this is a masterpiece. easily the best house map ever made. it is exactly the kind of thing i would aspire to make. jesus christ.

needs gzdoom with hardware rendering. it will chug. sorry, it's their first map and all

and then finally spoiled myself on the handful of things i could not find or even imagine how to find in my wildest dreams

and i don't think i'm exaggerating when i say this is one of the greatest doom maps of all time. this is a masterpiece. there is absolutely no question that this will win a cacoward; the question is whether they will give it multiple cacowards, or perhaps invent a much bigger cacoward to award to it. i need everyone to play it so i can fucking squeal about it

i don't want to drop a pile of spoilers but i WILL give you two tips

if the combat seems too hard,

open the crate in the garage

and if it still seems too hard,

go through underhalls first

i think this is a map that greatly benefits from some very light tips. i played myhouse while offering running commentary to the friend who showed it to me, and their nudges (as they also tried to work out what to do) were indispensible. it's very easy to Not Get It, especially if you aren't aware there's an It to get, and i think everyone deserves to experience the map unfold for themselves.

but currently the only real resource is either the spoilered posts on the doomworld thread (which give away completely random things), or the doomwiki article (which gives away everything just from the table of contents). those are not super good options.

so with that in mind, here are the places that i think most need nudges. i've tried to split them into several levels of hints, so many of these contain further prompts. i've also color-coded the answers: very light hints or things you probably walked right past, mild hints or details you could not possibly have guessed, and strong hints or complete giveaways.

some red hints outright spell out what to do for when you are truly stuck, because otherwise you simply cannot make any progress, but i strongly encourage you to poke around for a while before revealing any red hints.

basics

i don't get it. i got the blue key and exited

did you look out the windows?

i still don't get it

after you get the blue keycard, circle around the house once

i still don't get it, nothing changed

you are playing the wad. you want myhouse.pk3

(i know, i keep calling it myhouse.wad, but that's what the thread calls it)

the combat is too hard, i just have a pistol and like 2 shells

another weapon is available very early

where?

where might you find a doom weapon in a house?

...where?

use the crate in the garage for a chainsaw. it's only in the first version of the garage though

the combat is still pretty hard

that's true. how in doom can you get more weapons?

i don't know

maybe myhouse isn't the only thing in the wad

well that's fucking cryptic

sorry. try IDFA

can you spell it out

take the exit right away and continue to map02, underhalls. beating underhalls will take you back to myhouse, and you keep your weapons and ammo since it's the normal "next map".

now you can start myhouse over, but with the super shotgun, secret blue armor, and stockpile of shells from underhalls.

this is the only way to get the super shotgun in myhouse (and, given the hint from IDFA, the intended way).

the later combat is pretty hard

every weapon is available

super shotgun

see previous hint

rocket launcher

you should get this basically for free near the end

plasma gun

this is not difficult to find if you've been poking around

however,

the panel it's behind requires a blue keycard, so you need to have started the map from the beginning and gotten that key from the first house.

also, i think the panel is completely unresponsive if you already have a plasma gun

bfg9000

IDCHOPPERS

(i actually beat the map without it)

the hint describes very clearly what you have to do; it's just kind of counter-intuitive

do i really need to kill this?

this is tough to answer without giving anything away, but if you're reading this hint then i assume you want to know one of two things:

how do i get 100% kills?

i don't think you can. i'm not sure what the maximum is (and some monsters spawn during play, which alters the count), but i don't think this is a map where killing everything is really the goal, either.

how many hit points does this damn thing have?

in a couple cases: too many. some monsters are not meant to be defeated. consider running away

completion

are there any points of no return?

yes, quite a few. i would advise making a separate save anytime you so much as suspect a major transition is coming. i ended up with like 15 different save files as i made my way through

i seem to be trapped

with very few (obvious) exceptions, i don't think there's anywhere you can get actually trapped with no options (or even trapped with no options besides solving an exceptionally cryptic puzzle).

but the front door disappeared

then there are more things you can do in the house

it's not that big. look around

how do i know when i'm "done"?

you will know. or at least strongly suspect. if you're not sure, you're probably not done

is there a clear indicator i should watch out for?

you've reached the "true ending" when you've found the map's only secret

conversely,

if you take the exit, you're not done

cool map. took a little while but i beat it i guess? funny little ending, nice reference

did you exit from an empty lot?

yeah, why

you aren't done yet

what else is there to do?

that's a complicated question and hard to answer without spoiling things, but i can offer hints about two places you probably already know about:

the breaker room

There's no good outcome from a house fire.

so just to be clear...

do not flip the breaker. do not, at any point, flip the breaker.

what, then?

find something else to interact with in the house

i did but nothing happened

there are six. one is especially easy to miss

there should be two effects. both are hinted at, but both are subtle

i remember something funny in the attic

yes. you can't get there from the attic. how else might you get there?

i don't know

in the upstairs hallway bathroom, you can climb on the toilet and reach the mirror

i remember something funny in the master bedroom

the rubber duck isn't the only thing made accessible

oh?

the bathtub is deeper than it looks

the airport

the airport is tricky. you do need to come here, as you may have guessed.

but?

you have to do it as late as possible. if there's anything else you can do in the house, don't go to the airport yet.

specifically?

i believe you need to have 14 items, or the airplane will lock you out of the true ending

i feel like i'm missing something

please verify that you have found a soda before continuing

yeah

okay. how can i help you

what's the soda for?

did anything change when you picked it up? anywhere?

i dunno, did it?

there are two paintings on the wall next to the kitchen that track the items you've collected

i got an item but nothing happened

a few items don't count. or it could be something else.

this does seem kind of like it might be junk

the empty pill bottle and all three items from the burnt house do not count

no, i think this is a real item

it's possible you have missed part of the inventory tracker

where?

where could more paintings be?

i don't know

there are two more paintings in the same spot in the mirror house, for a total of 16 items to collect

i'm a couple short and i'm going nuts

okay, well, i want to help, but all i can do is tell you how many items are in which places. but that's going to spoil the whole progression, so you'd better be really sure you've already visited everywhere you can. (if you're only missing one or two items then this is very likely the case.)

how many places are we talking?

there are seven distinct locations containing items.

if you can't name seven different places, stop now.

i am prepared

okay:

the v2 house contains 3 items

the mirror house contains 3 items

the daycare contains 3 items

the bathhouse contains 2 items

the brutalist apartment contains 3 items

the airport contains 1 item

the gas station contains 1 item

a couple are especially easy to miss:

the bathhouse

there's a legitimate pool here somewhere. (it took me ages to find it even after someone told me it was here.)

i, like you, cannot find it

from the main area, take the passage that's at a 45° angle, into a small locker room. walk counterclockwise around the central block of lockers. you can't miss it.

(my problem was that i entered this room half a dozen times but always circled clockwise, which doesn't take you anywhere!)

i know that, but i still only found one item

inspect the pool more carefully.

you'll also have to solve a puzzle, but i think it's fairly straightforward. maybe quicksave before attempting it though.

it's not straightforward, i can't possibly get over there

oh, fine. walk in a straight line between the two black tiles.

brutalist apartments

the big thing is to just... explore. the area is confusing but it only loops on itself a couple places.

but there are two that are tucked out of the way:

a ledge

there's a hidden ledge you can drop down onto.

where?

in the regular-size "house", find the "front door" area. (it looks out onto a window that's one to the right of the exit.) walk up to the edge and look down.

a vent

in the double-size "house", you can jump from a vent onto the top of the partition, and walk from there into another vent to get a can of tuna.

it's kind of an annoying jump, though. sorry. run straight forward and hang right just as you come out of the vent. remember that doomguy, unfortunately, has no air control.

helpful items

not necessary by any means — in fact i didn't find most of these on my successful playthrough — but there are several items squirreled away that might be handy, especially if you're struggling near the end:

why is there no armor

the green shirt in the closet is actually green armor. i think you have to hit use on it though.

see "the combat is still pretty hard" for further tips

this isn't enough. i go through so much armor that i am ok with spoiling a location

press use on the bloodstained heart shirt in the airport shop for a blue armor.

please i need more health

that depends how far you are

right at the beginning

there's a bunch in the closet (next to the window) in the downstairs bathroom (the one behind the yellow skull door)

kinda middley

there's a lit window you can make a jump to. i think you'll enjoy what you find inside. maybe quicksave before attempting, since if you miss, it's a pain to get back here

i know for a fact that i am right at the end oh god help

the slurpee— sorry, sludgie— machine will bump you up to 200 health a couple times (before running out).

i saw a thing on a too high shelf and it's driving me nuts

you can get the berserk pack by going around to the other side of that wall — it's in a bathroom.

let the door close, then use the crack on the wall to bump the berserk off the shelf.

i don't suppose there's a backpack?

there is, but it is really obtusely telegraphed. i didn't find it.

its location is itself a spoiler, but it's also a place you can't return to once you've left, so, that's... difficult. all i can do is describe it in very vague terms

i accept these terms

there's a locker immediately before the fish with its handle facing the other way

easter eggs?

if you would like to go hunting for more secrets without just reading doomwiki, there are several optional areas that i consider especially unreasonable to find on your own. (in other words, i didn't find them.) naturally the list itself is a spoiler though. they don't contribute to your progress and mostly don't help with gameplay in any way

proceed

the maze

this one is especially unfair because there's only a chance you'll see it.

i will say that (a) it's directly accessible from the v2 house, and (b) you need the blue skull key to get there.

it sucks though.

i need a bit more

there is a door that has a 9% chance to lead somewhere different when you open it

which door?

the closet door in the upstairs bedroom — not the master bedroom, the middle of the three adjacent doors.

the grave

i haven't been here myself, but if you combine two "ending" conditions, you can reach a new place. the new place is a grave.

which two?

get the eight "normal universe" items to reveal the garden fence hint, and then proceed to the empty lot ending. (you can either burn the house down, or skip a mirror-universe item, and then go through the airport.)

from the empty lot, the gap in the fence is still accessible.

that sounds hard

you get to a gravestone with a qr code on it, which leads you to this image, a companion to this image from the google drive.

note that both men were born in plano, later reconnected with their high school crush, and died on the same day in their home in oswego.

note also that the map author's name is steve nelson.

i love this map.

level eht

is there anywhere you haven't tried going in the mirror world?

don't think so

have you exited the level?

the hospital

an unexpected game mechanic can take you here

what

die. wait.

the backrooms

the name is a hint, if you're familiar

i'm not

noclip out of bounds