Slaughterhouse
Replacement: 945695
Slaughterhouse (commonly abbreviated as SLH) is a 2.1 Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted by icedcave, verified by Doggie,[1] initially hack-verified by spaceuk.[2] It is a hell-themed, wave-heavy level loosely based on icedcave's 2015 impossible level of the same name, created because icedcave was dissatisfied with the original level being his sole legacy in the community. Slaughterhouse was initially released as an impossible level in April 2021, but it was later nerfed to place in the Top 5 on the Demonlist; multiple players failed to verify this version of the level, leading to a revised version competing for #1 on the Demonlist. After a two-week verification race, spaceuk claimed to have verified Slaughterhouse on 24 October 2021, but it was later discovered that the verification had been hacked. The verifier title was passed to Slaughterhouse's first victor, Doggie, who legitimately completed the level on 19 December 2021.
Slaughterhouse ranked #1 on the Demonlist and held the position for much of 2022, establishing itself as one of the game's most iconic and influential top levels. Since its release, it has gained exposure beyond the game's community on social media platforms such as TikTok and inspired other levels, including KOCMOC and The Rock House. Slaughterhouse received praise for its atmosphere, music, and design, but drew criticism for its gameplay, with players finding the pre-drop particularly tedious.
icedcave later hosted a prequel called GRIEF, a direct remake of 2015 Slaughterhouse, which was verified by Doggie in 2.2 and also placed at #1 on the Demonlist.
History
[edit | edit source]Building process
[edit | edit source]In late 2015, icedcave released the impossible hell-themed level Slaughterhouse, known for its simple decoration and intense spam, made as a sequel to icedcave's older level Challenge Club and inspired by one of Cyrillic's unfinished levels, Death Angel River. ToshDeluxe notably showcased it on YouTube on 3 October 2015, where it gained popularity quickly.[3]
Frustrated by the level's popularity, given how poorly it was made, icedcave decided to remake it to redefine his legacy in the Geometry Dash community. He began in late 2018,[4] with the first previews of the level released in July 2019, followed by additional previews posted in May and June 2020. The previews were later made private after icedcave's audience discovered that the song—a remix of Crim3s' 'Lost' with a sample from Vince Staples' 'Fire'—came from a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive montage uploaded by XVA. Geometry Dash players flooded the montage creator's comments with Geometry Dash-related messages, something icedcave wanted to avoid. To further prevent this issue, icedcave and EndLevel remastered the track to disassociate it from XVA, removing extra sounds (except the end glitches) and securing XVA's permission. On 18 August 2020, the 'second-and-a-half' preview premiered on icedcave's YouTube channel, with the new version of the song and botted gameplay by Xanii.[5] In the months after the preview's upload, community interest in the level declined, likely overshadowed by icedcave's other popular creations such as DIAMOND BLADE and Hypnosis. However, on 3 April 2021, river unexpectedly posted a video showcasing his decorated wave part, which icedcave later reposted,[6] reigniting community excitement. Soon afterwards, icedcave released the final preview, showcasing CDMusic's decoration and announcing the release date of 30 April 2021.[7] As planned, the level, along with a showcase video, debuted on the scheduled date, presenting fans with the eagerly awaited, true unnerfed version of Slaughterhouse.[8] The video remains icedcave's most-watched upload.
Verification
[edit | edit source]Upon release, despite no one initially intending to verify it, top players made impressive runs on the level, notably Kurumi, who achieved runs of 0-20%, 30-50%, 58-74%, and 82-100%.[9] Yet, it proved too difficult for verification, with some comparing it to unnerfed Silent clubstep. To make it more playable, icedcave released an update a week later, nerfing river's wave and reworking a wave segment at 79%. However, it remained incredibly challenging. Shortly after, he adjusted the difficulty to a Top 5 Extreme Demon, similar in difficulty to Zodiac at the time. After completing the adjustments, he began searching for a verifier.
After doing impressive runs on the unnerfed version a month earlier,[10] Xanii was initially chosen as the verifier.[11] However, he quickly dropped it due to the level being disconnected from his skillset. icedcave then turned to Twitter to seek another verifier, noticing a hesitant reply from Doggie,[12] who was ultimately chosen to verify the level while taking a break from his Extreme Demon Alphabet series. Even before he began streaming the level, he quickly made progress, achieving runs of 49-60%[13] and then 49-86%.[14] Once he began streaming the level, he reached 51% within just three streams.[15][16] However, tensions arose after icedcave and another player named Lexy quarrelled,[17] causing icedcave to leave the game. With the level dormant due to a lack of a host, Doggie focused on completing his Extreme Demon Alphabet series.[18] icedcave eventually returned and revived the level, but Doggie was still focused on completing his series. With Doggie out of the picture, Cursed was appointed to verify it, putting his work on the Sakupen Circles verification on hold. Doggie also offered to be a backup verifier if necessary.[19] However, once Cursed took over, all verification progress updates became radio silent.
Due to this inactivity, icedcave decided to reignite the verification process by turning it into a race, but as a new, harder Top 1 version, more similar to the unnerfed version of the level. On 15 October 2021, icedcave announced this race,[20] which featured participants like spaceuk, Xanii, Trick, Photonic, and Zamasu. spaceuk appeared to be in the lead for much of the race, until he supposedly verified the level on 24 October 2021. To ensure the level would receive its rating, icedcave changed its song twice, settling on 'Fly Away' by Tennobyte on 29 October 2021. The level received its rating on the same day, along with two other supposed Top 1 levels: arcturus, which had been verified months earlier, and Firework, which was verified on the same night. On 3 November 2021, Slaughterhouse claimed the #1 spot on the Demonlist, overtaking Firework, surprising many due to Firework's perceived difficulty.
To the community's surprise, on 25 April 2023, spaceuk was exposed for, and later confessed to, hacking all of his achievements, including his Slaughterhouse verification. Doggie, who was the first victor of the level after beating it on 19 December 2021,[1] was crowned as the legitimate verifier.
Versions in chronological order
[edit | edit source]- True unnerfed - The first-ever version to be released on the servers and the hardest version of the level. It has yet to be verified.
- Previewed unnerfed - The first-ever version showcased on YouTube by icedcave. It is not very noticeably different from the true unnerfed, besides the spam-based wave segment at 31% being nerfed so as not to be entirely spam. This version was never released on the servers.
- Unnerfed - Released around a week after the true unnerfed. It features significant nerfs to river's wave and reworks a spam-based wave segment at 79%. wPopoff verified this version.[21]
- Doggie Slaughterhouse - The first version that was intended to be verified. It makes numerous changes to the unnerfed version, reworking much of the gameplay to prioritise enjoyment over difficulty. It was around Zodiac difficulty and passed through three verifiers (Xanii, Doggie, and Cursed) before being scrapped. Doggie uploaded this version to the servers on 30 October 2021, six days after spaceuk's hacked verification. The ID is 75249982.
- Raced version - The first version created after icedcave changed the verification from a Top 5 private verification to a Top 1 race. It is much closer to the unnerfed version than to Doggie Slaughterhouse. It was verified by wPopoff on 8 October 2023.
- Current version - The current public version of the level. It is very similar to the raced version, with minor nerfs added. spaceuk claimed to have verified this on 24 October 2021, but he was exposed for hack-verifying it over a year later. The title of verifier was given to the supposed first victor at the time, Doggie, who beat it on 19 December 2021.
Description
[edit | edit source]The gameplay was created by icedcave, except for DrCuber's part, co-created by DrCuber and Brittank88. Below are the decorators for each section.
- 0-8% (icedcave): Slaughterhouse begins with a slow mini-cube part that functions as a build-up. Text appears saying, 'Icedcave OG Slaughterhouse Welcome to the End of the World', as a Clubstep monster falls towards the player. The player must jump over a few spread-out spikes. The screen then goes black, placing the player in another part with similar gameplay. This part is a normal-sized cube with narrow-spread triple-spikes and an orb timing. Another Clubstep monster lies at the end of the section as the screen goes black.
- 8-18% (EndLevel): An animation of a spinning cross appears on screen as the player transitions to the next section. After jumping over the pink pad and hitting the yellow orb, the player becomes a ship and must perform a straight-fly. Following a few more cube timings, the screen goes black again, while the player must hold down on a dash orb.
- 18-43% (icedcave): The player enters another cube part where they must jump over narrow-spread triple-spikes and jump on top of pillars. After jumping over a large spike, the screen goes black again and lights up, showing a few more timings before the player enters the drop. The player is immediately thrown into a quadruple-speed wave part. After becoming mini, the player enters a tight corridor and must slide on the top and bottom to avoid spikes. A ship part follows, with a long straight-fly with orbs and size changes. The player transforms into a mini-ship and emerges into a large area, where a skull's eyes display the word 'RUN'.
- 43-49% (Akira Kurisu): Remaining as mini-ship, the player must hit a black orb that brings them into another straight-fly, followed by a short ball part where the player must hit invisible blue orbs.
- 49-58% (river): Famously nicknamed after its decorator, this segment is notorious for its extreme difficulty. It features a quadruple-speed, incredibly tight wave section featuring constant shifts in gravity and size.
- 58-74% (GD Iris): The player exits the wave and becomes a mini-UFO. They must do tight timings and hit orbs precisely. Next is a wave part with size changes, where the player must carefully avoid spikes before a short spam segment. The player is thrown into a ship part with a long, tight straight-fly.
- 74-91% (DrCuber): The next section begins with two tight wave parts separated by an automatic cube timing. After a short straight-fly, there is another tight mini-wave section. The drop ends with more tight normal/mini-sized wave parts and one last tight straight-fly, although slightly curved.
- 91-95% (CDMusic): The gameplay slows down and returns to the style of the pre-drop, with tight cube timings over narrow-spread triple-spikes and double-spikes.
- 95-100% (icedcave): After the final jump, the cube falls to the ground, and a modified Extreme Demon face is displayed as the cube teleports uncontrollably. After hitting a yellow pad on the ground, the player becomes a wave that slides on slopes while teleporting, with a satanic star displayed alongside the text 'GG' and icedcave's 'SSOH' logo.
Gameplay
[edit | edit source]First 10 victors
[edit | edit source]| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | Doggie | 19 December 2021 | 79,170 (17k old) | 90% | YouTube |
| 1 | Zoink | 11 April 2022 | 76,004 | 93% | YouTube |
| 2 | Cursed | 16 April 2022 | 70,956 | 95% | YouTube |
| 3 | Zeroxy | 28 July 2022 | 242,232 (60-70k old) | 95% | YouTube |
| 4 | RaeveZ | 10 September 2022 | ~564,000 | 92% | YouTube |
| 5 | Trick | 19 September 2022 | ~50,000 | 94% | YouTube |
| 6 | Diamond | 1 November 2022 | 106,743 | 93% | YouTube |
| 7 | Emilianero | 25 December 2022 | 57,781 | 94% | YouTube |
| 8 | wPopoff | 2 January 2023 | ? | 92% | YouTube |
| 9 | Blackhole | 18 January 2023 | ~170,000 | 95% | YouTube |
| 10 | SnowBallerr | 22 January 2023 | 223,417 | 81% | YouTube |
Notable completions
- enfix, the 13th victor who has jumped from Black Blizzard, spent 666,131 attempts on Slaughterhouse, setting the record for the most attempts on any level at the time.[22]
- On 30 September 2023, Tylor became the first player to crash in the final 5% of Slaughterhouse, throwing his headphones at his keyboard and causing his cube to jump into an obstacle at 96%.[23] He later beat the level.[24]
- SerVax currently holds the record for the lowest attempt count on Slaughterhouse, with 6,784 attempts.[25]
- Doritos1055 has the highest attempt count on Slaughterhouse, amassing 748,589 attempts.[26]
- tux fluked Slaughterhouse from 63.03% on 5 August 2026, which is the world record fluke on the level.[27]
- On 3 January 2025, two Panamanians named sunix. and Theitha beat Slaughterhouse, making it a new hardest for the country.[28][29]
- Gamingbyte became the 100th victor of Slaughterhouse on 17 April 2025.[30]
- Pluntix became the 200th victor of Slaughterhouse on 10 March 2026.[31]
- Zeronium beat Slaughterhouse as his 1,000th Extreme Demon on 10 July 2026, becoming the second player to reach that milestone.
- On 8 August 2026, slaylarius almost fluked Slaughterhouse from 36%, but unfortunately crashed at 95% on the second-last spike.[32]
Trivia
[edit | edit source]General
[edit | edit source]- Slaughterhouse was ranked #83 in Geometry Dash Today's list of 'The Top 100 Greatest Geometry Dash Levels Of All Time' List.
- Slaughterhouse has an extra space at the end of its name.
- When Slaughterhouse, Firework and arcturus were all rated on 29 October 2021, there was some commotion regarding the Demon ratings of the levels. First, Firework and Slaughterhouse both received an Easy Demon rating. However, the levels swapped ratings, with arcturus being an Easy Demon and Slaughterhouse and Firework both being Extreme Demon levels. arcturus finally received an Extreme Demon rating an hour later.
- Sometime after Doggie was assigned to verify the Top 5 version, some players found that searching the term 'Doggie Slaughterhouse' led to gore images. The term became a running Twitter joke because of the unfortunate coincidence between the verifier's and the level's names. When Doggie later uploaded his Top 5 version on the servers, he referenced the term in the title.
- Akira Kurisu's name was removed due to an unrelated controversy regarding misconduct.
- On 11 April 2022, streamer GFMBadger reacted with astonishment to a Slaughterhouse video sent by TheZinkYT, a former Demonlist moderator, during a live stream. TheZinkYT later reposted the clip on Twitter, where it gained popularity.[33] GFMBadger later joked about the reaction.[34]
- Slaughterhouse was a part of the player-made 'ASK' trilogy along with Acheron and Kyouki.
- jamalhebeebhebab, an Alaskan player who is jumping to Slaughterhouse from Deadlocked, achieved a new best of 93% on 13 September 2025.[35] He is trying to beat the level to this day.
- Several challenges have been built to test the player's skill at river's wave segment.
- cry me a river, verified and published by Doggie on 8 December 2021, features the segment five times in a row with a blue colour scheme. Its ID is 76403850.[36]
- ENDLESS RIVER, created by icedcave, extends the segment by 16 seconds with the same blue colour scheme. Its ID is 94646409, but it remains unverified.[37]
- river's wave segment contains an Easter egg of a snowman above the SSOH, only visible by turning on hitboxes.
- Update 2.2 unintentionally buffed Slaughterhouse's pre-drop cube, while at the same time nerfed the drop wave.
- Dying to the final jump will result in the text 'The End' changing to 'You Are Dead' and the eyes of EndLevel's icon getting crossed out.
- Slaughterhouse was part of the GD World Tournament on 11 May 2024, hosted by Doggie and icedcave. wPopoff, Trick, Netermind, AidanTR, Abdieldevil, and Tylor were the participants, and wPopoff took first place, scoring 7079 points and completing the level 17 times within one hour.[38]
- wPopoff and Trick are both known for their incredible consistency on Slaughterhouse. wPopoff even beat the level three times in a row on 14 April 2024,[39][40] calling the accomplishment possibly harder than beating Tidal Wave. Additionally, during a meetup with Trick and Doggie on 31 August 2024, wPopoff beat the level on his first attempt.[41]
- Slaughterhouse is the most-viewed Extreme Demon in Geometry Dash, with the unnerfed showcase on icedcave's YouTube channel having received 36 million views as of 13 May 2026.
- Slaughterhouse is also currently the fifth-most-downloaded and third-most-liked Extreme Demon in the game.
Demonlist
[edit | edit source]- Slaughterhouse was placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 4 November 2021, above Firework.
- This addition pushed The Golden out of the Top 5, Lucid Chaos into the Extended List, and Anoxysm into the Legacy List.
- Slaughterhouse was placed after Firework was placed at #1 after 18 seconds, quickly ending its reign as a Top 1.
- Slaughterhouse is regarded as the 38th instance of the hardest level in the game's history.
- Pointercrate went down due to high traffic as then-list moderator rSteel tried to add Slaughterhouse to the Demonlist. They accidentally added the level multiple times after repeatedly clicking the add button, resulting in copies of the level placed from #1 to #9.[42]
- When Slaughterhouse initially got placed, its description and information on its Demonlist entry were incorrect, displaying the information for SlaughterHouse by Havok instead, as this was the most-downloaded Demon level with that name at the time.
- Some controversy struck in the community about whether Slaughterhouse is harder than Firework or not, similar to the debate drama of Bloodlust vs Plasma Pulse Finale.
- Slaughterhouse has alternated between the #1 and #2 spot on few different occasions. On 5 January 2022, the level's Top 1 spot was dethroned by Sakupen Circles, only to be reclaimed on 17 March 2022. Later, on 12 June 2022, Abyss of Darkness dethroned Slaughterhouse only for the levels to be swapped on 27 July 2022. Finally, Slaughterhouse was officially dethroned by Acheron on 7 October 2022.
- Slaughterhouse was at the #1 spot and was considered the hardest Demon for 221 days.
- Despite Abyss of Darkness being initially placed below Slaughterhouse, it was moved back above it on 19 December 2023, once both levels had dropped out of the Top 3. This adjustment made Abyss of Darkness retrospectively the hardest level verified at that time.
- As Slaughterhouse was discovered to be illegitimately verified one and a half years later, Firework was the hardest legitimately verified Demon for 56 days before Doggie completed Slaughterhouse.
- Slaughterhouse is also the first hack-verified Top 1 since Zodiac, which was hack-verified on 28 January 2019. However, unlike Zodiac, Slaughterhouse was only discovered to be hack-verified after it was dethroned.
- Slaughterhouse is the most-completed level in the entire Top 60 of the Demonlist, having more victors than every level above Solar Flare.
- The placement of Ultra Paracosm on 5 August 2026 pushed Slaughterhouse out of the Top 30 on the Demonlist.
Videos
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpcF1-QAHQc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC7zfHByLSk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csLA88xah4g
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBpwqahO3is&t=2735
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP1IOohJXEY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttI4NCRUBqM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHz8MEr-UOI
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5bZJY2IPI
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWzTYw8P_Rc
- ↑ https://x.com/_Xanii_/status/1389754582365048835
- ↑ https://x.com/_Xanii_/status/1400483165832105986
- ↑ https://x.com/DasherDoggie/status/1404129769290178563
- ↑ https://x.com/DasherDoggie/status/1404155153305976836
- ↑ https://x.com/DasherDoggie/status/1405731316340084736
- ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1099280654
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UIGHVprw14
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210803075041/https://twitlonger.com/show/n_1srpav6
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpwtv8mOlCs&t=5483
- ↑ https://x.com/DasherDoggie/status/1441535412342861824
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVShHvtFZmU
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QeIp5fC1hE
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0xnmFWFPdE
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvyAyCxvwSw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-38n4NlETbY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYpD7GNw2g8
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTx8Z7ExGn4
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTYRF7T3J50
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aNlPkXfO9I
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTTNspIFtYY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNlCW6RhH4
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvDngY_pNJc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR5AdDyscrU
- ↑ https://x.com/TheZinkYT/status/1513218216046346245
- ↑ https://x.com/BadgerGfm/status/1513529229195026439
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxupk6ZBvY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGhF5t5ciR0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdeVB1-P4_8
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBpwqahO3is
- ↑ https://x.com/WpopoffW/status/1779562823368007934
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_p9yrVL0w
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMmIALdfArQ&t=593
- ↑ https://x.com/rSteel20/status/1456002787117047819