Let's go!!! This challenge has eluded me forever and quite honestly has been pretty embarrassing that I genuinely have found even Everyman Angelic Badge easier. I figured I must be doing something wrong, and maybe too much focus on combat instead of purely stair-diving. A few weeks ago, I got my closest ever reaching around floor 86 before running out of ammo and dying, all after a grueling 6 hour game. I've also bounced back and forth between pure Ao100 and combining it with Angel of Max Carnage with no real success.
Earlier today, I attempted this some more with Ao100 + AoMC and died on floor 8 after nearly 40 minutes. After reading some various mortems of players who completed this significantly faster, that had to suggest that early combat for experience is the wrong approach, and more focus on pushing and gaining larger amounts all at once is better.
It has annoyed me for literal years I couldn't get this because completing this challenge would give me my last Medal, and alongside with that 2 Diamond Badges.
So I decided to try some more with an aggressive approach, and not only was that the key to success, but the game handed me the game with a massive lucky break.
On floor 16, the very first floor that Dragonslayer can spawn on, I was presented with this:
My initial plan was a masterless Shotgun build, and I had only got up to Intuition x2, Hellrunner x2, and Dodgemaster, so I was able to smoothly pivot to a melee build. I knew that Dragonslayer would make the game much easier, although I wasn't quite sure what to expect if it would still be a challenge or if it became a total cakewalk. I knew though that I had to be absolutely certain to capitalize on this because I could quite literally never get this again in my life.
After some brief dancing, I picked it up and was ready to go:
And indeed, I still had to be careful. I played a little dodgy and avoidant because I didn't have a ton of melee accuracy yet, and it did get scary:
I started finding a bunch of Homing Phase Devices, as well as nukes, which I essentially viewed as get out of jail free cards:
With how quickly I was able to blitz through floors, the chances of finding and staying Invulnerable were quite high too. On this fairly early floor, I found a nice double:
This was another nice Invulnerability spawn. I had to find the right balance between stair-diving and farming experience with them, and generally I would only detour if some good enemies for it were nearby:
Part way into my game, my inventory looked like this:
And quite a bit later looked like this:
I also got really lucky to find Hell Staff very close to the start of a floor:
And this floor had a lovely triple Invulnerability. I only was able to grab two of them, but it was still a great boost:
And that's pretty much it for the highlights! I spent a good portion of this game Invulnerable, which made it a lot easier, but I still was a bit nervous playing. As a hardened player who has competed in various games for close to 20 years, gone to tournaments in-person and online, and have a pretty nice resume of achievements if I can gloat a little bit, it's very rare for me to get nerves and this was a big one that I felt for the first time in years. This was possibly my luckiest game on DoomRL to date, and I have had some very lucky games in the past. I had to be 100% certain I did not mess this up.
With this, I finally finished this challenge I've been trying off and on for years, got all 43 Medals, and am now at 21 Diamond Badges! I believe Papilio is the only player who has more now. I'm also feeling super motivated to get the my remaining Platinum Badges now, and try some more badge hunting for the ones I'm missing.
The other cool thing is that I was able to complete this challenge in under an hour, but Sereg still has the record by a significant gap!
Here's the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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Icy, level 18 Cyberdemon Chaos Br. General Scout,
completed 100 levels of torture on level 100 of Hell.
He survived 149327 turns and scored 1467587 points.
He played for 57 minutes and 16 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 956 out of 4102 hellspawn. (23%)
Who gave him the ticket to Hell, anyway?
He was an Angel of 100!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 0
Levels visited : 0
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Dervis' Medallion
Heroic Diamond Badge
Centurial Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
......#.#.......+.#...........".#.+|.........0RB....+......
=....h#h#..0..B.#.#.A0.....0.+."#.#.........RRVV..0.#......
=...hh#h#.^..B..#.#...........X.=.#...M......R......#...B..
#=#####+#######+#.#######+######=.#^..........R.....#......
..=hhVVhhh......+................=+...O......\.c....+......
===####/####+#######+####+####+#===###+####+####+#######+##
=.==.h#hh.......+.......+.......====[.....#.#.....0^+......
====..#h.....M+.#.......#+#####======....A#.#.===..E#....V"
====..#.........####+####.+...=.==#==.....+.+.====..#hhh...
===####..+B.....#.......#.#.....===.......#+###====##MV....
====..+.........+.......#.#.=.==..+.......#.......==+hhhM..
===####+####+#######+####+#=#=+#######+####+####+##=####+##
..=...#.#.......+..........===MMh0+.#.............#.+....#}
===..h#.#...0...#..........B..MVh.#.#.............#.#....#B
=.....+.+.......#.............hVh.#.#.............#0#....+B
.==...#+#################+#########.#######V#######.#...B#B
.==...#........B+.................+B................+....#.
###########################################################
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 160/90 Experience 179534/18
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +6 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +9
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Ironman (Level 4)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Tough as nails (Level 3)
Brute (Level 3)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Badass (Level 2)
Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Bru->Bru->Bru->TaN->TaN->Bad->Bad->HR->TaN->Iro->Iro->Iro->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [6/6] (100%) (P)
[b] [ Weapon ] Dragonslayer (9d9)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] nothing
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] red armor [4/4] (100%)
[b] red armor [3/6] (46%) (P)
[c] large med-pack
[d] large med-pack
[e] large med-pack
[f] large med-pack
[g] large med-pack
[h] large med-pack
[i] homing phase device
[j] envirosuit pack
[k] envirosuit pack
[l] agility mod pack
[m] Hell Staff
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Melee - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Shrapnel - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Acid - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 85% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
46 former humans
101 former sergeants
101 former captains
45 imps
49 demons
217 lost souls
12 cacodemons
39 hell knights
105 barons of hell
39 arachnotrons
2 former commandos
18 pain elementals
21 revenants
56 mancubi
54 arch-viles
4 nightmare imps
10 nightmare cacodemons
23 nightmare demons
3 nightmare arachnotrons
2 nightmare arch-viles
1 elite former human
1 elite former sergeant
2 elite former captains
3 bruiser brothers
1 agony elemental
1 Cyberdemon
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He left level 6 as soon as possible.
He left level 8 as soon as possible.
He left level 11 as soon as possible.
On level 14 he found the Revenant's Launcher!
He left level 15 as soon as possible.
On level 16 he found the Dragonslayer!
On level 17 he assembled a tactical boots!
He left level 29 as soon as possible.
He left level 30 as soon as possible.
He nuked level 36!
He left level 37 as soon as possible.
He left level 38 as soon as possible.
On level 39 he was bombarded!
On level 42 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 43 as soon as possible.
Level 45 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 45 as soon as possible.
He left level 48 as soon as possible.
On level 49 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
Level 49 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 54 as soon as possible.
On level 56 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 56 as soon as possible.
On level 58 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 60 as soon as possible.
He nuked level 61!
He left level 62 as soon as possible.
He left level 63 as soon as possible.
He left level 64 as soon as possible.
Level 66 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 66 he found the Hell Staff!
He sounded the alarm on level 68!
He left level 69 as soon as possible.
On level 70 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 70 as soon as possible.
He left level 72 as soon as possible.
He left level 73 as soon as possible.
On level 75 he ran for his life from lava!
He nuked level 75!
He left level 77 as soon as possible.
He left level 78 as soon as possible.
On level 80 he was targeted for extermination!
He nuked level 80!
He left level 81 as soon as possible.
He left level 82 as soon as possible.
He left level 83 as soon as possible.
On level 84 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 84 as soon as possible.
Level 85 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 85 as soon as possible.
Level 86 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 86 as soon as possible.
He left level 87 as soon as possible.
He left level 88 as soon as possible.
He nuked level 90!
On level 91 he stumbled into a lava elemental cave!
He left level 91 as soon as possible.
On level 92 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He left level 94 as soon as possible.
He left level 95 as soon as possible.
On level 96 he was bombarded!
He left level 96 as soon as possible.
He left level 97 as soon as possible.
He left level 98 as soon as possible.
He left level 99 as soon as possible.
He left level 100 as soon as possible.
On level 100 he finally completed 100 levels of torture.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
Just one more! Just one more! Will you die here? Press <Enter>...
You enter Hell, level 100. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
There are stairs leading downward here. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
There are stairs leading downward here. You need to taste blood!
You did it! You completed 100 levels of DoomRL! You're the champion! Press
<Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
1574 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
1213 of those were killed.
5 of those were killed by something unknown.
88 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 185 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
83 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
72 killed the bitch and survived.
5 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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Let's go!