Exen (also known as Neiro) is a Ukrainian Geometry Dash player and level creator. He is known for being a former hacker who illegitimately completed levels and passed his completions off as legitimate, such as Zodiac and unnerfed INNARDS. He sparked much controversy within the community for stealing projects and copyright-striking videos from channels that attempted to expose him for hacking.
Starting in 2021, he moved on from his career as a hacker to host mega-collaborations and upload high-quality level showcases, which many levels are considered 'impossible'. His most famous project is Abyss of Darkness, with other popular mega-collaborations being Aronia, Asterios and Talicron. He has also beaten some difficult levels legitimately, such as Cataclysm and Poltergeist.
History[]
Exen joined YouTube on 12 October 2012. He began actively playing Geometry Dash four years later, in July 2016. First, he began completing simple Demons such as DeCode, -sirius-, Nine Circles and others.
A sensational story that glorified Exen was his 'completion' of Bloodbath on 20 December 2017.[1] Later, it turned out that he beat it using cheats, and some players after that stopped believing him.
Over time, he began progressing legitimately on Extreme Demons. He achieved 81% on The Hell Factory,[2] 78% on Plasma Pulse III,[3] 66% on Cataclysm,[4] and many others. Then, on 7 February 2017, he completed his first Extreme Demon - A Bizarre Phantasm.[5] Afterward, he made various progress runs.
Sometime later, Exen returned to hacking Extreme Demons, such as Breakout and Conical Depression. At the same time, he also began to create various difficult challenge levels. Later on, he hacked several Extreme Demons: Killbot, Erebus, Bloodbath, aftermath, Hatred, Bausha Vortex, and Elite Z Rebirth.
On 18 December 2018, Exen stole and 'verified' the infamous level Fusion Z, which no one could ever accomplish in its entire lifespan.[6] Some players believed him, while many others did not. These days, it is known that he indeed hacked this verification.
On 8 July 2019, his channel and all his uploaded content were deleted for unknown reasons (possibly because of hacking). Two days later, all his content returned.
On 15 February 2021, Exen uploaded a showcase of Triple Six without using Low Detail Mode. He made a similar video the next day but instead showcased the level Necrocide. The next day, he showcased Killbot, and his video got over 50,000 views. He continued to upload showcases of popular Extreme Demons, which quickly became the most viewed videos on his channel, and he doubled his subscriber count in just about a month. His showcase of the level Khorne is currently his most popular video (over 200,000 views), surpassing the fake Fusion Z verification. He continues to upload these showcases and, in most cases, adds ReShade RTX effects.
On 28 July 2021, he uploaded a completion video of Firework. Funnily enough, it was not the Top-1-by-miles version by Cherry Team, but rather an easy version of the level created by Endevvor. Because of this, people started to make joke comments about him nerfing the level.
On 2 August 2021, he beat Supersonic legitimately. He stated that he decided to rebeat it with coins.
He would later stop uploading the RTX videos as it would hurt people's eyes, but he would still do the showcase videos. On 3 and 4 August 2021, he would showcase Silent Akbar and Azure Flare, respectively.
On 5 August 2021, he legitimately beat Cataclysm. This completion is his best achievement as his hardest Demon after he hacked it many years before. On 6 August 2021, he started doing RTX showcases again, the first being Uprise. On 16 August 2021, he beat Poltergeist. On 17 August 2021, he showed a screenshot indicating that he had practised Bloodbath and achieved a run from 3-100% in 4 attempts.[7] On 19 August 2021, he showed his gameplay part of Waterfall, an official sequel of Firework hosted by Vernam. On 20 August 2021, he rebeat Rupture. On 25 August 2021, he announced he received a new keyboard. Later, he beat Rush E, an unrated Insane Demon, in 198 attempts.[8]
Sometime on 25 February 2022, while the Russo-Ukraine War 2022 was ongoing, he said he would move up to an evacuated area to stay safe. However, he said he would not leave Ukraine and continue uploading videos daily.
On 17 April 2022, his channel reached 100,000 subscribers.
On 7 April 2025, he allegedly beat Slaughterhouse as a new hardest and a possible jump from A Bizarre Phantasm. According to several Pointercrate moderators, this completion is legitimate.[9]
Conflicts[]
It has been requested that this page be rewritten and expanded to include more information. Reason: A new drama regarding the conflict of refusing to take down the showcase video of qalli's new level from request.
- Exen hack-verifies Fusion Z - In late 2018, Exen found a leaked copy of Manix648's version of Fusion Z and verified it illegitimately without permission from any creators. He received backlash for uploading the leaked level to his account, as Manix648 wanted to keep the level abandoned.
- Copyright Strikes - During 2018 and 2019, Exen copyright-striked many players who attempted to call him out for illegitimate completions on YouTube. The users hit with copyright strikes were AndreJ HD, Titan Channel,[10] ZephiroX, T3Fil, and some others. He later retracted the copyright strikes and allowed the videos back on YouTube.
- Exen steals INNARDS - In March 2019, Exen acquired a copy of the unnerfed INNARDS without Cinci's permission.[11] He claimed that he would verify the level if Cinci could not get over 44% on the unnerfed version. On 29 March, he apologised and dropped the level after receiving a lot of backlash.
- Acheron Showcase Situation - On 13 September 2021, Just a GD player gave a copy of Acheron to Exen without Riot's (who is the level's host) permission. Exen later uploaded a video of the level. People found out about this, and Exen defended himself by saying he gave himself the right to do it. He was called out for it in the community. Just a GD player forced Wolvez to drop Acheron, saying he would leak the level if he did not obey.[12] Many people believed that it was Exen who did this, so he was harassed about it. Vernam later leaked the level.
Levels (possibly hacked)[]
Unrated levels[]
- 1 Second by Exen
- 4x Challenge - A quadruple-speed challenge level.
- 6k
- A Bizarre Phantasm - A copy of A Bizarre Phantasm.
- AoD First Part Lay - The first part of the layout of Abyss of Darkness.
- Arctic Lights - A copy of Arctic Lights; a difficult remake of Nine Circles that was stolen from EndLevel. He has tried to 'beat' it three times. The first was allegedly a verification, the second does not exist on his channel, and the third is a 'rebeat'.
- Baium
- Bass Challenge
- Bloodbath 240hz - A fixed version of Bloodbath for 240Hz users.
- Challenge - A challenge level.
- Click Challenge
- Corrosive Challenge
- CorroZ
- Crimson Planet - A copy of Crimson Planet.
- Danger of Wave
- Deadlocked Challenge - A challenge level inspired by Deadlocked.
- Deorum - An extremely difficult challenge level.
- Destructively
- Dual Wave Challenge - A dual-wave challenge level.
- Easy Challenge - An easy challenge level.
- Enira - An unrated Extreme Demon that was verified by SpirteX on 8 June 2021. It was supposedly around Top-30 difficulty at the time of its verification.
- EroGamer Challenge - A challenge level meant for EroGamer.
- Exen Challenge - A challenge level named after himself.
- Exen Challenge v2 - A challenge level named after himself. It is the sequel to Exen Challenge.
- Extreme
- Falling Illusion - A Top 10 challenge on the Challenge List.
- Fracture Challenge
- Fun Challenge
- Fun Straight Fly
- Fusion Z - A slightly buffed and stolen copy of the original version of Fusion Z that Manix648 wanted to see abandoned. It was hack-verified and published by Exen without permission from Manix648, knobbelboy, or the current verifier, Geomania. It also includes Xcy-7's old part, as this copy was first leaked when the level was finished.
- God of Wave - An extremely difficult wave challenge level.
- God of Wave v2 - An extremely difficult wave challenge level. It is the sequel to God of Wave.
- GS One Space Fly
- Hill
- Illusion of Hell - The sequel to Falling Illusion.
- IMPOSSIBLE
- Impossible level
- Innards - A slightly buffed (added invisible teleport portals) version of INNARDS that he 'verified' on 16 March 2019, four days after Cinci dropped verification in supposedly ~25,000 attempts (hacked). The teleportation portal is an excuse to put cuts into the video.
- keep holding
- Killbot - A copy of Killbot.
- Leaper Challenge
- Lunar of Wave
- Memory - A memory challenge level.
- Mix Challenge
- Mobile Challenge
- Nellon
- Neon Challenge - His first level ever created.
- Neon Challenge v2
- New Challenge
- Old AoD
- Planet Circles - The original unnerfed version of Planet Circles.
- PoodlePoodle 2
- RetoJacob
- Sakupen Circles - A buffed version of the impossible level Sakupen Circles.
- SC Big Wave - A wave segment from Sakupen Circles.
- Shock
- SnowBallerr
- Spam Challenge - A spam challenge level.
- SR Challenge
- Straight Fly Chall
- Supersonic 240hz - A fixed version of Supersonic for 240Hz users.
- Swing Copter
- Talicron - The official sequel to Aronia. Verified by Kotamon and currently unrated. Set to be around the same difficulty as its prequel.
- Tutorial 1
- Unnerfed Black Blizzard - A buffed version of Black Blizzard, based on a leak in March 2017. The hacks Exen used for this level are macros since all his movements were identical in every progress video.
- Wave Challenge - A wave challenge level.
- Waveeeeee
- Wave of Bass
- Wave of Fear
- Waver
Demon levels[]
Extreme Demon levels[]
- Abyss of Darkness (starred) - A mega-collaboration with a decoration update hosted by CDMusic to ensure that the level was rate-worthy if it was verified. The level was verified by Cursed on 3 April 2022 and rated on 22 May 2022.
- Aronia (featured) - A mega-collaboration hosted by Exen. It was verified by Kotamon.
- Asterios (featured) - A mega-collaboration with Buragoz and several other creators. It was verified by Atomic.
- Tunnel of Despair (featured) - A collaboration with ImMaxX1, who made the decoration, while Exen made the gameplay. It was verified by Zoink.
- Waterfall (Legendary) - A mega-collaboration hosted by Cherry Team and verified by LordVadercraft.
Upcoming levels[]
- Abyss of Darkness II - The official sequel to Abyss of Darkness.
- Alkar - His current ideal level. It is the official sequel to Asterios.
- Barion
- Boundless Silence
- Dead Silence - Currently his hardest upcoming level in its unnerfed state. It is set to be decorated by multiple creators.
- Deimos (GDSkele) (update) - The former official sequel to Phobos that is set to be verified by swiborg.
- Greitis
- Heavy Energizer - A difficult collaboration with several creators.
- Illusion of Chaos - The sequel to Illusion of Hell.
- Klaccuka
- Myrrh
- Osoeru - A semi-impossible level like Waru. However, this is considered to be way harder.
- TON 618 - A Top 1 Extreme Demon, based on the impossible level of the same name, and hosted by pooch.
- Waru - A semi-impossible level.
Trivia[]
- Exen has garnered over 453,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.
- Exen was accused of hacking (specifically the utilisation of macros) by many people, and even though he constantly denies that he does, the evidence is often irrefutable.
- Exen was known to have false copyright strike videos exposing his illegitimacy.
- Exen was known to remove/ban anyone questioning his legitimacy (accusing him of hacking permanently without the ability to unblock, as he says).
- Exen's level Aronia knocked Audio Expulsion into the Extended List and Audio Extraction into the Legacy List. This addition is coincidental, considering Audio Expulsion is the sequel to Audio Extraction. Aronia is also notable for pushing Yatagarasu off the Top 25.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://youtu.be/cmZ_-mFrmJI&t=38s
- ↑ https://youtu.be/klcCnGZ78Ic
- ↑ https://youtu.be/RAWVOQ920Ck
- ↑ https://youtu.be/_N9NI10NTC0
- ↑ https://youtu.be/cQ46BsZgAxg
- ↑ https://youtu.be/hOQaIMe0-0U
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/UgyXiP96kKd9ydJAawR4AaABCQ
- ↑ https://youtu.be/ELSlpfK3DZQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIFeyl2wAuE
- ↑ https://youtu.be/cMrDiGRHjEE?t=57
- ↑ https://youtu.be/1gCBN2C7bds&t=738s
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/icedcaveog/status/1437452610328539142
3. (RU) https://youtu.be/-wDg9o6TawU