MAP109: The Pain Maze (Rabbit's All-comers Mapping Project 2022)

MAP109: The Pain Maze is the one hundred and ninth map of Rabbit's All-comers Mapping Project 2022. It was designed by ONETAPPYBOI and uses the music track "Parallel dimensions" by Trent Reznor.

Essentials
Press the switch and go through the teleporter, which will lead you to a dark cave-like area with slime on the floor and a set of columns. Platform along the columns until you reach the shotgun. Picking it up will spawn several lost souls as well as open a wall, behind which, depending on the difficulty, are one or multiple arch-viles. Kill the lost souls while using the large rock on the left as cover from arch-viles, then proceed to run to the large metallic room opposite to the initial teleporter. There, pick up a backpack, and quickly step away as there is a crushing ceiling lowering on the platform the backpack used to be on. Using the newly lowered column as cover, take out the arch-vile that appeared after picking up the backpack. Go to the area the arch-vile used to be in and interact with the switch, which will raise the column, revealing a green armor, and will also reveal a previously hidden door, allowing to progress further. Going through the said door will take you into the cross-shaped central area of the level, which will be revisited many times.

In the central area, pick up the rocket launcher and deal with lost souls and pain elementals that have appeared. After killing all pain elementals, the eastern bars will lower. Moving into the area previously behind bars will raise a staircase, which will allow accessing a room with the red key as well as the arch-viles revealed all the way back when you picked up the shotgun. Kill all the arch-viles and press the switch on the column with the red key to lower it. Pick up the red key, and return to the central area.

This time, go south until you notice a red door. Behind it there will be a switch that lowers the red columns. Proceed to the southern area of the room, go up the stairs and, on Ultra-Violence and higher, kill the arch-vile that is located at the top of the stairs. Attempting to pick up the blue key will teleport you into a brick room. Stepping off the teleporter will raise it, preventing backtracking (at least for now). Press the switch in the eastern part of the room to open a wall on the western side of the room and reveal one or two arch-viles. Kill them, pick up the chaingun located there and open the door. Behind it, there will be a maze of low walls. As you go through the maze, several pain elementals will spawn, so deal with them as they appear. After going through the door you will get into a room with some ammo, a berserk pack and a blue key. Attempting to pick up the blue key will teleport you back into the central room on the column with the previous blue key. Pick it up and, on Ultra-Violence and higher, deal with two newly-spawned pain elementals.

Go further north and pick up the plasma gun, located where the rocket launcher used to be. Picking it up will spawn some additional pain elementals and arch-viles. After killing them, blue bars at the western portion of the room will lower. Proceed there, past the deep water pit, past the door and up the stairs until you're at the graveyard section. There, progress north while killing lost souls that rise from the graves and taking note of the yellow door that is located west of the secret megasphere. Eventually you will find a yellow key. Picking it up will spawn eight lost souls. After dealing with them, return to the yellow door and go through it.

In the hallway behind the yellow door, a pain elemental will spawn and a wall will rise, preventing you from going forward. It will lower after the pain elemental is dead. The same will happen a second time, further into the hallway. After dealing with the second pain elemental, drop down through the water into a small room. There, go through a door, pick up the energy cells and a supercharge and take the elevator.

The elevator will move you into the throne room, which could be seen from the starting area. Go towards the two thrones until you suddenly pick up the BFG9000 (additionally, on Hurt Me Plenty or lower, you will get a megasphere, and on Hey, Not Too Rough or lower, you will get an invulnerability). The walls on the east and west sides of the room have opened, revealing a large amount of pain elementals. Shoot them with the BFG while picking up cells found in the corners of the room. After all of them are dead, a teleporter in the southern part of the room will open. Take it to get back to the starting area, which now has an exit door. Go through it and push the switch to end the level.

Other points of interest
In the portion of the graveyard area which houses a megasphere, if you choose to go east instead of north, you will find a small room with some ammo. Additionally, even further east there is a small area containing a berserk pack, however, if you choose to pick it up, three lost souls will spawn near you.

Secrets

 * 1) At the start of the level, turn left and press on the wall with vents on it. It will open, revealing a health bonus. This secret is actually a trap, as picking up the health bonus will spawn an arch-vile, so collecting the secret is not recommended. (thing 257)
 * 2) In the large cave-like area in the eastern part of the map, drop down into the slime and hug the left wall, where the metallic structure is. Eventually you will find a slightly displaced wall - it is fake. Going through it will net a megaarmor. (thing 139)
 * 3) After collecting the red key, notice that the platform where the key used to be is slightly above the ground. Stepping on that platform will allow getting onto the short wall which is otherwise too high to get to. Proceed to the right until you notice a portion of the wall slightly brighter that it's surroundings. Interact with that wall to open it and obtain a supercharge. (thing 98)
 * 4) After the blue bars, there will be a short stairway. In that room, there is an evil eye, a blue torch, and a wall with differently colored vines. Shooting the eye and interacting with the torch and the wall will open a teleport, which leads to a megasphere. (thing 216)
 * 5) Player starts 5-8 are erroneously marked as secrets, however, due to the way ZDoom-based ports handle secrets, they have no actual effect on the secret count. (thing 337)
 * 6) See Secret #5. (thing 338)
 * 7) See Secret #5. (thing 339)
 * 8) See Secret #5. (thing 340)

Bugs
Eleven pain elementals (Things 54, 67, 68, 69, 199, 200, 218, 219, 237, 241, and 245) have no flags set for any of the three difficulty classes, so they do not actually appear in the level. The same goes for a deathmatch start (144) but because of special handling in the engine, it functions normally in the level.

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

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on January 7, 2023.

Player spawns
This level contains only one spawn point, making it unplayable in deathmatch mode:
 * 1) facing north. (thing 144)

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

Trivia

 * The level's name is a reference to Quake's E4M6: The Pain Maze. There are numerous references to Quake in the level itself, such as the graveyard area towards the end, which is a reference to E4M3.
 * The many writings on the floor are in Maykr script from Doom Eternal. The text on the pillars in the slime area reads "YOUSHALLFINDDEATH", while the four letters found commonly throughout the level simply read "PAIN".