Doom II: Sunder - Map 10 (The Hags Finger) UV-Max in

Runner: Zero-Master
IWAD: Doom2.wad
PWAD: Sunder.wad
Category: UV-Max
Map: 10 (The Hags Finger)
Source Port: DSDA-Doom v0.22.2
Time: 28:46.49

Description:
1 minute and 28 seconds faster than the previous record.

Surprsingly this might be the one of easiest levels in all of sunder, I don't think there's a single fight here that is anywhere close to being dangerous. I'd say the highest chance of dying would be the part right after the pain elementals, which is the fight with the arch-viles + revenants. It's not bad since you get 600 cells + megasphere though. Of course the final fight isn't easy if you do it the normal way :)

Anyways, I hope to get map11 (the furnace) done before I take a break and then continue in January.

Route/Strategy:
New strategy for the start makes the initial fight trivial. Rush through to get to the next 2 rooms as quickly as possible, only try to kill the first 2 viles after going past the dead mancs since they'll usually be there. In the 3rd room I do a glide so that I can run through the next door immediately, this opens up the door to the 2nd room which was closed behind you. From there I just rocket the revenants in the 3rd room while I 3-4 times run to look at the cyberdemons stuck in the doorway and laugh at them... and also get the monsters to start infighting. Once I've used all my rockets I'll go grab the invulnerability and max out on cells and just head back to the main area and kill as much as possible. I'll then stand down by the gap on the inside so that any cyberdemon on the other side will start infighting while I use rockets on the hell knights.

The 4th area containing the imps and pain elementals is annoying, but you have 400 cells and a mega health in this room so it's not really difficult. The problem is the 1 imp that refuses to wake up and other random imps that hide in some corner and can be hard to spot. If you play this map casually you're very likely to miss 2 imps, both of them in the first imp area. One of them is easily woken up by simply standing in the corner by the 2nd imp area and using the chaingun. The second one I stand next to beam in the 3rd area and SR50 at a certain angle that has a decent chance of waking up the other imp.

If I have enough health for the next area I'll skip the mega health. Sitting at the back and firing rockets will take care of quite a few viles, then just BFG the rest and hope you don't take too much random damage. Baron teleports next is pretty simple, you'll get 400 cells in the area after that so it's best to use BFG to take care of the 3x3 viles as quickly as possible before they can res too much.

Next section just run past the cyberdemon and let him infight a bit before killing him with the BFG. New strategy for the next section is to instead of activating both switches + running out you just activate the one through the bars first and sit back and take care of the revenants. This is so that the teleporting monsters up the stairs will mostly go down and not go into the next room like the previous route. Once the revenants are dead I activate the first switch and run out and sit back with the rocket launcher until the path is clear enough. Usually takes time for everything to teleport so you want to leave stuff alive and just come back later and clear it all out. Next area: BFG + rocket spam until it is done.

I'm not as crazy as Killer5 who rushes the cyberdemon after the narrow ledge, instead like the previous record I just hit him with the BFG balls. Arachs/mastermind is simple, then there's some platforming, found a simple setup that always works on the first section, even if you fall down there you can teleport back up. Can't fall down by the last platforming part though. There's enough cells that you can safely sit back and fire 4-5 BFGs to take care of the next cyberdemons.

Now for the big timesave in this run, 2 linedef skips to keep the entrance door open so that I can safely wait by the invulnerability that I left behind. There's only 1 teleport destination and to be as fast as possible you want that space to not be occupied. If you are fighting in this room you're much more likely to drag monsters over the teleporter or have a monster busy fighting on top of it. Since I'm on the other side they'll move away from the spot immediately and you get everything teleporting in really quick. Using the rockets here isn't intended purely as a safe strategy, I just have to wait here no matter what so using the rockets is just a bonus.

Once my rockets have run out it is also a good timing for grabbing the invulnerability as enough monsters have teleported. Invulnerability + BFG + infighting will take care of so much stuff that that the remaining monsters pose no threat once it runs out. Ideally you'd want to hit the switch inside the center room about 30 seconds before you clear the last monster, just need to be careful no monster is trapped on the other side of the raising wall.