Editing Cycles X

{{IB-Level
 |image      = Cycles X.png
 |id         = 144087103
 |creator    = [[Vortrox]]
;Contributors
Devilmine, Vealt, Ninkaz, Tride, Spark, Voxicat, TwisterDude161, Loltad, Divikair, and Wless
 |verifier   = Vortrox
 |created    = [[Update 2.2]]
 |difficulty = {{ExtremeDemon}}
 |stars      = 10
 |length     = 1m 36s (Long)
 |objects    = 66,398
 |copytype   = No password
 |downloads  = 1.59M
 |likes      = 60.3K
 |rating     = Featured
 |coins      = 3
 |artist     = [https://djvi.newgrounds.com/ DJVI]
 |music      = [https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/529148 Cycles]
 |musicid    = Official
}}
'''Cycles X''' is a 2.2 Extreme Demon collaboration level hosted, verified, and published by [[Vortrox]] on 3 July 2026.<ref>https://youtu.be/Cq1ysv-7-w0</ref> It is the ninth level in Vortrox's 'Superbuffing Official Levels' series and the third one to be decorated and rated. The video buffing the layout received over 3 million views in 8 months. 

For the level's decoration, Vortrox hosted a creator contest where creators had 2 months to decorate a 5-second segment of the level. The creator contest would receive 1,400+ submissions and end on 1 February with the winner being the YouTuber [https://www.youtube.com/@vealt_gd Vealt]. The full level's decoration would be premiered on 8 February 2026 and the level would take just over 5 months, 64 live-streams, and 53,363 attempts to verify.<ref>https://youtu.be/Cq1ysv-7-w0</ref>

Cycles X has been relatively well recieved in the community; the decoration has been praised as a step up from the previous Vortrox superbuffs, but the gameplay is criticized for being chokepoint heavy and unbalanced, such as the ending robot.

==Verification==
Vortrox started verifying Cycles X on 9 February 2026, with his best runs that day being 85-100% and 91-100%.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUfl5UeK0lg</ref> The next day he achieved 77-100%,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMn-mJTzJQ4</ref> and 49-71%, 51-79%, and 33-52% on 13 February.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_lra97PSRU</ref> Followed by 33-61% on 17 February,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IhLzw9Kf4s</ref> 67-100% on 22 February,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3aEsJZrvfs</ref> and 32-71% the next day.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcaKUvkCzTs</ref> Vortrox then started playing from 0%, achieving 10-30% and 29% on 25 February,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D03_6oWdVJk</ref> 42% on 27 February (beating Cycles X in three runs),<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnFyhCs_sAw</ref> and 46-100% on 1 March,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j0u91UsN-E</ref> and proceeded to get a new best of 50% on 13 March.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZuPp-bNd0A</ref> After that, Vortrox took a break from live-streaming the level, getting back at it on 7 April,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGZyqE68E3A</ref> then got a new best run of 33-100% on 11 April,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOr_uY5ytRU</ref> and a new record of 61% a day later.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIIHpH7aK_E</ref> After almost a month, Vortrox achieved a new 76% record on 4 May,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfw8Z3zUNEI</ref> and almost verified it two days later, crashing at 93% on one of the final Ball clicks.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xteWK56yQJg</ref> Unfortunately, on 10 June he died at 93% again and almost in the same exact spot.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIoAVLmRylU</ref> Finally, on 3 July 2026, Vortrox verified Cycles X after 64 live-streams and 53,363 attempts dedicated to complete the level.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOPBpelw2qA</ref>

==Gameplay==
*'''0-10% (Devilmine):''' The level starts with a slow cube which features buffed triple-spike jumps and orb timings, two of which being 120fps frame perfects,<ref>https://youtu.be/_DBbh8t7rLw</ref> it then briefly changes into a ship part where the player must fly through a circle of spikes while not hitting yellow orbs, which would kill the player if clicked on.
*'''10-17% (Vealt):''' Switching back to cube, the level contains more hard cube clicks and orb timings ending with a robot jump which is represented by Fitzgerald, a common Vortrox "character".
*'''17-24% (Ninkaz):''' Continuing as robot, this part contains multiple paths, notably in the orb circle, allowing the player to jump before the last yellow pad to skip a dash orb timing.
*'''24-34% (Tride):''' Tride starts with a cube corridor featuring multiple tight jumps and quadruple-spikes before the player exits the corridor and is lead into some tight orb timings. A staircase appears before the drop.
*'''34-52% (Spark):''' The part starts with a timed jump where the player must click just before the ball portal to keep the momentum from the cube into the ball part. The level then has multiple tough ball clicks, ending with a gimmick where a multi-activate blue orb follows the player, leading into a tight corridor with quick but tough timed clicks.
*'''52-69% (Voxicat):''' The ship part has a randomising spawn pattern changing the Y position of the ship gaps, ending with tight curvy flying parts put into what is otherwise a straight-fly segment. It switches from mini to normal, then back to mini before the ship turns into a normal cube with two triple-spike jumps which can be done by holding after transitioning out of the ship.
*'''69-78% (TwisterDude161):''' The part starts with a similar cube to ball jump as Spark's first click, transitioning into a mirror portal before turning into tight corridor and edge clicks, the part continues with a tight yellow orb segment, which difficulty depends on the green orb timing before it.
*'''78-85% (Loltad):''' The part starts with a mirror portal making the first ball click blind. This leads to the hardest ball clicks in the level, with tight mini-ball corridor clicks and multiple tight gravity changes, before ending with a 1-block-tight blue orb corridor.
*'''85-93% (Divikair):''' Contrary to Cycles, the level transitions into a robot section with multiple edge jumps and fake orbs. 
*'''93-100% (Wless):''' The last slow ship section pertains to multiple straight-fly segments and a few tight movements.

==Trivia==
*Cycles X was rated on 5 July 2026, only 2 days after its verification.<ref>https://youtu.be/igaLYjvpg0o?si=cD0TmzlyxLFLnkUY&t=38</ref>
*Top 10 Mexican player Emilianero became the first victor of Cycles X in only 1,176 attempts, less than 24 hours after [[Vortrox]] had verified it.<ref>https://youtu.be/kbY7rZV-qmo</ref>
*It was thought that Cycles X could potentially be on the list due to players like [[Denni]] stating the possibility and Vortrox testing out [[Hard Machine]] (a contemporary top 150) and saying the levels were comparable, so it was added to the pending-list-changes channel on the Demonlist Discord server. It ultimately did not place on the list though, as according to the Demonlist team, victors opinions on Cycles X's difficulty varied heavily, with most saying it would be between 170-200 on the [[All Rated Extreme Demons List]]. While some victors said it might be list-worthy, the overwhelming majority saying Cycles X wasn't list worthy meant it likely wasn't hard enough to place. It ended up placing at #186 on the AREDL, putting it among levels like [[Cognition]] and [[Crimson Planet]].<ref>https://discord.com/channels/395654171422097420/1513613192947961917/1535047013106712756</ref>

==References==
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