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[Omega Tyrant]

For my next 0.9.9.7 Diamond, I decided to go for Reaper Diamond, which according to the Badge Hunters thread, is one of the rarest Diamonds, with only three players recorded to have won it, being felttippen, Tormuse, and Icy (and papilio claimed to have won all Diamonds but Arena Diamond, which I believe him though he never posted his Reaper Diamond mortem that I can find). None of these runs did it pure either, with felttippen and Icy mixing AoCn with AoMC to get it, and Tormuse mixed it with AoB, which notably starts you with a Chainsaw when mixed with AoCn. Now is this because Reaper Diamond was actually one of the hardest Diamonds? Ehhhhh....

Well the process of beating Mortuary or Limbo in Angel of Confidence isn't all that much harder, as you'll only be a couple levels weaker by the time you reach it if you kill most enemies along the way and you still get to access all the Deimos special levels that have the guaranteed rewards critical to beating Mortuary/Limbo. The difficulty of this badge comes however from getting said rewards from the Deimos special levels without all the levels and equipment you would have gotten from Phobos, most notably you only get a single floor of preparation now before Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab. This still won't be that big of a hurdle though if you just play a melee build; even with just a Combat Knife, you'll have little issue beating the Shamblers once you get Berserker, you just might need to reset a few times to get a floor 1 that can be cleared and not deplete all your medkits, then Vampyre or Blademaster will have a completely free time in City Of Skulls/Abyssal Plains, would be fast enough to easily handle N! Halls Of Carnage without a Homing Phase, and they'll of course have an Unholy Cathedral as well to get the Spear or Scythe.

Given how much I have used melee builds in 0.9.9.7, and will continue to do so with 0.9.9.7's relative lack of compellingly viable options for most Diamond/Angelic badges, I wanted to try getting Reaper Diamond first without using a melee build. For this, I decided to go with Ammochain, since if I'm not going Berserker, my best shot at beating the Shambler(s) after a single floor would be with rapid fire, and I also don't see myself going with Ammochain for much if any of the remaining Diamonds/Angelics (maybe Inquisitor Diamond or the Lightfoot badges, and that's it). If I was forced to reset an annoying amount when trying to beat the Shambler(s) here without a melee build, I was ready to just go play melee and get it over with.

In the first attempt, I got a Deimos 1 with a convenient river and immediate accessible Berserk Pack but no good cover, and so I can kill everything on it but not without using up all my Medkits and not getting any back. Hell's Armory spawned and I was able to exploit the old "camp in the first north building" tactic to kill all the enemies with little damage, and then the weapon cache had a Laser Rifle, perhaps the best find for Ammochain and so I should have maybe just left the level here. With a Radsuit in stock from the prior floor that meant I could get the Supercharge, I decided to release the Shambler and try retreating back to the Supercharge, where I could then fight him in all that lava with Supercharged health. However I would get bad luck with the teleports, having to burn my running midway and getting brought near death as he got a good amount of hits on me, and then tragically he would end up killing me only tile away from the Supercharge...

In the second attempt, I would get a Pinkies + Lost Souls cave for Deimos 1. This is very bad EXP wise, but the floor was really easy and so I didn't need to burn any Medkits, while I also got another Large Medkit on it with no Formers nor Nobles to steal it. I get Hell's Armoy again and after leading off with Fin -> SoB2, I decided to deviate farther from Ammochain's prereqs and get Juggler. This paid off, as after farming a Commando for a ton of Plasma Rifles, I exploit the Juggling Overcharged Plasma Rifles trick to kill the Shambler without getting hit. Unfortunately I did get hit quite a bit at the start of the level, so no Shambler's Head, and farther unfortunately the weapon cache had nothing useful in it. I get a Sniper Mod for the big reward, and rather than making a Plasma Shotgun, I decide to save it for a Hyperblaster, as that mostly fixes Ammochain's big flaw of no EE. While the weapon cache was a letdown, I ended up finding an Assault Shotgun on Deimos 2 anyway, so that's a great general find to helping me just survive through the game. With wanting to make the Hyperblaster ASAP, I decide to go for getting WK2, which would put Ammochain off all the way until level 12, but I need a more reliable rapid fire weapon when I have no EE and I don't want to hoard all the mods I have until then when I need inventory space for the upcoming Skulls and other useful stuff.

The next special level is The Wall, which with a Rocket Launcher found on Deimos 2, I'm able to go in and clear it easily. I reach WK2 there and so I'm able to build the Hyperblaster plus slap the Sniper Mod on it. It is then City Of Skulls, which with a PPT Assault Shotgun and still having the Shell Box from Armory intact, is also easily beaten, while I get one of each Skull; I obviously take the Hatred Skull, being the most useful item for Mortuary/Limbo by far, but I also take a Blood Skull, since it would allow me to gib the corpses around the Nuclear BFG without risking destroying it nor having to use the aforementioned Hatred Skull there (which I would much rather pop immediately). The normal Deimos floors weren't particularly remarkable up to this point, with me getting an unusual high amount of small rooms levels, but in Deimos 6 I would find a second Sniper mod. Unfortunately I'm not playing a Technician in 0.9.9.8 or later, where I then could have gotten WK3 and put a second Sniper on my Hyperblaster to blast away at out-of-vision enemies as much as I want, but it's still very nice to build a Plasmatic Shotgun with a spare Power Mod I had lying around in my inventory just to make corpse disposing in Nightmare less tedious. For the next special level, I was really hoping I got Spider's Lair, as aside from being much easier on N! than Halls Of Carnage, the latter level simply would have been way too dangerous for a build with no HR, only A-modded Steel Boots, no speed-boosting armor, and while I had no Homing Phase to just zip immediately to the BFG. I could have maybe done it with lots of rocket jumping, but even if that worked, I probably would have severely burned through my armors and medkits doing that + getting through the Nightmare enemies in the maze, so I was going to just skip it and accept doing Mortuary/Limbo without the BFG if Halls spawned. Fortunately it was Spider's Lair that spawned, which I was able to go in and clear for the easy BFG.

At this point, it's just making it to Mortuary/Limbo now. Cybie goes down without much of a fight, the first few Hell floors are unremarkable other than me finally getting Ammochain, and I skip Cathedral as I'm unable to beat it with what I have (an Invuln spawned on Hell 1 but no nuke), while I then skip the Vaults as I didn't even have a Phase Device to try gambling and I didn't want to throw the 100% kills I had going by only partially clearing it. In Hell 4 I would get a rather nasty frozen event in a maze, but thanks to the S-modded Hyperblaster and juiced up Assault Shotgun, I'm able to fight without good cover and kill everything without burning Medkits. In that maze I at least then find I get Mortuary, the much harder of it and Limbo in this version, and I'm thoroughly prepared for it. In Mortuary, I employ my usual opener of immediately popping a Hatred Skull, Hyperblaster down an Archvile blocking the way, then rocket jump to the eastern area, shoot some BFG blasts to blow up most of the corpses in the right area, rocket jump farther right, pop the Blood Skull to destroy the corpses around the Nuclear BFG and then rocket jump to the Nuclear BFG. With the Nuclear BFG secured, I then rocket jump back to the western side of the map, blow up most of the corpses there with the BFG that haven't gotten up yet while berserk + P-modded Red Armor lets me tank the hits from all the enemies around, and then rocket jump back out to the foothold I had set up on the eastern side. With this successful opening that takes out most of the corpses, Mortuary maxes out with no more than a few dozen enemies up at once, at which point it's a fairly easy mop up and I finish N! Mortuary with less than 100 damage taken. I could just kill myself at this point and get Reaper Diamond, but I finish out the run and go for the full win to kill Carmack for good measure (and to help build towards Apostle rank, which I'm not so far from now). With Reaper Diamond, I'm also halfway towards getting all the Diamonds in 0.9.9.7.

Overall, yeah Reaper Diamond doesn't seem it was really that hard, especially if you just do it with a melee build, cheese it by mixing AoCn with AoMC, or cheese it with Whisper Of Death spam. Is its rarity a matter of people just being overly spooked by the thought of taking on N! Mortuary with a bit less preparation? Way more people should have won this badge. Anyway here is the mortem:

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 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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 greg, level 16 Cyberdemon Chaos Lt. Colonel Marine,
 defeated the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 871073 turns and scored 824973 points.
 He played for 3 hours, 55 minutes and 19 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 1545 out of 1545 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Confidence!

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

  Levels generated : 8
  Levels visited   : 6
  Levels completed : 6

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

  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Reaper Diamond Badge

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

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

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

  Health 76/60   Experience 135896/16
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +0  ToDmg Ranged +4  ToDmg Melee +4

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

  Class : Marine

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 1)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 4)
    Reloader         (Level 2)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Ammochain        (Level 1)

  Fin->SoB->SoB->Jug->TH->Fin->WK->WK->Rel->Rel->TH->MAc->SoB->Fin->HR->SoB->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [6/6] (97%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   hyperblaster (2d4)x3 [23/40] (S1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   power battery (x120)

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

    [a] plasmatic shotgun (8d3) [1/1] (T1)
    [b] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (B1)
    [c] assault shotgun (10d3) [6/6] (P3T1)
    [d] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [40/40]
    [e] BFG 9000 (10d6) [100/100]
    [f] fireproof red armor [4/4] (71%)
    [g] duelist armor [4/4] (100%) (P)
    [h] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
    [i] shotgun shell (x70)
    [j] rocket (x6)
    [k] rocket (x14)
    [l] power cell (x70)
    [m] power cell (x70)
    [n] power cell (x70)
    [o] large med-pack
    [p] large med-pack
    [q] large med-pack
    [r] large med-pack
    [s] plasteel boots [4/4] (93%) (PT)
    [t] shell box (x100)

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

    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 25%   feet 0%   

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

    60 former humans
    144 former sergeants
    53 former captains
    155 imps
    68 demons
    484 lost souls
    68 cacodemons
    21 hell knights
    70 barons of hell
    105 arachnotrons
    140 former commandos
    48 pain elementals
    33 revenants
    52 mancubi
    38 arch-viles
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack

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

  On level 1 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 3 he witnessed the Wall.
  On level 3 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
  On level 4 he found the City of Skulls.
  He wiped out the City of Skulls.
  On level 6 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
  On level 6 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 8 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 10 he ran for his life from lava!
  On level 12, hell froze over!
  On level 12 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  On level 12 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
  On level 14 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 14 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  On level 14 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He nuked level 16!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn!
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack.
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack.
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack.
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack.
 The missile hits John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You
 defeated John Carmack! Press <Enter>...

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

 257 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 84 of those were killed.
 1 of those was killed by something unknown.
 91 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

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

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