Slaughterhouse (2024)

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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!

Not to be confused with SlaughterHouse by Havok.

Slaughterhouse is a 2.1 Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted by icedcave and verified by Doggie, initially hack-verified by spaceuk. It is loosely based on icedcave's old impossible level of the same name, created out of icedcave's dissatisfaction with the original level being his sole legacy in the community. The level was initially released as an impossible level in April 2021 but was later nerfed to place in the top 5 on the Demonlist. However, multiple verifiers failed to beat it, leading to a revised version to compete for the top spot on the Demonlist, sparking a two-week verification race. spaceuk claimed to have verified it on October 24, 2021, but was later discovered to have hacked it. The verifier title was then rightfully passed to its first victor, Doggie, who completed the level legitimately on December 19, 2021.

The level remained at the #1 position on the Demonlist for much of 2022, cementing itself as one of the game's most iconic #1 levels. Its influence has inspired other levels such as KOCMOC and The Rock House, thanks to its significant impact. While some critique its gameplay, particularly finding it tedious at the pre-drop, the level earns praise for its immersive atmosphere, achieved through its music and design.

icedcave later hosted a prequel called GRIEF, a direct remake of his 2015 Slaughterhouse, set to be verified by Doggie and place at #1 on the Demonlist.

History

Building process

icedcave, frustrated by the popularity of his old level 'Slaughterhouse', decided to remake it, wanting to redefine his legacy in the Geometry Dash community. He began in late 2018,^[1] with the first previews of the level coming in July 2019, followed by previews posted in May-June 2020. These previews were later made private after icedcave's audience discovered that the level's song, a remix of Crim3s' "Lost" with a sample from Vince Staples' "Fire," came from a CS:GO montage uploaded by XVA. This led players to flood the montage creator's YouTube comments with Geometry Dash-related remarks. To further avoid this issue, icedcave collaborated with EndLevel to remaster the song, removing noises from the edit (excluding the glitch sounds at the end) and securing permission from XVA. On August 18, 2020, the "second-and-a-half" preview premiered on icedcave's YouTube channel, with the new version of the song and botted gameplay by Xanii.^[2] In the months following this preview's upload, community interest in the level decreased over time, likely overshadowing icedcave's other popular creations such as DIAMOND BLADE and Hypnosis. However, on April 3, 2021, river unexpectedly posted a video showcasing his decorated wave part, which icedcave later reposted,^[3] reigniting community excitement. Soon afterward, the final preview was released, showcasing CDMusic's decoration and announcing the release date of April 30, 2021.^[4] As planned, the level, along with a showcase video, debuted on the scheduled date, presenting fans with the eagerly awaited, true unnerfed version of Slaughterhouse.^[5] The video remains icedcave's most watched upload.

Verification

Upon release, despite no one intending to verify it initially, top players made impressive runs on the level, notably Kurumi getting runs of 0-20%, 30-50%, 58-74% and 82-100%.^[6] Yet, it proved too difficult for verification, with some comparing it to unnerfed Silent clubstep. To make it more playable, icedcave nerfed river's part and adjusted a wave segment at 79%. However, it remained incredibly challenging. To ensure the level's lasting impact, icedcave opted to place it on the Demonlist. Soon enough, he adjusted the difficulty to a top 5 extreme demon, similar in difficulty to Zodiac at the time. After completing the adjustments, he began searching for a verifier.

After doing impressive runs on the unnerfed version a month earlier,^[7] Xanii was initially chosen as the verifier.^[8] However, he quickly dropped it due to the level being disconnected from his skillset. icedcave then turned to Twitter to seek another verifier, noticing a hesitant reply from Doggie,^[9] who would then be chosen as the new verifier for a break from his Extreme Demon Alphabet series. Even before he began streaming the level, he quickly made progress, achieving runs of 49-60%^[10] and then 49-86%.^[11] Once he began streaming the level, he reached 51% within just three streams.^[12][13] However, tensions arose after icedcave and another player named Lexy quarreled,^[14] causing icedcave to leave the game. With the level dormant due to a lack of a host, Doggie focused on completing his Extreme Demon Alphabet series.^[15] icedcave eventually returned and revived the level, but Doggie was still focused on completing his series. With Doggie out of the picture, Cursed was appointed to verify it, putting his work on the Sakupen Circles verification on hold. Doggie also offered to be a backup verifier if necessary.^[16] However, once Cursed took over, all verification progress updates became radio silent.

Due to this inactivity, icedcave decided to reignite the verification process by making the verification a race, but as a new and harder Top 1 version, more similar to the unnerfed version of the level. On October 15, 2021, icedcave announced this race,^[17] which featured participants like spaceuk, Xanii, Trick, Photonic, and Zamasu. For much of the race, spaceuk appeared to be in the lead until supposedly verifying the level on October 24, 2021. To ensure rating, icedcave changed the level's song twice, settling on Tennobyte - Fly Away on October 29, 2021. The level received its rating on the same day, along with two other supposed top 1 levels: arcturus, which had been verified months earlier, and Firework, which was verified on the same night. On November 3, 2021, Slaughterhouse claimed the #1 spot on the Demonlist, overtaking Firework, surprising many due to Firework's perceived difficulty. To much of the community's surprise, on April 25, 2023, spaceuk confessed to hacking his achievements, including his Slaughterhouse verification. Doggie, who was the first victor of the level after beating it on December 19, 2021,^[18] was crowned as the legitimate verifier.

Versions in chronological order

• True Unnerfed - The first-ever version to be released on the servers and the hardest version of the level. It has yet to be verified.
• Unnerfed - Released around a week after the true unnerfed. It features significant nerfs to river's wave and reworks a spam-based wave segment at 79%. It has yet to be verified.
• Doggie Slaughterhouse - The first version that was intended to be verified. It makes numerous changes to the unnerfed version, reworking much of the gameplay to prioritize enjoyment over difficulty. It was around Zodiac difficulty and passed through three verifiers (Xanii, Doggie, and Cursed) before being scrapped. Doggie uploaded this version to the servers on October 30, 2021, six days after spaceuk's hacked verification. The ID is 75249982.
• The raced version - The first version created after icedcave changed the verification from a Top 5 private verification to a Top 1 race. It is much more similar to the unnerfed version than Doggie Slaughterhouse. It was verified by wPopoff on October 8, 2023.
• Current version - The current public version of the level. It is very similar to the raced version, with minor nerfs added. spaceuk claimed to have verified this on October 24, 2021, but he confessed to hacking it over a year later. The title of verifier was given to the supposed first victor at the time, Doggie, who beat it on December 19, 2021.

Gameplay

The gameplay was created by icedcave, except for DrCuber's part, co-created by DrCuber and Brittank88. Below are the decorators for each section.

• 0-8% (icedcave): The level begins with a slow mini-cube part that functions as a build-up. Text appears saying, 'Icedcave OG Slaughterhouse Welcome to the End of the World', as a Clubstep monster falls towards the player. The player must jump over a few spread-out spikes. The screen then goes black, placing the player in another part with similar gameplay. This part is a normal-size cube with narrow-spread triple-spikes and an orb timing. Another Clubstep monster lies at the end of the section as the screen goes black.
• 8-18% (EndLevel): An animation of a spinning cross appears on screen as the player transitions to the next section. After jumping over the pink pad and hitting the yellow orb, the player becomes a ship and must perform a straight-fly. Following a few more cube timings, the screen goes black again, while the player must hold down on a dash orb.
• 18-49% (icedcave): The player enters another cube part where they must jump over narrow-spread triple-spikes and jump on top of pillars. After jumping over a large spike, the screen goes black again and lightens, showing a few more timings before the player enters the drop. The player is immediately thrown into a quadruple-speed wave part. After becoming mini, the player enters a tight corridor and must slide on the top and bottom to avoid spikes. A ship part follows, with a long straight-fly with orbs and size changes. The player turns into a mini-ship and emerges into a large area with both eyes of a skull having the words 'RUN'. They must hit a black orb that brings them into another straight-fly, followed by a short ball part where the player must hit invisible blue orbs.
• 49-58% (river): Famously nicknamed after its decorator, this segment is notorious for its extreme difficulty. It features a quadruple-speed, incredibly tight wave section featuring constant shifts in gravity and size.
• 58-74% (Iris): The player exits the wave and becomes a mini-UFO. They must do tight timings and hit orbs precisely. Next is a wave part with size changes where the player must carefully avoid spikes before a short spam segment. The player is thrown into a ship part with a long, tight straight-fly.
• 74-91% (DrCuber): The next section begins with two tight wave parts separated by an automatic cube timing. After a short straight-fly, there is another tight mini-wave section. The drop ends with more tight normal/mini-sized wave parts and one last tight straight-fly, although slightly curved.
• 91-95% (CDMusic): The gameplay slows down and returns to the style of the pre-drop, with tight cube timings over narrow-spread triple-spikes and double-spikes.
• 95-100% (icedcave): After the final jump, the cube falls to the ground, and a modified Extreme Demon face is displayed as the cube teleports uncontrollably. After hitting a yellow pad on the ground, the player becomes a wave, sliding on slopes while teleporting, while a satanic star is displayed along with the text 'GG'.

First Victors

Trivia

General

• The level is free to copy.
• The level contains 147,242 objects.
• The level is 1m 10s in length.
• The level was ranked #83 in GDToday's 100 Greatest Levels of All Time list.
• When Slaughterhouse, Firework and arcturus were all rated on October 29, 2021, there was some commotion regarding the Demon ratings of the levels. First, Firework and Slaughterhouse both received an Easy Demon rating. However, the levels swapped ratings, with arcturus being an Easy Demon and Slaughterhouse and Firework both being Extreme Demons. arcturus finally received an Extreme Demon rating an hour later.
• Sometime after Doggie was assigned to verify the top 5 version, some players found that searching the term "Doggie Slaughterhouse" led to gore images. Because of the unfortunate coincidence between the verifier's and the level's names, the term became a running Twitter joke. When Doggie later uploaded his top 5 version on the servers, he referenced the term in the title.
• On November 8, 2021, GuitarHeroStyles posted a video discussing the difficulty of the level,^[19] infuriating icedcave due to recent allegations against Guitar. Despite icedcave's polite requests for Guitar to remove the video and leave the Geometry Dash community, Guitar blocked him. In response, icedcave temporarily changed the level's description to include a link to a Twitter thread^[20] highlighting Guitar's allegations.
  • In addition, on March 3, 2022, icedcave added '#AdvyOut' to the level, similar to actions taken by DavJT and Jeyzor about the Twitter hashtag used during Guitar's exposal.
• Akira Kurisu used to be part of the level but was kicked out due to inappropriate behaviour on Discord unrelated to the level.
• On April 11, 2022, streamer GFMBadger reacted with astonishment to a Slaughterhouse video sent by TheZinkYT, a former Demonlist moderator, during a live stream. TheZinkYT later reposted the clip on Twitter, where it gained popularity.^[21] GFMBadger later joked about the reaction.^[22]
• wPopoff, who was 13 years old at the time of completion, is the youngest victor of the level.
• enfix, the thirteenth victor, spent 666,131 attempts on the level, setting the record for the most attempts on any level at the time.^[23] This was later surpassed by YtTanel with 731,708 attempts on Plasma Pulse Finale, and then by Vision with 821,027 attempts on Silent clubstep.
• Slaughterhouse is part of the community-based 'ASK' trilogy along with Acheron and Kyouki.
• Several challenges have been built to test the player's skill at river's wave segment.
  • cry me a river, verified and published by Doggie on December 8, 2021, features the segment five times in a row with a blue color scheme. Its ID is 76403850.
  • ENDLESS RIVER, created by icedcave, extends the segment by 16 seconds with the same blue color scheme. Its ID is 94646409, but it remains unverified.
• Dying to the final jump will result in the text 'The End' changing to 'You Are Dead' and the eyes of EndLevel's icon getting crossed out.
• The level was part of the GD World Tournament on May 11, 2024, hosted by Doggie and icedcave. wPopoff, Trick, Netermind, AidanTR, Abdieldevil, and Tylor were the participants, and wPopoff took first place, scoring 7079 points and completing the level 17 times within one hour.^[24]
  • wPopoff and Trick have both beaten the level over a hundred times, with wPopoff even beating the level three times in a row nearly a month prior on April 14, 2024.^[25][26]
• On September 30, 2023, Tylor became the first player to crash at 96% on Slaughterhouse by throwing his headphones at his keyboard, causing his cube to jump into the auto part. Tylor later then beat the level.^[27]

Demonlist

• The level was initially placed at #1 on the Demonlist on November 4, 2021, above Firework (#2).
  • This addition pushed The Golden out of the Top 5, Lucid Chaos into the Extended List and Anoxysm into the Legacy List.
  • Slaughterhouse was placed after Firework was placed at #1 after 18 seconds, quickly ending its reign as a Top 1.
  • Pointercrate went down due to high traffic as one of the list editors tried to add Slaughterhouse to the Demonlist. They accidentally added the level multiple times, resulting in copies of the level placed from #1 to #9.^[28]
  • When the level initially got placed, its description and information on its Demonlist entry were incorrect, displaying the information for SlaughterHouse by Havok instead.
  • Some controversy struck in the community about whether the level is harder than Firework or not, similar to the debate drama of Bloodlust vs Plasma Pulse Finale.
  • The level has alternated between the #1 and #2 spot on few different occasions. On January 5, 2022, the level's Top 1 spot was dethroned by Sakupen Circles, only to be put back at the top spot on March 17, 2022. Later, on June 12, 2022, Abyss of Darkness dethroned Slaughterhouse only for the levels to be swapped on July 27, 2022. Finally, Slaughterhouse was officially dethroned by Acheron on October 7, 2022.
    • The level was at the #1 spot and was considered the hardest demon for 221 days.
    • While Abyss of Darkness was moved below Slaughterhouse, it was subsequently moved back above it on December 19, 2023, after both levels had fallen out of the top 3.
  • As the level was discovered to be illegitimately verified one year and a half later, Firework was the hardest legitimately verified Demon for 56 days before Doggie completed Slaughterhouse.
• It is the fifth-hardest star-rated level, according to the Demonlist, behind Tidal Wave, Silent clubstep, Avernus, and Abyss of Darkness.
• The level is the 35th former Top 1 in the game's history.
  • It is also the first hack-verified Top 1 on the Demonlist since Zodiac, which was hack-verified on January 28, 2019. However, unlike Zodiac, Slaughterhouse was only discovered to be hack-verified after it was dethroned.
• The level dropped from #4 to #6 On December 18, 2023, causing it to fall out of the top 5 of the Demonlist.

Gallery

Videos

• Verification

• True Unnerfed Version

Demonlist

References