Hard Machine
Hard Machine
ID
72744364
Creator(s)
Komp (publisher) and nikrodox (Verified by Varium)
Created
Hard Machine is a 1.8/2.1 Extreme Demon collaboration level created by Komp and nikrodox, published by Komp and verified by Varium.[1] The gameplay for the level was initially 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 had been dormant for quite a while, Komp was reminded of it when he went through levels on his old tablet. Later, Komp asked nikrodox to decorate the level in a 2.1 style to make it look more modern. The level underwent 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, then wait for a short time before passing 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-sized 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 into the spikes below. To pass the part, the player must touch the final cube portal and fall through fake spikes to reach the next part, which features 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 must 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 slows down to 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 section where the player must make precise 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 returns to normal size 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 that the player must hit late. After the last two jumps, the level ends.
- 99-100% (End-Screen): The end-screen displays the level's name along with its two creators and the verifier.
Walkthrough
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 password for Hard Machine is 735560.
- Hard Machine was rated on 2 September 2021 and 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.
- Hard Machine reached its peak on 4 June 2022 after moving from #6 to #4. 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.
- This addition pushed Zodiac out of the Top 5, WOW into the Extended List and Galactic Shift into the Legacy List.
- 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 Hard Machine. 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 to the top of the last cube section. However, the player will crash into a wall of saw blades at the end.
- There is an upcoming sequel to Hard Machine named Banshee; it is set to be the hardest timing-based level in the game once released.[2]
- Banshee is currently undergoing verification by spcreat, who has achieved 77% and 21-100% as of the most recent stream.[3] spcreat before got a world record of 86% on 14 May 2024, but after that fail, he quit playing the level.[4]
- On 15 June 2025, the entire level of Banshee, albeit spaceuk's version when he was given the verification, was leaked by fnm04 on YouTube, who showcased it along with its ending that was kept secret from the community.[5] The video, called '121068007', is the ID of the old copy of Banshee that fnm04 had leaked. The video and the level were later both deleted.
- Banshee is currently undergoing verification by spcreat, who has achieved 77% and 21-100% as of the most recent stream.[3] spcreat before got a world record of 86% on 14 May 2024, but after that fail, he quit playing the level.[4]
- ChiefFlurry used to be one of the original verifiers of Hard Machine.[6]
- 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 pushed it into the Extended List of the Demonlist.
