MAP06: Survival Instincts (Community Chest 4)

MAP06: Survival Instincts is the sixth map of Community Chest 4. It was designed by Adam Windsor and uses "Into Sandy's City," a music track from Doom II by Robert Prince. It was the first level Windsor designed for a PWAD since his contributions to 2000's The Darkening Episode 2, and his first contribution to a PWAD since his portion of MAP12: Entropy in 2002's Alien Vendetta.

Essentials
Start

You begin in a sheltered rock area. If playing from a pistol start, you may wish to use secret #1 now to collect a shotgun, so that you don't have to go through the trouble of killing a shotgun guy with your pistol. Head east and kill an imp on a nearby rock ledge, then head south to enter a large outdoor area in front of a brick fortress. The outdoor area and the ramparts of the fortress are teeming with your usual cannon fodder of zombiemen, shotgun guys and imps, which you should be familiar with handling. However, there are also a couple of priority threats - notably, each turret of the fortress has a chaingunner (not present on hey, not too rough and below). Clear out the area and make a beeline for the entrance to the fortress, then open the door.

You are now in the front courtyard of the fortress. Watch for up to 12 imps on the surrounding ledges, as well as four imps and two demons on the courtyard floor. There is also a chaingunner on a nearby crate that you have to watch out for - kill it, then use the stairs in the west to get up onto the ledge, where you can jump to the crate and collect the chaingun. Once ready, open the door in the south to enter the fortress.

When you open the door, you are immediately greeted by a Hell knight. Kill it, then proceed forward to enter a large room with a hole in the ceiling and fragments of roof on the floor. For brevity, we will call this room the "entrance room". Here, you will find yourself in a nasty crossfire:


 * Up to three shotgun guys and two imps from a window in the northwest
 * Up to five imps in the west
 * Three shotgun guys and two imps from a barred area in the southwest
 * Four zombiemen in the south
 * Three imps in the raised area in the southeast
 * A spectre hiding behind the wooden crate (not on Hey, not too rough and below)

You may wish to use the door in the west of the previous corridor to enter the room behind the window in the northwest. From there, you can funnel enemies towards the window and mow them down with chaingun fire. Alternatively, the northeast of the room is relatively safe, and you can set up your foothold there. With the good number of hitscan monsters, monster infighting is a good idea.

Unlocking the Locked Door

The door in the east of the entrance room is marked "locked", and you can't open it. Your goal is to reach the caged area in the southwest and flip the switch to unlock this door.

First, head west and kill the two imps and one shotgun guy in the next rectangular room. Up to two more imps may also emerge from the stone area in the northwest - no big deal. Continue west into a large hall with a bigger threat - up to 10 imps and a caged baron of Hell (Hell knight on Hey, not too rough and below) in the north. Four cacodemons (two on Hey, not too rough and below) will also be awakened, approaching from the windows in the west. Grab the armor in the middle of this room if you need it, then go to town on the monsters.

Facing north, jump out of the northernmost window in the west to collect a rocket launcher and get the ambush on the chaingunner lying in wait (and not vice versa). Head south along this ledge and test out your rocket launcher on the imps in the platform in the southwest. Open the door at the end of the ledge and proceed forward.

At this point, a large teleport trap will be activated, re-populating the level with enemies. This is on top of any enemies that placed later in the level. There are four "lances" of enemies, and the enemies in each "lance" will teleport into different parts of the level. Each "lance" consists of:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Two shotgun guys, four imps, one Hell knight.
 * Hurt me plenty and above: Two shotgun guys, five imps and a revenant.

Each lance will teleport in as follows:


 * Lance 1: armor hallway and rocket launcher ledge
 * Lance 2: Door unlock switch area
 * Lance 3: East of soulsphere room or after locked door
 * Lance 4: Entrance room or after locked door.

The area ahead is teeming with shotgun guys and imps. First, kill the chaingunner in the southeast of the room just after the ledge and get moving before the monsters in lance 1 open the door behind you and attack you from behind. Head east to the room with the soulsphere and grab it, watching for the shotgun guys, zombiemen and monsters from lance 3 approaching from the east. Head out through the eastern doorway and make a left turn (north), then follow the corridor into a rectangular room with two square lights and a platform with a Hell knight in the north. You will also have three imps and two shotgun guys here to deal with, as well as the whole of lance 2. Head up the steps in the northeast to the caged area you saw earlier and flip the switch in the corner to unlock the locked door. Snipe the monsters from lance 4 here.

You can quickly return to the entrance room by heading south, flipping the switch on the wall in the L-shaped corridor to raise the bars and heading down into the square room with the chainsaw (watch for two imps). From there, head north and you will be back in the entrance room.

Exit

Back in the entrance room, head through the now unlocked door in the east. This takes you to a room with a pedestal and a curved cage high on the wall. Watch for imps and a Hell knight (not on Hey, not too rough and below) in the cage, as well as two zombiemen in the southwest. You will also find some monsters from lance 3 and lance 4 in the cage and on the ground respectively. Clear them out, then head through the door in the south.

Kill the chaingunner in the hallway, then head out into a large courtyard. Again, you are faced with a nasty crossfire. The floor of the courtyard is teeming with shotgun guys and imps, along with a chaingunner hiding behind the crates in the middle. An arachnotron lies in the southwest corner (Hell knight on Hey, not too rough and below). The ledge in the south is filled with imps, and three shotgun guys and a chaingunner (four shotgun guys on Hey, not too rough and below) are in a turret with the red key in the west. The exit door is in the east, but it requires the red key and is flanked by two cages with a revenant (Hell knight on Hey, not too rough and below).

When you fire a shot, you will find that you have an additional problem to worry about - cacodemons. Up to seven of them will appear from behind the walls of the courtyard and begin closing in on your position. With so many different monster types in the fray, it is time to start some major infighting and use your rocket launcher.

Once the coast is clear, lower the metal block in the southeast of the courtyard and ride it up. Head west along the ledge to its end, face north and run into the turret with the red key. make your way down the steps in the west (watch for a shotgun guy) and return to the courtyard.

Open the exit door in the east with your red key. Head down the path. Once you cross between the two green torches, the level ends.

Other points of interest
Collecting the super shotgun at the entrance to the fortress

At the entrance to the fortress, there is a super shotgun in the eastern turret. If you climb up to the entrance courtyard's ledge in an attempt to access the eastern turret, you will find that the entrance to the eastern turret is blocked by a pair of bars.

To collect the super shotgun, head to the western side of the entrance courtyard and climb up the stairs to the ledge. Head into the western turret, face east and run across. You will step on top of the pole in the middle of the entrance to the fortress courtyard and make the jump into the eastern turret, where you can collect the super shotgun. Flip the switch in the south to open the bars and exit the turret.

Secrets

 * 1) At the beginning, press on the brown rocky wall to collect a shotgun and some shells. (sector 84)
 * 2) Enter the fortress at the beginning and then head left to some steps. Climb the crates up to the ledge, then hop across the wooden bars to the ledge on the other side, which contains an armor, stimpacks, and shotgun shells. (sector 123)
 * 3) Inside the building after the fortress, near the door that says "LOCKED", press on the metal wall with the symbols on it to get some ammo and a stimpack. (sector 163)
 * 4) In the room just northeast of the hall on the left which holds a security armor, press on the slightly recessed southern wall near the bars to get ammo and a stimpack. (sector 194)
 * 5) In the room southwest of the room that unlocks the "LOCKED" door, the southwest corner of that room has different floor tiling. Press on this corner to get ammo and health. (sector 315)
 * 6) In the hallway just before the final outdoor area, there are several alcoves with bodies on sticks as well as candles in them. One of them does not have a body, so enter it and press the wall to reveal a hallway with ammo and a stimpack, plus a passageway back. (sector 432)

Current 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 nine spawn points:
 * 1) facing east. (thing 418)
 * 2) facing north. (thing 419)
 * 3) facing west. (thing 420)
 * 4) facing north-east. (thing 421)
 * 5) facing south-east. (thing 422)
 * 6) facing south-west. (thing 423)
 * 7) facing west. (thing 424)
 * 8) facing north-west. (thing 425)
 * 9) facing north-east. (thing 426)

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

Technical information
Locked door and locked/unlocked signs

The locked door in the east of the entrance hall cannot be opened initially, yet must be opened manually once it is unlocked by the switch panel. This is achieved by exploiting the property of doors to open to eight units lower than the lowest adjacent ceiling.

Behind the locked door is another identical door sector adjacent to it, which is also closed (ceiling lowered to floor). When the player attempts to open the door while it is in the locked state, the lowest adjacent ceiling is the adjacent door sector, whose ceiling is lowered to the floor. Hence, the door will not budge. When the unlock switch is flipped, the door sector behind the locked door is opened. Since the lowest adjacent ceiling is no longer at the floor, the locked door can now be opened.

The lock/unlock signs are also easily executed - the "locked" sign is actually the upper texture of a thin lowered sector in the alcove for the signs. The unlock switch that opens the door sector behind the locked door also raises these thin lowered sectors, displaying the "unlocked" texture on the wall behind.