MAP17: Watch Your Step (Doom 64)

MAP17: Watch Your Step is the seventeenth level of Doom 64, designed by Danny Lewis. It uses the music track "Blood Red Shadows".

It begins in a large, empty arena-like area, with a sealed-off exit and a hallway. This hallway contains various weapons, including a BFG9000, and leads into a square room with an elevated area in the center. Ammo is strewn about, and the area is devoid of enemies, until the player steps on certain tiles. If the player doesn't "watch their step", they will be hopelessly swarmed with demons. The music for this level is the same as the music from PlayStation Doom which appears on MAP02: Nuclear Plant, MAP14: Halls of the Damned and MAP48: Nirvana. The music resembles a sad track with strange sounds to go along with it. The level ends with a huge battle against wave after wave of demons, culminating in a battle with twin cyberdemons, provided the player is playing on Watch Me Die skill.

Walkthrough
The player begins in a large open arena with a stone structure in the middle. There are no signs of monsters of any kind to be found just yet. There are a few heavy weapons along the wall on pedestals to pick up which are for the continuous onslaught of monsters later on. Go across the large pathway to the other section of the map, collecting a backpack and a BFG.

In the other section, there is a square path lined with tiles that goes around a dense, round structure. The tiles on the path trigger the appearance of lots of monsters including pinkies, Hell knights, cacodemons, lost souls, and pain elementals. The player must traverse these tiles until he trips the one that causes the blue skull key to appear in the far corner. The key grants the player access to the inside of the round structure and after triggering all the tiles and killing all the monsters, player must head into the structure via a mesh gate which allows visibility of a pain elemental lying in wait.

The player takes an elevator to the upper level of the structure and dispatches the imps guarding the teleporter in the center. Go into the teleporter and it takes the player to a frontage hall where he will have to kill sergeants. Player then goes across the frontage hall to the teleporter on the other side which takes him to a lesser frontage hall with a berserk powerup available which will trigger the appearance of imps, cacodemons, and pain elementals. Kill all monsters, then head back to the large open arena where the player first started.

Immediately after returning to the large open arena, many monsters will begin appearing progressively in waves as the player kills them. This starts with sergeants, and continues with imps, demons, Hell knights, mancubi and arachnotrons, and finally, the player's first encounter with cyberdemons. Abundant sources of ammunition and health also appear in the corners of the arena. Once all monsters and cyberdemons are killed, gates will open giving the player access to the exit.

Secrets

 * 1) To access both secrets, take the teleporter in the middle structure. As soon as you exit the teleporter, shoot straight ahead to hit a switch, which will open a door behind the teleporter you are currently on. Activate the switch in the secret room, and repeat the same step with the second teleporter you need to take. Doing this will open up the secret alcoves containing a megasphere (which is in plain sight as you enter the first arena) and an invincibility artifact, located at the hallway before the arena.

Routes and tricks
After you unlock the invincibility and mega sphere powerups, save them for the fight with the cyberdemons. With each one having 4000 HP and their rockets having the potential to kill the player instantly even with 200 health and armor, this will greatly increase the odds of surviving your encounter with them.

By the time you've reached this map, you should have 2 of the 3 demon artifacts (the third one is not accessible until after the secret exit is taken in MAP18: Spawned Fear). These will make the unmaker fire dual laser streams which are fueled by your energy cell reserves. It should be significantly powerful enough to deal with the cyberdemons with little to no effort.

Also, with invincibility on, you can charge at the cyberdemons with your BFG and fire a point-blank shot at them, dealing massive damage. However it can take 3 to 4 shots each with the BFG to kill them.

Trivia

 * The cavernous hallway which leads to the secret invulnerability sphere contains the heavily stylized letters "TEK" on the floor as pools of blood. These letters are a reference to "tekno", an alternate nickname for the map's author, Danny "Technoman" Lewis.


 * The final arena of Kadingir Sanctum in Doom (2016) was deliberately designed to resemble the opening area of this map, which was pointed out by its designer on Twitter. Similarities include the Stonehenge-like pillar layout with overlapping crossbars at different vertical levels, and the nature of the battle which takes place there as well - enemies continue to appear in shortly spread-out waves which increase in strength by varying the type of monster, starting with imps and culminating with barons of Hell. Other similarities not confirmed by the map's author include the color of the sky in both areas, and the relative positions of their exits compared to the temple structure.