Or: Sure is Quiet 'Round Here...
Killing and/or dodging monsters isn't going to be everyone's jam. With lesser games, this would mean you would either have to suck it up and punch a skeleton in his skeleton dick or go play a different game. Doom is not a lesser game. Doom is in fact the greatest game ever created. If you don't want monsters, you don't have to have monsters. You can launch Doom with a batch file and specify '-nomonsters'. This will load the game with, you guessed it, no monsters.
Naturally, there is a speed run category for nomonsters. It is commonly called just 'nomo' and it is ostensibly the polar opposite of UV-Max. There are no monsters to kill, so you don't have to worry about killing anything. Getting the secrets would probably just slow you down, so you only get them if it's fast. Nomo is all about beating the map as fast as humanly possible. It's a very popular category because it is the purest test of skill available in Doom speed running. It all comes down to movement.
Let's talk about movement in Doom. You got your run forward, your run backward, and your run side-to-side. What Doom also has is basically a glitch. There are two forms of strafe running that let you run faster than the normal forward movement. SR40 and SR50. I'll keep this simple. SR40 is done by holding forward and either right or left. This will move you at 128% the normal running speed. SR50 is done by holding strafe, forward, right or left, and turn left or turn right, depending on which way you want to move. SR50 is harder to do and will cost you your ability to turn, but will move you at a whopping 141% the normal running speed. Outside of certain cases, this is the fastest you can go in Doom. Period. Someone call the cops, cause we got a speed demon here. If you want to know more about the technical details of SR40 and SR50, click here.
Plenty of map makers, including the guys at id Software, did not know about SR40 or 50 while designing levels. This means that there are tons of maps that can be completed much faster than intended, simply by running a little faster. Both strafe run variants can allow you to cross gaps that you would normally fall down if you were running slower. SR50 lets you go so fast you can sometimes extend your hitbox through walls, allowing you to pick up keys or weapons on the other side of doors or walls. Yet another implication of SR50 is 'skipping' over triggers. Sometimes certain doors or elevators will be activated by lines on the floor, when you walk over them (in Doom, not real life, as far as I know). SR50 will sometimes move you so fast over the trigger that the door won't open or the elevator won't lower. Sometimes this does more harm than good...
In any case, SR40 and SR50 are the very basic tools of Doom movement. They're involved in lots of other speed run tricks, but most important is just how fast you go when you use them. Generally, to get the BEST possible time, you must be SR50ing as much as possible. According to some math that I'm totally not making up, someone who SR50s will be 41% faster than someone who doesn't. The numbers don't lie.
I spent some time trying to find good examples of speed runners using SR40 and SR50, but it's a hard trick to really show off. Just be aware that any time someone is just running in Doom, they're probably using at least SR40. Conversely, rocket jumps are really easy to show off.
The rocket jump happens at about 23 seconds if you're that impatient. By firing a rocket at that wall and moving backwards, I was able to get enough speed and distance to hit the pillar in the center of that room and grab the yellow skull key. Normally I would have to hit the switch instead of shooting a rocket at it and then go hit yet another switch to lower the pillar with the key. Before I discovered that rocket jump, my best time with the slower route was 0:44 seconds. Rocket jumps like this are some of the coolest tricks in Doom speed running. Not all maps have rocket jumps however, and that's a damn shame.
Doing nomonster runs requires a specific mind set. Learning optimal movement through a map, discovering rocket jumps or strafe run jumps, etc. takes a certain diligence. Opening doors in nomo becomes a do or die situation that could cost you precious milliseconds. To me, this means that nomo is a fun way to wind down from tough UV-Max maps. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can beat notable Doom speed runners Looper or 4shockblast. But sometimes I just like to cruise through a map, free of demons. I'm sure this is a sentiment anyone can appreciate.
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