MAP18: Internal Reaches 3 (Community Chest 2)

MAP18: Internal Reaches 3 is the eighteenth map of Community Chest 2. It was designed by Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal, and uses the music tack "Infinite" from TNT: Evilution.

This is the second sequel to Community Chest MAP15: Internal Reaches. The first, Internal Reaches 2, was released standalone as the first of the kaiser_* series, kaiser_1.wad.

Walkthrough

 * Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Essentials
This level will be long due to a lot of backtracking, so get ready. Go either left or right and find the blocked-off lift. The switch here raises a switch back in the starting room, this switch removes the bars from the lift. The door in front of you is marked as a red door so go either left or right and around to the next area. No matter which side you pick, you cannot enter any doors, so approach the bars leading to the center and they will open. Be mindful of the imp trap that occurs and go southward. Press the lion switch and the doors on the right side of the previous area will open, so go through them. The flashing light sector in this small room is a lift down. As you continue to go down, watch out for shotgun guys, and then enter the teleporter. The nearby satyr switch lowers lifts to the right, and a switch is on the left one. It opens several doors on this side. The other lift lowers to a revenant and a switch revealing a chaingun and a box of ammo. Go through the door to the south that you just opened and head to the center of this hall.

The satyr switch north reveals another way back, but go south through the next door to the open courtyard. There are two teleporters here and a door. The western one leads to a three-key bar that you cannot access yet, so ignore it and the door for now. The eastern teleporter is the one you need to go to. Hit the switch here, and this will lower a barrier barring the southern switch in this yard. Now get ready for a puzzle. You need to hit the south switch, then run quickly to the left switch before the barrier rises, and then run across from that switch to the switch on the east side in order to lower the red skull key. You will probably fail this puzzle a couple times, usually due to teleporting heavy weapon dudes being distractions on your first attempt. Once you get the key, backtrack all the way to the red door.

In the next room with the caged enemies, head left. When you approach the spiral staircase, it will close and you will be ambushed from behind. Flip the switch in their closet and continue down the spiral staircase. Follow the path ignoring the bars with the three-key symbol along the way and retrieve the yellow key. Now take the teleporter and backtrack to the room with the caged monsters and take the yellow key door. If you are not getting Secret #9 then ignore the switch. Behind the yellow door is a courtyard and a switch. Press it, and the north and south passageways will reveal switches. Press either of them to raise the flanking staircases. If you are getting Secret #10, go north and get it, otherwise go south and east to an alcove which is a lift down. Grab the blue skull key and you will have to backtrack a long way since there are more bars with a nearby three-key symbol that you cannot access yet.

Go all the way back to that one courtyard near the southern half of the map with the two teleporters, and take the left one. Open the three-key bars and prepare to fight a cyberdemon (if you are playing on co-op difficulty only) and some heavy weapon dudes. When you press the switch, be prepared for arch viles ambushing you from behind. You will then have to go back to the room with the caged enemies and head down the spiral staircase again, so do that. When you reach the hallway where you retrieved the yellow key, the bars near the three-key symbol are gone, leading to an arena with a few mancubi and a switch in the far left corner. Flip it, and get ready to fight various monsters, including a cyberdemon. From where he is there are two switches. Flip them both, and then backtrack all the way to the place where you got the blue key (you may have to wait awhile because the bars lock you in for about thirty seconds. You will find that the bars here are gone, so go through and fight the monsters both in and out of the cages (there iss another multiplayer-only cyberdemon here) and press the switch in the back. This opens up three alcoves with revenants. The ones on the sides have two more switches that you need to press. After pressing these, go back to the big room with cages behind the red door and you will be able to cross to the north since the bars are all removed at this point. Press the switch, and you will have to kill two mancubi and an arachnotron, but be careful as the ceiling slowly lowers as you enter. Enter the teleporter and you will be back at the starting point. Press the switch to leave this map.

Secrets

 * 1) At the beginning of the level, the southwest alcove with the ammo box has a trio of metal panels on its rear wall.  Push on it, and a lift will lower to reveal a berserk pack. (sector 64)
 * 2) Within secret #1, look to the west to find another trio of metal panels.  Press on this one as well to find five health bonuses. (sector 66)
 * 3) In the first metal room accessed from the hallway south of where you start, you can look in the northeast alcove, after the four Imps are released, and find a switch on a wall in an inaccessible room.  After hitting the switch in the center of the room you are in, shoot this unreachable switch, and a door will open.  Quickly run into the computer room east of this area, head into the southwest passage, and look through the window to see another switch.  Shoot this switch, and then backtrack to the central, metal room to the window you looked through before to see another switch.  Each of these last two switches must be shot within nine seconds after the doors that block them are opened.  When all three switches are successfully triggered, return to the eastern computer room, and go to the southwest passage again to see a teleporter.  Enter it to be taken into the previously unreachable room, where you can get three stimpacks, combat armor, a box of shells, a bulk cell, and a chainsaw. (sector 134)
 * 4) In the western metal room (west of the central one where you shoot the first and last switches in secret #3,) the switch you must trigger to lower a lift and access another switch out of the room will lower another lift opposite the other one, behind a fake wall.  Walk through the wall to get four stimpacks. (sector 217)
 * 5) After teleporting to the southeast side of the red skull area, enter the teleporter you landed on to taken to the southwest corner.  Look to the left to find a differently-textured wall with an arrow pointing to it on the floor; press on the wall, and it will lower to unveil a rocket launcher. (sector 304)
 * 6) In the green hall after the cavern following the spiral staircase, one of the demonic faces is bright and flickering.  Press on it, and a closet will open in the east cavern, containing a soul sphere. (sector 448) Be careful, however; once you grab it, you will be attacked by an Arch-Vile.
 * 7) The moment you enter the cage where the yellow skull is held, a switch will reveal itself west of the bloodfall.  Make your way to the switch as quickly as you can, and press it.  Closets will open in the southwest hall.  The northwest one contains a light amplification visor... (sector 510)
 * 8) ...and the southeast one contains a blur artifact. (sector 509)
 * 9) After getting the yellow skull, backtrack to the northern, brown room to find combat armor sitting on a switch pillar.  Press any of the switches, and although you will get the armor, you will be trapped in the center of the room for 36 seconds.  Fight off the enemies that appear until you are freed.  At the same time as you are freed, two alcoves will lower in the southeast corners containing a plasma rifle and a bulk cell.  Both of these count as one secret. (sector 526)
 * 10) In the outdoor section behind the yellow skull door, going down the south side of the northwest staircase will temporarily open a switch at the northeast side.  Quickly shoot the switch through the window, and an alcove will open behind you, containing two medikits, security armor, and two boxes of rockets. (sector 631)
 * 11) After you get lowered into another room at the southeast of the aforementioned outdoor section, the stairway in front of you has a trio of metal panels right near the window.  Press it to lower a tunnel containing five health bonuses. (sector 641)
 * 12) Get everything in secret #11, and return to the room you came from to find a huge alcove has opened in the south, containing two bulk cells. (sector 642)
 * 13) After the three keys barrier in the western, green hall, there are two bodies hanging on the west of the tunnel; one is right side up, the other upside down.  Press on the one that's right side up, and a door will open at the east of the tunnel very briefly; immediately dash under it, and head downstairs to find a teleporter.  It will take you to the megasphere in the center of the next room. (sector 699)
 * 14) At the northeast of the map, after opening the three southern alcoves in the northern room, look into the center one, which has bloody remains in front of it.  Open the back wall to find three cells. (sector 753)
 * 15) Enter secret #14 and a wall will lower at the east side of the room.  Run through the opening before the wall raises again to enter a metal hallway.  Walk through it until you come across two satyr faces on a wall; approach them, and the wall will rise to enable access to a BFG 9000. (sector 761) Beware, however, that when you obtain the weapon, enemies will be unleashed into the hallway.

Bugs
This level cannot be completed in no monsters mode outside of using the noclip cheat, as the presence of a Baron of Hell (thing 455) is required for the three-key barrier in the northwest, green hallway to open.

Current records
The records for the map on the Doomed Speed Demos Archive are:

Last updated on March 17, 2013.