Sonic Wave
26681070
Cyclic (hack-verifier)
Sunix (legitimate verifier)
Sonic Wave (commonly abbreviated as SW) is a 1.9/2.0 Extreme Demon level by Cyclic, who hack-verified it in Update 1.9 on 21 June 2015. It is a difficult remake of Nine Circles. Considered one of the hardest levels of all time upon its release, Sonic Wave would remain unbeaten until, through another hacking scandal, drama, and a race to complete it, it would finally get verified and published by Sunix in Update 2.0 on 25 November 2016 and placed at #1 on the Demonlist almost immediately after getting rated, surpassing Artificial Ascent; it went on to remain in the Top 150 for a record 2,508 days.
Sonic Wave received praise for its difficulty but criticism for its unbalanced gameplay and lack of innovation in the Nine Circles design. One of the most popular Extreme Demon levels, Sonic Wave is the sixth most-downloaded and fifth most-liked Extreme Demon in the game. It is widely considered a cultural touchstone for the Geometry Dash community,[1] separating the lower and upper echelons in the Extreme Demon difficulty, and went on to inspire numerous subsequent remakes with varying difficulty and design.
A sequel, Cosmic Cyclone, was hosted by Zimnyte and Riot and released in 2.1.
History
[edit | edit source]Creation and debates of legitimacy
[edit | edit source]Sonic Wave was first created when Cyclic released a preview for a new Nine Circles level with a light blue colour scheme back in mid-Update 1.9[2] (this version is now considered as Old Sonic Wave). The level was made to rival Poltergeist as the hardest Nine Circles level. The level was verified and published on 21 June 2015, shortly after being previewed; however, it was not rated since Cyclic's verification video was publicly cut after he claimed to have verified it without recording. A few players tried it, but none made much progress beyond the first ship. In July, Cyclic decided to delete the unrated level and created a buffed version with a dark blue colour scheme, based on a poll posted on Korean forums in which he asked users to choose among five colour schemes: black, dark blue, navy blue, yellow/green, or orange. This newly buffed version was published on 20 July 2015. This update made it far harder than Bloodbath, and this time, Cyclic had a whole video without any cuts, so the level got featured for a little over two weeks.
The community debated whether this level had been hacked, since it was far too difficult for most players at the time. Most people accused Cyclic of hacking the level. Before Update 2.0, the level was replaced with a Back On Track remake, known commonly as Cyclic On Track. The level was eventually unrated through convoluted methods following negative reception on 7 August 2015.[Notes 1] In March 2016, Cyclic confessed to hacking both versions of Sonic Wave, verify-hacking the original and speed-hacking the buff-date. Shortly after, he admitted to hacking every other Demon he ever beat and quit Geometry Dash, deleting his YouTube channel that housed both verification videos.
Race to verify and remakes
[edit | edit source]After Cyclic confessed to hack-verifying most of his achievements, Riot, Mefewe (both had been attempting the level since the buff-date's unveiling), and several other players tried to be the first to beat the level legitimately.
Mefewe has been making progress since before Cyclic's confession. His first progress came on 11 October 2015, when he reached 24%. Ten days later, he got 64-100%. Mefewe would make good progress on Sonic Wave for a month, even adding buffs to the level. He would get 72% on this version on 8 November 2015.[3] However, Mefewe buffing Sonic Wave would soon become a fatal mistake.
Riot was getting bored with Sonic Wave and asked Viprin to make a special remake for him: Sonic Wave Infinity. The name likely comes from XYZ Step Infinity, a buffed remake of XYZ Step. This remake made the level slightly darker and used Update 2.0 decorations and effects. While Sonic Wave Infinity was in development, Mefewe achieved a new best of 98% on his own buffed version of Sonic Wave live on Twitch on 25 March 2016, often considered the worst fail in Geometry Dash history, arguably even today.[4] Ultimately, Mefewe eventually stopped being active. Despite that, the devastating fail made him more popular, and he later asked FunnyGame and Serponge to create another Sonic Wave remake: Alter Sonic Wave (later renamed Sonic Wave Rebirth). This level gave Sonic Wave a fresh design while keeping the gameplay the same. Two other players, Surv and Sunix (then known as Deam), also practised and made good progress.
Afterwards, Manix648 and LazerBlitz created the third Sonic Wave remake: Auditory Breaker.[5] With high-quality designs and incredibly realistic decorations, many people considered it the best-decorated Sonic Wave remake. However, it lost its categorisation as a Nine Circles level. Manix648 chose Surv as the level's verifier. However, Surv eventually turned down Auditory Breaker mainly because he was chosen as the verifier of Yatagarasu. Riot also made further progress on Sonic Wave, reaching a 96% record,[6] while Sunix achieved 88%.[7] But soon after that, Sunix agreed to let Riot verify Sonic Wave first. However, six days after Sunix's 88% fail, Sunix finally verified Sonic Wave on 25 November 2016,[8] effectively breaking his promise to Riot.
Later, Sunix apologised to Riot and said the level verification was unintentional. After removing the start position, Sunix only wanted to see how far he could get during one of his streams. However, that did not stop other players like Aurorus from getting angry with him. A few days later, Aurorus made a video claiming Sunix used macros and auto-clicking hacks to verify Sonic Wave. Eventually, the accusations were disproved. After Aurorus withdrew his claims, Sunix became recognised as the first official player to beat Sonic Wave, which significantly boosted his popularity.
When RobTop rated the level, he accidentally rated the copy of Sonic Wave on Cyrillic's account instead of Sunix's. It was quickly fixed.
Description
[edit | edit source]- 0-11%: Sonic Wave begins with a normal-speed cube section with tight timings and a short block maze that requires the player to click late to avoid hitting the blue orb in the second platform.
- 11-22%: This part is a double-speed ship sequence with many sawblades, which the player must avoid. There are also constant gravity and size changes with a few spikes between the sloped structures, which force the player to briefly straight-fly.
- 22-32%: This part turns the player into a short mini-cube transition where the player must hit a gravity orb precisely after being bounced by several gravity pads. The player then transitions into a slow ball section mainly composed of precise timings. The player later hits a normal-speed trigger and then a double-speed trigger, making it harder to time the gravity changes. The player then enters a dual-mini-ball passage reminiscent of Windy Landscape, in which the player must switch the gravity at the exact right moment to avoid the two spikes on either side. After clearing the spikes, the player must jump right after they enter the cube portal to avoid crashing into the ceiling.
- 32-43%: This part is composed of a challenging wave part with incredibly tight spaces with several sawblades. The player later enters a mini-wave section with a series of sawblades, which they must avoid by following a specific pattern. The player then switches back to a normal wave with tighter spaces and sawblades, and enters a dual-mini-wave section where they must clear invisible blocks from the ground and ceiling.
- 43-54%: This part is composed of a difficult mini-wave section where the player must hold to avoid the platform and barely avoid the spikes by barely letting go. The player then enters a normal gravity portal with gameplay identical to before, followed by a relatively open mini-wave section with one extremely tight space at the end. The player then continues to another wave section with a fake line trolling, then enters a mini-wave section where they must click extremely fast to avoid all the sawblades.
- 54-65%: This part is arguably the easiest section in the whole level, which involves a cube sequence that the player must spam to hit all the orbs and keep jumping while the speed gradually increases. Aside from that, the text 'Faith...' can be seen right before entering the next section.
- 65-76%: This part is composed of another wave section with very tight spaces and even more sawblades than the previous section, which later turns into a dual-wave where the player must precisely go in a specific direction to avoid all the invisible blocks and the spikes above and below. Then, the player turns back into a normal wave through a gravity portal and continues avoiding the spikes, sawblades, and blocks.
- 76-88%: This part begins with a half-speed mini-wave section where the player must spam to avoid the blocks below and the sawblades above. Then the player must navigate a tight space between the slopes. The player then transitions to a memory cube section that requires some timing and straightforward memorisation.
- 88-100%: The last part is a triple-speed wave section with tight spaces, although not as difficult as the previous two wave sections, which later changes to a mini-wave section, including tight spaces and sawblades as before. Then, the player switches back to a half-speed normal wave segment, where they must precisely traverse through the small slopes; halfway through, the speed changes to normal. The player then switches into a double and later triple-speed mini-wave, where the player must spam over the words 'GG Cyclic' made with blocks. At the end of the level, the player sees the words 'Riot', 'Dual', 'Chief', and 'Nocta', which represent Riot, Dual Kiki, ChiefFlurry, and Noctalium, respectively, all of whom are skilled players, to whom Sunix dedicated this achievement.
Gameplay
[edit | edit source]First 10 victors
[edit | edit source]| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | Sunix | 25 November 2016 | ~35,000 | ? | YouTube |
| 1 | Superex | 24 December 2016 | 21,541 | 90% | YouTube |
| 2 | BlassCFB | 24 December 2016 | 21,541 | 90% | YouTube |
| 3 | TigerXero | 5 January 2017 | ~53,563 | ? | YouTube |
| 4 | ChiefFlurry | 30 April 2017 | ? | 90% | Twitch |
| 5 | Kevelia | 5 May 2017 | 12,554 | 76% | YouTube |
| 6 | dual | 18 May 2017 | 33,075 | 98% | YouTube |
| 7 | DiamondSplash | 16 July 2017 | 24,064 | 92% | YouTube |
| 8 | Metalface221 | 3 November 2017 | ~60,000 | ? | YouTube |
| 9 | Spaces | 20 November 2017 | 45,160 | 79% | YouTube |
| 10 | Edstar | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Notable completions
- Riot, one of the contenders of the verification race, practised Sonic Wave back in 2016, but he did not beat it due to getting demotivated after failing at 96%. Riot returned to the level after his channel was reinstated after termination, and he went on to beat Sonic Wave on Halloween on 31 October 2020. Riot had also jumped 110 spots on the Demonlist from his previously verified level, Bloodbath, after achieving his new hardest after five years or 1,906 days.
- Riot has spent over 40,000 attempts to verify Sonic Wave.[9]
- Xanii has beaten Sonic Wave 31 times as of 12 May 2022.[10]
- Xanii also beat Sonic Wave three times in a row on 13 May 2022, dubbing the completion as 'Sonic Wave is Dead', inspired by the challenge level 3SH is Dead, which is 3 Seconds Hell three times in a row.[11]
- Galaxy GD became the first player to beat Sonic Wave on 60Hz on 14 July 2021.[12]
- DashY became the first player to beat Sonic Wave on mobile on 19 May 2021, using a 120Hz phone.[13]
- DashY also jumped 128 spots on the Demonlist from Bloodbath. Unlike Riot, DashY beat the level on mobile and was 18 spots higher than Riot's jump record.
- Biprex became the first 60Hz mobile victor of Sonic Wave on 18 November 2021. Additionally, Biprex beat the Top 5 on the Low Refresh Rate Mobile Demonlist.[14]
- KelanKraft became the youngest player to beat Sonic Wave at the age of 8 on 12 November 2025.[15]
Notable fails
- Both TigerXero and DashY failed at 93%.
- TigerXero failed at 93% while trying to rebeat the level for the video; previously, he had beaten the level without recording, and his worst fail before completion was 79% twice.
- DashY failed at 93% twice on mobile.
- Rampage failed at 94%.
- Riot failed at 96%.
- Mefewe failed at 98% on his buffed version, considered the worst fail in Geometry Dash history.
- EricVanWilderman failed at 92% as a fluke from 65%. He also failed two more times at 92%.
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- Sonic Wave was placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 14 January 2017, above Artificial Ascent.
- This addition pushed New Supersonic into the Legacy List.
- The old version of Sonic Wave is regarded as the 19th instance of the hardest rated level in the game's history, while the new version of Sonic Wave is regarded as the 25th instance.
- Sonic Wave is:
- The first Top 1 that is XL in length.
- The last solo Top 1 until Tidal Wave.
- The only level to have technically been Top 1 in two different versions.
- Sonic Wave was ranked #25 in Geometry Dash Today's list of 'The Top 100 Greatest Geometry Dash Levels Of All Time'.
- The password for Sonic Wave, 112516, refers to the day Sunix verified and uploaded it.
- In late 2017, a new addition to Sonic Wave was a logo animation featuring Cyclic and Sunix's cube icons (both the same but in different colours) above the text, which said 'Sonic Wave'.
- After some time, this feature was changed to be toggleable at the beginning.
- This feature was later removed after the Update 2.2 bug fix.
- After some time, this feature was changed to be toggleable at the beginning.
- Sonic Wave has ½ space gaps in the wave sections.
- Mefewe achieved a 64-100% run on his own buffed version of Sonic Wave and a personal record of 98% on the original. He also has his own remade version of Sonic Wave called Sonic Wave Rebirth, which FunnyGame and Serponge decorated. His record on the remake was 55% before he moved on because he could not beat it.
- Humorously, the death at 55% was caused by a bug due to him hitting the block instead of passing it.
- Mefewe's buffed version was verified by Sunix and uploaded onto the latter's account.
- Humorously, the death at 55% was caused by a bug due to him hitting the block instead of passing it.
- Cyclic used Verify Hack to upload the original Sonic Wave and speed-hacked the second version, but he has legitimately beaten the 64-100% wave part of Sonic Wave Infinity.
- Muffy450 managed to beat Sonic Wave in the 1.9 Geometry Dash Private Server (GDPS) on 60Hz on 31 January 2026, having the same physics as Cyclic at the time when he tried to 'verify' it.[16]
- Riot, Sunix, and Cyclic made a sequel to Sonic Wave called Cosmic Cyclone.
- This sequel was cancelled until Zimnyte obtained Riot's permission to revive it.
- Metalface221 verified and uploaded the old light blue version on 18 December 2016.[17]
- Muffy450's ~634,000 attempt journey on beating Sonic Wave was the highest amount ever spent on beating a Geometry Dash level at the time.
- Sonic Wave, Yatagarasu, and Erebus are a part of the classic RGB series.
- Upon Update 2.2, the ship sequence at 11% was bugged from the reworked slope physics. This rework occurred with all other Sonic Wave remakes. These issues were later fixed by adding invisible platforms to correct alignment.
- Sunix's copy of Sonic Wave has a negative feature score, suggesting it was initially featured before being demoted to star rate for unknown reasons.
- There are currently nine rated Sonic Wave remakes: If Sonic Wave was L1, Sonic Wave Infinity, Sonic Wave Rebirth, Generic Wave, Sonic Wave Unlimited, Redemption, Cosmic Cyclone, Super Mario Wave, Sonic Wave Unlimited, and Sonic Wave Universe, making it the Extreme Demon with the most rated remakes.
- Additionally, there is a rated Sonic Wave remake that is considered a Nine Circles 'Extra': Auditory Breaker. This consideration brings the total amount of rated Sonic Wave levels to 11.
- The placement of Instinct by Krazyman50 on 8 October 2023 pushed Sonic Wave into the Legacy List of the Demonlist.
- This placement pushed the final level of the original RGB trilogy into the Legacy List.
- Sonic Wave was the longest-standing level on the Demonlist before being pushed into the Legacy List, staying for 2,508 days, surpassing Yatagarasu, which previously held the record at 2,434 days.
- Sonic Wave amassed 1,048 total victors during its lifespan on the Demonlist, making it the second level in the history of Pointercrate to reach a milestone of 1,000 victors, alongside Bloodbath (1,294), Cognition (1,232), Bloodlust (1,068), and Zodiac (1,020).
Videos
[edit | edit source]Notes
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Shortly after Sonic Wave was unrated and removed from the servers, unnerfed Fexty became the hardest rated level for a brief moment because, at that time, Bloodbath was still under its verification process. However, the actual hardest level beaten legitimately (harder than Bloodbath and Fexty) was coincidentally another blue-themed Nine Circles level, Windfall, which was verified by a mobile player who believed it was Fairydust difficulty.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ https://twitter.com/today_gd/status/1730369202513740161
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SN98PJj0Cw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUbKWmNVEc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7FzR4KdWeQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHQfR_PTK5g
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3r0sjL7Ss&t=66s
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJwFFDJspHM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpXTwPgweAk&t=5s
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZnAim-_L0I
- ↑ https://twitter.com/_Xanii_/status/1524944656781709312
- ↑ https://twitter.com/_Xanii_/status/1525300119687544832
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mMTcqsCc4c
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j1oqEiorbU
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v-J6vj8iMQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWl-HuULQ4
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyAdMp-pelU
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SN98PJj0Cw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyTphv-9xM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSclHs4bMo