Tidal Wave

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Tidal Wave
ID

86407629

Creator(s)

OniLink

Verifier(s)

Zoink

Created

Update 2.1

Last updated

Update 2.2

Attributes
Difficulty

Stars

10

Length

3m 1s (XL)

Objects

220,134

Copy type

No password

Statistics
Downloads

32.39M

Likes

688.7K

Rating

Star-rated

Audio info
Artist(s)

Original: Dion Timmer
Replacement: RunoNG

Music

Original: Shiawase VIP
Replacement: Tidal Wave (Shiawase VIP rmx)

Music ID

Original: NONG (Not on Newgrounds)
Replacement: 1266014

Tidal Wave is a 2.1/2.2 Extreme Demon level by OniLink, published on 4 December 2022. Unlike most other difficult levels, this level takes a different approach, theming it around the ocean and the beach with a blue-and-yellow colour scheme and featuring predominantly difficult, fast-paced wave sequences similar to a Nine Circles level. Tidal Wave initially received a mixed reception, with criticism for its extremely precise gameplay—featuring fixed hitboxes and numerous frame-perfect timings—but later praise for its decoration and unusual theme, distinguishing it from many hell-themed top levels.

After its verification by Zoink on 9 September 2023,[1] Tidal Wave was rated and placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 18 February 2024, over five months after its verification, surpassing Avernus and becoming the hardest rated level in Geometry Dash; the level would go on to hold this position for 15 months, the longest time a level has consecutively held the Top 1 position. On 4 June 2025, Amethyst surpassed Tidal Wave and became the Top 1 Demon on the Demonlist.

OniLink's official sequel, Tsunami, is under development, projected to be Top 1.

History

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2021

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Tidal Wave's story begins on 12 April, the date OniLink uploaded a video of a level's layout to his YouTube channel, titled 'Shiawase.vip'.[2] The layout was not of outstanding quality, however, as it was one of OniLink's first.

2022

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OniLink came back to this old layout, deciding to completely remake it into a difficult three-minute Extreme Demon with a difficulty equivalent to those of Trueffet, The Golden, and Sonic Wave Infinity, giving it a name by which we know it today, Tidal Wave. In August, during the creation process, OniLink obtained Zoink's consent, one of the top players at the time, to review the level. On 4 December, the level's gameplay and decoration were fully completed,[3] but since the original verifier dropped the project, Tidal Wave became an open verification. The first person to make notable progress on the project was Mexui, whose best progress was 23%, 22-30%, and 90-100%, but, realising he vastly overestimated his skill, he quit verifying the level.

2023 and verification

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Verification attempts by other players were also unsuccessful, and it was believed the level would never be verified. However, in July that year, on the 22nd day, Zoink revealed that Tidal Wave was the verification project he had been keeping secret for some time. That day, he uploaded his 50% record on the level.[4] It turned out that back on 11 July, Zoink contacted OniLink asking if his significantly buffed version of Tidal Wave could become an official version, to which OniLink approved. On 29 July, Zoink got a new best of 67%,[5] on 4 August, he got 74%,[6] on 11 August, he crashed at 90%,[7] and on 13 August, (Geometry Dash's 10th anniversary), Zoink died at 95%, the last part, which was later dubbed 'Zoink's curse', as three other players, Trick, wPopoff, and Netermind crashed at the same percentage. Finally, on 9 September, Zoink verified Tidal Wave, spending 49,534 attempts on this achievement.[8]

Creation of Tidal Wave

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On 4 February 2024, YouTuber foxxgod interviewed OniLink.[9] When asked what inspired him to create Tidal Wave, he replied that after seeing (in his opinion) unoriginal levels such as Tartarus and Crimson Planet, he wanted to build something completely new and outstanding. It was like a 'jackpot' for OniLink: creating a very hard level would give him notoriety in the community he had always dreamt of, and he would find help with decorating it. However, everyone declined his offer, leaving Tidal Wave to be fully decorated by him. Foxxgod also inquired how Zoink became the verifier, with OniLink explaining that he had asked Zoink to verify Tidal Wave while it was still being created; he agreed, but he completely forgot about the level and ultimately started verifying it only after one of his friends reminded him. Zoink's friend was a member of the Upcoming Levels List (ULL), which hosts the hardest unverified levels, and at the time, Tidal Wave was on said list. He invited Zoink to the list to help him choose a new verification, and he eventually settled on Tidal Wave, as he liked its decoration.[10]

Controversies

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First rating controversy

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Before its rating on 18 February 2024, Tidal Wave stirred controversy within the community due to its unconventional style. Opinions were split, with some praising its originality while others criticised its perceived 'lack of polish'. Nonetheless, there was general agreement that the level warranted a rating, given its difficulty.

While RobTop acknowledged Tidal Wave's presence, notably during the Geometry Dash 2023 Awards,[11] he refrained from rating the level or engaging in discussions about it, maintaining complete silence on the matter. His reluctance to rate the level sparked dissatisfaction, leading to the #RateTidalWave campaign, which was notably visible on Twitter and in the live chat of the 2023 Awards. RobTop later broke his silence on Discord, expressing frustration with the campaign and moderation harassment.[12] Some believed his hesitance stemmed from Zoink's use of the 360 FPS bypass mod during the verification, indicating that RobTop intended to establish a precedent that would demonstrate the severity of the bypass ban in the upcoming Update 2.2.[13] However, RobTop later denied this theory.[14]

Discussions turned sour as dissatisfaction with RobTop's handling of the matter grew. YouTubers like Wavix[15] and Vit12[16] addressed the issue in videos, while players voiced their displeasure on Twitter, such as Zoink[17] and OniLink himself. Some lost hope in the possibility of Tidal Wave's rating, such as Cherry Team, who announced plans to remake the level in a modernised, polished style to secure its rating.[18]

Finally, on 18 February 2024, Tidal Wave was rated and claimed the top spot on the Demonlist. Cherry Team clarified that the remake's development would continue and would eventually be named Tidal Wave Infinity. The project was eventually halted, and there has been no news since then.

OniLink's level update and potential unrating

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On 15 April 2026, a new controversy appeared after OniLink 'accidentally' buffed the level while making an optimisation update on the start position copy back in June 2025, which three players—Servax, A6, and Netermind completed the level on. OniLink then transferred all the changes and buffs to the rated version, but for some reason, added one more change, making all previous completions technically invalid, and the update was unverified.[19]

Before the community knew that change, from the initial news, some people and the Global Demonlist began considering A6 to be the level's true verifier.[20] However, it later turned out that A6 nor any other victor of Tidal Wave actually completed the newest rated version of the level that is currently on the servers.[21]

Zoink, Trick, and wPopoff beat the first version, while Servax, Taiago, A6, and Netermind beat the second version, meaning none of those victors have verified the level, which might cause RobTop to unrate it potentially. OniLink said he would revert the changes, which were eventually done on 19 April, and thus, the situation has been resolved.[22] Before the revert, JesseGamingGD managed to complete Tidal Wave on that version in that time frame.[23] However, his record has been accepted by Pointercrate.

Description

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Tidal Wave begins with a fast-paced cube section that switches between various game-modes. At 9%, the level decelerates into a cube segment, then a brief straight-fly before returning to another fast-paced cube section with tricky timings. A difficult ship section with fake orbs follows at 18%, transitioning to a brief UFO segment. Just before the drop, simple cube clicks appear, followed by the level's title screen as the beat of the music drops.

The first drop features a challenging big-wave section with tight gaps and gravity portals. At 30%, the player starts alternating sizes, increasing difficulty with periodic darkening and brightening effects. At 39%, a half-speed break offers simpler cube, wave, and robot sequences amid darker visuals.

At 42%, the level brightens with a beach cutscene, leading to a challenging cube-UFO-spider segment and a quadruple-speed dual. Before the second drop, there is a double-speed wave segment followed by a slower cube part with occasional mini-wave clicks intertwined.

The second drop is at quadruple speed, beginning with a wave section until 62%, after which game-modes start alternating rapidly. Subsequently, at 72%, another wave segment appears.

The following finale, with an orange sunset palette, includes fast cube clicks, a challenging ship section, and a final wave segment with tight spaces. The level ends at 95%, displaying 'THANKS FOR PLAYING' alternating with 'WATCHING', followed by verification info and credits, as well as names of different players.

Gameplay

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YouTube






First 10 victors

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Victor # Player Date Completed Total Attempts Furthest Fail Video
Verifier Zoink 9 September 2023 49,534 95% YouTube
1 Trick 7 March 2024 ~70,000 95% YouTube
2 wPopoff 10 March 2024 ? 95% YouTube
3 SerVax 6 May 2025 ~47,900 91% YouTube
4 Taiago 27 June 2025 ~130,000 93% YouTube
5 A6 9 July 2025 ~75,000 93% YouTube
6 Netermind 5 November 2025 ~50,000 95% YouTube
7 JesseGamingGD 19 April 2026 244,661 82% YouTube
8 Aing Molayo 20 April 2026 162,231+ 95% YouTube
9 Bacon 28 August 2026 ~30,000 82% YouTube
10 xalval 19 September 2026 ~78,000 85% YouTube

Most recent community progress

Top best progress
  • Hercs is jumping from Theory of Everything 2 and beat Tidal Wave in three runs: 44%, 42-82%, and 55-100% as of 26 July 2026.[24]
  • XGatoProX achieved 87% on 8 September 2026, after around 166,000 overall attempts.[25]
  • Weyolll3 has 87% and 22-100% as of 6 October 2026.[26][27]
  • turtl achieved 74% on 19 May 2026.[28]
  • zLevii has 74% and 29-100% as of 10 August 2026.[29][30]
  • Edwarduk has 60%, 53% three times, and 52% five times as of 9 June 2026.[31]
  • purpwl, who is jumping from Bloodbath as his only Extreme Demon, achieved 39% on 11 October 2026.[32]
  • Skittle Catastrophe achieved 39% on 17 July 2026, clearing the first drop.[33]
  • hatredgmd, who is jumping from Nine Circles or Sh**ty Slaughterhouse, achieved 38% on 27 September 2026.[34]
  • Flxckz_gd, who is jumping from Deadlocked, achieved 38% on 12 September 2026.
  • KingMoose, who beat Bloodbath as his first ever completed level in the game,[35] has achieved 23% on Tidal Wave on 8 August 2026.[36]
  • Denni achieved 59% on 26 September 2026.[37]
Other
  • Beanie, in the spirit of npesta's '100 Pros vs Heliopolis' event, has made a challenge of his own in which he tries to get a new best of Tidal Wave, where every day, he must get 1% further into the level until he cannot keep going.[38] He reached 27% on Day 27,[39] and could not achieve a new best the next day as he had his worst session yet.[40]

Trivia

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  • Tidal Wave was rated on 18 February 2024, over five months after its verification, and placed at #1 on the Demonlist on the same day, above Avernus.
    • This addition pushed Instinct by Krazyman50 into the Extended List and nevermore into the Legacy List.
    • Tidal Wave is regarded as the 43rd instance of the hardest rated level in the game's history.
    • Pointercrate temporarily went down due to a sudden spike in web traffic.
    • wPopoff verified Amethyst on 25 May 2025. Nine days later, on 3 June 2025, it was rated and placed above Tidal Wave, ending its 471-day reign.
  • Tidal Wave is:
    • The first three-minute-long Top 1 in the game since Zodiac.
    • The first solo Top 1 since Sonic Wave.
    • The 10th non-hell-themed Top 1, with the previous one being Abyss of Darkness in June 2022.
    • The level with the most frame-perfects in any rated level, at 200 on 60FPS (1 on 120FPS), more than twice the amount of the previous record held by Avernus (which has 82 frame-perfects on 60FPS).
    • The final Top 1 verified in Update 2.1.
    • The first Top 1 rated in Update 2.2.
    • The third Top 1 in a row to be verified by Zoink.
    • The second beach-themed level on the Demonlist since Azure Fiesta, and the first beach-themed level to be placed on the Main List.
    • The fifth level to hold the #1 spot on the Demonlist for over a year, after Bloodbath, Bloodlust, Tartarus, and Acheron.
      • It is also the first level to hold this distinction that is not a hell-themed level.
    • The level with the longest span of time at #1 uninterrupted, surpassing Tartarus' previous 418-day record.
    • Formerly the level with the longest time of having no new victors, with 421 days passing between wPopoff becoming the second victor and SerVax becoming the third victor.
      • BOOBAWAMBA would surpass this length, with 430 days passing between EastShark1 verifying the level and agonom becoming the first victor.
    • First Extreme Demon since Bloodlust, whose verification video surpassed the 10-million-view mark.
  • Tidal Wave, if rated and placed on the Demonlist on the day of its verification, would have pushed Yatagarasu into the Legacy List of the Demonlist.
  • Despite being the first Top 1 in Update 2.2, Tidal Wave was verified and released in Update 2.1, making it the final Top 1 verified during Update 2.1.
  • Tidal Wave's title card at 22% became a running gag or meme among the community members.
    • Community members would often type angle brackets '<' in unison on an unrelated post on social media that remotely mentions Tidal Wave's name.
    • Tidal Wave was sometimes involved in 'jumpscare' type of videos, similar to Congregation.
  • At over 11 million views, Zoink's verification video of Tidal Wave is currently his most popular YouTube video, followed by his verification video of Thinking Space II at 4.5 million views.
  • Buk, Fear, GoMask, Snoween, and T'im playtested Tidal Wave.
  • After the Tidal Wave verification, WatchPiggy jokingly posted a fake screenshot of his 49% fail.[41] Many other players followed suit, such as Kaza[42] and Xanii,[43] causing the screenshot to circulate widely on Twitter for several weeks.
  • SerVax thinks that a 25-100% run on Amethyst is harder than beating Tidal Wave.
  • The quote 'Drown them' in Tidal Wave's description references the Tidal Wave Pool at the infamous Action Park.[44]
  • Riot aimed to beat Tidal Wave as his final achievement in his Geometry Dash career based on a Twitter poll.[45] His followers opted for him to beat Tidal Wave instead of completing Zodiac, a level he had previously attempted in 2021. Before going completely inactive, he streamed Tidal Wave on his Twitch channel for a few months.
  • KreekCraft, a popular Roblox YouTuber and Twitch streamer, reacted to Tidal Wave while streaming himself playing Geometry Dash for the first time after the live stream chat told him to play it. After reacting to the level and realising its intense difficulty, he lectured the chat about it.[46][47]
    • When KreekCraft streamed himself playing Geometry Dash for the second time, he was told again by the chat to play Tidal Wave, after which he actually played it towards the end of the stream. However, he made no progress before uninstalling the game out of annoyance.[48]
  • Tidal Wave is part of the community-made 'CMYK tetralogy', along with Amethyst, Thinking Space II, and Flamewall.
  • On 19 June 2024, Dahzen's Harder 6* level was featured as the Daily Level, sharing the same name as the Extreme Demon. Commenters joked about the level's title, relating it to the Extreme Demon of the same name, including Colon, who said 'yeah can i get the' about a popular meme related to the Extreme Demon.[49][50]
  • OniLink's first level, a mega-collaboration he hosted called Fountain of Youth,[51] is a heavily The Golden-inspired level with colourful decoration and wave-based gameplay, reminiscent of that of his future level Tidal Wave. The success of Fountain of Youth would push OniLink to create more similar levels, one of which would be Tidal Wave.
  • Netermind thinks that achieving 85% on Thinking Space II is more difficult than completing Tidal Wave.[52]
  • OniLink has made an unofficial prequel to Tidal Wave called Low Tide. He showcased the level's layout on his channel on 10 September 2024.[53] OniLink left Low Tide to be decorated by other creators, such as Houmaid, who uploaded their first video of unfinished decoration of the level on 2 October 2024.[54]
    • Houmaid published six more previews on his channel, the last on 21 July 2025.[55] On 25 August 2025, he showcased the final product of his creation.[56]
  • Tidal Wave has been acknowledged by Dion Timmer, the creator of the level's song, and the footage of it was used by him during his set at the 2026 Thunderdome event.[57]
  • Tidal Wave has an official, though unfinished, sequel named Tsunami, made by OniLink as a solo project, which is set to be eventually verified by Zoink.[58]
  • Zoink verified Artemis 13 exactly three years after Tidal Wave.
  • The placement of GRIEF on 5 October 2026 pushed Tidal Wave out of the Top 5 of the Demonlist.

Videos

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YouTube
Verification






References

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  1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fsZ014qB3s
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYZRNY8S4_w
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMA-Ahtc30
  4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHOzhtaSg0o
  5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-PZvpEsEqw
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kGaulReN2Q
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8xZnkFcBUc
  8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzuCIgc1RI
  9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wv1EHAKqwc
  10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsnbbp_kPts
  11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nmbxS0LgMs&t=759
  12. ↑ https://x.com/Just_Horizon/status/1756790878843109386
  13. ↑ https://x.com/gdzoink/status/1756544712696037645
  14. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/geometrydash/comments/1aok3kd/comment/kq0i0lr/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
  15. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enTGC-f_vSs
  16. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iUgXA9fpuw&t=29s
  17. ↑ https://x.com/gdzoink/status/1756904942223188360
  18. ↑ https://x.com/ytCuLuC/status/1755361877536747873
  19. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YNhgedbgDgQ
  20. ↑ https://x.com/demonlistorg/status/2044584458578202773
  21. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZYsLqEh1sho
  22. ↑ https://x.com/demonlistorg/status/2046092956457930988
  23. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2AK05D7ig
  24. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SloRTIhKfxw
  25. ↑ https://x.com/XBelugaX1/status/2097418018506539287
  26. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx0VgTkcCxA1O279xhBspDicdsObCUTN2U
  27. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt51iZZdOTU
  28. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_b40lPxaU
  29. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYU_LHWA9o
  30. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig7yWdf12Nw
  31. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daFotHiqHys
  32. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewDISL6QUKE
  33. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYWcprKjhT8
  34. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi6u0EQveII
  35. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ0eCR9tBjQ
  36. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF7w8F63ygM
  37. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDxZaK3palc
  38. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4BenRmU_MZQ
  39. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NmNX-4dPopQ
  40. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iaQ9xAHug7M
  41. ↑ https://x.com/WatchPiggyy/status/1700959437417316668
  42. ↑ https://x.com/Kaza_GD/status/1700994397905805468
  43. ↑ https://x.com/_Xanii_/status/1700999451387859411
  44. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkW-ceNvck
  45. ↑ https://x.com/xriott/status/1790170117159968880
  46. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ0EGlIDxQ8
  47. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYzEgF0Z9l4
  48. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ICv9Rvv8C0
  49. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa-39uSzfLI
  50. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3r-B8MQE0Q&t=90s
  51. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbrivdY3YPY
  52. ↑ https://x.com/Netrimer/status/2040993030673416583
  53. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5XnEv6wXz8
  54. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szZj1Z_sYGg
  55. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnX0lBNKGAM&
  56. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoL5ioBHfvU
  57. ↑ https://x.com/diontimmermusic/status/2021650234984857869?s=20
  58. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx5GdRHkMBg
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