MAP25: Demonic Hordes (Alien Vendetta)

MAP25: Demonic Hordes is the twenty-fifth map of the second release of Alien Vendetta. It was designed by Vincent Catalaá and Sam Woodman. It uses the music track "You Suck," the game over theme from Rise of the Triad. In the first release, it was MAP24, with the MAP25 slot taken by Valley of Echoes. Valley of Echoes was replaced in the second release by MAP24: Clandestine Complex, and Demonic Hordes was moved to the MAP25 slot. The level consists mostly of big battles with hordes of enemies teleporting in several areas as the player progresses through the level.

Essentials
This will likely be your toughest challenge in the wad, with the most amount of enemies to conquer out of all the levels here. There are a ton of supplies in the first room, so grab all you can. In the next room is a lone zombieman and a berserk pack. Crossing through the middle reveals chaingunners, and pressing the switch reveals more supplies and weapons. Keep going east, up the stairs to the plasma gun, then open the faceted wall in front of you. The switch inside opens the nearby door to the north. This room will present your first challenge. There are some caged barons of hell in the middle. Go to the north end of the room and flip the switch to free the cyberdemon, then press on the strange wall behind him to release the caged barons and allow access to the portal to the next area. All the while various monsters will teleport in for you to combat.

Once you enter the portal, you will end up in an elongated hall with monsters all over it. You need to fend them off to reach the other side. Be sure to grab the megasphere on the other side of the teleporter before entering the next area.

On the other side, you will be walled in, but the switch inside lowers the walls for you into a large open courtyard. It also releases revenants, barons of hell, and cyberdemons from the teleporter you just came out of. This place is pretty large, with a building to the west and a rocky wall in front of it. Inside this rocky wall are arch-viles and several supplies. You need to head inside the building. Inside is a fountain and several areas to go. At the top of the stairs, you will find the blue key on a pole guarded by many monsters, and you cannot reach it yet. There is a yellow door and a blue door inside the building that you cannot access either. You can shoot the stained glass windows to the west for pickups, including an invulnerability. But you need to head through the door to the southeast, into a library. You will be ambushed by shotgun guys when you walk in. Head behind the desk to find a switch, lowering the central bookshelf which has arch-viles and another switch. This switch lowers the blue key upstairs, but also releases cacodemons into the field. Enter the blue door inside the building. The room is filled with heavy weapon dudes. Head up the lift and press the switch here, which opens the southeastern gate in the field. A lot of demons and spectres will be released around the building too, and imps will teleport onto the ledges.

Go through the southeastern gate. Through the shaft here is a cauldron that will contain pain elementals and lost souls. Go through the eastern door through the next shaft to find yourself at a monster-infested chapel. Go around the chapel, gathering weapons, ammo, and health, and killing monsters. When you feel satisfied, head into the chapel to find it just as populated as it is outside. You need to head into the room behind the alter, where there is a raised area with a baron and some arch-viles. There is a switch up here, revealing another switch which lowers the yellow skull key on the bleeding altar outside. Go outside to get it, but be wary of a massive monster ambush when you do.

Now backtrack to the main field and you will find a ton of monsters roaming around, most likely due to arch-viles teleporting in that resurrected them. Get rid of them, then head back into the building taking the yellow door this time. There are arch-viles at the top here, and the switch here lowers the barriers blocking access to the northern building. Spider masterminds and arachnotrons will warp into the field, while cyberdemons will come in from the northern building. Through the halls in the building, head out into the plaza. This will be your next big area, with several buildings you can (or must) go through.


 * 1) The doors to the left are not necessary for completing the map. However they do contain secrets. The first door here leads to a very large dining table, where a ton of monsters will warp in. You can get two secrets in this room. The two doors above it lead to an area with wooden crates and some barrels. You can get some health pickups here if you need them.
 * 2) Of the two buildings in the middle, the southern one can be accessed right away. But to do so you must go south of it to a hall with four doors. The northwestern door holds the switch to raise the bars. As for the other doors, the northeastern one does not contain anything important at all. The southeastern door has a few supplies and a secret, and the southwestern one holds an invulnerability and a megasphere, save these for later. Inside the southern building, you can find a berserk pack and a large amount of imps. Grabbing the berserk reveals an arch-vile.
 * 3) The doors on the right-hand side are the ones you need to go through. The first one you can go through is the middle one. Head down the passage eastward to the large courtyard here, where a lot of monsters are located. You can get a secret here, and when you do, you open up an area back at the hallway. But make sure you press the switch here, and note the markings around the switch. Then go back up the lift and back into the plaza. If you got the secret previously, the middle square just before the door will be open containing boxes of rockets and a rocket launcher. You will trigger revenants if you pick it up though. Head back out into the plaza and take the northern door to the right, this one had the same markings as the switch you pressed before. This room is simple, but contains a lot of monsters. Get to the end and press the switch, noting the red markings around it, then head back into the plaza taking the southern door on the right side (again, this one has the same red markings as the switch, so it should be open). There are several caged monsters here, so kill them. The two rooms at the end of these passages have arachnotrons and switches. Both switches further open the passage, revealing a lot of arch-viles and a cyberdemon, facing Tricks and Traps style. Have the cyberdemon attack and he will hit the arch-viles, potentially making it easier for you to handle with the monsters. Then flip the two switches here. One will give you an invulnerability (using a voodoo doll trick) and the other will open the northern building back at the plaza.
 * 4) The northern building should be open now. So head there and pick up the red skull key. Be prepared for a hefty monster ambush when you grab it though. Hopefully you still have the invulnerability on. If it wears off or you have not used one yet, go back to the hall south of the southern building and enter the southwestern door to get one. When done killing the monsters, head behind the northern building to the red door, which has a teleporter to a new area.

This last area is a hellish one with a singular path going north. There are, however, a ton of monsters on the ledges to the sides, including arch-viles. If you attempt to go westward towards the berserk pack in the lava, you will trigger cyberdemons directly in front of you. Past the path to the north, this area is fairly quiet and contains the exit. Press the switch to raise the bridge, then press the other switch to lower the exit. Watch out though, as a cyberdemon will teleport in once you press it.

Secrets

 * 1) Once inside the building in the first large grassy outdoor area of the level, go into the study to the south. Search the floor for a blinking arrow pointing to the side of the one of the bookcases. Press the use key on this side of this bookcase to lower it, revealing a teleporter taking you to the fountain in the main room of this building, where a megasphere is located.
 * 2) In the room with the switch that lowers the blue skull bars, there is a demon-faced wall to the left of the switch. Use it, and the wall will lower, revealing a teleporter, which takes you to a ledge in the outdoor area with a BFG and some ammo.
 * 3) Once inside the front part of the church in the second large outdoor area, shoot the red cross. Two small alcoves with soul spheres will open on either side.
 * 4) Go to the back side of the church in the second large outdoor area. (where the altar with the yellow key is) There are two doors in the rear wall, one on either side of the glowing red inverted cross; go into the left-hand one. From here, walk straight forward until you hit the wooden wall immediately ahead, then open the stone wall to your left. There is a megasphere and some cells in this secret alcove.
 * 5) After lowering the yellow skull bars you will gain access to what looks like a town square. At the south end of the town square is a short tunnel with four doors leading into small rooms. Go into the second door on the left (southeastern). In this room, walk around the crates until you can go no further. There will be two crates stacked on top of one another; press the use key on the lower crate and it will lower like a lift would, revealing a BFG. Step inside and, before the crate rises again, open another crate to your left (there is a triangular symbol on it). Ride it up to get some ammo cells.
 * 6) Go through the center door on the east side of the town square. At the far end is a grassy yard with a switch in it, and a fence at the south end. There is actually a barely noticeable opening in the fence (to the left of the big tree on the right), and behind some vines is a hidden cave with some ammo inside. Inside the cave you'll notice that one of the walls is colored differently from those around it. To open it, run back to the switch in the yard and press the use key on the opposite side of the switch the satyr face is on. The wall will lower, revealing a gargoyle switch which opens the wall in the cave. Behind it is a fairly expansive secret area. Step onto the bleeding red circular platform to retrieve an invisible megasphere. Also of note in here is the fact that all of the waterfalls can be climbed up, letting you retrieve the commandos' chainguns, as well as a couple other weapons.
 * 7) Back in the town square, go through the northern door on the eastern wall (which was opened by the satyr switch mentioned in secret 6). In this corridor there are several draperies hanging on the wall. The center one on the north wall looks different from all the others (it has the symbol of Neptune on it, seen frequently in the Heretic and Hexen games). Open this wall to get yet another megasphere.
 * 8) Go through northern door on the west side of town square. Inside is a room with some skulls on it - open it and grab the four backpacks. Inside this alcove is a skull switch. Flip it, then quickly run into the room to the south (where all the crates are). One of the crates has temporarily lowered, and there's some rocket ammo inside. It may take a few tries to reach in time.
 * 9) Go through the southern door on the west side of town square. On the back wall of this room are three flashing paintings/reliefs. The ones and the left and right have horses on them. You need to run from the central platform in this room straight through either of these paintings (straferunning is the easiest method). Inside this secret area, there are depressions in the wall with reliefs of skull and what appears to be a spine. One of these opens, with a room behind it with a plasma rifle on a pedestal too high to reach. Open the painting/relief at the back of this room to gain access back to the main room. From the same platform you accessed the secret area from, run through the now-opened central painting and onto the pedestal to get the plasma gun (note that getting the plasma gun does not trigger the secret, merely entering this area does.
 * 10) At the far back of secret 9 is a small crypt with some stone coffins and a wooden cross. Shoot the Icon of Sin-faced wall at the back of this room to get a soul sphere.

Bugs

 * 1) Because three invulnerability spheres are inaccessible unless playing coop, the maximum singleplayer item percentage is 88%.
 * 2) There is an interesting bug with the teleport closet that holds the spiderdemons and arachnotrons. The southern wall is not marked impassable, so it can be possible for a monster to head outside of the map if it goes south. This does not usually happen though.

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

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