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[Omega Tyrant]

The only Platinum Badge I had left in 0.9.9.7 was Shottyman Platinum, so doing Shottyman Diamond next was the logical conclusion to get them both. Most people who got Shottyman Diamond did so by doubling it up with the notoriously easy (for an Angelic) Shottyman Angelic, as the same respawn farming exploit used for Shottyman Angelic could also easily get them Shottyman Diamond (and Daredevil Diamond) by just spending another half hour or so repeatedly blasting away a trapped Shotgunner, and even without kill farming, reaching 80% kills in AoOC isn't all that hard. Given my dislike of Dual Angel cheesing though, I wanted to get Shottyman Diamond the intended "pure way", and so I went for this badge in a pure AoSh run.

For the build used, it's obviously Shottyhead; aside from being my favorite mastery making it an obvious choice for me, Army Of The Dead is horribly awful in 0.9.9.7 with its astonishingly crippling blocks that don't remotely justify such a middling mastery effect (I still wonder what the hell the thinking was behind its blocks, did the old devs really think shotguns getting 2 or 4 more damage before dropoff was some incredibly OP perk?), and Fireangel is already mediocre in 0.9.9.7 before even considering it does nothing to boost Shotguns. The only other real viable option would be to go masterless if you want SoB, but the relatively minor damage boost SoB gives to shotguns doesn't remotely compare to the tremendous offensive boost given by 1/3rd firing time. Well you could go Gunrunner too, but it would be basically a worse Shottyhead that takes longer to come online, especially in 0.9.9.7 when it's blocked Whizkid.

With trait order, it's again opening with Finesse -> Juggler, being able to macgyver a Temu Tactical Shotgun with a bunch of shotguns in the early game gives you such an immediate big leg up, especially pre-Reloader buff. Then it's a level of HR to ensure I can comfortably outmaneuver everything and getting the requisite Rel2 + Shottyman to get Shottyhead ASAP; given how massive an offensive boost Shottyhead gives you and its prereqs already gives you one of the easiest early games, you never want to delay it unless you have really damn good reason to get something outside its prereq path. After that it's getting WK2 ASAP for the big mid and late game all-around power boost it provides, and then maybe unusually I get two levels of Brute + Berserker; Berserker is such an OP defensive trait in 0.9.9.7 and it basically makes the VMR a non-threat for the rest of the game, while berserked Shottyhead gets crazy amounts of DPS (also being able to punch stuff out can occasionally be useful to kill things without knockback, and could be used to save ammo as well, but you don't really need that in this version of N! with the silly ammo farming you can do). Then it's just maxing out my firing, movement, and reloading rate after to make myself as strong as possible; the notable omissions are not getting any Ironman, which I do to have Berserker trigger as often as possible, and then I never get the ever popular Intuition, since I don't need Intuition 2 and much prefer getting actual combat-boosting traits if I'm not playing a challenge where attrition damage is a much more serious factor.

As mentioned, with the aforementioned opening traits, the early game is a relative breeze even on Nightmare, even a Phobos maze wasn't all that bad when those are often run enders on N!. I decided to clear Hell's Arena, which being restricted to shotguns with unpredictable knockback can make a bit tricky when trying to line up corpse stacks, but with such a strong early game build, getting some extra spawns isn't much an issue when you come in with an inventory full of shotguns and shotgun shells, even a Baron getting back up wasn't a big deal. I was thinking of skipping Unchained Court since it's one of the few special levels that gives Shottyhead some real trouble and getting rid of corpses is going to be real annoying without a Rocket Launcher, but I decided to go for it and it ended up not being too bad, not even having to use up all the berserks; if you can manage to get the Barons in a position to shotgun them into the lava or in the doorways, you can kill them without a corpse, or if you kill one while still berserked, you can comfortably eat another Baron's acid ball to destroy it, then the Arena Master it's possible to corner shoot to death with this build + the Double Shotgun from the Arena, or you get a berserk and him against a wall, you can hammer him down with the Double Shotty and kill him that way before he can deal too much damage to you. I then rolled Phobos Lab for the last Phobos special level, which having Shottyhead online by then already largely trivializes, and then considering that Nightmare Demons still get hurt by the acid in this version, I almost forget that this is supposed to be one of the most terrifying special levels. After that is the dreaded N! Phobos Anomaly, but it's another normally terrifying level that Shottyhead largely trivializes; I ended up clearing it taking only 38 damage, most of which was from me intentionally getting hit by Nightmare Cacodemons to destroy corpses. Feats like that just add to my pile of "Shottyhead was the most overlooked mastery", Army Of The Dead is just way too slow to outrun the N! Anomaly ambush without a lucky Phase Device and has no hope to try fighting back, while Fireangel and masterless shotgun Scout could escape the ambush but would have a hell of a time actually trying to kill all those Nightmare enemies.

Deimos would greet me with a level opener that would a major threat for most builds, but that Shottyhead again trivializes without needing to gamble with that Phase Device nor running and praying. I rolled Deimos Lab, and I considered just getting what I could from there without releasing the Shamblers. Especially so when the weapon cache didn't have any of the special shotguns and when I failed to hit WK2 before them, so I was left with the predicament to build the Focused Double Shotgun and Tactical Boots now to help fighting them and be left unable to mod them later (since 0.9.9.7 still has the asinine restriction of being unable to ever mod assemblies you made before getting WK2), or play it safe and just leave. Not to mention that fighting the dual Shamblers in N! AoSh without a Plasma Shotgun is going to be extra dangerous as I have to kill them in very specific spots to prevent them from leaving a corpse. I decided to live extra dangerously though by releasing the Shamblers and not finishing the aforementioned assemblies, and it was by far the closest I came to death in this run. My initial plan was to hide out in the mod rooms, wait for one to teleport in, and then hammer at it until it was nearly dead, then finish it off in the door or acid, but when a Shambler did do so... it immediately teleported back out, and they wouldn't teleport back inside, eventually teleporting outside and opening the door, where in the crossfire one of the doors would get destroyed to ruin the setup. When getting one isolated, I did do the "hammer away" strategy and was able to finish it off in the acid, but the other Shambler was very uncooperative and I would get brought down to my last medkit, however I managed to get him in a workable spot within the acid pool and hammer him down before he could teleport out. If I was any other shotgun build here I would have certainly died, as without Shottyhead's firing speed, I would not have remotely enough DPS to kill them when they teleported into a workable position here. It paid off though, as I got the coveted Onyx + Nano mod combo as my reward, and finally hit WK2 right when I killed the last Shambler, allowing me to build my beloved Focused Double Shotgun and put a Power mod on it. For the Onyx mod, I ended up just putting it on the next Red Armor I found (since I already Bulk modded the Anomaly Red Armor) rather than wait for one of the few exotics that can be better (especially as when berserked, I'll take 1 damage with a P-modded Red Armor from nearly everything after this point), and I thought about waiting for maybe a Super Shotgun to appear for the chance at the utterly game-breaking Shottyhead + Nano Super Shotgun combo, but decided to just make Antigrav Boots instead from the Steel Boots I haven't turned Tactical yet rather than wait around for something that may not come at all. Some may have made a regular Nano Shotgun to ensure they always had infinite ammo, but with how easily you can farm infinite ammo in this version of N!, ammo is just not a concern whatsoever.

I unfortunately had to skip Containment Area, as I had no plasmatic shotgun and didn't carry any normal Phase Devices with me, but the game would conveniently spawn a Plasma Shotgun the floor immediately after. Would have really wanted it a floor sooner to keep the dream of a N! AoSh Conqueror alive, but it's still really nice to make corpse disposal a much less tedious ordeal in the second half of the game. I had a nuke prepped for Unholy Cathedral, but no Invuln spawned on Hell 1, so that's another special level I couldn't do. The rest were beaten with no issue, maybe Mortuary could have dragged on but I got pre-buff Limbo instead, and with the Plasma Shotty, two Hatred Skulls, and Enviroboots, it was nothing more than a speed bump.

With Shottyhead, I'm able to get pure Shottyman Diamond first try, and come the closest anyone has to pulling off a N! AoSh Conqueror, while getting Shottyman Platinum completes the collection of all Platinums in 0.9.9.7 for me, joining I believe Tormuse and Icy as the only players to have verifiably gotten every Platinum badge up through 0.9.9.7. Now here is the mortem:

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 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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 SHOTTYHEADABEST,
 level 18 Cyberdemon Chaos Major Scout,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 1180211 turns and scored 990922 points.
 He played for 3 hours, 57 minutes and 52 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 1738 out of 1756 hellspawn. (98%)
 He held his right to remain violent.
 He was an Angel of Shotgunnery!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 9
  Levels completed : 9

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Aurora Medallion
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Hell Champion Medal
  Shottyman Platinum Badge
  Shottyman Diamond Badge

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

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  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 89/50   Experience 160312/18
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +6

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Reloader         (Level 3)
    Brute            (Level 2)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Shottyman        (Level 1)
    Shottyhead       (Level 1)

  Fin->Jug->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->MSh->Fin->WK->WK->Bru->Bru->Ber->Fin->HR->HR->Rel->DM->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [6] (AOP)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   focused double shotgun (9d4)x2 [0/2] (P1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   antigrav steel boots [1/1] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   shell box (x56)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6] (T1)
    [b] plasma shotgun (10d3) [39/39] (B1P3T1)
    [c] BFG 9000 (10d6) [130/130] (B1)
    [d] phaseshift armor [2/2] (100%)
    [e] shotgun shell (x14)
    [f] power cell (x50)
    [g] power cell (x50)
    [h] large med-pack
    [i] large med-pack
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] large med-pack
    [l] homing phase device
    [m] Enviroboots [0]
    [n] shell box (x100)
    [o] shell box (x100)
    [p] shell box (x100)
    [q] shell box (x100)
    [r] shell box (x100)
    [s] power battery (x120)
    [t] power battery (x120)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 25%   feet 0%   

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    218 former humans
    263 former sergeants
    72 former captains
    180 imps
    115 demons
    285 lost souls
    109 cacodemons
    39 hell knights
    64 barons of hell
    119 arachnotrons
    41 former commandos
    37 pain elementals
    53 revenants
    19 mancubi
    39 arch-viles
    19 nightmare imps
    6 nightmare cacodemons
    39 nightmare demons
    11 nightmare arachnotrons
    2 bruiser brothers
    2 shamblers
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack
    1 Arena Master

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
  He broke through the lab.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
  On level 9 he assembled a focused double shotgun!
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 10 he assembled a antigrav boots!
  On level 11 he found the Enviroboots!
  On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
  He slaughtered the beasts living there.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
  On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 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!
 You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You feel more calm.
 John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher.
 Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn!
 The revenant dies. The revenant dies.
 The revenant dies. The revenant dies. The revenant dies. The revenant dies.
 The revenant dies.
 The revenant dies. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
 Carmack! Press <Enter>...

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 237 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 69 of those were killed.
 91 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 71 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 35 killed the bitch and survived.
 30 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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