MAP25: The Temple of Darkness (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP25: The Temple of Darkness is the twenty-fifth map of The Plutonia Experiment. It was designed by Dario Casali and uses the music track "Adrian's Asleep" from Doom II (the same as Doom II's MAP25: Bloodfalls).

Essentials
Starting Area

You begin in a large lava-floored outdoor area, with shotgun guys all around on raised ledges. Dispose of them, then head onto the ledges via a staircase in the northwest of this area. Follow the ledge around to a switch and flip it to open access to the next area, then drop back down into the lava. Explore this area for a chaingun and super shotgun before entering the next area.

Head north towards a V-shaped fork in the path and take either route towards a blood-floored area with a large building. If taking the left path, be wary of an alcove with a chaingunner on the left. As soon as you step off the lava into the blood floor, turn around and prepare to handle three imps and two revenants on a platform, as well as two spectres in the blood. Once they have been dealt with, head into the building in the blood.

Inside the building, you will encounter two Hell knights, one on either side of a raised platform, and one baron of Hell on the platform. There is little space to maneuver, so burst them down as quickly as possible. Once the coast is clear, climb up the stairs in the northwest corner of the platform. Prepare a strong weapon (ideally the BFG9000 or the rocket launcher on pistol start which you got recently) and drop into the hole ahead.

Hell Nobles Area

You will now be teleported into a new area, with a Hell knight (Hey, not too rough and lower) or a baron of Hell (Hurt me plenty and higher) in an alcove directly ahead of you. Take this room extremely carefully, or you will be forced to fight 12 enemies all at once in a very confined space.


 * When you teleport in, try not to step off the teleporter pad you are on for as long as possible. The Hell knight/baron is on a teleporter, and the moment you step forward, it will teleport onto the pad you are currently standing on.
 * After you step off, do not cross the first pair of green torches ahead of you until the baron has been defeated. The invisible line between these two torches is what triggers the six imps (Hey, not too rough and lower) or Hell knights (Hurt me plenty and higher) to rise up.
 * Once the baron is dead, cross the green torches and back off. The Hell knights will rise up and you can now handle them more easily.
 * Once the imps/Hell knights are dead, head up the steps to either side. There are four alcoves, two on each side. Each contains a zombieman (Hey, not too rough and lower), a shotgun guy (Hurt me plenty), or a chaingunner (Ultra-Violence and higher). When you enter each alcove, a wall in the back of the alcove lowers, revealing a switch. Flip all four switches.

Return to the central room. Notice that the two silver doors on either side of the teleport pad have opened. Go through either one and follow the path to a switch. Flip it to open a wall leading to the back of the teleport pad. Once again, prepare a strong weapon and head through the teleport.

Yellow Key

Once you exit the teleport, you enter a large room with the exit teleporter in sight, but inaccessible. You are attacked from behind by five zombiemen, with one (Hurt me plenty) or two (Ultra-Violence and above) revenants in front of you. Blindly charging forward will expose you to a large number of shotgun guys. To handle this room safely:


 * Take out the revenants in front (if any).
 * Turn around and kill the zombiemen. Remember this trap - it will "refresh" later.
 * Kill the two arachnotrons in the distance, and some shotgun guys in a cage on the left, preferably without crossing the metal arch.
 * Move forward past the metal arch, look left and kill the rest of the shotgun guys in the long cage.

Do not go into the darkened part of the room yet, but head to the grey passage just west of the (inaccessible) exit teleporter. Follow it around to a large, lava floored open area with a metal platform in the distance and a staircase in front of you. Collect the berserk pack, step out onto the first step to alert some hiding cacodemons, then step back into the passageway to deal with most of the monsters in a safer manner. Once they are all killed, carefully step down the U-shaped staircase into an opening (if you miss, the lower alcove next to it has a teleporter that will take you back to the grey passage).

Once in the opening, follow the ledge around to the metal platform. Collect the yellow key on one end and flip the switch on the other. As you do all this, a platform will rise out of the lava and part of the south wall of the room will lower, revealing an elevated area with a large number of imps and two revenants in raised cages. Snipe them from the metal platform or the ledge, then backtrack up the U-shaped stairs into the grey passageway.

Blue Key

Back in the grey passageway, a wall has opened, leading to the platform that rose out of the lava. Follow the platform to the elevated area where the imps and revenants were.

The blue key is in plain sight, but the long cage in the room has five chaingunners, including one positioned to ambush you from behind when you grab the blue key. Make sure you count five dead chaingunners to pick up the key with minimal damage.

Red Key and Exit

Head back to the room with the exit teleporter, and proceed to the darkened part of the room. The red key is on a pedestal in a lava pit, with a narrow ledge leading to it. Head around the lava pit to the blue switch in the south wall, then turn right and hit the yellow-keyed switch to raise the yellow bars blocking the red key.

The red key can now be accessed, but directly going for it will lead to a very difficult fight due to the damaging lava floor. Instead, drop down into the lava pit, and head to the opening in the east into a narrow passage, where you will fight up to two revenants and collect a megasphere and a radiation suit. Activate the sides of the narrow ledge leading to the red key and it will lower, allowing you to get back up. Proceed to collect the red key.

As you collect the red key, two parts of the outer walkway drop into the lava and part of the ledge behind you falls away, preventing you from returning to the outer walkway. You must now face two (Hey, not too rough and below), three (Hurt me plenty) or four (Ultra-Violence and above) mancubi in a newly revealed area, as well as a shotgun guy and a chaingunner (Hey, not too rough and below), three chaingunners (Hurt me plenty) or four chaingunners (Ultra-Violence and above) released onto the outer walkway. Drop down into the walkway and defeat all the enemies.

While proceeding into the newly revealed area, one may notice "windows" high on the walls. The eastern-most set are fake walls that conceal two shotgun guys in alcoves - do not miss them.

Head around the southernmost side of the area and face north. There are two alcoves with skull switches (on Ultra-Violence and above, each contains a revenant). Flip both switches, then take the teleporter in the south wall.

You will be teleported back to the teleporter pad that you landed on when you first entered this room with the exit teleporter. Immediately turn around - the trap with the five zombiemen has been "refreshed" to reveal eight chaingunners, who will shred you if you are unaware of their presence.

Head to the northwest of this room, and raise the red bars. Flip the switch behind them to raise steps to the exit teleporter. Enter the teleporter to exit the level.

Secrets

 * 1) In the raised area with the blue keycard, there are two wooden guard-tower-esque structures. One of them has blood splattered on one of its sides. Press the use key on it to lower the floor of both structures. The one opposite to the one you pressed has a large skull switch that is revealed when the floor is lowered. Press this switch to open a secret room back in the main area (where the exit teleporter is). (sector 145)

Bugs
Sometimes a shotgun guy may get stuck in the floor in the beginning area under certain circumstances.

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 six spawn points:
 * 1) facing south-east. (thing 50)
 * 2) facing north. (thing 51)
 * 3) facing west. (thing 52)
 * 4) facing north. (thing 53)
 * 5) facing south. (thing 54)
 * 6) facing south-east. (thing 55)

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