cubes, and I hate an endless flood of foes to kill.

Never heard of Phocas Island, will check it out.

I agree about HR 32, that's one I have no interest in ever playing due to the spawners. Too stressful.

Scythe 2 MAP23 will make you an adult. Later maps in the set are probably harder, but that one is so much more difficult than its predecessors that it still feels to me like the greatest challenge I've overcome.

Also Speed of Doom MAP32, although a lot of that map just feels like getting lucky, to be frank. Not that it makes it any easier.

45 minutes ago, Cammy said:

Scythe 2 MAP23 will make you an adult. Later maps in the set are probably harder, but that one is so much more difficult than its predecessors that it still feels to me like the greatest challenge I've overcome.

 

Also Speed of Doom MAP32, although a lot of that map just feels like getting lucky, to be frank. Not that it makes it any easier.

Heard so much about that map and the difficulty spike towards the end that I never got past the first couple of Scythe 2 maps. The first megawad was excellent but again, that difficulty spike.

I could add Sunder map 5 "Precarious" to the list of hardest maps ever, but it doesn't count because the difficulty comes from bullshit. I should probably add that maps with broken or rubbish design don't count, these have to be legit maps, not trolling attempts.

1 hour ago, MajorRawne said:

Never heard of Phocas Island, will check it out.

Don't, it's hard for all the wrong reasons.

1 hour ago, MajorRawne said:

Heard so much about that map and the difficulty spike towards the end that I never got past the first couple of Scythe 2 maps. The first megawad was excellent but again, that difficulty spike.

 

I could add Sunder map 5 "Precarious" to the list of hardest maps ever, but it doesn't count because the difficulty comes from bullshit. I should probably add that maps with broken or rubbish design don't count, these have to be legit maps, not trolling attempts.

Mate, if you think Precarious is that hard then you've got a ways to go before you can call yourself a "Doom god"

Maps like map 32 from Speed of Doom are entry level slaughter. The rabbit hole of hard maps goes far deeper than that.

Edit* Some hard maps/sets to play
Sunder map 15 and onwards
Stardate 20x6 and 20x7 
Swim With the Whales
Bastion of Chaos
Entropy
Flotsam
Abandon

And then ridiculous challenge sets
Frog and Toad
Dimensions
Italodoom
Dark Tartarus

43 minutes ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Mate, if you think Precarious is that hard then you've got a ways to go before you can call yourself a "Doom god"

I agree, if Precarious is the map I'm thinking of, the sea of revenants at the end is more of an annoyance than a challenge. Plus if I remember correctly, you can literally just run across their heads to the exit if you aren't concerned with killing them. By that point, the enemy placement began to feel a little lazy.

EDIT 

Got map23 of Scythe 2 confused with Precarious from Sunder. Oh well.

Frog and Toad probably.

43 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Plus if I remember correctly, you can literally just run across their heads to the exit if you aren't concerned with killing them

This is like saying a fight isn't difficult because you can just use IDDQD.

6 minutes ago, Tarnsman said:

Frog and Toad probably.

 

 

This is like saying a fight isn't difficult because you can just use IDDQD.

 

Not really, since Erik literally lets you swim on top of their heads to (without cheating) get to the exit. Even without doing that, it's far from being a hopeless battle.

There's a difference between not being able to finish a map without cheating and the author of said map intentionally allowing you to skip the fight by allowing a direct route to the exit, allowing you to legitimately finish the map. The fight itself might be difficult, but finishing the map without cheating is not. The title of the thread is "hardest map" not "hardest fight".

Map 04: Caged from the Plutonia Experiment has given me a few good bruises.

40 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Not really, since Erik literally lets you swim on top of their heads to (without cheating) get to the exit. Even without doing that, it's far from being a hopeless battle.

 

There's a difference between not being able to finish a map without cheating and the author of said map intentionally allowing you to skip the fight by allowing a direct route to the exit, allowing you to legitimately finish the map. The fight itself might be difficult, but finishing the map without cheating is not. The title of the thread is "hardest map" not "hardest fight".

Doom actors have infinite height unless you've enabled otherwise in an advanced port. In a Boom, limit-removing, or vanilla mapset, walking on top of monsters is considered cheating.

12 hours ago, esselfortium said:

Doom actors have infinite height unless you've enabled otherwise in an advanced port. In a Boom, limit-removing, or vanilla mapset, walking on top of monsters is considered cheating.

(saving this as a screenshot for my own embarrassment)

I'm still rather new as far as fan made wads go. I didn't play a fan made till about a month and a half ago, and that was Sigil so like kinda sorta doesn't count. Scythe was the first fan made wad I played if you don't count Sigil, and Scythe's map 30, Fire and Ice, has been the hardest map I've beaten so far. Currently going through this list of wads by progression of skill to get better at the game. Since Scythe I beat Rush (beating my first map with over 1000 monsters, though Rush's map 12 does have a lot of imps so I think Fire and Ice's lesser monster count might still be more meaty), and right now I'm partway through Valiant, so still haven't played a whole lotta stuff, still got lots of harder stuff to do, but beating Scythe's map 30 pistol start without saves is currently my biggest achievement in doom so far.

10 hours ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Mate, if you think Precarious is that hard then you've got a ways to go before you can call yourself a "Doom god"

Maps like map 32 from Speed of Doom are entry level slaughter. The rabbit hole of hard maps goes far deeper than that.

Edit* Some hard maps/sets to play
Sunder map 15 and onwards
Stardate 20x6 and 20x7 
Swim With the Whales
Bastion of Chaos
Entropy
Flotsam
Abandon

And then ridiculous challenge sets
Frog and Toad
Dimensions
Italodoom
Dark Tartarus

I didn't mean Precarious was hard because of the fights, as stupid and annoying as the fights are - they're easy compared to what came before. I mean I just keep dying and dying, the difficulty comes from navigating the broken pillars which are designed to make you fall off. The way they are broken up also confuses the eye. The difficulty in this map isn't killing the monsters, it's staying alive for longer than two minutes in an environment designed to troll you.

@MajorRawne I think platforming is becoming more common in challenge maps so it might be something to practice.

Also, I doubt any "proper" maps scare the pros around here.

As a much less skilled player, over the past few years I finally got through the first two Sunder maps. I'll get through MAP03 at some point. Then the next and so on.

23 minutes ago, DuckReconMajor said:

@MajorRawne I think platforming is becoming more common in challenge maps so it might be something to practice.

Also, I doubt any "proper" maps scare the pros around here.

 

As a much less skilled player, over the past few years I finally got through the first two Sunder maps. I'll get through MAP03 at some point. Then the next and so on.

I beat map 3 yesterday. It is longer and much more difficult, but not impossible by any stretch. A bit teeth-grinding in places due to Arch-Vile placement.

If only I could figure out how to make map 4 bright enough to see what I'm doing without making everything white...

This might sound a bit silly but I've found messing with monitor settings helps more than the Gamma adjust imo.

5 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

This might sound a bit silly but I've found messing with monitor settings helps more than the Gamma adjust imo.

I'll try that, thanks.

I've been reading up on threads about difficulty progression and it is shocking to see some people rating HR and HR2 as low difficulty in comparison to some newer mapsets. Looking really forward to trying some.

On 6/13/2021 at 8:49 PM, PSXDoomer said:

Map 04: Caged from the Plutonia Experiment has given me a few good bruises.

It's a good one but if we're talking Plutonia nothing comes close to Twilight. Insane map. The only Plutonia map I just dread nowadays, well other than Map 11. But that's becuase Map 11 bores me (not a fan of mazes). Still respect the map.

16 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

@MajorRawne I think platforming is becoming more common in challenge maps so it might be something to practice.

Also, I doubt any "proper" maps scare the pros around here.

 

As a much less skilled player, over the past few years I finally got through the first two Sunder maps. I'll get through MAP03 at some point. Then the next and so on.

Hehe Sunder was like the third wad I downloaded (for some reason) and I still haven't got the heart to go back and beat Map 02. Call me a wimp but that map broke me.

9 minutes ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

It's a good one but if we're talking Plutonia nothing comes close to Twilight. Insane map. The only Plutonia map I just dread nowadays, well other than Map 11. But that's becuase Map 11 bores me (not a fan of mazes). Still respect the map.

Twilight is another spinning heel kick of a map that's for sure.

I recently finished playing through Newgothic Movement 2, and the big fight at the end of map09 destroyed me like nothing else in the wad. I can't imagine doing a saveless run of that map. I don't remember anything in Sunder giving me that much trouble, though I've only seriously played the first 11 maps of that wad and I hear the new ones are much harder. Edit: Sunder's map06 comes pretty close, though. The start of that map is brutal.

vhard / psycho

Totally possible maps, harder than chillax.

Uh, Map01, Sunder UV. I'm basic when it comes to my doom, around TNT levels of hard is what I'm used to, so the fact I beat Sunder Map01 in UV with like 2 saves was impressive. And it was on stream, cuz someone on twitch told me to play it :)

The people saying Frog_and_Toad are melting my heart

<3

E3M6 & M8 of Ultimate Doom in Name Only. NiH somehow managed to make UD maps more intimidating than Sunder...

Doom Odyssey E3M5 on UV

6 hours ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

It's a good one but if we're talking Plutonia nothing comes close to Twilight. Insane map. The only Plutonia map I just dread nowadays, well other than Map 11. But that's becuase Map 11 bores me (not a fan of mazes). Still respect the map.

The Twilight becomes a lot easier if you know where all the secrets are, because it gives a lot in its secrets (megasphere, BFG, invulnerability, and more). It's brutal if you don't, though.