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[Tormuse]

"I'm working on N! AAoHu, and damn it's hard."

  -2Deviationsout, 2012

That's right, I conquered the challenge that even 2Dev called hard!  :D  :D  :D

It feels like I've been trying to do this forever!  :o  173 recorded attempts, and that's just the ones that had videos; there were probably dozens of unrecorded attempts before that.  Most of those videos are collecting dust on my hard drive, but you can see some of my previous attempts at this badge here, here, here, here, and here.  My strategy has remained pretty consistent throughout, but this was the first time I truly pulled it off!  :)

And click here for the video of my epic victory!  :D

It's mostly a stairdive, taking advantage of the Scout's stair sense, with occasional deviations for valuable equipment and some tricky decisions based around gauging which enemies were necessary to kill and which ones I could just run past and/or avoid.  The lucky find of a Combat Shotgun in a vault early on was a big help and the invulnerability/berserk combo going up against the Cyberdemon was a huge help!  :)  There were still some close calls here and there, but I was careful to not accidentally invoke the name of the RNG and He continued to favour me.  ;)

I was growing increasingly excited about possible victory the further I got into hell, especially when I arrived at Dis berserk, looking forward to taking down the Mastermind with my Piercing Chainsaw, but then...  disaster!  My berserk ran out!  O_o  I briefly sank into despair, but I knew I didn't want to give up after coming this far, so what followed was 25 minutes of excruciatingly tense corner-shooting with my shotgun, knowing that at any time, it could possibly only take one barrage from the Mastermind to kill me.  Her AI makes her somewhat unpredictable, but I've observed, in the past, that she tends to avoid positions where you can cornershoot her.  Like, if she gets hit when she can't see you, she'll move to try to come at you from another direction, so that meant that any time I hit her, I would be forced to retreat, and come at her from another direction.  There was a prolonged cat-and-mouse game, where I got her down to "lightly wounded" like this, but she managed to get a couple of barrages off at me, which I barely survived and made things all the tenser.  :|

And then, the turning point in the battle came when I realized I could use the geography to my advantage; specifically, the pillars in the middle top and bottom are one square from the edge of the map, so I figured that if I could maneuver her into that gap, I could pound on her repeatedly without her being able to evade or return fire.  It was tricky getting her into position and I still took another barrage on the way, but in the end, it worked out spectacularly well!  It was still very, very tense, but I kept it up, one shell after another until I eventually managed to bring her down.  (I considered delivering the coup de grace with my Rocket Launcher, but I didn't want to risk blowing up my cover and ruining the game)  :)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Tormuse, level 6 Apostle Chaos Mjr General Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 31845 turns and scored 211983 points.
 He played for 1 hour, 49 minutes and 31 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 198 out of 926 hellspawn. (21%)
 Who gave him the ticket to Hell, anyway?
 He was an Archangel of Humanity!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 4
  Levels completed : 0

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  Minor Icarus Cross
  Untouchable Medal
  Everyman Gold Badge
  Everyman Angelic Badge

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  ###########.............%..................################
  ##########...............####.X.............###############
  #########.......####.....####.....####.......##############
  ########........####.....####.....####........#############
  #######.........####.....####.....####.........############
  ######..........####..............####..........###########
  #####............................................##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####...&####............................####....##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####............................................##########
  ######..........####..............####..........###########
  #######.........####.....####.....####.........############
  ########........####.....####.....####........#############
  #########.......####.....####.....####.......##############
  ##########...............####...............###############
  ###########................................################
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 9/10   Experience 15426/6
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +0  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +0

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Scout

    Hellrunner       (Level 1)

  HR->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [4/4] (77%) (A)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   combat shotgun (7d3) [4/5] (T1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   piercing chainsaw (4d7)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
    [b] red armor [6/6] (85%) (P)
    [c] shotgun shell (x50)
    [d] shotgun shell (x50)
    [e] shotgun shell (x50)
    [f] shotgun shell (x50)
    [g] shotgun shell (x50)
    [h] shotgun shell (x50)
    [i] shotgun shell (x50)
    [j] shotgun shell (x50)
    [k] shotgun shell (x43)
    [l] shotgun shell (x50)
    [m] rocket (x3)
    [n] large med-pack
    [o] large med-pack
    [p] protective boots [2/2] (92%)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 25%   feet 0%   

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    27 former humans
    50 former sergeants
    8 former captains
    32 imps
    23 demons
    37 lost souls
    1 hell knight
    2 barons of hell
    1 arachnotron
    6 former commandos
    2 pain elementals
    3 revenants
    4 mancubi
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  He left level 6 as soon as possible.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 12 he assembled a tactical boots!
  He left level 13 as soon as possible.
  He left level 14 as soon as possible.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He fled the Lair, knowing how to fear Arachnotrons!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he assembled a piercing blade!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  He came, he saw, but he left.
  He left level 21 as soon as possible.
  He left level 22 as soon as possible.
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He decided it was too dangerous.
  On level 23 he was targeted for extermination!
  He left level 23 as soon as possible.
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : a Spider Mastermind (almost dead) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 You pump a shell into the combat shotgun chamber.
 You load a shell into the combat shotgun.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : a Spider Mastermind (almost dead) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 You pump a shell into the combat shotgun chamber.
 You load a shell into the combat shotgun.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : a Spider Mastermind (almost dead) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 You pump a shell into the combat shotgun chamber.
 You load a shell into the combat shotgun.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : a Spider Mastermind (almost dead) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
 Mastermind! Press <Enter>...

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 1581 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1244 of those were killed.
 8 of those were killed by something unknown.
 164 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 55 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 110 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 5 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 75 killed the bitch and survived.
 30 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------

WOOOO!  :D

[Uranium]

He did it the absolute madman!

someone get this man a custom title already!

Congratulations you wonderful, magnificent man!

[scotherns]

If anyone was going to do this, it would be you! Congratulations, truly an epic achievement!

[khiijol]

incredible work, congratulations!

[Sereg]

I have begun to realize the vastness of the gap between your level of skill and mine - I have absolutely no understanding of the Mastermind's movement patterns; they have always seemed entirely random to me. The mere fact that you were able to maneuver her like that is the difference between you getting that badge, and me not, even if the rest of the run up until then went exactly the same.

How much damage did you take total? It looks like both Cyberdemon and Mastermind did some damage to you given the absence of their damageless medals, but you still pulled off one of the untouchable set, although I don't remember the order of Badge vs. Medal (I am pretty sure Cross is the most impressive).

And now you've crossed a very dangerous threshold - you have more Angelic badges then not.

[thelaptop]

* thelaptop squints eyes as he stares at Tormuse

You did well, and had the proof to back it up.  Savour the win, because you totally deserved it!

Meanwhile, I'm just trying to pwn spammers...

[Ridonk]

*head explodes*

[Tormuse]

Thank you!  Thank you!  :D

I have absolutely no understanding of the Mastermind's movement patterns; they have always seemed entirely random to me.

To be honest, they've mostly seemed random to me too...  My observations about her movement patterns came from multiple games with Int 2 on.  Her avoidance of cornershooting positions was pretty obvious.

How much damage did you take total? It looks like both Cyberdemon and Mastermind did some damage to you given the absence of their damageless medals, but you still pulled off one of the untouchable set, although I don't remember the order of Badge vs. Medal (I am pretty sure Cross is the most impressive).

Yeah, Untouchable Medal is the middle one; for taking 200 or less damage.  I just reviewed the video and I had glanced at the @ screen near the beginning of the Mastermind battle and it said 109 damage; I think, by the end, I'd taken 120.  I took a bit of damage from Cybie when my invulnerability ran out, but was fortunately still berserk, so that kept me alive.  (Though it was still pretty tense when my armour got damaged)  :|

Incidentally, it took an estimated 221 shells to defeat the Mastermind, though I'm not entirely sure how many of those shots hit her.  It was a good thing I stocked up!  :)

And now you've crossed a very dangerous threshold - you have more Angelic badges then not.

Ooh, I didn't notice that, but I like it!  I'm using it!  :D

EDIT:  And I just noticed that someone stickied this thread; why, thank you!  How flattering!  :D

[ZicherCZ]

By clearing Nightmare DRL as an ordinary human, you proved yourself inhuman in fact. I need to buy a hat to raise it to you, Tormuse.

My sincere congratulations! :)

[gvekony]

Very cool endgame, sincere congratulations!
Also thank you for the video as well. It is always cool to see how the masters play. ;)

[Tormuse]

Thanks!  And you're welcome!  :D  The whole run was quite a ride, but especially the last third of the levels.  I lost count of how many near-death experiences I had; I'm frankly amazed that I survived.  :)

[Tormuse]

Someone asked which Angelic badges I have and this seems like as good a place as any to make a list of the threads for them.  In chronological order...

Shottyman Angelic

Quartermaster Angelic

Centurial Angelic

Veteran/Elite Angelic

Berserker Angelic

Strongman Angelic

Lightfoot Angelic

Everyman Angelic

[Sylph]

This run was truly magnificent!  Thanks so much for sharing!

[Tormuse]

Thank you!  :D  It was pretty exciting.  :)

[CaptainSublime]

Just posting to acknowledge an astonishing achievement. I have not even finished regular angel of humanity. I have achieved one angelic badge ever:
(link https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,8300.0.html) So huge congrats. I can only hope that Karl Jobst makes a youtube video about this epic achievement. It is certainly deserving of such attention. Well done.

I have been playing quite a bit of JH recently, so DRL has taken a bit of a back seat. But it is one of that great games that you can always come back to.