MAP03: Arachnotron Arrival (Ancient Aliens)

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Ancient Aliens maps
One Last Vision Quest
Applied Einstein

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 31 32

You're the Alien Now

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

This level occupies the map slot MAP03. For other maps which occupy this slot, see Category:MAP03.

MAP03: Arachnotron Arrival is the third map of Ancient Aliens. It was designed by Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw) and uses the music track "Depth Charge," composed by Stuart Rynn (stewboy). The par time is 3:15.

Walkthrough[edit]

Map of Arachnotron Arrival
Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector, thing, and linedef numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Essentials[edit]

You start in a room with an ominous warning about the arachnotrons in the level, so ignore them as you progress. The exit is blocked by a lone zombieman, so kill him and get out. To the left is a shotgun and combat armor, which causes two imps to spawn in. To the right is an elevator with more imps behind it. Take the elevator up and deal with the imps, shotgunners, and the demons in the room. Press the switch on the south wall to let two revenants out, with chaingunners in the space behind them. Punch out the revenants with the berserk given to you, and then hit another switch in the room to the east to reveal a teleporter out of the area.

This takes you to a balcony in full view of an arachnotron, and moving off the teleport destination will reveal shotgunners to your left and demons to your right. Deal with them while grabbing the rocket launcher and rockets, then press the switches in their closets to reveal even more enemies, including two revenants. Eventually, the back wall will open up with another teleporter back into the central area.

After exiting the closet and pressing the switch, cross the newly formed bridge to the other side and proceed down the hall. Enter the passage and press the switch, killing more imps and a spectre. Pressing the purple face will reveal more enemies, and entering their room will open even more closets. Grab everything, then head back out the way you came in and down the stairs to a room that just opened up.

Press the switch in here and you'll be locked in with two mancubi and more shotgunners. Another switch reveals a teleporter where the first was, so enter it and return back up the stairs to find yourself at the top with a super shotgun on a ledge. Grab it, then drop down and deal with some revenants before releasing more enemies. After killing them, one of the closets will have the blue key. Open the blue door and enter the room to be sent through two spirit sequences that will deal with the arachnotrons once and for all. Then you can exit.

Other points of interest[edit]

Secrets[edit]

  1. In the northeast part of the map after hitting a switch to lower the stairs you crossed earlier, two alcoves to the side have opened. You can see a soul sphere in the southern alcove. To get it, go to the northern alcove and press the purple Incan face. This lowers a wall behind you with an imp and barrels. Head through this new room and another wall lowers with a revenant (only on Ultra-Violence or higher) or a shotgun guy, and you can obtain the soul sphere from there. (sector 590)

Bugs[edit]

Demo files[edit]

Areas / screenshots[edit]

Speedrunning[edit]

Routes and tricks[edit]

The button to raise the bridge can be activated much earlier than intended by pressing the wall below the switch immediately after exiting the starting room.

After the bridge has been raised, you can run straight from the bridge to an arachnotron platform. If there is no arachnotron to block the teleporter here, you can take the teleport sequence to the end of the map.

Current records[edit]

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

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV speed 0:14.86 Brookie 2023-05-29 aa03-1486.zip
NM speed 0:16.23 Billa 2021-09-17 aa03n1623.zip
UV max 2:05.49 Andrea Rovenski (Cyberdemon531) 2019-04-08 aa03-205.zip
NM 100S
UV -fast 3:05.23 Andrea Rovenski (Cyberdemon531) 2016-11-08 aa03f305.zip
UV -respawn 2:04.86 Andrea Rovenski (Cyberdemon531) 2024-01-21 aa03r204.zip
UV Tyson 2:44.86 Maribo 2023-02-19 aa03t244.zip
UV pacifist 0:34.49 Andromeda 2021-07-29 aa03p034.zip
NoMo 0:07.74 Inuk 2022-12-03 aa03o774.zip
NoMo 100S 0:23.77 Inuk 2023-06-27 aa03os023.zip

The data was last verified in its entirety on January 27, 2024.

Statistics[edit]

Map data[edit]

Things 295
Vertices 2514*
Linedefs 3143
Sidedefs 4821
Sectors 607
* The vertex count without the effect of node building is 2514.

Things[edit]

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

Technical information[edit]

Inspiration and development[edit]

Trivia[edit]

  • In the comment section under the playthrough of this map on decino's YouTube channel, skillsaw shared some info about the creation of the level:
" (...) the initial version of this map didn't have an SSG in single player at all, but early feedback from continuous players was that they were getting tired of being restricted to the normal shotgun until MAP05, so I added one here for their benefit, but forgot to delete the MP SSG."
―Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw) [1]

See also[edit]

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw) (25 April 2023). "Comment on Ancient Aliens - MAP03: Arachnotron Arrival (Ultra-Violence 100%)." YouTube. Retrieved 29 April 2023.