Anathema
Anathema
ID
112313819
Creator(s)
nikrodox (host and publisher); ItsHybrid (co-host)
- Contributors
Verifier(s)
Created
Last updated
Anathema is a 2.1/2.2 Extreme Demon collaboration level hosted and published by nikrodox, co-hosted by ItsHybrid, and verified by Whizkid05 on 20 November 2024.[1] It is the fourth and final instalment of the Dedication Series and the sequel to Renevant. It uses a rainbow colour scheme and fast, flow gameplay throughout. Anathema's reception is mostly positive, with players praising its visuals. However, some criticized the level for being significantly buffed beyond its initial difficulty of Top 20 to place higher on the Demonlist.
Anathema was under development for six years, from 2017 to 2023, during which it was cancelled by nikrodox, handed over to Eternaswip, and finally revived by ItsHybrid.
Description
[edit | edit source]- 0-9% (GD Iris): Anathema begins with a cube section at half speed and a Low Detail Mode toggle trigger with a slope at the start and a yellow pad that launches the player to a tight pink orb timing, followed by more tight orb timings. Next, there are four blue orb timings through a tight corridor, followed by a few more timings until around 7%, where a short auto section begins and ends at around 9%.
- 9-19% (Zipixbox): This section begins with a bufferable yellow orb timing, followed by a blue orb timing. After a few more orb timings, the ship and wave are introduced at 10%. After the game mode changes, there are quick orb timings until 12%, where you have to straight-fly as the ship for a split second before returning to the cube. There is a transition at 14% that leads to a change in decoration. Besides that, the gameplay continues to alternate between cube, wave, and ship until 18%, where the ball is introduced for a short time, consisting of three clicks.
- 19-36% (nikrodox): This section begins with a transition launching the player upwards, leading to a fast-paced majority-UFO section with some game mode swaps. It continues until 22%, where it transitions rapidly between game modes, and then again between 24% and 26%, introducing the robot and utilizing orb timings in conjunction. After that, there is a short cube section, followed by a tight UFO that transitions to a ship, then a cube at 29%. This cube continues until the end of the section.
- 36-43% (Eternaswip): This section begins in quadruple-speed UFO section before switching to a cube to hit a singular blue orb to go transition to the ball where the player has to do tight timings before becoming a cube again, passing through a tight corridor, followed by a quick ship straight-fly, and back to the cube to hit three green orbs, followed by a quick wave part with tight timings, and a short ball section and briefly changing to triple speed before going back to quadruple speed at a UFO section with back-to-back gravity portals, then to a ship section to slide down with a slope to a straight-fly towards the mini-wave section, where there are pillars that block the player icon and a semi-auto cube part that transitions to the next part.
- 43-54% (ItsHybrid): ItsHybrid's part begins with the transition from Eternaswip's part, containing just three simple orb clicks. However, the last of these orb clicks is blind, although it can be buffered like the others. The background for this transition features a synthwave landscape with an art-inspired mountain range. After this transition, the player is thrown into a bright, shaky UFO segment with a few orbs to hit. However, some of these orbs are fake, so the player must be careful about which ones they touch. Afterwards, the player enters a scaled-down ship portal and is thrust into an extremely precise straight-fly. The player must then enter two more precise orb clicks that alter their gravity before entering one last straight-fly and returning to the cube. This cube contains two more orb clicks directly followed by a small wave segment that instantly transitions back to the cube, keeping the flowy gameplay. This cube contains a few more tight orb clicks and another extremely tight wave part, which then goes to mini and into the ship. This part goes on similarly for the rest of its duration: tight wave and ship gameplay in short bursts and then returning to the cube for more precise orb timings. The rest of this part also requires the player to land on and jump off of platforms. The part concludes with a darker ball part at half speed, then enters Zipixbox's part.
- 54-69% (Zipixbox): This part starts with the cube falling in reverse gravity before being flipped right-side up and thrust into a quadruple-speed UFO part, which consists of four tight clicks before transitioning to the wave, where three clicks are done before a cube portal. There is one jump with the cube before it becomes a straight-fly, with one reverse gravity portal four blocks in. Then there is a cube part with one jump before it becomes a dual-ball swing-copter. The swing-copter is very tight, with multiple saws, structures to avoid, and a couple of straight sections. The swing-copter transitions into a short upside-down ship straight-fly before becoming a cube, leading into an orb timing-based segment. It consists of two green orb clicks and a pink orb, followed by two blue orbs. A yellow orb, a black orb, and a pink orb lead onto a pink pad, where a black orb and a green orb lead into three tight blue orb clicks and a red orb. It leads to a UFO section featuring many gravity changes and green orbs. Afterwards, it becomes a short straight-fly before hitting a cube portal, which transitions into the next portion: the mini UFO. This section is very tight, featuring moving saws and gravity portals, followed by another short straight-fly. It leads into a mini-robot section with two blue orbs and a regular jump, then into a cube part. This part has two clicks, a green orb and a black orb, before transitioning into a three-block straight-fly. It turns into a cube part, where the player must hit two orbs, and the decoration temporarily becomes more reminiscent of other levels in the Dedication series. There are then two blue orbs and two ball clicks leading into a robot part with two green orbs, which becomes a cube part with a tight red, black, and pink orb trio, followed by a corridor of blue pads with a rainbow gradient background, transitioning into nikrodox's part.
- 69-84% (nikrodox):
- 84-100% (GD Iris):
Gameplay
[edit | edit source]First 10 victors
[edit | edit source]| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | Whizkid05 | 20 November 2024 | 81,890 | 95% | YouTube |
| 1 | A6 | 21 December 2024 | 33,429 | 99% | YouTube |
| 2 | Zoink | 24 December 2024 | ~9,000 | 99% | YouTube |
| 3 | teraaa | 20 January 2025 | 65,318 | 95% | YouTube |
| 4 | SpirteX | 2 February 2025 | 43,942 | 86% | YouTube |
| 5 | SerVax | 2 February 2025 | 15,795 | 99% | YouTube |
| 6 | PoCle | 3 March 2025 | 27,338 | 99% | YouTube |
| 7 | Netermind | 18 March 2025 | ~31,000 | 99% | YouTube |
| 8 | w3rty | 13 April 2025 | ~19,184 | 99% | YouTube |
| 9 | Serpentical | 23 April 2025 | ~24,690 | 93% | YouTube |
| 10 | Arshadow | 3 June 2025 | ? | 88% | Youtube |
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- Anathema was rated on 23 November 2024 and placed at #6 on the Demonlist on 23 December 2024, above Spectre and below Silent clubstep.
- This addition pushed Slaughterhouse out of the Top 10, Fragile into the Extended List and Aronia into the Legacy List.
- Anathema reached its peak placement on 3 April 2025, when it was moved up to #3, above Avernus and below Nullscapes.
- This is nikrodox's only collaboration project in The Dedication Series.
- In nikrodox's first part of Anathema, the name of every Renevant victor as of when the part was built is listed.
- Anathema was formerly the hardest Epic-rated level in the game.
- Most victors of the level who have also beaten Acheron are convinced that Anathema is remarkably more difficult than Acheron.
- Anathema's enjoyment is only 54.71 on All Rated Extreme Demons List (AREDL), with victors mostly rating it 0/10 or -∞/10 jokingly.
- This is because Anathema was not initially set to be a Top 5 in difficulty, but it was buffed to place higher.
- This, in fact, caused only a few people to try Anathema, with the level having fewer victors than Silent clubstep.
- This is because Anathema was not initially set to be a Top 5 in difficulty, but it was buffed to place higher.
- The placement of Antarctic Lights on 22 August 2026 pushed Anathema out of the Top 20 of the Demonlist.
- With the placement of Dualist on 20 April 2026 pushing Renevant into the Legacy List, Anathema is the last remaining level of the Dedication Series on the Demonlist.
- After the placement of Penumbral on 29 April 2026, Anathema found itself at the same #14 spot Allegiance was located at over nine years ago, when the Pointercrate Demonlist was being established in January 2017.