NOTE: This post will contain a spoiler about the Dragonslayer that I won't be hiding behind spoiler tags for readability sake, I assume all the secrets involved with it are open knowledge by this point but in case someone reading this doesn't know and still wants to figure that stuff out on their own, they should stop reading now.To finish collecting all 43 medals in 0.9.9.7 and thus get the Heroic Diamond badge, I just needed one more, the Gutts' Heart, which simply requires killing the Spider Mastermind with the Dragonslayer. The required feat itself is trivial, the issue is getting the Dragonslayer within standard game limits in the first place; the Dragonslayer can randomly spawn starting from floor 16, functionally floor 17 outside of A100/666, given the Tower of Babel occupies floor 16, and it has a spawning weight of 1. Additionally, as a melee weapon, it cannot spawn in vaults, which means it cannot spawn below its minimum spawning depth nor have an increased spawning weight, and it also can't randomly spawn in any of the special levels, so you can't bank on finding it in one of Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab, The Vaults, or The Lava Pits/Mt. Erebus, which all have significantly enhanced odds to spawn Exotics/Uniques. As a result, a random Dragonslayer can only spawn on the 7 Hell floors before Dis, with the absolute minimum odds; outside of A100/666, I have seen a random Dragonslayer like twice or thrice ever in all my time playing this game across all versions, and I don't think any of those times were after I even learned how to actually pick it up (or spawned when I couldn't pick it up anyway), so I never got Gutts' Heart. When starting up my 0.9.9.7 conquest, I was hoping to happen upon a Dragonslayer in one of my many Diamond or other Angelic runs to knock out Gutts' Heart, yet alas, after reaching 24 Diamonds with only Heroic and Arena remaining, alongside 10 Angelics with only Marksman, Masochist, and Everyman remaining among winnable Angelics, I never found a random Dragonslayer in any of those runs (excluding the A666 runs) and so I'm now at a point where I have to do a dedicated run for Gutts' Heart. Finding a random Dragonslayer within standard game limits would be horrendous, if that was the only way, getting this medal would be magnitudes worse than my recent A666 grind for a Subtle Knife to complete
Armorer Diamond. But I do keep saying "
random Dragonslayer" for a reason, as there does exist a way to get a guaranteed Dragonslayer to spawn in Unholy Cathedral in the place of the artifact weapon. The requirement for getting the guaranteed Dragonslayer is quite tough and annoying on its own, as you must be playing Nightmare! and clear Hell's Arena damageless (i.e. get the Hell Arena Pwnage medal) earlier in the run, but doing this is far far
faaaaaaarrrrrrrrr more efficient and tolerable than spamming hundreds or thousands of Angel of Overconfidence runs until I luck out with a random Dragonslayer, so that is what I will be doing.
Beating N! Hell's Arena damageless is a very daunting prospect on its own, given how bad the Arena already is on N! when you have no good means for corpse disposal (barring a lucky floor 2 vault with a Rocket Launcher and a stack of rockets for it), especially when your most reliable way to destroy corpses is to intentionally eat plasma/acid balls on corpses, which you obviously cannot do in a damageless challenge. The guaranteed Dragonslayer is not challenge-restricted however, nor is Gutts' Heart, so you can do this in Angel of Max Carnage, which makes this ordeal much easier, between the general massive advantages of AoMC offense (including making the Chaingun much more reliable) and AoMC's exact damage making Shotgun knockback perfectly predictable (so corpse stacking is much easier to control). You could also do it in Angel of Light Travel instead if you don't want to play a later melee-focused game in AoMC, which also makes Hell Arena Pwnage easier with the speed boost letting you a lot more effectively outrun enemies and a lot more effectively Shotgun down enemies before they reach you, as well as better corpse stacking control too since if you try using a Chaingun to finish off an enemy in an exact spot and it fails to kill them, you have more of a chance to get a second burst off before they move off the corpse. Several people have achieved Hell Arena Pwnage through one of these two challenges, and I already did it myself in AoMC during my
Destroyer Diamond run, so it would make sense to do that again for my Gutts' Heart run. However I got thinking, has anyone in 0.9.9.7 or earlier actually achieved Hell Arena Pwnage without the aid of these two challenges? I thought papilio did it, but apparently it was just
something he wanted to possibly record and then never did. When searching the forums, the only mortems I was finding with Hell Arena Pwnage without AoMC/AoLT were all from 2Dev and Firstblood, i.e. probable cheaters, with the exception of one; this
Shottyman Diamond run by scotherns achieved a Hell's Arena Pwnage. Not technically a standard game, but AoSh gives no particular advantage for this medal (AoSh makes it easier to get both medkits from Phobos Base Entry by starting you with a Shotgun and so you could use more running in the Arena, but then you also can't use the Chaingun for more precise corpse stacking, which makes it probably actually a little harder), so I have to give scotherns the full adulations for the first verified Hell Arena Pwnage without the use of AoMC nor AoLT (Micerang also got Hell Arena Pwnage without AoMC/AoLT in his
Masochist Angelic run, and wyrvic additionally posted a non-AoMC/AoLT mortem with Hell Arena Pwnage on the JH Discord, but both did it in 0.9.9.8 with its game-breaking dodging bug, which made it much easier to avoid getting hit and allowed you to very reliably dodge Cacodemons and Barons to have them destroy corpses near walls without having to get hit yourself). While I can't lay claim to the first non-AoMC/AoLT Hell Arena Pwnage, I did still wanted to try adding that feather to my cap and show I could do it even before Hell's Arena is eventually changed in later versions to no longer require killing all the respawns to clear it, so for this Gutts' Heart run I'm doing it in the standard game.
When it comes to the traits to use when going for Hell Arena Pwnage, gunning for Intuition 2 seems obvious at first, as the goto trait for avoiding walking into enemy fire. I opted not to go for it though, as you'll only get three traits before or by the start of the Arena and then a fourth during it (normally near or at the end, earlier if you got a floor 2 vault that let you get more EXP before entering the Arena), and so going for Int2 means you're only left with one other trait for most of the Arena, while without AoMC nor AoLT boosting your offense, you
are not reliably killing the enemies before they reach you with one or zero combat-boosting traits. You won't be able to easily escape the Pinkies as well if they get too close without Hellrunner nor AoLT (a running Scout can still outrun them with no HR, but you'll need to burn several run actions for each one tile of space you get from them). With this in mind, I opted for my standard opener of Finesse -> Juggler; not only will Juggling Fin-boosted Shotguns very reliably keep even the Barons from reaching me before they die, but it also really helps with corpse stacking when I can instantly swap to the Chaingun as an enemy steps onto another's corpse, when otherwise I would need to swap before an enemy moves onto said corpse. I could go for Int2 after this but I also opted against that; one, Int1 itself would be functionally a dead level in the Arena, and two, Int2 won't come online until the Arena is nearly done anyway unless I get a floor 2 Cacodemon vault, while getting Intuition here would also farther delay Blademaster that I'm going for later in the run. As such, I end up opting for Hellrunner with my third trait instead, still can't outrun the Pinkies without burning running but any runs I do burn will more quickly get away from them, while it lets me more effectively kite Cacos and Barons around the pillars, and crucially the dodging rate boost could save me if I walk into a Caco's or Baron's vision, or end up in a position where I can't avoid them firing on me. For the fourth trait, I would go for HR2, but in the winning run, it came too late for it to really matter and so I got Brute instead to start building for Berserker later.
For the strat of actually playing a damageless N! Hell's Arena, well it's all about long and painfully corpse stacking, maybe you could lure a Pinky over the stairs before killing them but that's your only other real means to destroy a corpse when you can't take any damage. Without Int2, I have to do lots and lots of radar shooting to avoid stepping into a Caco's vision, it's not a good idea to run -> wait immediately since respawning becomes more frequent the longer the level goes on and so things will get out of hand if you're run -> waiting with too many corpses around, while a Caco could also pop up at an awkward angle that forces having to dodge. With corpse stacking, I will prefer overwriting Caco corpses with Pinkies since Cacos are the bigger threat and Pinkies can be more safely lured over other corpses, but I will just do it the other way whenever it's prudent, and of course when the Barons come, I want to overwrite their corpse with anything else. As mentioned, I want to avoid run -> waiting at first, but when I'm in the second wave and a good chunks of the enemies have been permanently erased, I will start doing tons and tons of run -> waiting wherever it appears least dangerous, and I'll run -> wait on a corpse to keep it from getting back up. For your inventory with the Juggler strat, you want to bring a half dozen Shotguns and a Chaingun, alongside a couple bullet stacks and farm the Shotgunners in the first two floors for hundreds of shells, you're going to need a ton of ammo for radar shooting and repeatedly killing lots of respawns. While you won't be needing to heal if you succeed in taking no damage, you still want some Small Medkits, since there will be spots when you need to activate running to avoid getting hit, and then you'll need to use a medkit to restore your tactics so you can run again if needed. It took five attempts over an hour of play, but I managed to get a
damageless N! Hell's Arena in the standard game!
Well the run isn't done yet, I still need to not die on the way to Unholy Cathedral or else I would need to go through the damageless Hell's Arena ordeal again, but at my skill level while playing a good build, standard N! doesn't threaten me much. Even did a 100% Conqueror for the hell of it instead of just speedrunning to Cathedral, since a melee build simplifies and speeds up much of it. And as prophesized,
the Dragonslayer spawns in Unholy Cathedral, I could just run straight to the Mastermind but getting to use the Dragonslayer in the standard game as Blademaster is something to have fun with. Some other little highlights:
- I got a Duelist Armor on Phobos 6, why couldn't I get that in any of my Berserker Angelic runs? I would get a Ballistic Vest in early Deimos too and then a Phaseshift Armor in Hell, as well as a Deimos 6 Lava Armor, so I just got all the good armor for this run.
- I got a Nano mod from Hell's Armory, so yes Antigrav Boots with a Dragonslayer-wielding Blademaser.
- I got this funny Cyberdemon spawn, which saved me the few seconds of having to seek and chase him down.
- I got a second Nano on Hell 3, so I made a Powered Red Armor with it just to get even more spoiled with my armor.
- Even with Blademaster having the Dragonslayer, A-modded Antigrav Boots, the Powered Red Armor, all three skulls, and a Hellwave Pack, I still took a decent amount of damage in N! Mortuary. I also had to make sure no corpses got back up as I exited so it counted as cleared. I haven't mentioned it but you get the Berserker Armor instead of the Angelic Armor in Mortuary/Limbo too if you got Hell Arena Pwnage, but the Berserker Armor sucks and you're stuck in it once you put it on, so there's no reason to unless you're intentionally going for the Apostle fight (which I can't do anyway as Gutts' Heart requires killing the Mastermind with the Dragonslayer, and I haven't found a nuke anyway even if I did wanted to).
The Mastermind herself of course
stood no actual threat, while I popped the Lava Element before fighting her was just to get a little extra dazzle to the mortem with a Mastermind Brain. With that, I finally have the Gutts' Heart and now
all 43 medals in 0.9.9.7, which nets me the Heroic Diamond badge (only the fourth player in 0.9.9.7 to do so, after
papilio,
Tormuse, and
Icy). I'm now only
one Diamond away from having all 26, but it's the most infamous 0.9.9.7 Diamond of them all... It may be a while before I get it if I don't resort to Dual Angels.
Here is the mortem:
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
shouldbeheroicangelic5,
level 18 Apostle Chaos Lt. General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 695691 turns and scored 970421 points.
He played for 3 hours, 40 minutes and 25 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1489 out of 1489 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 11
Levels completed : 11
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Mastermind's Brain
Medal of Prejudice
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Conqueror Badge
Grim Reaper's Badge
Hell Armorer Badge
Hell Arena Pwnage Medal
Gutts' Heart
Heroic Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
#>#####################................................####
######################...............####...............###
#####################.......####.....####.....####.......##
####################.......%####.....####.....####........#
###################.......X.####.....####.....####.........
##################..........####..............####.........
#################..........................................
#################....####............................####..
#################....####............................####..
#################....####............................####&.
#################....####............................####..
#################..........................................
##################..........####..............####.........
###################.........####.....####.....####.........
####################........####.....####.....####........#
#####################.......####.....####.....####.......##
######################...............####...............###
#>#####################................................####
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 135/70 Experience 165222/18
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +10 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +15
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Brute (Level 5)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Blademaster (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->HR->Bru->MBm->Fin->WK->WK->HR->Bru->Bru->DM->Iro->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (PT)
[b] [ Weapon ] Dragonslayer (9d9)
[c] [ Boots ] antigrav steel boots [1/1] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (B2)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] powered red armor [5/5] (100%)
[b] fireproof duelist armor [4/4] (100%) (P)
[c] Lava Armor [4/4] (100%)
[d] Berserker Armor [0]
[e] large med-pack
[f] large med-pack
[g] large med-pack
[h] large med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] large med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] phase device
[p] phase device
[q] phase device
[r] phase device
[s] homing phase device
[t] cerberus plasteel boots [0/0] (100%)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Melee - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Shrapnel - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Acid - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
155 former humans
155 former sergeants
65 former captains
153 imps
97 demons
384 lost souls
95 cacodemons
35 hell knights
72 barons of hell
69 arachnotrons
20 former commandos
42 pain elementals
35 revenants
19 mancubi
41 arch-viles
4 nightmare imps
4 nightmare cacodemons
35 nightmare demons
2 bruiser brothers
1 shambler
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
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 Hell's Armory.
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 10 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
On level 12 he found the Hellwave Pack!
On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
On level 12 he assembled a antigrav boots!
On level 12 he assembled a fireproof armor!
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
On level 14 he found the Lava Armor!
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!
He left level 16 as soon as possible.
On level 17 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he found the Dragonslayer!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he assembled a power armor!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
On level 19 he found the BFG 10K!
He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
On level 20 he assembled a cerberus boots!
On level 20 he found the Berserker Armor!
He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You dodge! Boom! You are hit! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge!
Boom! You dodge! Boom! You need to taste blood!
You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
taste blood!
You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
taste blood!
You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You miss the Spider Mastermind. You need to taste blood!
You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
Next! You're going berserk!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
408 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
194 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
97 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 9 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
107 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
63 killed the bitch and survived.
37 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Author
Topic: (0.9.9.7) [N!|100%|YAVP] - Gutts' Heart to finish all medals for Heroic Diamond (Read 26 times)