Acheron
Acheron is a 2.1 Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted by ryamu and co-hosted by Riot, verified by Zoink on 23 August 2022 after 72,808 attempts.[1] It is the second in a trilogy of hell-themed Top 1 levels hosted by Riot and considered a standalone successor to Tartarus, the inspiration for Acheron's 1.9-style decoration. Acheron features dark, greyscale visuals with red accents. The level was initially set to be verified by Wolvez, who reached 96% before dropping it on 7 April 2022. This sparked a competitive verification race in 2022 among players like Zoink, Doggie and OneAlphaHelix, with Zoink ultimately emerging as the winner.
Acheron placed at #2 on the Demonlist before being shifted to #1 due to being deemed the hardest level in the game.[2][3] While many players who completed it found the gameplay unenjoyable,[1][4][5] it received praise for its style and synchronisation. Acheron is currently the most completed level in the Top 20 of the Demonlist, with over 90 victors.
A third level, Aeternus, was published in Update 2.2 and is set for open verification.
History
Creation of Acheron
Throughout the first week of July 2021, the project's creators would upload their part in Acheron onto YouTube. The level was unveiled to the public on 7 July 2021 on Riot's and icedcave's YouTube channels.
Wolvez and leaking drama
In September 2021, Wolvez intended to be Acheron's official verifier. Just a GD player asked for a copy to showcase on his channel, and Wolvez agreed. When Exen also requested a copy, knowing Exen's history of leaking levels, Wolvez and ryamu advised against it. Despite this, Just a GD player gave Exen a copy without permission, which angered the hosts. Tensions between the two parties escalated, leading Just a GD player to threaten to leak Acheron to Vernam unless Wolvez dropped the level. Wolvez, aware of Vernam's reputation, reluctantly complied, passing verification to spaceuk. Just a GD player apologised, and Wolvez regained verification. Later, ryamu uploaded Acheron to prevent further leaks. He clarified that any verification by someone other than Wolvez would not be official.
After the drama concluded, Wolvez began progressing on the level, initially getting 38% on 28 October 2021[6] and 66% a week later.[7] He would soon make more significant progress including 85%,[8] 92%[9] and finally 96%.[10] However, on 7 April 2022, Wolvez dropped the verification due to his worsening health condition caused by anaemia.[11] As a result, the hosts made the level an open verification.
Open-verification progress
Numerous skilled players attempted to verify Acheron after the open-verification race had begun.
Thnnder was one of the first players to make progress, reaching 38% on 9 April 2022.[12] Baeru would get a run of 49-100% on 15 April 2022.[13] However, they lost interest in the level. OneAlphaHelix would get a run of 34% on 11 April 2022, followed by 38% a week later.[14] Over the next month, he would get 44%, 55% and 67% on 21 May 2022.[15] Zoink made the most serious progress on the level, getting 66% on 25 May 2022.[16] He would then get runs of 82%[17] and 91%.[18] On 7 June 2022, Zoink uploaded a showcase of his version of Acheron with fixed hitboxes and buffs.[19] Two days later, Zoink would fail at 96% on the same spot where Wolvez also failed.[20]
As Zoink slowed down playing Acheron, OneAlphaHelix would continue to grind out the level on Twitch, getting 72% on 1 August 2022[21] and 79% on 8 August 2022.[22] OneAlphaHelix played on his version, which was still around Top 1 difficulty but was nerfed and re-balanced to improve the enjoyment of the level. On 18 August 2022, Zoink failed at 97% on the level. Riot uploaded a super-buffed version of the level onto his account around this time.
On 22 August 2022, Zoink finally verified Acheron after 72,808 attempts.[1] The level was rated five days later. On 30 January 2023, Zoink verified a small buff-date of Acheron, adding slight buffs and fixes to the level.[23] However, RobTop update-locked the level, so Zoink uploaded this updated version onto his account.
Post-release controversies
Before its initial placement, people discovered an alternate click pattern around the 34% UFO part, considered one of the hardest parts of the level. However, a second click after clicking the blue orb will make the jump significantly easier. Displeased by this, ryamu later updated the level by adding a spike on the part to discourage 'skipping' the obligatory click pattern. However, this feature was quickly reverted to another update, adding a trigger orb at the UFO part, which caused the player to crash on it with the text 'clueless :v' appearing. However, both updates made the level impossible to pass through; ryamu later reverted these changes. These updates drew criticism from the community.[24]
After Zoink got 72% on his version of Acheron, he stated during a stream by the player Arcturus that he had slightly nerfed the level in private. The verified version of Acheron is nerfed compared to the version he got 72% on. spaceuk had been practising the version of the level before the nerfs and deemed that to be harder than Slaughterhouse. This instance could be why it was not placed at #1 on the Demonlist.
A month after its rating, the level was initially placed at #2 on the Demonlist on 27 September 2022.[25] This placement caused controversy, with some criticising the Demonlist team about a supposed bias despite the emphasis that the placement is highly subject to change. The majority of the criticism blames both Doggie and OneAlphaHelix for their belief that the level should be placed at #2, both of whom have made significant progress on their versions of Acheron.
One possible reason for the uproar is that many in the community believed Zoink's version of the level had never received nerfs, and that the version spaceuk had practised was identical to the version later verified. vulcanium4, a list moderator for the Demonlist, responded to the controversy, saying that the placement is the 'best' that the team could have given.[26] The level was later moved to #1 on 7 October 2022.
On 27 January 2023, ryamu added another update for Acheron: if the player uses a different click pattern at 34%, the text 'not cool man :(' will appear following the player until the end of the level. The string of updates caused RobTop to revert the changes and update-lock the level.[24] As a result, Zoink uploaded the buff-date of Acheron on his account.
Description
- 0-9% (ryamu + Riot + icedcave + GrenadeofTacos): Acheron begins with an extended triple-spike jump, similar to Tartarus' first jump. After that, the player must perform tricky orb timings and a blue-orb spam. After the spam, the player must precisely jump onto a yellow pad to enter a yellow gravity portal.
- 9-17% (Silver): After being tossed by gravity portals, the player hits a blue orb, triggering a precise jump to another blue orb. It leads to a tough memory segment with Clubstep monsters, followed by a blue pad and tricky orb timings. The section ends with a blue orb that sends the player to a pink orb inside a normal-gravity portal.
- 17-30% (icedcave + Deadlox): The drop starts with a brief triple-speed auto-cube segment. The fifth pad launches the player into a tough triple-speed ship section with fake orbs, size and gravity changes. It leads to a hard cube transition and a tight wave section with more size/gravity shifts. Next, a cube section with three tight jumps leads into a precise triple-speed straight-fly that turns anti-gravity midway.
- 30-40% (Deadlox + ryamu + Komp + AzuLer): After the straight-fly, the player becomes a mini-cube, and they are forced to perform tight jumps, with one at 31% being among the hardest in the level. Next is a normal-sized UFO section where the player must jump into a blue orb, then spam. After two cube clicks, the player enters a normal-speed wave part that starts in anti-gravity and then switches to normal-gravity midway through.
- 40-49% (ryamu + Ewop): The player enters a triple-speed cube portal, then jumps onto a blue pad that leads to a yellow orb timing, launching them into a tough ship segment. In the ship segment, the difficulty consists primarily of ship control and orb timing, as well as a final straight fly similar to Tartarus' 31% ship. Some victors pass this ship part by performing a click pattern synced to the music, such as Zeroxy.[27]
- 49-54% (ryamu + Goobfrudla + Ewop): The player enters a wave segment that shifts to anti-gravity and mini-size midway. At the end, they return to normal size and must hit a pink orb as they enter a UFO section, where more synced clicks are required.
- 54-59% (Metalface221): The section begins with a double-speed deceleration into a cube portal, where the player falls onto three blue orbs before jumping a few times into a yellow orb. This orb launches them into a brief three-speed ship segment in which the player must fly upward into an anti-gravity portal, then downward. The section concludes with a short, normal-speed mini-cube segment featuring blue orb timings.
- 59-66% (Deadlox + Cersia): A blue orb timing sends the player upward into a triple-speed portal, where they now have to perform brief memorisation with two blue orbs and a yellow orb. The yellow orb leads to a brief straight-fly, followed by entering a cube portal stacked with a yellow orb. The yellow orb then sends the player to a blue orb, and if they hold after hitting it, they will jump off and face a short blue orb spam part. They then fall into a blue orb, which marks the end of the drop.
- 66-69% (ryamu + Riot + Deadlox): A short bridge leads to the second drop at half-speed, resembling the 60% bridge in Tartarus. It features a tight upward ship corridor followed by challenging wave manoeuvres.
- 69-85% (icedcave): The second drop accelerates to triple-speed, featuring brief cube timings before a ship section that requires precise straight-flying with orb timings. Next, the player performs a UFO jump into a Clubstep-monster straight-fly, followed by an automatic cube transition to six precise ball timings. The sixth timing leads to a blue pad, sending the player into a double-speed UFO section with jumps into pink orbs inside Clubstep-monsters, demanding tight precision. After three ball timings, the player faces a triple-speed wave and a tight, normal-sized straight-fly.
- 85-100% (EndLevel + Lime): The player becomes a cube and must hit four spaced-out orb timings before a double-speed wave timing. Next, they perform a cube jump into pink orb timings, leading to a ball segment with three tight timings. The third timing launches them into a yellow orb, sending them to a mini-sized portal and a triple-speed portal, requiring two more timings. After two decelerating cube jumps, the player faces a tight half-speed wave and two ball timings to end the level.
Gameplay
First 10 victors
| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | Zoink | 22 August 2022 | 72,808 | 97% | YouTube |
| 1 | Doggie | 1 November 2022 | 121,749 | 97% | YouTube |
| 2 | Trick | 24 February 2023 | ? | 98% | YouTube |
| 3 | Zeroxy | 20 May 2023 | ~153,000 | 61% | YouTube |
| 4 | wPopoff | 20 June 2023 | 69,442 | 97% | YouTube |
| 5 | OneAlphaHelix | 3 July 2023 | 420,317 | 97% | YouTube |
| 6 | eandis | 18 July 2023 | ~91,000 | 89% | YouTube |
| 7 | RaeveZ | 18 July 2023 | 323,378 | 98% | YouTube |
| 8 | Taiago | 19 July 2023 | 199,905 | 97% | YouTube |
| 9 | Hover | 7 October 2023 | 102,450 | 97% | YouTube |
| 10 | Light | 9 October 2023 | 111,970 | 92% | YouTube |
Notable completions
- The biggest fluke on Acheron was achieved by Zeroxy, who fluked from 61% on 21 May 2023, taking over 153,000 attempts to beat it.[28]
- LilGig spent 930,352 attempts to complete Acheron on 18 May 2025.[29] It is the highest number of attempts after which the level was completed.
- eandis and RaeveZ became the sixth and seventh victors of the level on 18 July 2023, within two hours of each other.[30][31]
- The next day, Taiago became the eighth victor after 209,905 attempts.[32]
- Flavyola64 became the 100th victor of Acheron on 5 April 2025.[33]
Furthest fails
- W1nda, zGamerdude, FinnyP515, ScoffGD, noname228gg, takma, and SerVax all failed at 95%.
- Wolvez and Zoink both failed at 96% on their versions of the level. Technical, tea, river, Syrcx, TimsTeam, EdwardUKraine, EastShark1, Rediio, fluget, breakcore11, LOL123, Kopyedz, zThund3r, and Bigthunder556 also failed at 96%.
- wPopoff, Doggie, OneAlphaHelix, maxer, Raffox, SpaceRS, noxell, Vorten, Orange, Ranian, DibiiziCookie, LilGig, NordstromUSA, Sharkified, nickname, SnowBallerr, Ronrjkw, teraaa, hstorm, microforest, Netermind, Mizukii, moliklee, Hover, Taiago, and OneAlphaHelix all failed at 97%.
- Trick, RaeveZ, yolomodeboom, za1lx, Draxz, og, Weyolll3, RAASU, Diamond, Denni, fauk, Ekskriptn, vvay, Joker, MostDefinitelyAlbert, NLShorty, kopre, Hqmy, Stefan Boss, foxyan17, ROZE, paltadashg, Gokill GD, and Arshadow all failed at 98%.
Trivia
- Acheron was rated on 27 August 2022 and placed at #2 on the Demonlist on 27 September 2022, above Abyss of Darkness and below Slaughterhouse.
- This addition pushed Firework out of the Top 5, Molten Core into the Extended List, and Solarion into the Legacy List.
- Acheron was later swapped with Slaughterhouse on 7 October 2022, securing the Top 1 spot.
- Acheron is regarded as the 39th instance of the hardest rated level in the game's history.
- There has been debate over whether Acheron or Avernus is harder. Avernus was initially ranked below Acheron in April 2023, but it gained a reputation as 'unenjoyable', leading to its rise to #1 in October. However, in February 2024, Avernus' difficulty was challenged, with wPopoff's June 2024 completion causing Avernus to drop, giving it a 'false top 1' label, meaning one level was ranked #1 above another level that was considered easier at the time but was later recognised as harder, creating a situation similar to The Golden. In December 2024, Avernus was moved back above Acheron, confirming its title as the harder level and dispelling the 'false top 1' notion. Additionally, Anathema was placed on the Demonlist the same day.
- On 7 October 2023, Acheron became the fourth overall Top 1 level to stay at the top spot for over a year, following Bloodbath, Bloodlust, and Tartarus, and preceding Tidal Wave.
- Acheron, Bloodlust and Tidal Wave are the only Top 1 levels that were not temporarily dethroned.
- On 12 May 2026, Doggie found out that Acheron had been nerfed sometime after Zoink's verification in two different spots.
[34] This change means that w3rty is actually the first victor of the current rated version of Acheron, as more than 15 players beat it on the unnerfed version.[35]
- Acheron (Greek: Αχέροντας) is named after the river located in Epirus, Greece. According to Greek mythology, it is one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld, nicknamed the 'River of Pain'. It serves as the entrance to the underworld.
- It is also depicted as a plane of existence in the Forgotten Realms setting for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), making Acheron one of two #1 levels to share a name with a D&D location along with Avernus.
- Skipping the triple-speed portal at 17% by jumping over it will result in death by hitting the spike, and the text 'DEEZ NUTZ :v' will pop out.
- Acheron shares several similarities to Tartarus aside from their theming:
- Both levels were open verifications, although Acheron was initially set to be verified by Wolvez.
- Both levels sparked controversy after their verification. In Tartarus' case, Dolphy's verification was questioned for its legitimacy, while in Acheron's case, the level's initial placement on the Demonlist sparked controversy, as did the 34% UFO part due to minor changes that made the level impossible.
- Both levels reigned as #1 for over a year.
- Avernus dethroned Acheron; however, it was moved below Acheron at #4 on 16 June 2024, although when Acheron is no longer #1, similarly to how The Golden temporarily dethroned Tartarus.
- Strangely enough, Avernus is the unofficial 'sequel' to the Golden, similar to Acheron, the unofficial sequel to Tartarus.
- Acheron had different gameplay sections scrapped in the current version, notably in icedcave and Deadlox's part at 17-30% and the last part from 95-100%. This version was uploaded by ryamu on 5 May 2023.[36]
- Throughout its verification race, Acheron had many different versions of varying difficulty:
- Original version - The first version of Acheron. The difficulty is estimated to be around what was Top 5-10 difficulty at the time.
- Wolvez's version - The well-known version of Acheron. It was the buffed version that Wolvez practised when he was the official verifier. The difficulty was around Top 3 at the time Wolvez was verifying.
- Zoink's version - The currently rated version. It contains numerous fixed hitboxes to increase its difficulty. A buff-date of this version was also verified on 30 January 2023 and uploaded to Zoink's account.
- Alpha's version - OneAlphaHelix's version of Acheron. It is a fixed version with the 31% cube nerfed while adding buffs to the easier sections and the pre-drop. The difficulty is around Slaughterhouse's.
- Doggie's version - Doggie used his fixed version of Acheron. A notable nerf was the 61% jump. Some clicks were buffed. OneAlphaHelix believes this version is easier than Wolvez's.
- Riot's version - The hardest version of Acheron. It is a super-buffed version recently uploaded by Riot, and its difficulty is near-impossible.
- Acheron is the first featured Top 1 on the Demonlist since Tartarus.
- Acheron was formerly the hardest featured level before Nullscapes was moved above it on 6 February 2025.
- Riot's version of Acheron cannot be copied.
- There is an Easter egg where guns can be seen above Acheron, only viewable in the editor.
- On 21 July 2025, Llqne has got a world record of 50% at 60FPS on Acheron,[37] beating Bradenbowls' previous 25% record achieved on 27 September 2022.[38]
- After Update 2.2, many members of the community openly agreed that the level had been heavily nerfed due to the update's new physics. While most people still agree with it to this day, claiming that 'the ship physics changed' and bringing up the fact that the 2.1 version contains more frame perfects, some find 2.2 Acheron harder than 2.1 Acheron, mentioning how, for example, the 'decreased jump height that was brought with 2.2 made a lot of jumps even harder'.[39][40]
- The placement of ORBIT on 10 March 2026 pushed Acheron out of the Top 15 of the Demonlist.
- Acheron was officially acknowledged by the creator of the game, RobTop, during the Geometry Dash 10-Year Anniversary video for being the most difficult level in the game at the time.
Videos
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKR6aUorzA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Sf_CNMamM&t=460
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdKx349OCY0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ytMwX9B1Ss
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1airJGB4ns
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKWsWCbNUqY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDFT6D69DC8
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xbASDgmO4
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAl8CzLb6RA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjmtt7q5boA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxcQ_c1X_BzwSzhYUj4MNsHVUPJtoQ-vy7
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uHUkSgY1Kk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u15jyzN31sU
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlgT9BdkU44
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRBHx0ygeyY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoFQDMe74zg
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEGbWujtHSM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb9bEICGbfA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah2eEbW_dKE
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbPZHF1usI
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_k2uPHVOlY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfXZ_al6yGg
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ADbkaBDz4
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xevUGNtUznA
- ↑ https://twitter.com/demonlistgd/status/1574606906668490752
- ↑ https://twitter.com/vulcanium4/status/1574698726668570624
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHG-L8_aOQg&
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHG-L8_aOQg
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QioMw1sgM2I
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjJToXwpyUQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrlVPQznZz0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtpDCz4ubG0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyOus8ejUI8
- ↑ https://x.com/DasherDoggie/status/2053975300661252462
- ↑ https://x.com/DasherDoggie/status/2053975302351548571
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR-4usfxOpA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9tPTVjdnVA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuSeJYuCSes
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/geometrydash/comments/1qexf9n/why_is_21_acheron_harder_than_22/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY02IYBTVJs