Soundless Mound

Soundless Mound is a single-level PK7 for Doom II using the GZDoom source port. It was designed by Marisa Lago in 2018 and is inspired by the  series of survival horror games. In the Doom Mapping Contest II: Hellectric Boogaloo, it was awarded first place, and it received further updates via the author's GitHub repository.

Essentials
The map has a certain intended progression, although some of these can be done in any order.


 * 1) Your first weapon: Upon starting the map, proceed to room 101 and pick up the knife in the kitchen. Enemies will spawn outside once you do.
 * 2) A light source (optional): Up the stairs from the starting area, head to room 109 to find a pocket flashlight.
 * 3) Cut the wires: The way up to the second floor is blocked by wires. Having a knife allows you to cut them and make the door usable again.
 * 4) The box under the stairs: In room 210, there will be a note mentioning a key to the third floor being hidden "in a box under the stairs". This box can be found on the southern stairway, which was inaccessible from the first floor. (Note that the box can only be opened after reading this note)
 * 5) Basement key: Upon entering room 202, head out through the connecting corridors until you reach another room. Here you will find the key to the basement, which will be needed for further progress.
 * 6) Madman's key: In room 206 you will find a gun (optional, but very useful against strong enemies) and the key to room 103 on the first floor.
 * 7) Bulky melee: Having the key to the third floor, you can now enter the storerooms (only 5 and 3 will be available). On storeroom 3 you'll find a big crowbar, which has been used to dig something out of the wall.
 * 8) Key to the other side: Going all the way back to the first floor, enter room 103, and collect the Red Key.
 * 9) Everything goes wrong: Head into the basement and smash the covered doorway, revealing a large door and an ominous note. Head on in using the red key, and enjoy the soothing air raid siren sounds as you make your way into the otherworld.
 * 10) Locked gate: Once in the first floor of the otherworld apartments, go into room 101 and travel through the maze to collect the Gate Key. This will allow you to raise the bars in room 426 and let you proceed into the second floor.
 * 11) Who's got the button: In the second floor, head west towards room 213 and press the button on the other end of it, this will raise the bars to the east and let you access the third floor.
 * 12) Enter the void: Up the various floating stairways, you'll eventually find yourself in a room much like the corridor to the storerooms of the real apartments. A key will be placed next to door 99999, which will let you proceed through it.
 * 13) The balancing puzzle: Once on the other side, room 1-0528-5 will be your final challenge. The premise of the puzzle is simple: The stone blocks on each side move in pairs. With each button press of one, it will rise by one level, and its counterpart will lower by two. If they are fully raised or lowered, they will wrap around. The point of the puzzle is to bring both pairs of blocks to equal levels (a latching sound will be heard when it happens). Beating this puzzle will reveal the Silver Key, which opens the floating room 0.
 * 14) 1000 points off: Through a narrow passageway in room 0, you'll find yourself in a larger space, with only one door out, which you'll find to be locked. After checking the door, the final boss of the demo spawns. The Vile Critter wanders around sometimes casting various spells, mainly involving homing fireballs or summoning in more enemies. Once you defeat it, a key will spawn where its body once stood, allowing you to leave.
 * 15) Stay in the light: The next room is very special. Invisible creatures roam in the dark, always staying away from the dim lights placed around. As long as you stay in the light, they will not chase after you. At the very end you'll find the final key of the map, the Pearl Key.
 * 16) End of demo: Picking up the Pearl Key will warp you back to the real world basement. From there, you can finally head back to the entrance and leave the apartments, using the key you just obtained.

Other points of interest
The author recommends to avoid manual saving and instead make use of scripted saves scattered throughout the map. Each of these save spots can be found in the following places (usually one per floor):


 * Real world: Room 107, Stairs to 3rd floor, Basement (before door to Otherworld).
 * Otherworld: Room 742, Room 300, Room 258-3571, Room 0.
 * Real world (revisited): Front door.

Secrets
Although not marked as such, there are two notable secrets in the map, which were added after the contest. They are unlocked as follows:


 * The Tim Allen Painting Hunt: Throughout the map, there are several scattered paintings of Tim Allen (a known Easter Egg in Marisa's maps). Pressing use on these will display a number. This number shows how many paintings are left to unlock the secret. There's three paintings in the real world (Rooms 104, 202 and 210), three in the otherworld (Room 426, room 6506, southern stairway), and the final painting in the revisited real world, on room 106. Using all seven paintings opens room 100 on the revisited real world, which reveals a Soundless Mound pachinko machine, as a cheeky reference to how Konami have been treating the Silent Hill franchise.
 * The Mirror Man's Room: In room 205 of the real world apartments, there is a Plain Key hidden in a corner. This can be used later in the otherworld, in room 47388, to find a secret room with a note, and a recurring character from Marisa's projects, the Mirror Man, which can only be seen when looking into the mirror. The note references Marisa's two other map projects the character was featured in, Spooktober and Hexmas, along with also hinting towards a future third project.

Speedrunning
As this level does not contain official secrets, the NM 100S category is redundant.

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

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on December 6, 2021.

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

Trivia
Room 087 in the otherworld references SCP-087 (the endless stairway), and is designed to imitate one of the first fan games made of it, going as far as to use the same textures and sound effects.