The Hallucination
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The Hallucination
ID
81139702
Creator(s)
SyQual (publisher) and VoTcHi
Verifier(s)
VoTcHi
Created
Last updated
The Hallucination is a 2.1 Extreme Demon collaboration level by SyQual and VoTcHi, verified by the latter on 19 June 2022.[1] Verified by the latter and published by the former, it is a Nine Circles level with a cold blue and purple palette. The Hallucination heavily uses teleport portals and abrupt speed changes to disorient and confuse the player, combined with a difficult pre-drop and tight wave sections.
History
[edit | edit source]VoTcHi released the first layout preview of The Hallucination on 7 May 2020; following another preview the next day, a video of the completed layout was posted on 23 June 2020.[2] The first decorated preview was showcased on 6 July 2021,[3] revealing SyQual as the decorator; the final preview was released on 25 September 2021,[4] showing the level's fully decorated form. The verification process took almost a year, during which VoTcHi released multiple progress videos. This progress included 53%, 68%, 77% and 83%. The level received many sizeable buffs before being verified and published on 19 June 2022.[1] It was almost exactly two years after the layout completion. The verification took VoTcHi 46,538 attempts. It was then rated and featured on 5 July 2022, more than two weeks later.
Description
[edit | edit source]- 0-7%: The beginning of The Hallucination is very atmospheric and primarily based on timings, starting with a small cube section before transitioning to a small ball section and then a small UFO section. Afterwards is a ship section with misleading portals and tight spaces.
- 7-15%: The ball section that appears is not as difficult as the prior ship but still requires attention to avoid missing any of the timings, especially the final three orbs; the click pattern used will affect the transition into the ship part afterwards. Alas, this ship part immediately boasts a blind transition, followed by lots of slope-hugging and precise inputs (including a release timing) that are easily chokeable. After this, two simple cube timings and an extended double spike that bears SyQual's logo lead into the drop.
- 15-31%: The first wave contains multiple brief speed and game-mode changes, which occur throughout the rest of the wave. The player also becomes a dual-wave for a singular input. The first wave also tests the player's experience with the disorientating teleport portals more than most other sections of the level.
- 31-45%: The second wave is similar to the first, except for the 'steps' section at 41%. These three clicks consist of a platform with a D-block that rests beneath the wave and follows its y-axis, forcing the player to make quick and light inputs to avoid hitting the slopes and spikes above. The three clicks after are also tricky timings where the player can easily choke if not ready.
- 45-61%: The third wave features a few spam sections and persistent gravity- and size portal changes, along with an unforgiving straight-fly leading to a difficult wave transition. This transition makes the player, still travelling at quadruple speed, suddenly proceed through a very tight gap where spikes on the surrounding slopes force the wave to hug the slope at the bottom. It is a dangerous chokepoint that can easily ruin the player's morale if not mastered.
- 61-77%: The fourth and final wave is the most difficult wave section in the level. One of the most infamous sections is the Cosmic Cyclone-esque wave spam that occurs at 64%, followed by two preposterously difficult mini-wave gravity portal timings, making 64-66% arguably the worst chokepoint. Tight gaps litter throughout the rest of the wave, with most passed through at quadruple speed. Furthermore, the click pattern at 71-72%, despite being perfectly synced, is easily chokeable.
- 77-100%: Upon exiting the wave, the level immediately slows down with a singular cube timing and a tricky ship section. After smaller ship sections intertwine with a few cube and ball parts, the longer ship section that follows this chain has a diagonal straight-fly at 81%. This part is most likely the biggest chokepoint in the ending. The ending section continues to alternate between ball, cube and ship before a short UFO section arrives. This UFO section features a nifty double-click that can be easily choked if not done quickly enough. Shortly afterwards, a wave section appears—this is rather unique, as wave sections outside drops are usually rare for Nine Circles levels. With one final ship section and an extended triple spike, the cube floats slowly uphill to an end screen as the level comes to a close.
Gameplay
[edit | edit source]First 10 victors
[edit | edit source]| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | VoTcHi | 19 June 2022 | 46,538 | 83% | Youtube |
| 1 | cobrablitz | 16 August 2022 | 17,000+ | 93% | YouTube |
| 2 | SnowBallerr | 27 September 2022 | 24,977 | 92% | YouTube |
| 3 | Zoink | 1 October 2022 | 15,000+ | 93% | YouTube |
| 4 | skzyl | 12 December 2022 | 26,337 | 76% | YouTube |
| 5 | Thnnder | 13 March 2023 | ? | 66% | YouTube |
| 6 | Hover | 4 April 2023 | 13,650 | 83% | YouTube |
| 7 | Scep! | 30 May 2023 | 14,144 | 90% | YouTube |
| 8 | ezvie | 1 June 2023 | 17,512 | 92% | YouTube |
| 9 | TFIBB | 2 July 2023 | ? | 84% | YouTube |
| 10 | daky | 10 July 2023 | ? | 75% | YouTube |
Notable completions
- w3rty has the world record for the biggest fluke on The Hallucination as of 28 September 2026, fluking from 54%.[5]
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- The Hallucination was rated on 5 July 2022 and placed at #11 on the Demonlist on 5 August 2022, above The Golden and below Trueffet.
- This addition pushed GONER into the Extended List and Mind Control into the Legacy List.
- The Hallucination moved from #14 to #10 on 2 October 2022, pushing Tartarus out of the Top 10.
- The Hallucination's difficulty was overly underestimated, as it has been raised numerous times on the Demonlist, causing it to end up much higher than Aerial Gleam despite both initially being close together.
- cobrablitz became the first victor of The Hallucination on 16 August 2022, just a month after its rating.
- The Hallucination is one of many levels broken by physics changes upon the release of Update 2.2.
- The placement of Anathema on 23 December 2024 pushed The Hallucination out of the Top 25 of the Demonlist.