MAP07: Hoedown (Community Chest 4)

MAP07: Hoedown is the seventh map of Community Chest 4. It was designed by James Cresswell (Phobus) and uses "Hiding the Secrets," a music track from Doom by Robert Prince.

Essentials
A map split into three segments, Hoedown begins with a nasty crossfire in nukage, followed by a cyberdemon arena and finally a brick building teeming with enemies. This map is roughly where Community Chest 4 begins to drive home the "modern" difficulty level. Survival will be challenging.

Phase One: Start and Yellow Key

You begin facing a brown brick corridor before a long pool of nukage. Grab the chaingun and the boxes of ammo, but don't step into the nukage if you value your hit points - there's a massive crossfire of shotgun guys, imps and chaingunners in there, besides the usual dangers of a damaging floor. Instead, head south along the corridor and go through the door.

In this darkened area, you will be greeted by a chaingunner in a pillbox. Dispose of it and head left (east) at the fork. Watch for an imp at the eastern corner (and one more in ambush near the pillbox on Ultra-Violence and above). Turn the corner, head up the steps and be wary of an imp, a chaingunner in an alcove and a shotgun guy (not on Hey, not too rough and below). Kill them and pick up the yellow key in the east facing backwards (west).

Picking up the yellow key causes a trap to open in the west, with two mancubi, two chaingunners (not on hey, not too rough and below), and a revenant (Ultra-Violence and above only). Head into the trap and collect the rocket launcher, two rockets and two boxes of rockets.

Backtrack to the corridor (instead of heading up the steps into the chaingunner's alcove) - this avoids triggering a massive teleport trap that releases a zombieman horde. make a dash across the nukage to the west, using your speed to avoid fire from the monsters in the alcoves. Open the yellow door at the end and head through.

As you approach the medikit in this room, you will wake up a baron of Hell and a cyberdemon, the latter of which will immediately teleport away. Kill the baron of Hell, take the super shotgun it was guarding, then run north down the steps into the nukage and flip the switch to open the door in the west of the room.

Phase Two: Cyberdemon Chaos

Head through the door and you will come to a dark brown corridor with diagonal slats overlooking a large square arena. The cyberdemon you woke up earlier is now on a ledge in the west. Watch for the demon and two imps along this corridor (all not present on hey, not too rough and below). Remember that the blue door is in the north of this corridor - the exit chamber is behind it.

Make your way to the south of this corridor and jump out into the main arena. You'll find yourself among imps on high perches, as well as a chaingunner on a perch (two on Ultra-Violence and above) in the northeast and southeast corners. On Hurt me plenty and above, you'll find four cacodemons as well. On Ultra-Violence and above, you'll also have a revenant on a perch, a pain elemental and two arachnotrons to deal with.

The higher the difficulty, the easier this cyberdemon battle gets, because you can recruit the cacodemons and arachnotrons to your side using monster infighting. Have a stray rocket fly into one of these monsters, and they will chip away at the cyberdemon's health for you.

Once the cyberdemon is down, head to the building in the northwest. Beside the door, you will find windows with two chaingunners (one on Hey, not too rough and below) behind them. Each of them can teleport in front of the opposite window if you are not in front of their window, so be careful and count your kills.

Head into the building. You will be hit by a small crossfire here. As you enter, a demon will attack from the front, and another from the left (south). You will also have to deal with a chaingunner ahead and an imp on a nearby crate. Carefully take out all the enemies, then head north up the steps. You will encounter a cacodemon - however, do not let it distract you from three sets of enemies placed in ambush to the left (west) - in order, a shotgun guy in a corridor, a chaingunner through a window, and finally a revenant left of the T-junction at the top.

At the T-junction, go right into the silver room. Watch for a revenant left of the doorway (both sides have a revenant on Ultra-Violence and above). Step onto the metal square with a blue circle, which is a teleporter. This teleports you to the ledge where the cyberdemon was. Climb up the steps to the north and jump off to the west into the next area

Phase Three: Blue key and Exit

You will land in a crescent-shaped outdoor area. Watch for four imps (three on hey, not too rough and below) on a ledge in the north, zombiemen and shotgun guys firing from a slit in the building, as well as three demons and a Hell knight (Ultra-Violence and above only) coming in from the north. Find the door in the southwest of this area, head through it into a small corridor, then through another metal door to a lowered segment of floor. Press the switch on the wall ahead to raise this segment of floor, which you will ride up.

This raises you into a square room with a pedestal containing a megaarmor and two imps (one on hey, not too rough and below), flanked by two zombiemen. As you step forward, a demon to the west will wake up, and up to four imps on a computer panel in a corridor to the southwest will be alerted. Deal with them, then head northeast.

You will be now be in the crescent-shaped corridor where the zombiemen and shotgun guys were taking potshots at you from the slit in the building. Mow them down with a chaingun. As you cross the halfway mark of this corridor, the inner walls of this corridor open up, revealing two zombiemen, two shotgun guys and two chaingunners. Try moving close to the outer edge of the corridor and using your speed to trick these newly-released former humans to clean up the rest of the corridor for you. At the end of the corridor, you will find a small room with steps in the back, with three demons (two on Hey, not too rough and below) and a Hell knight. Quickly deal with them and move into the next hall.

The next hall has four mancubi (two on Hey, not too rough and below). however, you also have a Hell knight in a corner, as well as a pillbox with two shotgun guys and two zombiemen (three on Ultra-Violence and above). While heading south, you may also pull a shotgun guy and imp from the area in the west. Ignore this area to the west and continue south, clearing out the mancubi with whatever weapons you have on hand.

Head up the stairs to a brown platform with a door. You need to be wary of the three imps, two shotgun guys and revenant around here. As you reach the platform, a trap will open in the northwest corner, with two imps (one on Hey, not too rough and below) and a chaingunner. On ultra-Violence and above, there is an extra revenant in the northeast, as well as a Hell knight on the platform itself. Carefully clear the surrounding area out, then proceed through the door in the south.

This next area is a long rectangular hall with two trapezoidal nukage pits. You will find four arachnotrons here (five on Ultra-Violence and above). Grab the armor if needed, then take the blue key from the alcove in the south. This causes a trap to open in the east with up to six cacodemons (and two pain elementals on Ultra-Violence and above).

Head back out through the door in the north to return to the raised platform. Jump off to the east and run all the way east to reach the segment of floor you raised to enter this building. Flip the switch on the south wall to lower it. Exit this building and return to crescent shaped outdoor area. Climb the rocks in the south to return to the raised ledge where the cyberdemon was, then jump off to the east and run to the northwest of the arena to the find the steps taking you back to the corridor with slats.

Head to the north of this corridor to find the blue door. Open it to reveal the exit chamber. Flip the switch in here to end the level.

Secrets

 * 1) At the start, head through the door on your right into the metal hall. In this hall, three columns block out the lights. Follow the dark path outlined by the rightmost column and enter a small passage to find an imp and a plasma gun. (sector 483)
 * 2) Enter the door on your left at the start. A chaingunner sees you through the window at the front. To get to where he is, go left and up into the small room where he was. Open the door here into the next room and take the lift on the right. Run through the nukage and pick up some health bonuses and a radiation suit. (sector 223)
 * 3) On the terrace just before the big courtyard, go south and press the brown brick wall with grey details to lower a lift (sector 342). Ride the lift to claim an invulnerability.
 * 4) Before you leave secret #3, there's a brown wall that is textured differently. Open it to reveal a teleporter. The sector you teleport on is a secret. (sector 588) Open the wall to find the other ledge that had chaingunners.
 * 5) In the middle of the courtyard is a nukage gully. Head between the rocks to drop down into a deeper part of the gully, and then head right until you get a megasphere. (sector 455)
 * 6) Inside the building full of crates on the west side of the courtyard, ignore the stairs for now and go around the crates until you can climb on some of them. Climb all the way to the top and then head onto the lift with armor bonuses on it. In the next area, stay on the ledge as you head for the northwest corner, where a fake wall hides a light amplification visor. (sector 538)
 * 7) Enter the building on the west side of the map, using the lift to head upwards. Go west a bit and press on the subtly mismatched brick wall (some bricks are too short, others too long) slightly to the left of the shotgun shells to lower a lift. Take it up to a corridor (sector 156) where you can head back outside to get a BFG9000 and energy cell packs.
 * 8) From the lift near Secret #7, head west and north into the computer room that has a mancubus on it (the mancubus will not be present on Hey, Not Too Rough or lower). In this room, press on the terminal that has static on it to lower it and reveal a cubbyhole (sector 169) where the next switch lowers a lift so you can get a megaarmor.
 * 9) In the far northwestern corner of the westernmost building are some chaingunners behind windows. Head into the room just to the right of them and press on the misaligned wall to open the way to them where you can get a soul sphere, a box of shotgun shells, and a box of bullets. (sector 197)

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

Miscellaneous demos
''This information was last verified in its entirety on January 23, 2018.

Player spawns
This level contains nine spawn points:
 * 1) facing north. (thing 694)
 * 2) facing east. (thing 695)
 * 3) facing east. (thing 697)
 * 4) facing east. (thing 698)
 * 5) facing east. (thing 699)
 * 6) facing south. (thing 700)
 * 7) facing south. (thing 701)
 * 8) facing south. (thing 709)
 * 9) facing north-east. (thing 711)

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