A decent run. As noted so many years ago, nothing makes me happier than rapid experience gain. If you get lucky and play your cards right you can hit level 3 by the time you hit the second floor.
Blue, level 18 Marine,
defeated the Harbinger against all odds.
He survived for 7087 turns.
The run time was 1h 57m 11s.
World seed was 944.
He scored 8024 points.
He opposed the NIGHTMARE!
He was an Angel of Exaltation!
CALLISTO L3 -> Valhalla Terminal L1
EUROPA L3 -> Europa Dig Zone L1
Awards
Blind Luck Star (+50)
* Won despite getting down to 1hp at some point
Exalted Bronze Badge
* Reach Io on Angel of Exaltation
Exalted Silver Badge
* Complete Angel of Exaltation
Exalted Gold Badge
* Complete Angel of Exaltation on Hard
Exalted Platinum Badge
* Complete Angel of Exaltation on UV
Exalted Diamond Badge
* Complete AoEx on Nightmare!
He killed 562 out of 748 enemies.
6 CalSec bots 2 cryoreavers
4 reavers 1 archreaver
Traits
Ironman L2
Furious L1
Hellrunner L3
Rip and tear L2
Army Surplus L2
Angry Motherfucker L3
Running L3
VAMPYRE L1
Trait order
Hr->Arm->Arm->Hr->Hr->RaT->RaT->Iro->
MVM->Fur->Run->Run->Run->AMf->AMf->AMf->
Iro
Equipment
Slot #1 : CRI blaster P
* Longshot 3
* Fresh Mag 8
* Arc-powered
Slot #2 : AV2 rocket launcher BC
* Swap Harness
* Freezing 2
* Precise
* Second chamber
Slot #3 : plasma katana
* Guard shield
* Electro-plasma blade
Bodyduramesh scout armor B
* Fire-resistant
* Duramesh
Headcombat helmet
UtilityAV2 utility AMP
* Carrier
* Metabolic boost
Relicfiend's heart
* Fiendish resilience
Inventory
rocket (x10)
plasma grenade (x1)
CRI phase kit (x2)
multitool (x4)
military stimpack
stimpack (x2)
small medkit (x2)
large medkit
large medkit
large medkit
90% of all attempts don't get out of the entryway, and after that the hard-block seems to come around floor 4 when you realize you don't have anything better than a pistol and they're starting to sport heavy weapons. Its a problem.
The solution is realizing that the drop pool for low-level exalts are relics, fancy pistols, fancy shotguns, and grenade launchers. You want the grenade launcher, and you want it early. If it happens to drop in the entryway, immediately go for Army Surplus 2 and hard-counter the balance-by-scarcity dynamic with launcher ammo. From there, transition to a standard melee build and eat everything.
The only nasty surprise was that every single monster in Dante is unstable. Even with Vampyre this chews through health, and I chose to bypass most enemies. Running 3 is probably the best trait in the game, and its kind of obscene it finds its place in the already-dominant Marine kit rather than in the Scout arsenal. Marines don't need this.
Cold rockets are fun. All the Fiend's relics are great, but this run let me really see the limitations of some of the others. Something's gotta be done about the Fire Fiend's Rib. It explodes barrels as you walk near them and generally seems designed to kill the player as quickly as possible. Not great.