Abyss of Darkness
76680844 (old version)
- Contributors
Abyss of Darkness (commonly abbreviated as AoD) is a 2.1 Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted by Exen, who illegitimately verified the level on 27 October 2018, after which the level was immediately forgotten until nearly two years later. The level was verified by Cursed on 3 April 2022, after two fails at 95%.[1] The level features extremely tight timings with no strong emphasis on one game-mode. It received a decoration update on 2 December 2021, hosted by CDMusic. The level was rated on 22 May 2022.
At the time of its release, many considered it the hardest level in the game, although some players disagreed, believing the level to be easier than Slaughterhouse. Many had said that the level could remain the hardest in the game, potentially for years, on the Demonlist; Abyss of Darkness was ultimately placed at #1 and held the position for less than two months before it was swapped with Slaughterhouse, with both being surpassed by Acheron two months later.
A sequel, Abyss of Darkness II, is currently in development, and Exen is actively seeking decorators.
History
[edit | edit source]Abyss of Darkness was first introduced to the public on 13 January 2018, when Exen uploaded a layout showcase. He mentioned it would be buffed to Top 1 difficulty and nerfed for balancing.
Abyss of Darkness was hack-verified and released by Exen on 27 October 2018. Because the level was illegitimately verified and deemed too difficult for top players at the time, the community forgot about it for two years.
Two years after its release on 17 July 2020, a player named Dils thik began attempting to verify the level. On 20 July 2021, he crashed at 98%, marking the arguably worst fail in Geometry Dash's history at the time.[2] He once again died at 98% for the second time on 30 July 2021.[3] Around this time, Exen and CDMusic began a redecoration update of the level to ensure that it would be rate-worthy should Dils thik verify the level. However, if Dils thik verified the level before the update was complete, only the finished updated parts would be included, and the rest would be scrapped.
On 23 August 2021, Dils thik announced through a community post on his YouTube channel that he was dropping the level due to personal issues after around 200,000 attempts.[4] The redecoration update was completed on 2 December 2021.
Afterwards, the verification of this level became a race between SpeedyMuffin, Xanii, Cursed, Trick, Yossarian and many more, similar to Tartarus' verification. However, on 20 December 2021, Exen announced that the verification race had been cancelled and that he would upload the new version to the server to prevent it from leaking.[5] He then made Abyss of Darkness an open-verification, and the first victor of the level would be the official verifier.
Many players who attempted the level had lost interest in the first two months of the new year. Trick returned to Abyss of Darkness around the first week of March 2022. He made quick progress, getting a new best run of 93% by the end of the week. On 11 March 2022, Trick achieved a personal best of 95%. Around this time, Cursed returned to the level, quickly getting a run of 76%. On 26 March 2022, Cursed achieved a matching best of 95%, making the two tied for the level's (at the time) second-best achievement from 0%, behind Dils thik's 98%.[6]
On 3 April 2022, Cursed verified Abyss of Darkness after 54,315 attempts.[7] The level was eventually placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 13 June 2022.
Description
[edit | edit source]- 0-9% (Exen + CDMusic): Abyss of Darkness begins with a few difficult jumps in the mini-cube, as well as three UFO jumps. Then, the player becomes a ship, and now they must straight-fly through tight spaces while teleporting to the top of the screen simultaneously. Afterwards, the player switches to a spider, and the player must perform two simple clicks before entering a brief straight-fly and brief wave spam. Next is a difficult ball segment that culminates in precise dash orb timing. Following the ball, the player must complete a long straight-fly, preceded by a mini-wave section that becomes normal-sized towards the end. The part ends with a difficult cube jump.
- 9-20% (MegaSkill + DigitalZero): The next part begins with some automatic gameplay, and then the player must jump into a ball portal, which leads the player over a big spike. After this, the player must make precise clicks to pass through a short wave section. Then the player enters a dual section with a mini-ball on top and a mini-wave at the bottom. This segment contains two very narrow clicks. Next, the player transforms into a spider and must traverse through moderately tight timings. Afterwards, the player switches to a UFO, and the section features red-and-black orb timing. Following this, the player becomes a robot. This robot segment has three clicks, two jumps and one blue orb timing. The blue orb timing leads into a downward-sloped ship, which leads to another precise wave area. At the end of this part, the player becomes a double-speed big-sized wave, and they must spam through a tight space.
- 20-32% (Masterman + maxfs + Xolarzz): After the wave spam, the next part begins with a pink orb, leading to a challenging wave click. Afterwards, the player must click a somewhat memory-based series of orbs that leads to an auto. The player then must perform a brief but brutal straight-fly on the ship. After the straight-fly, the player must hit a green orb leading into another straight-fly. Then, the player becomes a cube, and they must hit a pink orb, a yellow orb, two pink orbs and a dash orb that forces the player into an anti-gravity portal and a triple-speed portal. After the player hits a black orb, they switch into a normal-speed ball, and the following segment contains a few timings that are not too difficult and a series of orbs. The part ends with a memory-based cube section.
- 32-43% (Exen + Wahffle + CDMusic): The following part immediately opens with a difficult cube jump, a robot jump and a green orb timing, also in the robot. Next is a short ball section containing severe ball timing and two blind orb timings. The second orb timing leads into a compressed ship straight-fly. Then, the player converts back into a cube, and they must jump onto a block with a red orb timing, leading to a difficult black orb timing. The black orb timing leads into another compressed ship straight-fly. Afterwards is a difficult but music-synced spider section. Following this, the player must jump (as a robot) into a green orb that leads to a single mini-wave click. Then, the player turns back into a cube and must jump into a dash orb. The player then transitions (as a UFO) into a series of cube timings. The part ends with a music-synced spider section once again.
- 43-52% (zml + GrenadeOfTacos): Then, the player becomes a ball, and they must perform two clicks and then proceed to hit two orbs, those being a yellow orb and a green orb. After this, the player switches to a ship. This ship has a pink orb leading to a black orb and a UFO jump. This jump leads to three orbs and then a very tight spider timing. Following the timing, the player must hit three orbs and straight-fly through a short space of spikes in the ship. After this, the player needs to hit a green orb and straight-fly through confusing gameplay. The part ends with a complex dual-sloped wave spam.
- 53-70% (Fenrrig + AlrexX + rynoxious): Finally, the drop starts. It begins with a sightless series of UFO timings and a few difficult ball timings. Afterwards, the player must perform some difficult wave spam and an upside-down straight-fly. Then, the player must complete some quick, tight wave clicks and traverse a precise spider section. Instantly after the spider section, the player must straight-fly between a set of spikes containing a speed change. Then, the player transitions swiftly into a precise wave section with a yellow orb timing in the UFO. After the wave section, the player converts over to a ball. This ball section contains three orb timings, and then the player switches to a UFO briefly before being led into yet another music-synced spider section. Then the player transitions to a UFO section after jumping over a triple-spike. This UFO section has a multitude of jumps, spam-clicking and a few orb timings. The part closes with a straight-fly and a pink dash orb.
- 70-85% (Fenrrig + RealVet): Directly after the dash orb, the next part opens with a half-speed ball section featuring a dose of difficult timings. Afterwards, the player flies downwards into a green orb that leads to two gravity portals. Next, the player must hit an array of orbs before clicking a precise wave dash orb. The dash orb leads into a long wave section with immensely difficult clicks. Then, the player must perform tight spider clicks, complete three robot jumps, and hit a yellow orb. The part ends with a very complex asymmetrical dual section and brief automatic gameplay.
- 85-98% (Exen + Grayrain + Iris): The final part of the level instantly begins with precise green orb timing. The timing leads into a ball section with a pink orb, a green orb and a black orb. Afterwards, the player hits a yellow pad in the cube, leading to a blue orb and a fast robot jump. As the player enters a spider portal, they must teleport onto a yellow pad that leads into a pink dash orb. The dash orb leads into a complex dual, and the player must hit a red orb in the UFO. Next, the player must perform two cube timings leading to a quadruple-speed wave segment. A series of three cube orb timings will transition the player into a perplexing and swift dual section. The part ends with a tight mini-wave section, an array of cube-orb timings, and three precise wave clicks.
- 98-100% (Hantein + BurritoGamerX + Celestia): The level ends with an end-screen featuring the names of every creator and the logo of the level.
Gameplay
[edit | edit source]First 10 victors
[edit | edit source]| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | Cursed | 3 April 2022 | 54,315 | 95% | YouTube |
| 1 | Trick | 13 August 2022 | >42,000 | 97% | YouTube |
| 2 | Zoink | 30 August 2022 | 26,665 | 95% | YouTube |
| 3 | ViperVenom95 | 9 April 2023 | 43,811 | 91% | YouTube |
| 4 | Thnnder | 14 April 2023 | 20,786 | 91% | YouTube |
| 5 | DoSh7t | 26 June 2023 | 71,214 | 98% | YouTube |
| 6 | Doggie | 31 October 2023 | 85,313 | 95% | YouTube |
| 7 | zThund3r | 25 November 2023 | ~72,000 | 97% | YouTube |
| 8 | Light | 28 November 2023 | 62,359 | 95% | YouTube |
| 9 | mo1ik | 9 December 2023 | 28,446 | 98% | YouTube |
| 10 | Laniakea | 28 January 2024 | 39,069 | 95% | YouTube |
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- Abyss of Darkness was rated on 22 May 2022 and placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 12 June 2022, above Slaughterhouse.
- This addition pushed Tartarus out of the Top 5 after two years of its reign; it also pushed Necromancer into the Extended List and Bausha Vortex into the Legacy List.
- Abyss of Darkness is regarded as the 40th instance of the hardest rated level in the game's history.
- On 27 July 2022, Abyss of Darkness swapped its position with Slaughterhouse, ending its 44-day reign as a Top 1 Demon.
- However, Slaughterhouse was later moved below Abyss of Darkness on 19 December 2023.
- Due to the skyrocketing number of requests on the Pointercrate website following the placement of Abyss of Darkness, the site crashed.
- Many people at that time doubted that Abyss of Darkness would be rated.
- Abyss of Darkness was a part of the player-made 'A.S.S. trilogy', along with Slaughterhouse and Sakupen Circles.
- Vernam was initially supposed to do the redecoration update. However, at that time, Exen was still confident that the old version would get rated.
- BurritoGamerX originally made the end-screen of the new version. However, it was replaced by Celestia.
- Funnily enough, Cursed's premiere video for Abyss of Darkness' verification glitched, with his reaction happening at the beginning of the level instead of at the end. He deleted the video and fixed this issue shortly after.
- Abyss of Darkness has had four different versions throughout its history:[8]
- The first version used to have a darker 32% part and heavily focused on memorisation. The noticeable difference is the 52-70% parts where the first beat of the drop used a dash orb instead of a red orb. The parts heavily emphasised the wave and UFO gameplay. The last 15% had fewer wave segments and a UFO/ship dual, but the last wave part was longer. This version had little decoration.
- The second version featured full decoration and major gameplay changes at 52-70%.
- The third version is better known as the 'Old Abyss of Darkness'. It is the Exen hack-verified version, with the decoration refined. The 32% part no longer contains memorisation-based gameplay.
- The fourth version is the verified, redecorated current version.
- Dils thik finally verified the old version of Abyss of Darkness on 20 March 2023, nearly two years after his two 98% fails.[9]
- Dils thik died a third time at 98% before his completion.
- Despite the common belief that Abyss of Darkness could potentially remain as the Top 1 for years, Cursed and Zoink both believed the level to be #2. In contrast, Trick believed it to be Top 1.
- Abyss of Darkness became one of the most hated Extreme Demon levels after its release due to its unconventional gameplay.
- The placement of Antarctic Lights on 22 August 2026 pushed Abyss of Darkness out of the Top 25 of the Demonlist.
Videos
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJkpqcMMCY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNv735bQfkU
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECjmmrgPZs8
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/UgyxhuPzECbAdl8e8jB4AaABCQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxNuVEm3nvbSkKEzKSDmuby_NiwCVG6rPA
- ↑ https://twitter.com/GmdTrick/status/1502114318363631619
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJkpqcMMCY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVsEIuhz0nE
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWBEfS4mLbw&t=2176s