MAP04: Ratamahatta (Memento Mori II)

MAP04: Ratamahatta is the fourth level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Florian Helmberger and uses the music track "Interphaze" by David "Tolwyn" Shaw.

Mission briefing
According to both the text file and the Infopack:


 * You are being sent to a place quite deep in hell which is inhabited with monsters of all kinds (you didn't expect that, did you?). We have sent Duck Nukem in to scout the area. He seems to not have achieved that much (nothing but cool talk). Anyway, we include [sic] the last picture of his HeadCam(tm) with this file - his last transmited [sic] words were: "This really pisses me off!".


 * Go in there, kick butt and get out alive soldier!

Essentials
This level centers around visiting four separate areas to raise three stone steps in a blood pit, allowing access to the exit. While the southwestern area must be visited first, the remaining three areas can be done in any order.

Start and Southwestern Area

Press the skull in front of you to lower the pillar you are on into a large room. Head south and pick up the super shotgun. You are in now in a smaller rectangular room with four "pits" in each corner, and a blood pit in the south, beyond which is the level exit. For simplicity, this room with four holes will be called the "nexus".

As you entered the "nexus", three walls lowered, blocking off three of the "pits". Only the southwestern one is left open. Drop into this pit first. You will arrive in a small red rock room with a vat of blood in the middle. Clear the cage to your right, which contains an imp and up to two shotgun guys. Proceed through the passage into a room with a demon and up to three shotgun guys. On Ultra-Violence and above, you will probably alert a spectre in the next room, so be prepared.

Next, head up the steps into a round room with two red firesticks. Kill the imps on the high ground, collect the armor bonuses and stimpacks if needed, then continue up the steps.

You should be now in a room overlooking a large grey rock cavern. Look to your left and right, and collect the health bonuses and shotgun shells on either side before dropping into the cavern. This cavern is full of imps and spectres, so be prepared to be attacked from all sides. A chaingun and a box of ammo (two on hey, not too rough and below) are available at the end of a tunnel in the northeast of this cavern, but it is guarded by imps and spectres. Head to the far west side of the cavern (south of the green pillar in the northwest), and find the westernmost wall that runs approximately north-south. Opposite that wall is a stalagmite and a rectangular recess in the rock wall that looks out of place. Press use on that recess and it will open, revealing a switch. Flip this switch.

Head to the southeast of the rock cavern. A new area with a teleporter will have appeared. Watch for up to three spectres waiting in ambush. As you approach the teleporter, two traps will open, releasing two imps (Hey, not too rough and below), two demons (Hurt me plenty), or three demons (Ultra-Violence and above).

Collect the items from the traps if needed, then step into the teleporter. You will be teleported back to the starting room, and the other three holes in the "nexus" will be open.

Northwestern Area

Return to the "nexus", and drop down the northwestern "pit". As you proceed down the corridor, mind the cage on your right with an imp and up to two chaingunners. As you continue forward, you will be able to see one of the rooms in the southwestern area. Equip your chaingun, aim towards the bars and proceed forward. As you approach closer, you will hear a fast door open in the distance. A trap has opened in the rear of the room visible through the bars, with two zombiemen (Hey, not too rough and below), a chaingunner (Hurt me plenty), or two chaingunners (Ultra-Violence and above). With your chaingun in pointed in their direction, you should get the jump on them instead.

Proceed down the corridor, killing any spectres along the way. This rock corridor should now open into a long hall with three imps. However, as you walk into a hall, a crusher activates. There are a total of four crushers in this room - crossing one activates the next in the sequence. A hint to the position of the crushers are the metal stripes on the walls - the crushers run along these tracks. Time your approach and make your way to the north end of the hall - these crushers should not be a problem for a seasoned player.

Continue into the red tunnel ahead, and follow the tunnel around until it narrows into a series of square steps. These steps are actually part of a room with a 4 x 5 grid of square steps. Make your way to the top, being wary of imps on the top few steps and a chaingunner (one shotgun guy on Hey, not too rough and below) cage on the east wall. Near the top, there is also a jump between one step and another. Make your way to the alcove in the south wall to escape this room.

Follow the corridor at the top around until you reach a larger room with two shotgun guys (a zombieman is added on Hurt me plenty and above; a demon is also present on Ultra-Violence and above). Refrain from approaching the two medikits and stay close to the southeast side of the room - the northwest side contains a large drop trap leading into an ambush. Exit this room via the corridor in the southwest, and continue forward.

Along this corridor, there will be a gap in the floor. Jump across it and continue following around, clearing the corridor of imps and zombiemen. Eventually, the corridor will open up into a grey rock area with bars, overlooking a central blood-filled area. Up to four imps and a demon await you, so pick them off. Head north and clear the cannon fodder along this, until you reach a green brick doorway. Beyond this doorway is a room with a grave. As you enter a room, a chaingunner suddenly appears (zombieman on Hey, not too rough and below). Kill it, then step onto the grassy area.

Exit this room, and proceed all the way south to notice that a new room has opened at the end of this corridor. Up to two demons and two imps are inside. Kill them, then find the alcove in the west wall of this new room. Flip the switch at the end of the alcove.

Head north, and notice that a set of bars to your right has been raised. Go through to the central blood-filled area and head south up the steps. Kill the two demons and two zombiemen in the room at the top, then drop down the shaft in the southern wall. You will be back at the starting room.

Northeastern Area

Return to the "nexus" and drop into the northeastern "pit". You are now in a mini-maze of red rock tunnels. Clear out any imps and shotgun guys in this area, and head for the big room with a lava pool. As you proceed up the steps in this big room, face west and prepare for a chaingunner ambush (shotgun guy on Hurt me plenty and below) from a trap between the two tunnels in the west of the room.

The steps lead you to another room with a set of raised platforms, and a bunch of imps and shotgun guys. Look for the unique teleporter in the southwest to be teleported to the first of these platforms. Each platform has a choice of two teleporters - only take the ones that have a full pentagram, since the other ones will merely teleport you into the lava pool in the previous room. On Ultra-Violence, you might want to take care of an additional chaingunner first. Make the right choice, twice, and you will be teleported onto a higher ledge where you can run into the exit of this room.

Continue forward, and you will come to another room with bars overlooking the central, blood-filled areas. Again, you face a demon and up to four imps. Proceed north, clearing out the cannon fodder in front of you again, until you reach another green brick doorway. Beyond this doorway is another room with a grave. As you step onto a grass, a small trap in the south of this room opens, revealing a powerful enemy and something that might be useful in helping you defeat it:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: A demon and a chainsaw
 * Hurt me plenty: A hell knight and a soulsphere
 * Ultra-Violence and above: A baron of Hell and a soulsphere.

Kite the monster around, then take the item in the alcove (it is mandatory to enter the alcove to progress the level).

Head south. At the T-junction, a new room will have opened in the east. Two imps and up to two demons are inside, and if you did the northwestern area earlier, it should seem too familiar. Kill the enemies inside, then find the alcove in the north wall of this new room. Flip the switch at the end of the alcove.

As you leave this room, notice that the bars at the head of the steps at the T-junction have been raised. Go up the steps to the central blood-filled area and head south up another set of steps. Drop down the shaft in the southern wall of the room at the top. You will be back at the starting room.

Southeastern Area

Return to the "nexus", and drop down the southeastern "pit". Kill the shotgun guy ahead, then kill the shotgun guys and imps in the next narrow hall. Follow the corridor at the end around to a hall with four pillars and an "altar" with a dead marine. As you enter the room, a large number of enemies suddenly appear:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Four shotgun guys directly ahead.
 * Hurt me plenty: Four shotgun guys directly ahead. A Hell knight appears at the altar
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Four shotgun guys and a demon directly ahead. A baron of Hell appears at the altar.

Kill them all, and step up to the altar. Press use on the northern (right side) stained glass window beside the altar - it is a hidden door that leads back to the "nexus". Do note that if you decide to take the medikits behind the altar, the four pillars in this room will lower, revealing three (Hurt me plenty) or four (Ultra-Violence and above) chaingunners.

Exit

There now should be three irregular stone steps in the blood pool at the south of the "nexus". Run across them, but as soon as you step onto the grey floor at the end, immediately run backwards. One last ambush has been triggered in the exit chamber, and the following monsters suddenly appear:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Two shotgun guys.
 * Hurt me plenty: Two imps.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Two imps and a hell knight.

From the "nexus", you can pick them off with your chaingun with minimal risk. Once they are dead, run back across the steps into the exit chamber. Step into the star-shaped hole in the floor to exit the level.

Other points of interest
Right after dropping down into the northeastern hole in the south of the map start room, there is a branch-off from the central passage to the north with an alcove to the east, containing the wad's first and this map's only backpack you see in front of you. A little bit more eastern in the central passage, there is a branch-off to the south where you find an alcove with a green armor. Another little bit more eastern in the central passage, there is an alcove in the southern wall with a computer map. Approaching the backpack to grab it shuts the computer map's alcove for good and vice versa, so you have to decide to benefit from having the backpack right now at the cost of not reaching 100% of the items. After carefully grabbing one of the goodies you still can get the green armor, since only fully entering (not necessary to get the item) the backpack's or the computer map's alcove closes the armor's alcove. (Approaching the armor shuts the computer map's alcove, fully entering the armor's alcove shuts the backpack's alcove.)

Secrets

 * 1) In the room with the crushers, the second crusher from the south has an opening on its east side. This leads into a secret room (sector 108) containing ten health and armor bonuses, (a chainsaw on Hurt Me Plenty or higher,) five troopers and two sets of shells. At the southeast of this room is a cavern with two more health bonuses and two imps that leads into a cage where (if not killed before) an imp and (skill dependent) none/one/two chaingunners are and a box of bullets, a box of shotgun shells and a green armor can be obtained. Entering this cage lowers two pillars in the secret room with two imps and medikits.
 * 2) From the western or central stone walkways in the northeast cavern, jump into the tower, and then onto the bloodfall to the north. You will discover a secret cavern (sector 232). Proceeding northwards after registering this secret lets a sergeant (on easy and medium skills) or a chaingunner (on hard skills) teleport into the tower. Enter the northern tunnel, where some enemies will spot and attack you: from the east one/two/three sergeants and from the west two/four/seven spectres and one/two/two imps. On the tunnels' eastern end are two bullet boxes. The first inset in the west of the tunnel contains two imps (not on easy), two sergeants and two boxes of bullets. Upon entering it, on hard skills a demon at the tunnel's western end probably spots and attacks you. The second inset contains one/two/three spectres, four/six/nine imps, one/one/two demons, four medikits and a green armor. Upon entering it, on medium and hard skills another demon at the tunnel's western spots and attacks you. At the tunnel's western end are two sets of shells. Finally, from the western end, you can drop down the bloodfall to acquire a berserk pack.

Bugs
In the southwestern part of the level, the trigger to raise the second of the stone steps in the blood pit, allowing access to the exit (W1 Floor raise to next Higher Floor, Texture Change, Tag 32) is present on the front of the second step to the "altar" (linedef 2235), but not on the sides (linedefs 2236 and 2243). Thus, if the player steps onto the second step towards the altar from the sides only, the second stone step will fail to appear from the blood pit.

Routes and tricks
There are two tricks that can be used to sharply cut down the time needed to finish the level. The first is to use strafe50 to pass over the linedef at the beginning that closes three of the four passageways, allowing you to access them early. The fastest path to the exit, which requires access to the northeast and then southeast passageways, requires you to perform this feat twice, which requires a fair bit of luck to pull off.

The second trick is performed after reentering the starting area from the northeast passageway area, and leaving the chapel accessed from the southeast passageway. While the middle pillar in the blood pit to the south is rising, you can still jump onto it. If you do this after raising the southern pillar (from the area accessed from the northeast passageway,) you can then access the exit room without having to raise the northern pillar first. This is used in both the record-holding UV and NM speed demos for this level.

In UV max runs, secret #2 can be used to access the northwest passageway area after the northeast one without having to backtrack to the four passageways room.

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on May 8, 2014.

Deathmatch
In deathmatch, players respawn in one of four similar-looking pairs of rooms outside the main level. The first of each pair of rooms has a "teleport pad" on which the player respawns, and the second contains either a rocket launcher, plasma gun, super shotgun or chaingun, along with plenty of ammunition for the corresponding weapon.

With some familiarity, one can know which weapon they are about to collect next:


 * If you spawn in the southwest corner of the first room, you are getting a rocket launcher;
 * If you spawn in the southeast corner of the first room, you are getting a plasma gun;
 * If you spawn in the northeast corner of the first room, you are getting a chaingun;
 * If you spawn in the northwest corner of the first room, you are getting a super shotgun;

Six teleporters are arranged around the wall of the second room, and entering any teleporter teleports the player into the main level. The wall texture behind each teleporter and the teleporter's position gives a hint as to where each teleporter will teleport the player.

Clockwise from the northwest corner, these are the teleport locations:


 * On top of the platform in the central blood-filled area in the northeast
 * Starting Room
 * Highest platform in the "teleporter room" in the east
 * Rock cavern in the southwest
 * Corridor before the "altar hall" in the southeast
 * Cavern in secret area #2

The layout of the teleporters is the same across all four pairs of respawn rooms.

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

Trivia
The appearances of "Duck Nukem" in both the mission briefing for this level, and a gravestone in the level itself, are evidently jabs at Duke Nukem 3D, released in 1996 six months before the megawad, referencing the game's. This is further supported by his use of "This really pisses me off," which is one of various things Duke can say in the game upon being killed. An additional shot at the game appears in the mission briefing for MAP18: Regulate in the form of the equally ill-fated scout, "Ken BUILDerman," whose name is a reference to, programmer of the on which the game runs.

The health and armor bonuses in the room with the four passageways are arranged in the shape of the logo.

Ratamahatta is also a song by Brazilian thrash metal band.

All the fake floor pits that monsters are designed to instantly appear from have their floor set at -666 units, a reference to the.