MAP02: Catnip Outpost (Hardfest)

MAP02: Catnip Outpost is the second map of Hardfest. It was designed by Korp and uses the music track "Pixel Pastries", composed by Lpad. It is a fairly generic techbase set inside a natural setting, with sprinkles of DoomCute.

Essentials
Starting the map, grab the shotgun and clear everything in the starting room. Beware the shotgunners close to the east door, since they can easily get in some chip damage if you are unaware.

Opening the east door, you will appear in a hangar, where revenants and hitscanners from both sides will start closing in on you. Pressing the switch will open the hangar bay, leading to a rocky formation outside. There is a soulsphere on the south, but picking it up will result into a horde of shotgunners and one arch-vile to teleport into the middle of the arena, so be prepared for that.

Go into a cavernous area. Picking up the rocket launcher will initiate an ambush. In front of you will be a pain elemental and cacodemons, behind you a horde of imps. Two mancubi will snipe you from the opening of the next area, and the switch which opens access to it is blocked by a Hell knight.

The next area contains some chaingunners and Hell knights. Opening the door, you will enter another part of the techbase, embedded into the cave. Pressing the switch will initiate another ambush. Revenants will teleport onto a platform above, while the lower part will get flooded by demons, Hell knights, hitscanners and an arch-vile. It is good that there is plenty of cover, and you can use the slightly elevated switch area to get away from the demons, since it is usually pretty unpopulated.

After some time, a switch which opens the exit door will be revealed, press on it and backtrack to the hangar, you will see that the blue keycard has lowered. Pick it up and return to the starting area. Open the blue door and enter the hallway behind it. Walk deeper into it, and you will trigger an ambush. Three closets will open, releasing two cacodemons and one pain elemental, while two mancubi, one at the start of the hallway, another at the end, will teleport in. The switch at the entrance will lower, pressing on it will open the doors, allowing to go back and progress.

In the next room, press the switch to lower an elevator, and ride it up. Crossing an invisible linedef will cause six chaingunners to appear on elevated platforms to your left, three on each one, and a Hell knight will be at the end. Open the door and you will appear outside. Grab what you need, jump down, and mentally prepare for the hardest fight of the map.

Picking up the red keycard will cause two teleporters to lower at the north-eastern part of the arena. A horde of spectres will teleport in, as well as four arch-viles, while you have only two relatively small pillars to hide behind. After killing everyone, check the more southern teleporter closet, it has a switch inside it. Pressing it will lower a lift that will ride back to where you entered this arena from. Press the red switch to reveal another switch that will open the exit door. Kill the arachnotron inside and go into the teleporter to finish the level.

Secrets

 * 1) At the switch to the south, go north through the vines. Head northwest and lower a wall there to get a plasma gun, energy cells, and an energy cell pack (not on Ultra-Violence or higher). (sector 219)
 * 2) At the east side, after the bars, head west and drop to the south. Lower the west wall and take the teleporter to teleport to a megasphere. (sector 340)

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on March 18, 2023.

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

Trivia

 * Originally, the final fight only had two arch-viles, but the initial project lead gabirupee asked the map creator to add two more.