Lucid Nightmares

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~ originator

Lucid Nightmares is a 2.1 Extreme Demon collaboration created by CairoX and DonutTV, published by CairoX, and verified by Wooshi. It is a very fast-paced and colorful level, full of rapid transitions, tight spaces, and color flashes. The level is widely considered to be slightly harder than Bloodlust.

History

Lucid Nightmares was first revealed to the public when Sunix, who at that time was verifying the level, uploaded a teaser of the level on his YouTube channel on December 12, 2017, where the first few stages were shown. However, no further information was known about the level. On January 20, 2018, CairoX uploaded a video with a ready-made level, however, so far without coins, which the creators planned to add and for which by that time they had already chosen specific places. CairoX then revealed that Wooshi would be the verifier.

On May 25, 2018, Wooshi achieved a start position run of 48-100%, and three days later on May 28, 2018, he fluked to 75%. In the video description, he noted that the level is more difficult than Gamma. However, on July 22, 2018, Aquiver stated that he is now verifying Lucid Nightmares instead of Wooshi. Later that day, Aquiver played the level on a live broadcast, where he, for the most part, passed through various stages in the second half. However, he did not post more videos about the level.

On October 24, 2018, DonutTV published the same (that is, already long-before uploaded) preview of this collaboration on his channel (the original reason is not exactly clear), and then explained that he did this because Sea in the next issue of Geometry Dash news (G-News), posted on December 12, 2018, did not mention the preview when he spoke about who created the level. DonutTV also answered questions about who would be verifying Lucid Nightmares, with the words, "this is a secret." Be that as it may, on November 29, 2018, Waivve and CairoX decided that this should not be withheld - Waivve uploaded a video, in the description of which it explained that he will not verify the expected level. Eventually, on January 26, 2019, Wooshi verified Lucid Nightmares after over 11,300 attempts and some rebalancing changes.

Gameplay

• 0-50% (DonutTV): The level starts with a tight normal-speed ship sequence with some straight-flying and a gravity change, and then transitions into a normal-speed timing-based ball segment, with the speed changing to double partway through. The player then enters a quick double-speed straight-flying section with a green orb at the end, which leads to brief cube, UFO, and robot sections, all at double-speed and all of which only have a few inputs to hit orbs. After that is a spider sequence with many tight timings, and then a brief cube sequence with one or two orbs to hit. The speed changes to half-speed for a moment in preparation for the drop, which starts with a quadruple-speed dual cube segment. After one jump, the bottom cube becomes a ball and both icons become mini. The ball becomes big for a short time, before the dual transitions into a double-speed dual ship straight-fly section. After this comes a quick but extremely tight quadruple-speed dual mini-wave, which leads to a quick singular normal-size wave section. Following this is a quick ball dual, and then another extremely tight dual mini-wave. Both waves become normal for a short time, and after an auto mini-wave transition, a quick green orb the player must hit as a mini-cube leads to a brief but tight mini-ship straight-fly section. A short UFO segment follows this, and another quick straight-flying section leads to a normal-speed UFO with only one jump. This brings the player to yet another tight quadruple-speed normal and mini-wave section. A quick mini-cube section with one yellow orb leads to a short timing mini-spider section, and another mini-cube section with one green orb leads the player to short but precise mini-UFO, ship, ball, and cube sections. After a quick breather cube section, the player enters a short quadruple-speed cube dual with two orbs, and then the dual turns into a dual straight-fly, ball, UFO, and mini-wave. Following this is another tight wave section alternating between normal and mini-wave, and after that is a short straight-flying section. A dash orb brings the player to a triple-speed cube section with a few orb timings, which transitions into a UFO section with a plethora of gravity changes. Following this is a quick straight-fly and one final tight wave section before an auto transition leads to CairoX's part.
• 50-100% (Cairox): There is a constant wall of glow on the left side of the screen that can make it hard for players to see their icon. One quadruple-speed UFO jump leads to a quick cube section with a few orbs and then a ball section with one extremely tight timing. A green orb that the player must hit as a ship leads to another mini and normal size wave section, and after quick robot and cube sections with a few orb timings comes a timing spider section. A dash orb brings the player to a UFO section with several gravity and size changes, and after a quick normal-speed straight-fly, the player is presented with a triple-speed wave section. After more tight ball and cube sections is an awkward mini-ship sequence, followed by a UFO section with a few orb timings. An auto half-speed robot section leads to a dash orb, which brings the player to quick quadruple-speed spider and ship segments. After that is a cube section with a few timings, followed by a straight-fly section with a gravity change in the middle. Following this is yet another normal and mini-wave sequence, and then quick ship and UFO sections with a few orbs. A half-speed cube jump brings the player to a triple-speed cube section with a few orbs, followed by another straight-flying sequence. A quick wave section and dash orb lead to a tight UFO section, followed by a quadruple-speed wave spam segment and a triple-speed straight-fly section. As the song quiets down, so does the gameplay, as shown by the long normal-speed wave section with a few tight spaces and spamming. The speed briefly lowers to half-speed before the player enters a similar double-speed ship section with a lot of straight-flying and awkward maneuvering. Nearing the end, the speed reduces to half-speed, and one final yellow orb brings the player to the end screen and the end of the level.

User coins

• The first coin is located at 10%, in the spider section. To collect it, the player needs to quickly do an extra click to change the spider's gravity down to a separate platform underneath the main path, after which the player must change gravity once again onto the next platform above and will be given the coin at the same time as they will go through an invisible teleportation portal that will teleport them back up to the main route again.
• The second coin is located in the ball segment at 29%. To collect it, the player needs to not hit the black orb.
• The third and final coin is located at 87%, in the final wave segment. To collect it, the player must maneuver into the upper tunnel instead of the lower one.

Trivia

• The level's password is 341269.
• The level contains 76,305 objects.
• The level's duration is 1m 31s.
• The level was initially placed at #5 on the Demonlist on 29 June 2019, above Visible Ray (#6) and below Deimos (#4).
  • This change pushed Digital Descent out of the Top 25 and both Epsilon and Kurumi City for the second time.
• Even though Wooshi thought that the level should be placed above Gamma, most people considered Lucid Nightmares to be harder than Bloodlust. It was placed two spots below Bloodlust (#3).
  • However, on September 29, 2020, Crazen beat Lucid Nightmares and claimed that it was harder than Bloodlust. This caused the Demonlist team to swap the two levels, and so Lucid Nightmares was finally above Bloodlust.
• At one point in time, there was a simple version of Lucid Nightmares on CairoX's account. He laid it out so that players could already play the level, albeit with less difficult gameplay. However, it was later removed for unknown reasons.
• On February 21, 2019, CairoX posted a video, the description of which explained that Lucid Nightmares became the personification of the difficulties that CairoX experienced in real life (he had bad relations with his parents and had no friends, due to which he was subject to panic attacks).
• There is a level named Concaved Memories, which is a sequel to Lucid Nightmares. It was verified by Wooshi on September 25, 2019, and was rated on October 12, 2019.
• Lucid Nightmares is the third-hardest rated level in the game containing user coins, after Verdant Landscape and Thinking Space.
• Crazen has the biggest fluke on the level, fluking it from 55%.
• There is another sequel to Lucid Nightmares called Lucid Chaos.
• There is currently an update in progress for Lucid Nightmares. It is set to be verified by Alphanetic. (citation needed)
• This level is notorious for its deemed unfun gameplay, especially by Technical, who used to give the level an enjoyment rating of no/100 before updating it to 3/100.
  • However, some of the victors, like Mullsy, RG, Dice88, and Zeronium, found this level fun, and Dolphy, who also beat it, considered it one of the best Extreme Demons he ever played.
• Npesta considers the song to be “dentist music”.
• The placement of Deadlier Clubstep on 21 January 2024 pushed Lucid Nightmares into the Extended List of the Demonlist

Gallery

• The level's end-screen.
  The level's end-screen.

Videos

File:Lucid Nightmares by CairoX and DonutTV (Verification)

The verification of Lucid Nightmares. Credits to Wooshi.