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Consistency fix: <tt>SOUND EFFECT</tt>
Secret areas are usually hidden to some extent. In many cases, there is some clue to indicate a secret area, such as an off-color [[wall]] that is actually a [[door]]. By convention, most stock levels are designed so that it is not necessary to find any of the secret areas to reach the exit. Traditionally, however, secret areas are quite helpful to the player, often containing [[weapons]] and large [[powerup]]s.
A special [[sector]] type (type 9) is used to calculate the secrets percentage. The number of type 9 sectors in the level is the total number of secrets. When a player first enters a type 9 sector, the number of secrets found is incremented by one. A secret area may encompass any number of sectors, but will normally include exactly one sector of type 9 in order to give the secrets percentage a straightforward interpretation. In [[Doom]], [[Doom II]] and [[Heretic]], no indication is given in-game when a secret area is found, although some [[source port]]s have added a message and a sound to inform the user, as in [[Quake]]. [[Strife]], however, has a notification worth mentioning; when the player triggers a secret sector, a sound effect called <tt>DSYEAH </tt> is played.
[[Linedef]]s can also have a "secret" flag bit (bit 5). This flag makes a two-sided linedef appear on the [[automap]] in red instead of yellow, that is, just like a single-sided linedef. It is typically used to hide entrances to secret areas on the automap (this happens more often in stock levels than in [[PWAD]]s), but has nothing to do with the calculation of the secrets percentage. In addition, a linedef of type 1 (standard push door) cannot be activated by monsters if it has the secret flag, although monsters can normally open such doors.
