E1M1: Cradle to Grave
Episode 1: The Way Of All Flesh
Cradle to Grave (E1M1) is the first level of the first episode in Blood. It was featured in both retail and shareware version. It depicts the start of the game story and the first point where the player takes control.
Song Track: 3 - Unholy Voices (CD-Audio), UNHOLY (MIDI), cblood2 (MIDI) (Shareware Version only)
| Number of Enemies | |
| Still Kicking | 10 |
| Pink on the Inside | 13 |
| Lightly Broiled | 18 |
| Well Done | 25 |
| Extra Crispy | 26 |
| Number of Secrets | |
| 11 + 1 Super Secret | |
Walkthrough[edit]
"Jump out of your tomb, moving forward and turning to your right. Open the doors to get outside. Walk down the earthen steps to your right and open the gates. Behind the tomb to your right is a cultist who holds the Skull key. Kill him and get the key. Now, enter the Morningside Cemetery. Keep moving forward until you get to viewing area. Open up the curtains over to your right, and follow the passage to the right of the organ until you get to the crematorium door on the right side of the passage. Enter the crematorium, collect the Dagger key, then continue on down the passage to the Dagger key door. Open it, and jump through the hole in front (and to the right) of you. Push the symbol to end the level." — Baytor's Guide
CALEB: I... Live... AGAIN!
Jump out of the grave and proceed to the right and hit the door to the mausoleum. Two Axe Zombies will emerge from their graves, kill them and go down the hill to the front yard of the Morningside funeral home. A flare pistol sits in the middle of the yard, use it to kill the cultist in the graveyard and get the key. Open the door, and beware of the two zombies waiting in the wings. Enter the parlour and kill the cultists in the area. From here you can either climb to the window and jump in or open the curtain to the organ and move right to the morgue.
If you move right, proceed through the area, until you come to a gray door on the right which leads to the crematorium. Open it and kill the cultist for a key. In the corner you will find the place where the window is. Behind the drums is a Doctor's Bag. Exit this room and proceed back down the hall to the locked door. Enter the crypt and exit out the hole in the wall to the backyard, being aware of the cultists down below. Hit the button, which is a red-lined Tchernobog symbol, to end the level.
Enemies Present[edit]
Weapons Available[edit]
- Flare Gun
- Dynamite Bundle
- Sawed-Off Shotgun (random drop from Cultist)
- Napalm Launcher (Secret, see below)
Secrets[edit]
- After climbing out of the grave, hit the side of the coffin on the grave at your right. Reward: Box of Flares
- In the area where you first wake up, there is a curved wall on the left corner (opposite the exit). Hit it to roll the wall back. Reward: Case of TNT
- After emerging from the mausoleum and confronting the zombies, there is a hedge partition next to the exit. One part has different coloured leaves. Hit that section to reveal an open grave. Reward: Body Armor
- In front of the chapel there is a rectangular mausoleum with a secret on its roof. You can hop onto it, by jumping from the gravestones to the fence. Or you can break the window on the upper area of the funeral home and walk along the top of the fence from there. Reward: Guns Akimbo
- In the funeral parlor, step on the middle bench. The bier will slide back, revealing a small alcove with rats and a reward. Reward: Box of Flares
- Use the organ. An off-key tune will result and a panel of the wall in front will slide back. Reward: Beastvision
- On the right side of the wall with the wall coffins, there is one with a crack on the bottom row. Blow it up with dynamite to reveal the secret. Reward: Body Armor
- In the crematorium, crawl into the furnace for a secret. Remember to crawl back quickly before you get too burned. Reward: Life Seed
- After the crematorium door is another wall coffin on the upper row with a crack in it. Blow it up to break the door open. Beware of the rats. Reward: Fire Armor (it may be smart to get this before getting the above secret)
- In the crematorium, there is a table with a saw. Hit it to slide the shelf aside. Reward: Box of Flares x2
- Near the end of the level, where a zombie emerges from a stone coffin, there is a secret behind the coffin's lid. Reward: Box of Flares
- Super Secret: There is an invisible wall opposite the hole leading to the Funeral Home's back yard. You can detect it by throwing dynamite at the wall from head level. In one spot the dynamite will go "through the wall". To get to the secret, either jump from the edge of the hole (difficult), rocket jump using placed dynamite on the nearest pine box, jump on the cultist's heads, or, in co-op mode, jump on your partner's head. Reward: Napalm Launcher
Speedruns[edit]
| Speedruns: | |||||
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Blood Speedrun - E1M1 in 00"23 | Dislogical | March 4, 2010 | 0:29 | "Speedrun of Blood E1M1 (Cradle To Grave) in 23 seconds (Well Done difficulty). Even if this run is quite short, I couldn't say how many times I ran it. I wanted to have a great time on it, and finally had 23 seconds, and about 15 hundredths of a second. 22 seconds could be done with a little more work, but I'll run another level right now, this one's driving me crazy x) BTW, I guess that saving about 2 seconds is possible by jumping to the window thanks to the cultist near the Flare Gun insted of the Tombstone." |
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Blood speedrun E1M1 in 0:19 (EC) | ezormer | December 16, 2014 | 0:22 | "Speedrun of E1M1 (Cradle to Grave) in 19 seconds on Extra Crispy (Skill 5)." |
Fun Stuff[edit]
See also: References in Blood
- If you hit the tombstone marked "Draven" in the third secret, Caleb will say "Nevermore", which could be a reference to the death of Eric Draven from the 1994 horror movie The Crow, and the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven".
- The level took inspiration from the 1979 horror movie Phantasm, with the name of the main villain (Jebediah Morningside) being used twice, and the appearance of seemingly dead bodies stored in huge barrels. It's not coincidence since the deadly chrome spheres from the movie also make an appearance in Blood II: The Chosen as a weapon.
- When you enter the funeral home there are four plaques on the wall in the front hallway, all of which read "in loving memory" except for the furthest left one which instead reads "I dismembered mamma".
- The wreath in the home's atrium reads "rest in pieces".
- This map was recreated for Bloodbath on LithTech for Blood II: The Chosen.
- Because this was the first level of Blood, it has been recreated on several engines by Transfusion, Blood TC/ZBlood, BloodCM, and Q3 BloodBath.
- A re-imagined version is also available in the fan add-on The Evergrowing Army of the UnDead.
- The Blood Team released Weekly Blood Development Updates on the 3D Realms website, and said this about this level:
- Update: 10/07/96: Jay put the finishing touches on E1M1, "Cradle to Grave," and launched into reworking Kevin's "Dark Carnival" map.
- Update: 12/02/96: Lots of small tweaks to "Cradle to Grave" and some of the other shareware levels.
