I've wanted to check out this new "Inferno" difficulty level I keep hearing about, but I understand the game wants me to jump through a bunch of hoops to unlock it, including going through a specific path through the new secret "Purgatory" section. Even knowing how to get there, it took many attempts to succeed. I can't imagine how someone could figure it out from scratch.
In a previous attempt, I came very close to doing it at UV difficulty with a Vampyre build, which failed, because an unfortunately timed hit by a cryoreaver slowed me down enough to allow a warlock in the final battle to get a double move on me and target my square and hit me before I could react. (I had to review the recording/mortem to figure out what happened there)
Anyway, at some point, I stopped trying to do anything fancy, and just played a medium difficulty game, because I'm sick of playing Purgatory and just wanted to get it over with. The bright white tileset used in Purgatory is not easy on the eyes. Like... it's seriously blinding, and I decided that as much fun as this game is, it's not worth going blind in real life. I get the feeling the Devteam was going for the aesthetic used with invulnerability spheres from the original Doom of the 90's, which is fine when it's only a minute long... but not when it's several hours. Like... let's not mince words here. The colours used in Purgatory in Jupiter Hell are a bad choice and need to be changed. (In my opinion)
I didn't record this game, but I did a recording of my very first attempt at Purgatory
here, accompanied by Sylph in voice chat, so you can see what I mean. (I don't think I saved the mortem for that one) A Survivor build was a very poor choice for UV difficulty, since each level you pass in Purgatory takes off 5 max hp, and Survivor works better when your max hp is higher... but it turns out that at medium difficulty, you only lose 2 max hp per level, so Survivor suddenly became viable again, particularly when I took a couple levels of Ironman and boosted my max hp from the health terminal in Callisto Mines.
The final battle with Harbinger was still pretty harrowing, though, since the Purgatory route causes warlocks to teleport in, and they have the ability to heal Harbinger into overhealth! (Yikes!) I had a previous attempt at this challenge fail at Harbinger, because I didn't realize at first that this was what was happening, plus one of the warlocks was hiding somewhere behind Harbinger, so I couldn't find it to stop healing him, and also, when I got Harbinger into his final phase, more warlocks teleported in, one of which was on the wrong side of the cover I was using to protect me from Harbinger. (Grr!)
Anyway, on this attempt, I was better prepared, and anticipated all of these difficulties, but I still would have had a lot more difficulty without the Warlock's Eye relic, which did a lot to mitigate the warlock's effects. I don't know if the relic did much to hurt Harbinger himself, but it at least helped clear the smaller minions, which let me focus my firepower on Harbinger and bring him down faster.
I'm glad I have that all over with. Hopefully, my next stream of this game will be Inferno difficulty! :D
Tormuse, level 10 Marine,
defeated the Harbinger against all odds.
He survived for 8653 turns.
The run time was 3h 2m 3s.
World seed was 26903.
He scored 4024 points.
He took MEDIUM risks.
CALLISTO L3 -> Callisto Mines L1
Callisto Mines L2 -> Callisto Anomaly
Callisto Anomaly - Cleared!
Purgatory - found Firestorm
Purgatory - found Denial
Awards
Medal of Prejudice (+200)
* Won with 100% kills
He killed 324 out of 324 enemies.
38 former grunts 17 toxic fiends
6 hellish grunts 6 CalSec sentries
2 former grenadiers 1 military bot
8 hellish grenadiers 25 reavers
11 former soldiers 7 toxic reavers
18 hellish soldiers 41 archreavers
2 former sergeants 8 kerberi
7 hellish sergeants 2 cyberi
6 former guards 4 toxiberi
27 hellish commandoes 13 ravagers
12 hellish heavies 3 armored ravagers
2 fanatics 6 siege ravagers
5 security drones 4 plasma ravagers
12 fiends 4 warlocks
49 fire fiends
Traits
Ironman L2
Hellrunner L2
Tough as Nails L1
Angry Motherfucker L3
SURVIVOR L1
Trait order
Hr->Hr->AMf->AMf->TaN->MSV->AMf->Iro->
Iro
Equipment
Slot #1 : JS 7.62 assault rifle BAV
* Swap Harness
* Vampiric 3
* Calibrated 1
* JoviSec
Slot #2 : Firestorm
Slot #3 : Denial
Body : AV1 marine armor P
* Carrier
* Painkiller
Head : AV3 tactical visor B
* Durable
* Target tracking
* Aim assist
Utility : AV3 shotgun AMP
* Shotgun shred capacitor
* Shotgun crit system
Relic : warlocks's eye
* Mirrored Gaze
Permanents
Catharsis
Inventory
12ga shell (x30)
7.62 ammo (x100)
7.62 ammo (x100)
7.62 ammo (x4)
CRI phase kit (x3)
multitool (x2)
large combat pack
stimpack (x2)
small medkit (x1)