E2M3: Refinery (Doom)
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E2M3: Refinery is the third map in episode The Shores of Hell of Doom. It was designed by Tom Hall and Sandy Petersen, and uses the music track "Intermission from DOOM" by Robert Prince. The par time is 1:30.
On the SNES version of Doom, this level contains the secret exit leading to E2M9: Fortress of Mystery.
Contents
Walkthrough[edit]
Essentials[edit]
You begin facing a cage (A) which contains one or more cacodemons. Go behind the cage to see two passages leaving the room to the south, and enter the right-hand passage. You will arrive at a nukage room with two rows of tan partitions, beyond which is a shotgun on a round pedestal with scrolling sides (B). Run straight through to the shotgun.
Turn right (west) into a green marble hall. Take the right and then the left to come to a metal UAC door. Behind this door is the blue keycard (C).
Return to the cacodemon cage area and take the left-hand passage (southeast) this time. As you turn into this passage, you will see a blue UAC door (D). Go through this door and follow the passageways. Eventually, you will come to a dark room (E) with many square green pillars. Zig-zag your way northwest until you come to a room overlooking another nukage area.
Run straight through the nukage, heading north. Turn left and follow the passageways to the exit door (F).
Other points of interest[edit]
At the starting point, you will see a UAC door just on your right. Behind this door is a substantial crowd of monsters guarding a chaingun (G), a berserk pack, a green armor, a radiation shielding suit, and several large ammo pickups.
After picking up the shotgun, if you turn left instead of right, you will enter a round room with a pentagonal nukage pool in the center. This room contains a megaarmor (H).
At the north end of the green marble hall is a chamber (I) inhabited by a group of monsters and some barrels. On Ultra-Violence and Nightmare!, this includes a baron of Hell, the first non-boss appearance of such.
Past the blue door, the hallway continues around through a vine-covered area, and finally into an oblong room (J) with twelve small moving platforms. This room contains a box of shotgun shells and a medikit.
Secrets[edit]
- The central construction in the vine-covered area is actually a secret room, accessible through a door on its northwest corner, and containing a backpack (K). Note that it is not necessary to step into the nukage to collect the secret. (sector 103)
- The room with the twelve moving platforms is connected to the megaarmor room by a secret door. (sector 37) This door can only be opened from the north side, although it is completely unmarked on that side; it is delineated in the round room by two metal strips on the wall.
- At the south end of the green marble hall is a passageway leading to a pool of blood (L). If you drop into this pool and exit via the stairs to the north, you will find a plasma rifle (and, on UV and NM, two lost souls). (sector 65) The back end of the staircase deposits you in the blue keycard room.
- The megaarmor room can also be exited to the east, into the vine-covered area, using a one-way door indicated by two metal strips. (sector 97) Together with secret #2 above, these two doors permit the player to pass between the start area and the shotgun/keycard area without stepping in the nukage.
- On the platform north of the dark room with many pillars, walk east as far as possible. Step north out into the nukage and make a hairpin turn by walking around to the east. You will find a small recess south (M) containing a radiation suit. (sector 119)
- From secret #5, go back out into the nukage and turn right. Enter the tunnel on the eastern wall, and pass into an octagonal chamber (N) containing a supercharge. (sector 121)
Bugs[edit]
At the north end of the oblong room, a slime trail can be seen in the form of a discoloration of the "intestinal" floor texture (see screenshot below).
The blockmap bug may be triggered by firing into the cacodemon cage at a sharp angle.
There are three known anomalies in this level's REJECT table.
Design oddities[edit]
The backpack in sector 96 can be picked up from the outside by bumping the wall from the outside.
Demo files[edit]
- No monsters, 100% secrets walkthrough (file info)
- 100% kills, items, and secrets on ITYTD (file info)
- 100% kills, items, and secrets on HNTR (file info)
- 100% kills, items, and secrets on HMP (file info)
- 100% kills, items, and secrets on UV (file info)
Areas / screenshots[edit]
Beginning hallway
Watch out for caged cacodemons
Shotgun out in the distance
Many goodies await in this area
You reached the chaingun, but can you get back out
Hellgrowth room
Destroy the barrels before monsters leave this room
In the southwest
Past the blue door
The exit is just around the corner
Exit room which was visible from the very start
Shortcut back to the starting area (secret #4)
Slime trail in the room with 12 moving platforms
Speedrunning[edit]
Routes and tricks[edit]
For a straight speedrun, the shortest route seems to be:
- go to the shotgun room via the nukage area;
- grab the plasma gun on the way to the keycard, which is a slight detour, but makes up for it by punching through crowds;
- use secret #4 as a shortcut to the blue door.
A slightly shorter route is to skip the plasma gun altogether and run straight to the blue keycard; this has been used in a submission to Compet-n. [1] This requires the rest of the map to be completed with the shotgun only, however, increasing the difficulty level.
The total time of a UV speed run hinges on how well the player can conserve cells. The current record holder proposes that, with luck, the area just beyond the blue door can be navigated with a single shotgun blast: push the rightmost lost soul out of the way, and rely on P_Random to shift the zombies toward the west wall of the passage. [2] [3] If nothing else, killing the final spectre with a slower weapon increases the chance of being plugged in the back. [4] (In the NM speed style, with its doubled ammo pickups, such concerns are less apparent.)
In the dark columned room, many Compet-n entries use the strategy shown in the figure. The obstructing imp ideally should be killed with the shotgun: using only a single hitscan attack, instead of several projectiles, can make the difference between colliding or not colliding with the imp before it hits the ground. [5] [6]
At the starting point, there is enough room to dodge the imps without first feinting to the back corner. [7] Fire a bullet or two anyway, so that you can wallrun to the blue door without bumping into dormant zombiemen, and to encourage the lost souls in the dark columned room to gather in the lower corner out of your path. [8] [9] Similarly, some players shoot the last cacodemon to create more clearance at the opposite wall of the corridor, but it is not necessary. [10] [11]
Some players make a point of overshooting the plasma gun staircase in order to fake out the lost souls, although this seems ineffective with the -fast parameter. The level has been completed in both the NM speed and UV pacifist styles without the megaarmor.
Modern maxkills entries begin by going straight to the green armor, emptying the chaingun into the surrounding crowd, then picking up the berserk pack and using it much more often than not (the ratio of ammo to monster health is 0.749; compare this to MAP02 of Plutonia, at 0.814). On your way from the blue keycard to the blue door, revisit the start area to finish off the chaingun room and to kill the caged cacodemons. [12]
Although it is not necessary to pick up the backpack to register secret #1, take it anyway in order to kill one more cacodemon with the plasma gun. [13] Moreover, accurate aim with the fists and plasma gun saves extra time by obviating the short detours to all three boxes of shotgun shells. [14] Some players believe that, if the chaingun must be used at all after obtaining the plasma gun, it should be confined to the corridor behind the blue door. [15]
As a final tiny optimization, pick up the radiation shielding suit on the way out of the chaingun room, to avoid having to wander around in search of a health pickup near the end.
In the NM100S style, the obvious detours to the secret sectors are the fastest: after taking the blue keycard, stay in the vine-covered area long enough to poke your head into secrets #1 and #2. With luck, nearby monsters may knock against the secret doors during infighting, causing you to spend less time passing through them. [16]
UV -fast recordings tend to be slower than UV max recordings, because punching the baron of Hell is suddenly not a great idea. [17] One therefore turns to the plasma gun in that room, thus increasing one's overall shotgun usage.
With respect to UV max runs, UV -respawn runs are generally optimized by neglecting the large monsters, who simply take more time to kill than humanoids and demons, and then either
- Clearing the chaingun room a second time after picking up the keycard; or
- Stopping at the exit door to fire a large amount of plasma back through the window.
The first strategy seems to benefit from killing all of the imps in the dark columned room, just in case. [18] It is also possible to save time overall by clearing the baron room twice instead of pausing near the exit, provided you can knock out the barrels from the far end of the hallway in one shot. [19]
UV Tyson runs use the same basic plan as UV max runs, skipping the plasma gun and the second radiation suit to save time. Usually, the supercharge is still obtained because the final cacodemon goes down much sooner at point-blank range. The fastest recordings let infighting play out in the chaingun room while the player obtains the keycard, and use bullets only on the caged cacodemons (clearing the entire southwestern area should build up enough stock for this). [20] Anders Johnsen, among others, has advocated going to the keycard via secret #2 and returning through the nukage room. [21]
UV pacifist recordings tend to follow the UV speed route, excluding secret #3. Many players keep shooting the wall every now and then, in hopes of extracting the spectre from the last room in advance (although the doortrack may stall it on the threshold). Staying quiet in the green marble hallway seems to help you in the keycard room: squeeze past the first demon, absorb the initial blow, and then lunge for the keycard, causing demon to crash into the central column and leave a clear path to the door. [22] In the dark columned room, it may be much safer to push past the deaf lost soul, which does not necessarily assault you the moment you enter melee range, than to challenge an imp with its clawing attack. [23] At the exit door, the small region behind each short column can make it easier to dodge everyone until the last spectre finds its way into the room. [24] Adam Williamson has suggested that luck plays a large part in the very fastest runs, including his onetime Compet-n record wherein the shotgun guy fires at him and misses cleanly. [25]
Current Compet-n records[edit]
The Compet-n records for the map are:
| Run | Time | Player | Date | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UV speed | 00:25 | Hi Jango | 2006-01-10 | e2m3-025.zip | |
| NM speed | 00:29 | Vaclav Kunes (bolton) | 2001-11-30 | n2m3-029.zip | |
| UV max | 02:16 | Tatsuya Ito (Tatsurd-cacocaco) | 2020-06-14 | e2m3-216.zip | |
| NM100S | 00:45 | Vaclav Kunes (bolton) | 2001-12-06 | n2s3-045.zip | |
| UV -fast | 02:53 | Tatsuya Ito (Tatsurd-cacocaco) | 2014-05-06 | f2m3-253.zip | |
| UV -respawn | 02:07 | Radek Pecka | 2001-12-02 | r2m3-207.zip | |
| UV Tyson | 03:02 | Radek Pecka | 2004-01-29 | t2m3-302.zip | |
| UV pacifist | 00:32 | Vaclav Kunes (bolton) | 2001-11-22 | p2m3-032.zip |
The data was last verified in its entirety on July 6, 2020.
Current DSDA records[edit]
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:
| Run | Time | Player | Date | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UV speed | 0:23.69 | Zero-Master | 2021-03-28 | e2m3-2369.zip | |
| NM speed | 0:28.94 | Aleksey Kamenev (4shockblast) | 2026-02-19 | e2m3n028.zip | |
| UV max | 2:06.09 | kuckkuck | 2024-05-02 | E2M3m-206.zip | |
| NM 100S | 0:45.74 | Vaclav Kunes (bolton) | 2001-12-05 | n2s3-045.zip | |
| UV -fast | 2:53.20 | Tatsuya Ito (Tatsurd-cacocaco) | 2014-05-06 | f2m3-253.zip | |
| UV -respawn | 2:02.71 | Andrea Rovenski | 2022-11-16 | e2m3r202.zip | |
| UV Tyson | 2:52.03 | j4rio | 2020-02-22 | t2m3-252.zip | |
| UV pacifist | 0:31.69 | Tobby | 2024-10-05 | e2m3p031.zip | |
| NoMo | 0:22.94 | depr4vity | 2019-11-21 | n2o32294.zip | |
| NoMo 100S | 0:37.14 | Orii | 2025-08-29 | e2m3os3714.zip | |
| Stroller | 0:59.17 | Tobby | 2024-10-02 | e2m3str059.zip | |
| Collector | 0:38.77 | CWP24 | 2020-06-07 | e2m3-col.zip |
The data was last verified in its entirety on February 23, 2026.
Deathmatch[edit]
Player spawns[edit]
This level contains four spawn points:
- facing south. (thing 217)
- facing south. (thing 218)
- facing south. (thing 219)
- facing south. (thing 220)
Statistics[edit]
Map data[edit]
| Things | 229 |
| Vertices | 874* |
| Linedefs | 953 |
| Sidedefs | 1145 |
| Sectors | 128 |
* The vertex count without the effect of node building is 810.
Things[edit]
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:
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Inspiration and development[edit]
Early versions of this level appeared as E1M3 of Doom 0.3, Doom 0.4, and Doom 0.5.
According to Sandy Petersen, Tom Hall designed the room with the rising and falling pillars to test out the Doom engine's new features. Originally, Hall used a metal texture for them, but when Petersen redid the level he changed it to hellgrowth for dramatic effect.[1]
Gallery[edit]
E1M3 in Doom 0.3
E1M3 in Doom 0.4
E1M3 in Doom 0.5
E2M3 in the released version
Trivia[edit]
- In the SNES version of the game, the music used in this level is "The Demons from Adrian's Pen".
- In the PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports of Doom, an arachnotron populates a room behind the cacodemon cage on Ultra-Violence. As well, the player can find a BFG9000 in the small nukage pool secret room.[26] Neither of these are in the DOS version.
- The official French name of this level is Raffinerie.
External links[edit]
- E2M3 demos from the Compet-n database: UV speed • NM speed • UV max • NM100S • UV -fast • UV -respawn • UV Tyson • UV pacifist
- E2M3 demos at the Doom Speed Demo Archive
- Top-down perspective view of all Doom levels by Ian Albert
- Classic DOOM's E2M3 secrets walkthrough on YouTube
- JKAR gaming's E2M3 secrets explanation on YouTube
References[edit]
- ↑ Dwars (23 November 2021). ""Dwars and decino Talk to Sandy Petersen About Doom"." YouTube. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
