MAP11: Hunted (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP11: Hunted is the eleventh map of The Plutonia Experiment. It was designed by Dario Casali and uses the music track "Sweet Little Dead Bunny", the music from Doom's ending cinematic. It is a maze level notable for being populated exclusively by arch-viles.

Essentials
Pressing the first switch will open the door and release the arch-viles in the starting room. Grabbing the yellow skull key will yet release a separate arch-vile.

It is necessary to save your health in this maze - there are no forms of health recovery until the very end. Another important tip for this level regards the doors. The doors of this maze - unlike most other doors in Doom universe - cannot be opened or closed by hitting the spacebar in front of them. Rather, you must walk to a specific spot of the way to open the door. Such spots are often marked with narrow gray sections in the walls.

In general, it is possible to avoid getting hurt by the arch-viles if you kill them using a proper tactic. Blast them with the super shotgun until they start conjuring the flames, then get out of their line of sight by running around the corner. It takes the arch-vile about three full seconds to do one attack, from when it first calls the fire to when it actually sends out the blast. Thus, if you time it correctly, you can drop these monsters painlessly. Another way to kill an arch-vile relatively easy is by blasting him frontally with a single BFG9000 shot at very close range, before he can finish his attack on you (though this is not an option outside of cheating, as the weapon is normally not acquirable in previous levels).

You do not need both keys to exit the level. Only a single one is required, be it the red or yellow skull. However, the switch that opens the yellow bars is in front of the red bars, and vice versa, so you still need to traverse a sizable portion of the maze to exit.

At the end, you are presented with two exit teleporters. The left one will take you straight to the next level. However, the right one will take you to a type 11 damaging floor room with the last four arch-viles of the level. When your health drops to 11% or lower, the level will end (but you will spawn in MAP12 with extremely low health).

Path to the red skull key

From the starting room turn south, take the path to the west and go into the first door on the south wall that opens just as you come to it. Follow the path eastwards, then all the way to the north and west to a pair of opposite doors, from which the north one has opened. Go through it and east until you have to go south, follow the bends until you go east again towards an open door that leads north. Continue north and then west, until you find the dead end with the red skull key.

Path to the yellow skull key

From the starting room turn south, take the path to the west and go into the first door on the south wall that opens just as you come to it. Follow the path eastwards until you pass a door on the south wall, and continue a bit north until you hear it open, then backtrack through it. Of the two south-bound paths take the eastern one, then go west at the next crossing, and follow all the way to the west until you reach the south-western corner of the map. Go north to the dead end with the yellow skull key under a green window.

Secrets

 * 1) Once in the maze area, continue from the start along the path to the right until you reach the first door, which opens when you approach. Open the misaligned wall directly across from it. This reveals a switch in an alcove (you must actually walk into the alcove to trigger the secret). Pressing the switch causes lights in the floor to appear, which should help you to navigate (although not very much) through the maze. (sector 106)

Routes and tricks
It is possible to avoid the releasing of the arch-viles with a good timed opening. Use caution when pressing the first switch; as some of the arch-viles may try to attack you the moment the switch is pressed. This is more common with the fast monsters setting enabled.

Current records
The Compet-N records for the map are: The data was last verified in its entirety on May 6, 2013.

Map data
* The vertex count without the effect of node building is 1259.