Abyss of Darkness

WARNING: This level contains intense flashes and bright lights. If you have epilepsy or any other eye conditions, watching a video of this level is strictly advised against. Safety first!

“	The time has come... Level by Me, CDMusic & Many More. VERIFIED BY CURSED.	”
―Exen

Abyss of Darkness (commonly abbreviated to AoD) is a 2.1 Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted and published 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%. 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 2 months before it was swapped with Slaughterhouse, with both being surpassed by Acheron 2 months later.

A sequel known as Abyss of Darkness II is currently in development, with Exen actively looking for decorators.

History[]

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. As the level was illegitimately verified and deemed too difficult for any top players at the time, the level was forgotten by the community 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.^[1] He once again died at 98% for the second time on 30 July 2021.^[2] 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 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.^[3] 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 was cancelled, and he would upload the new version to the server to prevent it from leaking.^[4] He then made Abyss of Darkness an open-verification, and the first victor of the level would be the official verifier.

Many players attempting the level had lost interest for 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%.^[5]

On 3 April 2022, Cursed verified Abyss of Darkness after 54,315 attempts.^[6] The level was eventually placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 13 June 2022.

Gameplay[]

0-9% (Exen + CDMusic): The level starts 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 concludes with a precise dash orb timing. Following the ball, the player must complete a long straight-fly, preceded by a mini-wave section that becomes big-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 execute precise clicks to pass through a short wave section. Then, the player enters a dual, with a mini-ball on top and a mini-wave on the bottom. This segment contains two very narrow clicks. Next, the player converts into a spider and must traverse through moderately tight timings. Afterwards, the player switches to a UFO, and the section contains a 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, leading 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 into 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 that leads 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 they need to 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% (XDiamondX + 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 and 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 and tight wave clicks and proceed to traverse through 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 the player gets led into yet another music-synced spider section. Then, the player transitions into a UFO section after they jump 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 and complete three robot jumps and a yellow orb. The part ends with a very complex asymmetrical dual 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.

First 10 victors[]

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[]

The password for the new version of the level is 030422, while the old version is free to copy.
- The password for the level hints at the level's verification date, 3 April 2022.
The old version of the level contains 100,000 objects, while the new version contains 113,298 objects.
The level is 2m 5s in length.
The level was rated on 22 May 2022. However, at that time, many people doubted that this level would not be rated.
The level was initially 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; this addition also pushed Necromancer into the Extended List and Bausha Vortex into the Legacy List.
- On 27 July 2022, Abyss of Darkness and Slaughterhouse's placements swapped. Thus, Abyss of Darkness dropped to #2 on the Demonlist.
  - However, Abyss of Darkness was above Slaughterhouse on the Demonlist as of 28 December 2023.
  - Abyss of Darkness was at #1 for 44 days.
- Due to the skyrocketing number of requests on the Pointercrate website following the placement of Abyss of Darkness, the site crashed.
- If Dils thik had not dropped the level beforehand, it would be at #1 for roughly a year.
Abyss of Darkness was part of the player-made 'A.S.S. trilogy', along with Slaughterhouse and Sakupen Circles - referencing the #1 level on the Demonlist starts with the letter A and the #2 and #3 levels with the letter S.
- The player-made 'A.S.S. trilogy' inspires the three levels commonly criticised by its victors.
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 when he beat it. He deleted the video and fixed it shortly after.
Abyss of Darkness has four different versions throughout its history:^[7]
- The first version of the level 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 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 at all.
- The second level version had full decoration with major changes in the gameplay at 52-70%.
- The third version is more well known as the 'Old Abyss of Darkness'. It is the version Exen hack-verified, with the decoration refined. The 32% part was no longer memorisation-based gameplay.
- The fourth version is the verified and well-known version, which was redecorated.
Dils thik finally verified the old version of Abyss of Darkness on 20 March 2023, nearly two years after his two 98% fails.^[8]
- He died a third time at 98% before his completion.
Despite the common belief that the level could potentially remain as the Top 1 for years, Cursed (who verified Abyss of Darkness) and Zoink (the second victor of the level) both believed the level to be #2. In contrast, the first victor, Trick, believed it to be Top 1. (The Top 1 level during these completions was Slaughterhouse.)
The level became one of the most hated Extreme Demon levels after its release due to its unconventional gameplay.
Abyss of Darkness is the 37th former Top 1 in the game's history.
The movement of Silent clubstep from #6 to #3 on 23 April 2023 pushed Abyss of Darkness out of the Top 5 of the Demonlist.
- Silent clubstep itself reached its peak placement during this movement, while Abyss of Darkness would not fall any lower than #6 for over sixteen months.
- Abyss of Darkness swapped places with Kyouki on 19 November 2023, pushing it back to the Top 5.
- Tunnel of Despair was moved above Abyss of Darkness on 23 August 2024, pushing it out of the Top 5.
The movement of BOOBAWAMBA from #12 to #9 on 2 April 2025 pushed Abyss of Darkness out of the Top 10 of the Demonlist.