MAP32: Go 2 It (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP32: Go 2 It is the super secret level of The Plutonia Experiment. It can be reached from MAP31: Cyberden, and uses the music track "Nobody Told Me About Id" from Doom. This level is inspired by Dario Casali's "Punisher" duology, which is a heavily modified version of.

Overview
Go 2 It is described in the preceding intermission screen as "the hardest map we had ready for ya". This frightening introduction refers to the unmatched quantity of tough monsters for an IWAD map: an army of 206 enemies, most of which are of the more powerful varieties (scoring a total of 138,820 hit points), will attack the player packed in large groups (including 13 cyberdemons, often appearing in groups of three or four). Among them are 11 pain elementals, who will generate countless lost souls, and no fewer than 19 arch-viles who can resurrect previously killed monsters, meaning that the final enemy tally will likely exceed the starting amount.

However, the player is presented with all the weapons and plenty of ammo for them, while 9 megaspheres can be found around the map.

Essentials
Immediately ahead of the starting position is every weapon in the game, plus a fair amount of ammo. On your left is a BFG9000 with some ammo, and entering this room will cause the walls to rise, revealing 17 mancubi. From the BFG spot go south to a cave with two arachnotrons and two paths, of which one leads directly to the courtyard with a cyberdemon. Instead take the narrow path in the south marked by two wooden posts, leading to the second floor of the yard that is occupied by eight arachnotrons as well as a spiderdemon.

Go to the south-east corner and push the switch on the pillar, which will lower the yellow keycard and a megasphere along with the east and south walls, revealing four cyberdemons and 37 revenants. Take the key and go to the stairs in the north of the yard, open the hidden door marked by a slightly different texture next to the window, and pass through the room with two arch-viles and a mancubus. Follow the bricked-wall hallway north and turn east to a cyberdemon blocking the yellow card door. Kill it and open the door to find another cyberdemon and the red keycard. Kill this cyberdemon as well and take the key.

Take the west- and south-bound hallways to the room with triangular stairs, up the lift to the starting area, and return to the second floor of the yard via the cave. A new round of enemies has emerged in the yard including 17 more arachnotrons, seven arch-viles, eleven pain elementals, and two more cyberdemons. Go to the south-east corner again, up the stairs to the newly opened third floor, and grab the blue keycard.

Go back to the yellow door and the westbound hallway (beware of two ambushes of 12 chaingunners, 15 revenants, and two arch-viles along the way), and look for the blue card door in a dead end. Open it to find another cyberdemon guarding, this time, a switch. Kill it and push the switch, then return to the southbound hallway. Just before the triangular steps is a narrow path back to the starting mancubi room. Only now the walls are open and a pack of 18 barons of Hell and the final three cyberdemons are waiting there. In the west wall, open in turn the blue, red and yellow key doors to reach the exit.

Other points of interest

 * Picking up a key, opening a door or moving to an unexplored area always reveals plenty of enemies to ambush the player, but all these traps can be easily avoided once they are known.
 * The player can always engage enemies from spots out of reach to them as long as he knows where to hide; using this strategy a player can also succeed using only the single or double-barrel shotgun.
 * It is easy to instigate monster infighting in the courtyard area, thus many potentially dangerous enemies can be distracted long enough for the player to grab the yellow and blue keys.
 * Three waves of monsters will infest the west courtyard, but the player can hide in the central room and wait while the enemies kill each other, and can even draw in a group of pain elementals from the southern room and a group of 5 mancubi from the north-western corridor.
 * After obtaining the red key, the alternate route is to pass through the door on the right in the westbound hallway, into a northern room with nine demons along with two arch-viles and four chaingunners on platforms. Hit the switch between the platforms to lower the floor and exit east through a pack of five mancubi. Follow the wide corridor to the south and take the narrower corridor on the left to also arrive on the second floor around the courtyard.
 * Demons from the northern chamber and monsters revealed after the blue key is taken can be mixed in the central-western room while the player hides in the central room.
 * While arch-viles are usually priority targets, on this map they can be used to resurrect weak monsters in order to damage the stronger enemies via infighting as much as possible.
 * Take advantage of the cyberdemons' power during infighting to thin out the other monsters.
 * Do not be fooled by the original exit from Doom II's MAP01: Entryway because opening it will release yet three more arch-viles. On the other hand, this room holds plenty of rockets.

Secrets

 * 1) The outdoor area (analogous to the secret outdoor area of MAP01: Entryway) counts as a secret. (sector 12)
 * 2) The room containing the red keycard (again analogous to the secret room containing a rocket launcher in MAP01: Entryway) counts as a secret. (sector 45)

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 6, 2020.

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on April 3, 2022.

Player spawns
This level contains eight spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 488)
 * 2) facing south. (thing 489)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 490)
 * 4) facing south. (thing 491)
 * 5) facing south. (thing 492)
 * 6) facing south. (thing 493)
 * 7) facing south. (thing 494)
 * 8) facing south. (thing 495)

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

Inspiration and development
Go 2 It is Milo Casali's remake of his brother Dario's Punisher map.

Trivia
Because of Go 2 It's infamy, it has inspired several other maps and map sets:


 * Hell Revealed and Hell Revealed II are megawads entirely composed of extremely difficult monster-filled maps.
 * The Plutonia 2 megawad features MAP32: Go 4 It, a map meant as an unofficial sequel.