GRIEF (VERIFIED) // TOP 1

One level. 2 years, 436K attempts, ~600 hours of playtime, and a dream. Icedcave first approached me with the concept of GRIEF in 2021, when Slaughterhouse was the brand new 1 demon. GRIEF was his final attempt at giving life to the level that launched his name into the community back in 2015 - Old Slaughterhouse. I saw what he was doing, I saw his vision and passion, and I knew this would be something big. I had always wanted to verify the hardest level in GD, and once I laid eyes on GRIEF I knew this was the one. I asked Icedcave for permission to verify it, and thankfully he accepted. Over the next 2 years, I followed the building process of GRIEF, going from a layout that garnered tons of hate, to the final showcase which became the beloved level we all recognize today. Every step of the way, this verification was something to look forward to in my career - until it wasn't. May 1st, 2024 - The First Day. I started up Stream 1 of GRIEF filled with hope and ambition. I knew this was going to be my longest journey, but I was ready for anything. At the time, the mechanical skill required to play GRIEF's gameplay was barely conceivable on its own, let alone for a 3 minute long level. By the end of the first month, I only just started to get a grasp of the level, getting it in 3 runs - 27%, 25-66, and 65-100. I would make steady progress over the following months, getting all the way to 80% in November, just 6 months after starting the verification. We are still in the year 2024 and the path to completion looked quite clear, so you may be wondering what the hell happened since then. GREAFER - This part stretches from 65% - 75%. Despite only being 10 seconds long, it carries the most significant weight of GRIEF's difficulty. You are already under the pressure of 2 minutes of gameplay being behind you, and now you must maneuver through incredibly precise wave patterns at 4X speed maxing out at 8 CPS, all while barely being able to see anything. There's not enough characters available in this description to adequately describe how hard this part was from 0 for me, and it was something even I didn't fully understand when I got there for the first time. Mindblock - When you fail at something over and over again, it becomes progressively more of a mental fault than a physical one. You're conditioned to believe that you will continue to fail, and it becomes hell to escape. With no time to breathe, Greafer became that hell. I died at this part over 60 times before passing 80%. Everyone that has followed this verification knows that 80% was the most devious mindblock in the whole game, and I truly don't wish that on anyone. It started to become a matter of "if" I could even beat GRIEF rather than "when". For the majority of 2025, I was in a state of limbo with this level, feeling like I was falling behind too fast to keep up. It made playing even harder, and my mindset needed to change. 83% - On November 1st, 2025, I finally broke the curse of 80%. This extra 3% meant everything to me at the time. It almost felt like I had verified a new top 1. This was probably the most defining turning point of the verification, as I had passed almost all of the difficulty in GRIEF. At 82%, the timings settle down in terms of precision after the hell of 79-81. This 3 second wave part, named Tacos, is why It took 6 months to get a new best of 84%, but even that felt like lightning speed compared to what I was used to. We are now in 2026, and only now was I finally able to handle the pressure of playing Greafer and Tacos from 0%. The path to completion looked clear, for real this time. In June, I got a heartbreaking fail of 97%, but me and everyone else knew this was finally going to be done soon. Over these last few months I gave GRIEF everything I had in me. I poured in more hours than ever, and played more consistently than ever. I was always determined, but something was different now. The light at the end of the tunnel wasn't just an illusion. Ever since the beginning, my 1 goal for GRIEF was to make it as hard as a level could be for me - no compromises. After all this time, I'm proud to say I succeeded. GRIEF is the hardest thing I will ever do. To those out there who have something to chase, take this as motivation to never give up on your dreams. Thank you, TCD Thank you, Icedcave Thank you, renavelvet Thank you, mom and dad and thank you to all of you that were here for me. This journey was for us. Attempts: 436,879 Record Before Completion: 97%x2 Placement: 1 Thumbnail by @mysticq & ​@fakedenni Intro by Pyrox Full Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV9rheIAddk My Discord Server: https://discord.gg/sGSHg8W