The Gold Armor is the most vital armor to control in Painkiller. The player in control of the Gold Armor will always have the advantage in fights. In Absinthe, there are four separate entrances into this room. To reach the gold armor without rocket jumping, you have one of two choices: Either you jump to the Mega Ammo Pack ledge and take that short hallway to the Gold Armor, or if coming from the Upper Hallway (Silver Armor/Upper Mid), you can jump across the Shotgun platform to get to the Gold Armor. Overall, the Gold Armor will be very difficult to control because of the variety of angles you can get shot from when trying to get the armor.

In this room there is a Shotgun on the ledge leading to Gold Armor and in the corner there is the ever important Electrodriver. When picked up, the Electrodriver only has ten shurikens. The key ammo in this room is the Chaingun Ammo as well as the Rocket Ammo. If you go into this room with a low amount of Rocket Ammo, picking up the Rocket Ammo Pack will be important in order to rocket jump up to the Gold Armor.

Surrounding Spawns:



Silver Armor Room:

This room is important because you can pick up the Silver Armor and a Rocket Launcher without much difficulty. Unlike the Gold Armor room, which has no strong weapon (without picking up ammo for the Electrodriver), in the Silver Armor room you attain the Rocket Launcher. Along with being able to pick up an armor and Rocket Launcher rather quickly, the Silver Armor room is the also the closest to the Mega Health Room.

The key weapon in this room is obviously the Rocket Launcher. There is a Chaingun Ammo Pack in the room but the closest Rocket Ammo Pack is in the lower hallway heading towards the central room.

Note: An important spamming point on this map will be the upper and lower hallways leading to the Gold Armor room. If your opponent has control, he will most likely take the Gold Armor and rush to the Silver Armor to catch you off guard. If you spam grenades into these hallways, it will at the least make him hesitate and have to avoid them.

Surrounding Spawns:



Mega Health Room:

The Mega Health is very important in the control of a map. When picked up, it gives you 100 extra health. Having this can give you the edge over your opponent, even if he has the Gold Armor. Since the room is very small, and only accessible by two entrances, there will be a lot of rocket and grenade spam fights and unlike sacred, which has a larger Mega Health room, escaping will not be so easy.

Since there are only two ways in and out, the Mega Health is the most difficult item to control without a fight.

Note: If you rocket jump into the bottom teleporter by the center room, you can fly above the Mega Health and if your opponent is waiting there, you can damage him with rockets and grenades.

Surrounding Spawns:



The Center Room:

This room is important not only because all the other rooms lead to it, but also because it houses the Mega-Pack. This gives an alternative to trying to balance the over powerful Electrodriver. The Mega-Pack is just as important as the Mega Health and Gold Armor because it gives you 30 cells of electro ammo. This adds a new item that requires precious timing and control

The key to controlling this room and securing the Mega-Pack will involve spamming grenades up the Mega-Pack hallway. Waiting in this room for the Mega-Pack to spawn is not a good idea because you can get attacked from virtually every other room on the map.

Mega-Pack Breakdown:
Electrodriver: 30/30
Stakegun: 12
Shotgun/Freezer: 15/6
Rocket Launcher/Chaingun: 6/67

Surrounding Spawns:



Bronze Armor Room:

This room has the second Rocket Launcher as well as a jump pad. With the use of the jump pad, you can get a Bronze Armor that is on the ledge, as well as jump from that ledge to the Mega ammo pack ledge and walk up that hallway to the Gold Armor.

Note: With practice, it is also possible to go directly from the jump pad to the Mega-Pack. If you can make this jump at the start of a game, you can secure a Rocket Launcher, the Mega-Pack as well as get the Gold Armor.

Mega-pack to Gold Armor Hallway:

This hallway is very important in controlling the mega-pack as well as the Gold Armor. Without the use of rocket jumping, the only two ways to Gold Armor are jumping from the Bronze Armor ledge to the Mega Ammo Pack ledge, as well asusing the upper hallway from the Silver Armor room to get speed, then jumping across the Shotgun Platform in the Gold Armor room.

Note: If you do not have rockets, you can also use the back hallway to gain speed and make the jump from the Bronze Armor ledge to the Mega-Pack. As discussed earlier it is also useful to use the jump pad under the Bronze Armor to make the direct jump as well.

Overall, this map is a great addition to short list of Painkiller maps. Todd “Mr. Clean” Rose did a great job putting it together and listening to the public’s input on different aspects of the map. When the final CPL maps were released everyone was awed at how amazing the textures were. If this map is picked for the World Tour map list, I am sure we will see some memorable match ups taking place.