Most of my games today had pretty good item luck, but horrendous stairs luck, and I wasn't really getting anywhere. I decided to switch from Hellrunner to Intuition for experimenting, and I think I'm making the switch.
After you find an Invulnerability or two, especially with the help of Intuition, you can pretty effectively keep chasing for more as you go through each floor, and because the duration is action-based, Hellrunner doesn't really help in this regard anyway. I've also been finding that while Invulnerabilities don't appear until Phobos floor 7, being able to map out Berserk Packs and Health Globes have been incredibly helpful too. Once Berserk, basically all damage is reduce to just 1 with Red Armor (P), and even Small Health Globes heal straight to 200%, which help a lot. Even Armor Shards are very nice to spot. It's definitely a bit harder in some cases without some movement speed and dodging bonus, but I do believe Intuition is the way to go.
As a prime example, I had this Phobos floor 7:
With Hellrunner, players would grab the Med Pack, head straight for the stairs, and consider themselves very lucky. With Intuition, players see just how lucky they really are!
As for the game itself here, it honestly wasn't too interesting, and I spent a huge majority of it with Invulnerability and Berserk, simply zipping through levels and detouring for more power-ups. I did find a nuke and was able to get to and past the Cyberdemon again. Once the Invulnerability ran out though, I was pretty much instantly obliterated. It was unfortunate too since there was a Homing Phase Device nearby, but it got destroyed before I could use it.
Here's the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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Icy, level 5 Cyberdemon Chaos Colonel Scout,
let an arachnotron get him on level 3 of Hell.
He survived 91164 turns and scored 120280 points.
He played for 16 minutes and 19 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 186 out of 707 hellspawn. (26%)
Who gave him the ticket to Hell, anyway?
He was an Archangel of Humanity!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 3
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (silver cluster)
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
#...0hhVhh....................#............O............#..
#i..####Vh.h.......h.####.....#.##c.##.##.##.##........=#..
#...####hh.........h.####.....#.##..##.##.##c##......====..
#...####.h..####...|.####.....#......c...c..0c.+..##.=====.
#...###=.|..####....}####.....#.........##...##...##.======
#.......=h.h####..............+...##.##.##...##....=.======
#..i..##=#..======.....^......#...##.##.......0.##=======..
#.....##.=========.......\....#...........##....##=.#====..
#.....#====.======...####.....#^.c^.##....##.##.....#=====.
#....ii==========AB..####.....#.....##...c...##..##=.====..
#...........====.....####0....#..##.....##.......#=====.#==
#.####iB.....=##.B...####.....#..##..##.##....##.c.=#=..#0.
#.####...i....................#......##...c...##c0.=...>#..
#.####..%...Bc.........==.....#...^......##......==#....#..
#.####...%.............==|....#..##.##...##...##==##....#..
#..........i........X.====....#..##.##...>....##.=......#..
#....................=====....#...................".....#..
#..........%^..;....===.=.....#...................;....|#..
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 0/10 Experience 9128/5
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Intuition (Level 1)
Int->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [4/4] (58%) (A)
[b] [ Weapon ] shotgun (8d3) [0/1] (T1)
[c] [ Boots ] nothing
[d] [ Prepared ] chainsaw (5d6) (B)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] red armor [6/6] (94%) (P)
[b] shotgun shell (x50)
[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 (x46)
[j] shotgun shell (x50)
[k] shotgun shell (x50)
[l] shotgun shell (x50)
[m] small med-pack
[n] small med-pack
[o] small med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] large med-pack
[r] large med-pack
[s] large med-pack
[t] large med-pack
[u] Enviroboots [0]
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
52 former humans
70 former sergeants
10 former captains
17 imps
15 demons
12 lost souls
4 cacodemons
2 hell knights
2 arachnotrons
1 pain elemental
1 Cyberdemon
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
He left the Deimos Lab without drawing too much attention.
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
Not knowing what to do, he left.
On level 13 he found the Enviroboots!
He left level 15 as soon as possible.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
He nuked level 16!
On level 19 he finally let an arachnotron get him.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
hear the scream of a freed soul! You hear the scream of a freed soul! The
barrel explodes! Boom! The former human dies. You dodge! You dodge! You
dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! Boom! The former human suddenly rises
from the dead! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! The missile hits the imp.
You are hit! You are hit! Boom! Boom! Boom!
You dodge! The missile hits the baron of hell. You dodge! The missile hits
the demon. The baron of hell hits you.
You dodge! You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You are hit! You dodge! Boom! You feel vulnerable again.
You dodge! The missile hits the baron of hell. You dodge! The missile hits
the baron of hell. You dodge! The missile hits the baron of hell. The missile
hits the baron of hell. The missile hits the baron of hell.
You dodge! Boom! You dodge! The missile hits the baron of hell. You dodge!
The missile hits the baron of hell. You dodge! The missile hits the baron of
hell. You dodge! The missile hits the baron of hell. You are hit! You die!...
Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
996 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
723 of those were killed.
5 of those were killed by something unknown.
52 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 146 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
70 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
5 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
62 killed the bitch and survived.
3 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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At the rate these games are coming, I'm feeling very confident I'll get it soon once the necessary luck strikes, and most importantly, it no longer feels like an insurmountable challenge, which significantly alleviates the pressure of starting each game. I'm going to get it!