E3M6: Mt. Erebus (Doom)

E3M6: Mt. Erebus is the sixth map of Inferno in Doom. It features a secret exit to E3M9: Warrens (and see the trivia). It is apparently named after Earth's southernmost volcano, in Antarctica. It uses the music track "On the Hunt." The par time is 1:30.

Using the secret exit
At the start of this level, go left, run over the the lava quickly, reaching land and going up the grey staircase. When you get to the top, jump off to the outcropping in front of you, where you can see a small platform with equipment surrounded by impaled or piled skulls. Kill the enemies here, and on this outcropping, collect the weapons, and the invulnerability powerup. Now face the small platform where you got the weapons, and run over the lava towards land to the right, onto the main landmass. On here, proceed quickly to the wall with skull heads on it. From the wall, continue left, then right, and jump into the large triangular pit with water in it. Hurry towards the teleporter in the small alcove in the structure in the middle of the pit. After you teleport, open the door in front of you. You may pick up the blue skull key on easy skill levels, but it is not needed for these instructions.

From the door, open the wall to the left that has a tiny candle in front of it, marking a secret door. Take the teleporter in the the secret alcove. Now turn around, and when you do, go carefully towards the right onto a smaller ledge. Facing the wall on the smaller ledge, switch to your automap and make your you (the arrow) has its back to the blue box-shaped structure in the water below. Note that you must still be invulnerable at this point, or you will likely die.

Then take out the rocket launcher, and fire your weapon. You should make it to the box. Jump in if you did not fall into its interior section already. Note that if you're playing on skill level 1 ("I'm too young to die"), you need to hold the run key and move back while you launch a rocket, because the weapon does not propel the player back as powerfully on that setting. Getting here invulnerable and making it in the box takes a lot of practice, so keep trying to get in the box. When you are in the box, hit the exit switch; this takes you to the secret level E3M9: Warrens).

Secrets
Secret exit: The area that contains the secret exit switch is inescapable, so only enter it once you are ready to exit the level. Pick up one of the invulnerability spheres and make your way back through the teleporter from secret 2. This time, inch along the platform you arrive on to your right and around a corner. You'll see a blue box in the water below. Position yourself directly across from this box and face the red brick wall. Fire your rocket launcher at the wall and run backwards simultaneously, and you should be fired into the box, the invulnerability powerup absorbing all damage you would have taken. This takes you to the secret level. E3M9: Warrens. It's possible to straferun into the box, but the rocket jump is the intended (and easiest) method.
 * 1) Go inside the brown vine-covered building. Inside are two teleporters. Take the one on the right, and you'll be taken to a ledge with a plasma gun on it.
 * 2) Enter the green marble building. There are two candles on the floor against opposite walls here. Open the wall behind the candle on the right for a energy cell pack.
 * 3) From secret 2, open the wall behind the other candle and take the teleport. Once you're through, drop onto the platform ahead of you to get the chainsaw. Note that you must get this secret before collecting the blue key, or the chainsaw platform will raise up even to the roof, and completing the map with 100% secrets will become impossible.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia

 * According to John Romero, "The only way you are supposed to reach the secret switch [inside the blue box at the north end of the map] was by (1) getting the invincibility, (2) blasting a rocket into the wall so you would fly backwards into the box. We found out early on that it was possible to flip the switch from outside, so Sandy made the walls thicker." (See Doom Level History.) In fact, it is still possible to activate the switch from just outside of the walls, and also to straferun-jump into the box. See Access the secret exit on level E3M6 for details.


 * The mythological place Erebus is originally a deep place of utter darkness and the personification of shadow, but the level takes place in a bright lava-filled open area. This seems to be a reference to Mount Erebus, the volcano in Antarctica. The volcano is incidentally located where one of H. P. Lovecraft's most celebrated tales, At the Mountains of Madness, takes place. In the tale the volcano is described and associated with Edgar Allan Poe's Mount Yaanek (in his poem Ulalume), taking a special and ominous significance. It is noteworthy that the author of the level, Sandy Petersen, had been the writer of a role-playing game based of Lovecraft's mythos, and was later instrumental in introducing many Lovecraft-inspired elements in Quake, the game id Software released after the Doom games.

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