Editing Zodiac

{{IB-Level
 |image      = Zodiac.png
 |id         = 52374843
 |creator    = Bianox (host and publisher); [[RicoLP]] (former host)
;Contributors
Rustam, Onnikonna, Aquatias, YakobNugget, DreamEater, Dudex, OSIRIS, Shocksidian, Juhou, GdTheTactiq, [[Samifying]], TMNGaming, Failure444, Uneskladovae, Marwec, [[Pennutoh]], SlimJim, LeocreatorX, and Enlex
 |verifier   = xander (hack-verifier)<br>[[Technical]] (legitimate verifier)
 |created    = [[Update 2.1]]
 |updated    = [[Update 2.2]]
 |difficulty = {{ExtremeDemon}}
 |stars      = 10
 |length     = 3m 14s (XL)
 |objects    = 196,961
 |copytype   = Password (5875)
 |downloads  = 10.8M
 |likes      = 314.4K
 |rating     = Featured
 |artist     = [https://creomusic.newgrounds.com/ Creo]
 |music      = [https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/739991 Sphere]
 |musicid    = 739991
}}
'''Zodiac''' is a [[Update 2.1|2.1]] Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted by Bianox, hack-verified by xander on 28 January 2019.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCQK_y8JutU</ref> On 11 June 2019, xander admitted to hacking the level, including numerous other achievements. The ownership and the rights to decide the fate of this level have consequently been passed to [[Technical]], who beat the level legitimately on 9 April 2019; therefore, he became the first legitimate victor of Zodiac.<ref name=":0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4QjElo58_o</ref> The level was initially published on xander's account but moved to Bianox's account on 14 October 2021.

Zodiac was placed at #1 on the [[Demonlist (Pointercrate)|Demonlist]], surpassing [[Bloodlust]]. The level received mixed reviews from players, who praised its decoration and difficulty but criticized its unbalanced gameplay, particularly for the chokepoint-heavy second half.<ref name=":0" /><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8bv64z591Q</ref><ref name="Joshua28">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dNs8S7uuAY</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms8Zt3XVzZY</ref>

A spiritual successor, [[Spectre]], was hosted by xander and released in [[Update 2.2]].

==History==
===Origin and creation===
On 16 July 2017, [[RicoLP]] released a video showcasing his part in a new upcoming Extreme Demon mega-collaboration named Zodiac. In the video description, he stated that it would be 3 minutes and 15 seconds long and set to be the hardest Demon. He also revealed the complete list of participants, with some well-known creators such as [[LazerBlitz]], Rustam, and [[Manix648]].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5e6yn5Q__o</ref>

Two days later, Rustam uploaded a video showcasing his finished part of the level.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNwJE3_5958</ref> The next day, on 19 July 2017, DollarC released a video showcasing the first seven parts of Zodiac.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdrtUd_QSow</ref> After a couple of creators revealed their parts, RicoLP announced the Zodiac Creator Contest to fill in the 10th spot of the level on 26 September.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtCGOM0dSiE</ref>

After this, however, activity surrounding the level subsided. Not much new information was heard about the level. The host, RicoLP, then quit [[Geometry Dash]], leading many players to believe the level was dead. RicoLP passed the level's rights to a player named LeoCreatorX, who made the second-to-last part.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzAdJBAaQqY&t=3348</ref>

The rumours were disproved when Enlex uploaded his part of the mega-collaboration to YouTube on 30 January 2018, marking the last part of the level and replacing Splash. Enlex revealed in the comments that they were nearly finished with the level and announced that Juhou had won the Creator Contest. LeoCreatorX handed the ownership to Bianox as the new host, and [[Wooshi]] was set to verify it.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuiSuW-0dvU</ref>

On 12 February 2018, GdTheTactiq uploaded the finished level to YouTube, showcasing the new parts and team.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnvmoftF5Zc</ref> This signified that the level was, in fact, alive and would be released sometime.

===Verification race and hacking drama===
Later, since Wooshi999 was too busy with other projects, the level was handed over to [[EndLevel]] for verification. However, Bianox and EndLevel agreed to give the level to Benji8080, an unknown player.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Q4wdMlvg0</ref>

Benji8080 dropped all of his other projects and focused on Zodiac and [[Hyper Paracosm]] (now [[Crimson Planet]]). On 11 April 2018, he got 31% after 5,585 attempts. He later got 38% on 22 April after 16,037 attempts.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu2jxTON-H0</ref> On 2 June, he got 61-100% after 26,881 attempts and also reached 1,000 subscribers on YouTube.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn4lGfbuVZc</ref> However, about two months later, on 20 August, he dropped Zodiac and gave the level, along with a shout-out, to Slac. In the video description, Benji explained that he decided to give up on the level because of school and demotivation.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfhudQALBrk</ref>

On 4 November 2018, [[DiamondSplash]] got a record of 42%. In the video description, he explained that he was now verifying the level, stated he was enjoying it so far and claimed to have achieved a start position run of 49-90% off camera.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jszaV1ipPuQ</ref>

However, DiamondSplash dropped the verification, and it was passed to the Australian player xander.

On 19 January 2019, xander hack-verified Zodiac after supposedly 61,375 attempts. He kept the hacking of the level a secret until 11 June 2019, when he confessed. The verification was awarded to Technical, the first victor of the level.

===Post-verification===
Zodiac remained the #1 Extreme Demon on the Demonlist until 9 February 2020, when it was dethroned by [[Tartarus]].

On 21 May 2024, the original, unnerfed version of Zodiac was verified by the player nebnoob after 179,284 attempts.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mvddPaNklg</ref>

==Description==
*'''0-3% (RicoLP):''' Zodiac begins with RicoLP's part, a half-speed cube section with simple orb timings.
*'''3-7% (Rustam):''' Rustam's part begins with a brief auto section (during which the player can choose to activate the level's ultra-Low Detail Mode) before entering a normal-speed, normal-sized cube section that eventually becomes mini. The player then enters a brief ball section, followed by a robot. The part ends as a wave after a brief auto-cube section.
*'''7-11% (Onnikonna + Aquatias):''' As the speed slows back down to half speed, Onnikonna's part starts with a difficult mini-robot segment, requiring lots of timing and skill. After briefly turning into normal size, the player becomes a cube, followed by another tight robot segment. The part ends as a tight cube section.
*'''11-15% (YakobNugget):''' YakobNugget's part is next, starting as a normal-sized ball part requiring crucial timing and becoming mini-sized in the middle. A normal-speed straight-fly-based ship segment with some orbs and portals follows, and the section ends as a cube section with two triple-spike jumps.
*'''15-20% (Bianox):''' At the drop, Bianox's part begins with a triple-speed mini-cube section, followed by a short straight-fly part and a very tight UFO segment. After a timing-based robot part, the player briefly turns into a normal-speed cube for a triple spike jump, then into a quadruple-speed straight-fly. The part ends with a very tight normal-speed mini-wave segment.
*'''20-26% (DreamEater):''' After a short break, DreamEater's part starts with a quadruple-speed spider-cube dual segment. After the cube turns into a UFO, some triple-speed straight-flying occurs, followed by a brief half-speed cube. The speed immediately picks back up to quadruple speed in a timing-based cube section, and the part ends with a half-speed cube section that is mostly auto but requires one red orb.
*'''26-33% (Dudex):''' Dudex's part begins with a fast-paced quadruple-speed cube section with some tricky timings required. After briefly slowing down to normal speed, a triple-speed straight-fly part is next, and the part ends with some more fast-paced timing cube gameplay.
*'''33-38% (OSIRIS):''' OSIRIS's part stays a cube briefly before a one-jump tight UFO. Another timing cube follows, with a tight spider part coming right after. After another timing-based robot-and-ball section, there is a very tight mini-spider section, and the part ends with a spider swing-copter.
*'''38-44% (Shocksidian):''' Shocksidian's part opens with a confusing double-speed dual-cube section starting with a frame-perfect jump. After a brief straight-fly, a dual-ship segment appears (with a blue orb causing both ships to fly in parallel briefly) before quickly turning solo again. The player then enters a triple-speed cube section for a timed jump, followed by a timing-based (including a single frame-perfect) double-speed ball segment that becomes a dual. The part ends with some dual-ship straight-flying.
*'''44-49% (Juhou):''' At the beginning of Juhou's part, the player is a cube and must jump right before entering the ball portal to survive. A ship part comes right after, with a very tight wave coming after that. After a tricky dual-mini-wave part, the player briefly becomes a single cube. A tight spider part follows, then the player becomes dual for a brief while, and the part ends with some straight-flying at double speed.
*'''49-52% (GdTheTactiq):''' As the song slows, so does the gameplay. GdTheTactiq's part runs at half speed and begins with a timing-based mini-robot section, followed by a tricky ship segment with lots of skill, tight spaces, and straight-flying involved.
*'''52-56% ([[Samifying]]):''' Samifying's part stays at half speed with a short timing-based cube segment that quickly becomes a tight ship segment. A UFO, cube, spider, and ball part follows, and all game modes require one jump. A very tight, skill-based ship part is next, followed by a short but tight wave segment. The part then ends with a normal-speed timing-based cube section.
*'''56-61% (TMNGaming):''' The music and gameplay speed back up in TMNGaming's part, starting as a double-speed timing cube section, with a spamming-based wave segment next. Some very tight mini-ship straight-fly follows. A short auto cube section leads to a timing mini-ball, followed by a tight wave and UFO. The part ends with more straight-flying.
*'''61-67% (Failure444):''' Failure444's part begins as a triple-speed cube before entering a UFO part, followed by a tight ball section. After that, the player enters a cube section with difficult timings and a ship segment where they must straight-fly. Afterwards is a memory-based cube part and a very tight wave segment. The player goes down to double speed, then to normal speed, in a timing-based cube section.
*'''67-70% (Uneskladovae):''' Uneskladovae's part begins with a half-speed cube section that revolves around timing, with a tight skill-based ship part right after. After a timing ball segment, the part ends with a normal-speed cube section with a couple of orb timings.
*'''70-75% (Marwec):''' Marwec's part begins as a normal-speed mini-cube with difficult timings and a ball segment with similar timings shortly after. The player then enters a double-speed straight-fly ship segment. The part then ends with a triple-speed cube segment that transitions into the song's second drop.
*'''75-81% ([[Pennutoh]]):''' Pennutoh's part starts as a triple-speed wave with tricky cube timings interspersed, including a 79% frame-perfect orb timing, one of the major chokepoints in the level. The section ends with a half-speed cube and transition.
*'''81-87% (SlimJim):''' SlimJim's part starts as a brief triple-speed mini-cube and UFO segment. Next, the player enters a triple-speed, spam-based wave segment, a fast spider segment, and a timing-based mini-ball segment. After a one-jump mini-robot, a mini-ship straight-fly segment follows with several teleport portals, bringing the player up and down the screen. After a quick timing cube section, the part concludes with some straight-fly.
*'''87-93% (LeocreatorX):''' LeocreatorX's part begins with a double-speed timing-based cube section. After a short quadruple-speed cube section with multiple dash orbs to hit, the part ends with a short triple-speed mini-ball section, once again utilizing timings.
*'''93-100% (Enlex):''' Enlex's part begins as a triple-speed straight-fly section, and then a quick UFO segment appears. After a timing-based cube part, another UFO section with many gravity portals follows, then a very tight wave segment that rapidly switches gravity and size many times. The player is presented with a double-speed mini-cube maze before the level ends, with a half-speed green orb timing.

==Gameplay==
{{VC|CtUP_7wSUII}}

==Trivia==
===General===
*Zodiac was ranked #57 in GDToday's '100 Greatest Levels of All Time' list.
*At 55%, at the end of Samifying's part, the creator's message 'GL! SAMY OUT' can be found. It is a distinct feature on most of his mega-collaboration parts.
*Aquatias, LazerBlitz, Manix648, Pan, loogiah, Sysonic, Nemphis, Edicts, Vlacc, Eiken, and Splash all used to be a part of the mega-collaboration but later quit. Aquatias's layout, however, was retained and decorated by Onnikonna.
**Some people have called Zodiac near-impossible due to its length and timings.
*If the player dies at the last green orb timing at 99%, the text 'NOICE SAYS HI' will appear.
**This refers to the player GMDNoice, who claimed to be the 'president of Geometry Dash Twitter'.
*According to Wombat, Zodiac used to be called Exosphere before she convinced RicoLP to change the name to Zodiac.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIasYzBc3ns</ref>
*[[icedcave]] revealed an unofficial sequel to Zodiac called Spectre, which features YakobNugget and xander. Spectre was initially intended to be the official sequel to Zodiac, but Bianox and RicoLP later reversed their decision. It was set to be verified by ezvie,<ref>https://twitter.com/BIANOX_GD/status/1375100334880780290</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/BIANOX_GD/status/1368280543603855377</ref> who eventually dropped the level. Spectre was verified by PersonHuman42 on 5 October 2024 and placed at #6 on the Demonlist on 11 November 2024.
*Throughout Zodiac's creation process, parts of Zodiac have gone through different versions compared to the published level:
**Onnikonna and Aquatias's part in gameplay was different at the end.
**OSIRIS's part utilized mini-wave, black orb spam, and teleport portals.
**TMNGaming's part used to have a brief straight-fly segment where the background was dark and only a straight-fly corridor was visible.
*The [[Wikipedia:Zodiac|Zodiac]] is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets are within the zodiac belt and 12 astrological signs.
**The 12 astrological signs are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
*Zodiac is the first Extreme Demon that [[Sunix]] has beaten since returning to Geometry Dash in April 2026. He beat it with 19,910 attempts on 17 April 2026.
**Zodiac has also become his new hardest after over eight years.
***Interestingly, five days later, Zodiac has also become the new hardest completion of another skilled player, [[SrGuillester]].

===Demonlist===
*Zodiac was placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 9 March 2019, above Bloodlust.
**This addition pushed [[Sonic Wave]] out of the Top 5 after more than two years of its reign, [[Sakupen Hell]] into the Extended List, and Uprise into the Legacy List.
**Zodiac is regarded as the 33rd instance of the hardest rated level in the game's history.
**Zodiac was briefly on the Legacy List due to the level being hacked and updated to several other joke levels.
**Zodiac was the #1 Demon for 338 days after being taken by Tartarus on 10 February 2020.
**Zodiac is the second former #1 Demon to use a Creo song, the first being [[Digital Descent]].
**Zodiac would not have dethroned Bloodlust as the new hardest level, had Crimson Planet been rated right after its verification on 19 May 2018.
*Zodiac is currently the longest former [[Demonlist Top 1 Levels|Top 1]] in terms of level length.
*[[nSwish]] considered Zodiac three times harder than Crimson Planet.
**The other Zodiac victors tend to agree that Zodiac is far harder than Crimson Planet and Bloodlust, and that the level is on a completely different scale than those two.
*Zodiac went through many verifiers, including Benji8080, DiamondSplash, and Slac.
*Zodiac was verified on the same day as [[Thinking Space]], a few hours before.
*Zodiac was put at #16 on the list on April Fools' Day in 2019, calling the verifier 'Australian Superstar' (this name became a meme after xander supposedly verified the level).
*xander confessed to hacking the verification of Zodiac on 11 June 2019, along with numerous other achievements.
**After his confession, he updated Zodiac to Satcherzbop by Satch Squad, a controversial level mainly due to its hate speech from the uncensored version.
**Zodiac was then updated once more to an impossible joke layout before [[Robert Topala|RobTop]] finally reverted the level to the original version.
***This chain of events caused Crimson Planet to be #1 for about a day.
*On 7 March 2025, Zodiac's (#70) position on the Demonlist was swapped with [[Kenos]]'s (#69), making Kenos a retrospective Top 1.
**On 3 October 2025, WOBBLING MACHINE was placed at #89 between those two levels, which became a running meme or gag in the community.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/geometrydash/comments/1o1lx0x/the_couple_has_broken_up_for_good/</ref>
***This gag was further implied after Zodiac was later moved from #90 to #93 on 8 October 2025, and then Kenos was moved from #88 to #83 on 19 October 2025, distancing both levels even more.
*With a tenure of 2,696 days, Zodiac is the longest-standing level on the Demonlist.
*Zodiac amassed 1,020 total victors during its lifespan on the Demonlist, making it the fifth level in the history of Pointercrate to reach a milestone of 1,000 victors, joining Bloodbath (1,294), Sonic Wave (1,048), Bloodlust (1,068), and Cognition (1,233).
*The placement of [[Every End]] on 20 April 2025 pushed Zodiac into the Extended List of the Demonlist, alongside [[Bloodlust]] falling to the Legacy List.
**The placement of [[Green Bullet]] on 26 July 2026 pushed Zodiac into the Legacy List after over seven years.
***Technical posted a video skit named 'Goodbye, Zodiac.' after this happened to honour the level, and xander reacted by detailing the level's legacy in the Demon List Discord server.<ref>https://discord.com/channels/395654171422097420/456448992482689025/1531036958715940864</ref>
****A controversy spawned right after, as a post by @Prototype_6197 on Twitter pointed out that one of Technical's friends featured in the skit has a history of sexual misconduct that ended in early-to-mid 2022. Technical was aware of this but never supported his actions and felt uncomfortable around him. Technical later took down the video, and after he made a formal apology, the drama mostly quieted down.<ref>https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ7EZKkawdfCudtBwAFSFn32ejGLrUYrtjpYgNf1tB7Zbb2cYIoXAl2BeUJoZdjDXW0w4xkog0-13wN/pub</ref>
{{Togglebox
 |header = Notable completions
 |body   = <nowiki />
*[[Zoink]] beat Zodiac as his first-ever List Demon, jumping from [[Bloodbath]].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Gj1iRg3cY</ref>
**PersonHuman42 also jumped from Bloodbath.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoc6E6ZZm-M</ref>
*Ozzy612, [[Mycrafted]], [[nSwish]], and [[rori]] beat the level in one week on 9–16 August 2019, creating the term known as 'Zodiac Week'.
*Joshua28's 12,194 attempts used to be the attempt record from 26 January 2020 to 20 May 2021.<ref name="Joshua28"/>
*[[RicoLP]], the level's host, completed Zodiac in ~22,000 attempts.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a0UmwiYUj4</ref>
*12_Kelvin's completion of Zodiac on 4 December 2021 made it the hardest completed Demon on a controller at the time.
*DrexX16_ became the 500th victor of Zodiac on 12 April 2025.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4ELVKakF7M</ref>
*Sunix, the verifier of Sonic Wave, completed Zodiac on 17 April 2026 after dropping after an 80% fail on 14 October 2019.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=condtgWzOdc</ref>
}}

==Videos==
{{VC|HCQK_y8JutU|N4QjElo58_o|3mvddPaNklg|auqz8n4d6CI
 |cpt1 = Hacked verification
 |cpt2 = Legitimate verification
 |cpt3 = Unnerfed version verification
 |cpt4 = Unnerfed version
}}

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Demon List levels]]