Arch-vile jump

The arch-vile jump is a speedrunning technique that permits the player to jump very high by allowing himself to be hit by the arch-vile's fire attack. When the arch-vile detonates his column of fire, the player is flung up into the air. If the player is moving forward at the moment the column detonates he can use the height imparted to him to make a super jump over walls, large gaps, and through windows that are otherwise unreachable. As the technique is something of an exploit, it was very likely not meant to exist and will often allow the player to access parts of levels that were not meant to be accessed, or it may act as a sequence break and allow the player to skip collecting a key or hitting an otherwise required switch.

In Heretic, this technique can also be used in the iron liches' tornado attacks.

The technique is used in speedruns to create shortcuts that reduce the time necessary to complete a level. Some maps require the player to do this in order to access certain items and places, such as in TNT: Evilution MAP11: Storage Facility and Scythe MAP27: Terror (to access a megasphere), and Icarus MAP25: Another Fine Mess (to access a secret). Notably, it is required to access the secret exit in Requiem MAP15: Last Resort and in Plutonia 2 MAP15: Where Hate Runs Red.

This technique was parodied in Wills's Weirdo Bizarre, or: An Acid Trip Through Time MAP07: Liftoff in which the player has to use several arch-viles to get up to the exit, similar to a rocket taking off. In 2010, it was discovered that a player could use the arch-vile jump trick to land on the face of the final boss in Doom II MAP30: Icon of Sin and complete the level following the Tyson rules using a hitscan weapon.

External links

• pl18-022.zip - probably the earliest Compet-n entry which employs this technique - 0:22 UV speed demo on Plutonia MAP18 by Istvan Pataki, dated March 9th 1997.