Hard Machine
Hard Machine
ID
72744364
Creator(s)
Komp (publisher); nikrodox
Verifier(s)
Varium
Created
Last updated
Hard Machine is a 2.0/2.1 Extreme Demon collaboration level by Komp and nikrodox, verified by Varium on 19 August 2021.[1] The gameplay for the level was built in Update 2.0, based on 1.6-1.8 levels. Komp made a level around 2014 with the sole intention of being harder than ICE Carbon Diablo X to win a bet against his friend, who said he 'couldn't make a level harder than ICDX without it being impossible' as most of the community at the time thought it was the hardest possible level in the game. Komp was reminded of it when he went through levels on his old tablet and later 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 it on 16 August 2021.
Description
As Hard Machine's gameplay was made in Update 2.0, inspired by 1.6-1.8 gameplay, the level contains no features added after that update. It features extremely tight timings, straight-fly, and a few memory-based gameplay sections. Much of the gameplay seems to have been inspired by some levels released around 1.8, such as ICE Carbon Diablo X, Necropolis, and Silent clubstep.
- 0-7%: Hard Machine 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 gravity constantly changes. The ship must then travel through a tight space between two sawblades 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 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 time their jumps to avoid sawblades. The player needs to spam with a mini-UFO before turning into a cube. This cube part is a line of pink orbs; the player must hit them at the right time to avoid the spikes above and below. Afterwards is a tight ship part that starts at normal size and then 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, hit the ceiling while in normal size, and dodge 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.
Gameplay
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 |
Notable completions
- MAXDASH became the first person to beat Hard Machine on mobile on 21 January 2025, using a 144Hz device.
Trivia
- 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.
- 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 sawblades 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 sawblades 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 sawblades 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% twice. spcreat previously got a world record of 86% on 14 May 2024, but after that fail, he quit playing the level.[3]
- 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.[4] 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% twice. spcreat previously got a world record of 86% on 14 May 2024, but after that fail, he quit playing the level.[3]
- ChiefFlurry used to be one of the original verifiers of Hard Machine.[5]
- 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.
- Hard Machine used to be included in a group of 'retrospective Top 1 levels'—levels that, after their verification, did not receive a rating in time to claim the Top 1 spot on the Demonlist. However, at the time, Hard Machine was believed to be harder than Tartarus, arcturus, Sonic Wave Infinity, Trueffet, The Golden, and Zodiac. Nowadays, due to Update 2.2 heavily nerfing it, Hard Machine is below all these levels on the Demonlist, meaning that it technically was never a retrospective Top 1.
- The placement of Sacrifice on 10 August 2026 pushed Hard Machine into the Legacy List of the Demonlist after five years.