This is definitely the hardest badge I've managed. How many other players have this one? I killed 803 characters to get it, and that doesn't count the innumerable quits in Phobos Base Entry because I took too much unavoidable damage.
The mortality stats look like this:
456 entered Hell's Arena.
92 stormed the Chained Court.
30 encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
17 entered Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab.
45 On level 1 he finally nuked himself.
341 On level 2 he finally nuked himself.
160 On level 3 he finally nuked himself.
108 On level 4 he finally nuked himself.
73 On level 5 he finally nuked himself.
28 On level 6 he finally nuked himself.
18 On level 7 he finally nuked himself.
5 On level 8 he finally nuked himself.
11 On level 9 he finally nuked himself.
5 On level 10 he finally nuked himself.
4 On level 11 he finally nuked himself.
1 On level 12 he finally nuked himself.
2 On level 13 he finally nuked himself.
1 On level 14 he finally nuked himself.
Early on I usually died from failing to find the stairs, and as far as I could tell a lot of these deaths were unavoidable: I simply spawned too far from the stairs or had to take a 50/50 that took me away from the stairs rather than toward them. I also often died from running out of health. I eventually figured out that it was better to wear green armor all the time to make it less likely I would die from too much damage, because the ability to be more reckless when searching compensated for some of the speed loss I took from wearing armor. I tried playing quickly to get more attempts in, but I finally succeeded when I slowed down and played more carefully. I don't know if I needed to play the many games I played faster to learn how to finally succeed, though.
I had many frustrating late-game deaths too. I died instantly when I stepped into the sight range of commandos early on Deimos twice, and another two times I hit early arachnotron caves without any cover and that was equally lethal. Small rooms levels also killed me twice by running me out of time before I found the stairs. I miscalculated the distance to the stairs a few times as well, including in Hell's Armory. One run I discovered that the nuke can go off after you jump in the portal in Phobos Anomaly.
This final successful run had three notable bits of early luck: an agility mod in the Chained Court, a shellbox late in Phobos, and a combat shotgun in a vault that was close enough to the stairs for me to grab it without running out of time, I believe on Phobos 4. I was seriously low on medpacks at several points in Phobos and had one small medpack left when I hit Phobos Anomaly. At this point, I have strategies that will almost always clear Hell's Arena and Chained Court without running out of time while also grabbing the modpacks. In this run, I was short enough on shells that I grabbed the shells in the Chained Court but couldn't afford the time to grab the cells.
The early levels of Deimos are always brutal in this challenge and this was no exception, but there were no levels so difficult that I was completely without medpacks or had to rush through monsters in hope of finding the stairs. In this challenge you really want to see Deimos Lab rather than Hell's Armory because you can grab the normal modpacks and special weapons without running out of time, but I drew Hell's Armory, which is only good for picking up a plasma rifle (I hadn't found one before it) and some cells.
Deimos 2 was the real turning point where I thought I might have a chance to win because I found a power modpack to make the tactical shotgun and a second agility mod to make tactical boots. With tactical boots running out of time before finding the stairs is much less of a problem, meaning that if you're going to die, you're probably going to die to monsters. On Deimos 3 I found an early map that showed me the most items I would ever see on a single level this game: an assault shotgun (note this was right after I made a tactical shotgun), a rocket launcher (I still hadn't found one), a missile launcher, a technical modpack, and two power modpacks. Unfortunately the power modpacks and the rocket launcher were too far from the stairs for me to make it back in time, so I had to pass on them. I never saw another rocket launcher, a double shotgun that I could reach, or another power modpack after the two I couldn't reach on Deimos 3, so the only one I ever got went to the tactical shotgun. I found more bulk modpacks than anything else, and of course they are the least useful in this challenge (and in general). Aside from the fireproof red armor, the bulk-modded plasma rifle, and the fireproof duelist armor, I also bulk-modded a blue armor that I used to fight commandos, arachnotrons, and cacodemons where I had to trade fire with them.
Containment Area is the branch you want for this challenge, useful for padding your kill count, the crates, a missile launcher, and the rocket box. Since I already had a missile launcher, the duplicate was superfluous, but the rocket box was important later. As papilio notes in their description of this badge, it gets much easier once you have both Gunrunner and Shottyman. Like Tormuse and unlike papilio, I went Shottyman first: my testing showed that it saved more time than Gunrunner during the critical early levels. I got the combination of both on Deimos 4 or 5. I didn't think I had enough health to do City of Skulls even if I got that branch, but instead I drew Abyssal Plains which made the decision for me. Halls of Carnage is better than the Spider Lair (though Tormuse showed it's possible to beat the Lair in AAoRA), for the extra modpacks, a ton of shells, and because it's much easier to get the BFG. I got an agility modpack to finish tactical armor there, which made it much less likely I would run out of time on the subsequent levels. There were a couple of places I was nervous about shells before the Halls but after that point I was never in serious danger of running out. The fight against the Cyberdemon was nerve-wracking, first I had trouble finding the damn thing and was worried I was going to run out of time, but even once I did I ran out of rockets (I went through 4 rockets from the launcher, another 7 from my inventory, and all 20 from the rocket box) and had to finish it with the tactical shotgun.
I was lucky with layouts in both Deimos and Hell, lots of open levels with big rooms. The BFG was critical at several points: when I came down the stairs next to a commando, a pack of sergeants, and a group of arachnotrons; when I came down the stairs next to a pair of arch-viles accompanied by a commando and a bunch of sergeants; and when I had to deal with arch-viles and groups of mancubi in the clear. Also, I learned the BFG works with Gunrunner, which wasn't useful but was amusing. I ditched the chainsaw in the Containment Area for more room for ammo, I'm still not sure if that was the right decision, or if it would have been worthwhile to keep it to pad my kill count in the Unholy Cathedral. I found a duelist armor and a phase shift armor in Hell 3, and somehow I managed to kill an arch-vile without them being destroyed. I used the agility mod I found on the same level for the phaseshift armor, which replaced my tactical armor for level exploration, and made the duelist armor fireproof to give me an armor I could fight in without it being as slow as the red armor. My kill count at the beginning of Hell was only about 78%, which made me very nervous, but with the improved gear and Intuition 1 I managed to almost clear most of the levels, causing my kill percentage to creep up about 1% per level through Hell.
I picked up a homing phase device early in Deimos, and it probably saved my life on a Hell level with big rooms, small causeways between them, and lava everywhere else that was packed with arch-viles, arachnotrons, and hell barons. I might have been able to make it to the stairs without it, but it would have been a near thing. Once I got Intuition 2 and Hellrunner 3, I was confident I would win. The Spider Mastermind was a joke with 30 rockets and a rocket box.
This may be my last DoomRL badge. For most of the time I spent working on it, I was not having fun because it's so luck-based, and the other diamond and angelic badges aren't looking much better. Almost all of them also require playing on Nightmare, which I don't find enjoyable.
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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Iainuki, level 12 Cacodemon General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 38646 turns and scored 285394 points.
He played for 6 hours, 3 minutes and 6 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 655 out of 789 hellspawn. (83%)
He was an Archangel of Red Alert!
He saved himself once.
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 5
Levels completed : 1
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Mastermind's Brain
UAC Star (bronze cluster)
Minor Icarus Cross
Quartermaster Angelic Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 50/50 Experience 61186/12
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Gunrunner (Level 1)
HR->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->Fin->Jug->DM->MGr->Int->Int->HR->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] phaseshift armor [2/2] (58%) (A)
[b] [ Weapon ] missile launcher (6d6) [0/4]
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] rocket box (x16)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
[b] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [52/52] (B1)
[c] nuclear plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [24/24]
[d] BFG 9000 (10d6) [100/100]
[e] fireproof red armor [4/4] (90%)
[f] fireproof duelist armor [1/2] (35%)
[g] shotgun shell (x50)
[h] shotgun shell (x33)
[i] power cell (x50)
[j] power cell (x50)
[k] power cell (x10)
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] phase device
[r] homing phase device
[s] power battery (x120)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 0% torso 30% feet 0%
Melee - internal 0% torso 30% feet 0%
Shrapnel - internal 0% torso 30% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
60 former humans
80 former sergeants
41 former captains
128 imps
31 demons
145 lost souls
40 cacodemons
15 hell knights
30 barons of hell
20 arachnotrons
18 former commandos
10 pain elementals
14 revenants
3 mancubi
16 arch-viles
2 bruiser brothers
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He saw, left a present and left.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
He decided to nuke Hell's production center.
On level 10 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 10 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 11 he assembled a fireproof armor!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
He broke into the Containment Area, but gave up against the overwhelming forces.
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he assembled a tactical armor!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 19, hell froze over!
On level 19 he assembled a fireproof armor!
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind.
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You wear/wield : a rocket box (x20)
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies.
Congratulations! You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
2191 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
1177 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
915 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 74 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
23 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
15 killed the bitch and survived.
8 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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Author
Topic: [U|ArchAoRA|83%|YAVP] Quartermaster Angelic Badge (Read 5278 times)