E3M1: Gates of Hades (No End In Sight)

E3M1: Gates of Hades is the first map of the Woe episode of No End In Sight. It was designed by Emil Brundage (NaturalTvventy).

Essentials
You start the level on a tower in the middle of the level. Take the two boxes of bullets then drop to the ground below and head south-east past two brick walls to a structure with square gray supports, climb the steps and follow the passage to a blue skull key. Go back outside and enter the building on your right to find a room with a blood pool, walk round it to a door requiring the blue key then go through and turn right. Walk down and up two sets of steps then walk through the doorway in front of you to find a room with many metal columns over a blood pit - press the skull switch in the corner to lower the columns, then run across them as they descend to reach the ledge on the other side of the pit. Press the gargoyle switch to lower the surrounding walls so you can leave safely.

Go back outside and head west past the starting tower to find some steps leading up to a large building, go inside and turn left to find another blue key door. Go through it and immediately turn right to enter a room with a small well then look south to see an eye switch behind a pillar with a beating heart - shoot the eye switch then go back to where you found the blue key to find that a passage has opened, allowing you to walk across the dried-up water pool. When you reach the ledge on the south side of the pool, two walls in front of you will open and release a number of demons - push past them to the exit door and press the switch behind it to finish the level.

Other points of interest
A radiation shielding suit can be found on the starting tower on I'm Too Young To Die (ITYTD) and Hey Not Too Rough (HNTR) skill levels. If you go south-west from the starting tower you will see a brick wall with a small doorway - go through this doorway and press the misaligned wall on your left to lower a lift, which will take you up to a room with another radiation suit, or two on ITYTD and HNTR.

After entering the building on the west side of the level, turn right and follow the passage to a room with numerous satyr faces. Climb up the steps to the east to see part of a skull switch behind a dead marine; if you shoot the switch then three of the satyr faces will light up. This shows you which switches to press to open secret #2.

From the blood pool room, head north-east into a room decorated with stone gargoyle faces. On HMP or lower, there are some health bonuses in the shape of an arrow which points at the north side of one of the columns - press on this side and some of the red and white squares to your right will light up. This will show you the correct route for navigating the teleporter puzzle leading to secret #3.

Secrets

 * 1) Grab a radiation suit and run across the lava on the west side of the map, through the opening and through a tunnel to reach a supercharge and some boxes of rockets. (sector 457)
 * 2) To enter a secret room in the north-east part of the map that contains a berserk pack, enter the large hallway on the east side of the map past the blue door. Go to the south-west corner and press on the wall to reveal a passage. Follow it to a room with several tombs. Step on the south-east tomb to open up another passage leading to a red room with many switches. What these switches do is raise or lower three doors at the north end of the large hallway (use the points of interest above to reveal the correct solution for this puzzle). To proceed, press on the middle switch on the north wall, the left-most (eastern-most) switch on the south wall, and, facing the west wall, the second switch from the right. Once you hit those three switches, go to the north end of the large hallway and across the blue floor, and you should be able to continue to the next room. Check behind the throne for a skull switch, which opens up a passage behind the throne. This passage leads to the berserk pack, but you will have to fight two barons of Hell (only on Hurt Me Plenty (HMP) skill level or higher) to escape. (sector 9)
 * 3) Once you collect the blue key, enter the building north-west of the starting point and open the blue door. You will see a teleporter puzzle to your left, but attempting to enter it from this side causes you to teleport back to the start point; use the points of interest above to reveal a hint for solving this puzzle. Once you know the correct route, return to the puzzle, then go towards the skull switch at the broken end of the hall. The skull switch does nothing important at the moment, so instead of using it, jump north-west to the piece of the building jutting out. Then look south and make a running jump there to the other end of the teleporter puzzle. Now to get through this puzzle, you should remember the solution you saw, or just start at the first red teleporter you can access, alternating between red and white teleporters - the correct directions are south (onto the red), west, south, west, south, south, east, east, north, and east onto the white teleporter. When you finish this puzzle successfully, a door opens, allowing you to reach the middle hallway. Go all the way north into the next room and press on the north-west corner, where you can access another switch. This switch reveals a segment of wall with flesh on it. Now return to the skull switch from before and press it, which will reveal a lion switch directly north from where you are. Quickly shoot at it, then return to the northern room. The north-east corner of this room now has a passage leading down to where the rocket launcher is, and this is the secret. The skull switch nearby does not lower the rocket launcher, but press it anyways and backtrack to the central hall. Right next to the blue torch, you can climb onto the wall here, then jump onto the rock below. Look north towards the demonic face to find a lever switch. Flip it, then go back to the rocket launcher room where you will finally be able to claim your prize. If you are playing on HMP or higher, watch out for the two barons who come in as well. (sector 259)

Current records
The records for the map at the Doomed Speed Demos Archive are:

Miscellaneous demos
This information was last verified in its entirety on August 11, 2021.

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