Zone 300 demos [-complevel 2]

Map06 UV Max in 1:52-z306-152.zip

MAP01 UV Fast in 0:49.89 (was 1:04.49 by maxmanium)

Demo: z301f049.zip

Video: 

Deadly, short and intense; I like this one. The best ways to save time on this run is to press the first and last buttons as early as possible. That is easier said than done, because both are heavily guarded. The time can be optimized even further. I wasted a shotgun shot, hit the wall and the exit door. A time of 47s should be doable (46s is the current UV Max record).

MAP02 UV Fast in 1:35.69 (was 2:05.77 by maxmanium, 2019)

Demo: z302f135.zip

Video: 

Finally I see a GOOD use of the berserk in a map. Place it *a little bit* behind the SSG, so you still have to use it for a while, but not for the entire god-damn level! Loved this map - short and full of monsters, and the difficulty certainly escalated since Map 01. This route is basically the UV Max route by Joca64 (current record is at 1:28.69). The route itself is quite fast, and using the 3 rockets at the end at the monsters grouping behind the closed door is a brilliant move.

MAP01 UV-Max in 0:45

z301-045.zip

MAP03 UV Fast in 1:25.94 (was 1:32.91 by maxmanium, 2019)

Demo: z303f125.zip

Video: 

Highest DPS weapon: Berserk. Super-shotgun: nowhere. If punching pinkies in episode 2 was bad, imagine with FAST MONSTERS. The TURBO PINKIES are relentless, and once you're in range to punch, they're in range to bite. You have milliseconds to land the punch and BACK AWAY before you get damaged or killed. Anyway I'm very happy that I managed to beat, not only the UV Fast record, but also the UV Max record (1m26) by 1 second, with this time.

MAP04 UV Fast in 1:37.57 (was 2:04.83 by maxmanium, 2019)

Demo: z304f137.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/nDBT0nGXlwo

The platforming on the first room is a nightmare if you want a good time. Every jump you miss = a reset. Every time you fall down = a reset. And unlike the UV Max record for this map, you cant berserk the imps, it will cost you too much health, and you need health for the next part. After that, good luck surviving outside! Things can go chaotic in a matter of seconds after you open the yellow door.

MAP 17 UV Max in 2.10.
z317-210.zip
 

MAP05 UV Fast in 1:46.71 (was 2:46.89 by maxmanium, 2019)

Demo: z305f146.zip

Video: 

I decided to follow Kyle McAwesome's UV Max route and realized there were major differences between UV Max and UV Fast; namely: the damn lost souls. With the old route, the lost souls' fast attack speed was a problem when coming back to the starting area. So I changed the route and decided to use 4 rockets to kill the cacodemons immediately after the blue key. This means that, with some luck, you might not have to return to the starting room at all.

MAP06 UV Fast in 2:00.71 (no previous record)

Demo: z306f200.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/2u-g_P5uHyI 

No wonder this map was never speedran with fast monsters. What a f***ing massacre. Sub 2 mins was my goal, and I know it is possible. But I'm just too fed up with this map to keep trying.

Also, an extra run with my first exit, and a time of 2:14.31 (attempt 56!)

z306f214_firstExit.zip

MAP07 UV Fast in 1:17.89 (was 1:30.89 by Revved, 2020)

Demo: z307f117.zip

Video: 

A tough, but enjoyable map. I'm happy to beat the UV Max time in a UV Fast run. My route consisted of grabbing the rocket launcher early, and moving to collect all the rockets in the map while shooting the mancubi. The real problem is with the cyberdemon at the final room: it needs to walk down the corridor and get closer, but it has a lot of trouble aligning itself with the corridor, so that final part is quite RNG-reliant.
 

MAP08 UV Fast in 2:02.40 (no previous record)

Goal: 2:08.00 (UV Max by Cannonball)

Demo: z308f202.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/sUue7ippZI0

What an RNG fest of a map start. 90% of the runs end in the first 30 seconds. The rest of the run is nice after the plasma; but grinding the map start makes the whole thing a pain in the ass. My goal was beating Cannonball's UV Max time of 2m08. I created a sensible route for UV Fast, and quickly got sub 2min times while practicing. I wanted to achieve that goal in single-segment, but my patience ran out before I got it. 1m53 should be possible.
 

MAP09 UV Fast in 3:15.89 (No previous record)

Demo: z309f315.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/JqskrJ0i11o

I really like the design of this map. 4 doors that cycle back and get to each of the 4 corners of central area. Simple but brilliant. Props to the creators of Zone 300 for the resource balance and difficulty scaling in these maps; health, armor, and ammunition is tight, and especially with fast monsters this map is quite difficult. You need ALL the shells you can grab, as well as health and armor bonuses - they DO make a difference. Sub 3min should be possible, but not easy, at all.
 

MAP10 UV Fast in 1:57.86 (No previous record)

Demo: z310f157.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/15m9QgMr0Yg

I thought the platforming would piss me off, but it was a fun map after all. I'm happy to beat the 2 min goal; I managed to pull off the final "jumps" consistently enough and not fall down. The route consists of making everything in-fight in the big room, and then getting back to the berserk. Afterwards just kill everything on you way up. There's a way to jump diagonally onto the blue armor (secret 3) from the boxes in front of the revenants (secret 2), so that you only need to jump down once.

MAP11 UV Fast in 1:51.57 (was 3:20.71 by Jakub Puk, 2018)

Demo: z311f151.zip

Video: 

Happy to have beaten the UV Fast record (3m20), the UV Max record (2m20), and also the 2 minute barrier. Getting sub 1m50 should be possible with more grinding, but I never managed to pull it off, not even when practicing with saves. A pleasant map to speedrun, even though the first part can be a bit frustrating: very tight corridors where dodging fast projectiles is difficult. Also, there's very little ammo and virtually no health at the start.

Map20 Pacifist 0:22

Map20 NM Speed 0:23

Map22 UV Speed 0:17 (was 0:26 by 4shockblast)

z320p022.zip

z320n023.zip

z322-017.zip

Map22 Pacifist 0:16

z322p016.zip

MAP12 UV Fast in 1:37.17 (No previous record; goal was beating 1:43.49 UV Max by Rayzik)

Demo: z312f137.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/RSixlasaoL0

Enormously lucky in-fighting! An arachnotron started in-fighting the Hell Knights, got killed, and left both Hell Knights at low health. This was a HUGE time save since that meant several high-health enemies were already done for. Managed to clear the first area and the villa quickly, and get on top of the lift without wasting time.

Time can be faster if you go for the YOLO strat: leave the cacos alive and rush to the SSG. Faster SSG and more in-fighting that way, but it's extremely inconsistent: 80% of the time there's at least one cacodemon stuck at the start, making you lost a lot of time to go kill it. Anyway, with enough luck, if none of the cacos to get stuck, perhaps sub 1m30 could be achieved here.
 

MAP13 UV Fast in 1:18.29 (No previous record)

Demo: z313f118.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/F8fRLrJNLwQ

Woke up early in the morning and got this time on the first attempt of the day. I just wanted sub 1m30, didn't even know sub 1m20 was within my reach! Then I followed it up with dozens attempt more and couldn't beat the time, or even get close to it again. I guess that's the definition of beginners luck. Obviously I had done some rudimentary attempts before, and spent some hours practicing with saves and studying the route. That's why this run is attempt 12, and not 1. Without the practice I would have never gotten this run.

MAP14 UV Fast in 1:46.74 (No previous record)

Demo: z314f146.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/hhJsqI99lWM

I'm super happy with this time. Managed not only the beat the only existing record of 2m02 (UV Max), but also got 14 seconds under the 2-minute barrier. There were a few mistakes here and there; in particular, I could have weapon-swapped one time less if I grabbed the berserk quick enough after the rocket launcher and swapped only to the chaingun; I could also have killed fewer lost souls; and I left one rocket on the floor, with which I would have killed the Baron more quickly. 
This run happened at the end of a long stream, where I had gotten a 2m00 time; 1 second away from my objective, but couldn't get any lower than that. I kept on dying, and slowly getting tired and impatient. I was about to end the stream and settle for the 2m00, but my chat kept saying that I could get a better time "maybe a 1m55", they said. Two attempts later, I got this 1m46 :) thank you Twitch chat!

MAP15 UV Fast in 1:46.74 (No previous record)

Demo: z315f143.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/K2Qf0pH457Y

Happy to once again beat the UV Max time in UV Fast. However, this achievement feels a bit bitter-sweet because I actually beat the time in relatively few attempts, and then lowered my objective to sub 1m40 and failed to beat that time in an extra 2-hour grind. I even had a better route with better ammo usage: basically I wanted to use another BFG shot on all the monsters at the central plaza at the start of the map, and kill the Cyberdemon at the end with only 1 BFG shot. Even though I'm sure this strategy should be faster in theory, in practice I could not get an exit with it. Therefore, this demo uses an old strategy that shoots the chaingun in the middle of the plaza for a while. A waste of bullets and time, imo.

MAP31 UV Fast in 1:37.97 (No previous record)

Demo: z331f137.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/rC9vrDJhK5Q

A creepy maze, and not exactly a very interesting map for a 100% run. The majority of the challenge in this map lies in performing clean movement and not getting lost in the maze, rather than surviving the fights. However, with fast monsters, the combo of fast-moving-specters and continuously-attacking-arch-viles made surviving this map not a trivial task. The most common cause of death was moving back into cover before the arch-vile attack animation completes, only to be blocked from behind by a specter at that very same time. Monster movement across the maze was very erratic, and planning when to shoot and when (where) to shoot the specters was something you always had to improvise. Anyway, I'm glad to have finished this map and not only beat the exiting UV Max run but also beat my objective of 1m40. On to the next one.

MAP32 UV Fast in 5:54.97 (No previous record)

Demo: z332f554.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/cumIaM837aU

Quite a long run to contrast with everything else from Zone 300. Despite being larger than all the others, this map still feels compact and full of action. On average, the run is not more deadly than the other maps because there's also ample amount of supplies to counter the ample amount of enemies.

This was a very fun run, and I was very happy to have beaten the 6-min barrier in so few attempts. I don't think that sub 5 is possible, although sub 5m30 might be. The main problem is that the BFG only appears at the end of the map, and jumping back down from the exit platform to kill things with it is very inefficient because you'd need to back-track a LOT to get back up to the exit. I wish I could have used that BFG or rockets against all the monsters grouping up behind the blue door, but both weapons only appear too late in the run for that to be possible.

Coin is totally dominating this thread

Map 16 UV-Max 1:18

https://youtu.be/pjXnYZ-A8KQ

z316m118.zip

MAP16 UV Fast in 1:22.11 (No previous record)

Demo: z316f122.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/lHRlutY1iKw
 

Bruiser fortress, quite a memorable map from Zone 300 with an interesting layout. It would be quite a nice map to run if it weren't for the 4 revenants in the towers upstairs. Shooting rockets up there leaves you entirely at the mercy of auto-aim and the random enemy movement. Sometimes the revenants decide to strafe away from your rockets making you lose ammo and time. That doesn't happen a lot with fast monsters because they move less and attack more. What happens more often with fast monsters is the revenants moving to the back of the tower and attacking you from there: if you shoot them back the rockets hit the edge of the ground of the revenant tower, dealing no damage at all.

Despite these problems this was a solid run up until the very end. I wanted to kill the arch-vile with 2 rockets and 1 SSG blast, and let it's own blast damage kill itself. That obviously didn't happen as I stupidly shot the SSG against the wall. However, the final lost soul, which I was afraid was going to kill me, actually attacked the arch-vile at the last possible moment and made it change targets, which surprisingly worked in my favor! So this was a good run overall, but that ending just proves that sub 1m20 is possible, even if not easy.
Congrats @TomatoTom on the sub 1m20 UV Max. That's a solid run.

Map01 UV Fast  0:48.89 z301f048.zip 

MAP17 UV Fast in 1:48.86 (No previous record)

Demo: z317f148.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/U80s9YCSN9E

A very deadly map. As usual I set my goal to beat the exiting UV Max time of 2m10; although a sub 2min run would be great. After dying a bunch of times I started doubting that the sub 2min goal was within my reach. Thankfully enough, my first exit was already a 1m54, where, despite several mistakes, I got very lucky with in-fighting. Since I still had time to grind it some more, I kept trying to beat my own time of 1m54, and after dying many more times, it felt unlikely that I would be lucky enough again to beat that time. I had to stop for a while and think about a few changes in strategy to have a chance at beating the time, but thankfully enough it happened after about 100 attempts. The fact that I only got 2 exits out of 100 attempts goes to show how deadly this map really is.

MAP18 UV Fast in 2:25.49 (No previous record)

Demo: z318f225.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/vpQizGn8WJo

Totally raged my brains out on this one. Such a masochistic start with fast monsters: no place to dodge, hardly any medkits. If you're running this map get ready to restart 100 times before you even get an exit. This one was quite frustrating to accomplish; so much so that I settled for submitting my first exit; which I usually dislike to do. Anyway, this still beats the current UV Max time of 2:37, so I'm happy with the time. I guess.

MAP19 UV Fast in 1:40.23 (No previous record)

Demo: z319f140.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/8i4P51H_uFU

Another super deadly map, another UV Max time beaten in UV Fast. Although I'm happy with this time, I'm kinda bummed that I missed the 1m40 barrier by just a few frames. Missing the supercharge lift was the most obvious culprit, although there several minor mistakes through this run that could yield an even better time.

I've tried with multiple strategies at the start, and even though I feel that grabbing the blue armor at the start is the most consistent for survival, I believe it's not the fastest strat. In theory, grabbing the SSG and doubling back to go grab the rocket launcher should be faster. I tried that route for the better part of an hour, but the survival rate was just too low.

MAP20 UV Fast in 2:41.29 (No previous record)

Demo: z320f241.zip

Video: https://youtu.be/GysTtkBYt5Y

"Death Row"... the name couldn't be more appropriate. These maps are just getting deadlier and deadlier. This was the first map in the series where I couldn't even get an exit without a serious practicing session. It is *THAT* difficult, especially with fast monsters - in regular UV Max I'd say this map is of medium difficulty. This map is challenging from start to finish. Skipping past the first 4 Hell Knights and going for the BFG is deadly. BFGing the first pain elemental and 2 cacos is a difficult and precise shot. Clearing all the monsters and walking the tightrope in the 'chasm' section is just begging for something wrong to happen. And surviving the final battle can be an absolute dice-roll with the Cyberdemon's timing being wrong meaning instant-death by face-rocket. After you grab the invulnerability you can still screw things up by falling down or wasting the BFG ammo, but at least dying is unlikely. I failed my objective of getting sub 2m38 (which would beat the UV Max), but I'm happy enough to have gotten a second exit and improving the time from my first exit. I feel this map might be problematic for the D2All.