Best Non-Slaughter High-Difficulty Maps?

Hey all, I fiend for the really hard stuff; late Scythe/Scythe 2, Sunlust, Okuplok... any suggestions or resources for great wads that strive for that level of difficulty without resorting to pure slaughter?

That's what I was aiming for with this set, if you find it interesting.

Many maps in frog and toad do not use slaughter combat yet are very difficult. Especially map09 and 10.

To be clear  frog, toad, frog_and_toad are all different wads.

Click the name at the top to download

https://dsdarchive.com/wads/frog

https://dsdarchive.com/wads/toad

https://dsdarchive.com/wads/frog_and_toad

Good luck getting through all of them

I'm not really sure what qualifies as "pure slaughter" for you if Okuplok doesn't, but check out some of Ribbiks' other work:

Stardate 20x6, Stardate 20x7, Swim with the Whales, Magnolia

Seconding Frog, Toad, and Frog & Toad

nosp2, nosp3

also Sunder

39 minutes ago, Meowgi said:

I'm not really sure what qualifies as "pure slaughter" for you if Okuplok doesn't, but check out some of Ribbiks' other work:

 

Stardate 20x6, Stardate 20x7, Swim with the Whales, Magnolia

Seconding Frog, Toad, and Frog & Toad

nosp2, nosp3

also Sunder

Sunder is huge slaughter as well as nosp2 and 3

Try Skepland, Nefertiti, eaxt, and some DD stuff like Grime or NoChance. There's also Swift Death if you want combat puzzle stuff. Your definition of slaughter seems odd though, since Oku is maybe the definition of 'pure slaughter.'

21 minutes ago, Plats said:

Sunder is huge slaughter as well as nosp2 and 3

 

Okuplok is "huge slaughter", and he wants stuff like it according to his post :)

6 minutes ago, Meowgi said:

 

Okuplok is "huge slaughter", and he wants stuff like it according to his post :)

OP says "without resorting to pure slaughter" so it's assumed they want stuff that is smaller scale. It's a confusing post though, so who knows.

Ya ever played Saturnine Chapel by dobugabumaru? Despite only having like 100 monsters on UV, it's pretty tough.

Yeah I guess what I like about Okuplok is the inventinve fight design and not the slaughter elements, sorry if that was unclear

11 hours ago, Dillar said:

Hey all, I fiend for the really hard stuff; late Scythe/Scythe 2, Sunlust, Okuplok... any suggestions or resources for great wads that strive for that level of difficulty without resorting to pure slaughter?

Hi

My first map is like a slaughterwad, but only at last areas.

It is not the typical small map with all the enemies together like NUTS2 or Okuplok, this is a very large map with progressive difficult.

It is prepared to play in coop i've played it last week with 2 friends.

If you want to give it a try, here it is.

https://hakros.itch.io/hakros-complex
 

+1 Skepland, perfect example of what you're looking for

Ave Exitium and Saturnine Chapel, two very punishing puzzle-combat single maps 

Ol' No Name, more about continuously putting you through mean-spirited small-scaled pincer traps than of "high-difficulty", though there are a handful setups that wouldn't feel out in the slaughter genre.

My recent wad called GoopW maybe, again not hard by any stretch though it's intense while not slaughtery imo. By extent, Sticky Blood is a small bloody single map I was inspired by.

Try Urania!

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/urania

Resurgence and Speed of Doom.

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/resurge

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/sodfinal

Dimensions, Criticality, Entropy, Magnolia 

rjsloth

Magnolia is definitely a good example, I loved the fights but I kind of hate 'confusing' maps and I found myself getting lost and stuck really often. Legit couldn't figure out map 01 even with watching youtube walkthroughs

Similarly I thought maskim Xul was super cool but I didn't like having to watch walkthroughs just to make progress

Thanks for the suggests everyone!

Base Ganymede and Concerned, for Doom, came to my mind right now for some hard and non-slaughter-themed wads.

3 hours ago, Captain POLAND said:

rjsloth

A man of culture right there, ladies and gentlemen...

Crusades for sure.

Some classic suggestions:

Hell Revealed

Hell Revealed II

Alien Vendetta

Plutonia 2

Kama Sutra

3 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

A man of culture right there, ladies and gentlemen...

I never played it, just heard it's hard and not slaughter.

4 hours ago, Andromeda said:

Some classic suggestions:

Hell Revealed

Hell Revealed II

Alien Vendetta

Plutonia 2

Kama Sutra

:D

Non-slaughter, he asked. :p

Thus, Cyber dreams.

I remember such questions a long time ago and if you dig this forum, you might find the thread where I found bbb and ccc.

bbbccc.zip

5 hours ago, Andromeda said:

Some classic suggestions:

Hell Revealed

Yeah, way too easy! :D

Arch-Vile Jump. The whole wad, but particularly map32, which combines the av jump challenge aspect with puzzles, platforming and confusing non-linear progression, and takes like an hour even in a speedrun. There are harder platforming levels out there, and harder puzzles, etc, but surely there are no other maps that combine all of these skills at such a punishing level.

On 11/18/2021 at 1:52 PM, bioshockfan90 said:

Resurgence and Speed of Doom.

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/resurge

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/sodfinal

Resurgence and Speed of Doom have some slaughter maps.

Went ahead and categorized what I could on here for my own purposes, but hopefully someone else will find this useful as well...

 

CLASSIC MEGAWADS:
Plutonia/Plutonia 2
Alien Vendetta
Hell Revealed/Hell Revealed II
Kama Sutra

RIBBIKS:
Sunlust (megawad)
Frog/Toad/Frog And Toad (puzzle/platforming)
Stardate 20x6/20x7
Swim with the Whales
Magnolia
Nefertiti

SLAUGHTER:
Nosp2/Nosp3
Sunder
Okuplok

SINGLE MAPS:
Skepland
X-treme (erik alm)
No-chance/Grime
Criticality
Saturnine chapel
Ave Exitium

MEGAWADS:
Urania
Speed of Doom
Base Ganymede

ULTIMATE DOOM:
Concerned (E1-E3)
Crusades (E4)

THE INFAMOUS 3 (at least to me):
Dimensions
Entropy
Flotsam

JUMP/PLATFORMING:
Rjsloth
Masterjumps
Arch-vile jump

VARIOUS:
Cyber dreams (combat puzzle megawad)
Nostaglia Ain't What It Used to Be
Ol' No Name

Left a few off as I couldn't find information about them. Thanks for the suggestions everyone; happy hunting!

3 hours ago, Lingyan203 said:

Resurgence and Speed of Doom have some slaughter maps.

I'll admit, you got me there. I never beat either of them, but from what I recall the first half of SoD falls within OP's range, whereas Resurgence I can see being a lot harder (I was WAY worse at doom when I played the wad), and I'm sure the later maps get a lot harder. But generally, I'd consider SoD and Resurgence to be on the more accessible end of the slaughter spectrum, especially when you take into account some of the other recommendations here.

EDIT:

2 hours ago, Dillar said:

Went ahead and categorized what I could on here for my own purposes, but hopefully someone else will find this useful as well...

Fantastic list, will definitely be putting this to use. Thanks for bringing this conversation onto this forum! :)