MAP23: Time Gate II (Eternal Doom)

MAP23: Time Gate II is the twenty-third level of Eternal Doom. It was designed by Dietmar Westerteicher and uses the music track "Trooper Procession".

Essentials
Take the shotguns and ammo in the stairs, kill the hell knights and sergeants and go through either door and upstairs. Once you get to the walkway on the top, kill the imps, spectres and cacodemons, and hit both circle switches at the end to open a door in the middle wall of the walkway, revealing a revenant. Kill him and step into the teleporter to be taken to the central (north) ledge of the starting room. As you take the chaingun, a couple of imps will appear in front of you. Kill them and activate the computer panel in the center. Go back to where the revenant was. The grey column in front of it should now be lowered. Jump down and go through the big teleporter (the Time Gate).

In the room below, there are chaingunners and imps, so be ready. Once you kill them, go through the hallway until you reach a big open area with barons of hell and mancubi. Do not go downstairs yet. Instead, hit the switch at the top of the stairs to open a wall at the end of the walkway (this also enables a bridge in the middle, revealing a revenant). The mancubi and barons can't see you, but the revenant will notice you immediately, so do it quickly. Go through the new hallway at the end, kill the baron upstairs, and enter the small room with windows at the end. Hit the switch in the big "box", open the door (there are two revenants and a chaingunner), and run to the circle switch to activate a small bridge and get the yellow key. Once you take the key, the big "box" in the room will reveal an arch-vile, so kill him quickly. Go back to the big open area with barons and mancubi (you can simply step in the box where the arch-vile was to be teleported to the top of the stairs). Go down the stairs, and as soon as you take the rocket launcher and cells, the columns with barons and mancubi will lower. Be careful because if you fall to the lava you cannot get out. Activate the yellow bars and go through the teleporter. In the starting room, activate the big yellow bars to your left and step in this teleporter as well. You are now in the left (west) ledge of the room, so activate the computer panel in here too (a pack of demons, a cacodemon and a mancubus will appear in this ledge). Go back to the Time Gate and through it again.

In here, kill the zombies, cacodemon and hell knight and hit the red switch at the other side to open the door. Kill the revenant and chaingunner and hit the circle switch at the top of the stairs to open the next door. Hit another switch at the end of this room and continue downstairs until you reach another two doors. Enter the smaller one, kill the monsters here and hit the circle switch to open the big door. You will be attacked by some cacodemons. Go through the door at the other side of the street, kill the imps, demons and revenants, go upstairs, open the door and follow the hallway until you reach a red switch. This switch lowers an invisible bridge with a megasphere allowing you to cross the lava river. As you get to the other side, you will be attacked by arachnotrons and mancubi. Go to the back of the north-west building and ride the lift up. Up here there is a revenant and a pain elemental, in a small hallway with two doors at the end. In each room, there is a switch and two columns. Hitting this switches will lower the columns in the other room, revealing a revenant and a hell knight. Once you hit them both, a big switch will appear in the hallway. Hit it to reveal an arch-vile, a BFG and another switch. Activate this other switch to enable the stairs in the south-west building, where the spider mastermind is. Go upstairs, kill the spider, grab the red key and step in the teleporter.

You are again in the starting room. Kill the enemies here, activate the red bars and use the teleporter to be taken to the eastern ledge of the room. Activate the computer panel and go again through the Time Gate to finish the level.

Secrets

 * 1) After being teleported to the central (north) ledge of the starting room, press the computer panel, jump down and run to the top of the stairs to the point where you started the level. The floor will be lowered, giving you access to a secret room. The circle switch at your left lowers the wall again so you can return to the main room. (sector 434) There are three sets of stairs here. In the middle one, you will see a plasma gun and some energy cells. As you enter this room, the door will close and you will be attacked by chaingunners. Kill them and hit the switch that closed the room to lower the walls around you. This will reveal four mancubi, medikits and boxes of rockets. Hit the switch in the south side of the room to lower the wall with the other switch. You need the yellow and red keys to access the yards outside. The floor that reveals the secret only lowers when you jump from the central ledge, so after you get each key (or both), you need to go through the revenant's teleporter, jump and run here. Behind the yellow bars, a revenant and two chaingunners will appear. There are two boxes of rockets here, and a switch. Hit this switch to lower a platform where the revenant and chaingunner appeared. Stepping in the teleporter here will take you to the top of the stairs of the big open area with barons and mancubi. In the yard with the red bars, a couple of barons and a pain elemental will appear. The teleporter in this yard takes you back to where the spider mastermind is.
 * 2) From secret #1, after being teleported back to the top of the stairs from the yellow bars yard (in the area with barons and mancubi), follow the walkway to a lava river. On the right, the previously inaccessible portion of the river has lowered. Take the radiation suit and follow the river, activate a lift (sector 526) at the end and take the soul sphere.
 * 3) After you discover the two previous secrets (both are necessary to open this one), and before you enter the Time Gate for the last time, take a look at the wall to the left. There is a very visible hallway with floating text and a teleporter at the end. (sector 501) Step in it and you will be ascended to the Caco Heaven - a big area surrounded by cacodemons and boxes of shells. To get out of here, run to the north-east corner (look at the automap if you need to) and you will be teleported to the pillar where the megasphere is.

Bugs
A multiplayer-only yellow keycard (Thing 417) has no flags set for any of the three difficulty classes, so it does not actually appear in the level.

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