Hard Machine

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Not to be confused with Time Extreme.

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~ originator

Hard Machine is a 1.8/2.1 Extreme Demon collaboration level created by Komp and nikrodox, published by Komp and verified by Varium. The gameplay for the level was originally built in 1.8. Komp created the level with the sole intention of being harder than ICE Carbon Diablo X, which most of the community at the time, (around 2014), thought was the hardest possible level in the game. Komp created Hard Machine to win a bet against his friend, who said he 'couldn't make a level harder than ICDX without it being impossible'. After the level died for quite a bit of time, Komp was reminded of it when going through levels on his old tablet. Later, Komp asked nikrodox to decorate the level in 2.1-style to get the level to look more modern. The level went through two verifiers before Varium verified the level on 16 August 2021.

Gameplay

As the gameplay of Hard Machine was made in 1.8, the level contains no features added after Update 1.8. The level features extremely tight timings and straight-fly. The level also contains a few memory-based gameplay sections. Much of the gameplay seems to have been inspired by some levels released around the time of its creation, such as ICE Carbon Diablo X, Necropolis and Silent clubstep.

• 0-7%: The level begins with two triple-spikes before a short straight-fly part. Next, the player must jump and hit three blue orbs extremely late and then wait for a short time before going through a ship portal. Throughout this ship part, the player must carefully straight-fly while constantly changing gravity. The ship must then travel through a tight space between two saw-blades before turning into a cube and falling upwards.
• 7-12%: After the cube lands, a few timings must be made before a mini-ship straight-fly that later becomes a normal size ship straight-fly.
• 12-22%: The player must then fly up and go through a yellow gravity portal before quickly flying downwards to go through a blue gravity portal. An extremely tight straight-fly follows. After is another straight-fly; however, in this straight-fly the player must fly between spikes above and cube portals below. If the player touches any of the cube portals except for the last one, they will crash on the spikes below. To pass the part, the player must touch the last cube portal and fall through fake spikes to get to the next part, which contains tight cube timings.
• 22-29%: The next part is a memory cube with breakable blocks preventing the player from falling downwards. The jumps are as follows: directly before the first blue orb, aligned with the red spike facing upwards before the yellow orb, directly after the next spike directly overhead passes, while hitting the pink orb and directly after the pink orb, and directly between the green orb and the blue orb (although closer to the green orb) If these jumps are done correctly, the player will need to jump over a quadruple-spike (with shorter spikes than normal) and then a triple-spike before the drop begins.
• 29-39%: After a short black screen transition, the player must jump over one triple-spike and hit a bunch of orbs. Next is a ball part with tight timings between spikes. The ball then goes into half-speed and becomes mini. More timing ball timings must be made while going through mirror portals and hitting blue orbs late.
• 39-55%: Following the mini-ball is a short mini-cube with steps like a staircase. After hitting a pink orb at the end, the player must perform a tight straight-fly while the text 'EZ' appears in the background. Next is a UFO part where the player must make tight timings to avoid saw-blades. The player needs to spam with a mini-UFO before turning into a cube. This cube part is a line of pink orbs where the player must hit the orbs at the right time to avoid hitting the spikes above and below. After is a tight ship part that starts normal size and becomes mini. At the end of the ship, the player must fly upwards; the path downwards is fake.
• 55-70%: After going through some gravity portals in an automatic part, there is a cube memory part with gravity portals and orbs. Following this part are a few triple-spikes and a ship part. In this ship part, the player must fly upwards, hitting the ceiling, while in normal size and dodging spikes above when the ship becomes mini. The player then suddenly becomes normal size again and must fly downwards through fake spikes to reach the next part.
• 70-81%: The following ship part contains tight straight-flying with gravity portals before a UFO portal where the player must spam into a cube portal to jump over a triple-spike. After a tight jump, the player becomes a ship again and must perform more straight-fly, this time with mirror portals, followed by a cube part with spikes to jump over. The cube part ends with a chain of yellow and pink orbs; the player must hit only the first pink orb and the yellow orb in the middle.
• 81-84%: Directly before the second drop is a UFO segment where the player must collect skulls to pass, while the name of the level is displayed in the background. The player must collect the top two skulls on the M, both skulls on the A, the top skull on the H and the top skull on the N.
• 84-91%: The second drop begins with a straight-fly part with gravity portals before a tight ball segment. Another straight-fly segment follows.
• 91-99%: Following the ship is a cube part that is slightly memory-focused before some orb timings. Two final triple-spikes are next before two pink orbs the player must hit late. After two last jumps, the level ends.
• 99-100% (End-Screen): The end-screen displays the level's name along with its two creators and the verifier.

First 10 victors

Victor #	Player	Date Completed	Total Attempts	Furthest Fail	Video
Verifier	Varium	19 August 2021	43,536	94%	YouTube
1	DoSh7t	12 September 2021	?	?	YouTube
2	Swooker	21 October 2021	~15,600	96%	YouTube
3	takma	19 December 2021	17,025	94%	YouTube
4	Zoink	27 January 2022	17,292	80%	YouTube
5	Cymmas	18 February 2022	~9,400	74%	YouTube
6	kyoto	26 February 2022	~13,000	?	YouTube
7	Cursed	3 June 2022	17,463	96%	YouTube
8	Tuggy	13 June 2022	22,324	80%	YouTube
9	SnowBallerr	16 June 2022	16,654	85%	YouTube
10	Emiliano56	20 June 2022	~8,000	80%	YouTube

Trivia

• The level's password is 735560.
• The level contains 61,988 objects.
• The level is 1m 37s in length.
• The level was rated on 2 September 2021.
• The level was initially placed at #5 on the Demonlist on 2 October 2021, above Zodiac and below The Golden.
  • This addition pushed Zodiac out of the Top 5, WOW into the Extended List and Galactic Shift into the Legacy List.
    • Zodiac is currently the longest-standing former Top 1 level on the Demonlist before being pushed out of the Top 5 with 938 days, claiming Sonic Wave's 866-day record.
      • Zodiac was also right next to the level placed on the Demonlist.
    • Hard Machine reached its peak on 4 June 2022 after moving from #6 to #4 before being moved down from #30 to #36 on 20 February 2024; Hard Machine was considered to be a robbed Top 1 level from Tartarus, along with Sonic Wave Infinity, Trueffet and arcturus as the other contenders.
      • Worth mentioning, alongside Trueffet, the level surpassed Tartarus in difficulty only for an overrating, due to being lately moved below Zodiac, against Sonic Wave Infinity and arcturus, which are still considered harder.
• On 21 January 2025, MAXDASH became the first person to beat Hard Machine on mobile. Five days later, it was placed at #1 on the High Refresh Rate Mobile Demonlist, above Aerial Gleam.
• In the editor, the text 'Rate Vertigo II' appears above the first part of the level. The text refers to Vertigo II by Levo, which is currently unrated.
• A straight-fly section follows if the player does not fall into the last cube portal during the ship part. If the player passes this, a text will appear that reads, 'HAHA... TRAP!' before the player crashes into a wall of spikes.
• In the editor, 54 saw-blades appear above the part of this level where the player must straight-fly through mirror portals. It is a reference to Devil Vortex, as exactly 54 saw-blades appeared above a part in that level as well, and were later used as evidence against ToshDeluxe in the hacking controversy surrounding the level.
• It is possible to get on top of the last cube section in the level. However, the player will crash into a wall of saw-blades at the end.
• There is an upcoming sequel to Hard Machine, it is set to be the hardest timing-based level in the game once released.
• The verification video for this level is age-restricted on YouTube. (This means it can only be viewed by users at least eighteen years old); the excessive swearing might be the reason for this.
• ChiefFlurry used to be one of the original verifiers of the level.
• If the player crashes at the UFO spam section at 46%, a sketch of a person smiling with the word 'shalom' (which means 'hello' in Hebrew) will appear.
• The movement of this level on 17 March 2025 removed it from the Main List, pushing Destruction 19 back into the Main List.

Gallery

File:Hard Machine EZ.png

The 'EZ' word from a ship section from the level.

Videos

VerificationWalkthroughDocumentary

File:-VERIFIED- Hard Machine - My Hardest - by komp

The verification of Hard Machine; however, this video was age-restriced due to said reason above. Credits to Varium.

File:-MY HARDEST DEMON- HARD MACHINE 100% - Top 10 Extreme Demon - Geometry Dash 2.1

The full walkthrough of Hard Machine. Credits to AeonAir.

File:Is THIS one of the OLDEST Extreme Demon levels in the game? - The History of Hard Machine (VERIFIED)

The full documentary of Hard Machine's history. Credits to nikrodox.