E4M8: Palace of Destruction (Thy Flesh turned into a draft-excluder)

E4M8: Palace of Destruction is the eighth and final map of Thy Flesh turned into a draft-excluder. It was designed by Matt Powell (cannonball) and uses the music track "MM_01," originally composed by Rich Nagel for Daedalus: Alien Defense.

Essentials
This level contains three to five spiderdemons that must all be killed to lower a barrier in front of the exit portal. The red and blue keys can be obtained in any order, but both are needed to reach the yellow key.

Red and blue keys
Enter the teleporter in front of you to be sent to the middle of the palace - as you land you will be spotted by four to six cyberdemons that will teleport to various areas of the palace, and on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare skill levels there will be two more cyberdemons in front of and behind you that start facing away from you. Head east towards a dark red platform with a chaingun then go round the north side of the platform to find some steps which lead down to one or more cacodemons. Behind the cacodemons is a curved alcove with a button on the west wall - press it to be lowered into a dark room with eight boxes of rockets and a rocket launcher, then press a second button next to the rocket launcher to lower the surrounding walls and reveal a gang of cacodemons and lost souls. Fight them off while you wait for the south-east wall to lower and reveal two or three barons of Hell, then push past them and walk round the teleporter in front of you to get the red skull key.

Step on the teleporter to return to the middle of the palace then head west this time until you reach a second red platform with a shotgun and backpack on it. Head round this platform and go down to the bottom to confront some demons, then drop down the hole behind them to land in a dark tunnel. Proceed west and follow the cracks in the floor to find a lion switch behind a plasma gun, but be ready to move fast as the surrounding walls will lower to reveal a cyberdemon and a pack of imps (they are very likely to infight). Quickly head south past one or two demons into a tunnel and follow it round to a skull switch, press this then return to the cyberdemon's chamber and head north to find that another wall has lowered to reveal the blue skull key. After taking the key, continue on to a teleporter and enter it to return to the middle of the palace.

Yellow key and exit
With the red and blue keys, return to the main palace then head south until you reach a chamber with two red columns. Open the red and blue skull bars in this chamber to reveal a skull switch and press it to lower a large wall to the south, then step through and head straight forward to some steps that lead up to the yellow skull key - as you advance, watch out for cacodemons teleporting in from the ledges on either side and a cyberdemon appearing at the top of the steps. With the yellow key, head back to the main palace and go to the large doorways on the north side - there are some yellow bars between these doorways that you can open to reveal barons guarding a BFG9000, six energy cell packs and another skull switch that needs to be pressed.

Pressing the skull switch will allow (depending on skill level) one to three spiderdemons to teleport to the east, south and west sides of the palace, but they will also open two chambers in the east and west walls of the palace. Use the BFG to kill the spiderdemons and any remaining enemies, then enter the two chambers to find two skull switches (along with a supercharge, a megaarmor, boxes of rockets and energy cell packs) that you will need to press. After pressing both switches, head through the large doorways either side of the yellow bars you opened earlier to reach an outdoor area - several demons will teleport in, and there two more spiderdemons on platforms on the east and west sides of this area that also need to be killed.

If you have killed all the spiders at this point, then a red barrier to the north will lower and release three barons. Push past them to a fire portal and enter it to finish the level.

Other points of interest
On Hurt Me Plenty (HMP) skill level or lower, supercharges and invulnerability pickups will appear near the middle of the palace. On HMP there will be one of each item, while on I'm Too Young To Die and Hey Not Too Rough there will be two supercharges and three invulnerabilities.

Secrets

 * 1) At the start, open the wall to the north-west to find a supercharge. (sector 33)

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 February 21, 2022.

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