MAP24: Io Lab (Memento Mori II)

MAP24: Io Lab is the twenty-fourth level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Sean Birkel in a techbase style reminiscent of Knee-Deep in the Dead, similar to his famous Doom episode replacement, Fava Beans. It uses the music track "GloomKeep" by David "Tolwyn" Shaw.

The level appears to be based on "Shit for DOOM" (SHIT.WAD), an incomplete Doom level that Birkel had submitted to the idgames archive when he lost mapping inspiration. The original was a replacement for, and was influenced by that level. The beginning area of this level is highly reminiscent of that of from Fava Beans.

Mission briefing
According to both the text file and the Infopack:


 * This region was one of the first human on Io. The technics [sic] are old and of no use, but the enemy might be interested in it. We don't expect any humans in there, since these buildings were closed months ago. The thing is, when you're back we don't want to have ANY creature out there anymore. So, get going. Nice and easy, you've got plenty of time for this.

Essentials
Io Lab is a relative breather compared to the previous maps (and the maps ahead). The monster population, while high for a small map (184 on Ultra-Violence and above), is mostly composed of the usual cannon fodder of zombiemen, shotgun guys, imps and the occasional lost soul. However, the first two are hitscan monsters and harder monsters do appear at some parts, so don't get too complacent.

Start and Yellow Key

You start in a raised room with a window, overlooking a large room with a nukage pool. This room is teeming with the usual cannon fodder, but you probably won't want to deploy the rocket launcher until you take out any stray lost souls (up to six). Head down either flight of stairs to either side of the raised room and clear the large room out.

Next, head to the door in the west of the flight of stairs to the west of the starting room. This leads to a corridor with even more cannon fodder. However, be careful of up to three revenants in the far end of the corridor. As you continue forward, you will pass a passageway to the right (north) with even more enemies, including one more revenant. The chaingun works great on the cannon fodder; use the super shotgun on the revenants.

Go to the far end of the corridor, and a lift to the north will lower. Equip your BFG9000 if available; otherwise, equip your super shotgun. Step onto the platform and ride it up, and you will come face to face with a mancubus. The platform will not re-lower until you manage to step into the mancubus' space, so you have to be ready. A BFG shot will instantly shred it; if not, your super shotgun will interrupt it almost every time it tries to attack. Once it is dead, grab the yellow key from the nearby window.

Red Key

Backtrack to the east of the corridor, then head north through the passageway near the silver door. At the end of the passageway, go through the yellow door to the west and continue forward. There's still more cannon fodder (and one spectre) ahead, which shouldn't be too much of an issue. At the junction, continue north up the steps into a larger room with two computer panels and even more cannon fodder.

At this point, you probably should go into the large room in the east and pull the barons of Hell in the room (up to three). If you deal with them now, you will have less issues later. Pull them towards your side of the room and see if you can start any monster infighting, letting them clean up the cannon fodder for you. Dispose of them as you like, then return to the room with the two computer panels and head through the door in the north.

You will immediately alert a revenant. A well timed super shotgun blast or two will end it. Continue along the corridor - the only serious threat is the horde of up to three spectres and four demons near the end of the corridor. At the end of the corridor, go through the metal door in the south.

This next room is a crate room with two paths. Head to the west side of the room and carefully work your way along the path. The opposition is minimal, but your biggest concern will be the two barrels along the path, which you should carefully blow up. Behind the second barrel is the red key in a corner. Pick it up and backtrack to the door, then exit the crate room. (If you don't peek over to the east side of the room, you don't have to deal with the trap opened by picking up the red key.)

Blue Key

Backtrack to the yellow door, go through it, then go all the way east to the red door. Head down the steps and clear the room ahead of cannon fodder, then head north into the outdoor area. Here you will find some cacodemons and some lost souls, as well as a lone imp. Proceed to the alcove in the northwest, kill the chaingunner inside and flip the switch behind it.

A wall to the northeast will raise, revealing a cacodemon (Hey, not too rough and below) or two pain elementals (Hurt me plenty and above). There's also a zombieman and a shotgun guy behind these monsters, but those are no big deal. Head into the room that they came from, grab the BFG9000 and head up the steps.

This next room has up to four Hell knights. Your goal is to find the alcove in the east side of the central structure. This alcove has the blue key and more Hell nobles to deal with:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Two Hell knights.
 * Hurt me plenty: One baron of Hell.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Two barons of Hell.

These monsters are nothing fancy, and should go down to the BFG or salvos from the super shotgun. Grab the blue key from the alcove, then head down the steps in the south. Step off the brown platform and head west to the red door. However, just before you go up the staircase heading towards the red door, equip your chaingun, face left (south) and strafe right (west) to the red door. The cannon fodder in the trap that opened next to the red door will not stand a chance.

Exit

From the red door, head all the way west to the yellow door. This time, head north and go through the blue door in the west. There is an imp, a lost soul and up to four revenants on the stairs. Rockets may come in handy here once the revenants are the only monsters left.

Continue forward to the exit door. You only have a couple of former humans to deal with from here. Kill them, head up the stairs and flip the switch to exit the level.

Secrets

 * 1) From the map start area, pass the yellow door north of the toxic pool and go straight north. In the northern room with two barrels under skylights, the silver pillar in the southwestern corner can be lowered to reveal a switch. Flip it and return to the staircase opposite the blue key door to find that a tunnel (sector 115) has opened to reveal an armor bonus and an imp. At the end of this tunnel, press on the metal wall to lower it and obtain a blur artifact.
 * 2) Immediately after the red key door, a portion of the northern wall (sector 142) has taller panels than the rest. Open it to reveal a secret stairway leading to an alcove east of the containment area, allowing you to jump onto the crates.
 * 3) Enter secret #2, and then jump to the tallest stack of crates west of you. After this, jump to the westernmost stack (sector 190) to obtain a plasma gun.
 * 4) To the west of secret #3 is a recess in the wall. Open it to find a computer map (sector 198).
 * 5) At the northwest of the toxic pools, there is a tunnel that ends with a switch. Flip this switch and then return to the southwest of the map, in the hallway leading to where you found the yellow keycard. From the door east of this hallway, look to the west. North of the lamp is a green portion of the wall, standing out from the brown walls around it. Open it to reveal a secret tunnel; if you flipped the aforementioned switch, the tunnel's lowermost stair (sector 32) is passable and you will be able to head outside, where you can find (skill dependent) three/four/six troopers, a medikit, seven clips, a set of shells, a box of shotgun shells, a bulk cell, two boxes of rockets, a rocket launcher and a soul sphere.

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 4, 2020.

Player spawns
This level contains four spawn points:
 * 1) facing north. (thing 0)
 * 2) facing south-east. (thing 40)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 41)
 * 4) facing south-east. (thing 43)

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