Level Atlas

Doom

Foundrydraft

The third level of the 2016 reboot and the point where the game stops explaining itself and starts testing the combat loop. Four Gore Nests turn an industrial smelter into a sequence of arenas, and the Hell Knight arrives to punish anyone still playing like a cover shooter. It is also the most openly navigable level of the early campaign, closer to a 1993 map than the arena chain around it.

Year
2016
Platform
PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre
First-person shooter
Layout
nonlinear
Engine
id Tech 6
Designers
id Software

Layout notes

A vertically stacked smelter that the player crosses, drops through, and climbs back up rather than walking along. Progress is paced by four Gore Nests and by keys carried on corpses, so the order of the middle section is looser than the levels either side of it. Commentary on the level frequently reads it as deliberately old-fashioned, a big organic map rather than the corridor-to-arena chain that structures most of the campaign, though we have not found id stating that intent directly.

Intensity curve

00.510% through, demand 6%8% through, demand 18%: First possessed18% through, demand 12%28% through, demand 50%: First Gore Nest38% through, demand 22%50% through, demand 55%60% through, demand 72%: Hell Knight debut70% through, demand 30%80% through, demand 60%88% through, demand 92%: Turbine wave defence95% through, demand 75%100% through, demand 10%: AirlockFirst possessedFirst Gore NestHell Knight debutTurbine wave defenceAirlockstartend
Demand on the player (combat pressure, platforming difficulty, disorientation), not fun. Relative within this level only.

Space graph

The level as places and the connections between them. Left to right reads as progression, top to bottom as elevation. Dashed outlines are optional spaces; select any space or callout to read it.

Smelting floor path Hand scanner doorHand scanner door gated First Gore Nest (opens with: Severed hand)First Gore Nest one-way Lower walkways. A drop onto narrow platforms above molten metal. Movement is the only demand, which is what makes it a gap between combat peaks.Lower walkways path Vent cacheLower walkways path Pillared hallPillared hall path Upper catwalksUpper catwalks gated Classic map secret (opens with: Bridge lever)Upper catwalks path Molten bridgePillared hall path Molten bridgeMolten bridge path Conveyor roomConveyor room gated Cooling turbines (opens with: Yellow key)Cooling turbines path AirlockUpper catwalks sightline Lower walkways. The catwalks look straight down onto the route just taken. The smelter reads as one volume rather than a sequence of rooms.CORRIDORUpper catwalksUpper catwalks: corridor, critical pathSECRETClassic mapsecretClassic map secret: secret, optional pathENTRYSmelting floorSmelting floor: entry, critical pathCORRIDORHand scannerdoorHand scanner door: corridor, critical pathARENAFirst Gore NestFirst Gore Nest: arena, critical path. A corridor before the nest breaks and an arena after it. The rhythm is authored in time rather than in floor plan, which the graph cannot show and the intensity curve can.ARENAPillared hallPillared hall: arena, critical pathCORRIDORMolten bridgeMolten bridge: corridor, critical pathARENAConveyor roomConveyor room: arena, critical pathARENACoolingturbinesCooling turbines: arena, critical pathEXITAirlockAirlock: exit, critical pathSECRETVent cacheVent cache: secret, optional pathCORRIDORLower walkwaysLower walkways: corridor, critical pathItem: Yellow key on a corpseOptional: Classic map secretCritical path: Smelting floorCritical path: Biometric hand scannerEncounter: First Gore NestTeaching: Hell Knight debutCritical path: Bridge over molten metalEncounter: Conveyor room nestEncounter: Cooling turbine wavesCritical path: Elite guard and airlockItem: Secret chestplateCritical path: Drop to the lower walkways
PathOne-wayGatedSightlineOptional space

Select a space, a connection, or a callout to read it. 12 spaces, 13 connections, 12 callouts on this level.

Read the graph as a list

Spaces

  • Upper catwalks corridor, critical
  • Classic map secret secret, optional
  • Smelting floor entry, critical
  • Hand scanner door corridor, critical
  • First Gore Nest arena, critical
  • Pillared hall arena, critical
  • Molten bridge corridor, critical
  • Conveyor room arena, critical
  • Cooling turbines arena, critical
  • Airlock exit, critical
  • Vent cache secret, optional
  • Lower walkways corridor, critical

Connections

  • Smelting floor → Hand scanner door path
  • Hand scanner door → First Gore Nest gated, Severed hand
  • First Gore Nest → Lower walkways one-way
  • Lower walkways → Vent cache path
  • Lower walkways → Pillared hall path
  • Pillared hall → Upper catwalks path
  • Upper catwalks → Classic map secret gated, Bridge lever
  • Upper catwalks → Molten bridge path
  • Pillared hall → Molten bridge path
  • Molten bridge → Conveyor room path
  • Conveyor room → Cooling turbines gated, Yellow key
  • Cooling turbines → Airlock path
  • Upper catwalks → Lower walkways sightline

Techniques

  • Arena and corridor rhythmpacing

    Each Gore Nest converts the room it sits in into an arena on a trigger, then hands the player back a catwalk or a vent to travel through. The same geometry is a corridor before the nest breaks and an arena after, so the rhythm is authored in time rather than in floor plan.

  • Gatingtopology

    Hard gates all the way down: a gas leak stops the player until they carry a severed hand to a biometric scanner, and the yellow and blue keys are looted from corpses rather than found on pedestals. The keycard grammar of 1993 survives, reskinned as industrial accident.

  • Teach by placementteaching

    The Hell Knight is introduced in an open pillared area with room to retreat and circle, before the level ever asks the player to fight one in a sealed arena. First contact is staged where getting it wrong is survivable.

  • Relief valvepacing

    Traversal beats sit between the nests: broken bridges over molten metal, drops to lower walkways, a climb back up. They demand precision but almost no threat assessment, which lets the next arena land.

Notes

The largest graph in the atlas so far, and the one where the lattice earns its keep: the smelter is stacked, so the drop to the lower walkways and the climb back to the catwalks are rows, not columns. Worth an essay: Hugo Martin has said of the 2016 design that "we don't necessarily want the player to have multiple ways to accomplish their goals, there's only one way to play Doom", which sits interestingly against this particular level's unusually loose routing. That tension is about play style rather than pathing, but the Foundry is the level where the two come closest to disagreeing. Combat Rating and the Gore Nest trigger are game systems rather than tricks specific to this map.

Sources