Ground Zero

Ground Zero
The area leading to the yellow keycard.
Author	Samuel Villarreal
Port	Doom64 EX
IWAD	Doom 64
Year	2009
Link	Archive of Doom 64 PWADs

This level occupies the map slot MAP01. For other maps which occupy this slot, see Category:MAP01.

Ground Zero is a single-level PWAD for Doom64 EX, first released in 2009 as "Doom64EX Example Level" and then updated in 2011. Ground Zero was designed by Samuel Villarreal (Kaiser) and is also known as Kaiser 24. This level takes place in an intricate UAC facility filled with traps and ambushes.

Walkthrough

Map of Ground Zero

Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector and Thing numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Essentials

You start in a small alcove within a large circular room. Leave, pick up the shotgun, and kill the zombiemen wandering around. Now go through the right door, kill the monsters found in this room, and continue into the door ahead. Mind the lost soul lurking in the alcove beside the entrance. Go through another door to enter a room filled with a demon and several imps. Follow the curved hallway into a room where you can find the blue keycard, surrounded by shotgunners and zombiemen. Kill them and grab the key. When you do, the sides of the room will open up to reveal two groups of imps. Kill them too, and another part of the room will open up, this time revealing imps as well as spectres. Kill this final group of monsters, and then press the switch that was revealed earlier. A series of walls will rise up behind you. As you approach, four traps that fire homing fireballs will activate. An easy way to avoid them is to hide behind the central wall and then stay perfectly still; the fireballs will just barely hit the sides of the wall, preventing them from hitting you instead.

Leave the room and return to the starting area; you will notice the way through is blocked by a set of bars. Press the blue switch in this room to lower the chaingun and pick it up. The set of two doors on the other side of the room will open, revealing a group of demons, backed up by a group of cacodemons. Kill them and then enter the room. Head up either staircase and press the switches found on the left and right sides of the hallway, then go down the stairs and leave this room. The bars blocking your way to the starting area will have disappeared: before you leave, pick up the backpack and the super shotgun on the pedestals.

In the starting area, go around the central platform to reach the blue door and go through it. Kill the cacodemon behind the door, then press the switch on the wall. Note the monitor to your left: pressing it will briefly show you a sequence of switches, which acts as the solution to a puzzle back in the starting area. Every time you press the switches outside the correct order, a group of cacodemons will spawn, and you have to kill them before being able to try the puzzle again. The sequence will always be up, down, down, up. Go back inside the starting room, press the switches in this order, and the remaining locked door will open. Go through the door, and follow the hallway to enter the room with the red keycard, which you are now able to pick up. Grab the key, and the room will transform: several pillars will rise up from the ground, and a group of nightmare imps as well as a Hell knight will appear on top of them.

Start killing the monsters in this room. Take note that as you kill the final monster, the room will transform back, and two pain elementals will spawn in the room with you. It is wise to wait before killing the last monster until you are ready to immediately run into the room that leads back to the starting area, as it is much safer to deal with the pain elementals from there. Kill the pain elementals, then head back into the room and press the red switch in between the staircases. The wall behind the switch will lower, revealing two Hell knights and an imp. Kill them and ride up the lift into a new area.

Kill the imps that are wandering around, then enter the door at the end of the walkway. Care must be taken in the following room: it contains a great number of shotgunners, which can easily sneak up on you and deal a lot of damage. It is best to kill the Hell knight from outside the room, then use the shotgun to kill any shotgunners you see while maintaining a fair distance. As you enter the other end of the room, another group of shotgunners will spawn. Press the switch on the wall to open a series of doors to its left, revealing two cacodemons. Kill them and enter the room to pick up the yellow keycard. When you do, the room will turn completely black, and both doors will close. After a moment the lights will turn back on, and the doors will open up to reveal two barons of Hell. In the room behind them, more cacodemons, Hell knights, and another baron of Hell will have appeared. You can fight them here, but it is easier to rush past them and head back through the door to escape.

Back in the previous room, a pain elemental will have appeared above the nukage. Take cover behind the window and kill it. Now pick up the rocket launcher and press the yellow switch behind it; this switch will raise up a platform in the nukage, letting you cross it to reach another switch. Press this switch, then head back and jump down into the room where you found the red keycard. This room will now have two more pain elementals in it. The easiest way to deal with them is to wait until they get close and then use the chaingun to stun and kill them. Continue in the room ahead and turn right to return to the starting area.

The starting area is now filled with imps and cacodemons. Kill them, then enter the teleporter found on the central platform to exit the level.

Secrets

1. In the third room, you can see a glowing panel to the left. Press on it to make an armor (thing 35) and a berserk powerup (thing 335) appear in the room.
2. See secret #1.
3. In the room with the blue keycard, right before pressing the first switch that appears, you will notice a diamond-shaped tile on the computer panel on the left. Press it to obtain another berserk powerup. (sector 162)
4. After solving the sequence puzzle in the central platform of the starting room, a door will open to the west. Enter it and go up the stairs, and you will hear a platform come down from behind once you make it to the end of the corridor. Backtrack slightly to find a megaarmor. (sector 177)
5. In the room where the yellow switch is, you will notice that there are four sets of computer panels on each side. To the right side, one of the computer panels has its screen shut off, unlike all the others. Shoot at it and quickly go to the warehouse in the next room to see that the crate (with a rocket on top) immediately to the left of the door has been lowered, revealing a switch. Press the switch to open a nearby cache containing a box of rockets and four more rockets. (sector 30)

Statistics

Map data

Things	340
Vertices	3254*
Linedefs	2556
Sidedefs	4021
Sectors	277

* The vertex count without the effect of node building is 1974.

Things

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

Monsters	1-2	3	4
Zombieman	7
Shotgun guy	18
Imp	28
Nightmare imp	11
Lost soul	3
Demon	6
Spectre	3
Cacodemon	16
Pain elemental	3
Hell knight	7
Baron of Hell	3
Weapons	1-2	3	4
Shotgun	1
Super shotgun	1
Chaingun	1
Rocket launcher	1
Ammunition	1-2	3	4
Clip	2
Box of bullets	10
4 shotgun shells	22
Box of shotgun shells	6
Rocket	7
Box of rockets	1
Health & Armor	1-2	3	4
Stimpack	8
Medikit	8
Armor	2
Megaarmor	1
Items	1-2	3	4
Armor bonus	20
Health bonus	42
Berserk	2
Keys	1-2	3	4
Blue keycard	1
Red keycard	1
Yellow keycard	1
Miscellaneous	1-2	3	4
Camera	1
Projectile spot	4

Trivia

• Ground Zero is the name of one of the two official expansion packs for Quake II. Steven Searle, another early Doom 64 level creator, designed a levelset called The Reckoning which is named after the other Quake II expansion of the same name.

External links

• Archive of Doom 64 PWADs, including both versions of Ground Zero