Map31 - Testing Hub

The Testing Hub is a utility map that the player can access from the start menu regardless of their progress in the story, allowing them to equip any weapon or consumable from the game, spawn monsters inside a customizable arena and play any of the game's maps without prerequisites. When choosing to play the game through the Test Hub, the player is provided with a predetermined loadout as to not start the level without gear, and it also allows them to take additional weapons, ammo, equipment and even companions along.

With various utilities such as an ingame music player and a fully modifiable arena with a built in monster spawner, the Testing Hub exists for modders, speedrunners, beta testers and casual players to easily access and experiment with any part of the game at their leisure.

## Level Select Chamber

   The room the player starts in, facing a fountain with several NPC companions surrounding it. Though the map is not attached to any lore and is primarily a gameplay tool, the design of the chambers that make up the Testing Hub are mostly reminiscent of Ancient design, with pillars supporting the room structurally and tiled floors decorated by red carpets. One of the exceptions are the walls at the back of the level selection entryways, each one corresponding to the level or cluster of levels that it represents. For instance, Map01 - Cold Rock is represented by a cave wall with cyan spiral patterns upon it, whereas Map04 - Technical Space is represented by metallic brown panels of Iron Division make.

The planters near the level entrances are also themed after their proximity to the episode's beginning and end - Episode 1, which begins in a cave and ends at the Crystal Heart, has a stone garden closer to the beginning and a vibrant grass one closer to the end. Meanwhile Episode 2 bears a planter with decaying grass nearer the beginning and one with smoldering embers and burned trees closer to the end. The planters closer to the northern wall simply have water inside them. The NPC companions that the player can bring with them into different levels include three Bear Warriors, three Fixers, three Reavers, two Witches, two Lancers, two Earth Mothers, and a single Sentry Turret.

### Level Entryways

   The player can choose to start at the beginning of any level in the game. Assuming they do not start either Episode normally (i.e. starting in Map 01 - Cold Rock or Map 11 - Deep Chill) they will be given a predetermined loadout appropriate to the level as they drop down to the level transition symbol. To teleport to the level, the player simply needs to hit the use key on the wall. They can also choose to start with no weapons at all by entering the level before they pick up any items. As the player approaches each level, the name and spoiler status of the level appears on screen. The spoiler tags on each level are as follows:

#### Episode I: Crystal Heart

**Map01 - Cold Rock (Start Normally)**

**Map02 - Plaza (Minor Spoilers)**

    **Map03 - Barracks (Minor Spoilers)**

**Map04 - Technical Space (Minor Spoilers)**

**Map05 - Grove (Moderate Spoilers)**

**Map06 - Errant Signal (Major Spoilers)**

**Map07 - Parapet (Moderate Spoilers)**

**Map08 - Pale Wind (Major Spoilers)**

**Map09 - Research and Decay (Major Spoilers)**

    **Map10 - Crystal Heart (Major Spoilers)**

#### Episode II: Bloodrite

**Map11 - Deep Chill (Major Spoilers)**

**Map12 - Mansion (Moderate Spoilers)**

**Map13/14/15 - Besieged (Major Spoilers)**

**Map16 - Port to Hell (Major Spoilers)**

**Map17 - Hellscape (Major Spoilers)**

    **Map18/19/20 - Paradise Lost (Major Spoilers)**

**Map21/22 - Bloodrite (Major Spoilers)**

### User Map Doorway

Though no user maps have been added thus-far, a doorway exists for when user maps submitted to HedonDev are released. The tools to create user maps for Hedon are readily available, as the game has the same structure as a standard Doom mod.

### Patreon Rewards Wing

    As the player spawns into the Testing Hub, they can turn around and go through the portal on the right-hand side to look at the Patreon Rewards. On the lefthand corridor is the Patreon Rewards for Hedon I - Crystal Heart. The winner of the Patreon Rewards was decided by raffle, with the winner being able to request a sprite be made and put into the game. Some of these rewards, such as the banner requested by papyLaPlage and the suit of armor requested by ArtOfShred were repurposed into assets for Hedon II - Bloodrite, with papyLaPlage's banner becoming an additional Iron Division flag and ArtOfShred's suit of armor being turned into a more traditional posed armor set seen frequently in human buildings.

    Opposite of Hedon I's Patreon Rewards is Hedon II's, this time taking the shape of art commissions drawn by HedonDev. Due to the growing influx of entrees to the raffles, these were instead paid for via accumulated donation amounts, allowing those unable to win a raffle to gradually donate enough to receive a Patreon Reward over time. Though none of the commissions have been used as an asset as of now, a wide variety of characters, locales and concepts were commissioned, ranging from the commissioners' Hedon original characters to characters of varying origin and even cyberpunk locales.

## Testing Arena

If the player heads through the doors either side of the wall that's behind them when they spawn in they'll arrive at the Testing Arena, a room where they are able to test weapons and items on terrain and enemies. Along the north wall starting at the door to the Shooting Gallery lies an arrangement of every weapon in the game, including enough ammo to fill the player's inventory and several Bags of Holding to extend and refill it. The westernmost wall, opposite where the player enters, features a number of restorative items, from Health Potions and Green Crystals to Armor shards and Overcharged Armor Amulets. On the southern wall leading back to the entrance, every inventory item in the game ranging from Vials of Healing to a Ring of the Red Monk are assembled for the player to play with. This room allows the player to have access to almost every beneficial item in the game, and due to how small the map is and how easy it is to reset at any time the player can restock the Arena easily for extended testing sessions.

    Surrounding the Arena are many switches that are capable of summoning every monster in the game that is not a boss monster. The player can summon them in ones, twos and threes, with most monsters able to be spawned multiple times barring airborne enemies, who will spawn a maximum of six at a time. If the player stays out of the arena area, they will remain undetected regardless of if they are within the monsters' sight range. However if the player goes into the arena they will be opening themself up for enemies to notice them and aggro to them. Near the entrance is a number of switches bordering the Arena's western side. These switches are used to manipulate monsters, terrain and conditions within the Arena, allowing the player to construct their own arenas and pit monsters against each other, or to fight the monsters themselves. The north side of the arena is lined with black pillars, marking the monsters spawned there as being on the black team, while the south side is lined with white pillars, marking the monsters spawned there as being on the white team.

    From left to right (or north to south), the switches are as follows:

1. Terrain Randomizer - causes a random change to the arena's terrain to occur every 6 seconds;
2. Endless Mode - causes monsters to spawn every 7 seconds;
3. Endless Mode Versus - causes opposing monsters to spawn every 8 seconds and infight;
4. Monster Clear - removes all monsters spawned in the arena;
5. Gore Clear - removes all gore and item drops from monsters spawned in the arena;
6. Arena Camera - changes the player's view to a camera which flies through the arena;
7. Monster Fight (10 sec) - causes monsters spawned in the arena from the white team and black team to start infighting after 10 seconds;
8. Monster Fight (5 sec) - causes monsters spawned in the arena from the white team and black team to start infighting after 5 seconds;
9. Monster Fight - causes monsters spawned in the arena from the white team and black team to start infighting;
10. Glass Wall - causes a glass wall to lower around the arena and lock it. If toggled when the glass wall is lowered, it will raise it back up;
11. Lower Ground - lowers the arena's ground level by 16 units;
12. Raise Ground - raises the arena's ground level by 16 units;
13. Middle Block - toggles a fence section which splits the northern and southern halves of the arena;
14. Fence Block A - toggles a series of small and medium sized fences across the arena;
15. Fence Block B - toggles a series of medium and tall fences across the arena;
16. Ziggurats - toggles a set of small ziggurats across the arena;
17. Jump Pads - toggles a set of jump pads across the arena;
18. Gravity - toggles low gravity inside the arena;
19. Fall Pits - toggles a set of deep pits in the arena;
20. Lava Pits - causes patches of lava to appear across the arena;
21. Flood - floods the arena;
22. Ice - converts the sand surface of the arena into low friction ice

    The Testing Arena has a set of stairs at the entrance that can be scaled to get up to the glass walkway, where they can get a view of the Arena from above while watching monsters fight each other. At the top of the stairs is a panel with a set of different buttons, each texture on each button corresponding to a song in Hedon's soundtrack. This is the Jukebox, a feature which allows the player to choose the music that plays while they are testing items and monsters while also allowing the player to listen to the music of the game at their leisure, with a button on the left hand side to cancel the music altogether. On the right hand side is a question mark, that gives the following advice if the player should wish to change the music playing. They can also use this command and the Jukebox feature to test changes they can make to Hedon's soundtrack if they mod the game files.

**"You can always change music with the console command - changemus TrackName**
**eg. changemus HTrack00 or changemus HTrak18A"**

### Shooting Gallery

    If the player goes into the door on the left as they enter the Testing Arena on the northern side, they will find the Shooting Gallery, a room full of breakable items of all kinds found throughout Hedon. These range from simple pots and potion vials to bottles filled with a firey substance and suits of armor ready to be destroyed. While the player can easily take an axe to these breakables, a more compelling tool - The Paingun - and a small horde of ammunition sits at the far end of the room, with a Bag of Holding to extend the player's maximum ammunition. The Shooting Gallery was designed to demonstrate the rate of fire of the Paingun and its destructive capabilities to the player, and though it can be enjoyed using any weapon the player likes it acts as a perfect introduction to the Paingun's primary and alternate fire modes.