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Century Lounge / [U|ArchAo666|100%|YAAM] Masterless Scout Full Clear
« on: November 27, 2022, 20:59 »
Fun challenge! I always wanted to do one of these and finally got around to it. It gets pretty easy after your build is fully decked out and enemies are no longer much of a threat, but it's still pretty enjoyable to go through.
For this game, I opted to go with a masterless Scout as I figure that all the best weapons don't benefit too much from most master traits and Scout is generally the best masterless class. Given that Intuition requires Eagle Eye, Badass requires Tough as Nails, and Whizkid requires Finesse, going Scout means I can skip two traits (Eagle Eye) and have a bit more room for other traits.
I took many screenshots to cover all the highlights.
I was very lucky to find a Laser Rifle, which is one of my ideal weapons. Once made with Nanomanufacture Ammo, and especially with (F), I can melt basically everything and without needing to get Eagle Eye.
Nasty Arachnotron cave early on.
Cute placement of Technical Packs. No, I did not make Grappling Boots or Micro Launcher.
Very nasty start.
Another critical weapon to ease the mid-game. Having a cheap source of semi-infinite ammo helps a ton, especially with UV using up so much more ammo compared to easier difficulties.
More cute item placements.
Dragonslayer! Although I wasn't going to use it, but I couldn't have picked it up anyway.
Somewhat early Onyx Pack is very nice. It would later go into a Cerberus Armor.
Another excellent mid-game weapon, and potentially late-game weapon with a Nuclear BFG!
10 floors later and I found another BFG! I definitely prefer making Biggest Fucking Gun in a regular one for more power and 2.5 shots per clip, but it would require a Nano Pack.
Really rough start here.
Firestorm Pack! I opted to hang onto it for awhile as I may have wanted to use it for Laser Rifle instead of a BFG.
Inventory on floor 71.
Nano Pack! Floor 89 was pretty late in finding one, but the game was about to get significantly easier with an end-game Laser Rifle and no more ammo clogging inventory space.
2 floors later I found another rofl. This one would be save for a BFG.
Yet another Onyx Pack. I used it for a Phaseshift Armor with (PAO).
Another BFG!
And another! I figured having 3 was already likely overkill since each one requires 2 Firestorm Packs. At least Nuclear BFG is usable without them, but a regular BFG is just an ammo drain, which I didn't want to bother with.
Level 25 on floor 108.
Yet another Firestorm Pack!
And also another Onyx Pack lol. This one I left behind.
2 floors later, no seriously, I don't need any more.
I found another Plasma Shield, which I figured might come in handy. They don't get used often, but do tend to break pretty easily.
A somewhat uncommon split island floor.
Or maybe not that uncommon, finding another one 2 floors later lol.
Really rough start.
Finally found a Super Shotgun! Nano Shrapnel Super Shotgun is another excellent weapon for clearing out groups of enemies, while Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle is better for single targets.
And another BFG, jeez.
More useless Onyx Packs.
And a third Nano Pack! This one would go into a regular BFG later.
Giant clog of a start lol.
This was actually the worst start yet and was pretty terrifying to be honest.
After dashing for some coverage, I got pretty dang close to dying!
And after using a Homing Phase Device and going through all 8 of my Large Med Packs...
I managed to just barely survive. I would have been horribly devastated if I died this far in.
My inventory got wiped pretty badly, so it was a good thing I hung onto as many Med Packs as I did.
More BFGs!
And another Dragonslayer lol. Still not picking it up.
More Onyx Packs!
And another Nano Pack!
Since I already had a spare waiting for another Firestorm Packs, I made Antigrav Phaseshift Boots.
My first Sniper Pack, although I didn't have any need for it.
And finally another Firestorm Pack!
With it, I made arguably the single best weapon in the game, at least in terms of clearing out floors of everything. I held onto my other BFGs should I find more packs so that I can rotate between them and effectively give myself 4 such shots.
Another scary Nightmare Arachnotron cave...
...now trivialized!
A Shambler floor!
I overlooked the fact that each action would result in a pile of them teleporting all at once, but fortunately I was Invulnerable.
More Sniper Packs.
And another.
...and another...
Party house of enemies. Glad I wasn't invited.
Horrible start, but again made easy having Biggest Fucking Gun.
On a floor with a rush of lava as well as some teleporters in the level, it seemed like some Cacodemon or something caused this error. Fortunately, it didn't crash my game or anything bad.
Another brutal start, but again, BFG saves the day.
Quite the bright light.
Another scary start if not for BFG.
Brutal clog of a start lol.
More Plasma Shields. I'm good on skipping this one.
This was a silly start.
Another split island floor.
Many Pain Elementals on this floor!
I opted to charge into the middle.
And made a big boom!
Another Sniper Pack.
More bad starts.
One particular Baron was seemingly unkillable, which was very confusing until it actually died.
Quite a mosaic of fluids. The Radiation Suit is a nice touch.
Yet another split island.
Another Lava Elemental cave.
I took some nice coverage and lured them all in.
Getting some seriously dense starts.
More split islands.
Insane enemy density.
I entered another Lava Elemental cave and since I had Invulnerability, I decided to let them get close for a big bang.
Except for the floor where I almost died, this was my absolute least favorite floor of the entire game. A maze with unbreakable walls and huge density.
This was another cute layout.
And my final status screen before ending the game. Still quite a bit away from Iron Skull damage lol.
And here's the mortem:
Overall, this wasn't too hard, just very long. Cerberus Armor (P) in Gothic Armor was excellent and I generally reduced damage enough that it hardly lost much durability and only had to use my backup Cerberus Armor (O) a few times. Phaseshift Armor set was mostly for if I got an awful floor with an auto-nuke, which I only ran into a couple times and they were all fortunately easy, so the set didn't get used at all. One wild thing is I never completed the Inquisitor Set, and actually didn't find quite a few different unique items. I mostly would have only used it for a Cyberdemon floor, but I never had one, and probably would have been fine anyway. Cerberus Armor and Boots did all the work needed.
Once I had assembled Biggest Fucking Gun (N), most floors were reduced to me firing it twice, and then cleaning up with Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle (F) and Nano Shrapnel Super Shotgun (P). Only a handful of times were particularly dangerous and the only concern was if I myself did something dumb. Fortunately, I did fine. I probably could have found a lot more Firestorm Packs to make more BFGs, but I was busy blowing up every floor and it's almost certain that I destroyed some. Having 2 or more Biggest Fucking Guns would have definitely been even more overkill. Finally, Hell Staff and Homing Phase Devices were only needed a few times to escape bad situations, and I honestly used them moreso to enter a floor with Invulnerability, particularly with a nuke for a quick clear.
I genuinely might do this again at some point.
For this game, I opted to go with a masterless Scout as I figure that all the best weapons don't benefit too much from most master traits and Scout is generally the best masterless class. Given that Intuition requires Eagle Eye, Badass requires Tough as Nails, and Whizkid requires Finesse, going Scout means I can skip two traits (Eagle Eye) and have a bit more room for other traits.
I took many screenshots to cover all the highlights.
I was very lucky to find a Laser Rifle, which is one of my ideal weapons. Once made with Nanomanufacture Ammo, and especially with (F), I can melt basically everything and without needing to get Eagle Eye.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Nasty Arachnotron cave early on.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Cute placement of Technical Packs. No, I did not make Grappling Boots or Micro Launcher.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Very nasty start.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another critical weapon to ease the mid-game. Having a cheap source of semi-infinite ammo helps a ton, especially with UV using up so much more ammo compared to easier difficulties.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More cute item placements.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Dragonslayer! Although I wasn't going to use it, but I couldn't have picked it up anyway.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Somewhat early Onyx Pack is very nice. It would later go into a Cerberus Armor.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another excellent mid-game weapon, and potentially late-game weapon with a Nuclear BFG!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
10 floors later and I found another BFG! I definitely prefer making Biggest Fucking Gun in a regular one for more power and 2.5 shots per clip, but it would require a Nano Pack.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Really rough start here.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Firestorm Pack! I opted to hang onto it for awhile as I may have wanted to use it for Laser Rifle instead of a BFG.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Inventory on floor 71.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Nano Pack! Floor 89 was pretty late in finding one, but the game was about to get significantly easier with an end-game Laser Rifle and no more ammo clogging inventory space.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
2 floors later I found another rofl. This one would be save for a BFG.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yet another Onyx Pack. I used it for a Phaseshift Armor with (PAO).
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another BFG!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And another! I figured having 3 was already likely overkill since each one requires 2 Firestorm Packs. At least Nuclear BFG is usable without them, but a regular BFG is just an ammo drain, which I didn't want to bother with.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Level 25 on floor 108.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yet another Firestorm Pack!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And also another Onyx Pack lol. This one I left behind.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
2 floors later, no seriously, I don't need any more.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I found another Plasma Shield, which I figured might come in handy. They don't get used often, but do tend to break pretty easily.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A somewhat uncommon split island floor.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Or maybe not that uncommon, finding another one 2 floors later lol.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Really rough start.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Finally found a Super Shotgun! Nano Shrapnel Super Shotgun is another excellent weapon for clearing out groups of enemies, while Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle is better for single targets.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And another BFG, jeez.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More useless Onyx Packs.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And a third Nano Pack! This one would go into a regular BFG later.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Giant clog of a start lol.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was actually the worst start yet and was pretty terrifying to be honest.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After dashing for some coverage, I got pretty dang close to dying!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And after using a Homing Phase Device and going through all 8 of my Large Med Packs...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I managed to just barely survive. I would have been horribly devastated if I died this far in.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My inventory got wiped pretty badly, so it was a good thing I hung onto as many Med Packs as I did.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More BFGs!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And another Dragonslayer lol. Still not picking it up.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More Onyx Packs!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And another Nano Pack!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Since I already had a spare waiting for another Firestorm Packs, I made Antigrav Phaseshift Boots.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My first Sniper Pack, although I didn't have any need for it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And finally another Firestorm Pack!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With it, I made arguably the single best weapon in the game, at least in terms of clearing out floors of everything. I held onto my other BFGs should I find more packs so that I can rotate between them and effectively give myself 4 such shots.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another scary Nightmare Arachnotron cave...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
...now trivialized!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A Shambler floor!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I overlooked the fact that each action would result in a pile of them teleporting all at once, but fortunately I was Invulnerable.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More Sniper Packs.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And another.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
...and another...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Party house of enemies. Glad I wasn't invited.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Horrible start, but again made easy having Biggest Fucking Gun.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
On a floor with a rush of lava as well as some teleporters in the level, it seemed like some Cacodemon or something caused this error. Fortunately, it didn't crash my game or anything bad.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another brutal start, but again, BFG saves the day.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Quite the bright light.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another scary start if not for BFG.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Brutal clog of a start lol.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More Plasma Shields. I'm good on skipping this one.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was a silly start.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another split island floor.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Many Pain Elementals on this floor!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I opted to charge into the middle.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And made a big boom!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another Sniper Pack.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More bad starts.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One particular Baron was seemingly unkillable, which was very confusing until it actually died.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Quite a mosaic of fluids. The Radiation Suit is a nice touch.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yet another split island.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another Lava Elemental cave.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I took some nice coverage and lured them all in.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Getting some seriously dense starts.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More split islands.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Insane enemy density.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I entered another Lava Elemental cave and since I had Invulnerability, I decided to let them get close for a big bang.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Except for the floor where I almost died, this was my absolute least favorite floor of the entire game. A maze with unbreakable walls and huge density.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was another cute layout.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And my final status screen before ending the game. Still quite a bit away from Iron Skull damage lol.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Overall, this wasn't too hard, just very long. Cerberus Armor (P) in Gothic Armor was excellent and I generally reduced damage enough that it hardly lost much durability and only had to use my backup Cerberus Armor (O) a few times. Phaseshift Armor set was mostly for if I got an awful floor with an auto-nuke, which I only ran into a couple times and they were all fortunately easy, so the set didn't get used at all. One wild thing is I never completed the Inquisitor Set, and actually didn't find quite a few different unique items. I mostly would have only used it for a Cyberdemon floor, but I never had one, and probably would have been fine anyway. Cerberus Armor and Boots did all the work needed.
Once I had assembled Biggest Fucking Gun (N), most floors were reduced to me firing it twice, and then cleaning up with Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle (F) and Nano Shrapnel Super Shotgun (P). Only a handful of times were particularly dangerous and the only concern was if I myself did something dumb. Fortunately, I did fine. I probably could have found a lot more Firestorm Packs to make more BFGs, but I was busy blowing up every floor and it's almost certain that I destroyed some. Having 2 or more Biggest Fucking Guns would have definitely been even more overkill. Finally, Hell Staff and Homing Phase Devices were only needed a few times to escape bad situations, and I honestly used them moreso to enter a floor with Invulnerability, particularly with a nuke for a quick clear.
I genuinely might do this again at some point.
2
Post Mortem / [U|AoMr|100%|YAAM] Marksman Platinum Badge
« on: November 19, 2022, 21:45 »
Nothing too crazy or special here, but this is my first time achieving this badge and wanted to provide the mortem.
I haven't extensively used pistols too much, but Gun Kata is very strong once you get going, and I still had so many more traits I could invest into. I imagine a fully decked out build would be sick. Getting a completion wasn't too bad after I switched off trying to use Sharpshooter. This is now my 23rd of 26 Platinum Badges, missing Strongman, Elite, and Demonic.
Here's the mortem:
I haven't extensively used pistols too much, but Gun Kata is very strong once you get going, and I still had so many more traits I could invest into. I imagine a fully decked out build would be sick. Getting a completion wasn't too bad after I switched off trying to use Sharpshooter. This is now my 23rd of 26 Platinum Badges, missing Strongman, Elite, and Demonic.
Here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
3
Nightmare! / [N!|ArchAoMs|33%|YASD] Cyberdemon Death (with video)
« on: November 13, 2022, 19:18 »
(Video)
I've been working on Masochist Angelic Badge for the last couple days as it seems nobody has ever achieved it despite being far more doable than the rest. I think it'd be cool to be the first to get a badge, and likely for some time, be the only one with it. For the most part, it's a lot like Everyman Angelic Badge with avoiding damage as much as possible and then relying on some Invulnerability luck to get through the rest. I will definitely get this badge, but it could take some effort depending on how lucky I get.
This run itself was pretty well-played, although I had worse luck relative to what is really needed. Unfortunately, I made a bad misstep against the Cyberdemon and died. Had I killed it and moved onto Hell, I likely wouldn't have survived for too much longer, given that I only had 3 HP, but with a lucky Invulnerability nearby, this run had a chance for a completion. Nonetheless, because I think it's a good demonstration and I wanted to share, I uploaded a video of the run. Perhaps it will help other aspiring players, or even those going for this badge itself in the future. I'll try not to get too spammy with gameplay footage. :D
Here's the mortem:
I'll keep grinding this and eventually get it!
I've been working on Masochist Angelic Badge for the last couple days as it seems nobody has ever achieved it despite being far more doable than the rest. I think it'd be cool to be the first to get a badge, and likely for some time, be the only one with it. For the most part, it's a lot like Everyman Angelic Badge with avoiding damage as much as possible and then relying on some Invulnerability luck to get through the rest. I will definitely get this badge, but it could take some effort depending on how lucky I get.
This run itself was pretty well-played, although I had worse luck relative to what is really needed. Unfortunately, I made a bad misstep against the Cyberdemon and died. Had I killed it and moved onto Hell, I likely wouldn't have survived for too much longer, given that I only had 3 HP, but with a lucky Invulnerability nearby, this run had a chance for a completion. Nonetheless, because I think it's a good demonstration and I wanted to share, I uploaded a video of the run. Perhaps it will help other aspiring players, or even those going for this badge itself in the future. I'll try not to get too spammy with gameplay footage. :D
Here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'll keep grinding this and eventually get it!
4
Post Mortem / [U|AoMC/AoOC|100%|YAAM] 100% Damageless (with video)
« on: November 13, 2022, 08:02 »
(Video)
I figured I'm long overdue for some videos, so I spent a bit of time setting up recording software and then did this run for something casual. I think I played pretty well overall, only made a few small mistakes, and had above average luck for items and floors. The only big blunder was forgetting to grab the Invulnerability leaving Hell 6 lol. I also wanted to use the trick to get the Spider Mastermind stuck, but it wasn't working out and just went for the kill.
I'll likely upload more videos in the future of shorter and interesting games, but probably not for games that span multiple hours or are tedious like farming kills. Maybe I'll also play for medals and badges I already have as a demonstration for anyone else trying to get them.
Here's the mortem:
I figured I'm long overdue for some videos, so I spent a bit of time setting up recording software and then did this run for something casual. I think I played pretty well overall, only made a few small mistakes, and had above average luck for items and floors. The only big blunder was forgetting to grab the Invulnerability leaving Hell 6 lol. I also wanted to use the trick to get the Spider Mastermind stuck, but it wasn't working out and just went for the kill.
I'll likely upload more videos in the future of shorter and interesting games, but probably not for games that span multiple hours or are tedious like farming kills. Maybe I'll also play for medals and badges I already have as a demonstration for anyone else trying to get them.
Here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
5
Nightmare! / [N!|ArchAoHu|18%|YAVP] Everyman Angelic Badge
« on: November 11, 2022, 18:18 »
Let's fucking go!!! I am now the second player in Ontario to achieve Everyman Angelic Badge.
Through theorycrafting about this badge in my research and learning more about the challenge with real attempts, I am convinced that Scout->Intuition is the best build by a large gap. Getting through Deimos and especially Hell are highly dependent on Invulnerabilities, and to a lesser extent, Berserk Packs. There's just no way to fight back with basically no health, no traits, no real equipment, etc. You just have to run to the stairs, and Invulnerability is the key. Hellrunner is definitely the second best build, and then by a large gap Finesse and Reloader are in the next tier, but I highly recommend to anyone else attempting this to use Intuition.
Phobos Base Entry is pretty trivial, but can get a bit tedious and annoying since it takes 3-5 minutes and your run often doesn't pan out long after that. Ensuring you exit it with high health and ideally some extra Small Med Packs is nice and I would let myself get killed if I wasn't happy with the start. Floor 2 isn't too bad, but immediately entering floor 3 are Hell Knights, which you have to push through until you get to The Chained Court. Intuition is actually quite handy beyond just finding Invulnerabilities as knowing where Berserk Packs is very helpful for speed and resistances, and Health Globes are functionally like Soulspheres.
Floor 7 ideally offers Invulnerability near the stairs, but Phobos Anomaly is totally doable with just Berserk. After that, it really comes down to starting near stairs, stacking Invulnerabilities, and not getting overwhelmed by enemies.
Onto this particular run, I had a standard start and nothing too interesting came up all the way to Deimos 7, although being Invulnerable at that point was nice. Before this, I've had 2 runs to and past Tower of Babel, and 3 other runs to Deimos 7.
Deimos 7 had extremely good fortune for me.
It was even better too with a Homing Phase Device! But I was pretty concerned about the enemies in there, but I figured I could get at least one Invulnerability.
Luckily, the Homing Phase Device survived the attacks and I was able to grab it. I even was able to get the other Invulnerability too, giving me a really strong setup!
Tower of Babel was also nice as the Cyberdemon was close by, saving many turns of Berserk and Invulnerability, although I got shot back a few times due to the direct diagonal angel.
Hell 1 was a solid start, definitely above average.
Turned out it was excellent!
Hell 2 sucked, but given that I had 2 Homing Phase Devices, I could skip it and hoped that there wouldn't be any nasty floors ahead.
Hell 3 was very good for an arena.
Hell 4 was also great. At this point, I was realizing that this could be it!
Hell 5 presented me a very difficult call. This floor was a bit below average, nothing atrocious, so I was very split on whether to use my other Homing Phase Device or not, but after taking a moment, I decided to go for it.
Hell 6 was insanely good and at this point barring extremely bad luck, I was ready to win!!!
And Hell 7 completely sealed the deal!!!
I was getting a touch concerned trying to get down the stairs as I was getting pinballed around.
But eventually I got on them!
And time to hack away for an easy finish!
And got the lovely Everyman Angelic Badge!!!
And here's the mortem:
This is now my 4th life-time Angelic Badge, and 3rd on this save file (I haven't regained Veteran Angelic Badge yet), and I'm extremely pumped to get it. The game itself was extremely lucky, but that's pretty much what you need to beat it. All that said though, I do thing the difficulty of this badge is a bit overrated. It's very, very hard, but I have no doubt that many other players can achieve this if they buckle down and grind out the games. Intuition is the way to go and getting past Phobos Anomaly is not exceptionally difficult. From there, it's all about getting enough games until you get a massive stack of Invulernabilities.
Let's go!
Through theorycrafting about this badge in my research and learning more about the challenge with real attempts, I am convinced that Scout->Intuition is the best build by a large gap. Getting through Deimos and especially Hell are highly dependent on Invulnerabilities, and to a lesser extent, Berserk Packs. There's just no way to fight back with basically no health, no traits, no real equipment, etc. You just have to run to the stairs, and Invulnerability is the key. Hellrunner is definitely the second best build, and then by a large gap Finesse and Reloader are in the next tier, but I highly recommend to anyone else attempting this to use Intuition.
Phobos Base Entry is pretty trivial, but can get a bit tedious and annoying since it takes 3-5 minutes and your run often doesn't pan out long after that. Ensuring you exit it with high health and ideally some extra Small Med Packs is nice and I would let myself get killed if I wasn't happy with the start. Floor 2 isn't too bad, but immediately entering floor 3 are Hell Knights, which you have to push through until you get to The Chained Court. Intuition is actually quite handy beyond just finding Invulnerabilities as knowing where Berserk Packs is very helpful for speed and resistances, and Health Globes are functionally like Soulspheres.
Floor 7 ideally offers Invulnerability near the stairs, but Phobos Anomaly is totally doable with just Berserk. After that, it really comes down to starting near stairs, stacking Invulnerabilities, and not getting overwhelmed by enemies.
Onto this particular run, I had a standard start and nothing too interesting came up all the way to Deimos 7, although being Invulnerable at that point was nice. Before this, I've had 2 runs to and past Tower of Babel, and 3 other runs to Deimos 7.
Deimos 7 had extremely good fortune for me.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was even better too with a Homing Phase Device! But I was pretty concerned about the enemies in there, but I figured I could get at least one Invulnerability.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Luckily, the Homing Phase Device survived the attacks and I was able to grab it. I even was able to get the other Invulnerability too, giving me a really strong setup!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Tower of Babel was also nice as the Cyberdemon was close by, saving many turns of Berserk and Invulnerability, although I got shot back a few times due to the direct diagonal angel.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hell 1 was a solid start, definitely above average.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Turned out it was excellent!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hell 2 sucked, but given that I had 2 Homing Phase Devices, I could skip it and hoped that there wouldn't be any nasty floors ahead.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hell 3 was very good for an arena.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hell 4 was also great. At this point, I was realizing that this could be it!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hell 5 presented me a very difficult call. This floor was a bit below average, nothing atrocious, so I was very split on whether to use my other Homing Phase Device or not, but after taking a moment, I decided to go for it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hell 6 was insanely good and at this point barring extremely bad luck, I was ready to win!!!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And Hell 7 completely sealed the deal!!!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I was getting a touch concerned trying to get down the stairs as I was getting pinballed around.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But eventually I got on them!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And time to hack away for an easy finish!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And got the lovely Everyman Angelic Badge!!!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This is now my 4th life-time Angelic Badge, and 3rd on this save file (I haven't regained Veteran Angelic Badge yet), and I'm extremely pumped to get it. The game itself was extremely lucky, but that's pretty much what you need to beat it. All that said though, I do thing the difficulty of this badge is a bit overrated. It's very, very hard, but I have no doubt that many other players can achieve this if they buckle down and grind out the games. Intuition is the way to go and getting past Phobos Anomaly is not exceptionally difficult. From there, it's all about getting enough games until you get a massive stack of Invulernabilities.
Let's go!
6
Nightmare! / [N!|ArchAoHu|26%|YASD] Hell 3 Death
« on: November 08, 2022, 20:02 »
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:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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!
7
Nightmare! / [N!|ArchAoHu|18%|YASD] Hell 5 Death
« on: November 07, 2022, 20:42 »
Today's been my first day of grinding for Everyman Angelic Badge and on my first run up to and past the Cyberdemon, I managed to push all the way to Hell 5. Unfortunately, I rolled some very unfortunate luck and couldn't escape out of the situation.
Despite praising Reloader in my study, I've ultimately switched to Hellrunner realizing just how little shooting there really is and given that, speed is absolutely necessary.
One trick I accidentally found while playing out games was that if an enemy is killed on the edge of Phobos Base Entry, they are unable to respawn, which has made getting starts easier and a fair bit faster. Getting to The Chained Court is the hard part and every run so far that has made it there has also made it to Deimos. Given that, if I can string together enough good fortune with close stairs, Berserk Packs, and Invulnerabilities, this challenge is absolutely doable.
Onto the run itself, the first several floors were standard, and then I got an excellent Phobos floor 7.
Deimos floor 2 was also absolutely fantastic.
Here, I was heavily split on what to do. City of Skulls is perfectly safe to run through, but it would have burned a lot of Berserk. On the other hand, if there were a swarm of enemies to the right, I might have taken heavy damage. I opted to go for the normal stairs and fortunately only had to kill a Former Human.
This floor was very tempting, but ultimately went immediately for the stairs and still had to burn through 2 Med Packs anyway.
This was an excellent floor and I was ready to fight the Cyberdemon with some heavy Berserk duration and still some Med Packs. With the math I did in my study thread, Chainsaw (B) was ready to go!
I got a bit greedy, but was forced to immediately take the stairs.
I had a fortunate Cyberdemon fight and tore it apart! Hell 1 was overall pretty nice.
EEP!
Because of the position of the barrel and all the fluids, I had no realistic option but to run to the right and blast away. Unfortunately though, I could hear Archvile noises.
When turning the corner, I just about got blasted to almost certain death into the acid, but dodged! Praise Hellrunner!
Going around the corner, there was a Computer Map that revealed a lot of goodies, but unfortunately I just couldn't go for them.
Wishing I had Reloader!
Even with running, fluids are brutal on this challenge and they cut off everything.
Scary start, but it was home free.
Things are starting to get really serious here. I did a pot shot down left and heard a bunch of Mancubi and was forced to run upwards. I found an Envirosuit!
From here, I charged between the boxes to draw as little attention as possible, and have a ton of defense against fire.
This was a brutal call. While I did have a Phase Device, The Mortuary was simply way too risky and I opted to charge through the maze, with the backup plan of heading back if it was too packed.
Fortunate entry into the maze.
I was very lucky it was only Lost Souls and Pain Elementals, and had an easy escape.
This is finally where things started to look grim, despite only 3 floors from the Spider Mastermind, who I was absolutely confident I would destroy if I could get there. Given that this is a maze level and the stairs are literally on the complete opposite side, I dashed for the Phase Device and hoped for the best.
lmao
Using Chainsaw (B), I was lucky to get mostly hits, especially without Berserk. But I turned the corner and had this mess.
I could hear a Mancubus directly to the left, so I figured with my fire resistance that I would charge at the Archvile and hopefully be able to get around.
omfg
I was on the verge of getting eaten, but a Revenant blew up most of the Demons and I survived with 1 HP left!
Unfortunately, the corner had a clog of Demons that I couldn't use Shotgun knockback through, so I had no choice but to run back down.
And unfortunately, I got blown up.
Here's the mortem:
Pretty dang good for my first day of trying for this, 18 serious attempts for the badge, 3 runs past Phobos, and 1 run past Deimos. I'm going to commit to grinding for this badge and I'm going to get it!
Despite praising Reloader in my study, I've ultimately switched to Hellrunner realizing just how little shooting there really is and given that, speed is absolutely necessary.
One trick I accidentally found while playing out games was that if an enemy is killed on the edge of Phobos Base Entry, they are unable to respawn, which has made getting starts easier and a fair bit faster. Getting to The Chained Court is the hard part and every run so far that has made it there has also made it to Deimos. Given that, if I can string together enough good fortune with close stairs, Berserk Packs, and Invulnerabilities, this challenge is absolutely doable.
Onto the run itself, the first several floors were standard, and then I got an excellent Phobos floor 7.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Deimos floor 2 was also absolutely fantastic.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Here, I was heavily split on what to do. City of Skulls is perfectly safe to run through, but it would have burned a lot of Berserk. On the other hand, if there were a swarm of enemies to the right, I might have taken heavy damage. I opted to go for the normal stairs and fortunately only had to kill a Former Human.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This floor was very tempting, but ultimately went immediately for the stairs and still had to burn through 2 Med Packs anyway.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was an excellent floor and I was ready to fight the Cyberdemon with some heavy Berserk duration and still some Med Packs. With the math I did in my study thread, Chainsaw (B) was ready to go!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I got a bit greedy, but was forced to immediately take the stairs.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I had a fortunate Cyberdemon fight and tore it apart! Hell 1 was overall pretty nice.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
EEP!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Because of the position of the barrel and all the fluids, I had no realistic option but to run to the right and blast away. Unfortunately though, I could hear Archvile noises.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
When turning the corner, I just about got blasted to almost certain death into the acid, but dodged! Praise Hellrunner!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Going around the corner, there was a Computer Map that revealed a lot of goodies, but unfortunately I just couldn't go for them.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Wishing I had Reloader!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Even with running, fluids are brutal on this challenge and they cut off everything.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Scary start, but it was home free.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Things are starting to get really serious here. I did a pot shot down left and heard a bunch of Mancubi and was forced to run upwards. I found an Envirosuit!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
From here, I charged between the boxes to draw as little attention as possible, and have a ton of defense against fire.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was a brutal call. While I did have a Phase Device, The Mortuary was simply way too risky and I opted to charge through the maze, with the backup plan of heading back if it was too packed.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Fortunate entry into the maze.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I was very lucky it was only Lost Souls and Pain Elementals, and had an easy escape.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This is finally where things started to look grim, despite only 3 floors from the Spider Mastermind, who I was absolutely confident I would destroy if I could get there. Given that this is a maze level and the stairs are literally on the complete opposite side, I dashed for the Phase Device and hoped for the best.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
lmao
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Using Chainsaw (B), I was lucky to get mostly hits, especially without Berserk. But I turned the corner and had this mess.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I could hear a Mancubus directly to the left, so I figured with my fire resistance that I would charge at the Archvile and hopefully be able to get around.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
omfg
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I was on the verge of getting eaten, but a Revenant blew up most of the Demons and I survived with 1 HP left!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unfortunately, the corner had a clog of Demons that I couldn't use Shotgun knockback through, so I had no choice but to run back down.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And unfortunately, I got blown up.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Pretty dang good for my first day of trying for this, 18 serious attempts for the badge, 3 runs past Phobos, and 1 run past Deimos. I'm going to commit to grinding for this badge and I'm going to get it!
8
Discussion / Everyman Angelic Badge: An In-Depth Study
« on: November 06, 2022, 17:23 »
EDIT: I've updated many parts of this post as I've gone from theorycrafting to actually playing runs and also achieving the badge. A lot of information is improved.
Everyman Angelic Badge is an extremely difficult challenge and it's very unique in many ways that I find really interesting and exciting. As hard of a badge it is to earn, the initial build selection and planning is very simplified compared to normal gameplay because of the lack of traits. With Nightmare difficulty, 10 base maximum HP, and only one trait, you are very limited in what you can do and what you're capable of, which also makes it much easier to optimize, or at least hypothetically. With this in mind, the one trait you do select and how it impacts every part of the game is very critical, so it's worthwhile analyzing all of the possibilities.
Class Choice
Between the 3 classes who each have 10 traits, there are effectively only 30 builds, compared to the functionally infinite ways to make a build for normal games. Since the traits are all the same across the classes except the starting advanced trait available, the first part is to analyze each class. Hypothetically, most traits could be used to get a completion, and very hypothetically, all of them could, but the focus is on which is the best for the purposes of human realism on getting a completion.
Scout
Scout has 10% more speed than other classes inherently, which negates the speed loss from Nightmare difficulty, overall still being faster than other builds and also helping simplify some calculations. Of course, the main perk out of a Scout is stair sense. Given that your character will be a complete wimp, any sort of attempt of clearing out floors would be pretty much impossible, and it's ideal to be diving to the stairs, only detouring for items such as Invulnerabilities. Since level-ups have no effect, killing enemies offer no benefit besides their drops, so clearing out everything is unnecessary and dangerous. This makes stair sense incredibly important for success by reducing the exploration time down to a fraction compared to those without stair sense.
Marine
On Nightmare difficulty, each Invulnerability and Berserk offers 100 actions of duration, and a Marine has 125 instead. While the extra turns are certainly helpful, it's not as strong of a boost on Nightmare difficulty, and compared to stair sense, those 25 extra turns will likely just get burned through trying to find the stairs. The Marine also has 12 HP as opposed to 10, but unless your total damage taken is hitting 10 or 11, it's likely not significant enough of a benefit. The Marine's Badass trait helps preserve more HP up to 18, but that's an expensive trade-off for the boosts in speed and power. You can't be taking too much damage in general, so having extra health to burn won't be saving you from too much extra in the late game, and you can probably reduce damage taken by stopping enemies easier with other traits. The Marine doesn't seem to offer anything to be worth choosing over Scout.
Technician
The Technician comes with many various perks, but most will not significantly help survive through this challenge. Computer Maps functioning as Tracking Maps can help you avoid enemies, but you likely won't find too many while specifically not finding a Tracking Map per game, and they may simply just provide you with confirmation that you're about to die. They do offer the only way to see enemies since Intuition 2 is unavailable, but any class can likewise find Tracking Maps. Modifying a few unique items is pretty useless as they're all very rare, the perk only slightly improves them, and you have to first get far enough into the game for them to even be able to appear. Instant item use is a very good perk however as you're able to immediately heal without being instantly attacked and having your health brought back down. This helps a lot with reducing burning through Med Packs, but is likely still not outclassing stair sense. With Whizkid 1, it opens up quite a few useful assemblies such as Focused Double Shotgun and Hyperblaster, and it's possible to farm ammo for both, so I wouldn't write-off using it, especially starting off with plenty of Mod Packs to immediately make either if you find the corresponding base, but using a Hyperblaster is arguably not better than a much faster Scout using a Plasma Rifle and diving for the stairs. With no supportive traits, Focused Double Shotgun is still fairly dangerous to use with its slow reload time, and Hyperblaster will still be burning through ammo and needs a support weapon. Even with them, you likely won't be able to reasonably fend off the huge numbers of enemies.
Likely unsurprising, Scout is the class of choice, but I do think a Technician or Marine could possibly get through too if they find correspondingly beneficial items. Stair sense is just far too useful and the speed boosts help allow you to reduce damage and clear paths by simply being able to kill enemies easier as they approach.
Trait Choice
Next is to break down the Scout's trait to select.
Ironman
Ironman adds 20% of your base maximum health, which in the case of Archcangel of Humanity is only 2. As is often the case in normal games, it's a bit of a filler trait and the negligible increase in health likely won't make a significant difference in your survivability. It's much more beneficial to simply be faster and reduce the possibilities of taking damage in the first place, rather than having extra health as a crutch. The only niche it's useful for is that Trigun's Angel Arm can't be used unless you have at least 11 maximum health, but finding it, burning off those extra 2, and not having another trait is all not worth having a free nuke.
Finesse
Finesse gives you a nice boost to firing speed, which can greatly help support the Shotgun's slowish speed and give you much more opportunity to keep enemies away. If you start in an open area with multiple fronts, it also helps a lot with pushing back more enemies in at a faster rate. This all said, 15% is only on average saving you an action for every 7 shots and doesn't help with reloading, so the speed increase isn't gigantic. It does also help with using the Chainsaw on the Cyberdemon if you don't have Invulnerability because you will get hit back slightly less often. If you like to throw in the starting Bulk Pack into a Shotgun for faster reloading speed, naturally having faster firing speed also helps smooth out your overall speed with using a Shotgun, instead of a small spike and large spike between firing and reloading. Overall, it helps a fair bit throughout the whole game and is one of the better choices.
Hellrunner
Providing 15% movement speed is very helpful for a game that will be focused on stair diving, and the dodge bonus is also helpful, both for regular levels, and often the Cyberdemon as well. To nitpick, compared to other traits, it won't help at all when standing in place and firing at enemies, and because Invulnerability and Berserk are based on movement actions, Hellrunner results in burning more turns to get to the Cyberdemon since it will be moving less often as you charge it. The other critiques against it is that because a completion of this challenge will likely be the result of stacks of Berserk and Invulnerability, Hellrunner isn't really helping under optimal situations, but of course is much more helpful when you have worse luck and have to run through without power-ups. Hellrunner is likely one of the choices, since traits that help combat are a bit irrelevant with how fruitless fighting back often is, but because of the dynamics and infinite possibilities, there may be many cases where others are better.
Tough as Nails
Tough is Nails isn't honestly terrible, since even reducing damage from 2 to 1 effectively doubles your lifespan, but it's a rather passive trait instead of something proactive. In order for it to save you from death, the sum of damage reduction has to equal the damage of an attack that would have otherwise killed you, which often is only giving you a couple extra hits across multiple floors if even that. It does help a lot more in the early game where damage is a lot lower, so I wouldn't completely write it off, but it's certainly not the most beneficial trait.
Son of a Bitch
Adding on an extra bit of damage to everything is nice, but it only helps if the 1 point difference saves you a shot or more per kill. Granted, this amount could be a lot, but would be hard to determine just how much Son of a Bitch is helping. Shotguns are fairly weak from a distance, which you may find yourself doing a lot, so that extra bit could be reducing the required shots by a lot in some situations, especially for tough enemies. The main comparison is if the faster kills are reducing the number of hits to simply being able to fire back faster with Finesse. More knockback with Son of a Bitch can also help slightly. Overall, I think it could be decent, but I don't think it's a top pick overall.
Son of a Gun
Given the nature of this challenge, you don't want to be using pistols. Pistols are only good with a full build dedicated to them, and a single trait is nowhere near enough to justify using them.
Reloader
Reloader is normally a pretty underwhelming trait, but because of the huge reliance on Shotguns and the better speed improvement compared to Finesse, it helps save a bit extra time, although is less helpful for other weapons. Reloader with the Bulk Pack in Shotgun gives the fastest speed for the beginning of the game, but is a bit spiky as firing speed isn't improved, and the Technical Pack helps smooth out shooting better. Reloader is definitely the best trait in terms of attacking in place with a Shotgun, but is a fair bit worse than other traits in most other situations. A lucky Shell Box also negates most of the benefits of Reloader, as opposed to Finesse which doesn't have a simple replacement.
Eagle Eye
Given that Shotguns are the most effective weapon without traits boosting them, Eagle Eye is likely not a great pick since they don't help them. The main appeal is it does somewhat open up using other weapons such as a Chaingun that goes from 74% accuracy to 91% accuracy at point blank. With the huge onslaught of enemies though, Shotguns are more helpful with groups and are also more ammo efficient, but a Chaingun could help with single targets or if you need to use several bursts without the risk of using reload repeatedly with a Shotgun. The Chainsaw and Plasma Rifle also enjoy increases to accuracy, which would help a lot for the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind. I think Eagle Eye could be usable, but I don't think it's the best choice with how much Shotgun should be used and that running through floors to the stairs tends to be a more effective strategy anyway.
Brute
It should go without saying that melee is not the way through this challenge. The main perk out of Brute is it can help speed up the Cyberdemon fight while Invulernable and/or Berserk, moreso because of the accuracy increase, but it's not really helpful at all for the rest of the game. Even with a miraculous Dragonslayer or Butcher's Cleaver, the hits you'll be taking even while camping are way too much for your tiny health amount.
Intuition
Intuition is a bit gimmicky in that it doesn't directly improve your character at all and simply informs you of where useful power-ups are, but because Invulnerabilities are essentially critical for success, I personally believe Intuition is the best build to use. The slight perk of knowing what levers may do isn't a huge deal, but can be slightly helpful for quick heals and armor repair. For Intuition to be beneficial, it has to influence your decision-making on where you go in a positive way, such as showing you that an Invulnerability or Berserk is a little further past the stairs, or nearby the opposite direction at the start. Knowing where healing power-ups is also helpful as you will likely need to rely on them to survive. However, the big setback is that Invulnerabilities only appear starting on floor 7 of Phobos, which makes Intuition a lot less useful early on. It's still great for Berserk Packs and Health Globes, but other traits are definitely better with getting through Phobos. Under ideal situations with lots of helpful power-ups, Intuition is the best, but Hellrunner is generally better in less than ideal scenarios. While getting through Phobos is hard, a player can definitely grind out runs through it and then hopefully find stacks of Invulnerabilities for an easy walk through the rest of the game.
With all of these choices and widely varying circumstances, it's difficult to determine which one is the best overall, but I would argue Intuition is the best choice by a fair-sized gap. Getting through Phobos will require more skill and more luck, but the potential to make the rest of the game as easy as possible with this challenge is such a huge benefit. Hellrunner is definitely the second best choice by providing the very helpful movement speed and dodging bonus to escape each floor, and will always be beneficial, instead of Intuition which is not as consistent. The next tier down by a fair gap would likely be Finesse and Reloader, followed by Son of a Bitch and Eagle Eye. The other 4 traits definitely are outclassed, and using a Marine or Technician is definitely also outclassed. This overall leaves 6 build choices that are at least somewhat viable, but I would strongly recommend Intuition.
Mod Pack Usage
Next is some planning for the run itself.
As you start with one of each Mod Pack, good use of them is important. The Bulk Pack could contribute to either reducing Shotgun reloading time by 25%, or giving the Chainsaw a damage buff. Damage calculations later will show that Piercing Blade isn't often worth using and Chainsaw (B) is very strong. High Power Weapon and Gatling Gun are generally outclassed by Shotgun, unless you're using an Eagle Eye build, so I think the best use of the Bulk Pack is the Chainsaw and using the Technical Pack for the Shotgun instead.
The Agility Pack can be immediately used in your starting Red Armor as it offers a 15% increase in speed compared to 10% in boots that you may not find right away. The Power Pack on the other hand gives 2 extra protection to Red Armor, and since you don't have much health to begin with, the durability of the armor should last a long while to make good use of it. Below are some damage calculations (I believe I have the rounding calculated correctly):
Former Human pistol shot vs Red Armor: 2d4 - 4
6.25% for 4 damage
12.5% for 3 damage
18.75% for 2 damage
62.5% for 1 damage
Former Human pistol shot vs Red Armor (P): 2d4 - 6
6.25% for 2 damage
93.75% for 1 damage
Former Sergeant shotgun blast (1 tile distance) vs Red Armor: (8d3 - 14%) - 8
2.39% for 10 damage (dead without health boost)
4.05% for 9 damage
7.68% for 8 damage
27.44% for 7 damage
16.87% for 6 damage
15.49% for 5 damage
11.95% for 4 damage
7.68% for 3 damage
4.05% for 2 damage
2.39% for 1 damage
Former Sergeant shotgun blast (1 tile distance) vs Red Armor (P): (8d3 - 14%) - 12
0.02% for 9 damage
0.12% for 8 damage
0.55% for 7 damage
1.71% for 6 damage
4.05% for 5 damage
7.68% for 4 damage
27.44% for 3 damage
16.87% for 2 damage
41.56% for 1 damage
Imp fireball vs Red Armor: (2d5 - 25%) - 4
4% for 4 damage
8% for 3 damage
12% for 2 damage
76% for 1 damage
Imp fireball vs Red Armor (P): (2d5 - 25%) - 6
4% for 2 damage
96% for 1 damage
Demon melee attack vs Red Armor: 1d3 + 5 - 4
33.33% for 4 damage
33.33% for 3 damage
33.33% for 2 damage
Demon melee attack vs Red Armor (P): 1d3 + 5 - 6
33.33% for 2 damage
66.67% for 1 damage
As you can see at a glance, Red Armor (P) significantly helps reducing damage in the early game. Whether or not that it makes up for the 15% speed increase with Red Armor (A) is far too complex of a question to answer, but given that you can find Steel Boots early and still come with 10% speed, I think it's most reasonable to use the Power Pack for Red Armor. If you find a second Agility Pack, it may be better to put into the Phobos Anomaly Red Armor as Tactical Boots only gets 5% extra speed as opposed to 15% for armor.
The Technical Pack is best used for a weapon, which can be either Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, or possibly Plasma Rifle, although I would suggest Shotgun. If you want to use the Bulk Pack for Chainsaw for more damage, then the Technical Pack fits well into the Shotgun. You could also use the Technical Pack for the Chainsaw to increase attacking speed, although this only gives about 1 extra hit per 5 against the Cyberdemon and is not terribly beneficial compared to more damage. The best use may instead be simply holding onto it in the case you find a Combat Shotgun.
To summarize, I think the best application is:
Shotgun (T), Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun, Chainsaw (B)
Alternatives include:
Shotgun, Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun (T), Chainsaw (B)
Shotgun, Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Tactical Shotgun, Chainsaw (B)
Shotgun (T), Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Combat Shotgun (P), Chainsaw (B)
Shotgun (B), Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun (T), Chainsaw
Shotgun (B), Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Combat Shotgun, Chainsaw (P)
Which is best will highly vary based on what Mod Packs you find, how early you find boots and a Combat Shotgun, playstyle, and also what trait you picked.
Phobos
Phobos Base Entry is best played by taking cover at one of the corners of the building, grabbing a Shotgun as safely as possible, and then preventing corpses from respawning. This can be done by stacking them on top of each other, shooting enemies into the outer edges, or simply standing on them while clearing out others. Keep health as high as possible, try to one shot kill enemies in order to get the extra Small Med Packs, and be sure to exit with large stacks of shells. Keep a few open slots as you may find items worth grabbing later and don't want to spend time dropping garbage.
Because most enemies will make quick work of you in Deimos and Hell, you don't have time to heal later, and Phobos Anomaly itself has two Large Med Packs, it's important to not be stingy with using them throughout the floors of Phobos. It's much better to have a below average run than to risk dying, since both a good or bad run essentially need the same type of luck in Deimos and Hell anyway. Work your way to the stairs as safely as you can on each floor and be sure to take shots into open, dark areas to scout for enemies. Phobos 3, 4, and 5 get dangerous fast with Hell Knights and other enemies, and The Chained Court is essential for success because of Berserk Packs and the Chainsaw. It can be a bit demotivating to spend time getting a good start through Phobos Base Entry only to die quickly after, so you'll need to tough things out and keep grinding for runs.
For multi-hit enemies such as Former Captains, Former Commandos, and Arachnatrons, who all can quickly melt your health, it's often safer to lure them in around cover and attack with Chainsaw. Damage reduction does bring their shots down in power, but the quantity of them is too high to survive for long.
Phobos Anomaly
Next is analyzing how to get through Phobos Anomaly.
Phobos Anomaly gives a fresh Red Armor, two Large Med Packs, and enough health to be at a maxed 20% as you enter the trap. The easiest way to get through is a fortunate floor 7 Invulnerability, which is the first floor it can spawn on. Otherwise, using either type of phase device to hopefully get past the trap or rocket jumping through with a Rocket Launcher. Even with any kind of support, Hellrunner helps significantly with the faster movement speed and the extra dodge bonus chance. Intuition is useless for this floor. There aren't really too many safe ways to be killing any enemies, so any of the other possible traits to pick aren't helpful here. Ultimately, this level will be a barrier for many games.
Nightmare Demons will uniformly do damage in the range of 11-13, so even with 200% HP and Red Armor, you can only survive 2 hits, but you can definitely be killed in just 2 after health decay and high damage rolls. Nightmare Cacodemons will do an average of 6 damage after considering Red Armor protection per plasma ball, which also can't be tanked for very long. Finally, while Nightmare Imps do an average of 5 damage after protection per plasma ball, they more importantly can open doors so you aren't able to camp in the first or third room. Because of all this, you'll have to simply run through, and you are essentially forced to grab all of the Berserk Packs from The Chained Court. With all 4 and the Chainsaw, you'll have 500 turns of Berserk, which functionally guarantees you Berserk at Phobos Anomaly and significantly reducing all the damage, almost entirely down to just 1. Unless you have a horrendous floor 6 and 7, or have no choice but to spend time firing at enemies, you should be able to be Berserk every run through Phobos Anomaly. There is just no other way to get through Phobos Anomaly with any amount of consistency.
For the Bruiser Brothers, rocket jumping between them is the fastest way through and helps avoid damage the most, but otherwise pick a side and run by. Being near them will increase the chance of being hit, but being near the wall will lead to getting caught in the splash damage. Take a note of where the plasma balls will hit in the case of a miss for each movement, and move in such a way to avoid the splash damage. Depending on the angle and positioning, you could attempt to get hit by the end radius and use the damage to be knocked back further ahead, but this needs to be done precisely. You may prefer just getting hit by melee attacks, which will keep your armor's durability higher, and will only do 1 damage assuming you have Red Armor. Regardless of what support you have, always get to the teleporter as fast and safely as possible. You'll likely get destroyed many games on this level if you don't have Berserk Packs.
Tower of Babel
The Cyberdemon has 450 health, its melee damage ranges 16-18 uniformly before reductions, and rockets will do huge chunks of damage if not outright kill you without protection through Red Armor and/or Berserk. Ideally, you'll have had more opportunities to be Invulnerable and/or Berserk and be able to be powered up for Tower of Babel. Hellrunner is a bit disadvantageous for charging to the Cyberdemon as the duration for power-ups is turn-based and the Cyberdemon will be moving a bit less each turn. Even with Hellrunner's dodge bonus and with max distance away, the Cyberdemon's health is far too high to chip away at with a Shotgun without eventually getting hit, so using the Chainsaw is the only way to go, but if you're not Invulnerable, you must absolutely be Berserk as the melee damage back is way too high. In the case you have a nuke and are Invulnerable, immediately blowing up the level is the best use as the Spider Mastermind can be killed much easier.
Given 450 health and 4 armor, the following are some damage calculations for different types of Chainsaw. All calculations assume being Berserk.
Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average of 37.5 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (A): 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average 30.24 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 31, average of 14.5 hits to kill, average of 29.03 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (P): 4d7 x2, average damage of 28, average of 16.07 hits to kill, average of 32.14 attacks to kill.
Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 14.06 hits to kill, average of 28.13 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average of 25.34 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 31, average of 14.5 hits to kill, average of 19.59 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 14.06 hits to kill, average of 19 attacks to kill.
At a quick glance, Eagle Eye significantly improves the fight, requiring far less hits. With Invulnerability, this saves an average of about 10 turns, helping you be sure you have enough entering, and more likely to have some duration after the kill. That said, I would argue it's not enough to justify using Eagle Eye over Intuition, Hellrunner, or other good traits for the game up to this point.
The other notable point is that Piercing Chainsaw is very overrated while Berserk, and doesn't reduce the fight by much. Because Berserk doubles damage before armor reduction, the piercing doesn't add too much extra damage compared to a simple Bulk Pack. When not Berserk, the 4 damage boost is a more significant percentage of damage, but you likely won't survive long without Berserk anyway. However, Piercing Chainsaw is certainly helpful if you have Invulnerability and no Berserk:
Chainsaw (B): 5d6, average damage of 13.5, average of 33.3 hits to kill, average of 66.6 attacks to kill.
Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7, average damage of 16, average of 28.13 hits to kill, average of 56.25 attacks to kill.
Because of this, it could be argued that Chainsaw (B) and Shotgun (T) is a much better initial setup, and that likewise gives extra viability to using Reloader for getting starts. Using both an Agility Pack and Power Pack for Chainsaw is a large investment and likely doesn't help as much as using them for other items.
In any case, Tower of Babel is very simple to play optimally in, but requires good luck to realistically survive.
Dis
To start, if you have a nuke, immediately use it and win the game.
If you have enough Invulnerability and Berserk, it's possible to simply charge at the Spider Mastermind and attack until you get the kill. Flinching is a bit uncommon due to missing half the hits and needing a high damage roll, so if you have no power-ups, do not go for melee attacks. While the Spider Mastermind's melee damage is puny, its AI is fairly unpredictable and if it moves too far away and fires, your health will get destroyed. Berserk and Red Armor can reduce many shots down to 1, but bursts of 4 are still dangerous. Without Invulnerability, it may be wise to go for getting the Spider Mastermind stuck at one of the middle pillars. Below are various damage calculations using Chainsaw, assuming Berserk:
Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average of 38.46 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (A): 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average 31.02 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 33, average of 15.15 hits to kill, average of 30.30 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (P): 4d7 x2, average damage of 30, average of 16.67 hits to kill, average of 33.33 attacks to kill.
Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 15.63 hits to kill, average of 31.25 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average of 25.99 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 33, average of 15.15 hits to kill, average of 20.48 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 15.63 hits to kill, average of 21.11 attacks to kill.
Once again, Piercing Chainsaw is very overrated, and in fact worse than Chainsaw (B). Eagle Eye also helps save many turns, but it's still likely too much of a disadvantage for the rest of the game to be worth getting an advantage for the fight here. With Berserk, so long as you hit, there's a good chance of getting a flinch, so if you have enough Med Packs, Red Armor, and Berserk, charging into the Spider Mastermind can be fine even without Invulnerability.
If you don't have any power-ups but plenty of ammo, the best strategy is to go to the corner of one of the pillars, watch where the Spider Mastermind goes, and slowly and safely have it go around so that you can run to one of the middle pillars. Once in place, stand at one of the spots that is one space away from the pillar and one space away from the wall. If the Spider Mastermind becomes visible on the other side, fire, and depending on how it tries to move, may get stuck and only be able to move vertically in a space of 3 tiles permanently so long as you stay in place. If so, you can simply shoot it to death without any danger of it going anywhere else or being able to hit you. If it doesn't get stuck and charges through, run around the other way. If the Spider Mastermind went back, you won't be able to distinguish whether it got stuck or just moved away due to lack of Intuition 2. Hellrunner is very helpful for going for this setup. If you're unfamiliar with this technique, practice it in an easier game first because it helps trivialize the fight, but requires some technical knowledge. If you're unfortunate with the setup, the Spider Mastermind can get dangerous, which is where Hellrunner helps a lot, but is possibly more unsafe than charging with a Chainsaw while Berserk. Even with perfect play, some bad luck and not getting it stuck can result in an unfortunate death.
Conclusion
Having achieved this badge and spending some time theorycrafting and testing things, I highly suggest using Intuition and grind runs past Phobos Anomaly until you eventually get the Invulnerabilities you need to make it through. Another key thing is Bulk Pack in Chainsaw is cheaper, and against the Spider Mastermind, actually better than Piercing Chainsaw. Not using Piercing Chainsaw also opens up use of any extra Power Packs or Agility Packs you find. This means the Technical Pack can go into the Shotgun instead. Agility Pack can go into either boots or armor, but I would argue that Red Armor (P) reducing damage is incredibly helpful with reducing early game damage. Alternatively though, Red Armor (A), also opens up Tactical Shotgun if you find Combat Shotgun.
Scout with Intuition seems to be the best choice overall, but Hellrunner is more consistently good with lower peaks. Reloader helps smooth out Shotgun attacking speed if it has a Technical Pack, but Finesse is more helpful for starting floors and Chainsaw usage, as well as if you find a Shell Box. There are some potential niche uses out of Eagle Eye and Son of a Bitch, but are definitely outclassed.
Everyman Angelic Badge is an extremely difficult challenge and it's very unique in many ways that I find really interesting and exciting. As hard of a badge it is to earn, the initial build selection and planning is very simplified compared to normal gameplay because of the lack of traits. With Nightmare difficulty, 10 base maximum HP, and only one trait, you are very limited in what you can do and what you're capable of, which also makes it much easier to optimize, or at least hypothetically. With this in mind, the one trait you do select and how it impacts every part of the game is very critical, so it's worthwhile analyzing all of the possibilities.
Class Choice
Between the 3 classes who each have 10 traits, there are effectively only 30 builds, compared to the functionally infinite ways to make a build for normal games. Since the traits are all the same across the classes except the starting advanced trait available, the first part is to analyze each class. Hypothetically, most traits could be used to get a completion, and very hypothetically, all of them could, but the focus is on which is the best for the purposes of human realism on getting a completion.
Scout
Scout has 10% more speed than other classes inherently, which negates the speed loss from Nightmare difficulty, overall still being faster than other builds and also helping simplify some calculations. Of course, the main perk out of a Scout is stair sense. Given that your character will be a complete wimp, any sort of attempt of clearing out floors would be pretty much impossible, and it's ideal to be diving to the stairs, only detouring for items such as Invulnerabilities. Since level-ups have no effect, killing enemies offer no benefit besides their drops, so clearing out everything is unnecessary and dangerous. This makes stair sense incredibly important for success by reducing the exploration time down to a fraction compared to those without stair sense.
Marine
On Nightmare difficulty, each Invulnerability and Berserk offers 100 actions of duration, and a Marine has 125 instead. While the extra turns are certainly helpful, it's not as strong of a boost on Nightmare difficulty, and compared to stair sense, those 25 extra turns will likely just get burned through trying to find the stairs. The Marine also has 12 HP as opposed to 10, but unless your total damage taken is hitting 10 or 11, it's likely not significant enough of a benefit. The Marine's Badass trait helps preserve more HP up to 18, but that's an expensive trade-off for the boosts in speed and power. You can't be taking too much damage in general, so having extra health to burn won't be saving you from too much extra in the late game, and you can probably reduce damage taken by stopping enemies easier with other traits. The Marine doesn't seem to offer anything to be worth choosing over Scout.
Technician
The Technician comes with many various perks, but most will not significantly help survive through this challenge. Computer Maps functioning as Tracking Maps can help you avoid enemies, but you likely won't find too many while specifically not finding a Tracking Map per game, and they may simply just provide you with confirmation that you're about to die. They do offer the only way to see enemies since Intuition 2 is unavailable, but any class can likewise find Tracking Maps. Modifying a few unique items is pretty useless as they're all very rare, the perk only slightly improves them, and you have to first get far enough into the game for them to even be able to appear. Instant item use is a very good perk however as you're able to immediately heal without being instantly attacked and having your health brought back down. This helps a lot with reducing burning through Med Packs, but is likely still not outclassing stair sense. With Whizkid 1, it opens up quite a few useful assemblies such as Focused Double Shotgun and Hyperblaster, and it's possible to farm ammo for both, so I wouldn't write-off using it, especially starting off with plenty of Mod Packs to immediately make either if you find the corresponding base, but using a Hyperblaster is arguably not better than a much faster Scout using a Plasma Rifle and diving for the stairs. With no supportive traits, Focused Double Shotgun is still fairly dangerous to use with its slow reload time, and Hyperblaster will still be burning through ammo and needs a support weapon. Even with them, you likely won't be able to reasonably fend off the huge numbers of enemies.
Likely unsurprising, Scout is the class of choice, but I do think a Technician or Marine could possibly get through too if they find correspondingly beneficial items. Stair sense is just far too useful and the speed boosts help allow you to reduce damage and clear paths by simply being able to kill enemies easier as they approach.
Trait Choice
Next is to break down the Scout's trait to select.
Ironman
Ironman adds 20% of your base maximum health, which in the case of Archcangel of Humanity is only 2. As is often the case in normal games, it's a bit of a filler trait and the negligible increase in health likely won't make a significant difference in your survivability. It's much more beneficial to simply be faster and reduce the possibilities of taking damage in the first place, rather than having extra health as a crutch. The only niche it's useful for is that Trigun's Angel Arm can't be used unless you have at least 11 maximum health, but finding it, burning off those extra 2, and not having another trait is all not worth having a free nuke.
Finesse
Finesse gives you a nice boost to firing speed, which can greatly help support the Shotgun's slowish speed and give you much more opportunity to keep enemies away. If you start in an open area with multiple fronts, it also helps a lot with pushing back more enemies in at a faster rate. This all said, 15% is only on average saving you an action for every 7 shots and doesn't help with reloading, so the speed increase isn't gigantic. It does also help with using the Chainsaw on the Cyberdemon if you don't have Invulnerability because you will get hit back slightly less often. If you like to throw in the starting Bulk Pack into a Shotgun for faster reloading speed, naturally having faster firing speed also helps smooth out your overall speed with using a Shotgun, instead of a small spike and large spike between firing and reloading. Overall, it helps a fair bit throughout the whole game and is one of the better choices.
Hellrunner
Providing 15% movement speed is very helpful for a game that will be focused on stair diving, and the dodge bonus is also helpful, both for regular levels, and often the Cyberdemon as well. To nitpick, compared to other traits, it won't help at all when standing in place and firing at enemies, and because Invulnerability and Berserk are based on movement actions, Hellrunner results in burning more turns to get to the Cyberdemon since it will be moving less often as you charge it. The other critiques against it is that because a completion of this challenge will likely be the result of stacks of Berserk and Invulnerability, Hellrunner isn't really helping under optimal situations, but of course is much more helpful when you have worse luck and have to run through without power-ups. Hellrunner is likely one of the choices, since traits that help combat are a bit irrelevant with how fruitless fighting back often is, but because of the dynamics and infinite possibilities, there may be many cases where others are better.
Tough as Nails
Tough is Nails isn't honestly terrible, since even reducing damage from 2 to 1 effectively doubles your lifespan, but it's a rather passive trait instead of something proactive. In order for it to save you from death, the sum of damage reduction has to equal the damage of an attack that would have otherwise killed you, which often is only giving you a couple extra hits across multiple floors if even that. It does help a lot more in the early game where damage is a lot lower, so I wouldn't completely write it off, but it's certainly not the most beneficial trait.
Son of a Bitch
Adding on an extra bit of damage to everything is nice, but it only helps if the 1 point difference saves you a shot or more per kill. Granted, this amount could be a lot, but would be hard to determine just how much Son of a Bitch is helping. Shotguns are fairly weak from a distance, which you may find yourself doing a lot, so that extra bit could be reducing the required shots by a lot in some situations, especially for tough enemies. The main comparison is if the faster kills are reducing the number of hits to simply being able to fire back faster with Finesse. More knockback with Son of a Bitch can also help slightly. Overall, I think it could be decent, but I don't think it's a top pick overall.
Son of a Gun
Given the nature of this challenge, you don't want to be using pistols. Pistols are only good with a full build dedicated to them, and a single trait is nowhere near enough to justify using them.
Reloader
Reloader is normally a pretty underwhelming trait, but because of the huge reliance on Shotguns and the better speed improvement compared to Finesse, it helps save a bit extra time, although is less helpful for other weapons. Reloader with the Bulk Pack in Shotgun gives the fastest speed for the beginning of the game, but is a bit spiky as firing speed isn't improved, and the Technical Pack helps smooth out shooting better. Reloader is definitely the best trait in terms of attacking in place with a Shotgun, but is a fair bit worse than other traits in most other situations. A lucky Shell Box also negates most of the benefits of Reloader, as opposed to Finesse which doesn't have a simple replacement.
Eagle Eye
Given that Shotguns are the most effective weapon without traits boosting them, Eagle Eye is likely not a great pick since they don't help them. The main appeal is it does somewhat open up using other weapons such as a Chaingun that goes from 74% accuracy to 91% accuracy at point blank. With the huge onslaught of enemies though, Shotguns are more helpful with groups and are also more ammo efficient, but a Chaingun could help with single targets or if you need to use several bursts without the risk of using reload repeatedly with a Shotgun. The Chainsaw and Plasma Rifle also enjoy increases to accuracy, which would help a lot for the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind. I think Eagle Eye could be usable, but I don't think it's the best choice with how much Shotgun should be used and that running through floors to the stairs tends to be a more effective strategy anyway.
Brute
It should go without saying that melee is not the way through this challenge. The main perk out of Brute is it can help speed up the Cyberdemon fight while Invulernable and/or Berserk, moreso because of the accuracy increase, but it's not really helpful at all for the rest of the game. Even with a miraculous Dragonslayer or Butcher's Cleaver, the hits you'll be taking even while camping are way too much for your tiny health amount.
Intuition
Intuition is a bit gimmicky in that it doesn't directly improve your character at all and simply informs you of where useful power-ups are, but because Invulnerabilities are essentially critical for success, I personally believe Intuition is the best build to use. The slight perk of knowing what levers may do isn't a huge deal, but can be slightly helpful for quick heals and armor repair. For Intuition to be beneficial, it has to influence your decision-making on where you go in a positive way, such as showing you that an Invulnerability or Berserk is a little further past the stairs, or nearby the opposite direction at the start. Knowing where healing power-ups is also helpful as you will likely need to rely on them to survive. However, the big setback is that Invulnerabilities only appear starting on floor 7 of Phobos, which makes Intuition a lot less useful early on. It's still great for Berserk Packs and Health Globes, but other traits are definitely better with getting through Phobos. Under ideal situations with lots of helpful power-ups, Intuition is the best, but Hellrunner is generally better in less than ideal scenarios. While getting through Phobos is hard, a player can definitely grind out runs through it and then hopefully find stacks of Invulnerabilities for an easy walk through the rest of the game.
With all of these choices and widely varying circumstances, it's difficult to determine which one is the best overall, but I would argue Intuition is the best choice by a fair-sized gap. Getting through Phobos will require more skill and more luck, but the potential to make the rest of the game as easy as possible with this challenge is such a huge benefit. Hellrunner is definitely the second best choice by providing the very helpful movement speed and dodging bonus to escape each floor, and will always be beneficial, instead of Intuition which is not as consistent. The next tier down by a fair gap would likely be Finesse and Reloader, followed by Son of a Bitch and Eagle Eye. The other 4 traits definitely are outclassed, and using a Marine or Technician is definitely also outclassed. This overall leaves 6 build choices that are at least somewhat viable, but I would strongly recommend Intuition.
Mod Pack Usage
Next is some planning for the run itself.
As you start with one of each Mod Pack, good use of them is important. The Bulk Pack could contribute to either reducing Shotgun reloading time by 25%, or giving the Chainsaw a damage buff. Damage calculations later will show that Piercing Blade isn't often worth using and Chainsaw (B) is very strong. High Power Weapon and Gatling Gun are generally outclassed by Shotgun, unless you're using an Eagle Eye build, so I think the best use of the Bulk Pack is the Chainsaw and using the Technical Pack for the Shotgun instead.
The Agility Pack can be immediately used in your starting Red Armor as it offers a 15% increase in speed compared to 10% in boots that you may not find right away. The Power Pack on the other hand gives 2 extra protection to Red Armor, and since you don't have much health to begin with, the durability of the armor should last a long while to make good use of it. Below are some damage calculations (I believe I have the rounding calculated correctly):
Former Human pistol shot vs Red Armor: 2d4 - 4
6.25% for 4 damage
12.5% for 3 damage
18.75% for 2 damage
62.5% for 1 damage
Former Human pistol shot vs Red Armor (P): 2d4 - 6
6.25% for 2 damage
93.75% for 1 damage
Former Sergeant shotgun blast (1 tile distance) vs Red Armor: (8d3 - 14%) - 8
2.39% for 10 damage (dead without health boost)
4.05% for 9 damage
7.68% for 8 damage
27.44% for 7 damage
16.87% for 6 damage
15.49% for 5 damage
11.95% for 4 damage
7.68% for 3 damage
4.05% for 2 damage
2.39% for 1 damage
Former Sergeant shotgun blast (1 tile distance) vs Red Armor (P): (8d3 - 14%) - 12
0.02% for 9 damage
0.12% for 8 damage
0.55% for 7 damage
1.71% for 6 damage
4.05% for 5 damage
7.68% for 4 damage
27.44% for 3 damage
16.87% for 2 damage
41.56% for 1 damage
Imp fireball vs Red Armor: (2d5 - 25%) - 4
4% for 4 damage
8% for 3 damage
12% for 2 damage
76% for 1 damage
Imp fireball vs Red Armor (P): (2d5 - 25%) - 6
4% for 2 damage
96% for 1 damage
Demon melee attack vs Red Armor: 1d3 + 5 - 4
33.33% for 4 damage
33.33% for 3 damage
33.33% for 2 damage
Demon melee attack vs Red Armor (P): 1d3 + 5 - 6
33.33% for 2 damage
66.67% for 1 damage
As you can see at a glance, Red Armor (P) significantly helps reducing damage in the early game. Whether or not that it makes up for the 15% speed increase with Red Armor (A) is far too complex of a question to answer, but given that you can find Steel Boots early and still come with 10% speed, I think it's most reasonable to use the Power Pack for Red Armor. If you find a second Agility Pack, it may be better to put into the Phobos Anomaly Red Armor as Tactical Boots only gets 5% extra speed as opposed to 15% for armor.
The Technical Pack is best used for a weapon, which can be either Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, or possibly Plasma Rifle, although I would suggest Shotgun. If you want to use the Bulk Pack for Chainsaw for more damage, then the Technical Pack fits well into the Shotgun. You could also use the Technical Pack for the Chainsaw to increase attacking speed, although this only gives about 1 extra hit per 5 against the Cyberdemon and is not terribly beneficial compared to more damage. The best use may instead be simply holding onto it in the case you find a Combat Shotgun.
To summarize, I think the best application is:
Shotgun (T), Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun, Chainsaw (B)
Alternatives include:
Shotgun, Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun (T), Chainsaw (B)
Shotgun, Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Tactical Shotgun, Chainsaw (B)
Shotgun (T), Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Combat Shotgun (P), Chainsaw (B)
Shotgun (B), Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun (T), Chainsaw
Shotgun (B), Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Combat Shotgun, Chainsaw (P)
Which is best will highly vary based on what Mod Packs you find, how early you find boots and a Combat Shotgun, playstyle, and also what trait you picked.
Phobos
Phobos Base Entry is best played by taking cover at one of the corners of the building, grabbing a Shotgun as safely as possible, and then preventing corpses from respawning. This can be done by stacking them on top of each other, shooting enemies into the outer edges, or simply standing on them while clearing out others. Keep health as high as possible, try to one shot kill enemies in order to get the extra Small Med Packs, and be sure to exit with large stacks of shells. Keep a few open slots as you may find items worth grabbing later and don't want to spend time dropping garbage.
Because most enemies will make quick work of you in Deimos and Hell, you don't have time to heal later, and Phobos Anomaly itself has two Large Med Packs, it's important to not be stingy with using them throughout the floors of Phobos. It's much better to have a below average run than to risk dying, since both a good or bad run essentially need the same type of luck in Deimos and Hell anyway. Work your way to the stairs as safely as you can on each floor and be sure to take shots into open, dark areas to scout for enemies. Phobos 3, 4, and 5 get dangerous fast with Hell Knights and other enemies, and The Chained Court is essential for success because of Berserk Packs and the Chainsaw. It can be a bit demotivating to spend time getting a good start through Phobos Base Entry only to die quickly after, so you'll need to tough things out and keep grinding for runs.
For multi-hit enemies such as Former Captains, Former Commandos, and Arachnatrons, who all can quickly melt your health, it's often safer to lure them in around cover and attack with Chainsaw. Damage reduction does bring their shots down in power, but the quantity of them is too high to survive for long.
Phobos Anomaly
Next is analyzing how to get through Phobos Anomaly.
Phobos Anomaly gives a fresh Red Armor, two Large Med Packs, and enough health to be at a maxed 20% as you enter the trap. The easiest way to get through is a fortunate floor 7 Invulnerability, which is the first floor it can spawn on. Otherwise, using either type of phase device to hopefully get past the trap or rocket jumping through with a Rocket Launcher. Even with any kind of support, Hellrunner helps significantly with the faster movement speed and the extra dodge bonus chance. Intuition is useless for this floor. There aren't really too many safe ways to be killing any enemies, so any of the other possible traits to pick aren't helpful here. Ultimately, this level will be a barrier for many games.
Nightmare Demons will uniformly do damage in the range of 11-13, so even with 200% HP and Red Armor, you can only survive 2 hits, but you can definitely be killed in just 2 after health decay and high damage rolls. Nightmare Cacodemons will do an average of 6 damage after considering Red Armor protection per plasma ball, which also can't be tanked for very long. Finally, while Nightmare Imps do an average of 5 damage after protection per plasma ball, they more importantly can open doors so you aren't able to camp in the first or third room. Because of all this, you'll have to simply run through, and you are essentially forced to grab all of the Berserk Packs from The Chained Court. With all 4 and the Chainsaw, you'll have 500 turns of Berserk, which functionally guarantees you Berserk at Phobos Anomaly and significantly reducing all the damage, almost entirely down to just 1. Unless you have a horrendous floor 6 and 7, or have no choice but to spend time firing at enemies, you should be able to be Berserk every run through Phobos Anomaly. There is just no other way to get through Phobos Anomaly with any amount of consistency.
For the Bruiser Brothers, rocket jumping between them is the fastest way through and helps avoid damage the most, but otherwise pick a side and run by. Being near them will increase the chance of being hit, but being near the wall will lead to getting caught in the splash damage. Take a note of where the plasma balls will hit in the case of a miss for each movement, and move in such a way to avoid the splash damage. Depending on the angle and positioning, you could attempt to get hit by the end radius and use the damage to be knocked back further ahead, but this needs to be done precisely. You may prefer just getting hit by melee attacks, which will keep your armor's durability higher, and will only do 1 damage assuming you have Red Armor. Regardless of what support you have, always get to the teleporter as fast and safely as possible. You'll likely get destroyed many games on this level if you don't have Berserk Packs.
Tower of Babel
The Cyberdemon has 450 health, its melee damage ranges 16-18 uniformly before reductions, and rockets will do huge chunks of damage if not outright kill you without protection through Red Armor and/or Berserk. Ideally, you'll have had more opportunities to be Invulnerable and/or Berserk and be able to be powered up for Tower of Babel. Hellrunner is a bit disadvantageous for charging to the Cyberdemon as the duration for power-ups is turn-based and the Cyberdemon will be moving a bit less each turn. Even with Hellrunner's dodge bonus and with max distance away, the Cyberdemon's health is far too high to chip away at with a Shotgun without eventually getting hit, so using the Chainsaw is the only way to go, but if you're not Invulnerable, you must absolutely be Berserk as the melee damage back is way too high. In the case you have a nuke and are Invulnerable, immediately blowing up the level is the best use as the Spider Mastermind can be killed much easier.
Given 450 health and 4 armor, the following are some damage calculations for different types of Chainsaw. All calculations assume being Berserk.
Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average of 37.5 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (A): 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average 30.24 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 31, average of 14.5 hits to kill, average of 29.03 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (P): 4d7 x2, average damage of 28, average of 16.07 hits to kill, average of 32.14 attacks to kill.
Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 14.06 hits to kill, average of 28.13 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average of 25.34 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 31, average of 14.5 hits to kill, average of 19.59 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 14.06 hits to kill, average of 19 attacks to kill.
At a quick glance, Eagle Eye significantly improves the fight, requiring far less hits. With Invulnerability, this saves an average of about 10 turns, helping you be sure you have enough entering, and more likely to have some duration after the kill. That said, I would argue it's not enough to justify using Eagle Eye over Intuition, Hellrunner, or other good traits for the game up to this point.
The other notable point is that Piercing Chainsaw is very overrated while Berserk, and doesn't reduce the fight by much. Because Berserk doubles damage before armor reduction, the piercing doesn't add too much extra damage compared to a simple Bulk Pack. When not Berserk, the 4 damage boost is a more significant percentage of damage, but you likely won't survive long without Berserk anyway. However, Piercing Chainsaw is certainly helpful if you have Invulnerability and no Berserk:
Chainsaw (B): 5d6, average damage of 13.5, average of 33.3 hits to kill, average of 66.6 attacks to kill.
Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7, average damage of 16, average of 28.13 hits to kill, average of 56.25 attacks to kill.
Because of this, it could be argued that Chainsaw (B) and Shotgun (T) is a much better initial setup, and that likewise gives extra viability to using Reloader for getting starts. Using both an Agility Pack and Power Pack for Chainsaw is a large investment and likely doesn't help as much as using them for other items.
In any case, Tower of Babel is very simple to play optimally in, but requires good luck to realistically survive.
Dis
To start, if you have a nuke, immediately use it and win the game.
If you have enough Invulnerability and Berserk, it's possible to simply charge at the Spider Mastermind and attack until you get the kill. Flinching is a bit uncommon due to missing half the hits and needing a high damage roll, so if you have no power-ups, do not go for melee attacks. While the Spider Mastermind's melee damage is puny, its AI is fairly unpredictable and if it moves too far away and fires, your health will get destroyed. Berserk and Red Armor can reduce many shots down to 1, but bursts of 4 are still dangerous. Without Invulnerability, it may be wise to go for getting the Spider Mastermind stuck at one of the middle pillars. Below are various damage calculations using Chainsaw, assuming Berserk:
Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average of 38.46 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (A): 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average 31.02 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 33, average of 15.15 hits to kill, average of 30.30 attacks to kill.
Chainsaw (P): 4d7 x2, average damage of 30, average of 16.67 hits to kill, average of 33.33 attacks to kill.
Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 15.63 hits to kill, average of 31.25 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average of 25.99 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 33, average of 15.15 hits to kill, average of 20.48 attacks to kill.
Eagle Eye + Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 15.63 hits to kill, average of 21.11 attacks to kill.
Once again, Piercing Chainsaw is very overrated, and in fact worse than Chainsaw (B). Eagle Eye also helps save many turns, but it's still likely too much of a disadvantage for the rest of the game to be worth getting an advantage for the fight here. With Berserk, so long as you hit, there's a good chance of getting a flinch, so if you have enough Med Packs, Red Armor, and Berserk, charging into the Spider Mastermind can be fine even without Invulnerability.
If you don't have any power-ups but plenty of ammo, the best strategy is to go to the corner of one of the pillars, watch where the Spider Mastermind goes, and slowly and safely have it go around so that you can run to one of the middle pillars. Once in place, stand at one of the spots that is one space away from the pillar and one space away from the wall. If the Spider Mastermind becomes visible on the other side, fire, and depending on how it tries to move, may get stuck and only be able to move vertically in a space of 3 tiles permanently so long as you stay in place. If so, you can simply shoot it to death without any danger of it going anywhere else or being able to hit you. If it doesn't get stuck and charges through, run around the other way. If the Spider Mastermind went back, you won't be able to distinguish whether it got stuck or just moved away due to lack of Intuition 2. Hellrunner is very helpful for going for this setup. If you're unfamiliar with this technique, practice it in an easier game first because it helps trivialize the fight, but requires some technical knowledge. If you're unfortunate with the setup, the Spider Mastermind can get dangerous, which is where Hellrunner helps a lot, but is possibly more unsafe than charging with a Chainsaw while Berserk. Even with perfect play, some bad luck and not getting it stuck can result in an unfortunate death.
Conclusion
Having achieved this badge and spending some time theorycrafting and testing things, I highly suggest using Intuition and grind runs past Phobos Anomaly until you eventually get the Invulnerabilities you need to make it through. Another key thing is Bulk Pack in Chainsaw is cheaper, and against the Spider Mastermind, actually better than Piercing Chainsaw. Not using Piercing Chainsaw also opens up use of any extra Power Packs or Agility Packs you find. This means the Technical Pack can go into the Shotgun instead. Agility Pack can go into either boots or armor, but I would argue that Red Armor (P) reducing damage is incredibly helpful with reducing early game damage. Alternatively though, Red Armor (A), also opens up Tactical Shotgun if you find Combat Shotgun.
Scout with Intuition seems to be the best choice overall, but Hellrunner is more consistently good with lower peaks. Reloader helps smooth out Shotgun attacking speed if it has a Technical Pack, but Finesse is more helpful for starting floors and Chainsaw usage, as well as if you find a Shell Box. There are some potential niche uses out of Eagle Eye and Son of a Bitch, but are definitely outclassed.
9
Discussion / Icy's Guide to Weapons, Armor, and Assemblies
« on: October 31, 2022, 18:34 »
In this guide, I'll be thoroughly covering all of the weapons, armor, boots, and assemblies in the game, as well as some various setups and combinations. The wiki and Github are both excellent resources for learning about the details of each equipment, but don't provide much guidance about how to actually use each weapon effectively, how to optimize your setup, and other important details.
First are all of the Mod Packs and some related miscellaneous tips as they are a large part of improving your equipment and developing your build:
-Technical Packs are first found on floor 5, Agility Packs and Bulk Packs on floor 6, and Power Packs on floor 7. All of the exotic Mod Packs first appear on floor 10.
-Assemblies requiring multiples of the same Mod Packs are probabilistically harder to make. For example, needing AA means the first two Mod Packs you find offer a 1 in 16 chance, while needing BT is a 1 in 8 chance. Each individual Mod Pack also has higher probability to partially provide you what you need. Furthermore, Mod Packs that come in pairs in The Chained Court, Phobos Lab, Military Base, Hell's Armory, Deimos Lab, and Halls of Carnage cannot match.
-The only traits that block Whizkid are Army of the Dead and Gunrunner.
-Technicians start with a Technical Pack unless you're playing a challenge that wipes out your inventory before filling it back up, such as with Angel of Overconfidence. Angel of Marksmanship randomly starts you with either an Agility Pack, Technical Pack, or Bulk Pack.
-Sniper Packs and Firestorm Packs are identical in appearance and can't be distinguished until you can see it with your character.
-All of the basic Mod Packs have the same probability of being generated, and all of the exotic Mod Packs have the same probability of being generated.
-When you clear Hell's Armory, one of the three rewards you receive is either an exotic Mod Pack, Schematics if you don't have every assembly, or Cybernetic Armor. The other two rewards are a random, non-matching pair of the basic Mod Packs. If you cleared Hell's Armory without taking damage, one of the other two rewards is instead a Nano Pack, or if the main reward already is a Nano Pack, the extra is an Onyx Pack.
-When you clear Deimos Lab, you receive one of an exotic Mod Pack or Schematics if you don't have every assembly, one of an exotic Mod Pack or Cybernetic Armor (the exotic Mod Packs can be matching), and the other two are a random, non-matching pair of the basic Mod Packs.
-Railgun and BFG 10K can be modded once or given a basic assembly, and Cybernetic Armor can be fully moddable, but only for Technicians.
-When Agility Packs are used on Shotguns, or Sniper Packs are used on Shotguns and non-ranged weapons, the game informs you that you feel silly.
-Assemblies completed before Whizkid 2 cannot later gain an additional Mod Pack after getting Whizkid 2. Cheap assemblies should be created as early as you need them, but hold off on making stronger ones if you plan on getting Whizkid 2 and have still have a long game ahead.
Basic Mod Packs
Technical Pack
Technical Packs either reduce the knockback of armor and boots by 25% additively, or reduce the attack time of any weapon by 15% multiplicatively (note that rounding and multiple speed source complicates the exact value). For the early game, Technical Mod Packs are generally best used to speed up your weapons or to be used to make a Tactical Shotgun. Grappling Boots has a few niche uses, but movement speed is usually better to have on boots. Many of the stronger assemblies use a Technical Pack, but they're fairly easy to find. Unless you really want knockback reduction, Technical Packs are generally a waste in armor and boots which can benefit more from Power Packs and Agility Packs.
Bulk Pack
Bulk Packs increases the ammo clip by 30% for weapons that have at least a clip of 3, or otherwise decreases reloading speed by 25% multiplicatively. For melee weapons, it increases the damage dice by 1. For armor and boots, current and maximum durabilities are both increased by 100, but movement speed is decreased by 10%. Bulk Packs are often the least useful Mod Pack since most weapons benefits from other Mod Packs, and the speed penalty for armor and boots is a significant disadvantage. Unless for an assembly, the only reason a Bulk Pack is useful for armor is to try to salvage one that is already heavily damaged. Having a much longer threshold before becoming damaged is nice though, as it still requires going down to 50% or lower before being considered damaged. For the early game, Bulk Packs are best used for Gatling Gun before switching to Plasma Rifles, and are decent for Shotguns since the reloading speed increase is greater than the firing speed increase from Technical Packs. Bulk Packs in bulk are useful later in the game for Nanomanufacture Ammo and Biggest Fucking Gun, but I wouldn't recommend holding onto them and taking up inventory space.
Agility Pack
Agility Packs increase weapon accuracy by 1, movement speed in armor by 15%, and movement speed in boots by 10%. If you don't plan on using Power Packs for armor, Agility Packs are great and give you a bit more extra speed compared to boots, but a pair of Agility Packs in Steel Boots creates Tactical Boots, which are very cheap and excellent early on. The accuracy boost to most weapons is generally too low to be worth using over Power Packs and Technical Packs, but can be okay for some rapid fire weapons where the extra accuracy makes a more significant difference across multiple shots, such as for a Minigun, or if you are using them as a secondary weapon and not putting points into Eagle Eye.
Power Pack
Power Packs increase the number of damage sides to melee weapons by 1, and for ranged weapons increases the number of damage sides or damage dice by 1 depending on which is already higher. If they are equal, it increases the damage sides by 1. For armor and boots, the protection value is increased by 2. Power Packs are definitely the most useful and versatile basic Mod Pack, whether for basic assemblies, non-assembly usage, or for adding the final mod of a finished assembly. Many of the cheap assemblies also use Power Packs including Chainsword, Piercing Blade, Elephant Gun, Nanofiber Armor, and High Power Weapon. Depending on your build, playstyle, and game mode, Power Packs generally don't always have a best first choice. Buffing Shotguns with them are helpful early on, or using Piercing Blade on the Chainsaw from The Chained Court to significantly improve damage. Power Packs may be a bit of a waste in Blue Armor, but are nice in Red Armor which should last you awhile and keep you protected. Power Packs shouldn't be used in boots except as a part of Cerberus Boots, but other uses generally have higher priority. Since Power Packs increase the higher of damage and side dice, they don't add too much extra power to rapid-fire weapons and those may benefit more from Technical Packs.
Exotic Mod Packs
Sniper Pack
Sniper Packs first removes the distance penalty to accuracy from a ranged weapon, then the 50% penalty to accuracy for attacking a non-visible enemy. A third Sniper Pack does nothing. Sniper Packs are kind of gimmicky and not super useful overall. For the first Sniper Pack, you can generally get enough accuracy from other sources to avoid the issue of the penalty since at higher levels of accuracy, the -2 penalty is less significant. You can likely get more damage out of a simple Power Pack or faster kills with a Technical Pack. If you find yourself firing from great distances, especially with rapid-fire weapons though, Sniper Packs can be useful. The second effect is also quite nice actually, but means you won't be able to create any assemblies. A few niche weapons like a Laser Rifle with SSPPP can help a lot with ammo efficiency, but those may also benefit more from Firestorm Packs. Overall, Sniper Packs can be nice if you have nothing better, but are definitely not the best.
Firestorm Pack
Firestorm Packs add 2 extra shots to rapid-fire weapons that already fire at least 3 shots, or otherwise increases the blast radius of explosive weapons by 2. Firestorm Packs work wonders when doubled or even tripled up together to make rapid-fire weapons shoot huge bursts or making explosive weapons make huge explosions. Both are very effective and depends on how you're playing, although keep in mind of your ammo if you're using them on rapid-fire weapons. If you have a long game ahead, you likely will get the most usage of using it in Demolition Ammo, especially on Nightmare for an excellent and cheap source of corpse destruction. It can be a bit dangerous because of destroying walls and harming yourself if you're not careful though. If you're very fortunate, Firestorm Packs are absolutely at their best as a part of Biggest Fucking Gun which is one of the best weapons in the game and can clear out huge portions of floors in a single shot.
Onyx Pack
Onyx Packs when used on armor and boots immediately sets durability to 100 and sets the item to be indestructible except for a few small exceptions such as nukes. Being able to make your armor and boots indestructible and permanent is very powerful and often the best way to finish an item. Some players may still prefer to finish an armor with a Power Pack if they believe they can keep it from being destroyed and benefit more from the protection increase, and most of the end-game boots are already indestructible and benefit more from Agility Pack. Otherwise Onyx should always be used. Among the assemblies, Tower Shield is decent if you don't have long-term usage for an Onyx Pack, as it offers a huge amount of protection. The only downsides are Tower Shield can only be repaired using a Megasphere and it has a huge movement speed reduction. Cybernano Armor is also excellent if you have no intentions of switching armors for the rest of the game. Lava Boots and Fire Shield are less recommended and more niche or outclassed.
Nano Pack
Nano Packs first check if the item applied to can already self-recharge. If so, the waiting delay to recharge is reduced by 5 actions. Otherwise, the amount that is recharged is increased by 1 for ranged weapons and 2 for armor and boots. If the item previously did not already self-recharge, the waiting delay is set to 5. Nano Packs are extremely powerful, providing you with functionally infinite durability or ammo, and are a part of many of the best assemblies. What to use a Nano Pack for depends mostly on what kind of build you're playing. Nano-Shrapnel assembly is essentially game-breakingly powerful when applied to a Super Shotgun, but also still very good for other Shotguns. Nanomanufacture Ammo is also excellent, partciularly in Laser Rifles and Plasma Rifles. All of the other assemblies are lesser or supplementary, but are still very good too. If you don't have a specific use for a Nano Pack, I would generally suggest using it for a Plasma Rifle as a backup source of ammo if you find yourself running out, and also because Plasma Rifles are cheap and effective for handling tough enemies such as Archviles. You may also prefer using it in a Rocket Launcher for Nightmare to always be able to destroy corpses without worry of maintaining a supplies of Rockets. Just about everything can benefit from a Nano Pack.
Basic Weapons
Fists
There aren't too many cases where you'll want to use your fists unless you're playing for a specific challenge. A few levels into Brute can add some good damage quickly, but it will always pale in comparison to even a Combat Knife. Unless you somehow completely run out of ammo and have no other melee weapons, you'll likely rarely ever use this.
Pistol
Being the starting weapon, they're naturally pretty wimpy. Pistols are nice that they have a large accuracy bonus so that you can at least pretty consistently hit the targets. Aimed Shot increases accuracy even further, but is very slow, so I generally would only suggest using it to finish off enemies, or if you're firing from a long distance and desperately need as much accuracy as possible. Switch to at least a Shotgun as soon as you can. The only assembly that specifically requires a basic Pistol is Speedloader Pistol, but comparatively only offers half reloading speed and is a waste of Mod Packs. The better assemblies are better suited for a Combat Pistol or Blaster if possible. I wouldn't really recommend using any Mod Packs on a Pistol unless you're playing Angel of Marksmanship and don't intend to find a Combat Pistol for awhile. If so, I'd recommend using Power Packs, then Technical Packs.
Combat Knife
Combat Knives are much better than your fists and offer a lot more damage. That said, they're still fairly weak compared to higher-end melee weapons, but can be good until getting a Chainsaw from The Chained Court. Chainsword is decent, but is quickly outclassed by a Chainsaw and is not recommended using your Mod Packs for it. However, a Combat Knife is preferred if you are intending to use a Malicious Blades build, or playing for a challenge that doesn't allow a Chainsaw. In that case, a Chainsword offers more damage than a Piercing Combat Knife, even against enemies with high armor values. Bringing a stack of Combat Knives can also be useful for throwing them. The range is fairly short and not impressively useful, but can still be a little helpful. In particular, if you're restricted to melee weapons, you can throw one to safely destroy barrels.
Shotgun
Shotgun is arguably the staple weapon of DoomRL, being reliable, ammo-efficient, providing some good power, and very easy to find. The two keys that make them great are they always hit, making accuracy completely negligible, and that they can hit multiple targets even if they're packed together. It's also helpful that running has no negative impact on using a Shotgun. The downsides are that the Shotgun loses power over distance, the need to reload after every shot is very slow, and armor points reduce damage more than any other damage type. Shotguns can also be difficult to control where enemies end up where they die, which is important on Nightmare. Still, the Shotgun is almost always your primary early-game weapon. Given that you'll likely find better weapons, especially the Combat Shotgun, I generally don't recommend using too many Mod Packs on a regular Shotgun. Extra Bulk or Technical Packs that would otherwise go to waste are good to burn for a Shotgun. Elephant Gun is powerful and good for controlling space with its knockback, despite being a bit slow, but you can likely find better usage of your Power Packs.
Double Shotgun
Compared to a regular Shotgun, the Double Shotgun does a ton more damage and offers a great source of knockback to help keep enemies away. However, the shotgun blast type is much worse since it has only about half the range and damage reduction is higher. It also will consume ammo much faster and is slower to reload. Double Shotguns are useful for single targets or when you quickly need to push away an enemy, but they can't be as loosely used as a regular Shotgun. Single Shot is usually worse than simply just firing a single shot with a regular Shotgun. Focused Double Shotgun isn't an amazing assembly, but it is somewhat cheap to make and helps improve the weapon by giving a little more power and a normal shotgun blast, although ultimately it's just a mini Super Shotgun. Overall, a Double Shotgun is a useful supplementary weapon, but its drawbacks means you should not primarily use it over other weapons.
Combat Shotgun
Compared to a regular Shotgun, Combat Shotgun is a little weaker and has less damage spread, but the damage reduction due to distance is a bit lower, and most importantly, the Combat Shotgun can hold 5 shells in its clip. Pumping adds an additional step and time requirement to reload, so plan your combat accordingly. A full reload uses a lot of time, so only do it while you're safe. Note that powerup durations are based on player actions, so if you have Invulnerability for example, it's much better to always full reload in one action instead of doing each reload individually in multiple actions. Combat Shotguns are definitely an upgrade to a regular Shotgun, and is an excellent early-to-mid game weapon. Tactical Shotgun is also one of the best basic assemblies and should often be your first choice for Mod Packs unless you have other important plans for your build. Tactical Shotgun is identical except for removing the pumping requirement, and I generally recommend finishing the assembly with Power Pack. I wouldn't recommend non-assembly Mod Packs for a Combat Shotgun.
Chaingun
Chaingun is a decent weapon for single target firing. Compared to the Shotgun, the Chaingun is faster at damage output since it doesn't need to reload after every shot, has less damage reduced due to distance and armor, and can keep enemies in place which can sometimes be desireable. The key to getting good damage out of the Chaingun is making sure your accuracy is high enough and most of the bullets are hitting. Despite that, Bulk Packs are generally better than Agility Packs for the Chaingun and you will have to rely on Eagle Eye. Gatling Gun is a good improvement and Bulk Packs aren't as useful anywhere else in the early game under most circumstances. Chain Fire is generally not very useful as it only works on enemies that are visible, takes 3 bursts to output more bullets, requires shooting in a circular direction as you turn to other enemies, and it resets when all visible enemies are clear. Overall, the Chaingun does tend to get replaced quickly by Plasma Rifles later on as they have more damage, a better damage type, and reload faster. The only positive with Chainguns is their ammo is much easier to find and store. For the early game, it's a good secondary weapon to go along with the Shotgun, but investing in Eagle Eye which doesn't help Shotguns further hurts the Chaingun.
Rocket Launcher
Rocket Launcher offers some strong damage and the large splash helps hit groups of enemies, but having only a clip of 1 and not being able to carry many rockets, it only works well as a supplementary weapon. That said, its main assistances are destroying corpses and destroying walls, which it is excellent at doing. Rocket Launchers tend to become more viable during Nightmare games where destroying corpses becomes much more important, but can also be helpful in other games with preventing Archviles from resurrecting enemies. Rocket Jump can be useful in a few cases such as getting across Limbo/The Mortuary, Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits, or to quickly separate yourself from dangerous enemies. The Tactical Rocket Launcher assembly isn't significantly different to be worth using Technical Packs unless you have excess of them, and is fairly comparable to Missile Launcher which you're able to always find in some bonus levels. The best basic Mod Packs for Rocket Launchers are usually Power Packs, but likely aren't worth using for it and are better elsewhere. Overall, Rocket Launcher is helpful in certain situations and can be worth carrying, but is a very poor primary weapon due to ammo issues and the explosion destroying items.
Plasma Rifle
Plasma Rifle is very powerful, fairly accurate, and has an excellent damage type. Being rapid-fire, it greatly benefits from having more accuracy bonuses such as Eagle Eye, and also improves a lot in power with Triggerhappy and Son of a Bitch. The main setback is that cells can be hard to obtain in large enough quantities as the Plasma Rifle burns through ammo very quickly. Generally, Plasma Rifle works well as a secondary weapon to Shotguns for single target enemies, such as a dangerous Archvile or bosses. Chain Fire is generally not useful as described under Chain Gun, and Overcharge is generally a waste unless you absolutely need to destroy an enemy immediately and can sacrifice your Plasma Rifle. One trick though is you could farm Plasma Rifle from a Former Commando on Nightmare or near an Archvile to provide you with plenty of them to Overcharge. Each of the basic Mod Packs are helpful, although I would recommend Technical Packs for the best general use. Of the available assemblies, both Assault Rifle and Hyperblaster add a lot of power due to increasing the number of dies for each shot, while also speeding up the firing or reloading time. A non-assembly Plasma Rifle such as 2 Power Packs and 3 Technical Packs is also a strong weapon. Nanomanufacture Ammo removes the need for ammo, turning the Plasma Rifle into a very viable primary weapon, although it requires a Nano Pack and you may be inclined to use a Laser Rifle for that instead which provides functionally perfect accuracy at the small cost of a bit of damage. If you have a lot of supplies, Firestorm Packs are the best to add on to any assembly and non-assembly, which increases the number of shots. Overall, the Plasma Rifle is an excellent weapon, but you need to go out of your way to ensure it has ammo. Use it sparingly for difficult scenarios as you often can't afford to spam it.
First are all of the Mod Packs and some related miscellaneous tips as they are a large part of improving your equipment and developing your build:
-Technical Packs are first found on floor 5, Agility Packs and Bulk Packs on floor 6, and Power Packs on floor 7. All of the exotic Mod Packs first appear on floor 10.
-Assemblies requiring multiples of the same Mod Packs are probabilistically harder to make. For example, needing AA means the first two Mod Packs you find offer a 1 in 16 chance, while needing BT is a 1 in 8 chance. Each individual Mod Pack also has higher probability to partially provide you what you need. Furthermore, Mod Packs that come in pairs in The Chained Court, Phobos Lab, Military Base, Hell's Armory, Deimos Lab, and Halls of Carnage cannot match.
-The only traits that block Whizkid are Army of the Dead and Gunrunner.
-Technicians start with a Technical Pack unless you're playing a challenge that wipes out your inventory before filling it back up, such as with Angel of Overconfidence. Angel of Marksmanship randomly starts you with either an Agility Pack, Technical Pack, or Bulk Pack.
-Sniper Packs and Firestorm Packs are identical in appearance and can't be distinguished until you can see it with your character.
-All of the basic Mod Packs have the same probability of being generated, and all of the exotic Mod Packs have the same probability of being generated.
-When you clear Hell's Armory, one of the three rewards you receive is either an exotic Mod Pack, Schematics if you don't have every assembly, or Cybernetic Armor. The other two rewards are a random, non-matching pair of the basic Mod Packs. If you cleared Hell's Armory without taking damage, one of the other two rewards is instead a Nano Pack, or if the main reward already is a Nano Pack, the extra is an Onyx Pack.
-When you clear Deimos Lab, you receive one of an exotic Mod Pack or Schematics if you don't have every assembly, one of an exotic Mod Pack or Cybernetic Armor (the exotic Mod Packs can be matching), and the other two are a random, non-matching pair of the basic Mod Packs.
-Railgun and BFG 10K can be modded once or given a basic assembly, and Cybernetic Armor can be fully moddable, but only for Technicians.
-When Agility Packs are used on Shotguns, or Sniper Packs are used on Shotguns and non-ranged weapons, the game informs you that you feel silly.
-Assemblies completed before Whizkid 2 cannot later gain an additional Mod Pack after getting Whizkid 2. Cheap assemblies should be created as early as you need them, but hold off on making stronger ones if you plan on getting Whizkid 2 and have still have a long game ahead.
Basic Mod Packs
Technical Pack
Technical Packs either reduce the knockback of armor and boots by 25% additively, or reduce the attack time of any weapon by 15% multiplicatively (note that rounding and multiple speed source complicates the exact value). For the early game, Technical Mod Packs are generally best used to speed up your weapons or to be used to make a Tactical Shotgun. Grappling Boots has a few niche uses, but movement speed is usually better to have on boots. Many of the stronger assemblies use a Technical Pack, but they're fairly easy to find. Unless you really want knockback reduction, Technical Packs are generally a waste in armor and boots which can benefit more from Power Packs and Agility Packs.
Bulk Pack
Bulk Packs increases the ammo clip by 30% for weapons that have at least a clip of 3, or otherwise decreases reloading speed by 25% multiplicatively. For melee weapons, it increases the damage dice by 1. For armor and boots, current and maximum durabilities are both increased by 100, but movement speed is decreased by 10%. Bulk Packs are often the least useful Mod Pack since most weapons benefits from other Mod Packs, and the speed penalty for armor and boots is a significant disadvantage. Unless for an assembly, the only reason a Bulk Pack is useful for armor is to try to salvage one that is already heavily damaged. Having a much longer threshold before becoming damaged is nice though, as it still requires going down to 50% or lower before being considered damaged. For the early game, Bulk Packs are best used for Gatling Gun before switching to Plasma Rifles, and are decent for Shotguns since the reloading speed increase is greater than the firing speed increase from Technical Packs. Bulk Packs in bulk are useful later in the game for Nanomanufacture Ammo and Biggest Fucking Gun, but I wouldn't recommend holding onto them and taking up inventory space.
Agility Pack
Agility Packs increase weapon accuracy by 1, movement speed in armor by 15%, and movement speed in boots by 10%. If you don't plan on using Power Packs for armor, Agility Packs are great and give you a bit more extra speed compared to boots, but a pair of Agility Packs in Steel Boots creates Tactical Boots, which are very cheap and excellent early on. The accuracy boost to most weapons is generally too low to be worth using over Power Packs and Technical Packs, but can be okay for some rapid fire weapons where the extra accuracy makes a more significant difference across multiple shots, such as for a Minigun, or if you are using them as a secondary weapon and not putting points into Eagle Eye.
Power Pack
Power Packs increase the number of damage sides to melee weapons by 1, and for ranged weapons increases the number of damage sides or damage dice by 1 depending on which is already higher. If they are equal, it increases the damage sides by 1. For armor and boots, the protection value is increased by 2. Power Packs are definitely the most useful and versatile basic Mod Pack, whether for basic assemblies, non-assembly usage, or for adding the final mod of a finished assembly. Many of the cheap assemblies also use Power Packs including Chainsword, Piercing Blade, Elephant Gun, Nanofiber Armor, and High Power Weapon. Depending on your build, playstyle, and game mode, Power Packs generally don't always have a best first choice. Buffing Shotguns with them are helpful early on, or using Piercing Blade on the Chainsaw from The Chained Court to significantly improve damage. Power Packs may be a bit of a waste in Blue Armor, but are nice in Red Armor which should last you awhile and keep you protected. Power Packs shouldn't be used in boots except as a part of Cerberus Boots, but other uses generally have higher priority. Since Power Packs increase the higher of damage and side dice, they don't add too much extra power to rapid-fire weapons and those may benefit more from Technical Packs.
Exotic Mod Packs
Sniper Pack
Sniper Packs first removes the distance penalty to accuracy from a ranged weapon, then the 50% penalty to accuracy for attacking a non-visible enemy. A third Sniper Pack does nothing. Sniper Packs are kind of gimmicky and not super useful overall. For the first Sniper Pack, you can generally get enough accuracy from other sources to avoid the issue of the penalty since at higher levels of accuracy, the -2 penalty is less significant. You can likely get more damage out of a simple Power Pack or faster kills with a Technical Pack. If you find yourself firing from great distances, especially with rapid-fire weapons though, Sniper Packs can be useful. The second effect is also quite nice actually, but means you won't be able to create any assemblies. A few niche weapons like a Laser Rifle with SSPPP can help a lot with ammo efficiency, but those may also benefit more from Firestorm Packs. Overall, Sniper Packs can be nice if you have nothing better, but are definitely not the best.
Firestorm Pack
Firestorm Packs add 2 extra shots to rapid-fire weapons that already fire at least 3 shots, or otherwise increases the blast radius of explosive weapons by 2. Firestorm Packs work wonders when doubled or even tripled up together to make rapid-fire weapons shoot huge bursts or making explosive weapons make huge explosions. Both are very effective and depends on how you're playing, although keep in mind of your ammo if you're using them on rapid-fire weapons. If you have a long game ahead, you likely will get the most usage of using it in Demolition Ammo, especially on Nightmare for an excellent and cheap source of corpse destruction. It can be a bit dangerous because of destroying walls and harming yourself if you're not careful though. If you're very fortunate, Firestorm Packs are absolutely at their best as a part of Biggest Fucking Gun which is one of the best weapons in the game and can clear out huge portions of floors in a single shot.
Onyx Pack
Onyx Packs when used on armor and boots immediately sets durability to 100 and sets the item to be indestructible except for a few small exceptions such as nukes. Being able to make your armor and boots indestructible and permanent is very powerful and often the best way to finish an item. Some players may still prefer to finish an armor with a Power Pack if they believe they can keep it from being destroyed and benefit more from the protection increase, and most of the end-game boots are already indestructible and benefit more from Agility Pack. Otherwise Onyx should always be used. Among the assemblies, Tower Shield is decent if you don't have long-term usage for an Onyx Pack, as it offers a huge amount of protection. The only downsides are Tower Shield can only be repaired using a Megasphere and it has a huge movement speed reduction. Cybernano Armor is also excellent if you have no intentions of switching armors for the rest of the game. Lava Boots and Fire Shield are less recommended and more niche or outclassed.
Nano Pack
Nano Packs first check if the item applied to can already self-recharge. If so, the waiting delay to recharge is reduced by 5 actions. Otherwise, the amount that is recharged is increased by 1 for ranged weapons and 2 for armor and boots. If the item previously did not already self-recharge, the waiting delay is set to 5. Nano Packs are extremely powerful, providing you with functionally infinite durability or ammo, and are a part of many of the best assemblies. What to use a Nano Pack for depends mostly on what kind of build you're playing. Nano-Shrapnel assembly is essentially game-breakingly powerful when applied to a Super Shotgun, but also still very good for other Shotguns. Nanomanufacture Ammo is also excellent, partciularly in Laser Rifles and Plasma Rifles. All of the other assemblies are lesser or supplementary, but are still very good too. If you don't have a specific use for a Nano Pack, I would generally suggest using it for a Plasma Rifle as a backup source of ammo if you find yourself running out, and also because Plasma Rifles are cheap and effective for handling tough enemies such as Archviles. You may also prefer using it in a Rocket Launcher for Nightmare to always be able to destroy corpses without worry of maintaining a supplies of Rockets. Just about everything can benefit from a Nano Pack.
Basic Weapons
Fists
There aren't too many cases where you'll want to use your fists unless you're playing for a specific challenge. A few levels into Brute can add some good damage quickly, but it will always pale in comparison to even a Combat Knife. Unless you somehow completely run out of ammo and have no other melee weapons, you'll likely rarely ever use this.
Pistol
Being the starting weapon, they're naturally pretty wimpy. Pistols are nice that they have a large accuracy bonus so that you can at least pretty consistently hit the targets. Aimed Shot increases accuracy even further, but is very slow, so I generally would only suggest using it to finish off enemies, or if you're firing from a long distance and desperately need as much accuracy as possible. Switch to at least a Shotgun as soon as you can. The only assembly that specifically requires a basic Pistol is Speedloader Pistol, but comparatively only offers half reloading speed and is a waste of Mod Packs. The better assemblies are better suited for a Combat Pistol or Blaster if possible. I wouldn't really recommend using any Mod Packs on a Pistol unless you're playing Angel of Marksmanship and don't intend to find a Combat Pistol for awhile. If so, I'd recommend using Power Packs, then Technical Packs.
Combat Knife
Combat Knives are much better than your fists and offer a lot more damage. That said, they're still fairly weak compared to higher-end melee weapons, but can be good until getting a Chainsaw from The Chained Court. Chainsword is decent, but is quickly outclassed by a Chainsaw and is not recommended using your Mod Packs for it. However, a Combat Knife is preferred if you are intending to use a Malicious Blades build, or playing for a challenge that doesn't allow a Chainsaw. In that case, a Chainsword offers more damage than a Piercing Combat Knife, even against enemies with high armor values. Bringing a stack of Combat Knives can also be useful for throwing them. The range is fairly short and not impressively useful, but can still be a little helpful. In particular, if you're restricted to melee weapons, you can throw one to safely destroy barrels.
Shotgun
Shotgun is arguably the staple weapon of DoomRL, being reliable, ammo-efficient, providing some good power, and very easy to find. The two keys that make them great are they always hit, making accuracy completely negligible, and that they can hit multiple targets even if they're packed together. It's also helpful that running has no negative impact on using a Shotgun. The downsides are that the Shotgun loses power over distance, the need to reload after every shot is very slow, and armor points reduce damage more than any other damage type. Shotguns can also be difficult to control where enemies end up where they die, which is important on Nightmare. Still, the Shotgun is almost always your primary early-game weapon. Given that you'll likely find better weapons, especially the Combat Shotgun, I generally don't recommend using too many Mod Packs on a regular Shotgun. Extra Bulk or Technical Packs that would otherwise go to waste are good to burn for a Shotgun. Elephant Gun is powerful and good for controlling space with its knockback, despite being a bit slow, but you can likely find better usage of your Power Packs.
Double Shotgun
Compared to a regular Shotgun, the Double Shotgun does a ton more damage and offers a great source of knockback to help keep enemies away. However, the shotgun blast type is much worse since it has only about half the range and damage reduction is higher. It also will consume ammo much faster and is slower to reload. Double Shotguns are useful for single targets or when you quickly need to push away an enemy, but they can't be as loosely used as a regular Shotgun. Single Shot is usually worse than simply just firing a single shot with a regular Shotgun. Focused Double Shotgun isn't an amazing assembly, but it is somewhat cheap to make and helps improve the weapon by giving a little more power and a normal shotgun blast, although ultimately it's just a mini Super Shotgun. Overall, a Double Shotgun is a useful supplementary weapon, but its drawbacks means you should not primarily use it over other weapons.
Combat Shotgun
Compared to a regular Shotgun, Combat Shotgun is a little weaker and has less damage spread, but the damage reduction due to distance is a bit lower, and most importantly, the Combat Shotgun can hold 5 shells in its clip. Pumping adds an additional step and time requirement to reload, so plan your combat accordingly. A full reload uses a lot of time, so only do it while you're safe. Note that powerup durations are based on player actions, so if you have Invulnerability for example, it's much better to always full reload in one action instead of doing each reload individually in multiple actions. Combat Shotguns are definitely an upgrade to a regular Shotgun, and is an excellent early-to-mid game weapon. Tactical Shotgun is also one of the best basic assemblies and should often be your first choice for Mod Packs unless you have other important plans for your build. Tactical Shotgun is identical except for removing the pumping requirement, and I generally recommend finishing the assembly with Power Pack. I wouldn't recommend non-assembly Mod Packs for a Combat Shotgun.
Chaingun
Chaingun is a decent weapon for single target firing. Compared to the Shotgun, the Chaingun is faster at damage output since it doesn't need to reload after every shot, has less damage reduced due to distance and armor, and can keep enemies in place which can sometimes be desireable. The key to getting good damage out of the Chaingun is making sure your accuracy is high enough and most of the bullets are hitting. Despite that, Bulk Packs are generally better than Agility Packs for the Chaingun and you will have to rely on Eagle Eye. Gatling Gun is a good improvement and Bulk Packs aren't as useful anywhere else in the early game under most circumstances. Chain Fire is generally not very useful as it only works on enemies that are visible, takes 3 bursts to output more bullets, requires shooting in a circular direction as you turn to other enemies, and it resets when all visible enemies are clear. Overall, the Chaingun does tend to get replaced quickly by Plasma Rifles later on as they have more damage, a better damage type, and reload faster. The only positive with Chainguns is their ammo is much easier to find and store. For the early game, it's a good secondary weapon to go along with the Shotgun, but investing in Eagle Eye which doesn't help Shotguns further hurts the Chaingun.
Rocket Launcher
Rocket Launcher offers some strong damage and the large splash helps hit groups of enemies, but having only a clip of 1 and not being able to carry many rockets, it only works well as a supplementary weapon. That said, its main assistances are destroying corpses and destroying walls, which it is excellent at doing. Rocket Launchers tend to become more viable during Nightmare games where destroying corpses becomes much more important, but can also be helpful in other games with preventing Archviles from resurrecting enemies. Rocket Jump can be useful in a few cases such as getting across Limbo/The Mortuary, Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits, or to quickly separate yourself from dangerous enemies. The Tactical Rocket Launcher assembly isn't significantly different to be worth using Technical Packs unless you have excess of them, and is fairly comparable to Missile Launcher which you're able to always find in some bonus levels. The best basic Mod Packs for Rocket Launchers are usually Power Packs, but likely aren't worth using for it and are better elsewhere. Overall, Rocket Launcher is helpful in certain situations and can be worth carrying, but is a very poor primary weapon due to ammo issues and the explosion destroying items.
Plasma Rifle
Plasma Rifle is very powerful, fairly accurate, and has an excellent damage type. Being rapid-fire, it greatly benefits from having more accuracy bonuses such as Eagle Eye, and also improves a lot in power with Triggerhappy and Son of a Bitch. The main setback is that cells can be hard to obtain in large enough quantities as the Plasma Rifle burns through ammo very quickly. Generally, Plasma Rifle works well as a secondary weapon to Shotguns for single target enemies, such as a dangerous Archvile or bosses. Chain Fire is generally not useful as described under Chain Gun, and Overcharge is generally a waste unless you absolutely need to destroy an enemy immediately and can sacrifice your Plasma Rifle. One trick though is you could farm Plasma Rifle from a Former Commando on Nightmare or near an Archvile to provide you with plenty of them to Overcharge. Each of the basic Mod Packs are helpful, although I would recommend Technical Packs for the best general use. Of the available assemblies, both Assault Rifle and Hyperblaster add a lot of power due to increasing the number of dies for each shot, while also speeding up the firing or reloading time. A non-assembly Plasma Rifle such as 2 Power Packs and 3 Technical Packs is also a strong weapon. Nanomanufacture Ammo removes the need for ammo, turning the Plasma Rifle into a very viable primary weapon, although it requires a Nano Pack and you may be inclined to use a Laser Rifle for that instead which provides functionally perfect accuracy at the small cost of a bit of damage. If you have a lot of supplies, Firestorm Packs are the best to add on to any assembly and non-assembly, which increases the number of shots. Overall, the Plasma Rifle is an excellent weapon, but you need to go out of your way to ensure it has ammo. Use it sparingly for difficult scenarios as you often can't afford to spam it.
10
Discussion / Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges
« on: October 15, 2022, 14:45 »
Hello friends! I've written this guide to help players achieve all of the ranks, medals, and badges in the game from Bronze to Angelic. I'd like to think I'm a fairly strong player, though certainly not the best, but I do believe I have exceptional talent with efficiently collecting the achievements in the game, and I wanted to share some knowledge, strategies, and general guidance for these. The primary approach with these is efficiency and ease, which in many cases will involve strategies that have unusual gameplay, spammy grinds, sometimes boring ideas, and using every advantage possible. In particular, there will be heavy suggestions with dual-angel games with Angel of Confidence, Overconfidence, Max Carnage, Light Travel, and others. Some players prefer to earn their achievements in a more "pure" way, which is respectable and noble, but that is not the purpose of this guide. I aim to achieve everything as efficiently and strategically as possible within the game. Of course though, there is a difference between cheesy strategy usage compared to undesirable decisions such as "savescumming", modifying the game, hacking, all the way to straight up cheating and lying. This guide is of course only focused on legitimate play.
This guide also assumes you are at least an intermediate player and have a solid, standard base of knowledge already. If you're newer to DoomRL, you may find other guides and the wiki to be more helpful sources. With the rich depth of possibilities in DoomRL, I also can't thoroughly cover every situation, but only provide general guidance, so a lot of success will still fall on the players themselves.
This guide is also extensive and I want it to be as best and precise as possible. If you happen to notice any errors, even nitpicks, or have better strategy ideas that make anything easier or faster, please share and I'll edit it in. If something I've written is also not clear in the language used, please critique that too. Some of my strategies for my unachieved awards may also be too speculative, but I'll always be updating this guide with new ideas.
The first major section will cover some niche and lesser known ideas and strategies that can be generally used, as well as some details on important mechanics. Next will be some strategies on improving efficiency with the rankings of killing the required number of enemies. Finally will be a thorough coverage of every medal and badge with source code details of the exact requirements to earn them, followed with the best strategies to achieve each one.
Miscellaneous Tips and Knowledge
-If you play with graphic mode, I highly recommend using the mini-map as a way for faster scanning of the level, as well as being able to see where enemies via Intuition 2 are while you have Berserk or Envirosuit active.
-Pistol kills, knife kills, fist kills, etc are based on what weapon you have at the time of kill. Attacking an enemy with anything and dealing the final blow with your fists is considered a fist kill for example. An enemy dying due to infighting, explosions, fluids, etc, will count as a kill based on whatever weapon you are wielding. Nuking a level and dying will still count all kills based on what weapon you had as you died.
-For some medals and badges that require "knife kills", this specifically means Combat Knife and any modifications. Other melee weapons, even including Subtle Knife do not count as "knife kills" (I'm pretty certain). Knives are a subset of "blades"
-Weapons that are considered a "pistol" are: Pistol, Combat Pistol, Blaster, Trigun, Anti-Freak Jackal, and Grammaton Cleric Beretta.
-Weapons that are considered a "blade" are: Combat Knife, Butcher's Cleaver, Subtle Knife, and Dragonslayer.
-Weapons that are considered a "shotgun" are: Shotgun, Double Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Assault Shotgun, Plasma Shotgun, Super Shotgun, Jackhammer, and Frag Shotgun.
-Weapons that are considered a "rocket launcher" are: Rocket Launcher, Missile Launcher, Napalm Launcher, and Revenant's Launcher.
-When a powerup effect is close to ending, the text colour for it on your status screen will change.
-Powerup duration is based on the number of actions, not speed, turns, time, or anything else. Taking a step uses up the same amount of duration as fully reloading a Combat Shotgun. Switching tactics to running only wastes one action.
-The definition of visiting bonus levels is simply entering them.
-The definition of clearing bonus levels is by exiting when there are 0 enemies alive. This can be done by any means necessary, including nukes, and the trap for Containment Area can even be skipped so long as all other enemies are dead. Exceptions to this are Hell's Armory where the Shambler must be killed, Hell's Arena where all 3 waves must be cleared, and Deimos Lab due to a programming oversight where all you need to do is activate both levers to open the middle area and exit, no kills necessary.
-Using the Run command followed by the Wait command will quickly and repeatedly use Wait until an enemy appears in your vision, which is helpful for speeding up the real-time of play.
-Thermonuclear Bombs and overcharging a Nuclear Plasma Rifle or Nuclear BFG can be done instantly when you stand over a tile of acid or lava. This can be helpful to save some invulnerability time, or to just make it before it runs out. Overcharging can also be done on Angel of Red Alert and special floors with starting nukes.
-Arachnotrons are unable to destroy Napalm Barrels and you can safely use them for cover. This is not true for Nightmare Arachnotrons or Former Commandos, and also not true for other barrels.
-Hell's Arena rewards for clearing all 3 waves will vary depending on what challenge you are playing. The most notable ones are a Homing Phase Device for Angel of Berserk, Power Pak for Angel of Marksmanship, Red Armor and Platsteel Boots for Angel of Masochism, and randomly 1 of Phaseshift Armor/Ballistic Vest/Acid-Proof Boots on Angel of Humanity.
-Completing Hell's Armory (not Deimos Lab) with taking 0 damage guarantees you either a Nano Pak or Onyx Pak.
-The Vaults generates weapons before armor, so if a Unique item appeared, it is more likely to be a weapon.
-Mt Erebus and The Lava Pits have a higher chance to give Lava Armor over other Uniques.
-With the Juggler trait, you can use the mouse wheel to scroll through all the weapons in your inventory, instead of just your main and prepared slots, which significantly improves the trait. It can also be useful to have multiple weapons of the same kind so that you can switch through them instead of needing to reload, such as with Shotguns.
-Berserker trait when hit makes you Berserk based on what percentage of damage you take, so Ironman trait makes this required value much higher. Because of this, Ironman may be undesireable to pair with Berserker.
-The Trigun's Angel Arm is an instant nuke, does not require any particular tactics, does not make you tired, and decreases your maximum HP by 5 to a minimum of 10 maximum HP. If you have 10 or less maximum HP, you cannot activate Angel Arm. Angel Arm can be activated repeatedly even on the same level. It can be activated even on Angel of Berserk, Marksmanship, Shotgunnery, and Pacifism.
-Azrael's Scythe spawns in place of Longinus Spear if 1) upon entering the level, you have 100% kills, and 2) difficulty is Hurt Me Plenty of Harder. Note that if you cleared Hell's Arena on Nightmare without being hit, you'll get Dragonslayer instead. Azrael's Scythe's Whisper of Death does 20 plasma damage to all enemies on the level, makes you tired, cannot be used when tired, and decreases your maximum HP by 5, to a minimum of 5 maximum HP. However, even with 5 maximum HP, you can still continually use Whisper of Death.
-Picking up the Dragonslayer requires you to be Berserk and to have nothing in all 4 equipment slots. To wield Berserker Armor, you must have Dragonslayer in your weapon slot and have at least half of your maximum HP. Simply picking up Berserker Armor has no restrictions, although enemies are unable to.
-For badges that require depth levels, this considers the difference in depth from when you started to when you finished. That is, bonus levels are ignored, and you still need to go deep enough on Angel of Confidence and Angel of Overconfidence.
-Ammo crates (pinkish) have the following possible drops when destroyed: 30/40 nothing, 4/40 10mm Ammo, 4/40 Shells, 1/40 Ammo Chain, 1/40 Shell Box.
-Armor crates (yellowish) have the following possible drops when destroyed: 45/60 nothing, 4/60 Green Armor, 4/60 Steel Boots, 4/60 Small Med Pack, 1/60 Blue Armor, 1/60 Large Med Pack, 1/60 Protective Boots
-With Intuition 1, levers will give you a hint whether they are beneficial, neutral, or dangerous. Beneficial means it is either harms creatures, armor depot, or meditech. Neutral means it is either floods with water or forces explosions. Dangerous means it is either floods with acid, floods with lava, destroys walls, or summons enemies.
-Regular levers have the following type chances: 1/17 floods with water, 1/17 floods with acid, 1/17 floods with lava, 2/17 forces explosions, 2/17 summons enemies, 2/17 armor depot, 2/17 meditech, 3/17 destroys walls, 3/17 harms creatures.
-For any level that can have barrels, there is a 1 in 22 chance that there are a large number of them and you get the level feeling message "Khe, he, he, this will be a mess...".
-For ammo rooms, a random number from 1 to 3 is added onto the level's danger level. For values 1-4, the ammo room will have 10mm ammo, values 5-10 have shells, values 11-13 have rockets, and values 14 or higher have cells. This means that after you're far enough into a game, ammo rooms will only ever have cells.
-In arena type levels, every enemy has a 50% chance to permanently directly hunt for you, and a 50% chance to be normal.
-Closing doors behind you can be helpful to inform you when an enemy goes through them as you can see when they open from anywhere on the map.
-Nightmare gives double duration for powerups, notably Invulnerability, so in cases where you're relying on good luck and a stack of Invulnerabilities, Nightmare may be easier than Ultra-Violence.
-Nightmare and Angel of Darkness respawn chances increase as time goes on, so it is beneficial to clear through levels quickly, and using Run->Wait can be detrimental.
-On Phobos Base Entry, if an enemy is killed on the furthest edges of the level, it can't respawn.
-When combining Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence, you begin the game with a Chainsaw. However, you still can get the Chainsaw boost by simply dropping it and picking it back up, effectively giving you a free Berserk Pak whenever needed.
-When combining the Inquisitor Set, a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher, and Berserker trait, you can effectively blow yourself up repeatedly to give yourself a large amount of Berserk.
-A full win is defined as a game with at least 1 JC kill and you having at least 1 HP remaining. Apostle does not count regarding medals and badges for full wins. Any other kind of win is defined as a normal win (regarding badges and medals), including sacrificing yourself against the Spider Mastermind.
-JC once activated can spawn enemies at any time, however, he can only teleport once each time you hit him. Because of this, it's highly recommended not to run away once the fight starts.
-Because the Spider Mastermind has unique AI and tries to take a certain movement path when hit, it is possible to get it stuck in a way that will still appear in your vision, but be in a position where you cannot get hit. First, reach either the top or bottom middle pillars in Dis that are nearby the walls, either on the left or right sides of them, then try to get the Spider Mastermind adjacent to the wall on the opposite side of you at the pillar. Don't be touching the pillar yourself, and be sure to take your time reaching the spot so you don't get killed along the way. If you fire at the Spider Mastermind, it may attempt to move vertically into the wall and will be unable to, and will get stuck if performed from the correct position and with a bit of pathing luck. Once setup, the Spider Mastermind will only be able to move either against the wall or one of the two tiles vertically away from it. From here, you cannot get hit and can even Run->Wait for it to appear in your vision as you chip away at its health. Be cautious not to cause flinching by doing 20 or more damage, or it may break free or even run through the opening. For some visual guidance and proof of Run->Wait safety, see below:
-When you equip the Berserker Armor, Nightmare Demons begin endlessly spawning. This is generally dangerous, but if you create a setup where you are unreachable and surrounded by tiles that they can't spawn on, you can instead let them roam around outside and ideally die while running through acid or lava. This trick can lead to very easy kills and greatly improve your kill percentage. See below for some example images:
-Some players have reported seemingly playing for Strongman Badges correctly, but not earning the corresponding badges. In the coding, the way kills are handled is that there are 4 category counts for "Chainsaw", "Knife", "Melee" (fists), and "Other" kills. For badges that require using only fists, the sum of "Melee" and "Other" kills is compared to total kills. My assumption is there is some strange type of kill that is not captured by either "Melee" or "Other", despite wielding nothing, but I haven't been able to determine if this is true or what it could be. It's possible this was only a bug in previous versions and has since been corrected.
-While it can be tempting at time, going for too many goals simultaneously can be risky and lead to earning none of them. In particular, collecting Assemblies, Exotics, and Uniques that aren't important to your game but needed for various badges, can be distracting. This is different than going for a Silver Badge that would also earn you a Bronze Badge if you create yourself a singular goal, which I recommend if you're confident. It helps to chip away at the medals and badges you want instead of overextending yourself, and it means you also won't need to overextend yourself in future games. Of course though, players who love a more high-risk/high-reward playstyle may want to go for it all.
Ranks
Below is the list of requirements to achieve each ranking. They are all based on simply killing enemies, and so with enough time into the game, any player of any skill level should be able to get most of these. However, there are definitely efficient ways of doing so, which is what this section of the guide will cover.
Former Human
Kill 50 Former Humans
Simply playing a bit of the game will get you the 50 needed kills. Run around on I'm Too Young To Die and kill every Former Human you find.
Imp
Kill 100 Imps / Kill 10 enemies in melee
Similarly, 100 Imps is just a matter of playing the game a bit. For melee kills, use a Combat Knife, or the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court, or even just your fists. A couple points in Brute will make it easy to get kills.
Demon
Kill 100 Demons / Kill 100 enemies in melee / Kill 10 Demons in melee
For some easy melee kills, play a game on I'm Too Young To Die, put points into Brute and Berserker, and get the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court. Running around a few games of this should get you all the needed melee kills quickly.
Cacodemon
Kill 100 Cacodemons / Kill 10 Cacodemons with the pistol / Kill 2500 enemies
For easier pistol kills, use Angel of Overconfidence and also Angel of Max Carnage if preferred, and roam around with Assault Shotgun to damage up Cacodemons and finish them off with Combat Pistol. The Chained Court can also help with some controlled setups for Cacodemons if you want easier gameplay.
Mancubus
Kill 20 Mancubi / Kill 5 Mancubi with the pistol / Kill 5 Mancubi in melee
Angel of Overconfidence helps a lot with speeding up finding Mancubi. Corner shoot them to lure them in, and as they approach, finish them off with the Combat Pistol and Combat Knife for easy kills. Only needing 5 each doesn't take long, even if you have to do it safely and slowly.
Hell Knight
Kill 200 Hell Knights / Kill 50 Hell Knights with the pistol / Kill 20 Hell Knights in melee
Hell Knights are a bit tricky to farm kills because they don't appear in great numbers early on, but also disappear for the most part in late games. I would suggest collecting your kills as a part of an Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666 game. Pistol kills tend to be the most awkward to claim, so you could attempt Angel of Confidence with Angel of Max Carnage to give yourself some Hell Knights to take out and decent power to your Pistol. If you want a lazier approach, play with Angel of Red Alert on Nightmare, enter level 3 or 4 of Phobos, wield your Pistol, and simply let the nuke kill everything. It's probably one of the most annoying requirements, but 50 isn't too massive of a number.
Baron of Hell
Kill 500 Barons of Hell / Kill 1000 enemies in melee / Kill 10000 enemies
These numbers will all come naturally simply through playing enough. If you want to quickly buff your kills, play Archangel of 666, aim to use a melee build in the later game with Dragonslayer, and attack away. Barons are very common and don't require target farming.
Arch-Vile
Kill 500 Archviles / Kill 2000 enemies in melee / Kill 25000 enemies
As with Baron of Hell ranks, Archangel of 666 and going for the Dragonslayer is the most efficient way to score large number of melee kills and kills in general. Archviles are likewise also pretty common and don't require target farming.
Cyberdemon
Kill 100 Cyberdemons / Kill 50000 enemies
While there are various strategies with farming Cyberdemons from Tower of Babel, 100 is a large number of kills, and it is much more efficient to get 100 from playing Archangel of 666. If you obtain the Inquisitor Set and carefully avoid their melee damage, Cyberdemons are very easy to kill. Ripper Chainsaw (B) is generally the best alternative until you find Dragonslayer, or Butcher's Cleaver if you're playing in high-density areas. All this said, unless you're playing on Ultra-Violence or Nightmare, you may need a few of these long runs to find enough Cyberdemons, as well as getting 50000 kills, but once you're at full power and far into the game with high enemy density, you can achieve the most efficient kills by clearing entire floors fairly quickly. If you're feeling particularly lazy, you can also use the Berserker Armor strategy and let Nightmare Demons repeatedly spawn and die until you have all the kills you need.
Apostle
Kill 50 JCs
There are many strategy possibilities for farming JC kills with different pros and cons, which I will cover, but I'll start with what I believe is most efficient overall, and briefly touch on others.
Strategy 1) Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence. Select Scout and go with Brute->Brute->Berserker->Brute->Intuition/Hellrunner/Finesse to increase damage, allow Berserk, and allowing you to scout out Invulnerabilities. The first levels can be rough, but Run->Wait at a door can help give you some quick kills somewhat safely. Save the Chainsaw boost for JC later, but don't be afraid to use the Large Medpacks. Agility Packs go into the Chainsaw, and then Boots, a pair of Technical Packs can also go into Boots to reduce JC's knockback later, and Power Packs first go into Chainsaw, then Red Armor. Being Berserk with Red Armor (P) minimizes most damage.
Collect Phase Devices, Envirosuits, skip Unholy Cathedral and The Vaults, and enter ideally Limbo, but The Mortuary can work too. Use any Phase Devices available first, then Homing Phase Devices to try to get to the top-right corner where the Nuclear BFG is, but the bottom-right corner can also work. Be cautious of fireballs that can destroy it.
Use floors 5, 6, and 7 to try and find Invulnerabilities, and if possible, then use Homing Phase Devices where needed to get to Dis as quickly as possible. Nuke the Spider Mastermind, head towards JC, and stop a bit past the "d" of the "id" in blood. Use Envirosuits if available, use the Chainsaw boost, and aggressively run at JC in a zig-zag pattern. If you happen to have found an extra nuke, immediately use that once you entered the level for a fast kill as win type is irrelevant.
This strategy is reliant on a bit of luck and is a bit tough for intermediate players, but it's the most efficient way to farm JC kills, even if some runs aren't successful. The keys to this is Berserk keeping you easily alive, the power of Chainsaw, especially while Berserk, and not needing to spend real time with inventory management or most levels.
Strategy 2) Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence. This strategy will involve playing more of the game, and grabbing both the Nuclear BFG and Lava Element, although certainly a regular nuke and Invulnerabilities also works. Any build can also work well. Clear your way through the first 4 floors, saving any Phase Devices and Envirosuits you find. Grab the Nuclear BFG and slowly clear out the other floors and Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits to get the Lava Element. The Nuclear BFG is great for easily clearing most enemies. Nuke Dis, use the Lava Element, and then blast JC with your best weapons available.
This is decently efficient and is less reliant on luck, but requires more time getting through the game. The one big plus is players may find it more fun of a grind to play as there's a lot more versatility.
Strategy 3) Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Red Alert. This strategy is very slow because you have to play all the way through from the start of the game, and you also have to be cautious to keep mistakes minimal with both game settings being potentially deadly. However, consistency is excellent as all you need is the Lava Element, enter Dis, use it as it gets nuked, and then let the timer expire against JC without needing to actually fight him. Use this strategy if you have no issues with taking your time to collect 50 kills, or simply prefer a fuller experience.
This guide also assumes you are at least an intermediate player and have a solid, standard base of knowledge already. If you're newer to DoomRL, you may find other guides and the wiki to be more helpful sources. With the rich depth of possibilities in DoomRL, I also can't thoroughly cover every situation, but only provide general guidance, so a lot of success will still fall on the players themselves.
This guide is also extensive and I want it to be as best and precise as possible. If you happen to notice any errors, even nitpicks, or have better strategy ideas that make anything easier or faster, please share and I'll edit it in. If something I've written is also not clear in the language used, please critique that too. Some of my strategies for my unachieved awards may also be too speculative, but I'll always be updating this guide with new ideas.
The first major section will cover some niche and lesser known ideas and strategies that can be generally used, as well as some details on important mechanics. Next will be some strategies on improving efficiency with the rankings of killing the required number of enemies. Finally will be a thorough coverage of every medal and badge with source code details of the exact requirements to earn them, followed with the best strategies to achieve each one.
Miscellaneous Tips and Knowledge
-If you play with graphic mode, I highly recommend using the mini-map as a way for faster scanning of the level, as well as being able to see where enemies via Intuition 2 are while you have Berserk or Envirosuit active.
-Pistol kills, knife kills, fist kills, etc are based on what weapon you have at the time of kill. Attacking an enemy with anything and dealing the final blow with your fists is considered a fist kill for example. An enemy dying due to infighting, explosions, fluids, etc, will count as a kill based on whatever weapon you are wielding. Nuking a level and dying will still count all kills based on what weapon you had as you died.
-For some medals and badges that require "knife kills", this specifically means Combat Knife and any modifications. Other melee weapons, even including Subtle Knife do not count as "knife kills" (I'm pretty certain). Knives are a subset of "blades"
-Weapons that are considered a "pistol" are: Pistol, Combat Pistol, Blaster, Trigun, Anti-Freak Jackal, and Grammaton Cleric Beretta.
-Weapons that are considered a "blade" are: Combat Knife, Butcher's Cleaver, Subtle Knife, and Dragonslayer.
-Weapons that are considered a "shotgun" are: Shotgun, Double Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Assault Shotgun, Plasma Shotgun, Super Shotgun, Jackhammer, and Frag Shotgun.
-Weapons that are considered a "rocket launcher" are: Rocket Launcher, Missile Launcher, Napalm Launcher, and Revenant's Launcher.
-When a powerup effect is close to ending, the text colour for it on your status screen will change.
-Powerup duration is based on the number of actions, not speed, turns, time, or anything else. Taking a step uses up the same amount of duration as fully reloading a Combat Shotgun. Switching tactics to running only wastes one action.
-The definition of visiting bonus levels is simply entering them.
-The definition of clearing bonus levels is by exiting when there are 0 enemies alive. This can be done by any means necessary, including nukes, and the trap for Containment Area can even be skipped so long as all other enemies are dead. Exceptions to this are Hell's Armory where the Shambler must be killed, Hell's Arena where all 3 waves must be cleared, and Deimos Lab due to a programming oversight where all you need to do is activate both levers to open the middle area and exit, no kills necessary.
-Using the Run command followed by the Wait command will quickly and repeatedly use Wait until an enemy appears in your vision, which is helpful for speeding up the real-time of play.
-Thermonuclear Bombs and overcharging a Nuclear Plasma Rifle or Nuclear BFG can be done instantly when you stand over a tile of acid or lava. This can be helpful to save some invulnerability time, or to just make it before it runs out. Overcharging can also be done on Angel of Red Alert and special floors with starting nukes.
-Arachnotrons are unable to destroy Napalm Barrels and you can safely use them for cover. This is not true for Nightmare Arachnotrons or Former Commandos, and also not true for other barrels.
-Hell's Arena rewards for clearing all 3 waves will vary depending on what challenge you are playing. The most notable ones are a Homing Phase Device for Angel of Berserk, Power Pak for Angel of Marksmanship, Red Armor and Platsteel Boots for Angel of Masochism, and randomly 1 of Phaseshift Armor/Ballistic Vest/Acid-Proof Boots on Angel of Humanity.
-Completing Hell's Armory (not Deimos Lab) with taking 0 damage guarantees you either a Nano Pak or Onyx Pak.
-The Vaults generates weapons before armor, so if a Unique item appeared, it is more likely to be a weapon.
-Mt Erebus and The Lava Pits have a higher chance to give Lava Armor over other Uniques.
-With the Juggler trait, you can use the mouse wheel to scroll through all the weapons in your inventory, instead of just your main and prepared slots, which significantly improves the trait. It can also be useful to have multiple weapons of the same kind so that you can switch through them instead of needing to reload, such as with Shotguns.
-Berserker trait when hit makes you Berserk based on what percentage of damage you take, so Ironman trait makes this required value much higher. Because of this, Ironman may be undesireable to pair with Berserker.
-The Trigun's Angel Arm is an instant nuke, does not require any particular tactics, does not make you tired, and decreases your maximum HP by 5 to a minimum of 10 maximum HP. If you have 10 or less maximum HP, you cannot activate Angel Arm. Angel Arm can be activated repeatedly even on the same level. It can be activated even on Angel of Berserk, Marksmanship, Shotgunnery, and Pacifism.
-Azrael's Scythe spawns in place of Longinus Spear if 1) upon entering the level, you have 100% kills, and 2) difficulty is Hurt Me Plenty of Harder. Note that if you cleared Hell's Arena on Nightmare without being hit, you'll get Dragonslayer instead. Azrael's Scythe's Whisper of Death does 20 plasma damage to all enemies on the level, makes you tired, cannot be used when tired, and decreases your maximum HP by 5, to a minimum of 5 maximum HP. However, even with 5 maximum HP, you can still continually use Whisper of Death.
-Picking up the Dragonslayer requires you to be Berserk and to have nothing in all 4 equipment slots. To wield Berserker Armor, you must have Dragonslayer in your weapon slot and have at least half of your maximum HP. Simply picking up Berserker Armor has no restrictions, although enemies are unable to.
-For badges that require depth levels, this considers the difference in depth from when you started to when you finished. That is, bonus levels are ignored, and you still need to go deep enough on Angel of Confidence and Angel of Overconfidence.
-Ammo crates (pinkish) have the following possible drops when destroyed: 30/40 nothing, 4/40 10mm Ammo, 4/40 Shells, 1/40 Ammo Chain, 1/40 Shell Box.
-Armor crates (yellowish) have the following possible drops when destroyed: 45/60 nothing, 4/60 Green Armor, 4/60 Steel Boots, 4/60 Small Med Pack, 1/60 Blue Armor, 1/60 Large Med Pack, 1/60 Protective Boots
-With Intuition 1, levers will give you a hint whether they are beneficial, neutral, or dangerous. Beneficial means it is either harms creatures, armor depot, or meditech. Neutral means it is either floods with water or forces explosions. Dangerous means it is either floods with acid, floods with lava, destroys walls, or summons enemies.
-Regular levers have the following type chances: 1/17 floods with water, 1/17 floods with acid, 1/17 floods with lava, 2/17 forces explosions, 2/17 summons enemies, 2/17 armor depot, 2/17 meditech, 3/17 destroys walls, 3/17 harms creatures.
-For any level that can have barrels, there is a 1 in 22 chance that there are a large number of them and you get the level feeling message "Khe, he, he, this will be a mess...".
-For ammo rooms, a random number from 1 to 3 is added onto the level's danger level. For values 1-4, the ammo room will have 10mm ammo, values 5-10 have shells, values 11-13 have rockets, and values 14 or higher have cells. This means that after you're far enough into a game, ammo rooms will only ever have cells.
-In arena type levels, every enemy has a 50% chance to permanently directly hunt for you, and a 50% chance to be normal.
-Closing doors behind you can be helpful to inform you when an enemy goes through them as you can see when they open from anywhere on the map.
-Nightmare gives double duration for powerups, notably Invulnerability, so in cases where you're relying on good luck and a stack of Invulnerabilities, Nightmare may be easier than Ultra-Violence.
-Nightmare and Angel of Darkness respawn chances increase as time goes on, so it is beneficial to clear through levels quickly, and using Run->Wait can be detrimental.
-On Phobos Base Entry, if an enemy is killed on the furthest edges of the level, it can't respawn.
-When combining Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence, you begin the game with a Chainsaw. However, you still can get the Chainsaw boost by simply dropping it and picking it back up, effectively giving you a free Berserk Pak whenever needed.
-When combining the Inquisitor Set, a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher, and Berserker trait, you can effectively blow yourself up repeatedly to give yourself a large amount of Berserk.
-A full win is defined as a game with at least 1 JC kill and you having at least 1 HP remaining. Apostle does not count regarding medals and badges for full wins. Any other kind of win is defined as a normal win (regarding badges and medals), including sacrificing yourself against the Spider Mastermind.
-JC once activated can spawn enemies at any time, however, he can only teleport once each time you hit him. Because of this, it's highly recommended not to run away once the fight starts.
-Because the Spider Mastermind has unique AI and tries to take a certain movement path when hit, it is possible to get it stuck in a way that will still appear in your vision, but be in a position where you cannot get hit. First, reach either the top or bottom middle pillars in Dis that are nearby the walls, either on the left or right sides of them, then try to get the Spider Mastermind adjacent to the wall on the opposite side of you at the pillar. Don't be touching the pillar yourself, and be sure to take your time reaching the spot so you don't get killed along the way. If you fire at the Spider Mastermind, it may attempt to move vertically into the wall and will be unable to, and will get stuck if performed from the correct position and with a bit of pathing luck. Once setup, the Spider Mastermind will only be able to move either against the wall or one of the two tiles vertically away from it. From here, you cannot get hit and can even Run->Wait for it to appear in your vision as you chip away at its health. Be cautious not to cause flinching by doing 20 or more damage, or it may break free or even run through the opening. For some visual guidance and proof of Run->Wait safety, see below:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
-When you equip the Berserker Armor, Nightmare Demons begin endlessly spawning. This is generally dangerous, but if you create a setup where you are unreachable and surrounded by tiles that they can't spawn on, you can instead let them roam around outside and ideally die while running through acid or lava. This trick can lead to very easy kills and greatly improve your kill percentage. See below for some example images:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
-Some players have reported seemingly playing for Strongman Badges correctly, but not earning the corresponding badges. In the coding, the way kills are handled is that there are 4 category counts for "Chainsaw", "Knife", "Melee" (fists), and "Other" kills. For badges that require using only fists, the sum of "Melee" and "Other" kills is compared to total kills. My assumption is there is some strange type of kill that is not captured by either "Melee" or "Other", despite wielding nothing, but I haven't been able to determine if this is true or what it could be. It's possible this was only a bug in previous versions and has since been corrected.
-While it can be tempting at time, going for too many goals simultaneously can be risky and lead to earning none of them. In particular, collecting Assemblies, Exotics, and Uniques that aren't important to your game but needed for various badges, can be distracting. This is different than going for a Silver Badge that would also earn you a Bronze Badge if you create yourself a singular goal, which I recommend if you're confident. It helps to chip away at the medals and badges you want instead of overextending yourself, and it means you also won't need to overextend yourself in future games. Of course though, players who love a more high-risk/high-reward playstyle may want to go for it all.
Ranks
Below is the list of requirements to achieve each ranking. They are all based on simply killing enemies, and so with enough time into the game, any player of any skill level should be able to get most of these. However, there are definitely efficient ways of doing so, which is what this section of the guide will cover.
Former Human
Kill 50 Former Humans
Simply playing a bit of the game will get you the 50 needed kills. Run around on I'm Too Young To Die and kill every Former Human you find.
Imp
Kill 100 Imps / Kill 10 enemies in melee
Similarly, 100 Imps is just a matter of playing the game a bit. For melee kills, use a Combat Knife, or the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court, or even just your fists. A couple points in Brute will make it easy to get kills.
Demon
Kill 100 Demons / Kill 100 enemies in melee / Kill 10 Demons in melee
For some easy melee kills, play a game on I'm Too Young To Die, put points into Brute and Berserker, and get the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court. Running around a few games of this should get you all the needed melee kills quickly.
Cacodemon
Kill 100 Cacodemons / Kill 10 Cacodemons with the pistol / Kill 2500 enemies
For easier pistol kills, use Angel of Overconfidence and also Angel of Max Carnage if preferred, and roam around with Assault Shotgun to damage up Cacodemons and finish them off with Combat Pistol. The Chained Court can also help with some controlled setups for Cacodemons if you want easier gameplay.
Mancubus
Kill 20 Mancubi / Kill 5 Mancubi with the pistol / Kill 5 Mancubi in melee
Angel of Overconfidence helps a lot with speeding up finding Mancubi. Corner shoot them to lure them in, and as they approach, finish them off with the Combat Pistol and Combat Knife for easy kills. Only needing 5 each doesn't take long, even if you have to do it safely and slowly.
Hell Knight
Kill 200 Hell Knights / Kill 50 Hell Knights with the pistol / Kill 20 Hell Knights in melee
Hell Knights are a bit tricky to farm kills because they don't appear in great numbers early on, but also disappear for the most part in late games. I would suggest collecting your kills as a part of an Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666 game. Pistol kills tend to be the most awkward to claim, so you could attempt Angel of Confidence with Angel of Max Carnage to give yourself some Hell Knights to take out and decent power to your Pistol. If you want a lazier approach, play with Angel of Red Alert on Nightmare, enter level 3 or 4 of Phobos, wield your Pistol, and simply let the nuke kill everything. It's probably one of the most annoying requirements, but 50 isn't too massive of a number.
Baron of Hell
Kill 500 Barons of Hell / Kill 1000 enemies in melee / Kill 10000 enemies
These numbers will all come naturally simply through playing enough. If you want to quickly buff your kills, play Archangel of 666, aim to use a melee build in the later game with Dragonslayer, and attack away. Barons are very common and don't require target farming.
Arch-Vile
Kill 500 Archviles / Kill 2000 enemies in melee / Kill 25000 enemies
As with Baron of Hell ranks, Archangel of 666 and going for the Dragonslayer is the most efficient way to score large number of melee kills and kills in general. Archviles are likewise also pretty common and don't require target farming.
Cyberdemon
Kill 100 Cyberdemons / Kill 50000 enemies
While there are various strategies with farming Cyberdemons from Tower of Babel, 100 is a large number of kills, and it is much more efficient to get 100 from playing Archangel of 666. If you obtain the Inquisitor Set and carefully avoid their melee damage, Cyberdemons are very easy to kill. Ripper Chainsaw (B) is generally the best alternative until you find Dragonslayer, or Butcher's Cleaver if you're playing in high-density areas. All this said, unless you're playing on Ultra-Violence or Nightmare, you may need a few of these long runs to find enough Cyberdemons, as well as getting 50000 kills, but once you're at full power and far into the game with high enemy density, you can achieve the most efficient kills by clearing entire floors fairly quickly. If you're feeling particularly lazy, you can also use the Berserker Armor strategy and let Nightmare Demons repeatedly spawn and die until you have all the kills you need.
Apostle
Kill 50 JCs
There are many strategy possibilities for farming JC kills with different pros and cons, which I will cover, but I'll start with what I believe is most efficient overall, and briefly touch on others.
Strategy 1) Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence. Select Scout and go with Brute->Brute->Berserker->Brute->Intuition/Hellrunner/Finesse to increase damage, allow Berserk, and allowing you to scout out Invulnerabilities. The first levels can be rough, but Run->Wait at a door can help give you some quick kills somewhat safely. Save the Chainsaw boost for JC later, but don't be afraid to use the Large Medpacks. Agility Packs go into the Chainsaw, and then Boots, a pair of Technical Packs can also go into Boots to reduce JC's knockback later, and Power Packs first go into Chainsaw, then Red Armor. Being Berserk with Red Armor (P) minimizes most damage.
Collect Phase Devices, Envirosuits, skip Unholy Cathedral and The Vaults, and enter ideally Limbo, but The Mortuary can work too. Use any Phase Devices available first, then Homing Phase Devices to try to get to the top-right corner where the Nuclear BFG is, but the bottom-right corner can also work. Be cautious of fireballs that can destroy it.
Use floors 5, 6, and 7 to try and find Invulnerabilities, and if possible, then use Homing Phase Devices where needed to get to Dis as quickly as possible. Nuke the Spider Mastermind, head towards JC, and stop a bit past the "d" of the "id" in blood. Use Envirosuits if available, use the Chainsaw boost, and aggressively run at JC in a zig-zag pattern. If you happen to have found an extra nuke, immediately use that once you entered the level for a fast kill as win type is irrelevant.
This strategy is reliant on a bit of luck and is a bit tough for intermediate players, but it's the most efficient way to farm JC kills, even if some runs aren't successful. The keys to this is Berserk keeping you easily alive, the power of Chainsaw, especially while Berserk, and not needing to spend real time with inventory management or most levels.
Strategy 2) Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence. This strategy will involve playing more of the game, and grabbing both the Nuclear BFG and Lava Element, although certainly a regular nuke and Invulnerabilities also works. Any build can also work well. Clear your way through the first 4 floors, saving any Phase Devices and Envirosuits you find. Grab the Nuclear BFG and slowly clear out the other floors and Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits to get the Lava Element. The Nuclear BFG is great for easily clearing most enemies. Nuke Dis, use the Lava Element, and then blast JC with your best weapons available.
This is decently efficient and is less reliant on luck, but requires more time getting through the game. The one big plus is players may find it more fun of a grind to play as there's a lot more versatility.
Strategy 3) Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Red Alert. This strategy is very slow because you have to play all the way through from the start of the game, and you also have to be cautious to keep mistakes minimal with both game settings being potentially deadly. However, consistency is excellent as all you need is the Lava Element, enter Dis, use it as it gets nuked, and then let the timer expire against JC without needing to actually fight him. Use this strategy if you have no issues with taking your time to collect 50 kills, or simply prefer a fuller experience.
11
Discussion / Another Journey to 100%
« on: July 03, 2020, 18:08 »
Hello once again! I hope you've all been well under these extraordinary times.
Continuing my trend of playing this game every few years, I've had an itch to pick it up again and am keen to push even further and faster than I did previously! For those who may be unfamiliar, I had a daily blog of sorts with my progress before, "The Journey to 100%", and think it would be fun to do it another time. Maybe I'll get much closer to 100% this time, maybe I'll crash and burn after playing so much again, who knows. Maybe there will be a part 3 in 2024 or something.
The main thing that always draws me in is D***RL is it's an extremely fun, well-designed, satisfying game to play, even if there are some balance issues. It really fits well with my grindy and analytical gaming playstyle, and I can enjoy playing single-player at my own pace.
Since I know so much more now and am far more experienced coming into the game this time, I think I'll quickly get back to where I was before. For reference, the last time I tried this, I clocked in over 300 hours within 2 months, while also working full time, and at the current moment, I just finished my last day of any sort of productivity for the next couple months. I did have some backups of my progress before, but not up to when I stopped last time, and quite honestly, I think it would be a lot more fun to start fresh anyway.
I'm thinking of doing the same type of blog style I did before, both to provide some interesting reading material, and to also contain everything I do in one place instead of flooding out what other players post in the mortem section. It's also helpful to have a lot of strategy ideas for those who are also seeking achievements, and I definitely will be referring to my old mortems to help myself.
I also think this time I'll try some non-badge challenges that seem like fun to keep things interesting. Some sort of difficulty existing between Diamond and Angelic would be wonderful as the jump between them is quite ridiculous and can be demotivating. That said, I really want to try to catch Papilio and Tormuse. One itch that I never scratched is I was an Angel of 100 on Nightmare from getting the last Medal and with it, two more Diamond Badge, which I really wish I did.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy what I have to share and hopefully don't take this in as spammy or anything like that. :)
Continuing my trend of playing this game every few years, I've had an itch to pick it up again and am keen to push even further and faster than I did previously! For those who may be unfamiliar, I had a daily blog of sorts with my progress before, "The Journey to 100%", and think it would be fun to do it another time. Maybe I'll get much closer to 100% this time, maybe I'll crash and burn after playing so much again, who knows. Maybe there will be a part 3 in 2024 or something.
The main thing that always draws me in is D***RL is it's an extremely fun, well-designed, satisfying game to play, even if there are some balance issues. It really fits well with my grindy and analytical gaming playstyle, and I can enjoy playing single-player at my own pace.
Since I know so much more now and am far more experienced coming into the game this time, I think I'll quickly get back to where I was before. For reference, the last time I tried this, I clocked in over 300 hours within 2 months, while also working full time, and at the current moment, I just finished my last day of any sort of productivity for the next couple months. I did have some backups of my progress before, but not up to when I stopped last time, and quite honestly, I think it would be a lot more fun to start fresh anyway.
I'm thinking of doing the same type of blog style I did before, both to provide some interesting reading material, and to also contain everything I do in one place instead of flooding out what other players post in the mortem section. It's also helpful to have a lot of strategy ideas for those who are also seeking achievements, and I definitely will be referring to my old mortems to help myself.
I also think this time I'll try some non-badge challenges that seem like fun to keep things interesting. Some sort of difficulty existing between Diamond and Angelic would be wonderful as the jump between them is quite ridiculous and can be demotivating. That said, I really want to try to catch Papilio and Tormuse. One itch that I never scratched is I was an Angel of 100 on Nightmare from getting the last Medal and with it, two more Diamond Badge, which I really wish I did.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy what I have to share and hopefully don't take this in as spammy or anything like that. :)
12
Discussion / The Journey to 100%
« on: September 08, 2017, 16:12 »
Hello! I'm a long-time lurker who's played off and on for a few years now, and recently decided to pick the game up again! I'm already fairly competent with the game, but by no means a veteran. I've only ever played with graphics, though I also did play back when the game's name still had vowels.
I've been a competitive gamer for close to 15 years now and always love a good challenge! When I originally started to play and again from a fresh start a couple years later, I wanted to go hard to get as many of the badges as possible, but I never really got around to it between other games, work, school, IRL, and so forth. Lately, I've been in a bit of a rut and interested to start once again and really grind for it this time! I thought it would also be interesting to write about my progress here to share with others, perhaps also motivating more people to play. Kind of like a blog I suppose to also help myself be accountable for not giving up when things get tough. Hopefully it doesn't come off as obnoxious spam or anything. :P
In particular, I remember seeing when Vandam showed off that he had 16 on the Angelic Badges, and I thought it was so cool! In this day and age with the internet and all, it's very rare for a masterfully skilled player/athlete/person/etc to come from out of the blue and re-define what top-level play is like. Almost romantic in a sense. On top, if he was able to do it, then so can I! I'm a pretty smart cookie if I do say so myself, and I'm definitely a grinder when I want to achieve something.
So with all that said, I'll continually post little updates, fire up discussion here, and maybe share some cool post mortems! I'll be starting completely from scratch once again, and will probably need a little derusting, but I'm confident I'll be able to catch up quickly!
I happen to have two post mortems saved from years ago if you'd like to read those too:
My first Angel of 100 completion, back in mid 2013:
And my first Angel of 100 with Max Carnage completion, back in 2015:
I've been a competitive gamer for close to 15 years now and always love a good challenge! When I originally started to play and again from a fresh start a couple years later, I wanted to go hard to get as many of the badges as possible, but I never really got around to it between other games, work, school, IRL, and so forth. Lately, I've been in a bit of a rut and interested to start once again and really grind for it this time! I thought it would also be interesting to write about my progress here to share with others, perhaps also motivating more people to play. Kind of like a blog I suppose to also help myself be accountable for not giving up when things get tough. Hopefully it doesn't come off as obnoxious spam or anything. :P
In particular, I remember seeing when Vandam showed off that he had 16 on the Angelic Badges, and I thought it was so cool! In this day and age with the internet and all, it's very rare for a masterfully skilled player/athlete/person/etc to come from out of the blue and re-define what top-level play is like. Almost romantic in a sense. On top, if he was able to do it, then so can I! I'm a pretty smart cookie if I do say so myself, and I'm definitely a grinder when I want to achieve something.
So with all that said, I'll continually post little updates, fire up discussion here, and maybe share some cool post mortems! I'll be starting completely from scratch once again, and will probably need a little derusting, but I'm confident I'll be able to catch up quickly!
I happen to have two post mortems saved from years ago if you'd like to read those too:
My first Angel of 100 completion, back in mid 2013:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And my first Angel of 100 with Max Carnage completion, back in 2015:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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