MAP06: Baron's Lair (The Plutonia Experiment)

MAP06: Baron's Lair is the sixth map of The Plutonia Experiment. It was designed by Dario Casali and uses the music track "Sign of Evil" from Doom.

This level was also ported to PlayStation Final Doom as MAP28: Baron's Lair.

Essentials
First go to the western door (black flagged), open it and kill the teleporting revenants, there is good stuff at left or right if you want it. Go down through the stairs to the small arena, press the metal switch, it will open two doors at your left and right with arachnotrons. At the northern trap there is a door, at the opposite direction of the door is a switch, clicking it will open the door. Go up through the stairs and take the red key, step over one of the teleporters and get back to the lair.

Go to the north-east door (red flagged) and open it, you are forced to fire the barrels creating a sound for hidden monsters which will teleport. Shoot the barrels around the blue key and take it, go back to the lair.

Go to the south-east door (blue flagged), and press the switch, revealing demons and revenants. After dealing with or ignoring them, go to the edge of the room, and press the two switches, one opens the door you came from, and another opens the last door.

Go to the eastern door of the lair and go up through the stairs, on the left there is a computer switch, clicking it will reveal revenants. Where they came from there is another switch, clicking it will reveal the other side with a cyberdemon.

To kill the cyberdemon, go up the stairs and to the side; its rockets hit the walls. To open the exit, flip the switch where the cyberdemon started, then the two platforms in the middle of the room lower. You have to flip both to open both exit doors. After flipping go to the stairs and finish the first part of the game!

Other points of interest
If you walk under the skull cube at the start of the level, a super shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher, and plasma gun will appear in your inventory. In a cooperative multiplayer game, an extra plasma gun will be underneath the cube, and the weapons will be given to all four players if one player goes under it (unless in altdeath mode).

Secrets

 * 1) Behind the black-flagged door, drop into the brown slime pit and flip the switch. This lowers the wall on either side. There is a switch on the northern side that opens a nearby door. Don't go through it just yet; instead, cross over to the south side where a second door will have unlocked. It leads to a soul sphere. (sector 144)
 * 2) After getting the red skull key, return to the starting platform (under the floating skull cube). One of the nearby pillars will have lowered, revealing a switch. Flip it to lower a secret room in the northwest corner of the lower tier. (sector 198)
 * 3) Behind the red-flagged door is a room with many barrels. In the southeast corner of the room is a bank of computers in the wall. Shoot it to reveal some rockets in this secret area. (sector 70)
 * 4) Exactly the same as secret #3, but in the southwest corner of the room. (sector 75)
 * 5) Like secret #2, retrieving the blue skull key opens a pillar on the starting platform. This second switch lowers another secret area in the southeast corner of the lower tier. (sector 174)
 * 6) Behind the blue-flagged door is a fountain with a berserk pack resting atop it. Lower the waterfall part like a lift to reach the powerup. (sector 160)

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 February 24, 2022.

Player spawns
This level contains nine spawn points:
 * 1) facing north-east. (thing 13)
 * 2) facing south. (thing 33)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 34)
 * 4) facing east. (thing 35)
 * 5) facing east. (thing 36)
 * 6) facing north. (thing 37)
 * 7) facing north. (thing 38)
 * 8) facing north. (thing 299)
 * 9) facing west. (thing 300)

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

Technical information
This level uses a voodoo doll effect to make several weapons magically appear in the player(s)' inventory at the start of the level. When a player walks under the skull cube, the cube's linedefs (277-280) activate an off-screen elevator (sector 59) which drops voodoo dolls of all four players, standing right on the edge of the platform, onto a pile of weapons exactly 20 units (4 units more than the items' hitbox height) underneath them. This causes the dolls to collect the weapons, which are then given to the real players as if they had picked them up themselves.

Inspiration and development
Dario Casali described this map as "non-thematic pieces glued together into a central hub. Just sort of basic trap ideas I had, or room ideas that I had, kind of . . . one on top of the other." He highlighted the aesthetic disparity between the various sections of the map, exemplified by the balcony in the red key room overlooking a later, much different section of the level.

Trivia

 * Despite its name suggesting otherwise, this level contains no barons.