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151
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: October 03, 2017, 15:01 »
Day 26:
After about a week of grinding for JC kills, I've finally reached 50 and achieved Apostle ranking! :D 100% completion of the ranking, all done forever!
I had a bit of a struggle getting the last 5 runs, but I was very motivated to get it done. After getting a bit annoyed again with Berserk+Overconfidence, I tried some more Max Carnage+Overconfidence and lucked out one run with a second nuke. Another run with it, I had the Jackhammer and yet I was still killed by JC. Once again, this strategy is very inconsistent and very difficult to complete without another nuke. With an extra however, it's very fast and easy.
Another run died to this:
Funny that it came up after the topic of rare maps.
I also am continuing to develop my gameplay skills and created a nice setup to deal with Cacodemons without putting myself in danger. I thought it was a bit clever. :)
When I got to 49/50, I had some more unlucky deaths and eventually got another run going where I started off with a nuke on floor 1, allowing me to skip Mortuary/Limbo. However, I repeatedly got into bad situations, had very low gear all throughout, and had to start stair-diving. I got to just outside the Lava Pits, but had no Platsteels, no Phase Devices, no Envirosuits (one on the next floor though :P), nothing, so the only hope left was finding Invulnerability on floor 7.
I step down and see this:
And with that, I was set to fight JC with by far the worst setup I've had compared to all of my 49 kills, making for a very climactic finish. I barely scrapped by with enough health and almost died a couple times, but did indeed secure the win:
So with that, no more JC runs! I'll probably be rotating around again on what to do next with all the badges and medals left! I could continue collecting the rest of the gold badges, or finishing more of the easy medals, or seeking out Dragonslayer, Subtle Knife, and BFG10K, or perhaps earn my first angelic badge! In any case, it'll be far more exciting and fun than what I've been up that last while here!
Very happy with this achievement!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After about a week of grinding for JC kills, I've finally reached 50 and achieved Apostle ranking! :D 100% completion of the ranking, all done forever!
I had a bit of a struggle getting the last 5 runs, but I was very motivated to get it done. After getting a bit annoyed again with Berserk+Overconfidence, I tried some more Max Carnage+Overconfidence and lucked out one run with a second nuke. Another run with it, I had the Jackhammer and yet I was still killed by JC. Once again, this strategy is very inconsistent and very difficult to complete without another nuke. With an extra however, it's very fast and easy.
Another run died to this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Funny that it came up after the topic of rare maps.
I also am continuing to develop my gameplay skills and created a nice setup to deal with Cacodemons without putting myself in danger. I thought it was a bit clever. :)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
When I got to 49/50, I had some more unlucky deaths and eventually got another run going where I started off with a nuke on floor 1, allowing me to skip Mortuary/Limbo. However, I repeatedly got into bad situations, had very low gear all throughout, and had to start stair-diving. I got to just outside the Lava Pits, but had no Platsteels, no Phase Devices, no Envirosuits (one on the next floor though :P), nothing, so the only hope left was finding Invulnerability on floor 7.
I step down and see this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And with that, I was set to fight JC with by far the worst setup I've had compared to all of my 49 kills, making for a very climactic finish. I barely scrapped by with enough health and almost died a couple times, but did indeed secure the win:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So with that, no more JC runs! I'll probably be rotating around again on what to do next with all the badges and medals left! I could continue collecting the rest of the gold badges, or finishing more of the easy medals, or seeking out Dragonslayer, Subtle Knife, and BFG10K, or perhaps earn my first angelic badge! In any case, it'll be far more exciting and fun than what I've been up that last while here!
Very happy with this achievement!
152
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: October 02, 2017, 14:04 »
Yeah, not too fascinating with grinding the same thing repeatedly, but progress will be more interesting soon!
Day 25:
45/50 JC kills now and at the home stretch! If my luck pans out well, I'll get this done tonight!
I went for another attempt at Max Carnage+Red Alert for the Quartermaster Gold Badge while getting a JC kill and pulled it off this time:
I also had another neat level on one of my runs with an island completely detached from any bridges and walkways:
That's pretty much it for today! Apostle soon!
Day 25:
45/50 JC kills now and at the home stretch! If my luck pans out well, I'll get this done tonight!
I went for another attempt at Max Carnage+Red Alert for the Quartermaster Gold Badge while getting a JC kill and pulled it off this time:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I also had another neat level on one of my runs with an island completely detached from any bridges and walkways:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
That's pretty much it for today! Apostle soon!
153
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: October 01, 2017, 09:32 »
Day 24:
38/50, getting closer to the end of this! I'm really looking forward to moving onto other goals afterwards.
I had one Max Carnage+Red Alert run that I was playing out trying to get 100% kills for the badge, but on one floor, I took one step around a corner and a Former Commando immediately melted me. Pretty crushed about that one, but at least I've seen the challenge is pretty easy and I look forward to trying it again.
Another little detail I've learned a few days ago is when you gib a Pain Elemental, it doesn't produce Lost Soul spawns on death, which is very handy to know! It helps plan out when I want to go Berserk, because they're quite annoying to deal with, and are one of the main causes of early deaths in my runs. I definitely miss having ranged attacks. :P
Also one on of my runs, I got a really cool map unlike one I've ever seen before so far:
Really neat how tiny the level was!
All that said, nothing too exciting again. I'm learning a lot of minor details in my play and getting better at my reasoning with the game, so I'm really keen on playing for badges and medals again!
38/50, getting closer to the end of this! I'm really looking forward to moving onto other goals afterwards.
I had one Max Carnage+Red Alert run that I was playing out trying to get 100% kills for the badge, but on one floor, I took one step around a corner and a Former Commando immediately melted me. Pretty crushed about that one, but at least I've seen the challenge is pretty easy and I look forward to trying it again.
Another little detail I've learned a few days ago is when you gib a Pain Elemental, it doesn't produce Lost Soul spawns on death, which is very handy to know! It helps plan out when I want to go Berserk, because they're quite annoying to deal with, and are one of the main causes of early deaths in my runs. I definitely miss having ranged attacks. :P
Also one on of my runs, I got a really cool map unlike one I've ever seen before so far:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Really neat how tiny the level was!
All that said, nothing too exciting again. I'm learning a lot of minor details in my play and getting better at my reasoning with the game, so I'm really keen on playing for badges and medals again!
154
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 30, 2017, 09:14 »
Day 23:
32/50 now! Lots of solid runs and not too much difficulty in getting kills this time. I had one run to Lava Pits where I ran out of health and had to bail in hopes of finding a replacement Invulnerability on floor 7, but it didn't pan out. On a different run, I had Mt Erebus with no Envirosuits and played roulette with a Phase Device and happened to get one of the best possible locations:
Here's some post-mortems for your reading pleasure:
Then on floor 1 of a run, I found a Trigun!
Since it was an early start, I opted to go for Fallout Platinum Cross, I just needed to rely on luck with Invulnerability since there are so few floors on Angel of Overconfidence. Well, with some super appreciated luck, I got one on floor 2, with stairs nearby, and started to nuke everything!
On floor 5 it finally ran out and I started to get a little worried about completing. I was also worried about dying since I wasn't using my standard trait setup, on top of low inventory and low health. I clicked a Computer Map on floor 6 and this was revealed to me:
I carefully went straight for the Invulnerability and nuked some more floors. I was tempted to grab the Lava Element, but I didn't want to ruin such a rare run. In hindsight, there wasn't any risk, but I figured that I can always get another JC kill and not really another Trigun run. I made it to Dis just as Invulnerability ran out, so I missed out on killing JC, but that's perfectly fine by me.
One other cool thing that happened is with the heavy usage of Angel Arm, my health actually exceeded 200% for awhile:
I assume this happened since my health was larger than my maximum health and it doesn't scale down. Pretty neat! I used to simplify my thinking in that Badass x2 removes health decay, but since you can go over 200%, that's technically not true!
With that, I scratched another medal, of which is super annoying to get! My original plan was to grind a Scout with Intuition on Angel of Confidence and scouring through Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab until I got a Trigun. I'm very happy I don't have to do that! On top, this was my 3rd Trigun, so now I'm just missing Dragonslayer x3, Subtle Knife x3, and BFG10K x2!
Good progress with an extra surprise!
32/50 now! Lots of solid runs and not too much difficulty in getting kills this time. I had one run to Lava Pits where I ran out of health and had to bail in hopes of finding a replacement Invulnerability on floor 7, but it didn't pan out. On a different run, I had Mt Erebus with no Envirosuits and played roulette with a Phase Device and happened to get one of the best possible locations:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Here's some post-mortems for your reading pleasure:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then on floor 1 of a run, I found a Trigun!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Since it was an early start, I opted to go for Fallout Platinum Cross, I just needed to rely on luck with Invulnerability since there are so few floors on Angel of Overconfidence. Well, with some super appreciated luck, I got one on floor 2, with stairs nearby, and started to nuke everything!
On floor 5 it finally ran out and I started to get a little worried about completing. I was also worried about dying since I wasn't using my standard trait setup, on top of low inventory and low health. I clicked a Computer Map on floor 6 and this was revealed to me:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I carefully went straight for the Invulnerability and nuked some more floors. I was tempted to grab the Lava Element, but I didn't want to ruin such a rare run. In hindsight, there wasn't any risk, but I figured that I can always get another JC kill and not really another Trigun run. I made it to Dis just as Invulnerability ran out, so I missed out on killing JC, but that's perfectly fine by me.
One other cool thing that happened is with the heavy usage of Angel Arm, my health actually exceeded 200% for awhile:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I assume this happened since my health was larger than my maximum health and it doesn't scale down. Pretty neat! I used to simplify my thinking in that Badass x2 removes health decay, but since you can go over 200%, that's technically not true!
With that, I scratched another medal, of which is super annoying to get! My original plan was to grind a Scout with Intuition on Angel of Confidence and scouring through Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab until I got a Trigun. I'm very happy I don't have to do that! On top, this was my 3rd Trigun, so now I'm just missing Dragonslayer x3, Subtle Knife x3, and BFG10K x2!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Good progress with an extra surprise!
155
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 29, 2017, 14:01 »
Day 22:
25/50; halfway there! I had a hot streak early on and was hoping for more runs, but things went sour shortly after.
On one run, I had stacked Invulnerability and a Homing Phase Device again to skip Mt Erebus and finished with my fastest run yet for the sub 15!
And just two runs after that, I smashed it!
Following these runs was a bad streak of gameplay and luck, and sitting at 24/50, I really wanted to reach the half-way milestone, so I went with the true backup strat that actually works with Max Carnage+Red Alert, but as you can see by the completion time, it's strictly a backup strat:
I also had a funny run where I had collected 7 Phase Devices, none of which were Homing:
One detail I forgot to mention for the last few days is the usefulness of Combat Knives. I frequently carry at least one for destroying barrels, mainly for creating a more direct path from Invulnerability to the stairs, but occasionally for attacking monsters too.
I'm going to go beast mode this weekend and hopefully hit 50!
25/50; halfway there! I had a hot streak early on and was hoping for more runs, but things went sour shortly after.
On one run, I had stacked Invulnerability and a Homing Phase Device again to skip Mt Erebus and finished with my fastest run yet for the sub 15!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And just two runs after that, I smashed it!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Following these runs was a bad streak of gameplay and luck, and sitting at 24/50, I really wanted to reach the half-way milestone, so I went with the true backup strat that actually works with Max Carnage+Red Alert, but as you can see by the completion time, it's strictly a backup strat:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I also had a funny run where I had collected 7 Phase Devices, none of which were Homing:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One detail I forgot to mention for the last few days is the usefulness of Combat Knives. I frequently carry at least one for destroying barrels, mainly for creating a more direct path from Invulnerability to the stairs, but occasionally for attacking monsters too.
I'm going to go beast mode this weekend and hopefully hit 50!
156
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 28, 2017, 13:46 »
Day 21:
Still continuing JC kills, now at 20/50! I had a bad streak of games due to poor decision making, terrible luck, and sometimes combinations of both, so I played out some Max Carnage+Overconfidence for a change of pace, and here's how that went:
Yeah...
This was my first run without having a double nuke and having to fight JC the old fashioned way. Unfortunately contrary to what I thought, the Minigun doesn't immediately tear him apart because of constant spawns getting in the way, him phasing into the dark, needing to heal frequently, and so forth. I eventually tried phasing away myself to regain control, but it turns out he'll endlessly fire rockets and spawn enemies, even from the opposite side of the level. Eventually, I got completely flooded over and started running out of ammo. This strat doesn't work nearly as well as I thought it did.
This run was pretty standard with the Berserk+Overconfidence strat, but I lucked out with stacked Invulnerability and a Homing Phase Device on floor 6, so I was able to skip the Lava Pits!
One of the big factors with Berserk being so good against JC is how powerful it is without need of Max Carnage, having constant healing through Vampyre, double damage with Berserk, and at least 60% melee resistance, but also frequently 85% fire resistance through stacking any leftover Envirosuits.
I'll need to buckle down and stick with Berserk strat and perhaps use Red Alert instead if I'm not playing particularly well.
That's all for now!
Still continuing JC kills, now at 20/50! I had a bad streak of games due to poor decision making, terrible luck, and sometimes combinations of both, so I played out some Max Carnage+Overconfidence for a change of pace, and here's how that went:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yeah...
This was my first run without having a double nuke and having to fight JC the old fashioned way. Unfortunately contrary to what I thought, the Minigun doesn't immediately tear him apart because of constant spawns getting in the way, him phasing into the dark, needing to heal frequently, and so forth. I eventually tried phasing away myself to regain control, but it turns out he'll endlessly fire rockets and spawn enemies, even from the opposite side of the level. Eventually, I got completely flooded over and started running out of ammo. This strat doesn't work nearly as well as I thought it did.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This run was pretty standard with the Berserk+Overconfidence strat, but I lucked out with stacked Invulnerability and a Homing Phase Device on floor 6, so I was able to skip the Lava Pits!
One of the big factors with Berserk being so good against JC is how powerful it is without need of Max Carnage, having constant healing through Vampyre, double damage with Berserk, and at least 60% melee resistance, but also frequently 85% fire resistance through stacking any leftover Envirosuits.
I'll need to buckle down and stick with Berserk strat and perhaps use Red Alert instead if I'm not playing particularly well.
That's all for now!
157
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 27, 2017, 14:52 »
I saw your Ao666 completion, very nice! Yeah, I didn't get anywhere close to 1000 after my own Ao666.
I've always been a defensive, low-risk, strategic player, and I always specialize on figuring out every detail about games I play, what I can abuse, and all of what's possible. I have zero problems with cheesing for medals. Some people who have a similar playstyle tend to replace that with actual skill, but I'm very keen on developing that too. To be the best at anything and to reach difficult goals, you must be all encompassing and not restrain yourself over imaginary honor or swag. Optimization is the funnest aspect of gaming to me. <3
Day 20:
Nothing too exciting, just some more JC kills. After spending some more time using the Berserk+Overconfidence strat, it is without a doubt the #1 efficient way to farm runs! I got 6 more kills, bringing my total to 16/50. Still quite a bit to go!
Here's a post-mortem of another very fast run:
This run was also neat in that I got an early nuke and skipped Mortuary. With that, I was able to get 100% kills:
More to come!
I've always been a defensive, low-risk, strategic player, and I always specialize on figuring out every detail about games I play, what I can abuse, and all of what's possible. I have zero problems with cheesing for medals. Some people who have a similar playstyle tend to replace that with actual skill, but I'm very keen on developing that too. To be the best at anything and to reach difficult goals, you must be all encompassing and not restrain yourself over imaginary honor or swag. Optimization is the funnest aspect of gaming to me. <3
Day 20:
Nothing too exciting, just some more JC kills. After spending some more time using the Berserk+Overconfidence strat, it is without a doubt the #1 efficient way to farm runs! I got 6 more kills, bringing my total to 16/50. Still quite a bit to go!
Here's a post-mortem of another very fast run:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This run was also neat in that I got an early nuke and skipped Mortuary. With that, I was able to get 100% kills:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More to come!
158
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 26, 2017, 14:59 »
Yes, I typo'd and meant Angel of Humanity, not Pacifism, but seems you guys figured that out. Interesting detail on how it works with the Trigun! That would explain why I couldn't get to work. Good to know!
Day 19:
I learned the Chainsaw trick on Angel of Berserk+Overconfidence and tested it a little. I actually forgot that you also get the health boost to 100%, so it's even better than I initially imagined!
I also made the important discovery that it actually adds to your special/unique counter too! In fact, on Angel of Overconfidence when you start with the Combat Pistol, Assault Shotgun, and Minigun, you can add 3 each time by dropping them and picking them back up! So being distracted by that instead of grinding JC kills, I reached 1000!
That's a big scratch on another page, another platinum badge collected, and this helps significantly in regular games by having less distractions (collecting specials/uniques purely for increasing the counter)! I played on Max Carnage for runs where a unique spawned on floor 1, and I actually grabbed a few additional ones I needed towards getting 3 of each! All that remains now is Subtle Knife x3, Dragonslayer x3, BFG10K x2, Trigun x1, and Revenant's Launcher x1!
So with grinding that, I didn't play out as many JC runs as I was planning to, but still got a couple in and thoroughly tested Angel of Berserk+Overconfidence with my new knowledge. With essentially carrying around a Berserk Pack at the start, killing the Angel of Death to get going is now very common, rather than a grind to get a run! With Berserk's effects, ridiculous killing power, self-healing with Vampyre, and a trivial fight against JC himself, I'm very confident this is the #1 strategy for efficient JC kills! Max Carnage+Overconfidence is a bit too risky, especially when fighting JC, and Max Carnage+Red Alert, while certainly the easiest to play and extremely consistent, is quite a bit slower.
I got 2 more kills and now at 10/50, so still quite a few to go. Now that the research phase is complete though, I'll just be grinding runs and hopefully get my total increasing at a better rate.
Mt Erebus was interesting:
Good thing I had a Homing Phase Device! I also got a rather interesting colour aesthetic with the generated items:
If you are personally interested in hitting 1000 specials/uniques, definitely use the Overconfidence trick, and if you're interested in JC kills, I highly recommend going with Berserk+Overconfidence! I'll be continuing JC runs and perhaps hit 50 within a week to reach Apostle!
Day 19:
I learned the Chainsaw trick on Angel of Berserk+Overconfidence and tested it a little. I actually forgot that you also get the health boost to 100%, so it's even better than I initially imagined!
I also made the important discovery that it actually adds to your special/unique counter too! In fact, on Angel of Overconfidence when you start with the Combat Pistol, Assault Shotgun, and Minigun, you can add 3 each time by dropping them and picking them back up! So being distracted by that instead of grinding JC kills, I reached 1000!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
That's a big scratch on another page, another platinum badge collected, and this helps significantly in regular games by having less distractions (collecting specials/uniques purely for increasing the counter)! I played on Max Carnage for runs where a unique spawned on floor 1, and I actually grabbed a few additional ones I needed towards getting 3 of each! All that remains now is Subtle Knife x3, Dragonslayer x3, BFG10K x2, Trigun x1, and Revenant's Launcher x1!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So with grinding that, I didn't play out as many JC runs as I was planning to, but still got a couple in and thoroughly tested Angel of Berserk+Overconfidence with my new knowledge. With essentially carrying around a Berserk Pack at the start, killing the Angel of Death to get going is now very common, rather than a grind to get a run! With Berserk's effects, ridiculous killing power, self-healing with Vampyre, and a trivial fight against JC himself, I'm very confident this is the #1 strategy for efficient JC kills! Max Carnage+Overconfidence is a bit too risky, especially when fighting JC, and Max Carnage+Red Alert, while certainly the easiest to play and extremely consistent, is quite a bit slower.
I got 2 more kills and now at 10/50, so still quite a few to go. Now that the research phase is complete though, I'll just be grinding runs and hopefully get my total increasing at a better rate.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Mt Erebus was interesting:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Good thing I had a Homing Phase Device! I also got a rather interesting colour aesthetic with the generated items:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If you are personally interested in hitting 1000 specials/uniques, definitely use the Overconfidence trick, and if you're interested in JC kills, I highly recommend going with Berserk+Overconfidence! I'll be continuing JC runs and perhaps hit 50 within a week to reach Apostle!
159
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 25, 2017, 13:50 »
My guess is the Trigun doesn't work on Angel of Pacifism? Maybe there's a limit to how low your HP can go. I actually was wondering that if you had 12 max HP (Pacifism+Ironman) and used it 3 times, would your maximum HP be set to 0, or is there potential for a glitch due to an oversight and going into the negatives? Kind of wish I had tested it in hindsight.
I actually didn't know about the Chainsaw Berserk trick! That makes a huge difference!
Day 18:
I didn't progress too much as my focus was on theorycrafting an efficient strategy for JC, and I've narrowed it down to 4 different kinds. I still killed JC 5 times though and now at 8 kills, but still a long way to go before hitting 50.
Strat #1: Angel of Berserk + Overconfidence
With massive melee power with semi-permanent Berserk and Longinus Spear, the Mortuary/Limbo are quite easy, though Mt Erebus/Lava Pits can be an issue if you have to wade through lava. The resistances help though. This strategy gives the easiest time fighting JC, but getting started is hard given that you need to wipe out most of floor 1, followed by all of Unholy Cathedral. Not having known the Berserk trick with the Chainsaw though, that changes a lot and perhaps using this strategy will be much better. Before entering Unholy Cathedral, I like to be at level 2 + 44% so that I unlock Berserker just as I reach the Demons. They can be lured out into the lava, but not all of them will chase you into there.
Strat #2: Angel of Max Carnage + Red Alert
Instead of relying on finding nukes and going through Mortuary/Limbo, Red Alert provides that for you, so all you need is the Lava Element. Even stacked Invulnerability won't last enough and you can't set a fresh nuke when one is already counting down. Max Carnage is to help speed up the kills so you don't run out of time in each level, as well as making Mt Erebus/Limbo go faster. It's nice that you can skip all the bonus levels and can just play normal floors. For the Cyberdemon, I pick up Dodgemaster early and play it safe, then it's easy.
The downside to this strategy is you have to play through the entire game for each JC kill, so while it's reliable and pretty consistent as long as you don't make any mistakes, it takes awhile for each kill.
Strat #3: Angel of Max Carnage + Overconfidence
Being given an Assault Shotgun and Minigun while paired with Max Carnage makes getting kills easy. I get Intuition right away and take my time with each kill. Mortuary/Limbo isn't too bad with Plasma Rifle and Minigun against the Archviles, but if the run ever gets out of hand, it's nearly impossible to get back on track. The other nice thing is with no time limit like with Red Alert, I can camp with Nuclear BFG and kill everything slowly; particularly helpful in Lava Pits/Mt Erebus since Radiation Suits can be hard to find in time.
This is the main strategy I've been using as it's a very good balance of consistency and efficiency. It's also not too uncommon to find an additional nuke for JC, but if I have to fight him, Plasma Rifle and Minigun helps a lot. Fortunately in all of my runs with this strat, I've been able to blow him up right away, but JC is certainly the most dangerous to fight without a nuke when using this strategy, which is the main disadvantage.
Note that in the above run, it took much longer than necessary as I was firing my Nuclear BFG in the Lava Pits forever, not realizing there's a maximum projectile distance and that I wasn't killing all the Hell Knights. :P
Strat #4: Angel of Pacifism
By grabbing an additional nuke (Nuclear BFG or Thermie) along with Invulnerability before Spider Mastermind, you can double nuke the ending to kill JC. The Marine with this strat is very sturdy because of all the fast level-ups, as well as having a pretty easy start, but the obvious disadvantage is low consistency with relying on good luck towards the end. I tried it a bunch but actually haven't completed a run with this strategy. I definitely don't think it's worth using.
---
I'm leaning on using Max Carnage + Overconfidence as the best strat for efficient JC kills, but I'm going to revisit the Berserk strategy now that I know the Chainsaw trick to fix one of the hardest parts of those runs. The big plus is that if I ever am playing poorly or on a bad streak with a strategy I can rotate and use a different one. I'm not sure what strategy my kills will mainly be composed of, but regardless of how I play, I'm keeping my focus on getting those JC kills.
I might not get too many more kills right away as I do more research and testing, and this will all take awhile in any case, but I want to reach Apostle ranking!
I actually didn't know about the Chainsaw Berserk trick! That makes a huge difference!
Day 18:
I didn't progress too much as my focus was on theorycrafting an efficient strategy for JC, and I've narrowed it down to 4 different kinds. I still killed JC 5 times though and now at 8 kills, but still a long way to go before hitting 50.
Strat #1: Angel of Berserk + Overconfidence
With massive melee power with semi-permanent Berserk and Longinus Spear, the Mortuary/Limbo are quite easy, though Mt Erebus/Lava Pits can be an issue if you have to wade through lava. The resistances help though. This strategy gives the easiest time fighting JC, but getting started is hard given that you need to wipe out most of floor 1, followed by all of Unholy Cathedral. Not having known the Berserk trick with the Chainsaw though, that changes a lot and perhaps using this strategy will be much better. Before entering Unholy Cathedral, I like to be at level 2 + 44% so that I unlock Berserker just as I reach the Demons. They can be lured out into the lava, but not all of them will chase you into there.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Strat #2: Angel of Max Carnage + Red Alert
Instead of relying on finding nukes and going through Mortuary/Limbo, Red Alert provides that for you, so all you need is the Lava Element. Even stacked Invulnerability won't last enough and you can't set a fresh nuke when one is already counting down. Max Carnage is to help speed up the kills so you don't run out of time in each level, as well as making Mt Erebus/Limbo go faster. It's nice that you can skip all the bonus levels and can just play normal floors. For the Cyberdemon, I pick up Dodgemaster early and play it safe, then it's easy.
The downside to this strategy is you have to play through the entire game for each JC kill, so while it's reliable and pretty consistent as long as you don't make any mistakes, it takes awhile for each kill.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Strat #3: Angel of Max Carnage + Overconfidence
Being given an Assault Shotgun and Minigun while paired with Max Carnage makes getting kills easy. I get Intuition right away and take my time with each kill. Mortuary/Limbo isn't too bad with Plasma Rifle and Minigun against the Archviles, but if the run ever gets out of hand, it's nearly impossible to get back on track. The other nice thing is with no time limit like with Red Alert, I can camp with Nuclear BFG and kill everything slowly; particularly helpful in Lava Pits/Mt Erebus since Radiation Suits can be hard to find in time.
This is the main strategy I've been using as it's a very good balance of consistency and efficiency. It's also not too uncommon to find an additional nuke for JC, but if I have to fight him, Plasma Rifle and Minigun helps a lot. Fortunately in all of my runs with this strat, I've been able to blow him up right away, but JC is certainly the most dangerous to fight without a nuke when using this strategy, which is the main disadvantage.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Note that in the above run, it took much longer than necessary as I was firing my Nuclear BFG in the Lava Pits forever, not realizing there's a maximum projectile distance and that I wasn't killing all the Hell Knights. :P
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Strat #4: Angel of Pacifism
By grabbing an additional nuke (Nuclear BFG or Thermie) along with Invulnerability before Spider Mastermind, you can double nuke the ending to kill JC. The Marine with this strat is very sturdy because of all the fast level-ups, as well as having a pretty easy start, but the obvious disadvantage is low consistency with relying on good luck towards the end. I tried it a bunch but actually haven't completed a run with this strategy. I definitely don't think it's worth using.
---
I'm leaning on using Max Carnage + Overconfidence as the best strat for efficient JC kills, but I'm going to revisit the Berserk strategy now that I know the Chainsaw trick to fix one of the hardest parts of those runs. The big plus is that if I ever am playing poorly or on a bad streak with a strategy I can rotate and use a different one. I'm not sure what strategy my kills will mainly be composed of, but regardless of how I play, I'm keeping my focus on getting those JC kills.
I might not get too many more kills right away as I do more research and testing, and this will all take awhile in any case, but I want to reach Apostle ranking!
160
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 24, 2017, 08:59 »
Thanks! Looking forward to seeing what you're trying to complete yourself!
Day 17:
After some experimentation and research, I'm quite confident I've discovered the absolute best way to farm Cyberdemon kills. It honestly could be faster to use this method from 0 to 100 than even an Ao666 run on Ultra-Violence!
Start with choosing Angel of Pacifism, Hey, Not Too Rough, and Marine. Build your character with Hellrunner->Hellrunner->Tough as Nails->Tough as Nails->Dodgemaster, and then your pick between Badass and Ironman. I think Badass is the better pick, but there's an argument for both, and by the time you're far enough to choose between them, it's pretty negligible overall.
I tried using the Scout with his superior speed and early Intuition to search for Computer/Tracking Maps and Invulnerability, but the Marine's extra beefiness and in particular, extra power-up duration makes him by far the best choice. I was getting a Cyberdemon kill once about every 7-8 minutes, and with close to 95% run completion consistency! The first 4 floors can be a bit tricky to survive since you're quite weak, but on floor 5, you have access to Chained Court. It's definitely worth it to seek out the bonus level, even if the regular staircase starts in plain sight because 5x stacked Berserk Packs with their extra movement speed and resistances is extremely good! So long as you can find the staircases reasonably fast on floors 6 and 7, you'll be well into Deimos before they wear off!
Once you're in Deimos, you have a pile of Large Med-Packs from Phobos Anomaly and hopefully previous floors, nearly full health, and a fresh Red Armor. Most of the levels in this episode also have two sets of staircases, which significantly increases the speed of finishing each floor, and once you have Tough as Nails (received as soon as you finish Phobos), you're significantly sturdier when you're getting pelted by everything, in particular, melee attacks. The only bonus levels in Deimos I would skip are Abyssal Plains (though I did beat it once) and Halls of Carnage.
There's also a very cool trick for Angel of Pacifism. It's not correct to say that you get a level-up every third floor, rather, you get one on floors, 3, 6, 9, 12, etc, even if you enter bonus levels in between. However, if you enter a bonus level on any of these floors, you get an additional level-up as the game still treats you on that number! So for example on floor 9 when you receive a level-up, you can then enter Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab, still be treated as if you were on floor 9, and get an immediate level-up again! This helps a lot with building up your character, and while it's not necessary to go out of your way to find the bonus levels, they only make the run easier for when you do!
I completed nearly every attempt I did with this strategy, only dying to the early floors a few times, and zero deaths after Chained Court! My longest run was also just over 11 minutes, with my fastest being close to under 5 minutes! The speed, the consistency, the ease of execution all make this strategy phenomenal, and when you actually don't get a run, it's often due to a death at the beginning, so no real progress lost!
So with all that, I quickly finished off all the Cyberdemons I needed to get to the next ranking! All that remains now is 47x JC kills. I'll be doing some more research into figuring out the optimal way to grind for these and hopefully get Apostle ranking in a reasonable amount of time. I think Berserk+Overconfidence is the way to go, but perhaps a double nuke strat with Pacifism could be better? I'll have to see.
Here's the post-mortem of my fastest run. I'm very confident much faster can be completed too with good luck and intent to specifically finish as fast as possible:
Day 17:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After some experimentation and research, I'm quite confident I've discovered the absolute best way to farm Cyberdemon kills. It honestly could be faster to use this method from 0 to 100 than even an Ao666 run on Ultra-Violence!
Start with choosing Angel of Pacifism, Hey, Not Too Rough, and Marine. Build your character with Hellrunner->Hellrunner->Tough as Nails->Tough as Nails->Dodgemaster, and then your pick between Badass and Ironman. I think Badass is the better pick, but there's an argument for both, and by the time you're far enough to choose between them, it's pretty negligible overall.
I tried using the Scout with his superior speed and early Intuition to search for Computer/Tracking Maps and Invulnerability, but the Marine's extra beefiness and in particular, extra power-up duration makes him by far the best choice. I was getting a Cyberdemon kill once about every 7-8 minutes, and with close to 95% run completion consistency! The first 4 floors can be a bit tricky to survive since you're quite weak, but on floor 5, you have access to Chained Court. It's definitely worth it to seek out the bonus level, even if the regular staircase starts in plain sight because 5x stacked Berserk Packs with their extra movement speed and resistances is extremely good! So long as you can find the staircases reasonably fast on floors 6 and 7, you'll be well into Deimos before they wear off!
Once you're in Deimos, you have a pile of Large Med-Packs from Phobos Anomaly and hopefully previous floors, nearly full health, and a fresh Red Armor. Most of the levels in this episode also have two sets of staircases, which significantly increases the speed of finishing each floor, and once you have Tough as Nails (received as soon as you finish Phobos), you're significantly sturdier when you're getting pelted by everything, in particular, melee attacks. The only bonus levels in Deimos I would skip are Abyssal Plains (though I did beat it once) and Halls of Carnage.
There's also a very cool trick for Angel of Pacifism. It's not correct to say that you get a level-up every third floor, rather, you get one on floors, 3, 6, 9, 12, etc, even if you enter bonus levels in between. However, if you enter a bonus level on any of these floors, you get an additional level-up as the game still treats you on that number! So for example on floor 9 when you receive a level-up, you can then enter Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab, still be treated as if you were on floor 9, and get an immediate level-up again! This helps a lot with building up your character, and while it's not necessary to go out of your way to find the bonus levels, they only make the run easier for when you do!
I completed nearly every attempt I did with this strategy, only dying to the early floors a few times, and zero deaths after Chained Court! My longest run was also just over 11 minutes, with my fastest being close to under 5 minutes! The speed, the consistency, the ease of execution all make this strategy phenomenal, and when you actually don't get a run, it's often due to a death at the beginning, so no real progress lost!
So with all that, I quickly finished off all the Cyberdemons I needed to get to the next ranking! All that remains now is 47x JC kills. I'll be doing some more research into figuring out the optimal way to grind for these and hopefully get Apostle ranking in a reasonable amount of time. I think Berserk+Overconfidence is the way to go, but perhaps a double nuke strat with Pacifism could be better? I'll have to see.
Here's the post-mortem of my fastest run. I'm very confident much faster can be completed too with good luck and intent to specifically finish as fast as possible:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
161
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 23, 2017, 15:21 »
Day 16:
I was very successful and lucky in my play after rotating around and trying for a bunch of different medals and badges!
My first target was Longinus Platinum Badge, which while difficult is pretty reasonable with Berserk+Overconfidence. After many attempts, I rolled an insane floor 1:
And by a stroke of luck, I was warped just outside the Angel of Death's room with the Phase Device:
With Brute, Invulnerability, and a Chainsaw (T), I was barely able to kill the Angel of Death after countless attacks, and followed that up with clearing the rest of the level!
With that, I was one diamond badge away from another rank increase, so I tried a few and unsurprisingly struggled a lot. I'm not quite at the skill level required for these yet and went with strategy and luck grinding instead. I opted for Marksman Diamond Badge as I could play for getting a nuke on Spider Mastermind, and with some Invulnerability luck, I did just that! It was nice I also received Marksman Gold Badge too, which I was also missing!
I'm definitely running out on easy stuff now as I've kept saying, but moreso after every badge and medal! I went for Max Carnage+Overconfidence next and tried to avoid as much damage as possible to get the badge, though realized that this wouldn't work since Untouchable is incompatible with Overconfidence. I decided to play out the run anyway and hey, it turns out it does work! My guess is the Destroyer Badges check for damage itself rather than the medal.
Naturally, I went for Platinum next:
Very cool to get it the very next run! And of course, that left the Destroyer Diamond Badge on Nightmare! This one took some effort to get, and I had a few extremely trollish runs:
But with enough attempts, I got it! I lucked out on a string of Invulnerabilities and not only did I take less than 50, but I actually didn't take a single point of damage!
With having earned a surprise diamond badge I wasn't anticipating, I just needed another platinum badge to reach yet another rank increase! I went for Shottyman Platinum Badge with the intention of nuking the Spider Mastermind like usual, but instead, I had 2x stacked Invulnerability and just fired point blank until she died:
So I'm now at Lt. General with my badge count being 26/26/18/9/3/0! With my current struggles for more difficult badges, I'm going to put my focus into reaching Apostle ranking for the next while until it's done. I currently need 22 more Cyberdemon kills to reach Cyberdemon, and then 47 more JC kills to be 100% completed with that section. I've messed with a few strategies, including trying to get another Ao666 going, but I think the most efficient way so far for Cyberdemon killing is Angel of Pacifism and using the nuke on him. I've also messed with mixing it with Masochism for a consistent health boost every few floors, but am undecided which is easiest. I'm also not certain whether Scout or Marine is best for this grind, so I change up how I play frequently. 22 more is peanuts though and I wouldn't mind some more relaxed gameplay for awhile.
After that, I believe the most efficient way of getting JC kills is Berserk+Overconfidence Marine runs. Vampyre is excellent, and getting the Longinus Spear is very consistent and effective. I think fresh runs from the beginning aren't worth the time investment and getting a nuke+Invulnerability can be tricky. Perhaps there's a better method of grinding for JC kills, so I'll experiment a bit more, but these will be my goals for now!
I was very successful and lucky in my play after rotating around and trying for a bunch of different medals and badges!
My first target was Longinus Platinum Badge, which while difficult is pretty reasonable with Berserk+Overconfidence. After many attempts, I rolled an insane floor 1:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And by a stroke of luck, I was warped just outside the Angel of Death's room with the Phase Device:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With Brute, Invulnerability, and a Chainsaw (T), I was barely able to kill the Angel of Death after countless attacks, and followed that up with clearing the rest of the level!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With that, I was one diamond badge away from another rank increase, so I tried a few and unsurprisingly struggled a lot. I'm not quite at the skill level required for these yet and went with strategy and luck grinding instead. I opted for Marksman Diamond Badge as I could play for getting a nuke on Spider Mastermind, and with some Invulnerability luck, I did just that! It was nice I also received Marksman Gold Badge too, which I was also missing!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm definitely running out on easy stuff now as I've kept saying, but moreso after every badge and medal! I went for Max Carnage+Overconfidence next and tried to avoid as much damage as possible to get the badge, though realized that this wouldn't work since Untouchable is incompatible with Overconfidence. I decided to play out the run anyway and hey, it turns out it does work! My guess is the Destroyer Badges check for damage itself rather than the medal.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Naturally, I went for Platinum next:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Very cool to get it the very next run! And of course, that left the Destroyer Diamond Badge on Nightmare! This one took some effort to get, and I had a few extremely trollish runs:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But with enough attempts, I got it! I lucked out on a string of Invulnerabilities and not only did I take less than 50, but I actually didn't take a single point of damage!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With having earned a surprise diamond badge I wasn't anticipating, I just needed another platinum badge to reach yet another rank increase! I went for Shottyman Platinum Badge with the intention of nuking the Spider Mastermind like usual, but instead, I had 2x stacked Invulnerability and just fired point blank until she died:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So I'm now at Lt. General with my badge count being 26/26/18/9/3/0! With my current struggles for more difficult badges, I'm going to put my focus into reaching Apostle ranking for the next while until it's done. I currently need 22 more Cyberdemon kills to reach Cyberdemon, and then 47 more JC kills to be 100% completed with that section. I've messed with a few strategies, including trying to get another Ao666 going, but I think the most efficient way so far for Cyberdemon killing is Angel of Pacifism and using the nuke on him. I've also messed with mixing it with Masochism for a consistent health boost every few floors, but am undecided which is easiest. I'm also not certain whether Scout or Marine is best for this grind, so I change up how I play frequently. 22 more is peanuts though and I wouldn't mind some more relaxed gameplay for awhile.
After that, I believe the most efficient way of getting JC kills is Berserk+Overconfidence Marine runs. Vampyre is excellent, and getting the Longinus Spear is very consistent and effective. I think fresh runs from the beginning aren't worth the time investment and getting a nuke+Invulnerability can be tricky. Perhaps there's a better method of grinding for JC kills, so I'll experiment a bit more, but these will be my goals for now!
162
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 22, 2017, 10:49 »
Day 15:
My first target this time was Arachno Silver Badge to reach 26/26, and went with Darkness+Confidence to start. I had a couple of early runs with rummaging through Deimos Lab for equipment, but kept getting Halls of Carnage:
I eventually got one run with Spider's Lair, but had no Rocket Launcher for destroying corpses and ended up dying. I noticed after a little wiki browsing that regular Arachnotrons have -100% melee resistance, which I didn't know, so I went with a Vampyre build and using Light Travel. I had a long, solid run that was set to go, but again, got Halls of Carnage. Fortunately, my run after was insanely well-prepared and I rolled Spider's Lair:
As you can imagine, I crushed it:
Another JC kill was nice too! And with that, I've collected all of the silver badges!
Next was getting another platinum badge to reach the next ranking. I tried a few others, but ultimately went for Eagerness Platinum Badge using Impatience+Overconfidence and had a huge stroke of good luck with a pair of Invulnerabilities next to each other on floor 3, and then a second pair on floor 4, so I entered the Mortuary with 4x stacked Invulnerability! I grabbed the Nuclear BFG9000 and did some stair-diving until the end. They finally wore out when I was a few steps away to the stairs on floor 7, but the area was clear. Following that, I blew up the Spider Mastermind and reached Br General!
To fill in a few more easy medals, I went for Sunrise Iron Fist using a Vampyre build on I'm Too Young To Die, and it was total cake:
Then finally, I went for Every Soldier's Medal using Humanity+Confidence and played very, very slowly. I found a Missile Launcher and a Trigun in Deimos Lab, so Invulnerability or not, I was set to go. I rolled The Wall, and camped hard until the level was clear. I decided then that I should go for Spider-Killer Cross too if I'm lucky enough to get the level to spawn, and perhaps get Invulnerability just before entering. I actually did find one on floor 5, but it ran out before I could enter Spider's Lair, so I did it slow style with a Tactical Shotgun and careful camping to score the medal! To finish off, I was planning on nuking the Cyberdemon, but I couldn't get the Trigun to work? Was it because my gun was fully loaded? Or is it prevented on Angel of Humanity? Perhaps I just mis-clicked a bunch or something, but I couldn't set it off and died.
So doubling my initial goal, I got both of those Humanity medals, which brought my medal total to 32/43 and thus rewarding me with Heroic Platinum Badge! Very happy with that result!
I'm not entirely sure what my next goals will be as everything is getting grindier and more challenging, so I'll likely rotate what I go for and see what happens!
Here's my current checklist of what I'm missing to get to 100%:
My first target this time was Arachno Silver Badge to reach 26/26, and went with Darkness+Confidence to start. I had a couple of early runs with rummaging through Deimos Lab for equipment, but kept getting Halls of Carnage:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I eventually got one run with Spider's Lair, but had no Rocket Launcher for destroying corpses and ended up dying. I noticed after a little wiki browsing that regular Arachnotrons have -100% melee resistance, which I didn't know, so I went with a Vampyre build and using Light Travel. I had a long, solid run that was set to go, but again, got Halls of Carnage. Fortunately, my run after was insanely well-prepared and I rolled Spider's Lair:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As you can imagine, I crushed it:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another JC kill was nice too! And with that, I've collected all of the silver badges!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Next was getting another platinum badge to reach the next ranking. I tried a few others, but ultimately went for Eagerness Platinum Badge using Impatience+Overconfidence and had a huge stroke of good luck with a pair of Invulnerabilities next to each other on floor 3, and then a second pair on floor 4, so I entered the Mortuary with 4x stacked Invulnerability! I grabbed the Nuclear BFG9000 and did some stair-diving until the end. They finally wore out when I was a few steps away to the stairs on floor 7, but the area was clear. Following that, I blew up the Spider Mastermind and reached Br General!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
To fill in a few more easy medals, I went for Sunrise Iron Fist using a Vampyre build on I'm Too Young To Die, and it was total cake:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then finally, I went for Every Soldier's Medal using Humanity+Confidence and played very, very slowly. I found a Missile Launcher and a Trigun in Deimos Lab, so Invulnerability or not, I was set to go. I rolled The Wall, and camped hard until the level was clear. I decided then that I should go for Spider-Killer Cross too if I'm lucky enough to get the level to spawn, and perhaps get Invulnerability just before entering. I actually did find one on floor 5, but it ran out before I could enter Spider's Lair, so I did it slow style with a Tactical Shotgun and careful camping to score the medal! To finish off, I was planning on nuking the Cyberdemon, but I couldn't get the Trigun to work? Was it because my gun was fully loaded? Or is it prevented on Angel of Humanity? Perhaps I just mis-clicked a bunch or something, but I couldn't set it off and died.
So doubling my initial goal, I got both of those Humanity medals, which brought my medal total to 32/43 and thus rewarding me with Heroic Platinum Badge! Very happy with that result!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm not entirely sure what my next goals will be as everything is getting grindier and more challenging, so I'll likely rotate what I go for and see what happens!
Here's my current checklist of what I'm missing to get to 100%:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
163
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 21, 2017, 16:03 »
Day 14:
And so was another day attempting to get the Lava Silver Badge. It's honestly not that hard, but I've had a string of bad luck trying to get it. It's been quite elusive compared to everything else I've gone for so far, which has been annoying, but it's also expected as the easiest achievements are all done now.
I tried some more Scout strategy runs but wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to buckle down with the Technician strategy again. Like last time, I combined Impatience with Light Travel and focused on building Cerberus Boots. Early on, I was close to finishing the boots, but they were starting to get quite damaged:
I entered Hell's Armory for a bunch more useful mod packs, and potentially some specials and uniques since I decided to go with Scavenger for weapon buffs. Lucky for me, the two in the room were Agility and Power, so I finished and maxed out the boots right away:
After I got the kill on the Shambler, something I hadn't seen before happened! Instead of a special mod pack, I had a Cybernetic Armor waiting for me! I thought it might be because I was using a Technician, but I learned more about how it worked after reading the wiki. I also learned how to get an additional rare mod pack, which is good information for future runs.
I wasn't certain if I should have worn the Cybernetic or used Scavenger, but ultimately I decided to use it with a Power Pack, along with setting myself up really well for finally getting the badge:
Unfortunately...
As my Cerberus Boots were already partially damaged, I wasn't receiving 100% resistances and cooked myself in the lava. It took me a moment to figure out what happened, and I was super disappointed with my own mistake. At least I learned a little more!
Not wanting to repeat that effort right away, I grinded some more Scout runs. After a number of them, I had one with Invulnerability right outside of Limbo, so I grabbed the Nuclear BFG9000, and then had 2x to stack them for Mt Erebus. After blowing up the level and still having a close battle with the Lava Elemental, I finally killed it on Angel of Impatience and got out of there! One of the cheesiest ways to get it for sure, but I was getting fed up with awful deaths trying to get it otherwise.
The next target was Skull Silver Badge. I went with a Vampyre build and wiped out the Abyssal Plains, but after hunting down a missing Hell Knight, I ended up getting blown up. The next run, I had the same issue with a missing Imp, but decided to leave and unsurprisingly wasn't rewarded the badge. Though on the positive, I happened to kill JC for a second time on that run:
With having an issue of monsters escaping, I considered grinding for City of Skulls with the same strategy, but decided it might be best to use a Shotgun build instead. I got City of Skulls anyway and easily cleared out the level:
I should mention that I actually was killed on this run, but I guess with the game being on Red Alert, the bomb killed the Spider Mastermind? It actually crashed the game for me and I was worried I'd have lost my badge, but fortunately that wasn't the case. :) Good programming, Kornel! <3
I actually risked this run earlier by being greedy in the Hell's Armory. I was down to 10 seconds and went for both of the mod packs within reach and escaped by the narrowest margin:
Finally, I decided to go for a faster grind with trying to collect more Azrael's Scythes to hit 3. After a few runs of mostly getting killed immediately, I managed to grab my second one. It was actually an exceptional run too with a Homing Phase Device, and several health packs, which is when I realized, I could go to The Vaults and use the Azrael strategy! So I did that successfully and got a surprise platinum badge I wasn't intentionally going for!
With that, I'm only missing Archno Silver Badge for silvers, and I'd like to get another platinum for Br. General ranking. I think I'm also going to target Apostle Insignia. The plan will be grinding Ao100 on Hey, Not Too Rough and hoping I get both Dragonslayer and Berserker Armor, likely with using a Vampyre build. Perhaps I can grab some more Cyberdemon kills while doing that too.
As for my overall progress so far:
Rankings: 72/100 Cyberdemon kills, 2/50 JC kills, everything else completed.
Medals: 29/43; all standard ones completed.
Items: 65/67 missing Dragonslayer and Subtle Knife, need 3 of both of those, 2 of Shielded Armor, Mjollnir, Trigun, BFG10K, 1 of Berserk Armor, Revenant's Launcher, Lava Armor, Azrael's Scythe, and I have 439/1000 for a badge.
Assemblies: 100% completed.
Bronze Badges: 100% completed.
Silver Badges: 25/26; missing Arachno Silver Badge.
Gold Badges: 16/26.
Platinum Badges: 4/26.
Diamond Badges: 1/26 (Technician Diamond Badge).
Angelic Badges: 0/17.
The more pages I can completely finish, the better! I'm definitely the type of person who absolutely loves getting those little checks on a checklist of things to do, so I want to finish up some more nearly completed pages and focus entirely on the harder stuff. I've made good progress overall in just 2 weeks, but still have a long way to go for 100%!
And so was another day attempting to get the Lava Silver Badge. It's honestly not that hard, but I've had a string of bad luck trying to get it. It's been quite elusive compared to everything else I've gone for so far, which has been annoying, but it's also expected as the easiest achievements are all done now.
I tried some more Scout strategy runs but wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to buckle down with the Technician strategy again. Like last time, I combined Impatience with Light Travel and focused on building Cerberus Boots. Early on, I was close to finishing the boots, but they were starting to get quite damaged:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I entered Hell's Armory for a bunch more useful mod packs, and potentially some specials and uniques since I decided to go with Scavenger for weapon buffs. Lucky for me, the two in the room were Agility and Power, so I finished and maxed out the boots right away:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After I got the kill on the Shambler, something I hadn't seen before happened! Instead of a special mod pack, I had a Cybernetic Armor waiting for me! I thought it might be because I was using a Technician, but I learned more about how it worked after reading the wiki. I also learned how to get an additional rare mod pack, which is good information for future runs.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I wasn't certain if I should have worn the Cybernetic or used Scavenger, but ultimately I decided to use it with a Power Pack, along with setting myself up really well for finally getting the badge:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unfortunately...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As my Cerberus Boots were already partially damaged, I wasn't receiving 100% resistances and cooked myself in the lava. It took me a moment to figure out what happened, and I was super disappointed with my own mistake. At least I learned a little more!
Not wanting to repeat that effort right away, I grinded some more Scout runs. After a number of them, I had one with Invulnerability right outside of Limbo, so I grabbed the Nuclear BFG9000, and then had 2x to stack them for Mt Erebus. After blowing up the level and still having a close battle with the Lava Elemental, I finally killed it on Angel of Impatience and got out of there! One of the cheesiest ways to get it for sure, but I was getting fed up with awful deaths trying to get it otherwise.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The next target was Skull Silver Badge. I went with a Vampyre build and wiped out the Abyssal Plains, but after hunting down a missing Hell Knight, I ended up getting blown up. The next run, I had the same issue with a missing Imp, but decided to leave and unsurprisingly wasn't rewarded the badge. Though on the positive, I happened to kill JC for a second time on that run:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With having an issue of monsters escaping, I considered grinding for City of Skulls with the same strategy, but decided it might be best to use a Shotgun build instead. I got City of Skulls anyway and easily cleared out the level:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I should mention that I actually was killed on this run, but I guess with the game being on Red Alert, the bomb killed the Spider Mastermind? It actually crashed the game for me and I was worried I'd have lost my badge, but fortunately that wasn't the case. :) Good programming, Kornel! <3
I actually risked this run earlier by being greedy in the Hell's Armory. I was down to 10 seconds and went for both of the mod packs within reach and escaped by the narrowest margin:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Finally, I decided to go for a faster grind with trying to collect more Azrael's Scythes to hit 3. After a few runs of mostly getting killed immediately, I managed to grab my second one. It was actually an exceptional run too with a Homing Phase Device, and several health packs, which is when I realized, I could go to The Vaults and use the Azrael strategy! So I did that successfully and got a surprise platinum badge I wasn't intentionally going for!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With that, I'm only missing Archno Silver Badge for silvers, and I'd like to get another platinum for Br. General ranking. I think I'm also going to target Apostle Insignia. The plan will be grinding Ao100 on Hey, Not Too Rough and hoping I get both Dragonslayer and Berserker Armor, likely with using a Vampyre build. Perhaps I can grab some more Cyberdemon kills while doing that too.
As for my overall progress so far:
Rankings: 72/100 Cyberdemon kills, 2/50 JC kills, everything else completed.
Medals: 29/43; all standard ones completed.
Items: 65/67 missing Dragonslayer and Subtle Knife, need 3 of both of those, 2 of Shielded Armor, Mjollnir, Trigun, BFG10K, 1 of Berserk Armor, Revenant's Launcher, Lava Armor, Azrael's Scythe, and I have 439/1000 for a badge.
Assemblies: 100% completed.
Bronze Badges: 100% completed.
Silver Badges: 25/26; missing Arachno Silver Badge.
Gold Badges: 16/26.
Platinum Badges: 4/26.
Diamond Badges: 1/26 (Technician Diamond Badge).
Angelic Badges: 0/17.
The more pages I can completely finish, the better! I'm definitely the type of person who absolutely loves getting those little checks on a checklist of things to do, so I want to finish up some more nearly completed pages and focus entirely on the harder stuff. I've made good progress overall in just 2 weeks, but still have a long way to go for 100%!
164
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 20, 2017, 14:45 »
I definitely will in the future, but like you said, I'd be updating it constantly. Once all the easier badges and medals are all done, I'll start using one.
Day 13:
I decided to put my focus onto getting the Iron Skull medal today and did a little theorycrafting for this, knowing it would be a long grind to get. Given the requirements, I needed both a source of 10000 damage and a source of 10000 healing, and given that I'm restricted to normal games (no Ao100/666), that left Medical Armor and Vampyre for healing. I considered a Medical Armor (N) strategy with jumping in and out of lava/acid, but I wasn't 100% sure if it would like I envisioned it to, and it would also take quite a bit longer, at the trade-off of being significantly easier to execute.
So I went with Vampyre and played around in the City of Skulls. I wasn't too big of a fan of the strategy since I wasn't safe from being swarmed against Lost Souls, and would occasionally need to leave the nearby area to pick off a few at a time to heal back up. On top, the Pain Elemental is always roaming around and attacking. I came up with a better strategy idea and fortunately, I had the perfect setup for it in the same run just a couple floors later.
Essentially, I'd trap a Pain Elemental in a room with a barrel blocking its way, in order to cause it to continually create Lost Souls, without being able to move around, attack, etc, while at the same time, blocking off all walls around me so that only one Lost Soul could hit me if desired.
I would camp in this position and attack to the left until I reached maximum health before decay (150% since I only had one level of Badass). Then I would run out to get hit repeatedly:
Once I dropped to about 50%, I would run back in my hole to regain health. Rinse and repeat. This was much easier to execute, it was safer, and it was much faster too! I peaked around 120 damage a minute when I was clicking my mouse fast, and with some Lost Soul luck of jumping into the hole at a fast rate. After about an hour or so, I met the requirement:
Following that, I went to clear out the rest of the floor with my Super Shotgun and Invulnerability. There was literally a Lost Soul on every tile possible!
After all of that, I went on to finishing the run as well to get an easy Cyberdemon kill, as well as more in general too. Another benefit to this strategy compared to using Medical Amor is I increased my general kill count by well over 10000! I'm now about 900 more to reaching 50000 and maxing that statistic out for the rankings!
Following that, I went back to going for the Lava Silver Badge. I used the Scout strategy some more, had a few decent runs where I had no way across (I even tried rocket jumping :P), but then on one particular run...
The single best item I could hope for! All I had to do was survive this floor and make it into the secret staircase! Unfortunately though, I was getting swarmed and had a lot of trouble with Barons. I almost died in a situation where one could have attacked and luckily didn't, just as I ran to hide behind a wall:
Then going into the next floor, I had an Archvile starting with me in a room with no cover, and I just barely killed it!
And then finally, I was at the staircase down, but with barely any health and the risk of Cacodemons surrounding me upon entry, I went for some healing and ran into an Archvile, who then resurrected a Baron. I ran out of options and...
Definitely my most heartbreaking death. Getting Enviroboots on a run going for this badge is extremely lucky, but it went to waste. One important note with Angel of Impatience is that it's hard to recharge your running tactics when you can't carry health packs, and it's a very key part of using Shotgun builds.
A little later, I had another run where I scooped up Invulnerability just outside the staircase and actually made it across alive on Mt Erebus! I had a good supply of weapons and ammo, but I got blasted off by a Hell Knight and dunked into lava:
So no luck yet. It's been a battle so far trying to get this badge, so it'll be my main focus until I get it now. Hopefully soon!
Day 13:
I decided to put my focus onto getting the Iron Skull medal today and did a little theorycrafting for this, knowing it would be a long grind to get. Given the requirements, I needed both a source of 10000 damage and a source of 10000 healing, and given that I'm restricted to normal games (no Ao100/666), that left Medical Armor and Vampyre for healing. I considered a Medical Armor (N) strategy with jumping in and out of lava/acid, but I wasn't 100% sure if it would like I envisioned it to, and it would also take quite a bit longer, at the trade-off of being significantly easier to execute.
So I went with Vampyre and played around in the City of Skulls. I wasn't too big of a fan of the strategy since I wasn't safe from being swarmed against Lost Souls, and would occasionally need to leave the nearby area to pick off a few at a time to heal back up. On top, the Pain Elemental is always roaming around and attacking. I came up with a better strategy idea and fortunately, I had the perfect setup for it in the same run just a couple floors later.
Essentially, I'd trap a Pain Elemental in a room with a barrel blocking its way, in order to cause it to continually create Lost Souls, without being able to move around, attack, etc, while at the same time, blocking off all walls around me so that only one Lost Soul could hit me if desired.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I would camp in this position and attack to the left until I reached maximum health before decay (150% since I only had one level of Badass). Then I would run out to get hit repeatedly:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Once I dropped to about 50%, I would run back in my hole to regain health. Rinse and repeat. This was much easier to execute, it was safer, and it was much faster too! I peaked around 120 damage a minute when I was clicking my mouse fast, and with some Lost Soul luck of jumping into the hole at a fast rate. After about an hour or so, I met the requirement:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Following that, I went to clear out the rest of the floor with my Super Shotgun and Invulnerability. There was literally a Lost Soul on every tile possible!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After all of that, I went on to finishing the run as well to get an easy Cyberdemon kill, as well as more in general too. Another benefit to this strategy compared to using Medical Amor is I increased my general kill count by well over 10000! I'm now about 900 more to reaching 50000 and maxing that statistic out for the rankings!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Following that, I went back to going for the Lava Silver Badge. I used the Scout strategy some more, had a few decent runs where I had no way across (I even tried rocket jumping :P), but then on one particular run...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The single best item I could hope for! All I had to do was survive this floor and make it into the secret staircase! Unfortunately though, I was getting swarmed and had a lot of trouble with Barons. I almost died in a situation where one could have attacked and luckily didn't, just as I ran to hide behind a wall:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then going into the next floor, I had an Archvile starting with me in a room with no cover, and I just barely killed it!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And then finally, I was at the staircase down, but with barely any health and the risk of Cacodemons surrounding me upon entry, I went for some healing and ran into an Archvile, who then resurrected a Baron. I ran out of options and...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Definitely my most heartbreaking death. Getting Enviroboots on a run going for this badge is extremely lucky, but it went to waste. One important note with Angel of Impatience is that it's hard to recharge your running tactics when you can't carry health packs, and it's a very key part of using Shotgun builds.
A little later, I had another run where I scooped up Invulnerability just outside the staircase and actually made it across alive on Mt Erebus! I had a good supply of weapons and ammo, but I got blasted off by a Hell Knight and dunked into lava:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So no luck yet. It's been a battle so far trying to get this badge, so it'll be my main focus until I get it now. Hopefully soon!
165
Discussion / Re: The Journey to 100%
« on: September 19, 2017, 14:38 »
Day 12:
I started by getting UAC Silver Badge out of the way. Hurt Me Plenty was pretty easy overall, though I nearly died on Spider's Lair. I camped the upper-left wall, but got surrounded and had to use a Phase Device. I was sent almost directly to the staircase and considered just escaping, but I managed to regain control and grab the BFG. I generally play Shottyhead builds on runs without restrictions, but the Cyberdemon is a bit of a challenge, so getting the BFG was very important. Once I got far enough into the game and comfortable stair-diving, I quickly finished the game.
My next target was Lava Silver Badge. I went back and forth on playing through a Technician to get Cerberus Boots by the time I would reach Mt Erebus/Lava Pits, or playing out a Scout on Overconfidence and hoping for lucky item drops.
My first good run was with the Technician strat, and I built the boots on floor 7, which is insanely early! Especially considering the 4th pack must be Power, it was very lucky and I was set to go. Unfortunately though, I was fighting against an Elite Shotgun Guy in Military Base and didn't realize that his blasts can destroy the walls and my cover, which lead to me getting killed.
Frustrated, I tried a couple runs with the Scout strategy and wasn't having the luck needed. I had one particular run where I was looking set to go, but a Mancubus hit me and I got chained into a series of barrel explosions and died:
A couple runs later, I wasn't having the luck again, but I happened to stumble upon Grammaton Cleric Beretta, and decided to turn it into a run for killing the Spider Mastermind with it. All was going well, but on floor 7, I got banged up badly with an awkward position in a Cacodemon cave:
Keep in mind that with this being Angel of Impatience, I had no way of healing. So as usual, I took the Spider Mastermind on very slowly:
The plan was to damage her enough down to "almost dead", and then finish her off with Grammaton Cleric Beretta:
Fortunately, it went well and I got a surprise medal instead!
I'll probably try some more for that badge and rotate a bit with other goals!
I started by getting UAC Silver Badge out of the way. Hurt Me Plenty was pretty easy overall, though I nearly died on Spider's Lair. I camped the upper-left wall, but got surrounded and had to use a Phase Device. I was sent almost directly to the staircase and considered just escaping, but I managed to regain control and grab the BFG. I generally play Shottyhead builds on runs without restrictions, but the Cyberdemon is a bit of a challenge, so getting the BFG was very important. Once I got far enough into the game and comfortable stair-diving, I quickly finished the game.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My next target was Lava Silver Badge. I went back and forth on playing through a Technician to get Cerberus Boots by the time I would reach Mt Erebus/Lava Pits, or playing out a Scout on Overconfidence and hoping for lucky item drops.
My first good run was with the Technician strat, and I built the boots on floor 7, which is insanely early! Especially considering the 4th pack must be Power, it was very lucky and I was set to go. Unfortunately though, I was fighting against an Elite Shotgun Guy in Military Base and didn't realize that his blasts can destroy the walls and my cover, which lead to me getting killed.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Frustrated, I tried a couple runs with the Scout strategy and wasn't having the luck needed. I had one particular run where I was looking set to go, but a Mancubus hit me and I got chained into a series of barrel explosions and died:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A couple runs later, I wasn't having the luck again, but I happened to stumble upon Grammaton Cleric Beretta, and decided to turn it into a run for killing the Spider Mastermind with it. All was going well, but on floor 7, I got banged up badly with an awkward position in a Cacodemon cave:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Keep in mind that with this being Angel of Impatience, I had no way of healing. So as usual, I took the Spider Mastermind on very slowly:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The plan was to damage her enough down to "almost dead", and then finish her off with Grammaton Cleric Beretta:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Fortunately, it went well and I got a surprise medal instead!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'll probably try some more for that badge and rotate a bit with other goals!