MAP04: Caged (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP04: Caged is the fourth map of The Plutonia Experiment. It was designed by Dario Casali and uses the music track "Kitchen Ace (And Taking Names)" from Doom.

The map layout bears similarities to MAP26: The Abandoned Mines from Doom II, and is notable for being the only stage in Plutonia which uses an exit switch instead of the black teleport pad (though there is one at the base of the switch that the player will teleport on top of).

Essentials
You will be in a room with four raised teleporters and a switch. Hit the switch and walk into any teleporter. You will be in a small room with an armor, a super shotgun, shotgun shells and another switch. Hit the switch and the room will lower, revealing a larger area. The platform you are on has a bridge running south, a bridge running east, and a bridge going north, which has a bridge going east to west crossing it. Each bridge has barred walls except for the platform you are on. In the southwest portion of the room is a small raised platform with two revenants and a supercharge, surrounded by nukage and spectres. On the north side of this room is a yellow key door, and on the south side is the exit door, which is locked.

Go forward, and go west along the bridge, onto a platform next to a pit with nukage and demons. Go west through a room, raising chaingunners which cannot see you at the moment. Go through the southern door, through a hallway, leading to a switch. Kill the revenants then activate the switch, which will raise stairs on the east side of the room you are on. Go back through the hallway, and you will be ambushed by Hell knights, and the chaingunners which could not see you previously. After the fight, go back into the room just east of the one you are in right now. There will be a switch on the northeastern wall of the platform you are on. Hit it, and the wall will rise, revealing a path to the yellow keycard. Grab the key and go to the yellow key door.

Behind the yellow key door is a pool of nukage, with four small platforms in the pool. On the north side of the room is a short raised platform with a window on the east and west containing a chaingunner, and a switch on the north side of the room. Kill the chaingunners and hit the switch, revealing two hallways on the north side of the room that connect, containing imps. Four windows will open in the room, releasing barons of Hell, which will teleport into the pit. Go into the hallway, and on the south side will be a switch, which opens the yellow door back up.

Go back to the platform you started on in the big room, and go east along the bridge, and turn south, coming to two doors. One door has a lever, which lowers itself, revealing a teleporter. Step on it, and you will be in the western room next to the stairs you raised earlier. Climb them, then hit the switch, revealing three mancubi on the southwestern part of the room, guarding a blue keycard. Kill the baddies, get the key, and jump on a teleporter, which will take you to the center of the two bridges in the main room.

Go east through the blue key door, and climb the stairs across the pit to your right. Hit the switch at the top, which will open the exit door. Go through it and hit the switch, lowering the east and west walls, revealing commandos. Kill them, then go through either hallway, leading to a room with three shotgun guys, a red teleporter pad, and a silver teleporter pad. Kill the zombies, step on the silver pad, and hit the exit switch.

Secrets

 * 1) Once in the main area, cross the bridge leading west (opposite the blue door). In the next room, there will be a brown sludge pit to the right with three pillars in it. You must run from pillar to pillar (no straferunning is required), unless you are using a source port that enables jumping. The third pillar, which holds a plasma gun, counts as the secret. (sector 84)
 * 2) After getting the yellow key, drop into the adjacent sludge pit. There is a switch on the far side. Flip it, then take the teleporter. Head straight forward and go up the short staircase. To the right is an unreachable platform with a supercharge on it. Drop into the sludge here, and go through the small passage to the right. There is a newly opened teleporter in here; go through to be taken to the aforementioned supercharge. (sector 66)
 * 3) From secret #2, drop back down into the sludge and go through the opening to the southwest. Take the teleporter nearby, and you will end up in yet another sludge pit. Enter the small alcove across the way and flip the switch to lower a lift that you can ride up to a secret megaarmor. (sector 100)
 * 4) After flipping the skull switch behind the yellow key door, return to the highest platform of the main area again (the one across from the supercharge platform). From here, head east down the stairs toward the tan door. Before you reach it, go through the newly opened doorway and run along the red-lighted catwalk into the alcove on the far side. It is a lift leading up to a cache of health bonuses. The lift is timed, triggered when you walk down the stairs, so it may take a few tries to get there in time. (sector 79)

Current Compet-n records
The Compet-n records for the map are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 6, 2020.

Current DSDA records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on February 24, 2022.

Player spawns
This level contains nine spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 8)
 * 2) facing east. (thing 235)
 * 3) facing east. (thing 236)
 * 4) facing east. (thing 237)
 * 5) facing west. (thing 238)
 * 6) facing north. (thing 239)
 * 7) facing north. (thing 240)
 * 8) facing west. (thing 241)
 * 9) facing east. (thing 242)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: