That One Level / Geometry Dash

GD Lite players: Why can't I have full version?
GD Full players: Why can't I go back to lite and never have played this level?

A YouTube commenter, on Deadlocked.

This autoscrolling platformer seems to be innocent enough at first glance, but don't be fooled; it hides some of the most diabolical levels ever conceived for a platforming game.

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Examples:

Main Levels

• Time Machine contains the most triple spikes of any level in the game, and is only the 8th level in the game. Despite being rated Harder in terms of difficulty, it's harder than a lot of the Insane levels that come after it.
• Electrodynamix is a particularly reviled level for introducing speed portals, and especially for having tight ship parts. It's well beyond the other main Insane levels.
• Hexagon Force is generally agreed to be easier than Electrodynamix, but is also the only official level in the game to have an asymmetrical dual section, and two of them at that. The second, a dual ball part in the middle of the level, requiring complex timings and concentration, is especially notorious. It doesn't help that this is the first level in the game to introduce dual mode, assuming you are playing the levels in order. On top of that, the level contains a tight dual ship segment at 93% which is considered by some to be the hardest part of the level.
• Among the three Demon levels, Deadlocked is widely considered the toughest. It features tough gameplay in most of the modes, but a particularly infamous part is the wave spam right after the first cube and the boss fight, which is far beyond any wave spamming done up to that point.

Map Pack Levels

• The user level Dynamic on Track is widely considered to be the most universally hated user level that has stars during the "mobile" era (pre-1.9), due to its premise.^note The level is just Back on Track but redesigned accordingly with double speed after one portion and triple speed on the third just like in Electrodynamix, hence the name. However, extended periods of using triple speed tend to disable a normal player's reflexes, making it exceedingly difficult for a Hard, 5-star level. On a related note, Can't Let Go v2 receives the same treatment since it was initially easy enough for the map pack it was in until its creator decided to give it a massive buff for reasons unknown. Thankfully, Dynamic on Track's creator nerfed the level along with updated graphics, making it much more manageable. There's even an option to toggle the original version for those feeling particularly masochistic.
  • The creator of Dynamic on Track actually considered the level to be rated Insane instead. Had it been an Insane level, then there might not been so much hate regarding the level being harder than it's currently rated.
• Since Dynamic on Track has been nerfed by the creator, Square Adventure from the Normal Pack takes the crown of the "most hated map pack level". While it starts off easy, there are several tricks that may catch players off guard. At least until the dark part came in, which increased the number of tricks and fake paths, which means that whenever the player restarts the level, they may have to remember which path is the correct path, similar to a memory-based level. And it's only rated four stars!
• Lunar Ocean of the Electro Pack after the 2.0 update was changed for the worse. It became hated for several portals being changed to invisible or rather hard to notice, including gravity switching and mirror portals, some especially found when going through gamemode portals. Due to this, transitions make it hard to predict when to tap, so the player could immediately crash upon entering the wave or ball portals.
  • Fortunately, the creator of Lunar Ocean decided to update the level in 2.2 by removing all mirror portals and making the gravity switch portals visible, essentially making the level easier and more beatable. With this, the honor for the Electro Pack's That One Level now goes to ElectroWorld with its insanely buggy ball part, suddenly appearing coins, and tight wave spaces with obstacles that look like you could pass through them.
• GabberFly of the Laser Pack. It has a VERY brutal beginning part, with constantly moving blocks, and small spikes. Combine that with the constantly moving objects in other parts of it and you get a level that is too hard for the map pack.
• Edification from the Spirit Pack revolves around a cool gimmick that forms the block platforms out of nowhere. The problem with this effect, though, that it utilizes a lot of moving objects, rendering the level unsightreadable and needing practice runs to be able to familiarize with the locations of the platforms. Additinally, there is a very difficult (maybe even frame perfect) UFO jump at 62% that if you jump even at the wrong time, you die to the sawblade that precedes the already difficult wave segment. At least it's under 1 minute long...
• Time is Eco from the Shiny Pack is absolutely notorious for having a ridiculous amount of triple spikes even by the game's standards, along with some jump pad/spike traps that are prone to tripping people up. And if that wasn't enough, the similarly-named Time Technology from the Color Pack has more. It's like Time Machine levels really need to have a lot of triples, as with the official level itself.
• SkyFrost from the Bionic Pack has a huge amount of blind jumps, a tight ball part, and some tricky transitions that require the player to click in order to not die instantly. That, along with the "Ice" theming of the level that may be difficult to read for some players due to the unorthodox spike design, makes a relatively challenging yet infamous level in the map packs.
• Hyper Ice Jumper from Turbo Pack 2 used to have an infamous bug at around 77% of the level, which is really hard to pull off, as it requires a near-frame perfect jump and orb timing to be able to get to the platform without dying. This makes it harder for players with high refresh rates to be able to complete the level. To be able to perform this hard jump at all, certain options such as Smooth Fix have to be toggled off. Thankfully, at some time before 2.2 releases, a moderator decides to update that part so it is more possible to land on the platform without dying, though the level's notoriety still lives on.
• The Twisted Pack has two notorious levels: Corrupted Kingdom and Tyrian Wall. The former has a lot of memory-based cube parts and tight ship sections, whilst the latter has blind jumps, straight fly-esque ship gameplay and tight ball parts. Despite both levels being rated Insane, some players consider them to be Demons instead due to heavy reliance on memorization and tight gameplay. Whilst Scene Machine, the map pack's last level, is also rather infamous, it doesn't get as much attention as the other two levels mentioned above.
• Theory of Relativity from the Chaos Pack was infamously refurbished after the release of Update 2.0, with the newly-added moving objects and an unreasonable amount of traps making this level quite a challenge to complete, even for an Insane-difficulty pack. Despite the level being slightly nerfed in Update 2.1, it still remains its notoriety, as much of the gameplay isn't changed (only a few spikes and tricks are removed).
• The infamous PG Clubstep from Demon Pack 11 has lots of memorization parts and tight ship and UFO sections that make the original Clubstep seem like Stereo Madness in comparison. In fact, it is one of the most infamous levels not only from its tight gameplay, but also it has been updated several times by the creator, either to buff or nerf the level. It is currently one of the only Hard Demons in map packs.

Gauntlet Levels

• Magmatic Sanctuary of the Fire Gauntlet was immediately discovered to have a Demonic Spiders portion halfway through with "unstable" speed. Cue Broken Base over whether or not it was too difficult to be the first level of the first Gauntlet, followed by the author nerfing the problematic part of the level and RobTop reassigning it to be the last level, with what was originally the Fire Gauntlet's third level, titled OuterSpace, replacing its spot.
• GeoBound of the Ice Gauntlet has a wave section so brutal that you can make it auto at the start of the level. Even then, that won’t save you from the later portions of the level, including an asymmetrical dual cube section.
• For the first level of the Poison Gauntlet, Acid Factory is rather challenging as most of the level is dark, and contains some moving objects and the infamous "invisible size portal spam" in the ship parts. Then there's that one UFO part, particularly at 71%, which has gears as obstacles and the background's floor contains acid that can kill the player. Problem is, the sole gear obstacle at that exact percent blends seamlessly with the background that it may be hard to notice it, and there are also fake gears acting as decoration above the actual obstacle itself. As a result, players tend to go under the gears and end up getting killed by the acid.
• Fire Aura from the Lava Gauntlet is perhaps one of the most hated levels of the first wave of gauntlets, and mostly because the gameplay is far beyond the current rating of 7 stars, such as a tight wave part near the beginning and a rather crude 3x speed section, particularly during the wave, mini ship, and UFO parts. Also, good luck trying to get the third coin, because not only is the space really tight, but it's also at the end of the level, meaning that if you die here, you have to do the entire level all over again, which could lead to further frustration.
• The Chaos Gauntlet (and by extension, the Blade Pack for the latter) has two, those being Scarlet Surge and Kappaclysm. The first one is an XL level with dark, flashing platforms and a few tight ship, ball, and UFO sections around the second half, while the second one is an easier remake of Cataclysm that still proves a daunting task for less-experienced players with many tight flying spaces and an only slightly less Mind Screw version of the famous ball segment. With the two levels only one apart from each other, this also ends up making the level between them, named Drippy Dub, a known Breather Level by comparison.
• Whenever a gauntlet has a level by ChaSe in it, expect that level to reach this status.
  • Sidestep, the first level of the Demon Gauntlet, is an interesting case. While not an overly difficult demon, it is erroneously referred to as an easy demon level, when the level has a lot of fast portal chaining that would give a normal player trouble, as well as a relatively complex dual part about two-thirds of the way through. It serves as an effective Difficulty Spike from the other gauntlets, to the point that the next demon in the gauntlet (ironically rated harder than Sidestep) enters Breather Level territory if one has enough skill to pass what comes before it.
  • Crystal Essence from the Crystal Gauntlet doesn't seem too much of a threat, that is until the dual part came in with a lot of tight timings, particularly in the wave parts. Aside from that, the coins are also rather notorious, which involve a hefty amount of ball and spider timings.
  • Empyrean from the Magic Gauntlet is a contest winner level for famous creators that puts the 5 best entries (as level parts) of the contest into one level. Amongst the 5 winners is ChaSe himself. His part has a lot of unpredictable moving spikes and an infamously tight UFO corridor with portals that may prevent many players from accessing the later parts. Doesn't help that some of the other parts are also often criticized for their gameplay as well.
  • HellGate Menace from the Monster Gauntlet has a bossfight section that is brutal to pass with its quick reaction time, despite having indicators on where to go. The bossfight has two phases. The first phase has a trailing light that indicates where the player has to go, but sometimes it is blocked by the boss, making it harder to see the light indicator. The second phase is more challenging due to the tighter flying spaces, the use of Magmatic Sanctuary's "unstable speed" gimmick (as both levels share the same song), and a segment where the the player turns invisible for a moment. The massive hate that ChaSe got for this level caused him to change the level's description to lampshade this trope:
    "This is too hard for an insane level and also it needs a better LDM and also this is a cancer level and also chase sucks and he should quit"

    — Former description of HellGate Menace
• The Portal Gauntlet has two of these:
  • Azimuth by Knots is mostly easy and chill, but at 42% there is an obstacle that resembles a compass (or a clock) that blends in so well with the background that people tend to not realize by their first playthrough that it is an obstacle that kills their icon.
  • WhyMeWhyMeWhyMeWhyMe by TMNGaming has a story concept of "exploring the mind of a depressed artist". To some people, it is a sad but touching level that delivers a message, but to some other people, it is yet another XL gauntlet level with annoying and almost unreadable gameplay, particularly near the end of the level.

Extreme Demons

• Any level on This list qualifies: All of them make even the hardest main levels look like cake in comparison. A particular few levels, mostly ones that have held the highest spot on this list, though, deserve mention above all others:
  • Bloodbath. The level was infamous for being the first real use of straight flying. It required mastery of the Ship gamemode far higher than players had at that point. This led it to be the hardest level in the game by a massive margin when it was released. Even today, it still remains a formidable challenge and a test of Ship skills.
  • Sakupen Hell trades ship flying for fast speed and tight waves. Those sections at 16% and 82% in particular featured tight timings for its day. Though the rest of the level was somewhat tamer, the wave parts were hard enough for this level to dethrone Bloodbath.
    • You thought that was bad? Make it twice as long and add in a ton of new, just as difficult parts, and you get Kenos, a level so infuriatingly tough that its verification spawned one of the greatest reactions (and memes) in the community.
  • With the intention of being a Nine Circles level harder than Bloodbath, Sonic Wave takes its direction by including timed orb jumps in the cube parts, a tight ship segment, a tricky timing-based ball segment, an even tighter wave segment with the infamous epileptic effect that goes for the entire drop, and a memory cube part that acts as a "break" in between the wave parts. This level is so famous that it spawned multiple remakes that all have took a spot on the Demon List, with some being even harder than the original level itself.
  • Erebus takes a different direction in its difficulty: it is infamous along players due to extremely inconsistent and challenging gameplay and purposely unfixed bugs. It also had some other tight gameplay thrown in as well, with an extremely tight ship section at 85%.
  • Bloodbath's remake, Bloodlust, throws an interesting wrench into things. By now players had gotten used to straight fly, so instead of basing its difficulty based on that, it instead buffed the rest of the level to vary up the gameplay. In particular, Evasium's part in the original level now requires insanely tight wave timings. Furthermore, the level was extended by over a minute. While these parts weren't as hard as the rest of the level, it was still well able to kill you even after all the parts of the original level.
  • Zodiac doesn't seem as hard just by looking at it, but it disguises a myriad of difficult sections: Shocksidian's part has extremely tough and technical ship duals, TMN's part has an incredible number of tight timings, Pennutoh had a very tight wave section, and Enlex had a difficult ship another difficult wave right at the end! Furthermore, the level was over 3 minutes long, and each of the aforementioned parts are at least over a minute in, meaning that you'll have to grind a lot against the relatively easy parts only to get walled by the later ones.
  • Tartarus was a level so hard that, when it was first created, people thought it was impossible. There was good reason for them to think that: it had tough blue orb spam parts, ship parts that made those in Bloodbath look like they were in an Easy Demon, wave timings that made those in Sakupen Hell look like an easy demon, an extremely tight swingcopter part, and extremely precise movement demanded from the player all around.
  • The Golden is a level with pinpoint timings with every single game mode. Often, levels would require only one or two types of gameplay that dominated the level, allowing a skilled player in those modes to bypass most of the level with relative ease. That isn't going to work here; you need to be perfect in every single gameplay mode to stand a chance here, on top of being a god of hitting extremely tight timings, oftentimes close together, with no breaks at all. On top of that, the level itself is dark and can sometimes obstruct the gameplay, making it even harder to make the timings.
  • Super Probably Level isn't nearly as threatening in design as a majority of fellow Extreme Demons, but it's infamous for killing many a run of the Extreme Demon Roulette and causing frustration among any who try to beat it. The primary factor in its difficulty is not the gameplay alone (though that's not exactly a cakewalk, either), but the fact that the background and decoration provide zero help whatsoever. That's not an exaggeration, either; the gameplay doesn't even attempt to match up with the design, often hiding the real path through what the player assumes is a wall or away from what seems like the real path, and spikes generally range from tough to see to literally invisible. Thanks to this, it's practically impossible to sight-read the level, demanding an inhuman amount of memorization as a result.
  • Slaughterhouse, a level so hard, it easily dethroned Tartarus and went to be the hardest level for months, kicking down all of its competitors. With wave parts, tight cube jumps, ship sections that even put Tartarus to shame, and that's not even talking about the 63 60hz frame perfect inputs in the level, all wrapped up in a dark red atmosphere.
  • At its inception, Silent Clubstep was outright considered Unwinnable by Design. Its requirement of dozens of pinpoint-precision inputs in a row for cube and ship segments was thought to be impossible for a human being to perform, and if that wasn't bad enough, it also features a maze, an extremely fast miniship, and a very difficult mixed dual. After briefly becoming impossible period in 2.1 due to the deprecation of some of its gameplay, and a slight nerf, it remained unbeaten for years before finally claiming the third spot of the demonlist.
  • Don't be fooled by Tidal Wave's bright summer colors, this level became the number one demon in February 2024 for a reason. Not only does it require 200 frame-perfect inputs, three times as many as in Slaughterhouse, but this level also earns its rank from its length: three minutes of pure chaos with ultra-tight waves and extensive quadruple speed segments.

Other

• Any (demon) level with difficult duals can be this to many players due to having to focus on ensuring both modes do not die, especially if this is a 'mixed' dual (where the player is controlling two different gamemodes at once) as these can take excessively long times to learn depending on the player's skill and experience. There is a reason why the majority of levels with mixed duals are rated Hard Demon at least, or often above this, making the aforementioned Hexagon Force (above) look like a cakewalk in comparison.

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