Hub 1: Brackenwood

Blight
Constable's Gate
Nave
Transit
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Map name: MAP46

Cheat code: visit06

Brackenwood is one of the offshoot maps accessible from Blight in the first hub of Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. It uses one of the following music tracks composed by Kevin Schilder: "Sixate" (default) or "Level" (played from the game CD). The map includes multiple death wyverns, and is the only map in Deathkings to use this enemy. Killing the wyverns is not necessary to complete the map.

Contents

WalkthroughEdit

Map of Brackenwood
Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector, thing, and linedef numbers in boldface are secrets.

EssentialsEdit

Dodge the stalker boss in the pool to your right and climb up the steps to enter a tower-like structure that forms the centerpiece of this level. Push past some ettins to reach the north side of the tower, push the face switch here then go to the east side to find that steps leading outside have lowered; before going down them, note the symbol on the north side of the steps as it is key to solving this level's puzzle.

The outer area of this level is divided into four segments, each of which contains a podium that is guarded by a death wyvern and other monsters. You must travel to each podium (in a preset order, you cannot choose which podiums you interact with) and set the symbol on its central pedestal so that it matches the symbol by the steps, then press the face switch next to the podium to confirm; if you set the wrong symbol then ettins will be spawned. Note that the symbol changes for the second and fourth pedestals (the third will be the same as the first), so you will have to return to the stairs to get the new symbol.

Once you have set the correct symbol on all four podiums, go back inside the tower, where some dark bishops have been released, and head to its west side to find another staircase leading down to a chasm. Pressing the face switch here will transform the statues on the center platform into green chaos serpents and a Dark Servant, and will also spawn glitter bridges leading up from the center platform to a chain holding the emerald planet. If you are playing as the Fighter, you will also find the Hammer of Retribution on this platform. After taking the gem, return to the starting point and enter the portal to return to Blight.

Other points of interestEdit

The south-east segment has a portal to Sump, but you will need the horn key from Blight to reach it. You can get a flame mask early, but you need to have already flipped two switches in the other map before this portal connects to the main area.

The swamp key door in the south-west segment hides a portal to Badlands. You can use this portal to bypass a puzzle on that map where you normally need to uncover and ring a bell.

Each segment (except for the south-east) has a hidden door that only opens when you defeat the death wyvern in that segment. The doors conceal useful items as well as dark bishops.

BugsEdit

  • A brown chaos serpent below the Badlands portal (thing 641) is stuck in a rock.
  • Another brown serpent on the stairs east of the Badlands portal (thing 639) is stuck in a wall.
  • There are a couple of ACS scripts in this level that may break and cause the game to crash under various circumstances. Some of these include (but are not limited to) interrupting monsters from being spawned by scripts using inventory such as the Porkalator, or exiting the level before the scripts finish execution and then re-entering. This last situation can lock the player out of being able to proceed any further into the game if this level is still needed to be returned to in order to complete the hub, since the game will immediately crash upon re-entry.[1]

Areas / screenshotsEdit

SpeedrunningEdit

Routes and tricksEdit

Current recordsEdit

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

Run Time Player Date File Notes
Sk4 speed
Sk4 max
Sk5 speed
Sk5 max
Tyson
Pacifist

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on December 3, 2021.

DeathmatchEdit

Player spawnsEdit

This level contains eight spawn points:

  1. facing west. (thing 9)
  2. facing north-west. (thing 59)
  3. facing south. (thing 60)
  4. facing north. (thing 61)
  5. facing east. (thing 715)
  6. facing west. (thing 716)
  7. facing north. (thing 717)
  8. facing north. (thing 718)

StatisticsEdit

Map dataEdit

Things 773
Vertices 1609*
Linedefs 1517
Sidedefs 2212
Sectors 260
* The vertex count without the effect of node building is 1283.

ThingsEdit

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

TriviaEdit

  • The exit portal to Badlands is actually a lowered ceiling, activating when the player bumps into it.

ReferencesEdit