MAP26: Bunker (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP26: Bunker is the twenty-sixth map of The Plutonia Experiment. It was designed by Dario Casali and uses the music track "Message For The Archvile" from Doom II (the same as Doom II's ).

Essentials
You only need either the blue or red keycard to exit this level - collecting both cards is not required. However, due to the design of this level's teleport traps, getting 100% kills requires collecting both keys.

Start
You begin in an outdoor area. Head down the staircase in front of you (taking the nearby super shotgun if needed) without entering the room, and fire a shot to alert the assortment of monsters inside. It is preferable to stand at the stairs and not enter the cavern below, so that the monsters will line up while shooting at you and hit each other, resulting in monster infighting. Once the monsters are cleared, enter the cavern, which has a moat running through it, then kill the shotgun guys visible through the windows behind the moat before dropping into it. Follow the moat counter-clockwise eliminating any imps and cacodemons you find, until you reach a room with a blood-stained walls on your right and steps on your left leading up to a door. Go up the steps, which will open the blood-stained wall to reveal four chaingunners, then open the door and step through it.

Red key and switch
If you wish to exit using the red keycard, from the door after the chaingunner trap, turn left (east) and go up a set of steps then walk straight forward down another set to enter a room with tech panels. As you enter the room the south wall will lower to reveal four chaingunners guarding a switch; flip it, then head west across the steps and along a long hallway, passing a row of shotgun guys as you go, until you reach a fenced window with a cacodemon under it. Turn right then left, go down a couple of steps and walk through the tunnel on your left to enter the room containing the blue keycard.

Head west through a cross-shaped doorway, watching out for one or two revenants behind you, then continue west past a structure with an unreachable megasphere and down some steps to a doorway between two red-striped poles. Go through the doorway then follow the passage round until you see the red keycard in a dead-end; run straight forward until you hit the back wall then stand still and turn round on the spot, as two crushing ceilings have activated behind you. Time your run past the crushers and go round the corner to find that a wall has lowered revealing two or four chaingunners - kill them immediately.

Go back to the room with the blue key and head through the north-east tunnel, then walk north into a water-filled room containing one or two pain elementals. Leave the room by the north-west doorway and follow the green tunnel south and west, killing any enemies that get in your way, until you have walked through a wooden trench and entered a second green tunnel. As you enter the tunnel you will see a doorway on your right - go through it and ride the lift in front of you up then turn right and walk through a wall that lowers ahead to enter a second large cavern with several monsters, including two chaingunners inside pillboxes. Cross the cavern to a gargoyle switch on the east wall between two red skull strips and press it to open a route to the exit teleporter.

Blue key and switch
If you wish to exit using the blue keycard, from the door after the chaingunner trap, turn right (west) and walk a short distance to see a tan door on your left with a button next to it. Press the button to open the door and reveal a chaingunner, then go through the door and turn left to collect an armor and a box of rockets ahead, which will open a trap behind you containing three to five Hell knights. Blow up the barrels at the south end of the room and pull the lever behind them, which will lower another wall where the armor was located revealing some imps. Go into this alcove and press the button here to re-open the entrance door, then go through before it shuts.

Head west down the corridor until you reach a fenced window with a cacodemon under it. Turn right then left, go down a couple of steps and walk through the tunnel on your left to enter the room containing the blue keycard, which is sitting on top of a pillar. Kill the shotgun guys and revenants in this room then head west through a cross-shaped door until you reach the structure with the megasphere. Turn left at this point then left again to go up some steps to the shotgun guys' ledge - from here you can make a running jump to the blue key and pick it up using a bump grab.

Head back through the north-east tunnel, then walk north into a water-filled room containing one or two pain elementals. Leave the room by the north-east door and follow the water tunnels back round to the moat you dropped into earlier, killing any enemies that block your way, then continue west until you pass through a metal archway and enter a green tunnel. As you enter the tunnel you will see a doorway on your left - go through it and head up the steps on your left, pass through a wall that lowers then turn right and follow the wall to a gargoyle switch between two blue skull strips. Pressing this switch will open a route to the exit teleporter.

Exit
After pressing one of the keyed gargoyle switches, drop into the moat and backtrack to the room with the megasphere. Go down the west steps then turn left and head past one or two chaingunners to a staircase leading up to a large room with two caged arachnotrons. As you reach the top of the steps, note the area on your right with the wooden columns as a large group of monsters will start teleporting to the four pads there.

After killing all the enemies, go to the area and kill the arachnotrons (and arch-vile on Hurt Me Plenty skill level or higher) then run across the moat and enter the exit teleporter in the middle of this area to finish the level.

Secrets

 * 1) From the start, go down the stairs and drop into the moat. Follow it left for a while, until you reach a pair of overhanging green structures. An unreachable megaarmor is visible in a nook underneath the western one. Press the use key on the brown wall underneath the nook that does not contain the megaarmor, and both nooks will lower. Run over to the megaarmor before it rises again to register the secret. (sector 90)
 * 2) From secret #1, continue east along the moat until you reach a wooden chamber full of lion-faced pillars. One of them has blood splattered on its side. Open it to reveal a teleporter (sector 156) to a megasphere. Note that this secret cannot be triggered normally, as the sector is too thin for the player to register as standing inside it. Without using the  cheat code, the only way to trigger this secret is through an exploit, which involves standing on the edge of the teleporter with a pain elemental very close by, allowing him to spawn lost souls inside the player; this is much the same as the method for triggering the broken secret in Doom II's MAP15: Industrial Zone.
 * 3) From the megasphere, head west down some stairs, then turn left and go straight up another set until you hit a wall. The green-tinged wall to your left opens up, revealing a teleporter (sector 195) to a megaarmor, four medikits, a rocket and two boxes of shotgun shells.
 * 4) In the same room as the door to secret #3, there is an opening in the east to a vaguely 3-shaped hall. At the northern end of this corridor, there is another green-tinged wall that can be opened to find four energy cells. (sector 183)

Current Compet-n records
The Compet-n records for the map are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 6, 2020.

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on April 3, 2022.

Player spawns
This level contains eight spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 268)
 * 2) facing west. (thing 269)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 270)
 * 4) facing east. (thing 271)
 * 5) facing east. (thing 272)
 * 6) facing west. (thing 273)
 * 7) facing north-east. (thing 274)
 * 8) facing west. (thing 275)

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