MAP23: Barrels o' Fun (Doom II)

MAP23: Barrels o' Fun is the twenty-third map of Doom II. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and uses the music track "Bye Bye American Pie". It is notable for containing lots and lots of barrels, as the name suggests.

Essentials
From the start, turn around and run as fast as you can to the door at the opposite end of the hallway before the mancubus causes a chain reaction of explosions. Go through the teleporter behind the door to be taken to another area. Again, run to the end of the hall before the chaingunners cause all the barrels to explode. Once all the barrels have been detonated, you can go back and pick up all the goodies you left behind. When ready, go through the second teleporter. In the next area, quickly kill the pain elementals before you become swamped with lost souls, and flip the switch at the end of the room. It will raise a platform across the starting hall. If, for some reason, the wall in the room will not rise when the switch is pressed, strike it with a hitscan weapon and it will open. Run across the platform to the other newly revealed room across the way and follow it to the opposite end, where you will find two passages.

After dropping from either passageway, you will find yourself on a platform floating in a pool of blood. First, kill the enemies overlooking the platform to make things easier. Once they have been disposed of, drop into the blood and go through the teleporter in the southeast corner of the blood pool. It takes you to an area with two wide tunnels. Go through either (they lead into each other) and into the smaller rocky tunnels at the far end. There, you will find two caches with boxes of rockets. However, entering the tunnels will release several arachnotrons back outside. On Hurt me plenty or higher, there is a spider mastermind as well so make sure you are prepared for a big fight. Once the monsters have been dealt with, pick up the yellow skull key in the newly opened cave outside and go through the nearby teleporter.

Once on the other side, turn around and follow the cavernous tunnel to its end, where you will find a BFG9000 and an army of demons. Take the teleporter on the left and immediately start running again before the chaingunners cause the barrels around you to explode. Head through the exit door at the end of the hall and open the yellow door to the left. Shoot the barrels you can see to clear the way to the exit teleport.

Secrets

 * 1) After raising the triangular platform allowing you to cross the long corridor you started in, you will be able to access a raised corridor on the eastern side of the area. At the northern end of the hall are two passageways that lead outside. Take either one and continue to the end, but do not drop yet. Outside, between the two passages, there is a long raised platform. In case you took the right (lower) passage, you can simply walk onto it but if you took the left (upper) one, you will need to drop onto it from above. Once on the platform, turn around and you will be able to access a thin secret passage with a megasphere at its end. (sector 61)
 * 2) Once in the outdoor area, drop into the pit of blood and take the teleporter in the southeast corner. It takes you to a raised area with a wide, circular tunnel. At the far end of the tunnel is a pair of smaller tunnels that each lead to a cache of boxes of rockets. The southern of the two tunnels has a satyr face on the wall. Open it to reveal a soul sphere. (sector 11)

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on October 23, 2012.

Trivia
The music used in the level is heavily inspired by "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains. Later on, the song would be used in Final Doom's both modifications, The Plutonia Experiment and TNT: Evilution. It would play as the background music in both their MAP23, Tombstone and  Lunar Mining Project respectively, making "Bye Bye American Pie" the only Doom II song to be used consistently in three IWADs.