The Hallucination

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~ originator

The Hallucination is a 2.1 Extreme Demon collaboration level created by SyQual and VoTcHi on June 19, 2022. Verified by the latter and published by the former, it is a Nine Circles level with a cold blue and purple palette. The Hallucination heavily uses teleport portals and abrupt speed changes to disorient and confuse the player, combined with a difficult pre-drop and tight wave sections.

History

VoTcHi released the first layout preview of The Hallucination on May 7, 2020; following another preview the next day, a video of the completed layout was posted on June 23, 2020. The first decorated preview was showcased on July 6, 2021, revealing SyQual as the decorator; the final preview was released on September 25, 2021, showing the level's fully decorated form. The verification process took almost a year, with VoTcHi releasing multiple progress videos. This progress included 53%, 68%, 77% and 83%. The level received many sizeable buffs before being verified and published on June 19, 2022. It was almost exactly two years after the layout completion. The verification took VoTcHi 46,538 attempts. It was then rated and featured on July 5, 2022, more than two weeks later.

Gameplay

• 0-7%: The beginning of the level is very atmospheric and mostly based on timings, starting with a small cube section before transitioning to a small ball section and then a small UFO section. Afterwards is a ship section with misleading portals and tight spaces.
• 7-15%: The ball section that appears is not as difficult as the prior ship but still requires attention to avoid missing any of the timings, especially the final three orbs; the click pattern used will affect the transition into the ship part afterwards. Alas, this ship part immediately boasts a blind transition, followed by lots of slope-hugging and precise inputs (including a release timing) that are easily chokeable. After this, two simple cube timings and an extended double spike that bears SyQual's logo lead into the drop.
• 15-31%: The first wave contains multiple brief speed and game-mode changes, which occur throughout the rest of the wave. The player also becomes a dual-wave for a singular input. The first wave also tests the player's experience with the disorientating teleport portals more than most other sections of the level.
• 31-45%: The second wave is similar to the first, except for the 'steps' section at 41%. These three clicks consist of a platform with a D-block that rests underneath the wave and follows its Y-axis, forcing the player to make light and fast inputs to avoid hitting the slopes and spikes above. The three clicks after are also tricky timings where the player can easily choke if not ready.
• 45-61%: The third wave features a few spam sections and persistent gravity- and size portal changes, along with an unforgiving straight-fly leading to a difficult wave transition. This transition makes the player, still travelling at 4x speed, suddenly proceed through a very tight gap where spikes on the surrounding slopes force the wave to hug the slope at the bottom. It is a dangerous chokepoint that can easily ruin the player's morale if not mastered.
• 61-77%: The fourth and final wave is the most difficult wave section in the level. One of the most infamous sections is the Cosmic Cyclone-esque wave spam that occurs at 64%, followed by two preposterously difficult mini-wave gravity portal timings, making 64-66% arguably the worst chokepoint. Tight gaps litter throughout the rest of the wave, with most passed through at 4x speed. Furthermore, the click pattern at 71-72%, despite being perfectly synced, is easily chokeable.
• 77-100%: Upon exiting the wave, the level immediately slows down with a singular cube timing and a tricky ship section. After smaller ship sections intertwine with a few cube and ball parts, the longer ship section that follows this chain has a diagonal straight-fly at 81%. This part is most likely the biggest chokepoint in the ending. The ending section continues to alternate between ball, cube and ship before a short UFO section arrives. This UFO section features a nifty double click that can be easily choked if not done fast enough. Shortly afterwards, a wave section appears - this is rather unique, as wave sections are usually rare at the end of Nine Circles levels. With one final ship section and an extended triple spike, the cube floats slowly uphill to an end-screen as the level comes to a close.

Trivia

• The level's password is 220619.
• The level contains 159,696 objects.
• The level is 2m 4s in length.
• The level was rated on July 5, 2022.
• The level was initially placed at #11 on the Demonlist on August 5, 2022, above The Golden (#12) and below Trueffet (#10).
  • This addition pushed GONER into the Extended List and Mind Control into the Legacy List.
  • The Hallucination moved from #14 to #10 on October 2, 2022, pushing Tartarus out of the Top 10.
• cobrablitz became the first victor of the level on 16 August 2022, just a month after its rate.
• It is currently the third-hardest Nine Circles level in the game, behind Solar Flare and Sakupen Circles.
• The level is one of many levels broken by physics changes upon the release of update 2.2.
• The placement of poocubed on November 25, 2022, pushed The Hallucination out of the Top 10; this was after it was moved from #14 to #10.
  • The placement of Anathema on December 23, 2024, pushed The Hallucination out of the Top 25.

Videos

VerificationFull Detail Walkthrough

File:-VERIFIED- The Hallucination (by VoTcHi & SyQual) - Extreme Demon

The verification of The Hallucination. Credits to VoTcHi.

File:"The Hallucination" by VoTcHi & SyQual

A full walkthrough of The Hallucination with 2160p60 quality. Credits to fnm04.