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Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
« on: October 09, 2024, 20:07 »
UV A666 run for Armorer Gold and an annoying quartet of medals.
I posted this in its own Post Mortem thread, as intentionally killing yourself on the final floor of A666 to get several medals is a pretty ludicrous concept. In addition to getting four new medals (the Experience Cross, Purple Heart, and two spoilery medals), in that run I was fortunate enough to find the remaining Exotics and Uniques I haven't found yet in 0.9.9.8 to pick up Armorer Gold, so now I have all the Gold badges. With those medals, I also exceed the proportion of medals I got back in 0.9.9.7, and have just eight more left to complete the medals and get Heroic Diamond (it might take a while though to get those remaining medals however...).
Badge count - [26|26|26|15|3|0] Medal count - 42/50 Score - 476/1500 (31.73%)
Standard UV run with Scavenger to get Technician Diamond
I decided to just get the last assembly out of the way that I needed for Technician Diamond and also ensure I would never get any more Schematics, so I just ran standard games with Scavenger. The first run I got Hell's Armory, not good as I would only get one rare mod, but instead of a rare mod I got the Cybernetic Armor from the mod cache, so I potentially had the very rare opportunity to build Cybernano Cybernetic Armor. Unfortunately I didn't get either a Nano nor Onyx mod throughout the rest of the run despite finding many Uniques; two of the Uniques I found were a Revenant Launcher and Lava Armor (which have guaranteed mods that aren't Nano/Onyx mods), then a Necroarmor that didn't drop one, then a Hellwave Pack I can't scavenge, and then both the Scythe and Angelic Armor didn't drop one either. In the second run, it nearly died in Phobos, as I had a rough Unchained Court where a Baron manage to blow up both Berserks right when I opened the door, and then immediately after surviving Unchained Court, I got ambushed by a Pinky group + a bunch of other nasties right at the start of floor 6 while being unable to run away with no Hellrunner nor even Agility-modded boots, and while also lacking a Shell Box to not get mauled when reloading my Shotgun. But I managed to survive it by chokeholding in the doorway I was stuck in and, for the first time ever, actually finding use from the Arena Master Staff to finish off the group after they were significantly weakened (you can see my screenshots of this ordeal in the Discord server here). After also surviving a tough Phobos Lab when I had no Shell Box nor any speed boost, I then pulled off a Shambler Head in Hell's Armory, which rewarded me with a Nano + Onyx mod and thus I could finally build Cybernano Armor regardless of any subsequent luck with Scavenger. I was ready to use it on Red Armor, but held off for a few more floors in case a very good Exotic armor or the Cybernetic Armor spawned, and I thought that paid off when, after picking up a map on Deimos 4, I saw a golden-colored Exotic armor in a vault that could be the coveted Energy-shielded Vest, but unfortunately it was a fucking Energy Shield that you can't mod and so I had to build Cybernano Red Armor (something I would normally advise against, but I just needed to get this assembly done).
The rest of the run was then mostly uneventful, while I would only find one Unique in the whole run, which was the Railgun (that meant guaranteed Sniper mod), and the two Artifacts again didn't drop a Nano nor Onyx mod, so that Shambler Head ended up proving necessary to complete Technician Diamond here. For a couple last notes, this run was one of the very rare non-AoOC runs where I never built Tactical Boots, as I somehow only got three Agility mods even with Scavenger and after recycling a half dozen Bulk mods, that were very spread out too (didn't find the second until Halls Of Carnage, which I used to build the Hyperblaster I had ready since Armory, and then the third from The Mortuary's Assault Shotgun, which I used to build Cerberus Boots because it was evident I was very unlikely to build Lava Boots instead by then and +5% more movement speed wouldn't have really mattered at that point), and I got one of those rare super fast floods on the last floor before Dis, where the lava floods each row every two seconds (I had Cerberus Boots so I was in no real danger, still rushed through to see if I could find some more plasma ammo and anything else interesting, but the level ended up having nothing of note besides a Megasphere and so I should have just let the lava flood to kill everything).
With that, I'm up to 4 Diamonds now, only one away from tying my total in 0.9.9.7.
Badge count - [26|26|26|15|4|0] Medal count - 42/50 Score - 492/1500 (32.80%)
I posted this in its own Post Mortem thread, as intentionally killing yourself on the final floor of A666 to get several medals is a pretty ludicrous concept. In addition to getting four new medals (the Experience Cross, Purple Heart, and two spoilery medals), in that run I was fortunate enough to find the remaining Exotics and Uniques I haven't found yet in 0.9.9.8 to pick up Armorer Gold, so now I have all the Gold badges. With those medals, I also exceed the proportion of medals I got back in 0.9.9.7, and have just eight more left to complete the medals and get Heroic Diamond (it might take a while though to get those remaining medals however...).
Badge count - [26|26|26|15|3|0] Medal count - 42/50 Score - 476/1500 (31.73%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Standard UV run with Scavenger to get Technician Diamond
I decided to just get the last assembly out of the way that I needed for Technician Diamond and also ensure I would never get any more Schematics, so I just ran standard games with Scavenger. The first run I got Hell's Armory, not good as I would only get one rare mod, but instead of a rare mod I got the Cybernetic Armor from the mod cache, so I potentially had the very rare opportunity to build Cybernano Cybernetic Armor. Unfortunately I didn't get either a Nano nor Onyx mod throughout the rest of the run despite finding many Uniques; two of the Uniques I found were a Revenant Launcher and Lava Armor (which have guaranteed mods that aren't Nano/Onyx mods), then a Necroarmor that didn't drop one, then a Hellwave Pack I can't scavenge, and then both the Scythe and Angelic Armor didn't drop one either. In the second run, it nearly died in Phobos, as I had a rough Unchained Court where a Baron manage to blow up both Berserks right when I opened the door, and then immediately after surviving Unchained Court, I got ambushed by a Pinky group + a bunch of other nasties right at the start of floor 6 while being unable to run away with no Hellrunner nor even Agility-modded boots, and while also lacking a Shell Box to not get mauled when reloading my Shotgun. But I managed to survive it by chokeholding in the doorway I was stuck in and, for the first time ever, actually finding use from the Arena Master Staff to finish off the group after they were significantly weakened (you can see my screenshots of this ordeal in the Discord server here). After also surviving a tough Phobos Lab when I had no Shell Box nor any speed boost, I then pulled off a Shambler Head in Hell's Armory, which rewarded me with a Nano + Onyx mod and thus I could finally build Cybernano Armor regardless of any subsequent luck with Scavenger. I was ready to use it on Red Armor, but held off for a few more floors in case a very good Exotic armor or the Cybernetic Armor spawned, and I thought that paid off when, after picking up a map on Deimos 4, I saw a golden-colored Exotic armor in a vault that could be the coveted Energy-shielded Vest, but unfortunately it was a fucking Energy Shield that you can't mod and so I had to build Cybernano Red Armor (something I would normally advise against, but I just needed to get this assembly done).
The rest of the run was then mostly uneventful, while I would only find one Unique in the whole run, which was the Railgun (that meant guaranteed Sniper mod), and the two Artifacts again didn't drop a Nano nor Onyx mod, so that Shambler Head ended up proving necessary to complete Technician Diamond here. For a couple last notes, this run was one of the very rare non-AoOC runs where I never built Tactical Boots, as I somehow only got three Agility mods even with Scavenger and after recycling a half dozen Bulk mods, that were very spread out too (didn't find the second until Halls Of Carnage, which I used to build the Hyperblaster I had ready since Armory, and then the third from The Mortuary's Assault Shotgun, which I used to build Cerberus Boots because it was evident I was very unlikely to build Lava Boots instead by then and +5% more movement speed wouldn't have really mattered at that point), and I got one of those rare super fast floods on the last floor before Dis, where the lava floods each row every two seconds (I had Cerberus Boots so I was in no real danger, still rushed through to see if I could find some more plasma ammo and anything else interesting, but the level ended up having nothing of note besides a Megasphere and so I should have just let the lava flood to kill everything).
With that, I'm up to 4 Diamonds now, only one away from tying my total in 0.9.9.7.
Badge count - [26|26|26|15|4|0] Medal count - 42/50 Score - 492/1500 (32.80%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
2
Century Lounge / [U|ArchA666|60%|666|YASD] - Intentionally dying on floor 666 for annoying medals
« on: October 09, 2024, 19:51 »
0.9.9.8 has added two new particularly annoying medals:
*The Purple Heart, which requires you to die at level 20 or above
(spoilered in case anyone still cares about that particular weapon and its secrets).
With me missing the Experience Cross and another spoilery medal in 0.9.9.8, also very annoying medals to get, I thought up of a way to gather them all up at once; play A666 so you can reach level 25, maximize your chances of finding the spoilery equipment in a single run to I wasn't completely sure if this would actually work, as I thought maybe the spoilery medal would require you to win the game or some other conflict with medals would happen, but nope, it worked exactly as planned and now I won't need to do any other separate runs specifically for any of these medals.
As for the build, I went with Blademaster, as I'm good enough to survive early A100/666 with a melee build lacking a Chainsaw, and then Blademaster will mow through those hundreds of floors faster than any other build, especially once I found the weapon I was looking for (which luckily I found in the 100s, and even with it being current bugged to not give permanent berserk, is still absurdly powerful in the hands of Blademaster and I was able to maintain being berserked 99% of the time anyway). Could have done this run much faster than 20ish hours, but I was still mostly exploring floors through most of the game instead of stair diving as I really wanted to complete Armorer Gold (the last Gold badge I need to have them all again), which required me to find an Energy-shielded Vest (the last Exotic I haven't found yet on this 0.9.9.8 file), and the game gives you no message when Exotics spawn, so I couldn't just stair dive until getting the "there is something really valuable here!" message like I could with trying to find the Uniques. Of which, I didn't find a single Energy-shielded Vest until floor 451, or at least not one that was nabbed by a Former or Hell Noble first where it would inevitably get instantly destroyed by me having such a powerful melee weapon (and then the game spawned a second one on the floor immediately after, the RNG really wanted to troll me there). After that I could breeze through the last couple hundred floors in a couple hours, and I luckily managed to find the rest of the Uniques I was missing for Armorer Gold. I also wanted to complete the rest of the assemblies I haven't made yet for Technician Diamond, but I shortly realized building Cybernano Armor would lock me out of wearing that particular spoilery armor I needed to wear at the end, so unfortunately I still need to do that in another run (was able to build the Mother-In-Law at least before finding the spoilery weapon, the other assembly I was missing, and it was very fun rocket jumping around with it until said spoilerly weapon prevented me from using it anymore).
Lastly this could have been done on HNTR, but I did it UV, partly because it's the difficulty I find most fun, and partly to maximize the amount of Cyberdemons I could find so I get Cyberdemon rank, as I needed to kill about 70ish more of them to get the rank (and I did not feel like waiting until that many more non-100/666 games to get that rank back). I didn't get a single Cyberdemon level, but I still managed to find well more than enough to fulfill the kill requirements for Cyberdemon rank (I also did some exploiting with Archviles now being able to revive Cyberdemons in 0.9.9.8 to puff up the Cyberdemon kill counts, but that probably wasn't necessary).
Here is the monster mortem for anyone that wants to see all of it, though I'll give one last spoiler warning for those that care
*The Purple Heart, which requires you to die at level 20 or above
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With me missing the Experience Cross and another spoilery medal in 0.9.9.8, also very annoying medals to get, I thought up of a way to gather them all up at once; play A666 so you can reach level 25, maximize your chances of finding the spoilery equipment in a single run to
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As for the build, I went with Blademaster, as I'm good enough to survive early A100/666 with a melee build lacking a Chainsaw, and then Blademaster will mow through those hundreds of floors faster than any other build, especially once I found the weapon I was looking for (which luckily I found in the 100s, and even with it being current bugged to not give permanent berserk, is still absurdly powerful in the hands of Blademaster and I was able to maintain being berserked 99% of the time anyway). Could have done this run much faster than 20ish hours, but I was still mostly exploring floors through most of the game instead of stair diving as I really wanted to complete Armorer Gold (the last Gold badge I need to have them all again), which required me to find an Energy-shielded Vest (the last Exotic I haven't found yet on this 0.9.9.8 file), and the game gives you no message when Exotics spawn, so I couldn't just stair dive until getting the "there is something really valuable here!" message like I could with trying to find the Uniques. Of which, I didn't find a single Energy-shielded Vest until floor 451, or at least not one that was nabbed by a Former or Hell Noble first where it would inevitably get instantly destroyed by me having such a powerful melee weapon (and then the game spawned a second one on the floor immediately after, the RNG really wanted to troll me there). After that I could breeze through the last couple hundred floors in a couple hours, and I luckily managed to find the rest of the Uniques I was missing for Armorer Gold. I also wanted to complete the rest of the assemblies I haven't made yet for Technician Diamond, but I shortly realized building Cybernano Armor would lock me out of wearing that particular spoilery armor I needed to wear at the end, so unfortunately I still need to do that in another run (was able to build the Mother-In-Law at least before finding the spoilery weapon, the other assembly I was missing, and it was very fun rocket jumping around with it until said spoilerly weapon prevented me from using it anymore).
Lastly this could have been done on HNTR, but I did it UV, partly because it's the difficulty I find most fun, and partly to maximize the amount of Cyberdemons I could find so I get Cyberdemon rank, as I needed to kill about 70ish more of them to get the rank (and I did not feel like waiting until that many more non-100/666 games to get that rank back). I didn't get a single Cyberdemon level, but I still managed to find well more than enough to fulfill the kill requirements for Cyberdemon rank (I also did some exploiting with Archviles now being able to revive Cyberdemons in 0.9.9.8 to puff up the Cyberdemon kill counts, but that probably wasn't necessary).
Here is the monster mortem for anyone that wants to see all of it, though I'll give one last spoiler warning for those that care
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
3
Nightmare! / Re: [N!|AoD+AoOc|36%|YAVP] Diamond-level Hunter goes against JC without a plan
« on: October 05, 2024, 15:52 »
Trying to fight JC using a High Powered Chaingun with no SoB, EE, nor even an ammochain box is certainly a choice :p (two thirds of your bullets was doing only 1 damage to him, and with no EE, half of them were probably missing as well). Luckily dying to him doesn't prevent your run from being considered a win still.
4
Post Mortem / Re: Badge Hunters for Version 0.9.9.8
« on: October 01, 2024, 11:45 »
Reserving this post for OP
5
Post Mortem / Re: Badge Hunters for Version 0.9.9.8
« on: October 01, 2024, 11:45 »
Reserving this post for OP
6
Post Mortem / Re: Badge Hunters for Version 0.9.9.8
« on: October 01, 2024, 11:45 »
This section orders players by the total number of Diamond and Angelic badges they have each obtained in 0.9.9.8, among those with at least one verifiable Diamond or Angelic badge.
7: wyvric
5: apalapan
4: Omega Tyrant
2: Clamp360
1: Groncho; Buzzard
4: wyvric
1: apalapan
Total Diamond Count
7: wyvric
5: apalapan
4: Omega Tyrant
2: Clamp360
1: Groncho; Buzzard
Total Angelic Count
4: wyvric
1: apalapan
7
Post Mortem / Re: Badge Hunters for Version 0.9.9.8
« on: October 01, 2024, 11:44 »Angelic Hunters
UAC Angelic- This badge has been deemed humanly impossible, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Veteran Angelic
- wyvric (d) (*) (S)
Strongman Angelic
- Currently unachieved
Speedrunner Angelic
- This badge has been deemed humanly impossible, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Elite Angelic
- wyvric (d) (*)
Demonic Angelic
- This badge has been deemed humanly impossible, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Berserker Angelic
- Currently unachieved
Marskman Angelic
- Currently unachieved
Shottyman Angelic
Lightfoot Angelic
- This badge is currently bugged and so may be unwinnable!
Eagerness Angelic
- This badge has been deemed near impossible, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Inquisitor Angelic
- This badge has been deemed near impossible, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Quartermaster Angelic
- wyvric (d)
Masochist Angelic
- While this badge is considered possible, it was never verifiably won in over a decade of 0.9.9.7, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Centurial Angelic
- Currently unachieved
Pacifist Angelic
- This badge has been deemed humanly impossible, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Everyman Angelic
- Currently unachieved
8
Post Mortem / Badge Hunters for Version 0.9.9.8
« on: October 01, 2024, 11:44 »
For the old Badge Hunters thread that covered all previous versions, click this link.
In Game Hunter's absence, I'm starting up a new Badge Hunters thread that covers version 0.9.9.8 and beyond. This thread will document everyone who has obtained each Diamond and Angelic badge, with links to each of the winning mortems. If you obtained a Diamond or Angelic badge, be sure to post it to the Post Mortem board, and feel free to notify me directly so I can update this thread accordingly (I'll link mortems from external sources like Discord, but linking threads from here is preferred). Each badge's list of achievers will be in chronological order of when each person won the badge.
Legend
(^) - The linked mortem has video of the winning run.
(d) - The link goes to a mortem posted on Discord (be sure to join the Jupiter Hell Discord server to view such links)
(*) - The linked mortem fulfilled the requirements for the badge, but the badge doesn't show in the mortem since the player copied over a previous version's data where they obtained the badge previously.
(S) - The badge was achieved in the standard game (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(Pure) - The badge was achieved purely, as in it was obtained in the requisite challenge only and not in a Dual Angel.
(AoOC) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Overconfidence (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoMC) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Max Carnage (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoLT) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Light Travel (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoSh) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Shotgunnery (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoB) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Berserk (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
Other challenge headings will be added if needed
Armorer Diamond
Heroic Diamond
Gatekeeper Diamond
UAC Diamond
Veteran Diamond
Strongman Diamond
Elite Diamond
Demonic Diamond
Reaper Diamond
Berserker Diamond
Marksman Diamond
Shottyman Diamond
Lightfoot Diamond
Eagerness Diamond
Inquisitor Diamond
Quartermaster Diamond
Hunter Diamond
Destroyer Diamond
Masochist Diamond
Centurial Diamond
Everyman Diamond
Daredevil Diamond
Arena Diamond
Longinus Diamond
Scavenger Diamond
In Game Hunter's absence, I'm starting up a new Badge Hunters thread that covers version 0.9.9.8 and beyond. This thread will document everyone who has obtained each Diamond and Angelic badge, with links to each of the winning mortems. If you obtained a Diamond or Angelic badge, be sure to post it to the Post Mortem board, and feel free to notify me directly so I can update this thread accordingly (I'll link mortems from external sources like Discord, but linking threads from here is preferred). Each badge's list of achievers will be in chronological order of when each person won the badge.
Legend
(^) - The linked mortem has video of the winning run.
(d) - The link goes to a mortem posted on Discord (be sure to join the Jupiter Hell Discord server to view such links)
(*) - The linked mortem fulfilled the requirements for the badge, but the badge doesn't show in the mortem since the player copied over a previous version's data where they obtained the badge previously.
(S) - The badge was achieved in the standard game (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(Pure) - The badge was achieved purely, as in it was obtained in the requisite challenge only and not in a Dual Angel.
(AoOC) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Overconfidence (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoMC) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Max Carnage (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoLT) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Light Travel (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoSh) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Shotgunnery (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
(AoB) - The badge was achieved in or by mixing the challenge with Angel of Berserk (only noted for badges that don't explicitly require it).
Other challenge headings will be added if needed
Diamond Hunters
Technician DiamondArmorer Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Heroic Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Gatekeeper Diamond
- Omega Tyrant (S)
- wyvric (d) (S)
UAC Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Veteran Diamond
Strongman Diamond
Elite Diamond
- wyvric (d) (*)
Demonic Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Reaper Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Berserker Diamond
- apalapan (d) (AoOC)
Marksman Diamond
- Clamp360 (d) (AoOC)
Shottyman Diamond
- wyvric (d) (*) (AoOC)
Lightfoot Diamond
- This badge is currently bugged and so may be unwinnable!
Eagerness Diamond
- wyvric (d) (Pure)
Inquisitor Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Quartermaster Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Hunter Diamond
- apalapan (AoOC)
Destroyer Diamond
Masochist Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Centurial Diamond
- Currently unachieved
Everyman Diamond
- Omega Tyrant (^) (Pure)
Daredevil Diamond
- wyvric (d) (*) (AoSh)
Arena Diamond
- This badge was never verifiably won in over a decade of 0.9.9.7, and thus any claims of achieving this badge will require video proof!
Longinus Diamond
- wyvric (d) (*) (S)
Scavenger Diamond
- apalapan (S)
9
Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
« on: September 30, 2024, 21:22 »
UV AoLT run for Lightfoot Bronze to Platinum
When you need to complete the game fast and have limited inventory, Blademaster is the obvious choice to nab the Lightfoot badges, and I comfortably get Lightfoot Platinum first try. I nearly died after The Chained Court, after coming out of it damaged with no medkits nor any armor left, while getting two consecutive Cacodemon caves. I managed to make it to Phobos Anomaly though, which had a very nice Red Armor, two Large Medkits, and Large Health Globes. After that it was a wrap, with some decent stair luck, making it to Dis without any close calls and taking just a bit over 10000 turns. With that, I have all the Bronzes, and the only Platinums and Diamonds left that I can get without playing N! are grinding badges, the Scavenger badges, and Quartermaster Diamond, so the time is coming to finally play Nightmare. But I do have a couple other runs planned first before making the jump to Nightmare.
Badge count - [26|25|25|15|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 458/1500 (30.53%)
HNTR AoD run for Arachno Silver to complete the Silvers
Rather than put this off for the eventual Nightmare AoD run where I'll probably want to avoid entering Spider's Lair, I decided to try "quickly" getting it done now. "Quickly" in quotes because the game would not fucking stop giving me Halls Of Carnage, and after a half dozen AoD runs, I was thinking maybe the game was bugged to not spawn Spider's Lair in AoD (all of which I Q+Y'd out of when I saw Halls Of Carnage, other than one run where I had the Trigun and so pivoted to see if I could the Fallout Platinum Cross or maybe even Klear's Cross... until getting softlocked in House Of Pain after leaving a couple Pinky corpses behind when advancing to a later room, and so being forced to nuke myself to register the Trigun in my found specials at least). I was going with Cateye first because it's the natural choice to make AoD as painless as possible, but after getting fed up with the repeatedly fruitless runs that took over an hour each, I went to Blademaster to try getting it done faster. And on the first try with Blademaster, I finally get Spider's Lair. With that done, I now have all the Silver badges, this time getting them all before all the Golds unlike in 0.9.9.7 (Armorer Gold is going to be quite annoying when you're blazing through all the lower tier badges fast...)
Badge count - [26|26|25|15|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 460/1500 (30.67%)
When you need to complete the game fast and have limited inventory, Blademaster is the obvious choice to nab the Lightfoot badges, and I comfortably get Lightfoot Platinum first try. I nearly died after The Chained Court, after coming out of it damaged with no medkits nor any armor left, while getting two consecutive Cacodemon caves. I managed to make it to Phobos Anomaly though, which had a very nice Red Armor, two Large Medkits, and Large Health Globes. After that it was a wrap, with some decent stair luck, making it to Dis without any close calls and taking just a bit over 10000 turns. With that, I have all the Bronzes, and the only Platinums and Diamonds left that I can get without playing N! are grinding badges, the Scavenger badges, and Quartermaster Diamond, so the time is coming to finally play Nightmare. But I do have a couple other runs planned first before making the jump to Nightmare.
Badge count - [26|25|25|15|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 458/1500 (30.53%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
HNTR AoD run for Arachno Silver to complete the Silvers
Rather than put this off for the eventual Nightmare AoD run where I'll probably want to avoid entering Spider's Lair, I decided to try "quickly" getting it done now. "Quickly" in quotes because the game would not fucking stop giving me Halls Of Carnage, and after a half dozen AoD runs, I was thinking maybe the game was bugged to not spawn Spider's Lair in AoD (all of which I Q+Y'd out of when I saw Halls Of Carnage, other than one run where I had the Trigun and so pivoted to see if I could the Fallout Platinum Cross or maybe even Klear's Cross... until getting softlocked in House Of Pain after leaving a couple Pinky corpses behind when advancing to a later room, and so being forced to nuke myself to register the Trigun in my found specials at least). I was going with Cateye first because it's the natural choice to make AoD as painless as possible, but after getting fed up with the repeatedly fruitless runs that took over an hour each, I went to Blademaster to try getting it done faster. And on the first try with Blademaster, I finally get Spider's Lair. With that done, I now have all the Silver badges, this time getting them all before all the Golds unlike in 0.9.9.7 (Armorer Gold is going to be quite annoying when you're blazing through all the lower tier badges fast...)
Badge count - [26|26|25|15|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 460/1500 (30.67%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
10
Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
« on: September 28, 2024, 03:40 »
UV AoB run for Berserker Bronze to Platinum and Gargulec Cross
When attempting to get Berserker Platinum and the Gargulec Cross back, I was going to try doing it with Survivalist for a bit more fun. But I quickly ditched that, as I realized that the already annoyingly luck-based nature of early AoB gets exasperated to a very annoying degree without having Berserker. I wanted to do something different from Vampyre since, aside from feeling a little dirty using 0.9.9.8 Vampyre to get any badge, I already used it to get Berserker Platinum and Gargulec Cross back in 0.9.9.7, but the only other possible option that wouldn't take an annoyingly long grind was Blademaster, which I've already been using frequently and have farther plans to use, so I just went with Vampyre to get it over with.
Even with 0.9.9.8 Vampyre, UV AoB is still very tough early on, and it can take several attempts before you get a doable run, as the math just doesn't work out in your favor without good luck with medkits, armors, powerups, and favorable level generation. Sure enough, I couldn't pull off a sixth consecutive first try badge here and died quite a few times. For the winning run though, I got some good luck with a floor 2 vault that had a Red Armor plus Large Medkit, and even only had Lost Souls instead of Pinkies so I didn't have to lose that much health retrieving them. With that Red Armor, in conjunction with some good luck with the second wave's spawns being closed enough to wipe out in a Berserker chain, I was able to clear UV Hell Arena in AoB for my first time, and I also even only needed to burn one Large Medkit too, so I came out profitting in Large Medkits and a fresh Blue Armor at the expense of a damaged Red Armor (that later got turned Nanofiber after The Chained Court). I then later got a bunch of Phase Devices and a Homing Phase before The Wall/Containment Area, and then the latter level spawned where you need much less luck to phase past its wall, so I decided to risk the Gargulec Cross there and it worked. With Hell Arena and Containment Area taken care of, the big obstacles to the AoB Conqueror were done, and so alongside getting the Berserker badges and Gargulec Cross back, I got my first AoB Conqueror clear. That leaves Angel of Shotgunnery, Light Travel, and Purity as the only challenges left that I haven't completed a Conqueror run in (excluding the Arch challenges and challenges where it's technically impossible). Also got a Nano mod at the end, but unfortunately I already put other mods on my Phaseshift Boots so I couldn't turned them Antigrav and couldn't even make Power Armor, so that Nano mod just got stashed to look pretty in my inventory (not that it mattered though, as the run was won at that point).
Annoyingly, I didn't get the Gargulec Medal, despite other lesser versions of medals being awarded alongside their greater counterparts if you haven't gotten them before (as seen in my previous mortems here), so I'll need to do another run of AoB on a lower difficulty just to get it. I guess its coding specifies HNTR or HMP as a requirement, rather than HNTR or greater?
Badge count - [24|23|24|13|3|0] Medal count - 37/50 Score - 429/1500 (28.60%)
Quick HNTR AoB + AoOC run for Gargulec Medal
I plan to avoid exploiting dual-angel cheese, as I feel it really cheapens badges and medals to get them that way, but since I should have gotten the Gargulec Medal alongside the Gargulec Cross in the Berserker Platinum run, I'm just doing a quick AoOC run to get that medal instead of doing another full 100% AoB run. The provision to start you with a Chainsaw when you mix AoB with AoOC is very nice; aside from significantly reducing the amount of luck needed to survive early AoB, I was also able to exploit the "drop the Chainsaw and then pick it up for a free Berserk" trick to survive the starting room of House Of Pain, which additionally had a Duelist Armor and Malek's Armor at the end of it to ensure the rest of the run went without a hitch.
Badge count - [24|23|24|13|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 432/1500 (28.89%)
UV AoCn run for Daredevil Bronze, Silver, and Platinum
I went with Ammochain, as I haven't used it in official 0.9.9.8 yet and have no immediate plans to use it, while Rel + SoB with Marine resistances helps it survive early. I spawned on a floor with a unique and two vaults, great! But also got spawned near a Shotgunners + Commando group, and when getting away, I ran into many Imps and Hell Knights, which could have been an immediate run ender. But I survived it, and found a Lava Armor in one of the vaults, one of the nicest things I could ask for when one of the biggest hurdles of AoCn/AoOC is that you're lacking good armor while fighting heavy hitting enemies that will wipe you out quickly. Then in Hell's Armory, I found a Jackhammer; while it unfortunately doesn't work with Ammochain, it was still one of the best things I could ask for, as it pairs very nicely with Triggerhappy + SoB and I have Reloader to alleviate the reloading bottleneck, while its new single-shot mode makes it essentially a better Tactical Shotgun (just as strong with twice the clip size and the ability to reload its clip entirely at once). The rare mod turned out to be an Onyx mod, which meant I could make Lava Boots and thus keep the Lava Armor in good shape without having to hurt myself (though I held out a few floors before doing so in case I found a very good exotic armor to use it on). The luck did get balanced out a bit by the RNG withholding Agility mods so I couldn't make a Hyperblaster until near the very end of the game (I really shouldn't have made Tactical Boots so immediately... which ended up pointless too whebn I found Phaseshift Boots later), and by getting The Vaults instead of House Of Pain, which I couldn't enter without losing the requisite 100% kills.
Overall the run was great and I got this first try, unlike before when it took me some tries in 0.9.9.7 (though using Ammochain instead of Malicious Blades was much better here). With Daredevil Platinum out, I am running out of badges I can get without playing Nightmare...
Badge count - [25|24|24|14|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 443/1500 (29.53%)
When attempting to get Berserker Platinum and the Gargulec Cross back, I was going to try doing it with Survivalist for a bit more fun. But I quickly ditched that, as I realized that the already annoyingly luck-based nature of early AoB gets exasperated to a very annoying degree without having Berserker. I wanted to do something different from Vampyre since, aside from feeling a little dirty using 0.9.9.8 Vampyre to get any badge, I already used it to get Berserker Platinum and Gargulec Cross back in 0.9.9.7, but the only other possible option that wouldn't take an annoyingly long grind was Blademaster, which I've already been using frequently and have farther plans to use, so I just went with Vampyre to get it over with.
Even with 0.9.9.8 Vampyre, UV AoB is still very tough early on, and it can take several attempts before you get a doable run, as the math just doesn't work out in your favor without good luck with medkits, armors, powerups, and favorable level generation. Sure enough, I couldn't pull off a sixth consecutive first try badge here and died quite a few times. For the winning run though, I got some good luck with a floor 2 vault that had a Red Armor plus Large Medkit, and even only had Lost Souls instead of Pinkies so I didn't have to lose that much health retrieving them. With that Red Armor, in conjunction with some good luck with the second wave's spawns being closed enough to wipe out in a Berserker chain, I was able to clear UV Hell Arena in AoB for my first time, and I also even only needed to burn one Large Medkit too, so I came out profitting in Large Medkits and a fresh Blue Armor at the expense of a damaged Red Armor (that later got turned Nanofiber after The Chained Court). I then later got a bunch of Phase Devices and a Homing Phase before The Wall/Containment Area, and then the latter level spawned where you need much less luck to phase past its wall, so I decided to risk the Gargulec Cross there and it worked. With Hell Arena and Containment Area taken care of, the big obstacles to the AoB Conqueror were done, and so alongside getting the Berserker badges and Gargulec Cross back, I got my first AoB Conqueror clear. That leaves Angel of Shotgunnery, Light Travel, and Purity as the only challenges left that I haven't completed a Conqueror run in (excluding the Arch challenges and challenges where it's technically impossible). Also got a Nano mod at the end, but unfortunately I already put other mods on my Phaseshift Boots so I couldn't turned them Antigrav and couldn't even make Power Armor, so that Nano mod just got stashed to look pretty in my inventory (not that it mattered though, as the run was won at that point).
Annoyingly, I didn't get the Gargulec Medal, despite other lesser versions of medals being awarded alongside their greater counterparts if you haven't gotten them before (as seen in my previous mortems here), so I'll need to do another run of AoB on a lower difficulty just to get it. I guess its coding specifies HNTR or HMP as a requirement, rather than HNTR or greater?
Badge count - [24|23|24|13|3|0] Medal count - 37/50 Score - 429/1500 (28.60%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Quick HNTR AoB + AoOC run for Gargulec Medal
I plan to avoid exploiting dual-angel cheese, as I feel it really cheapens badges and medals to get them that way, but since I should have gotten the Gargulec Medal alongside the Gargulec Cross in the Berserker Platinum run, I'm just doing a quick AoOC run to get that medal instead of doing another full 100% AoB run. The provision to start you with a Chainsaw when you mix AoB with AoOC is very nice; aside from significantly reducing the amount of luck needed to survive early AoB, I was also able to exploit the "drop the Chainsaw and then pick it up for a free Berserk" trick to survive the starting room of House Of Pain, which additionally had a Duelist Armor and Malek's Armor at the end of it to ensure the rest of the run went without a hitch.
Badge count - [24|23|24|13|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 432/1500 (28.89%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
UV AoCn run for Daredevil Bronze, Silver, and Platinum
I went with Ammochain, as I haven't used it in official 0.9.9.8 yet and have no immediate plans to use it, while Rel + SoB with Marine resistances helps it survive early. I spawned on a floor with a unique and two vaults, great! But also got spawned near a Shotgunners + Commando group, and when getting away, I ran into many Imps and Hell Knights, which could have been an immediate run ender. But I survived it, and found a Lava Armor in one of the vaults, one of the nicest things I could ask for when one of the biggest hurdles of AoCn/AoOC is that you're lacking good armor while fighting heavy hitting enemies that will wipe you out quickly. Then in Hell's Armory, I found a Jackhammer; while it unfortunately doesn't work with Ammochain, it was still one of the best things I could ask for, as it pairs very nicely with Triggerhappy + SoB and I have Reloader to alleviate the reloading bottleneck, while its new single-shot mode makes it essentially a better Tactical Shotgun (just as strong with twice the clip size and the ability to reload its clip entirely at once). The rare mod turned out to be an Onyx mod, which meant I could make Lava Boots and thus keep the Lava Armor in good shape without having to hurt myself (though I held out a few floors before doing so in case I found a very good exotic armor to use it on). The luck did get balanced out a bit by the RNG withholding Agility mods so I couldn't make a Hyperblaster until near the very end of the game (I really shouldn't have made Tactical Boots so immediately... which ended up pointless too whebn I found Phaseshift Boots later), and by getting The Vaults instead of House Of Pain, which I couldn't enter without losing the requisite 100% kills.
Overall the run was great and I got this first try, unlike before when it took me some tries in 0.9.9.7 (though using Ammochain instead of Malicious Blades was much better here). With Daredevil Platinum out, I am running out of badges I can get without playing Nightmare...
Badge count - [25|24|24|14|3|0] Medal count - 38/50 Score - 443/1500 (29.53%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
11
Requests For Features / Re: Compilation of fixes, changes, and new ideas for version 0.9.9.9
« on: September 26, 2024, 22:34 »
Got a bunch of new suggestions for badges and medals:
*Allow the Gargulec Medal to be obtained alongside Gargulec Cross
It was changed so that you could obtained lesser versions of medals alongside their greater versions if you haven't obtained them already, but as I found out when doing a 100% UV AoB run, you still cannot obtain Gargulec Medal alongside Gargulec Cross. If you've proven you can get 100% kills in AoB on UV or N!, you shouldn't be forced to do another 100% AoB run on a lower difficulty to get both medals.
*Add a new medal for defeating John Carmack without getting damaged
We have the Cyberdemon's Head and Mastermind's Brain for no damaging those respective bosses, and even Shambler's Head for beating Hell's Amory/Deimos Lab without damage, so why not an equivalent medal for the true final boss? I'm unsure for the name though, maybe "Keen's Helmet"?
*Add a new medal for completing a Conqueror run in any of the following challenges: Angel of Red Alert, Darkness, Impatience, Purity, and Masochism (while also requiring it to be a pure challenge, so it can't be cheesed by doing a dual angel with AoMC)
Seeing how Thomas' Medal exists for doing a Conqueror in Angel Of Humanity, I think we should also have a medal to acknowledge the achievement of doing Conqueror runs in these challenges where it's arguably as hard or even harder to complete a Conqueror run in (seeing how rarely they all been done, with me having firsts in two of them (AoI + AoD), a first in the pure challenge on UV for another (AoMs), and a second in one more of them (AoRA)). You could have one medal encompassing them all, or individual medals for each challenge. The potential name has to be discussed.
*Change Longinus Platinum to beating Unholy Cathedral without Brute on any difficulty, while also excluding Angel of Max Carnage and Angel of Light Travel from being able to earn it and Longinus Diamond
Current Longinus Platinum is just a check on if you can play Nightmare. You're able to play Nightmare well enough to make it to Unholy Cathedral? Then here's a free platinum for you, when any melee build will run through the Cathedral all the same regardless of difficulty, making it a very plain badge with no interesting challenge to it. Considering that beating Cathedral without Brute requires some ingenuity or particular technical play regardless of difficulty, it should be rewarded on difficulties below Nightmare. If you really don't want this badge being winnable on HNTR, then restrict it to HMP or at least UV. Current Longinus Diamond can stay as is, as beating the Cathedral on Nightmare without Brute does add some more depth to it (as the 10% speed penalty complicates speed-based strategies, and resurrecting complicates trying to utilize the Hatred Skull). I also want to propose disallowing Angel of Max Carnage and Angel of Light Travel from this badge, as they make it much easier, and apply the same restriction to Longinus Diamond as well.
*Add a new set of badges for The Chained Court
I find it weird how only a few special levels have complete badge sets related to them and some having no badges at all, so I think that should be rectified. The Chained Court is especially conspicuously absent with its complete lack of awards for it, given how it's one of the more iconic special levels and has a harder version that is ripe for challenges. As such, I propose the following badges for it:
Unchained Bronze: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena.
Unchained Silver: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on HMP.
Unchained Gold: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on UV in Angel of Shotgunnery (Shotguns have quite a bit more trouble here given the lack of good corner shooting spots and the inability to slug it out with the Barons and Arena Master from far range, but not too much more difficult as to merit beyond Gold).
Unchained Platinum: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on UV in Angel of Impatience or Angel of Masochism (you got the berserks that can be easily destroyed by the Barons or Arena Master, or one Supercharge if you can get a well timed level up, making that all the healing you get, and you gotta do the annoying task of clearing Hell's Arena in AoI/AoMs first to even get an attempt).
Unchained Diamond: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on N! in Angel of Purity (good usage of the Berserks is critical to beating the Unchained Court, especially on Nightmare, so having only the single berserk from the Chainsaw to work with should make this a worthy Diamond challenge, not to mention you have to beat Hell's Arena on Nightmare for every attempt, likely burning a lot of medkits in doing so).
Unchained Angelic: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on N! in AoSh + AoP (essentially combining both the Gold and Diamond challenges together, not to mention on AoSh you're going to have a lot more complications with destroying the Baron corpses that will revive without the Arena Master's help, you really better make that Chainsaw berserk count).
*Add a new set of badges for Phobos Lab and Military Base
Phobos Lab and Military Base lacking any badges is more understandable as they arrived in 0.9.9.7, but they're still ripe for interesting badge challenges with them and so should have a set. They could have their own distinct set of badges given they're completely different levels, but I think they can work with a shared set to simplify things, so I propose the following (naming the badges after John Romero since he created both of these original Doom maps and currently he is conspicuously missing from any references in the game):
Romero Bronze: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on HNTR.
Romero Silver: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on UV (gotta at least deal with the Nightmare Demons or the full Elite Former squad for the Silver).
Romero Gold: Clear Military Base on UV in Angel of Impatience (thus you must clear it without being able to manipulate the Elite Formers to favorable positions with gift dropping, and camping the start will leave you with no means to heal).
Romero Platinum: Clear Phobos Lab on UV in Angel of Marksmanship without Sharpshooter (getting Sharpshooter allows you to reliably knockback the Nightmare Demons and thus makes an otherwise brutal challenge a lot more manageable, so it should be disallowed, but it would still be fine enough to implement without any trait restriction).
Romero Diamond: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on UV in Angel of Red Alert (while extremely extremely difficult, I think this can be doable without Angelic tier luck if you specifically gear your build all towards it).
Romero Angelic: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on N! in Angel of Red Alert (this one I'm not sure is even possible, but the extra level or two and extended powerup duration you get in Nightmare could make it barely doable with lots of rockets for gibbing + rocket jumping).
*Add a new set of badges for Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab
Another special level pair that weirdly lack a badge set, only having two basic medals, and again they very much make for good challenges. As such, I propose the following badges:
Quake Bronze: Enter Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab and leave without releasing the Shambler(s) (Avoiding making it the same as the Hell Armorer medal).
Quake Silver: Clear Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab on HMP
Quake Gold: Clear Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab on UV in Angel of Confidence (thus clearing them with only a couple levels and minimal equipment, but given the ease at which you can grind runs for this, it shouldn't be higher than Gold).
Quake Platinum: Clear Deimos Lab on UV in Angel of Masochism or Angel of Humanity without Berserker (thus you must beat the dual Shamblers without being able to heal nor activate run more than once, or in a challenge where even with ideal armor you can't take more than a few hits inbetween medkits, and without Berserker being able to greatly increase your durability against them, while also excluding Hell's Armory as it is too much easier to be an appropriate Platinum challenge).
Quake Diamond: Clear Deimos Lab on UV without taking damage, excluding the Angel of Max Carnage and Angel of Light Travel challenges (beating the dual Shamblers without getting hit is so hard that the devs didn't even bother programming in any extra reward for doing it like with Hell's Armory, so it should be worth a Diamond badge without playing Nightmare, just disallow AoMC and AoLT from getting this badge since they will make this badge much easier).
Quake Angelic: I'm not sure, perhaps clear Deimos Lab on N! without taking damage in Angel of Berserk, Angel of Marksmanship, or Angel of Shotgunnery (aside from the extra HP the Shamblers will have and the 10% speed penalty complicating manners, the weapon locked challenges will also complicate disposing of the Shamblers' corpses without lucky equipment finds, making it more distinct than just "same as Quake Diamond but a bit harder").
The Brick, Skull, Spider, and Lava series could be completed as well, and Halls of Carnage could use a badge set too, but I'll leave those free for anyone else to suggest new badges for them.
*In House Of Pain, seal off the Large Health Globes behind walls/doors that require the Arena Master's Staff to open
After very thorough playing with House Of Pain, I find it is still a bit too easy. While I think the Demons could still be replaced with their Nightmare version on UV/N!, the big culprit for the lacking difficulty is the four Large Health Globes, that means I almost never need to expend any medkits on this level. Additionally, saving the Arena Master's Staff for House Of Pain isn't rewarding enough on this level (in the beta testing when The Vaults was disabled, I never bothered bringing the Staff along since it didn't make a meaningful difference, and in official 0.9.9.8 I often forget the Staff is even an option for this level, if I just don't ditch it once I see House of Pain spawned instead of The Vaults). As such, I want to propose requiring the Staff to access the Health Globes, so this level is a lot more likely to burn your resources without the Staff, thus more encouraging you to bring and use the Staff here.
*Increase the Blaster's generation weight to 4
The Blaster currently has a generation weight of 2, which makes it as rare as most uniques. The Blaster is certainly very good, it's arguably the best thing a Pistol build can find, but it's not so good as to be made as rare as a Nuclear BFG, especially when it's still near worthless for any non-Pistol build. Increasing its generation weight to 4 would be more appropriate, and this would make it equivalent to a Nuclear Plasma Rifle, a similar innate nano weapon that has more utility for builds beyond those specializing in its weapon type.
*Have the Ballistic Armor assembly retain plasma and acid resistances from its base
The Ballistic Armor did get a nice buff in 0.9.9.8, but something I noticed that I didn't before is that if the base armor has any plasma or acid resistances, they'll be removed entirely when used for this assembly. The -20% fire resistance is already a harsh enough drawback, removing other energy resistances is just excessive, and in particular makes using Blue Armor very bad for this assembly. This also isn't inline with Fireproof Armor, which retains the base armor's other resistances.
*Have Grappling Boots retain the base boots' movement speed instead of being -10%
Grappling Boots is one of the least used assemblies in the game. There is a theoretical niche for it with melee builds that are getting annoyed by too much by knockback, for Invulnerable stair diving if VMR are knocking you around too much as you try to get to the stairs or for anyone that's really paranoid about getting knocked back into lava. But any such non-Invuln use for it is killed by the -10% movement speed, and the set -10% movement speed also means if someone dislikes the knockback boost of Phaseshift Boots, they can't use this assembly on it to get knockback resistance + increased movement speed. Grappling Boots would still rarely be made if they retained the base boots' speed, but if they didn't slow you down, there could be instances where you would consider it.
*Allow the Gargulec Medal to be obtained alongside Gargulec Cross
It was changed so that you could obtained lesser versions of medals alongside their greater versions if you haven't obtained them already, but as I found out when doing a 100% UV AoB run, you still cannot obtain Gargulec Medal alongside Gargulec Cross. If you've proven you can get 100% kills in AoB on UV or N!, you shouldn't be forced to do another 100% AoB run on a lower difficulty to get both medals.
*Add a new medal for defeating John Carmack without getting damaged
We have the Cyberdemon's Head and Mastermind's Brain for no damaging those respective bosses, and even Shambler's Head for beating Hell's Amory/Deimos Lab without damage, so why not an equivalent medal for the true final boss? I'm unsure for the name though, maybe "Keen's Helmet"?
*Add a new medal for completing a Conqueror run in any of the following challenges: Angel of Red Alert, Darkness, Impatience, Purity, and Masochism (while also requiring it to be a pure challenge, so it can't be cheesed by doing a dual angel with AoMC)
Seeing how Thomas' Medal exists for doing a Conqueror in Angel Of Humanity, I think we should also have a medal to acknowledge the achievement of doing Conqueror runs in these challenges where it's arguably as hard or even harder to complete a Conqueror run in (seeing how rarely they all been done, with me having firsts in two of them (AoI + AoD), a first in the pure challenge on UV for another (AoMs), and a second in one more of them (AoRA)). You could have one medal encompassing them all, or individual medals for each challenge. The potential name has to be discussed.
*Change Longinus Platinum to beating Unholy Cathedral without Brute on any difficulty, while also excluding Angel of Max Carnage and Angel of Light Travel from being able to earn it and Longinus Diamond
Current Longinus Platinum is just a check on if you can play Nightmare. You're able to play Nightmare well enough to make it to Unholy Cathedral? Then here's a free platinum for you, when any melee build will run through the Cathedral all the same regardless of difficulty, making it a very plain badge with no interesting challenge to it. Considering that beating Cathedral without Brute requires some ingenuity or particular technical play regardless of difficulty, it should be rewarded on difficulties below Nightmare. If you really don't want this badge being winnable on HNTR, then restrict it to HMP or at least UV. Current Longinus Diamond can stay as is, as beating the Cathedral on Nightmare without Brute does add some more depth to it (as the 10% speed penalty complicates speed-based strategies, and resurrecting complicates trying to utilize the Hatred Skull). I also want to propose disallowing Angel of Max Carnage and Angel of Light Travel from this badge, as they make it much easier, and apply the same restriction to Longinus Diamond as well.
*Add a new set of badges for The Chained Court
I find it weird how only a few special levels have complete badge sets related to them and some having no badges at all, so I think that should be rectified. The Chained Court is especially conspicuously absent with its complete lack of awards for it, given how it's one of the more iconic special levels and has a harder version that is ripe for challenges. As such, I propose the following badges for it:
Unchained Bronze: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena.
Unchained Silver: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on HMP.
Unchained Gold: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on UV in Angel of Shotgunnery (Shotguns have quite a bit more trouble here given the lack of good corner shooting spots and the inability to slug it out with the Barons and Arena Master from far range, but not too much more difficult as to merit beyond Gold).
Unchained Platinum: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on UV in Angel of Impatience or Angel of Masochism (you got the berserks that can be easily destroyed by the Barons or Arena Master, or one Supercharge if you can get a well timed level up, making that all the healing you get, and you gotta do the annoying task of clearing Hell's Arena in AoI/AoMs first to even get an attempt).
Unchained Diamond: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on N! in Angel of Purity (good usage of the Berserks is critical to beating the Unchained Court, especially on Nightmare, so having only the single berserk from the Chainsaw to work with should make this a worthy Diamond challenge, not to mention you have to beat Hell's Arena on Nightmare for every attempt, likely burning a lot of medkits in doing so).
Unchained Angelic: Clear The Chained Court after clearing Hell's Arena on N! in AoSh + AoP (essentially combining both the Gold and Diamond challenges together, not to mention on AoSh you're going to have a lot more complications with destroying the Baron corpses that will revive without the Arena Master's help, you really better make that Chainsaw berserk count).
*Add a new set of badges for Phobos Lab and Military Base
Phobos Lab and Military Base lacking any badges is more understandable as they arrived in 0.9.9.7, but they're still ripe for interesting badge challenges with them and so should have a set. They could have their own distinct set of badges given they're completely different levels, but I think they can work with a shared set to simplify things, so I propose the following (naming the badges after John Romero since he created both of these original Doom maps and currently he is conspicuously missing from any references in the game):
Romero Bronze: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on HNTR.
Romero Silver: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on UV (gotta at least deal with the Nightmare Demons or the full Elite Former squad for the Silver).
Romero Gold: Clear Military Base on UV in Angel of Impatience (thus you must clear it without being able to manipulate the Elite Formers to favorable positions with gift dropping, and camping the start will leave you with no means to heal).
Romero Platinum: Clear Phobos Lab on UV in Angel of Marksmanship without Sharpshooter (getting Sharpshooter allows you to reliably knockback the Nightmare Demons and thus makes an otherwise brutal challenge a lot more manageable, so it should be disallowed, but it would still be fine enough to implement without any trait restriction).
Romero Diamond: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on UV in Angel of Red Alert (while extremely extremely difficult, I think this can be doable without Angelic tier luck if you specifically gear your build all towards it).
Romero Angelic: Clear Phobos Lab or Military Base on N! in Angel of Red Alert (this one I'm not sure is even possible, but the extra level or two and extended powerup duration you get in Nightmare could make it barely doable with lots of rockets for gibbing + rocket jumping).
*Add a new set of badges for Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab
Another special level pair that weirdly lack a badge set, only having two basic medals, and again they very much make for good challenges. As such, I propose the following badges:
Quake Bronze: Enter Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab and leave without releasing the Shambler(s) (Avoiding making it the same as the Hell Armorer medal).
Quake Silver: Clear Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab on HMP
Quake Gold: Clear Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab on UV in Angel of Confidence (thus clearing them with only a couple levels and minimal equipment, but given the ease at which you can grind runs for this, it shouldn't be higher than Gold).
Quake Platinum: Clear Deimos Lab on UV in Angel of Masochism or Angel of Humanity without Berserker (thus you must beat the dual Shamblers without being able to heal nor activate run more than once, or in a challenge where even with ideal armor you can't take more than a few hits inbetween medkits, and without Berserker being able to greatly increase your durability against them, while also excluding Hell's Armory as it is too much easier to be an appropriate Platinum challenge).
Quake Diamond: Clear Deimos Lab on UV without taking damage, excluding the Angel of Max Carnage and Angel of Light Travel challenges (beating the dual Shamblers without getting hit is so hard that the devs didn't even bother programming in any extra reward for doing it like with Hell's Armory, so it should be worth a Diamond badge without playing Nightmare, just disallow AoMC and AoLT from getting this badge since they will make this badge much easier).
Quake Angelic: I'm not sure, perhaps clear Deimos Lab on N! without taking damage in Angel of Berserk, Angel of Marksmanship, or Angel of Shotgunnery (aside from the extra HP the Shamblers will have and the 10% speed penalty complicating manners, the weapon locked challenges will also complicate disposing of the Shamblers' corpses without lucky equipment finds, making it more distinct than just "same as Quake Diamond but a bit harder").
The Brick, Skull, Spider, and Lava series could be completed as well, and Halls of Carnage could use a badge set too, but I'll leave those free for anyone else to suggest new badges for them.
*In House Of Pain, seal off the Large Health Globes behind walls/doors that require the Arena Master's Staff to open
After very thorough playing with House Of Pain, I find it is still a bit too easy. While I think the Demons could still be replaced with their Nightmare version on UV/N!, the big culprit for the lacking difficulty is the four Large Health Globes, that means I almost never need to expend any medkits on this level. Additionally, saving the Arena Master's Staff for House Of Pain isn't rewarding enough on this level (in the beta testing when The Vaults was disabled, I never bothered bringing the Staff along since it didn't make a meaningful difference, and in official 0.9.9.8 I often forget the Staff is even an option for this level, if I just don't ditch it once I see House of Pain spawned instead of The Vaults). As such, I want to propose requiring the Staff to access the Health Globes, so this level is a lot more likely to burn your resources without the Staff, thus more encouraging you to bring and use the Staff here.
*Increase the Blaster's generation weight to 4
The Blaster currently has a generation weight of 2, which makes it as rare as most uniques. The Blaster is certainly very good, it's arguably the best thing a Pistol build can find, but it's not so good as to be made as rare as a Nuclear BFG, especially when it's still near worthless for any non-Pistol build. Increasing its generation weight to 4 would be more appropriate, and this would make it equivalent to a Nuclear Plasma Rifle, a similar innate nano weapon that has more utility for builds beyond those specializing in its weapon type.
*Have the Ballistic Armor assembly retain plasma and acid resistances from its base
The Ballistic Armor did get a nice buff in 0.9.9.8, but something I noticed that I didn't before is that if the base armor has any plasma or acid resistances, they'll be removed entirely when used for this assembly. The -20% fire resistance is already a harsh enough drawback, removing other energy resistances is just excessive, and in particular makes using Blue Armor very bad for this assembly. This also isn't inline with Fireproof Armor, which retains the base armor's other resistances.
*Have Grappling Boots retain the base boots' movement speed instead of being -10%
Grappling Boots is one of the least used assemblies in the game. There is a theoretical niche for it with melee builds that are getting annoyed by too much by knockback, for Invulnerable stair diving if VMR are knocking you around too much as you try to get to the stairs or for anyone that's really paranoid about getting knocked back into lava. But any such non-Invuln use for it is killed by the -10% movement speed, and the set -10% movement speed also means if someone dislikes the knockback boost of Phaseshift Boots, they can't use this assembly on it to get knockback resistance + increased movement speed. Grappling Boots would still rarely be made if they retained the base boots' speed, but if they didn't slow you down, there could be instances where you would consider it.
12
Post Mortem / [U|AoMs|100%|YAFW] - The first UV pure AoMs Conqueror
« on: September 26, 2024, 13:04 »
Here is the Youtube link to the video of the entire run if you want to watch it.
To get Masochist Platinum, you just have to beat Angel of Masochism on at least Hurt Me Plenty difficulty, in addition to having no levels in the Badass trait. However, after looking on the Chaosforge forums and seeing that no one has beaten pure AoMs as a Conqueror on Ultra-Violence difficulty (there were a few AoMs Conqueror mortems I found, but they were either on lower difficulties or mixed AoMs with AoMC), I decided to aim for achieving that instead of just getting the Platinum badge.
For the build, I decided to have some fun and do Malicious Blades, since I don't see it fitting in to any runs I have planned in the near future, while the generalist nature of it makes it good for Conqueror runs and the great defensive boosts it grants will make it quite useful for a challenge you cannot heal on command in. I deviate from its prerequisites at the start to take a level in Ironman, as each level of Ironman essentially gets you 10 more HP after every level up (and another temporary extra 20 boosted HP), while saving a point of damage from formers and melee attacks early on is also pretty useful. After that it's straight to Malicious Blades to get those defensive boosts as soon as possible.
However, on my first try at this, I get incredible item luck that killed much of the challenge. First I get a Duelist Armor in floor 5, a very useful armor in general for being one of the few in the game that makes you faster for wearing it rather than slower, but that combined with its 75% melee resistance makes the usually very difficult Phobos Lab a ton more easier, as with it I could outrun Nightmare Demons without having to activate run and reduce all their bites to 1 damage when they got in (especially handy in a challenge where you cannot restore your tactics on a floor without certain powerups). Then in Deimos Lab, the weapon cache had a Frag Shotgun that was useless, but much more importantly a Super Shotgun, and then not only that, the mod cache after killing the Shamblers had not just one but TWO Nano mods (now killing the Shamblers without being able to heal would normally be a huge threat, but with Malicious Blades' 75% melee restance + 10% from Ironman, I could reduce all their melee attacks to 1 damage even with just Blue Armor, so after releasing them I immediately ran into one of the little mod rooms and waited until one teleported inside, where I was able to melee them individually to death without getting hit by any plasma bolts). With these Nano mods, I was able to make the broken Nano Shrapnel Super Shotgun, and Antigrav Boots (which let me get Technician Platinum too as that was the last advanced assembly I needed on 0.9.9.8), to ensure I could basically never get touched while never needing to worry about ammo (and when I did get hit, MMB ensured that damage wasn't much if it was anything but plasma or acid). Then shortly after that in Deimos 3 I find a Phaseshift Armor to make me even faster than Duelist Armor can, which when combined with the Antigrav Boots, meant I was getting about four to six moves for every move an enemy made. And late in the game I find a Medical Armor for good measure, whose ability to restore your health to 50% when it drops below at the expense of its durability still works in AoMs, meaning I had a means to heal at low health (I also discovered during this run that the Blood Skulls can still heal you in AoMs too after wasting the first one I got from the Agony Elemental, and then I found another one of those too randomly).
So basically, everything after Deimos Lab is a complete cakewalk where I just infinite Super Shotgun everything to death while moving as fast as actual Doom Guy, and so this run isn't really a good representation of this challenge as you'll almost never get this lucky, but hey, still the first UV pure AoMs Conqueror win, and the nature of Roguelikes is that you sometimes get incredibly lucky.
To get Masochist Platinum, you just have to beat Angel of Masochism on at least Hurt Me Plenty difficulty, in addition to having no levels in the Badass trait. However, after looking on the Chaosforge forums and seeing that no one has beaten pure AoMs as a Conqueror on Ultra-Violence difficulty (there were a few AoMs Conqueror mortems I found, but they were either on lower difficulties or mixed AoMs with AoMC), I decided to aim for achieving that instead of just getting the Platinum badge.
For the build, I decided to have some fun and do Malicious Blades, since I don't see it fitting in to any runs I have planned in the near future, while the generalist nature of it makes it good for Conqueror runs and the great defensive boosts it grants will make it quite useful for a challenge you cannot heal on command in. I deviate from its prerequisites at the start to take a level in Ironman, as each level of Ironman essentially gets you 10 more HP after every level up (and another temporary extra 20 boosted HP), while saving a point of damage from formers and melee attacks early on is also pretty useful. After that it's straight to Malicious Blades to get those defensive boosts as soon as possible.
However, on my first try at this, I get incredible item luck that killed much of the challenge. First I get a Duelist Armor in floor 5, a very useful armor in general for being one of the few in the game that makes you faster for wearing it rather than slower, but that combined with its 75% melee resistance makes the usually very difficult Phobos Lab a ton more easier, as with it I could outrun Nightmare Demons without having to activate run and reduce all their bites to 1 damage when they got in (especially handy in a challenge where you cannot restore your tactics on a floor without certain powerups). Then in Deimos Lab, the weapon cache had a Frag Shotgun that was useless, but much more importantly a Super Shotgun, and then not only that, the mod cache after killing the Shamblers had not just one but TWO Nano mods (now killing the Shamblers without being able to heal would normally be a huge threat, but with Malicious Blades' 75% melee restance + 10% from Ironman, I could reduce all their melee attacks to 1 damage even with just Blue Armor, so after releasing them I immediately ran into one of the little mod rooms and waited until one teleported inside, where I was able to melee them individually to death without getting hit by any plasma bolts). With these Nano mods, I was able to make the broken Nano Shrapnel Super Shotgun, and Antigrav Boots (which let me get Technician Platinum too as that was the last advanced assembly I needed on 0.9.9.8), to ensure I could basically never get touched while never needing to worry about ammo (and when I did get hit, MMB ensured that damage wasn't much if it was anything but plasma or acid). Then shortly after that in Deimos 3 I find a Phaseshift Armor to make me even faster than Duelist Armor can, which when combined with the Antigrav Boots, meant I was getting about four to six moves for every move an enemy made. And late in the game I find a Medical Armor for good measure, whose ability to restore your health to 50% when it drops below at the expense of its durability still works in AoMs, meaning I had a means to heal at low health (I also discovered during this run that the Blood Skulls can still heal you in AoMs too after wasting the first one I got from the Agony Elemental, and then I found another one of those too randomly).
So basically, everything after Deimos Lab is a complete cakewalk where I just infinite Super Shotgun everything to death while moving as fast as actual Doom Guy, and so this run isn't really a good representation of this challenge as you'll almost never get this lucky, but hey, still the first UV pure AoMs Conqueror win, and the nature of Roguelikes is that you sometimes get incredibly lucky.
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DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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NEEDNOHEALING,
level 16 Hell Baron Lt. General Technician,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 353367 turns and scored 437751 points.
He played for 2 hours, 28 minutes and 12 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 1293 out of 1293 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Angel of Masochism!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 11
Levels completed : 11
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Medal of Prejudice Won with 100% kills
UAC Star (silver cluster) 50+ kills without taking damage
Aurora Medallion Found more than 3 uniques in one game
Conqueror Pin Completed all generated levels
Angelic Pin Clear the Mortuary/Limbo w/o taking damage
Hell Armorer Pin Clear Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab
Chessmaster's Token Complete Hell's Arena on AoMs/AoI on UV
Hell Champion Medal Clear Hell's Arena
Technician Platinum Badge Discover all advanced assemblies
Masochist Gold Badge Complete Angel of Masochism (AoMs)
Masochist Platinum Badge Complete AoMs on HMP w/o Bad
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 70/70 Experience 133978/16
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +4 ToDmg Ranged +2 ToDmg Melee +8
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Technician
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Son of a bitch (Level 2)
Brute (Level 2)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 3)
Malicious Blades (Level 1)
Iro->HR->Fin->HR->Bru->Bru->DM->MMB->WK->WK->Fin->Iro->Fin->SoB->WK->SoB->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] phaseshift armor [4/4] (93%) (APT)
[b] [ Weapon ] nano super shotgun (6d4)x2 (P1T1)
[c] [ Boots ] antigrav plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] combat knife (2d5)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical rocket launcher (6d7) [5/5] (P1T1)
[b] BFG 9000 (10d6) [100/100]
[c] BFG 9000 (10d6) [100/100]
[d] red armor [6/6] (100%) (P)
[e] medical armor [4/4] (191%) (ABPT)
[f] Shielded Armor [2]
[g] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
[h] Azrael's Scythe (9d9)
[i] rocket (x14)
[j] rocket (x14)
[k] rocket (x14)
[l] phase device
[m] phase device
[n] homing phase device
[o] homing phase device
[p] blood skull
[q] rocket box (x25)
[r] rocket box (x25)
[s] power battery (x120)
[t] power battery (x120)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
bullet - internal 20% torso 95% feet 70%
melee - internal 20% torso 95% feet 95%
shrapnel - internal 20% torso 95% feet 70%
acid - internal 0% torso 10% feet 50%
fire - internal 0% torso 60% feet 75%
plasma - internal 0% torso 10% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
111 former humans
88 former sergeants
67 former captains
186 imps
119 demons
301 lost souls
93 cacodemons
60 hell knights
63 barons of hell
30 arachnotrons
17 former commandos
29 pain elementals
37 revenants
34 mancubi
26 arch-viles
7 nightmare cacodemons
12 nightmare demons
2 nightmare arch-viles
2 bruiser brothers
2 shamblers
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
On level 7 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
He broke through the lab.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 9 he found the Frag Shotgun!
He nuked level 9!
He decided to nuke the forbidden Lab.
On level 10 he assembled a nano-shrapnel!
On level 10 he assembled a antigrav boots!
On level 10 he assembled a hyperblaster!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
He slaughtered the beasts living there.
On level 14 he found the Shielded Armor!
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 17 he trespassed on the House of Pain.
He conquered the House!
On level 19 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he found the Azrael's Scythe!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
On level 22 he found the Necroarmor!
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
On level 23 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
On level 23 he was targeted for extermination!
Then at last he found Dis!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You feel your invincibility fading...
You feel vulnerable again.
There are stairs leading downward here.
This is it. This is the lair of all evil! What will you meet here?
You are hit!
Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn!
The hell knight dies. The hell knight dies.
The hell knight dies. You hear the scream of a freed soul!
John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher.
You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You are hit!
John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack! Press
<Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
32 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
12 of those were killed.
1 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 1 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
18 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
3 killed the bitch and survived.
13 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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13
Post Mortem / [M|AoRA|100%|YAFW] - The rare AoRA Conqueror
« on: September 23, 2024, 22:04 »
As I did not feel like doing the grind to get Quartermaster Diamond again yet in 0.9.9.8, I went just for Quartermaster Gold on easy old HNTR, and got Skull Silver out of the way, so I won't need to do City of Skulls/Abyssal Plains in the eventual Quartermaster Platinum and Diamond runs if I'm not in a good position to do them (I especially wouldn't bother with Abyssal Plains on UV/N! even with Blademaster). Along the way though, I decided to see if I can check off doing a Conqueror on AoRA, and succeeded at that, a rare feat even on HNTR difficulty. Unfortunately unlike with my prior two mortems I posted here where I claimed the first AoI and AoD conquerors, I can't claim the first AoRa conqueror, as Papilio did me beat to it. Being the second to have done it is still nice though.
Unlike Papilio, who went with Gunrunner, I went the Int2 -> Blademaster route like I did previously for Quartermaster Diamond and getting Skull Silver previously in 0.9.9.7. This made Hell's Arena harder, and I was barely able to get Phobos Lab done (had to use a bunch of rocket jumps and finished with less than 30 seconds to spare), but made all the Deimos and Hell special levels a lot easier, particularly City of Skulls and Unholy Cathedral. In this particular run, I got blessed by a vault with a Combat Shotgun on floor 2, but then the luck balanced the other end when I got consecutive Lost Soul caves in the middle of Phobos. Sure that was good for being super easy levels to clear, but meant I got shafted a lot of EXP, and so I didn't even have Berserker by Phobos Lab, while later still didn't have Blademaster by City Of Skulls. City Of Skulls still ended up being pretty easy with Berserker + rocket jumping and a Shell Box-aided Tactical Shotgun, but Phobos Lab came close as stated before. Deimos Lab also came pretty close despite this just being HNTR, and I had to burn the Homing Phase I had after killing the Shamblers and cleaning out the mod cache (which included an Onyx mod, very good, but also a Sniper mod, useless), while having to skip on the weapon cache (which had a Nuclear Plasma Rifle and Combat Translocator, not at all useful for this run but I still would have wanted to pick them up to work towards Armorer Platinum/Diamond). For one more note, enemies being revealed on the final three and items being revealed when all enemies are dead is a very helpful addition for AoRA, which does make getting 100% kills in the normal levels a bit easier, but that does get counterbalanced by Intuition 2's extended enemy detection radius being nerfed, that likely ended up costing me my first run (this overall took me two attempts, where I Q+Y'd out on my first attempt in Hell's Arena because I missed an enemy when going back and forth, that costed me too much time to clear it).
As for doing a UV AoRA Conqueror run, I think it is possible, but it would be absurdly difficult, even moreso than getting Quartermaster Diamond, and only a Blademaster build could realistically do it. Maybe someday I'll try for that...
Unlike Papilio, who went with Gunrunner, I went the Int2 -> Blademaster route like I did previously for Quartermaster Diamond and getting Skull Silver previously in 0.9.9.7. This made Hell's Arena harder, and I was barely able to get Phobos Lab done (had to use a bunch of rocket jumps and finished with less than 30 seconds to spare), but made all the Deimos and Hell special levels a lot easier, particularly City of Skulls and Unholy Cathedral. In this particular run, I got blessed by a vault with a Combat Shotgun on floor 2, but then the luck balanced the other end when I got consecutive Lost Soul caves in the middle of Phobos. Sure that was good for being super easy levels to clear, but meant I got shafted a lot of EXP, and so I didn't even have Berserker by Phobos Lab, while later still didn't have Blademaster by City Of Skulls. City Of Skulls still ended up being pretty easy with Berserker + rocket jumping and a Shell Box-aided Tactical Shotgun, but Phobos Lab came close as stated before. Deimos Lab also came pretty close despite this just being HNTR, and I had to burn the Homing Phase I had after killing the Shamblers and cleaning out the mod cache (which included an Onyx mod, very good, but also a Sniper mod, useless), while having to skip on the weapon cache (which had a Nuclear Plasma Rifle and Combat Translocator, not at all useful for this run but I still would have wanted to pick them up to work towards Armorer Platinum/Diamond). For one more note, enemies being revealed on the final three and items being revealed when all enemies are dead is a very helpful addition for AoRA, which does make getting 100% kills in the normal levels a bit easier, but that does get counterbalanced by Intuition 2's extended enemy detection radius being nerfed, that likely ended up costing me my first run (this overall took me two attempts, where I Q+Y'd out on my first attempt in Hell's Arena because I missed an enemy when going back and forth, that costed me too much time to clear it).
As for doing a UV AoRA Conqueror run, I think it is possible, but it would be absurdly difficult, even moreso than getting Quartermaster Diamond, and only a Blademaster build could realistically do it. Maybe someday I'll try for that...
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DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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IMAQUARTERMASTER,
level 13 Hell Baron Lt. General Scout,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 53767 turns and scored 190110 points.
He played for 1 hour, 32 minutes and 11 seconds.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 871 out of 871 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Angel of Red Alert!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 11
Levels completed : 11
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Medal of Prejudice Won with 100% kills
UAC Star (bronze cluster) 25+ kills without taking damage
Aurora Medallion Found more than 3 uniques in one game
Conqueror Pin Completed all generated levels
Grim Reaper's Pin Clear the Mortuary/Limbo
Hell Armorer Pin Clear Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab
Hell Champion Medal Clear Hell's Arena
Skull Silver Badge Clear City of Skulls/Abyssal Plains on AoRA
Quartermaster Bronze Badge Reach level 16 on Angel of Red Alert
Quartermaster Silver Badge Complete Angel of Red Alert (AoRA)
Quartermaster Gold Badge Complete AoRA with 100% kills
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 85/50 Experience 77666/13
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +6 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +9
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Brute (Level 3)
Berserker (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Blademaster (Level 1)
Int->Int->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->HR->Bru->MBm->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Angelic Armor [11/11] (95%)
[b] [ Weapon ] Longinus Spear (8d8)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x65)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [5/5]
[b] assault shotgun (9d3) [6/6] (P2)
[c] BFG 9000 (10d6) [130/169] (B2)
[d] red armor [6] (AOP)
[e] duelist armor [2/2] (100%) (A)
[f] rocket (x11)
[g] rocket (x14)
[h] large med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] large med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] phase device
[p] homing phase device
[q] plasteel boots [4/4] (100%) (P)
[r] shell box (x100)
[s] power battery (x120)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
bullet - internal 60% torso 95% feet 60%
melee - internal 60% torso 95% feet 60%
shrapnel - internal 60% torso 95% feet 60%
acid - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
fire - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
plasma - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
106 former humans
65 former sergeants
29 former captains
92 imps
69 demons
326 lost souls
40 cacodemons
36 hell knights
22 barons of hell
12 arachnotrons
6 former commandos
19 pain elementals
16 revenants
12 mancubi
9 arch-viles
1 nightmare demon
2 bruiser brothers
2 shamblers
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He saw, left a present and left.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
He broke through the lab.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
He decided to nuke the forbidden Lab.
On level 10 he ran for his life from acid!
He sounded the alarm on level 11!
On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
He left level 16 as soon as possible.
On level 17 he entered the Vaults.
On level 17 he found the Railgun!
He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
On level 19 he stumbled into a complex full of imps!
On level 19, hell froze over!
On level 19 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he found the Longinus Spear!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
On level 20 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
On level 22 he found the BFG 10K!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
Then at last he found Dis!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next! You're going berserk!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next!
You need to taste blood!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next! You're going berserk!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next! You're going berserk!
The lost soul hits you. You need to taste blood!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next!
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. Next!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
Carmack! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now. Next!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
31 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
12 of those were killed.
1 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 1 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
17 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
3 killed the bitch and survived.
12 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
14
Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
« on: September 22, 2024, 23:41 »
UV AoP run with Entrenchment for Inquisitor Gold + Platinum
To make reobtaining Inquisitor Gold and Platinum more interesting, I went with Entrenchment (likely the only time you'll see it in this thread), widely considered the worst mastery in 0.9.9.7 and certainly still is in 0.9.9.8 when it's the only one of the bad masteries to not get directly buffed. For what should have been a hard challenge, it ended up going surprisingly well, much easier than when I went for this badge many years ago with my favorite mastery. This wasn't really by any surprise value of Entrenchment, rather than my own advancement as a player since then and some pretty good luck, including finding an early Combat Shotgun, lots of vaults, the RNG being generous with large medkits and me being able to obtain them before Hell Nobles nabbed them, lots of Bulk mods, and most importantly, a Nano mod from Deimos Lab. Entrenchment becomes actually functional when you can build a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle, but any build with SoB + EE can near guaranteed win with that weapon, yet won't suffer if they can't build it, so it's not a real endorsement for Entrenchment. Unfortunate I couldn't complete the rare AoP Conqueror, as with no Finesse, I can't outspeed the Angel of Death without building a Ripper (which would have been a huge waste of mods) and didn't get a Hatred Skull nor could find a good melee armor to beat him straightup, and I wasn't going to waste my time throwing knives, so I had to skip the Cathedral (if only that Mjollnir spawned in Hell 3 or before instead of Hell 7...).
On one more note, the other rare mod in Deimos Lab was replaced by one of those fucking Schematics, which could have been ok as it was for Anti-grav Boots, the last advance assembly I'm missing and thus it would get me Technician Platinum. But turns out Schematics count as a powerup, so I couldn't pick it up and that Schematic spawn ended up being even more of a waste than usual, while that badge will end up having to wait a bit longer (I could have actually assembled those boots with the aforementioned Nano mod, but a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle was again too critical to give up). With the Inquisitor badges, my Gold count exceeds my Silver count (not too unusual, I got all the Golds in 0.9.9.7 before all the Silvers), and my Platinum count reaches double digits, while my Score has exceeded the 25% completion mark.
Badge count - [22|20|21|10|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 382/1500 (25.47%)
HNTR AoRA run for Quartermaster Bronze to Gold and Skull Silver
I posted this in its own Post Mortem thread, as it looks to be the second AoRA conqueror ever (couldn't claim the first as Papilio did it several years ago, but still a rare enough achievement for me to find it worth its own thread).
Badge count - [23|22|22|10|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 391/1500 (26.07%)
UV AoMs run with Malicious Blades for Masochist Gold + Platinum and Technician Platinum
I posted this in its own Post Mortem thread, as it is the first UV pure AoMs Conqueror run. Also picked up Technician Platinum here as I was finally able to build Antigrav Boots and thus finish all the advanced assemblies.
Badge count - [23|22|23|12|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 411/1500 (27.40%)
To make reobtaining Inquisitor Gold and Platinum more interesting, I went with Entrenchment (likely the only time you'll see it in this thread), widely considered the worst mastery in 0.9.9.7 and certainly still is in 0.9.9.8 when it's the only one of the bad masteries to not get directly buffed. For what should have been a hard challenge, it ended up going surprisingly well, much easier than when I went for this badge many years ago with my favorite mastery. This wasn't really by any surprise value of Entrenchment, rather than my own advancement as a player since then and some pretty good luck, including finding an early Combat Shotgun, lots of vaults, the RNG being generous with large medkits and me being able to obtain them before Hell Nobles nabbed them, lots of Bulk mods, and most importantly, a Nano mod from Deimos Lab. Entrenchment becomes actually functional when you can build a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle, but any build with SoB + EE can near guaranteed win with that weapon, yet won't suffer if they can't build it, so it's not a real endorsement for Entrenchment. Unfortunate I couldn't complete the rare AoP Conqueror, as with no Finesse, I can't outspeed the Angel of Death without building a Ripper (which would have been a huge waste of mods) and didn't get a Hatred Skull nor could find a good melee armor to beat him straightup, and I wasn't going to waste my time throwing knives, so I had to skip the Cathedral (if only that Mjollnir spawned in Hell 3 or before instead of Hell 7...).
On one more note, the other rare mod in Deimos Lab was replaced by one of those fucking Schematics, which could have been ok as it was for Anti-grav Boots, the last advance assembly I'm missing and thus it would get me Technician Platinum. But turns out Schematics count as a powerup, so I couldn't pick it up and that Schematic spawn ended up being even more of a waste than usual, while that badge will end up having to wait a bit longer (I could have actually assembled those boots with the aforementioned Nano mod, but a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle was again too critical to give up). With the Inquisitor badges, my Gold count exceeds my Silver count (not too unusual, I got all the Golds in 0.9.9.7 before all the Silvers), and my Platinum count reaches double digits, while my Score has exceeded the 25% completion mark.
Badge count - [22|20|21|10|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 382/1500 (25.47%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
HNTR AoRA run for Quartermaster Bronze to Gold and Skull Silver
I posted this in its own Post Mortem thread, as it looks to be the second AoRA conqueror ever (couldn't claim the first as Papilio did it several years ago, but still a rare enough achievement for me to find it worth its own thread).
Badge count - [23|22|22|10|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 391/1500 (26.07%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
UV AoMs run with Malicious Blades for Masochist Gold + Platinum and Technician Platinum
I posted this in its own Post Mortem thread, as it is the first UV pure AoMs Conqueror run. Also picked up Technician Platinum here as I was finally able to build Antigrav Boots and thus finish all the advanced assemblies.
Badge count - [23|22|23|12|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 411/1500 (27.40%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
15
Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
« on: September 20, 2024, 17:06 »
Standard UV run with Fireangel for Gatekeeper Silver and Diamond plus picking up the Angelic Pin
Another Diamond badge down, that I also didn't post a thread for as I've gotten Gatekeeper Diamond before. While Fireangel is normally one of the weaker masteries, it shines for this badge, as no damage rocket jumps means you don't need a phase device or floor 7 Invuln to reliably get past the Anomaly ambush without damage; blow up the door on the other side, activate run before triggering the ambush, and then rocket jump through. There is still some luck involved, as you might get a low damage roll on your rocket jump that doesn't send you far enough, but running and the requisite Hellrunner makes the odds low that you'll get hit after the jump, then you just have to slowly pick away at the ambush enemies from out of sight with the Tactical Shotgun until they die, and then repeat the same for the Bruisers (though you can also blow up the center wall that is destructible to create a nice corner shooting spot). Then no damaging the Cyberdemon after is trivial when you have Dodgemaster, and Fireangel ensures even if you get an unlucky spawning spot with him that leaves you cornered so you can't avoid splash damage, you still won't take any damage (the only way to fail getting the no damage on him with Fireangel is for him to get a lucky direct shot from out-of-vision that you dodge in to, or you for some reason let him corner you into unavoidable melee range). Overall I would definitely say this is the easiest Diamond badge that isn't pure grind, getting this first try, and as long as you're good enough to beat UV with a weaker mastery and can beat all the tough special levels in Phobos (as you need to do them to ensure you get Fireangel before Anomaly), you can get this badge without any serious grinding. Also thanks to an Invuln on Hell 4 and having a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher, I manage to pick up my first Angelic Pin in 0.9.9.8, and also my first Angelic Pin ever that wasn't in AoMC.
Badge count - [19|17|16|6|2|0] Medal count - 31/50 Score - 290/1500 (19.33%)
UV AoMC run for Destroyer Bronze to Platinum and Untouchable Pin + Medal for Heroic Platinum
Back in 0.9.9.7, Destroyer Platinum was one of the first Platinums I got and I was under the impression it was an easy one, but when doing several casual AoMC runs over the years, I actually had some trouble avoiding taking over 200 damage. So I was thinking I maybe got lucky in obtaining it many years ago, but when I seriously tried for it in 0.9.9.8, I got it first try (skipping Phobos Lab definitely helped, when the ambush is a lot of unavoidable damage if you don't have a phase device), and came very close to getting the Untouchable Cross for the first time too (finishing with 60ish damage taken). Getting the Untouchable Pin and Medal also nets me enough medals to get Heroic Platinum.
Badge count - [20|18|17|8|2|0] Medal count - 33/50 Score - 319/1500 (21.27%)
UV AoH run for Everyman Gold to Diamond and all the AoH-exclusive medals
Since this is my first new Diamond badge in 0.9.9.8 that I never got in 0.9.9.7, and being one of the rarest badges to boot, I of course posted the mortem in its Post Mortem thread. Very happy with how it turned out, not even having to make a real grind for it, and I also got it recorded as well (you can watch it on Youtube here)
Badge count - [20|18|18|9|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 356/1500 (23.73%)
UV AoSh run for Shottyman Bronze to Gold
A bit underwhelming to followup Everyman Diamond, but hey may as well get these easy badges out of the way when I don't feel like playing AoSh on Nightmare yet. I went Gunrunner at least instead of my usual Shottyhead or the significantly buffed Army Of The Dead to make it a bit more interesting, and while most of the item finds in this run were unideal or came too late to matter, Gunrunner is viable enough to make it work with unideal luck.
Badge count - [21|19|19|9|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 363/1500 (24.20%)
Very quick HMP run for Speedrunner Bronze to Gold
I decided to try some quick attempts at the Speedrunner badges to inch farther closer to getting all the Bronze/Silver/Gold badges again, and I ended up getting Speedrunner Gold in yet another first try. I remember Speedrunner taking me a bit of grinding when I got it back in 0.9.9.7, so it's nice to get this badge done in a single try, especially as I do not like seriously speedrunning games myself (though I like spectating speedruns, especially Doom speedruns).
Badge count - [22|20|20|9|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 370/1500 (24.67%)
Another Diamond badge down, that I also didn't post a thread for as I've gotten Gatekeeper Diamond before. While Fireangel is normally one of the weaker masteries, it shines for this badge, as no damage rocket jumps means you don't need a phase device or floor 7 Invuln to reliably get past the Anomaly ambush without damage; blow up the door on the other side, activate run before triggering the ambush, and then rocket jump through. There is still some luck involved, as you might get a low damage roll on your rocket jump that doesn't send you far enough, but running and the requisite Hellrunner makes the odds low that you'll get hit after the jump, then you just have to slowly pick away at the ambush enemies from out of sight with the Tactical Shotgun until they die, and then repeat the same for the Bruisers (though you can also blow up the center wall that is destructible to create a nice corner shooting spot). Then no damaging the Cyberdemon after is trivial when you have Dodgemaster, and Fireangel ensures even if you get an unlucky spawning spot with him that leaves you cornered so you can't avoid splash damage, you still won't take any damage (the only way to fail getting the no damage on him with Fireangel is for him to get a lucky direct shot from out-of-vision that you dodge in to, or you for some reason let him corner you into unavoidable melee range). Overall I would definitely say this is the easiest Diamond badge that isn't pure grind, getting this first try, and as long as you're good enough to beat UV with a weaker mastery and can beat all the tough special levels in Phobos (as you need to do them to ensure you get Fireangel before Anomaly), you can get this badge without any serious grinding. Also thanks to an Invuln on Hell 4 and having a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher, I manage to pick up my first Angelic Pin in 0.9.9.8, and also my first Angelic Pin ever that wasn't in AoMC.
Badge count - [19|17|16|6|2|0] Medal count - 31/50 Score - 290/1500 (19.33%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
UV AoMC run for Destroyer Bronze to Platinum and Untouchable Pin + Medal for Heroic Platinum
Back in 0.9.9.7, Destroyer Platinum was one of the first Platinums I got and I was under the impression it was an easy one, but when doing several casual AoMC runs over the years, I actually had some trouble avoiding taking over 200 damage. So I was thinking I maybe got lucky in obtaining it many years ago, but when I seriously tried for it in 0.9.9.8, I got it first try (skipping Phobos Lab definitely helped, when the ambush is a lot of unavoidable damage if you don't have a phase device), and came very close to getting the Untouchable Cross for the first time too (finishing with 60ish damage taken). Getting the Untouchable Pin and Medal also nets me enough medals to get Heroic Platinum.
Badge count - [20|18|17|8|2|0] Medal count - 33/50 Score - 319/1500 (21.27%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
UV AoH run for Everyman Gold to Diamond and all the AoH-exclusive medals
Since this is my first new Diamond badge in 0.9.9.8 that I never got in 0.9.9.7, and being one of the rarest badges to boot, I of course posted the mortem in its Post Mortem thread. Very happy with how it turned out, not even having to make a real grind for it, and I also got it recorded as well (you can watch it on Youtube here)
Badge count - [20|18|18|9|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 356/1500 (23.73%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
UV AoSh run for Shottyman Bronze to Gold
A bit underwhelming to followup Everyman Diamond, but hey may as well get these easy badges out of the way when I don't feel like playing AoSh on Nightmare yet. I went Gunrunner at least instead of my usual Shottyhead or the significantly buffed Army Of The Dead to make it a bit more interesting, and while most of the item finds in this run were unideal or came too late to matter, Gunrunner is viable enough to make it work with unideal luck.
Badge count - [21|19|19|9|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 363/1500 (24.20%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Very quick HMP run for Speedrunner Bronze to Gold
I decided to try some quick attempts at the Speedrunner badges to inch farther closer to getting all the Bronze/Silver/Gold badges again, and I ended up getting Speedrunner Gold in yet another first try. I remember Speedrunner taking me a bit of grinding when I got it back in 0.9.9.7, so it's nice to get this badge done in a single try, especially as I do not like seriously speedrunning games myself (though I like spectating speedruns, especially Doom speedruns).
Badge count - [22|20|20|9|3|0] Medal count - 36/50 Score - 370/1500 (24.67%)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)