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76

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Weapons, Armor, and Assemblies

« on: October 31, 2022, 18:35 »

Basic Armors

Green Armor

Green Armor is very basic and weak, but still usually better than nothing. You will generally find Blue Armor or better by the time you start collecting Mod Packs, so it's not really worth using any for Green Armor. Tactical Armor requires Green Armor, but the needed Agility Packs are better suited for Steel Boots, and armor is pretty critical with having protection and resistances to keep you alive. Unless you desperately want more movement speed at the beginning of the game, don't use any Mod Packs on Green Armor and just use it for the early game until you find something better. It can be useful for giftdropping later in the game in order to avoid giving enemies something more powerful when luring them.

Blue Armor

Blue Armor is a bit better than Green Armor, but will still get outclassed by Red Armor later, which isn't too difficult to find. If you happen to have large piles of Mod Packs, you could use some extra with a Blue Armor, but it's generally not worth making any assemblies in unless you desperately need fire or melee resistances through Fireproof Armor or Ballistic Armor respectively. Blue Armor with a Power Pack is better than most other armors for plasma damage though if you can't find anything better, and even completely unmodded is better than Red Armor.

Red Armor

Red Armor is not amazing, but given every other armor is much more uncommon to find, it's great for a cheap equipment. A non-assembly of Power Pack and then Agility Pack will greatly boost Red Armor's strength, but Fireproof Armor and Ballistic Armor can be useful if you want particular resistances. Nanofiber Armor isn't amazing, but is nice for a temporary indestructible armor if you expect to be getting repeatedly hit, such as for Vampyre builds. Red Armor is the best choice for Power Armor, but is likely not worth using a Nano Pack for. Tower Shield is excellent at reducing most attacks to 1-2 damage, but you'll need to rely on Megaspheres to keep it from breaking, and the huge loss in movement speed is often very detrimental, to the point where a non-assembly with Power Pack and Onyx Pack will likely serve you much better. Fire Shield is a bit less extreme, although more niche, and is also not amazing unless you're stair diving through hell. Overall, I generally would suggest going with a non-assembly of Power Pack, Onyx Pack, and Agility Pack for Red Armor until you can find some of the top armors to replace it with.

Exotic Armors

Bullet-Proof Vest

If you happen to find Bullet-Proof Vest very early in the game, reducing most bullet damage down to just 1 or 2 is very helpful, but it won't be useful for very long as only a few of the stronger enemies use bullet damage, not to mention you can't really handle any other type of damage. Use Bullet-Proof Vest as an armor better than Green Armor, but worse than Blue Armor.

Duelist Armor

While Duelist Armor only provides resistances against the damage types by most of the early game enemies, it also gives a large increase in movement speed and a modest 2 protection. Unless you really need better resistances against acid, plasma, and fire, Duelist Armor is excellent to use. For cheap assemblies, Fireproof Armor can be a nice trade-off as you progress later into the game, and Ballistic Armor is great if you're using a melee build, so long as you can avoid fire. If you have Whizkid 2 however, Cerberus Armor assembly turns Duelist Armor into one of the best armors as you'll have high resistances for every type at the cost of movement speed. The low protection won't reduce most weak hits to low damage though, but will reduce high damages much more effectively.

Ballistic Vest

Ballistic Vest is essentially the same as Duelist Armor, except worse in having 1 less protection, and no bonuses to movement speed or knockback. It can still be useful in all the same ways as Duelist Armor, just a bit less effective. However, for Cerberus Armor assembly, all the differences are nullified making it identically viable to use Ballistic Vest as a base for that assembly.

Ballistic Shield

Ballistic Shield is excellent at reducing all damage in the early game, but quickly loses usage as enemies start using acid, plasma, and fire damage. If you happen to find it and find yourself against enemies who use the corresponding damage types, it can be nice for a quick solution. It can also be helpful for cave levels with Pain Elementals and Demons, although its durability won't last too long if you get surrounded. It's a very situational and niche armor, but can be useful.

Energy-Shielded Vest

Energy-Shielded Vest provides large resistances to all of the common damage types seen later in the game, making it very versatile. Power Pack helps improve the low protection value, and an Onyx Pack will keep it from getting destroyed as you absorb heavy damage. Most assemblies are not very useful for Energy-Shielded Vest, and going with a non-assembly with the mentioned Mod Packs as well as Agility Pack will usually suit you best for it. If you don't have plans to swap out other armors, Cybernano Armor is a great assembly for it, providing you both the needed protection and infinite durability that Energy-Shielded Vest is otherwise missing, but because it is rather weak for strong melee attacks and swapping armors for particular situations is helpful, Cybernano Armor is a large commitment to go with. Shielded Armor, Plasma Shield, Inquistor Set, and Phaseshift Set are all very useful, so you likely don't want to get stuck with just one, as good as Cybernano Energy-Shielded Vest can be, and I recommend going with non-assembly.

Energy Shield

Energy Shield helps cover all of the damage types later in the game, but with 0 protection and being a bit too well-rounded, it won't often be your best choice of armor for most situations. It can be helpful for Nightmare Arachnotrons and Shamblers if you don't otherwise have a Plasma Shield, and it does offer high acid resistance not really found elsewhere, but most fights you'll encounter will be a mix of damage types and you'll need to be sure to avoid all melee damage. If you stumble upon it and it can cover some spots in your sets of equipment, Energy Shield can help, but it's certainly not an armor for main usage.

Plasma Shield

Plasma Shield is extremely specialized, but fortunately that specialization is helpful. If you enter a cave full of Arachnotrons, Cacodemons, or are fighting Shamblers, Plasma Shield is the best armor available at reducing all incoming damage, so long as you can keep your distance to avoid melee hits. For general use, Plasma Shield is not very useful. I'd recommend hanging onto it if your inventory isn't too tight and you otherwise don't have a way to handle plasma damage, but you might find yourself never using it. It's your call if you want to alleviate the potential risk of getting swarmed in a dangerous cave level or anticipate never seeing one.

Onyx Armor

Onyx Armor on its own is essentially a bulkier, worse Blue Armor, but infinite durability is helpful for Vampyre builds who are expecting to get hit a lot. Comparing it to other bases for Cerberus Armor, Onyx Armor already provides the infinite durability and you can instead use a Power Pack without worry of the armor ever breaking. This will lack the bullet, shrapnel, and melee resistances of other bases, but 2 protection will greatly improve your ability to reduce fire, plasma, and acid damage. Other than this niche, Onyx Armor is not very good and is best used as a backup armor if everything else you have is destroyed. If so, you may want to use a Power Pack on it.

Medical Armor

Medical Armor functions more like a common armor or a weaker version of Duelist Armor and Ballistic Vest, but comes with the gimmick of self-healing you if your health is low. Because Onyx Packs simply hide durability and avoid it getting reduced under normal circumstances, Medical Armor is the only one where a Nano Pack is actually better. That said, you likely won't repeatedly find yourself running around on the verge of dying, and the self-healing is somewhat slow and only goes up to a certain amount, making Medical Armor mostly just a worse version of many normal armors. However, the one beneficial niche is that it's one of the few ways to heal on Angel of Masochism, but otherwise is not great.

Gothic Armor

While Gothic Armor provides tremendous protection to the weaker damage types and has plenty of durability to sustain hits, the massive decrease in movement speed won't allow you to effectively move around much without enemies being able to quickly jump around. If you plan on staying in place, the large protection can be helpful. One other niche is that if you have Invulnerability, which lasts based on player actions, each movement can lead to a lot more enemy in-fighting than normal because of the time each movement takes. Gothic Armor can also be used as an equivalent base for Cerberus Armor compared to Duelist Armor and Ballistic Vest, although it will still work as a part of the Gothic Set, which can provide additional protection if you're fine with staying in place. You could also finish the Cerberus Armor with a Power Pack instead of an Onyx Pack since the much higher durability is easier to keep from getting destroyed. It can also be used for giftdropping if you want to really slow down some tough enemies that can wear it such as a Cyberdemon, and then run away. Overall, Gothic Armor is decent so long as you aren't going anywhere.

Phaseshift Armor

Phaseshift Armor is decent for handling the weaker damage types, but more notably is its huge boost to movement speed. If you're going for movement speed, you likely are also inclined to go with Phaseshift Boots, which as a set also makes you immune to acid and lava fluids. Phaseshift Armor is excellent if you intend to stair dive through levels as fast as possible, but you'll need to be cautious about actually taking hits. Using it for regular combat can still be helpful as you can adjust your positioning around enemies very freely since you can move much faster than they can. Most of the assemblies aren't great for Phaseshift Armor and going with the non-assembly using Power Pack, Agility Pack, and Onyx Pack is usually the best for it. If you're really committed to Phaseshift Armor, you could use the Cybernano Armor assembly along with a Power Pack to maintain the huge movement speed and also giving you 8 protection, but you won't be able to switch to anything if you need defense instead of speed. Overall, Phaseshift Armor is one of the better armors in the game.

Unique Armors

Necroarmor

Necroarmor is kind of gimmicky and drains out your health in order to repair itself. While it has high protection and also decent movement speed, the decreased damage is nullified by adding on the damage lost through durability. If you need a quick armor to sustain strong attacks, it can be a bit helpful, but I generally recommend not using this armor.

Medical Power Armor

Like Medical Armor, Medical Power Armor heals you if you're close to death, but only up to a fairly low point and at the cost of durability. It's rather gimmicky and not particularly helpful. unless you're playing Angel of Masochism. Otherwise, it's pretty much a worse Red Armor that can't be modded, and I don't really recommend using it much since you'll likely have something better.

Lava Armor

Lava Armor offers great protection against fire and plasma damage, and its 4 to protection is also good for most general hits. You'll need boots that have immunity to lava to really make use of Lava Armor, and Inquisitor Set and top assemblies tends to obsolete Lava Armor, but if you don't have any of those, Lava Armor is very good for the late game enemies.

Shielded Armor

Shielded Armor is extremely protective against the early game damage types, but doesn't offer much for fire, plasma, and acid. However, Unholy Cathedral and the potential threat of Nightmare Demon caves gives Shielded Armor a useful niche and can reduce any melee hit in the game to 1. Make use of Shielded Armor if you're expecting melee damage, but otherwise leave it in your inventory and generally avoid using it.

Malek's Armor

Malek's Armor as a single piece offers huge movement speed, good resistances, and good protection, making it a great armor. However, its true power is unlocked as a set which gives you complete immunity to fire damage, one of the most common types in the late game. All of Revenants, Mancubi, Archviles, Cyberdemons, and Lava Elementals won't be able to hurt you at all outside of melee damage, and with the movement speed, you can also run past most everything else. Do note though that if Malek's Armor becomes damaged, you do lose immunity to fire, so you still need to be a bit cautious of damage and let it self-repair. Inquisitor Set is not the absolute best for every situation, but is excellent at worst for everything. You might occasionally swap it out for Phaseshift Set, or for resistances of other damage types, but otherwise it's one of the best armors in the game.

Cybernetic Armor

Cybernetic Armor offer a huge boost to protection and high resistances for the weaker damage types, but you can't ever switch it out and the armor does not self-repair. It's very good, but because it's outclassed by other armors and can be dangerous to be stuck with while damaged, you probably shouldn't use it. If your character is a Technician, Cybernetic Armor is fully moddable, and both Nanofiber Skin Armor and Cybernano Armor can be great assemblies for it. Nanofiber Skin Armor provides extra resistances for everything, self-repair, and you can use a Power Pack to reach 9 protection, while Cybernano Armor along with a Power Pack can bring protection up all the way to 13. Even with all that though, the late game enemies will still be dealing more damage that the lack of resistances can't cover, so I still wouldn't really recommend using Cybernetic Armor.

Berserker Armor

To equip Berserker Armor, you must be wielding Dragonslayer and have at least half your maximum health, but you can always pick it up off the ground. Enemies cannot equip it. Berserker Armor is required to find the Apostle, but for anything else, it is a horrible armor to use. The protection it offers can get quite high as you take damage, keeping you from dying, and the resistances are pretty good, but the movement speed is extremely slow and Nightmare Demons will infinitely spawn while you wear it. One niche for Berserker Armor is if a level is cleared out, there are some damaging fluids around, and you can hide yourself somewhere, you can let the infinitely spawning Nightmare Demons provide you with ridiculous amounts of kills, which is helpful for challenges that require a non-100% amount, or if you want to get general kills for the ranks. Otherwise though, never use Berserker Armor.

Angelic Armor

Angelic Armor offers very large protection and good resistances, which increases further if you have Longinus Spear or Azrael's Scythe. Even as a single piece, Angelic Armor is a very good armor and can likely outclass what you have unless you need high resistances for plasma and fire. It's generally good to use, although you'll only get it very late into a game and it's possible you may have something better if your build is nearly complete.

Basic Boots

Steel Boots

Steel Boots aren't very helpful for much, but they're still better than bare feet. Tactical Boots assembly requires Steel Boots, and make great use of early Agility Packs to provide you with speed, so you may actually prefer Steel Boots over the other two basic kinds. They also work just as well as any other base for Cerberus Boots.

Protective Boots

Protective Boots offer some protection to acid and a bit to lava, but are very outclassed by Platsteel Boots and not really recommended to spend Mod Packs on. If you don't want to use Tactical Boots but find yourself needing to go through some damaging fluids, Protective Boots can still be helpful, but they are very quickly replaced by something better.

Plasteel Boots

Plasteel Boots aren't amazing, but are very cheap to find and good for some simple assemblies. Grappling Boots assembly is mostly helpful if you're a melee character and charging through shotgun blasts and explosions, but otherwise you should go with Fireproof Boots to help more with lava. Cerberus Boots of course provides you with immunity to lava as well as acid, so you should just save for that assembly unless your build isn't going to be using Whizkid.

Exotic Boots

Acid-Proof Boots

Acid-Proof Boots are very simple in that they give you immunity to acid and nothing really else. One niche for them however is you're able to make the basic assembly of Lava Boots to give yourself immunity to both fluids without the need for Whizkid, but the downside is it requires an Onyx Pack and Acid-Proof Boots might be hard to find. You likely won't care too much for these, but you can make use of them if you happen to find them before making the top boots. Fireproof Boots is nice as a cheap assembly if you don't have Whizkid or an Onyx Pack.

Gothic Boots

While Gothic Boots don't provide you with resistances, the high protection will cover most of the damage anyway. That said, the poor movement speed and better methods to provide with fluid protection leads to Gothic Boots not being really useful. Gothic Set is also not great, so you probably don't need these boots for that either.

Phaseshift Boots

Phaseshift Boots offer a huge boost to speed and as a part of the Phaseshift Set, give complete immunity to both acid and lava. The main reason they're not instantly the best boots is because armors other than Phaseshift Armor can be better in many situations. Phaseshift Boots are worth holding onto as you switch equipment sets as needed. Since you'll already have immunities, the best assembly for Phaseshift Boots is Antigrav Boots followed by an Agility Pack to give you speeds high enough that you can run through huge portions of levels before enemies have a chance to move at all. They are excellent for stair diving through levels.

Unique Boots

Enviroboots

Compared to Cerberus Boots with an Agility Pack, Enviroboots are slightly slower, but do offer better knockback protection, so are generally a bit outclassed. However, if you happen to find it before Cerberus Boots or an Onyx Pack for Lava Boots, and don't want to put levels into Whizkid, Enviroboots are a great way to give yourself immunity to acid and lava. They are a bit slow though, so you may want a secondary set of boots for more general use that can help you move faster such as Tactical Boots.

Nyarlaptotep's Boots

As a single piece, Nyarlaptotep's Boots are pretty good, especially for the large movement speed increase, but of course are used moreso for the immunity to fire provided with the complete Inquisitor Set. They're one of the best boots because of the set bonus, but can still be used just on their own if you aren't running across large amounts of damaging fluids. Keep in mind that compared to other boots, while you do gain immunity to fire and lava with the set, they don't give immunity to acid and you'll still need to be a bit cautious about it.

77

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Weapons, Armor, and Assemblies

« on: October 31, 2022, 18:34 »

Exotic Weapons

Chainsaw

The Chainsaw is much more powerful than your fists and Combat Knife, and is often critical to have for a melee character. The first time you pick it up, even if you drop it during a game of Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence, you become Berserk and automatically place it in your main weapon slot. Generally as with most melee characters, you'll want to camp near doorways and slowly lure enemies in as rushing to enemies will lead to you taking too many hits. A few levels in Brute are also critical as missing your attacks will effectively reduce your damage by a large amount. As for assemblies, Piercing Blade is excellent if you don't want to invest too much into Whizkid, which ignores all armor on enemies. Double Chainsaw is a large boost in power at the cost of some accuracy, while Ripper attacks twice as fast, but also at the cost of more accuracy. Because Ripper is only an additional Technical Pack compared to Double Chainsaw, I wouldn't recommend Double Chainsaw. Ripper is one of the best melee weapons, so long as you're able to improve your accuracy enough. Regardless of what kind of Chainsaw you use, Bulk Packs are generally the best Mod Pack to finish your weapon with as it adds on the most damage. Chainsaw is a great weapon, but if your build isn't specifically made to be a melee character, you might have to go out of your way to gain the necessary levels of Brute for it. You can still use it for bosses if you rely on a Berserk Pack or Invulnerability however.

BFG 9000

BFG 9000 does a large amount of damage to a large amount of enemies, making it great for clearing out groups in an instant. The obvious drawback is the amount of ammo it uses, meaning that you can't be constantly using it. Bring it with you and have it ready as a quick solution to difficult situations, and try to not destroy any useful items while firing. You can also keep it as a storage for cells, since it can hold more than a regular inventory slot can have, especially if you apply Bulk Packs to it. Overcharge offers you a powerful blast, but there likely aren't too many cases where it's worthwhile doing so and losing your weapon. The High Power Weapon and VBFG9000 assemblies don't add a whole lot of extra power to it, and I wouldn't recommend them. An extra 2 dice sides aren't a significant boost when BFG 9000 is already at 10d6 naturally, and instead I would suggest using a non-assembly with Power Packs and Bulk Packs. If you are fortunate enough to have Firestorm Packs however, Biggest Fucking Gun is a tremendously powerful weapon that improves the already large damage to ridiculous amounts, while also having a splash radius taking up a good portion of any floor. It's an incredibly expensive assembly though, but very worthwhile if you can get it. If you do make it, use a Nano Pack to complete it, which will provide you with 2 extremely destructive blasts, and the ability to infinitely recharge its ammo, making it one of the best weapons in the game. Even in its basic form, the BFG is a good supplementary weapon and you should always bring it with you.

Combat Pistol

Combat Pistol is a large upgrade to the regular Pistol, providing more damage, a larger clip, more accuracy, but a slower reload time. If you want to use pistols, this is one of the main staples to use. For assemblies, Energy Pistol is a bit gimmicky in that it's essentially a worse Plasma Rifle, but if you have plenty of supportive pistol traits, it can be stronger and far more ammo efficient. You lose out on being able to use bullets though, which are much easier to acquire and store. Storm Bolter Pistol will add a lot more damage, although its variance is quite high, making it a bit unreliable. Sharpshooter trait of course negates this issue. A non-assembly with 3 Power Packs and 2 Bulk Packs each is also strong if you prefer speed and higher average damage. The expensive option is 2 Nano Packs instead of Bulk Packs, giving you infinite ammo unless you're using Bullet Dance. Finally, Demolition Ammo is excellent in converting the damage type into the much better fire type while still being able to use bullets. It's strong and can destroy corpses, but you'll have to be more cautious with using it at close range. Overall compared to other weapons, Combat Pistol is still pretty wimpy, but with commitment to traits improving pistols as well as some of the best ammo efficiency of all weapons, it can be made to be viable.

Blaster

Blaster is more or less like a regular Pistol, except it deal plasma damage and recharges after 2 non-actions. It's a nice weapon to have to provide you with a source of semi-infinite ammo, but it's a bit redundant given how efficient pistols already are with ammo. That said, a single Nano Pack will remove the recharge delay, allowing you to instead have infinite firing with it, and room for Power Packs for a powerful non-assembly. Demolition Ammo is nice if you want a way to always be able to destroy corpses. As a primary weapon, it does fill a viable niche of benefitting from pistol traits and allowing your inventory to be freed up of ammo for more useful items, although Blaster as such is definitely a bit gimmicky. I would suggest Combat Pistols instead, but Blaster can certainly still be used and even possibly preferred. For non-pistol builds, I'd only suggest using it as a backup if your ammo supplies run low, and if you don't have a better semi-infinite weapon like a Nuclear Plasma Rifle.

Assault Shotgun

Assault Shotgun is an excellent weapon and a definitive upgrade to other Shotguns. It's slightly weaker than the Tactical Shotgun assembly, but the Assault Shotgun itself can still have additional Mod Packs added, which should be 2-3 of Technical Packs and Power Packs each, unless you want to turn it into a Plasmatic Shrapnel. With a full clip, you can repeatedly knock back most enemies to keep them away as you chip away at their health. There's not much more to comment on as it's a very simple and useful weapon that can work with any build, at any point in the game, and at worst can always be a good secondary weapon.

Plasma Shotgun

Plasma Shotgun is a gimmicky weapon, but can be a good support in certain situations. It fires and acts like any other shotgun, but uses cells, which can make it ammo hungry. It effectively has a clip of 10, which is the largest of any shotgun, and its damage type is much better than shrapnel. The main contradiction with it however is because it destroys walls, it's harder to create and use good cover as you would normally want to with a shotgun. Use it for when you want to make holes in walls or if you need to quickly clear out a strong group of enemies, but don't try to use it as a primary weapon. Power Packs and Technical Packs are the best choice, or if you want to get expensive, you could use multiple Nano Packs and be able to almost endlessly use it for wiping out floors quickly.

Super Shotgun

Compared to the Double Shotgun, the Super Shotgun is better in every way with slightly higher power, faster reloading, and a much better shotgun blast. It burns through ammo fairly quickly, but is a great weapon at quickly knocking enemies away from you, or for taking on bosses. Most notably, the Super Shotgun is by far the best choice for the Nano-Shrapnel assembly as it fires 2 shells but doesn't have a bad shotgun blast. When made, you can endlessly click to fire a super powerful blast without any worry of reloading, ammo, or even destroying weapons. It is one of top weapons in all of the game. Without Nano-Shrapnel, the Super Shotgun is best used as a support weapon alongside another weapon.

Minigun

The Minigun is essentially like firing two Chainguns at once and comes with a giant clip, but is a bit more inaccurate and slower. Miniguns can also function as storage for bullets in your inventory. Minigun is definitely much better than the Chaingun in most cases, but is still generally outclassed by Plasma Rifle because of the better damage type and stronger shots. You can still make use of the Minigun since bullets are easy to find, but be sure you have high enough accuracy so that most of the bullets are actually hitting. While many assemblies do improve the Minigun, you are generally better off making them in a Plasma Rifle instead and should just dump what you have to spare in the Minigun. Demolition Ammo however can provide you with a rapid-fire fire damage weapon, but likewise is probably not worth using a Firestorm Pack for. Bring the Minigun with you if you have spare inventory slots for bullets to provide you with some extra ammo, and gradually make sure you upgrade to a better weapon as you progress through the game.

Missile Launcher

Missile Launcher is a good upgrade to the Rocket Launcher in that it is faster, has more accuracy, and most notably comes with a clip. The only downsides are the blast radius is 1 unit smaller and you can't use Rocket Jump. Like the Rocket Launcher, ammo is an issue with trying to make it your main weapon, but it's a great support for displacing groups of enemies and destroying corpses. If you have some spare Power Packs and Technical Packs, they can bump up the power and speed a little, but generally don't waste them on it. Unless you want Rocket Jump, swap it for a Rocket Launcher and use it in the same manner.

Napalm Launcher

Napalm Launcher is a fairly gimmicky weapon, but can actually be great as a support weapon. With each blast creating a pool of lava, you can use it to cut off enemies or trap them in it for easy kills. The damage is also higher than a regular Rocket Launcher, although the blast radius is much smaller. If you think you'll want to use it in some situations, bring it along with you. You could also potentially use the Nanomanufacture Ammo assembly with it to give yourself infinite shots with it to create as much lava as you want, provided you have boots that give you immunity. You could use it as a primary weapon, but you'll need a secondary weapon for Lava Elementals and generally for enemies who can move across fluids. Finishing the assembly with a Firestorm Pack will give you much bigger explosions.

Laser Rifle

Laser Rifle fires one less shot than Plasma Rifles, but has significantly more accuracy and also reloads faster. With Laser Rifle, you're able to use it even without any levels in Eagle Eye, allowing you to always effectively use it and making it an excellent weapon for single targets. Both Assault Rifle and Burst Cannon assemblies work great with it offering different advantages, and Nanomanufacture Ammo turns Laser Rifle into one of the best weapons in the game with being able to consistently blast out huge bursts of shots without worries of missing or running out of ammo. Firestorm Packs are also great additions to add even more shots. Even if you don't have much inventory space for cells, there aren't too many cases where bringing a Laser Rifle with you would not be useful, so always grab it.

Nuclear Plasma Rifle

Nuclear Plasma Rifle is an excellent weapon, which is essentially the same as Plasma Rifle with a smaller clip, but the ability to self-recharge. With its semi-infinite ammo, it can always help you keep your inventory full. Nuclear Overcharge offers you a nuke if you really need it to help clear a floor or as a way to easily finish the game, but generally isn't worth the sacrifice. For assemblies, go with Burst Cannon if you have levels in Eagle Eye, or otherwise go with a non-assembly. Bulk Packs help with the small clip, and every other type of Mod Packs can be useful depending on what you need. A Nano Pack will remove the delay to recharge, which allows you to get ammo back faster, but is a fairly expensive commitment that might be better for other weapons, especially since you'll be bursting ammo more than you'll be recharging ammo.

Tristar Blaster

Tristar Blaster is a gimmicky weapon and usually not very good because of how much ammo it consumes for what is essentially a stronger Plasma Shotgun or a weird firing Plasma Rifle. The damage is pretty strong and having splash damage further enhances that, but it's very messy to use with it's awkward spread. It can also destroy items, but can also destroy corpses. You could use the Nanomanufacture Ammo assembly for it to solve the ammo issue, although a Nano Pack can be used for many other better weapons. Tristar Blaster can make for a decent support weapon in some situations, but I generally wouldn't suggest using it. Even with Fireangel where you're not at risk of hurting yourself, it's not great.

Combat Translocator

Essentially functioning like a Phase Device to be used on enemies, it's a very gimmicky weapon and you probably will find it more useful to just kill enemies instead of teleporting them around. The ammo cost is also fairly high and can't be spammed too much. Generally if there are large groups of enemies, teleporting just one away isn't very helpful, and single enemies can often just be avoided. If you think you can make use of it, you could bring it with you, but it likely will just take up inventory space.

Nuclear BFG9000

Nuclear BFG9000 compared to a regular BFG is a bit weaker, slower to fire, and can't be manually reloaded, but having a weapon with the power of a BFG that is self-recharging is very useful. Use it as a quick way to clear out a group of enemies and then keep it in your prepared slot to recharge. If you're fortunate enough to find Firestorm Packs, making Biggest Fucking Gun with it means you'll have an extremely destructive weapon that likewise doesn't have ammo issues. Firestorm Pack as a final Mod Pack will further increase its blast radius, but you may prefer going with a Nano Pack instead to self-recharge twice as many shots since the recharge delay is already instant. Another alternative is instead of making Biggest Fucking Gun is to use many Nano Packs so that the recharging is much faster and allows you to fire it more rapidly. Bulk Packs are also helpful for increasing the clip. The other Mod Packs don't really enhance the weapon as much. Regardless of how you mod it, Nuclear BFG is awesome at destroying enemies, corpses, and an entire floor if you need to use Nuclear Overcharge. It's one of the best weapons in the game.

Unique Weapons

Butcher's Cleaver

Butcher's Cleaver hits harder than the Chainsaw and also grants any character with Blademaster, including when it's being used in the prepared slot by a Technician with Malicious Blades. If you expect that you'll be attacking groups of enemies in close combat, Butcher's Cleaver is excellent, but otherwise will get a bit outclassed by other melee weapons that can get modded and become stronger. If you're using Malicious Blades, always keep it in your prepared slot and likely for the rest of the game, even with Dragonslayer. The more overpowered aspect of the weapon is you can find it at any point, even at the beginning of the first regular floor.

Subtle Knife

Subtle Knife is a decent melee weapon since its damage type is plasma, but otherwise it's fairly underwhelming and a simple Piercing Blade Combat Knife mostly outclasses it. Invoke is also terrible in that it does a decent bit of damage, but only to those you can see, only if you're not tired, and permanently lowers your maximum health by 2. Given how rare it is, you're pretty much guaranteed to have something better by the time you find it.

Mjollnir

Mjollnir is a gimmicky weapon, but is unique in that it is a melee weapon that can be used at range. It also hits exactly where you click, even if there are other enemies in the way. With some levels in Brute and also while you're Berserk, you can get some good ranged damage with it, although simply using stronger melee weapons at close range is usually better. I would only suggest using it if there's a large clog of enemies and you desperately need to hit a specific one.

Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer can only be picked up while Berserk and with all 4 equipment slots empty. Once picked up, you have permanent Berserk (or more technically, 10 million turns of it), half knockback, and can never wield anything else. Appropriately though, Dragonslayer is one of the best weapons in the game and the ultimate melee weapon. Permanently being Berserk is what makes it one of the best as it means that all of your resistances are increased by 60%, you're faster at moving, and the already insanely high damage is doubled. Even boss enemies will be destroyed in just a couple hits. Being a melee weapon also means you can keep your inventory full of other useful items instead of various weapons and ammo. Whirlwind is a decent alternate attack for quickly attacking all sides around you, and being Berserk, you can't run anyway. Not much can stop you unless you're careless or reckless once the Dragonslayer is wielded.

Longinus Spear

Longinus Spear is one of the rewards from Unholy Cathedral and very likely will replace any melee weapon you have to that point. It is very powerful, deals plasma damage, and can fit fine with any build so long as you have enough accuracy to consistently hit enemies. Holy Fire is also very powerful, but you might not find yourself in too many situations where it would be better than just hitting enemies. It can help with corpse destruction, however.

Azrael's Scythe

Azrael's Scythe is even stronger than Longinus Spear, still maintains plasma damage, and has an excellent alternate attack with Whisper of Death. Under normal circumstances, Whisper of Death is likely not worth permanently lowering your maximum health, but it allows for easy clearing of bonus levels if you have enough Med Packs, as it simply does 20 plasma damage to everything in the level. Azrael's Scythe is only really outclassed by Dragonslayer for melee weapons, and like Longinus Spear, it can be used for any build so long as you have enough accuracy.

Grammaton Cleric Beretta

The power of Grammaton Cleric Beretta is that it is the only weapon that benefits from both traits that improve rapid-fire weapons and traits that improve pistols, in particular Bullet Dance. Single-shot mode does not benefit from rapid-fire traits however. As a simple pistol, it has a huge clip and great accuracy, but is a fair bit weaker than Combat Pistols with Mod Packs and assemblies. As a rapid-fire weapon, semi-auto is like a slightly stronger Chaingun with a smaller clip, and full-auto is like a better Minigun, but the tiny clip is not enough to support full blasts. Grammaton Cleric Beretta only becomes better if you have levels in Son of a Gun, Triggerhappy, Dualgunner, and/or Sharpshooter. With Dualgunner, you'll also need to fire in a planned manner as you likely won't have both pistols firing in sync with each other due to clip sizes. Overall, Grammaton Cleric Beretta is decent, but you need to be specifically invested in a pistol build and then use it for rapid-fire to be able to outclass other weapons. Sharpshooter trait is one of the keys to making it great, but you still need to watch your ammo.

Anti-Freak Jackal

Anti-Freak Jackal is an alternative to using Demolition Ammo in a Combat Pistol, being cheaper to get if you happen to find it. A fully complete assembly will have a larger clip and slightly more power, but is very expensive, and you can still use Anti-Freak Jackal anyway if you use Dualgunner. As a standalone weapon, Anti-Freak Jackal is very ammo efficient like most pistols and is great for destroying corpses. It's definitely outclassed in power by Shotguns and Plasma Rifles, and doesn't make for an amazing primary weapon, but can certainly still be used for various situations. You'll need to be a bit cautious with using it so you don't blow yourself up, but otherwise can help preserve other ammo by using up bullets instead.

Trigun

As a simple pistol, Trigun is fairly powerful, comes with very high accuracy, and has fast firing speed, making it pretty good for pistol builds. It can generally outclass most pistols, except for the absolute best, and because of its accuracy, can also fit in with most other builds as an efficient use for bullets to help save ammo. However, the primary draw with the weapon is its ability to nuke a level at any time, only at the cost of 5 maximum health, and requiring more than a maximum health of 10 to be used. With Invulnerability, you can quickly clear out entire portions of the game with little effort, so long as you can handle playing with permanently lower health. It's a fairly situational weapon and there may be times you have no need for it at all, but in other cases is extremely overpowered and can completely trivialize many of the game's challenges.

Frag Shotgun

Compared to the Assault Shotgun, the Frag Shotgun is a fair bit slower and functionally has a smaller clip, but the unique aspect is that it can use bullets for ammo. That being said, a full stack of bullets is good for 25 shots, while a full stack of shells is good for 50 shots, and likewise an ammo box is good for about 62 shots, while a shell box is good for 100 shots. Given that it also can't use Mod Packs, Frag Shotgun is simply outclassed and not really great. The only use for it is if you are very low on shells and don't have other weapons or ammo to use as a backup, but this situation should be uncommon enough where you rarely find use out of Frag Shotgun.

Jackhammer

Jackhammer naturally does a very powerful shot, but also fires these shots in bursts of 3. You can actually increase this up to 5 with levels in Triggerhappy as well, giving you absurd damage in a single blast. That said, you likely will be dealing huge knockback and the latter hits won't do as much damage unless the enemy is backed against a wall. The ammo usage is also very high and will need to be reloaded frequently, which is very slow. Heavily modded shotguns of various kind will generally outclass Jackhammer, but it does still have use when you need an immediate burst against a strong enemy or group and don't have time to be firing individual shots. If your build and equipment is still a work in progress, hang onto the Jackhammer to get you out of a dangerous situation, but as you're better able to control the area and your cover, other shotguns tend to be more effective.

Mega Buster

Mega Buster is aruably the gimmickiest weapon in the game and while it can be a fun, interesting weapon, it's not very good. In its base bullet mode, it's very similar to a regular Chaingun except with less shots and more ammo consumed, although being a little bit stronger. Plasma mode is likewise similar to a Plasma Rifle, but also fires only half the shots, has a bit less accuracy, and is also a bit stronger. Acid and Fire modes are identical and are actually decently powerful with a very high minimum damage, dealing splash damage, and good for destroying corpses, although it is certainly still outclassed by better weapon. Of course, the main challenge with Mega Buster is that it is constantly switching modes depending on the enemies that you kill, and most of the time you'll have a better weapon you can just use instead. I don't recommend using it.

Acid Spitter

Acid Spitter is very gimmicky, but is actually useful in some cases. You're required to drain 10 tiles of acid before being able to fire it, and you only get one shot. However, Acid Spitter does very high damage in a large radius, and has enough accuracy to support any build. The explosion also creates new acid tiles that you can use the reabsorb and continue. It also provides 75% acid resistance when used as your main weapon slot. Overall, if you have acid immunity you can use this weapon to both clear and destroy pathways so you can funnel enemies how you want. It can also be used to destroy corpses and has a strong blast attack if you encounter strong enemies you can't manage. It's far too slow to be used as a primary weapon, but it can make for a great support weapon if you want to make use of it. If you don't have Dragonslayer and do have Juggler, you can wield it in your primary slot and let Juggler's ability to melee attack with your prepared slot. This can be handy for Vampyre and Blademaster builds who don't use a secondary weapon and can gain 75% acid resistance.

Revenant's Launcher

Revenant's Launcher is slightly stronger and has a slightly smaller blast radius compared to the Rocket Launcher, but explodes exactly where you choose to aim. It can be helpful for aiming at enemies behind groups of others, or to fire past any if you want to bring them forward or simply scatter them. As with other rocket launchers, its ammo consumption is very high and can't function as a primary weapon, especially since it can't use Mod Packs, but it's a good weapon to have if you want to blow up a very specific spot among a group of enemies. Be cautious with aiming as you can still damage yourself like other rocket launchers.

Railgun

Railgun is a very strong weapon, pierces through enemies until hitting a wall, and will never have issues with missing given its giant accuracy boost. It costs quite a bit of ammo to use, but can still perform better than unfinished Plasma Rifles, and even top weapons if you take advantage of being able to clear out lines of enemies. If your character is a Technician, it can also be modded, either becoming a High Power Railgun, or taking a single Mod Pack. I would recommend a Nano Pack if you're really committed to the weapon so that ammo is not an issue, or otherwise using your choice of Technical Pack, Power Pack, or Bulk Pack depending on what you need. High Power Weapon assembly could be used, but a very slight increase in damage is likely not worth the much smaller clip, even if you're committing the Nano Pack after. Accuracy is no issue so Agility Packs and Sniper Packs are useless. Any build can take advantage of the Railgun and is a great use of cells if you haven't committed to a heavily modded Plasma Rifle. Try to use it against group of enemies to make the most of the weapon, but single targets are still good too.

Charch's Null Pointer

Charch's Null Pointer actually does 10 damage despite what the weapon itself says. With that and its ability to essentially freeze enemies by draining their energy, Charch's Null Pointer is excellent for single target enemies and bosses. The ammo consumption is very high, so you will likely only find yourself using it against strong enemies in bonus levels, Spider Mastermind, or JC, and despite its usage for them, you still might find it to mostly be a waste of inventory space. Generally speaking, it's better to simply kill enemies than to freeze them.

BFG 10K

BFG 10K hits specifically the tile that you aim at, but the projectiles themselves take varying paths to reach that location and can very easily hit walls and harm you. The damage it deals is extremely powerful, is plasma type damage, and comes with a blast radius, but also costs a ton of ammo per shot. A Technician can solve the ammo issue using a Nano Pack, and even applying that after the High Power Weapon assembly, but the self-recharging will still be slow and allow for fairly infrequent shots. You may want to keep it non-assembly so you always have two shots. BFG 10K is good if you're in a wide open area and need to destroy a target at all costs, but is otherwise a messy, bad weapon. I would only recommend using it against JC. Ammochain reduces the ammo cost to 5 cells per burst, and Fireangel keeps you from hurting yourself with it, so you could get experimental with those master traits.

78

Discussion / Icy's Guide to Weapons, Armor, and Assemblies

« on: October 31, 2022, 18:34 »

In this guide, I'll be thoroughly covering all of the weapons, armor, boots, and assemblies in the game, as well as some various setups and combinations. The wiki and Github are both excellent resources for learning about the details of each equipment, but don't provide much guidance about how to actually use each weapon effectively, how to optimize your setup, and other important details.

First are all of the Mod Packs and some related miscellaneous tips as they are a large part of improving your equipment and developing your build:

-Technical Packs are first found on floor 5, Agility Packs and Bulk Packs on floor 6, and Power Packs on floor 7. All of the exotic Mod Packs first appear on floor 10.

-Assemblies requiring multiples of the same Mod Packs are probabilistically harder to make. For example, needing AA means the first two Mod Packs you find offer a 1 in 16 chance, while needing BT is a 1 in 8 chance. Each individual Mod Pack also has higher probability to partially provide you what you need. Furthermore, Mod Packs that come in pairs in The Chained Court, Phobos Lab, Military Base, Hell's Armory, Deimos Lab, and Halls of Carnage cannot match.

-The only traits that block Whizkid are Army of the Dead and Gunrunner.

-Technicians start with a Technical Pack unless you're playing a challenge that wipes out your inventory before filling it back up, such as with Angel of Overconfidence. Angel of Marksmanship randomly starts you with either an Agility Pack, Technical Pack, or Bulk Pack.

-Sniper Packs and Firestorm Packs are identical in appearance and can't be distinguished until you can see it with your character.

-All of the basic Mod Packs have the same probability of being generated, and all of the exotic Mod Packs have the same probability of being generated.

-When you clear Hell's Armory, one of the three rewards you receive is either an exotic Mod Pack, Schematics if you don't have every assembly, or Cybernetic Armor. The other two rewards are a random, non-matching pair of the basic Mod Packs. If you cleared Hell's Armory without taking damage, one of the other two rewards is instead a Nano Pack, or if the main reward already is a Nano Pack, the extra is an Onyx Pack.

-When you clear Deimos Lab, you receive one of an exotic Mod Pack or Schematics if you don't have every assembly, one of an exotic Mod Pack or Cybernetic Armor (the exotic Mod Packs can be matching), and the other two are a random, non-matching pair of the basic Mod Packs.

-Railgun and BFG 10K can be modded once or given a basic assembly, and Cybernetic Armor can be fully moddable, but only for Technicians.

-When Agility Packs are used on Shotguns, or Sniper Packs are used on Shotguns and non-ranged weapons, the game informs you that you feel silly.

-Assemblies completed before Whizkid 2 cannot later gain an additional Mod Pack after getting Whizkid 2. Cheap assemblies should be created as early as you need them, but hold off on making stronger ones if you plan on getting Whizkid 2 and have still have a long game ahead.

Basic Mod Packs

Technical Pack

Technical Packs either reduce the knockback of armor and boots by 25% additively, or reduce the attack time of any weapon by 15% multiplicatively (note that rounding and multiple speed source complicates the exact value). For the early game, Technical Mod Packs are generally best used to speed up your weapons or to be used to make a Tactical Shotgun. Grappling Boots has a few niche uses, but movement speed is usually better to have on boots. Many of the stronger assemblies use a Technical Pack, but they're fairly easy to find. Unless you really want knockback reduction, Technical Packs are generally a waste in armor and boots which can benefit more from Power Packs and Agility Packs.

Bulk Pack

Bulk Packs increases the ammo clip by 30% for weapons that have at least a clip of 3, or otherwise decreases reloading speed by 25% multiplicatively. For melee weapons, it increases the damage dice by 1. For armor and boots, current and maximum durabilities are both increased by 100, but movement speed is decreased by 10%. Bulk Packs are often the least useful Mod Pack since most weapons benefits from other Mod Packs, and the speed penalty for armor and boots is a significant disadvantage. Unless for an assembly, the only reason a Bulk Pack is useful for armor is to try to salvage one that is already heavily damaged. Having a much longer threshold before becoming damaged is nice though, as it still requires going down to 50% or lower before being considered damaged. For the early game, Bulk Packs are best used for Gatling Gun before switching to Plasma Rifles, and are decent for Shotguns since the reloading speed increase is greater than the firing speed increase from Technical Packs. Bulk Packs in bulk are useful later in the game for Nanomanufacture Ammo and Biggest Fucking Gun, but I wouldn't recommend holding onto them and taking up inventory space.

Agility Pack

Agility Packs increase weapon accuracy by 1, movement speed in armor by 15%, and movement speed in boots by 10%. If you don't plan on using Power Packs for armor, Agility Packs are great and give you a bit more extra speed compared to boots, but a pair of Agility Packs in Steel Boots creates Tactical Boots, which are very cheap and excellent early on. The accuracy boost to most weapons is generally too low to be worth using over Power Packs and Technical Packs, but can be okay for some rapid fire weapons where the extra accuracy makes a more significant difference across multiple shots, such as for a Minigun, or if you are using them as a secondary weapon and not putting points into Eagle Eye.

Power Pack

Power Packs increase the number of damage sides to melee weapons by 1, and for ranged weapons increases the number of damage sides or damage dice by 1 depending on which is already higher. If they are equal, it increases the damage sides by 1. For armor and boots, the protection value is increased by 2. Power Packs are definitely the most useful and versatile basic Mod Pack, whether for basic assemblies, non-assembly usage, or for adding the final mod of a finished assembly. Many of the cheap assemblies also use Power Packs including Chainsword, Piercing Blade, Elephant Gun, Nanofiber Armor, and High Power Weapon. Depending on your build, playstyle, and game mode, Power Packs generally don't always have a best first choice. Buffing Shotguns with them are helpful early on, or using Piercing Blade on the Chainsaw from The Chained Court to significantly improve damage. Power Packs may be a bit of a waste in Blue Armor, but are nice in Red Armor which should last you awhile and keep you protected. Power Packs shouldn't be used in boots except as a part of Cerberus Boots, but other uses generally have higher priority. Since Power Packs increase the higher of damage and side dice, they don't add too much extra power to rapid-fire weapons and those may benefit more from Technical Packs.

Exotic Mod Packs

Sniper Pack

Sniper Packs first removes the distance penalty to accuracy from a ranged weapon, then the 50% penalty to accuracy for attacking a non-visible enemy. A third Sniper Pack does nothing. Sniper Packs are kind of gimmicky and not super useful overall. For the first Sniper Pack, you can generally get enough accuracy from other sources to avoid the issue of the penalty since at higher levels of accuracy, the -2 penalty is less significant. You can likely get more damage out of a simple Power Pack or faster kills with a Technical Pack. If you find yourself firing from great distances, especially with rapid-fire weapons though, Sniper Packs can be useful. The second effect is also quite nice actually, but means you won't be able to create any assemblies. A few niche weapons like a Laser Rifle with SSPPP can help a lot with ammo efficiency, but those may also benefit more from Firestorm Packs. Overall, Sniper Packs can be nice if you have nothing better, but are definitely not the best.

Firestorm Pack

Firestorm Packs add 2 extra shots to rapid-fire weapons that already fire at least 3 shots, or otherwise increases the blast radius of explosive weapons by 2. Firestorm Packs work wonders when doubled or even tripled up together to make rapid-fire weapons shoot huge bursts or making explosive weapons make huge explosions. Both are very effective and depends on how you're playing, although keep in mind of your ammo if you're using them on rapid-fire weapons. If you have a long game ahead, you likely will get the most usage of using it in Demolition Ammo, especially on Nightmare for an excellent and cheap source of corpse destruction. It can be a bit dangerous because of destroying walls and harming yourself if you're not careful though. If you're very fortunate, Firestorm Packs are absolutely at their best as a part of Biggest Fucking Gun which is one of the best weapons in the game and can clear out huge portions of floors in a single shot.

Onyx Pack

Onyx Packs when used on armor and boots immediately sets durability to 100 and sets the item to be indestructible except for a few small exceptions such as nukes. Being able to make your armor and boots indestructible and permanent is very powerful and often the best way to finish an item. Some players may still prefer to finish an armor with a Power Pack if they believe they can keep it from being destroyed and benefit more from the protection increase, and most of the end-game boots are already indestructible and benefit more from Agility Pack. Otherwise Onyx should always be used. Among the assemblies, Tower Shield is decent if you don't have long-term usage for an Onyx Pack, as it offers a huge amount of protection. The only downsides are Tower Shield can only be repaired using a Megasphere and it has a huge movement speed reduction. Cybernano Armor is also excellent if you have no intentions of switching armors for the rest of the game. Lava Boots and Fire Shield are less recommended and more niche or outclassed.

Nano Pack

Nano Packs first check if the item applied to can already self-recharge. If so, the waiting delay to recharge is reduced by 5 actions. Otherwise, the amount that is recharged is increased by 1 for ranged weapons and 2 for armor and boots. If the item previously did not already self-recharge, the waiting delay is set to 5. Nano Packs are extremely powerful, providing you with functionally infinite durability or ammo, and are a part of many of the best assemblies. What to use a Nano Pack for depends mostly on what kind of build you're playing. Nano-Shrapnel assembly is essentially game-breakingly powerful when applied to a Super Shotgun, but also still very good for other Shotguns. Nanomanufacture Ammo is also excellent, partciularly in Laser Rifles and Plasma Rifles. All of the other assemblies are lesser or supplementary, but are still very good too. If you don't have a specific use for a Nano Pack, I would generally suggest using it for a Plasma Rifle as a backup source of ammo if you find yourself running out, and also because Plasma Rifles are cheap and effective for handling tough enemies such as Archviles. You may also prefer using it in a Rocket Launcher for Nightmare to always be able to destroy corpses without worry of maintaining a supplies of Rockets. Just about everything can benefit from a Nano Pack.

Basic Weapons

Fists

There aren't too many cases where you'll want to use your fists unless you're playing for a specific challenge. A few levels into Brute can add some good damage quickly, but it will always pale in comparison to even a Combat Knife. Unless you somehow completely run out of ammo and have no other melee weapons, you'll likely rarely ever use this.

Pistol

Being the starting weapon, they're naturally pretty wimpy. Pistols are nice that they have a large accuracy bonus so that you can at least pretty consistently hit the targets. Aimed Shot increases accuracy even further, but is very slow, so I generally would only suggest using it to finish off enemies, or if you're firing from a long distance and desperately need as much accuracy as possible. Switch to at least a Shotgun as soon as you can. The only assembly that specifically requires a basic Pistol is Speedloader Pistol, but comparatively only offers half reloading speed and is a waste of Mod Packs. The better assemblies are better suited for a Combat Pistol or Blaster if possible. I wouldn't really recommend using any Mod Packs on a Pistol unless you're playing Angel of Marksmanship and don't intend to find a Combat Pistol for awhile. If so, I'd recommend using Power Packs, then Technical Packs.

Combat Knife

Combat Knives are much better than your fists and offer a lot more damage. That said, they're still fairly weak compared to higher-end melee weapons, but can be good until getting a Chainsaw from The Chained Court. Chainsword is decent, but is quickly outclassed by a Chainsaw and is not recommended using your Mod Packs for it. However, a Combat Knife is preferred if you are intending to use a Malicious Blades build, or playing for a challenge that doesn't allow a Chainsaw. In that case, a Chainsword offers more damage than a Piercing Combat Knife, even against enemies with high armor values. Bringing a stack of Combat Knives can also be useful for throwing them. The range is fairly short and not impressively useful, but can still be a little helpful. In particular, if you're restricted to melee weapons, you can throw one to safely destroy barrels.

Shotgun

Shotgun is arguably the staple weapon of DoomRL, being reliable, ammo-efficient, providing some good power, and very easy to find. The two keys that make them great are they always hit, making accuracy completely negligible, and that they can hit multiple targets even if they're packed together. It's also helpful that running has no negative impact on using a Shotgun. The downsides are that the Shotgun loses power over distance, the need to reload after every shot is very slow, and armor points reduce damage more than any other damage type. Shotguns can also be difficult to control where enemies end up where they die, which is important on Nightmare. Still, the Shotgun is almost always your primary early-game weapon. Given that you'll likely find better weapons, especially the Combat Shotgun, I generally don't recommend using too many Mod Packs on a regular Shotgun. Extra Bulk or Technical Packs that would otherwise go to waste are good to burn for a Shotgun. Elephant Gun is powerful and good for controlling space with its knockback, despite being a bit slow, but you can likely find better usage of your Power Packs.

Double Shotgun

Compared to a regular Shotgun, the Double Shotgun does a ton more damage and offers a great source of knockback to help keep enemies away. However, the shotgun blast type is much worse since it has only about half the range and damage reduction is higher. It also will consume ammo much faster and is slower to reload. Double Shotguns are useful for single targets or when you quickly need to push away an enemy, but they can't be as loosely used as a regular Shotgun. Single Shot is usually worse than simply just firing a single shot with a regular Shotgun. Focused Double Shotgun isn't an amazing assembly, but it is somewhat cheap to make and helps improve the weapon by giving a little more power and a normal shotgun blast, although ultimately it's just a mini Super Shotgun. Overall, a Double Shotgun is a useful supplementary weapon, but its drawbacks means you should not primarily use it over other weapons.

Combat Shotgun

Compared to a regular Shotgun, Combat Shotgun is a little weaker and has less damage spread, but the damage reduction due to distance is a bit lower, and most importantly, the Combat Shotgun can hold 5 shells in its clip. Pumping adds an additional step and time requirement to reload, so plan your combat accordingly. A full reload uses a lot of time, so only do it while you're safe. Note that powerup durations are based on player actions, so if you have Invulnerability for example, it's much better to always full reload in one action instead of doing each reload individually in multiple actions. Combat Shotguns are definitely an upgrade to a regular Shotgun, and is an excellent early-to-mid game weapon. Tactical Shotgun is also one of the best basic assemblies and should often be your first choice for Mod Packs unless you have other important plans for your build. Tactical Shotgun is identical except for removing the pumping requirement, and I generally recommend finishing the assembly with Power Pack. I wouldn't recommend non-assembly Mod Packs for a Combat Shotgun.

Chaingun

Chaingun is a decent weapon for single target firing. Compared to the Shotgun, the Chaingun is faster at damage output since it doesn't need to reload after every shot, has less damage reduced due to distance and armor, and can keep enemies in place which can sometimes be desireable. The key to getting good damage out of the Chaingun is making sure your accuracy is high enough and most of the bullets are hitting. Despite that, Bulk Packs are generally better than Agility Packs for the Chaingun and you will have to rely on Eagle Eye. Gatling Gun is a good improvement and Bulk Packs aren't as useful anywhere else in the early game under most circumstances. Chain Fire is generally not very useful as it only works on enemies that are visible, takes 3 bursts to output more bullets, requires shooting in a circular direction as you turn to other enemies, and it resets when all visible enemies are clear. Overall, the Chaingun does tend to get replaced quickly by Plasma Rifles later on as they have more damage, a better damage type, and reload faster. The only positive with Chainguns is their ammo is much easier to find and store. For the early game, it's a good secondary weapon to go along with the Shotgun, but investing in Eagle Eye which doesn't help Shotguns further hurts the Chaingun.

Rocket Launcher

Rocket Launcher offers some strong damage and the large splash helps hit groups of enemies, but having only a clip of 1 and not being able to carry many rockets, it only works well as a supplementary weapon. That said, its main assistances are destroying corpses and destroying walls, which it is excellent at doing. Rocket Launchers tend to become more viable during Nightmare games where destroying corpses becomes much more important, but can also be helpful in other games with preventing Archviles from resurrecting enemies. Rocket Jump can be useful in a few cases such as getting across Limbo/The Mortuary, Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits, or to quickly separate yourself from dangerous enemies. If you are using a melee build, it can be also used to Rocket Jump towards enemies, which may also trigger Berserk. The Micro Launcher assembly isn't significantly different to be worth using Technical Packs unless you have excess of them, but Tactical Rocket Launcher can be helpful if you're frequently using explosive weapons. The best basic Mod Packs for Rocket Launchers are usually Power Packs, but likely aren't worth using for it and are better elsewhere. Overall, Rocket Launcher is helpful in certain situations and can be worth carrying, but is a very poor primary weapon due to ammo issues and the explosion destroying items.

Plasma Rifle

Plasma Rifle is very powerful, fairly accurate, and has an excellent damage type. Being rapid-fire, it greatly benefits from having more accuracy bonuses such as Eagle Eye, and also improves a lot in power with Triggerhappy and Son of a Bitch. The main setback is that cells can be hard to obtain in large enough quantities as the Plasma Rifle burns through ammo very quickly. Generally, Plasma Rifle works well as a secondary weapon to Shotguns for single target enemies, such as a dangerous Archvile or bosses. Chain Fire is generally not useful as described under Chain Gun, and Overcharge is generally a waste unless you absolutely need to destroy an enemy immediately and can sacrifice your Plasma Rifle. One trick though is you could farm Plasma Rifle from a Former Commando on Nightmare or near an Archvile to provide you with plenty of them to Overcharge. Each of the basic Mod Packs are helpful, although I would recommend Technical Packs for the best general use. Of the available assemblies, both Assault Rifle and Hyperblaster add a lot of power due to increasing the number of dies for each shot, while also speeding up the firing or reloading time. A non-assembly Plasma Rifle such as 2 Power Packs and 3 Technical Packs is also a strong weapon. Nanomanufacture Ammo removes the need for ammo, turning the Plasma Rifle into a very viable primary weapon, although it requires a Nano Pack and you may be inclined to use a Laser Rifle for that instead which provides functionally perfect accuracy at the small cost of a bit of damage. If you have a lot of supplies, Firestorm Packs are the best to add on to any assembly and non-assembly, which increases the number of shots. Overall, the Plasma Rifle is an excellent weapon, but you need to go out of your way to ensure it has ammo. Use it sparingly for difficult scenarios as you often can't afford to spam it.

79

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:53 »

tl;dr: Pick Scout, use Intuition, play Angel of Max Carnage, and play Angel of Overconfidence.

80

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:52 »

(Reserved post if ever needed in the future.)

81

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:52 »

Angelic Badges

UAC Angelic Badge

Win a standard game on Nightmare without taking damage.

(Note: Deemed impossible!)

Getting through without damage Phobos Base Entry can be annoying, especially if you want to farm kills for ammo, but it's not too bad. The main bulk of the challenge is floors 2-6 where there are tons of enemies, likely at least a couple of stairs far away, and no real equipment or traits to help you safely get kills. Then from there, you almost certainly need Invulnerability to spawn on floor 7 to get through Phobos Anomaly without damage, as the only other way is a very lucky Phase Device use. And if by multiple miracles you get through all of Phobos, you then need to heavily rely on a huge stack of Invulnerabilities to get through the next 16 floors. Hypothetically, and on an individual level basis, it's possible, but getting everything required in a single game is not realistic at all, and would be horrendous to grind for.

Veteran Angelic Badge

Fully win with 100% kills on Nightmare.

The big advantage here compared to most Angelic Badges is you aren't restricted with how you can play this, allowing you to take advantage of Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence for example. There's nothing too fancy about this challenges, except you'll need to be a master of the game with destroying corpses, avoiding hits, killing enemies appropriately, and all other factors of top-level play. The main obstacle is making sure you can get to JC, which is easiest if you grab the Nuclear BFG in Limbo/The Mortuary, and the Lava Element in Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits. Once you have the Nuclear BFG, you also have an easy method of corpse disposal too. Remember that to fully win the game, you must survive killing JC, so a double nuke is not always an option. A lucky Trigun with some Invulnerabilities at the beginning of the game is also an easy way to win.

Some players prefer doing this more purely, which can be more consistent, but also quite a lot longer of a game. Going through Phobos and Deimos allows you more chances to find a Thermonuclear Bomb, which allows you to skip Limbo/The Mortuary, but I would still recommend getting the Lava Element. Having a much stronger character for the later levels and JC also significantly increases your chance of surviving, and bonus levels such as Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab, and The Wall/Containment Area can offer you useful items to making you much stronger. If you prefer, you may want a nice in-between of using just Angel of Max Carnage so that you still have the time to build your character, but gameplay is more efficient and rewarding for good decision-making. Remember not to wield Berserker Armor as killing the Apostle does not count as a full win.

Strongman Angelic Badge

Win a standard game with 90% kills or more on Nightmare with only fist kills.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Since you only need 90% kills, this means you can effectively rush most of the game and then repeatedly farm a respawning enemy near the very end with a nice setup. Marine has the best melee trait with Vampyre, but Scout has stair sense to help skip through most of the game. Grab the Chainsaw in the easy version of The Chained Court as a buffer weapon for the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind before striking with the final blow with your fists. Nuking the Spider Mastermind also works. For the actual setup, trapping a Former Human, Former Sergeant, or Imp, isolating it from the rest of the level, and then repeatedly killing it a gross number of times will get you all the kills you need. Lost Souls from Pain Elementals work, but you will likely need to be using Vampyre to survive some of the inevitable attacks. Shielded Armor is excellent and gives you more selection in what enemy to trap, and while you can only get kills with your fists, you can still use other weapons for softening up enemies and destroying corpses. Prepare yourself for a long game.

Speedrun Angelic Badge

Win a standard game on Nightmare in 4 minutes or faster.

(Note: Deemed impossible!)

Quickly breaking down the timer, there are 240 seconds to complete 24 floors, or an average of 10 seconds for 24 consecutive floors. Let alone all the dangers of a standard Nightmare game, but the actual distance running through levels, being slowed down by enemies appearing and attacking, while also needing a quick form to kill the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, there simply isn't enough time to beat this fast enough. You would need fast stairs that are several degrees beyond lottery luck. Even with IDDQD, beating this in 4 minutes would be extremely difficult, and I recommend anyone who thinks they're fast enough to even try to do it on I'm Too Young To Die. I can personally see somewhere around 8:30 being within the realms of possibility without several miracles performed, and I think a more appropriate time for this challenge would have been 10 minutes, but 4 minutes is simply not possible.

Elite Angelic Badge

Win a standard game with 100% kills on Nightmare, completing all bonus levels that are generated.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Quite honestly, this challenge is extremely fair and has nothing unique or special about it. Going for 100% kills and clearing all the bonus levels on Nightmare is very difficult, but a master of the game can definitely achieve it with many different build types. Important keys for this badge are farming Shotgun Shells at the beginning so you don't have ammo issues, planning out a way to tackle all of the tricky bonus levels like The Wall/Containment Area, Unholy Cathedral, and Limbo/The Mortuary, and gaining a form of corpse destruction as soon as you can. The rest is simply DoomRL itself in a nutshell. If you want to rely on luck, finding the Trigun would be extremely beneficial.

Demonic Angelic Badge

Win a standard game with 100% kills, without taking damage, on Nightmare.

(Note: Deemed impossible!)

Unlike most Nightmare challenges where you could hypothetically just get a giant stack of Invulnerability and run for the stairs repeatedly, this badge requires you to actually kill everything on every floor. Between the sheer amount of enemies that is, controlling every corpse, and managing to never take hits, especially in the early levels of the game, there's simply not enough room for realistic possibility of completing this. This badge is impossible.

Berserker Angelic Badge

Win the game on Angel of Berserk and Angel of Masochism on Nightmare.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Given that melee attacking will usually result in you being unable to avoid damage, while also having few ways to heal said damage, you can get chipped away at pretty quickly. Marine with Vampyre allows you to heal, and once getting to that point, the rest of the game isn't too different than a regular Angel of Berserk attempt, although certainly still much harder. A Scout and simply running through the levels can also work as always, although without guns, you have little control of any enemies that can get in your way. I would suggest the stair diving strategy, but both can work.

Marksman Angelic Badge

Win with 50% or more kills on Angel of Marksmanship and Angel of Darkness on Nightmare.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Being stuck with Pistols, not being able to effectively see, not being able to use Run->Wait due to less vision, and not being able to see the stairs, this combination is rather brutal. Extremely fast experience gains helps a bit, so you can still somewhat attempt stair diving, but you will need to create an enemy respawning trap near the end of the game to farm up the needed kills, ideally with a Former Human or Former Captain to keep ammo levels high. While a Scout is still good for Intuition and higher natural speed, the lack of stair sense may mean a Marine with the double powerup duration may be more useful so you can rush through with Invulnerability luck.

Shottyman Angelic Badge

Win with 50% or more kills on Angel of Shotgunnery and Angel of Overconfidence on Nightmare.

By far, this is the easiest Angelic Badge, and is easier than many Diamond and even some Platinum Badges. You'll need a bit of luck, but start off the first few floors simply killing only those enemies that cross your path and collecting the useful items you find, but do try to make an effort to survive and keep your health in good shape. Ideally on floor 7, you'll find some Former Sergeants that you can isolate from other enemies and repeatedly kill. If you can't destroy all the other enemies in the level and have to deal with them respawning, try to use barrels to close off parts of the level so that you can repeatedly kill a respawning Former Sergeant without being interrupted. Once setup, use Run->Wait repeatedly to get it to respawn, kill it, and then continue doing so until your kill count is a high enough percentage. This could potentially be done with other weak enemies, but ammo can be a concern. You can also do this on floor 6 or possibly floor 5 if you find a really nice setup, but be sure to buffer an extra amount, assuming 50 or so enemies per floor (including Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits). While you only need 50% kills, you may want to go for 80% kills while you're at it since the setup is trivial once in place, and 80% gets you a pair of Diamond Badges as well. This badge is a bit tedious, but it's not too exceptionally hard to get with this strategy.

Lightfoot Angelic Badge

Win with 0 melee kills on Archangel of Light Travel, on Nightmare.

With no access to melee attacks, the Shotgun becomes the weapon of choice as it has excellent ammo efficiency. The rest of the most efficient strategy is using a Scout with Intuition and stair diving, hoping to collect some Invulnerabilities along the way. With the speed boost, you can quickly move and control most floors better than normal, significantly making diving easier than other Nightmare challenges. This is definitely one of the easier Angelic Badges.

Eagerness Angelic Badge

Win with 90% or more kills on Angel of Impatience and Angel of Red Alert on Nightmare.

(Note: Not achieved by anyone.)

Because of the time limit, and also the need to kill enemies, while also suviving without bringing Med Paks with you, this challenge is extremely difficult and may be bordering on impossibility. I would suggest using a Gunrunner build so that you have extra running time, and can attack extra enemies as you seek out the stairs. Once you know where the stairs are, buff up your kill count as much as you safely can, then exit. If you find Invulnerability, camp and protect it, then let the level explode so you can get a large boost to your kill count. You'll likely need a lot of floors with this to get the kill count high enough. A Trigun can also help a lot with giving you more access to nuking floors.

Inquisitor Angelic Badge

Win the game on Angel of Purity and Angel of Red Alert on Nightmare.

(Note: Not achieved by anyone.)

With this combination, you have no stair sense, no Invulnerabilities to rely on, and being absolutely forced to push through hordes of difficult enemies. The Scout's early Intuition and the Marine's powerup bonus won't be helpful here, so I would suggest using a Scout with Hellrunner and Dodgemaster early as you rush through the levels. Use Shotguns, which are strong even without useful traits to support it. You also need to make sure you have a method to kill the Cyberdemon, so finding a Plasma Rifle and plenty of ammo is also important as Shotguns and melee are out of the question with the time limit and constraints. I don't think this challenge is realistically impossible, but I may be mistaken. It might be pretty close to bordering it though.

Quartermaster Angelic Badge

Win with 80% kills or more on Archangel of Red Alert, on Ultra-Violence or harder.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

With only a brief amount of time before each level explodes, it's most important to actually find and camp at the stairs, using up all the time available to buff up your kill count before moving on. Speed is important, so avoid using heavy armors. The most recommended build would be a Scout with Gunrunner since you will inherently be faster, but also be able to stay in your running state for much longer, and attack additional enemies as you search for the stairs. If you find Invulnerabilities, camp and protect them, waiting for the timer to nearly run out before using them. A Trigun is also extremely helpful as it can be used before the countdown runs out. One other strategy is to find a cave with a long horizontal river, survive the explosion, and then use the Berserker Armor strategy with spawning Nightmare Demons slowly all getting killed in the river. However, this would require naturally finding everything and ideally occurring near the end of the game, which is very unrealistic luck-wise, but would trivialize the entire challenge. Most realistically, use Gunrunner.

Masochist Angelic Badge

Win on Archangel of Masochism on Nightmare.

(Note: Not achieved by anyone.)

This is probably the easiest unachieved badge left, but it's still extremely difficult and requires masterful play combined with very good luck. Not being able to restore tactics means you can only run once per floor, hurting the general stair diving ability, and without most forms of healing, you effectively have 50 health for the entire game. The only ways to heal are with Vampyre, Medical Armor, and Medical Powerarmor. While you can hypothetically get large stacks of Invulnerabilities and Berserk Packs to help through Deimos and Hell, getting through Phobos and minimizing the permanent damage is very tough, especially with Phobos Anomaly. Because you can't heal, this is one of the few cases where you can have something permanently taken away from you, and it adds a lot of mental and emotional toil with every mistake and bad luck. All that said, I think someone will achieve this eventually.

Centurial Angelic Badge

Win on Archangel of 666 on Nightmare.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Functionally, this isn't too too much harder than completing Angel of 100 on Nightmare, as your character should be fully built and already essentially immortal by 100 floors anyway. An extra 566 floors does increase the probability that you get a few to potentially screw you over, and because the amount of enemies that keep spawning is uncapped, some of the late floors are absolutely packed with well over 100 enemies. Use the same strategies as Diamond Angelic Badge, and quickly try to get Inquisitor set, Phaseshift Armor (PAO), Anti-grav Phaseshift Boots (A), and one of the god weapons in the game. Dragonslayer is excellent with providing you Berserk to keep you alive as you'll most definitely want to use a Scout and be stair diving each floor. Save Homing Phase Devices for caves with Nightmare Arachnotrons, Nightmare Cacodemons, and Shamblers which all have deadly amounts of plasma damage. Some luck will be required early on to get the needed items, and because you can't save during Nightmare games, you'll either need to do one mega session, or you'll have to leave your computer on running, unfortunately. All that said, this is one of the "easier" Angelic Badges.

Pacifist Angelic Badge

Win with exactly 1 kill on Archangel of Pacifism.

(Note: Deemed impossible!)

At first glance, this badge might seem within the realms of possibility since nothing on a level-by-level basis is impossible, but the issue is how many levels there are. This is akin to flipping a coin 24 times, and while heads isn't uncommon, tails is bound to show up. Across 24 floors, you can't be getting killed, enemies can't be dying to attacking each other, blowing up barrels, spawning in acid or lava, or any other means. You have no stair sense and not much for class abilities, so you also will need to run across half the map at least a bunch of times with no way of defending yourself.

The other major barrier is Phobos Anomaly where you essentially must have a Phase Device to skip past the trap room, which will almost inevitably result in some enemies dying. Again, this in isolation isn't a huge ask, but on top of all the other luck required, it will result in a ton of games ending.

One player used save scumming as a means as a proof of concept that it is possible, although this shouldn't be too shocking and of course, it doesn't actually count. Under proper gameplay without cheating, I can't see this badge being possible without a grotesque amount of grinding required. One may want to record a video in their attempts for proof if they are genuinely trying to get this badge.

Everyman Angelic Badge

Win on Archangel of Humanity on Nightmare.

This is an extremely tough badge that essentially requires good luck to succeed. Going through Nightmare with only one trait and basically no health means you have to play fairly damagelessly, but you don't have any character abilities to support this. Given that you only get one trait, there are functionally only 30 builds. Naturally, Scout will be the best class because of stair sense, and among the traits, Intuition is definitely the best choice given your reliance on Invulnerabilities. Although Invulnerabilities only start appearing on floor 7, Intuition also helps a lot with finding Berserk Packs, as well as Health Globes which will functionally work like Soulspheres. Hellrunner is also a good choice because of the faster movement speed and dodging bonus.

Given that leveling offers you no benefits, there is no incentive to kill enemies unnecessarily, so simply run as well as you can to the end. Ideally you can just nuke the Spider Mastermind, and possibly the Cyberdemon as well, but using the AI trap on the Spider Mastermind can work too, although it's much harder and a bit risky to setup without Intuition 2. Grabbing the Chainsaw and Berserk Paks at the easy version of The Chained Court is also helpful for the speed and resistance, and the Chainsaw is your fastest boss killer when Invulnerable in most cases and especially with Berserk. Overall, you'll need masterful play and very fortunate luck to complete this. For more thorough details, refer to my research thread here.

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Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:51 »

Diamond Badges

Technician Diamond Badge

Discover all Assemblies.

As before, use the same strategy as suggested for Technician Gold Badge, and switching to Ultra-Violence to earn better rewards as you discover most of the Assemblies. You may actually want to grind this badge out as once you have all the Assemblies, you can no longer get Schematics, which is a good thing as you will benefit more from other rewards in your other games. Try to make as many of them as you can and rely on Schematics for the rest.

Armorer Diamond Badge

Pickup 3 or more of all exotics/uniques in total across all games.

Note: You can only gain 1 of any exotic/unique counts per game towards this badge. Each exotic/unique must be collected in 3 different games. As before, refer to Armorer Gold Badge for finding all the Exotics and Uniques, except now do it 3 times each. It's not particularly difficult, just a grind. For most people, Dragonslayer tends to be the last one due to its rarity and requirements to earn, which can be a detour if you happen to find it in a game when you have a different goal in mind.

Heroic Diamond Badge

Achieve all medals across all games.

Once again, treat this badge as a bonus. Use the Medals section of this guide to help you collect them all.

Gatekeeper Diamond Badge

Kill everything in Phobos Anomaly on Ultra-Violence or harder without taking damage or nuking, then kill everything in Tower of Babel without taking damage or nuking or being invincible at the time of killing.

This challenge is a bit of word salad, but essentially you just need to clear out both Phobos Anomaly and Tower of Babel without getting hit. Phobos Anomaly is the main challenge due to the trap, so you'll either need a lucky Invulnerability just before it, or a lucky Phase Device to get you into the room after it. Angel of Max Carnage helps a lot with more efficiently clear enemies, and be sure to have Dodgemaster for the Cyberdemon to get a safe kill. Games for this challenge are both a bit long and also luck-based, so it can be annoying but it's not too difficult overall.

UAC Diamond Badge

Win a standard game on Nightmare in 20 minutes or less.

With 20 minutes to get through Nightmare and not much help, you will be very reliant on conveniently placed Invulnerabilities and stairs. Scout is the class to go with for stair sense and faster movement, and I highly recommend using Intuition so that you know where any Invulnerabilities are. You'll have to take Phobos a bit slowly and safely for any reasonable chance to survive, and then rush through Deimos and Hell. I recommend a pace of 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and 5 minutes for the 3 episodes. Once you get going with stacks of Invulnerabilities, the game eases up a lot. Make sure you have enough levels and gear to take out the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, and be sure to visit The Chained Court to grab the Chainsaw for easy kills while Invulnerable.

Veteran Diamond Badge

Fully win on Nightmare.

To get a full win, you have to kill JC without dying, so the best strategy is to use Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence, grab the Nuclear BFG from Limbo/The Mortuary, and then try to get the Lava Element from Mt Erebus or The Lava Pits. The Lava Element isn't too hard to get since you can destroy most corpses by sending them into lava. Alternatively, you could just try to find an Invulnerability near the end of the game, and even possibly a nuke or Trigun. For JC, focus on directly attacking him as much as possible before the level starts to get flooded with his spawns. While it's efficient to rush to the end, you may want to detour a little for experience to make sure the JC fight is easier. I recommend getting Finesse, Juggler, Intuition 2, and Hellrunner to help.

Strongman Diamond Badge

Win a standard game with 100% kills on Hurt Me Plenty or harder with only fist kills.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Given that you have to rely on your fists and can't skip any enemies, a Vampyre build is the best choice. Try to find safe spots on each floor where you can use Run->Wait to draw in each enemy and kill them before you take too much damage. The Chainsaw is very helpful for the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, and nuking floors is still acceptable so long as you aren't wielding anything as the timer runs out. The ending of this challenge gets very difficult with Archviles, Barons, and other tough enemies outdamaging you more often than not.

Elite Diamond Badge

Win a standard game with 90% or more kills on Nightmare.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

The easiest way to earn this badge is to treat the game like a regular Nightmare challenge, and then near the end of the game, create a safe setup where you can repeatedly kill an enemy, ideally one that drops ammo if you aren't strong enough with melee attacks. 90% kills, especially if you might be skipping the majority of enemies, will take a fair bit of time to build up, so make sure you're ready for a long session since you can't save. The ending is very easy if you can find yourself a Nano Pak to avoid ammo issues, but be cautious of destroying corpses with some of the recharging weapons.

Demonic Diamond Badge

Win a standard game on Nightmare, taking less than 200 damage.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

You're likely going to take the bulk of your damage at the start where your character is weak and you can't find Invulnerabilities until floor 7, so don't quit out if you're at the end of Phobos with 100 damage already. You'll either need to rely on Invulnerabilities and rushing through the game, or otherwise taking it extremely slow and clearing out everything as safely as possible. Phobos Anomaly is likely the most damaging part of the run, so I suggest going for an efficient grind and rushing through, so that you don't end up wasting time with playing slow and ending up with bad Phobos Anomaly luck. Be sure to get Dodgemaster for the Cyberdemon and always be cautious for the rest of the floors.

Reaper Diamond Badge

Kill everything in Limbo or The Mortuary and exit on Nightmare, on Angel of Confidence, without nuking.

With Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence, you just need to find yourself a way to get to the top right corner for the Nuclear BFG and then slowly clear out all the corpses and enemies. Limbo is much easier since you can separate yourself from the enemies easier, but it can be much harder to get to the Nuclear BFG. Try to enter with Invulnerability or Berserk to help you survive. For the start of the run, try to play efficiently and just get enough experience so you have Dodgemaster for the Cyberdemon, then rush through the floors.

Berserker Diamond Badge

Win the game on Angel of Berserk on Nightmare with 60% kills or more.

Similar to Gargulec Cross and Berserker Platinum Badge, playing with Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence starts you with a Chainsaw and near the end of the game. It's most efficient to rush to the stairs through the floors and then try to create a safe setup to repeatedly kill a respawning enemy. Nightmare does change your approach compared to the other challenges on Ultra-Violence, but you can make better use of more experience and double Berserk and Invulnerability duration, including from the Chainsaw boost. Focus with putting points into Brute and Berserker and carefully make your way through the levels. Scouts are good for stair sense, but Marines are also nice for even more powerup duration.

Marksman Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Marksmanship on Nightmare.

Angel of Marksmanship + Angel of Overconfidence can get you to the end early, but you'll have to be a bit careful and lucky to get to Dis. Use a Scout, Intuition 2, and Eagle Eye, and once you get to the Spider Mastermind, you'll have plenty of ammo to kill it. You'll generally be too weak to kill most enemies along the way, so rush through and accept that it may take some attempts to get to the end.

Shottyman Diamond Badge

Win with 80% or more kills on Angel of Shotgunnery on Nightmare.

Angel of Overconfidence helps make this a much shorter game and you can simply farm a weak enemy at the end of the game for the needed kills, preferably a Former Sergeant. In doing so, you also set yourself up to earn Shottyman Angelic Badge, which actually has an easier requirement of 50% kills. I highly recommend you do that and read the strategy suggested for that badge.

Lightfoot Diamond Badge

Win with 0 melee kills on Angel of Light Travel or Archangel of Light Travel, on Nightmare.

Because you can't have melee kills, Shotguns tend to be the next best weapon in terms of ammo efficiency. Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Light Travel helps with the inventory restriction and makes the game faster. You'll definitely need Dodgemaster for the Cyberdemon, but you could still use the Chainsaw if you're careful not to finish it off with it. With both power and speed, you can take your time clearing out enemies, but make sure you don't run out of ammo. If you're fortunate to find a recharging weapon or Nano Pak, this challenge becomes significantly easier. It's still Nightmare difficulty though, so you'll need to be a pretty strong player.

Eagerness Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Impatience on Nightmare as a Technician class.

Angel of Impatience + Angel of Overconfidence is the most efficient way to get this badge, but without stair sense, not being able to bring consumables, and dealing with all the tough enemies, you'll need some decent luck to get through this. Try to find Invulnerabilities and rush for stairs. Use the Assault Shotgun early on to help clear out groups of enemies, and save your bullets for the Spider Mastermind. A point in Eagle Eye or 2 will be enough to slowly corner shoot the Spider Mastermind to death. This challenge isn't too excessively difficult if you're fine with playing through lots of runs.

Inquisitor Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Purity on Nightmare as a Marine class.

In terms of efficient strategies, this badge has one of the most spammiest, luck-driven strategies in that you'll simply want to playing on Angel of Purity + Angel of Overconfidence, and go with Eagle Eye->Eagle Eye->Intuition->Intuition as you rush through the levels in hopes of finding the stairs. Use the Assault Shotgun throughout most of the game, then use the Combat Pistol for the Spider Mastermind. Even while firing at it outside of your vision, your ammo supply will be enough that you can still easily kill it if you play patiently enough. Because you can't rely on Invulnerabilities, you'll mostly be relying on the luck of finding stairs. Expect to attempt this a couple hundred times, and don't choke when you finally get to Dis.

Quartermaster Diamond Badge

Win with 100% kills on Angel of Red Alert or Archangel of Red Alert on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Red Alert makes this challenge much more doable since you don't have much time to be slowly killing enemies or using Run->Wait. Intuition 2 and Cateye helps significantly with searching out enemies, so I highly recommend that build. Alternatively, you can use Gunrunner in order to have effectively have more time per level and to also attack more frequently. Try to always run through the middle so that you can more efficiently search for enemies that hide at the edges. Overall, this challenge is likely going to give you some bad floors, so you'll need some luck to make sure you don't miss any enemies. Wait out the timer for when you find Invulnerabilities, and always keep a few Homing Phase Devices handy.

Hunter Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Darkness, on Nightmare, visiting all bonus levels that are generated.

With Angel of Overconfidence, 3 of the 4 bonus levels can be safely exited immediately, but you'll either need a Phase Device or luck to get through Limbo/The Mortuary. You'll also be forced to specifically take the bonus level stairs on every floor they appear, making it somewhat harder than normal to rush through the game. With the starting items, you may want to kill some enemies for the very fast experience gains and put them into some defensive traits such as Intuition and Hellrunner. This challenge takes some luck, but when you get it, it's not too insanely difficult.

Destroyer Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Max Carnage with less than 50 damage on Nightmare

By far the easiest way to earn this is to use a Scout, Intuition 2, Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence, and just run as fast as you can to the end of the game. The Spider Mastermind will be very easy, the only challenge is getting there. Try to avoid enemies as much as you can, but you do have the power to kill them if you need to, just don't spend too much time and lose control of the level.

Masochist Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Masochism or Archangel of Masochism, on Nightmare, with 0 skill points in Badass and Ironman.

For the most part, this is a regular game of Nightmare, but with high emphasis on not taking damage. Use Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Masochism to help with clearing enemies before they can damage you, play defensively, and try to treat this like a regular game as best you can. Phobos Anomaly is the most difficult section because of the trap, so you may need a lucky Invulnerability or Phase Device. If you're able to, try to enter just before you level-up so you can heal as the trap enemies kill each other. The rest is pretty straight-forward, although pretty tough.

Centurial Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666 on Nightmare.

100 floors of Nightmare generally will give you at least a few really rough floors, so I suggest going with pure Angel of 100 and not mixing with Angel of Max Carnage. Scout is also the recommended class because of stair sense so you can quickly escape any bad levels. Use the early levels to repeatedly kill a respawning Former Sergeant to gather a large supplies of Shotgun Shells, and take the time to clear everything out. The early experience will help build up some important traits like Intuition, Hellrunner, and Dodgemaster. Ideally, you'll be fortunate to find some corspe destroying weapons, Inquisitor Set, and useful Mod Paks.

Everyman Diamond Badge

Win on Angel of Humanity or Archangel of Humanity, completing all bonus levels that are generated, on Ultra-Violence or harder.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Note: 0 levels are generated on Angel of 100, so you can earn this by just completing it. This is essentially the same as Everyman Platinum Badge and the same strategies are all possible, but with needing to play on Ultra-Violence, the bonus levels are much more difficult. Spamming Whisper of Death works all the same, but you'll need more Med Paks to kill everything. As I haven't personally achieved this badge, I can't say for certain, but I do think Angel of Humanity + Angel of 100 might be the way to go. The game is much longer and tougher, but you don't have to worry about gimmicks and randomness of all the bonus levels. Scout with Intuition 2 would be pretty essential, but instant healing with Technician and quick access to Mod Paks with Scavenger is how it was done by Tormuse.

Daredevil Diamond Badge

Win with 80% or more kills on Angel of Overconfidence on Nightmare.

Because of the respawning enemies, you can simply rush to the end of the game and repeatedly kill a respawning enemy until your kill count is a high enough percentage. Skip as many bonus levels as you can in order to reduce this requirement, and try to have your setup ready on floor 7, but not too much earlier. It also helps if the enemy you repeatedly kill drops ammo such as a Former Human, Former Sergeant, Arachnotron, etc. Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence makes this easiest, but you may be interested in doing it with Angel of Shotgunnery instead in order to earn multiple different badges at the same time, including Shottyman Angelic Badge.

Arena Diamond Badge

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, then exit, on Angel of Berserk, on Nightmare.

(Note: Not achieved by anyone in the current version of the game.)

This challenge is extremely difficult as you don't have much to heal with as you fight enemies in close combat, and controlling respawns is a problem when you can't really use range attacks. Angel of Light Travel helps speed you up, which I think is the optimal choice, but you'll still need to find a way to get enough power to kill enemies, as well as not taking too much damage before actually entering Hell's Arena. A very lucky Butcher's Cleaver might be key, but maybe there's an easier way for this badge.

Longinus Diamond Badge

Kill everything in Unholy Cathedral without nuking, then exit, on Nightmare, with 0 skill points in Brute.

Essentially, use the same strategy as covered in Longinus Platinum Badge, but use Eagle Eye instead of Brute. Comparatively, you'll do less damage and have slightly less accuracy, but it's not a world of a difference really. You might need an extra help from the first floor such as Invulnerability, an extra Berserk Pak, or some other supplies, but it's about the same in difficulty overall.

Scavenger Diamond Badge

Kill everything in The Vaults without nuking or using Arena Master's Staff on Nightmare, then exit.

Refer to Scavenger Platinum Badge for using the Azrael's Scythe strategy as it's by far the easiest way to earn this badge, although the challenge is still very tough and requires some luck. The big increase in difficulty is needing to clear the first floor on Nightmare as the respawning mean you need to destroy corpses. I recommend Angel of Humanity + Angel of Overconfidence, even though it may feel suicidal, it consistently provides you with excellent starting gear. Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence can work too if you want an easier floor 1. You'll need at least 4 Whisper of Deaths for The Vaults, but possibly 5 due to Revenants respawning at an untimely point, so be conservative with your Med Paks.

83

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:50 »

Platinum Badges

Technician Platinum Badge

Discover every advanced Assembly.

Refer to Technician Gold Badge's strategy for farming Schematics as the fastest way to collect all the Assemblies. Note that as you begin to get most Assemblies, Schematics becomes less likely to spawn. You can improve your rewards if you play on a higher difficulty however, so if you're feeling confident, use the same strategy, but on Ultra-Violence instead.

Armorer Platinum Badge

Pickup 1000 or more exotics/uniques across all games.

While you can achieve this over a long duration of normal gameplay, having unnecessary items distract your other games is undesireable. That said, the best way to earn this badge is the slog of playing Angel of Overconfidence, dropping your Assault Shotgun, Minigun, and Combat Pistol, and then picking them all up to earn 3 Exotics. In the time spent doing so, I suggest trying to make use of all the games, such as going after Uniques when they spawn, getting kills to build up your Ranks, or otherwise just suiciding immediately.

Heroic Platinum Badge

Achieve 32 or more different medals across all games.

Likewise with other badges that rely on medal counts, treat this as a bonus badge. Use the medals section of this guide for help.

Gatekeeper Platinum Badge

Exit Phobos Anomaly without taking damage on Nightmare or nuking.

The only hope for earning this badge is to find a floor 7 Invulnerability and charge through. Phase Devices can help a lot, but you would be very fortunate to rush through the Bruiser Brothers while taking no damage. You also can't camp the doors perfectly well because the Nightmare Imps can open them. This badge is pretty much all luck, so play in any manner that gets you the most runs efficiently. Try to have Hellrunner 2 before entering so that you can make Invulnerability effectively last more. If you play with Angel of Max Carnage and likely also Angel of Light Travel, get a lucky Phase Device, and have a strong weapon, you could potentially just kill the 2 Bruiser Brothers, but it's far less likely than just simply getting Invulnerability.

UAC Platinum Badge

Win a standard game on Nightmare.

Nothing fancy here, but you'll have to learn how to improve your gameplay from Ultra-Violence to taking on Nightmare. Double ammo, powerup duration, and more experience are all helpful, and respawning enemies means you can farm ammo and weapons, such as stockpiling Shotguns to rotate through instead of reloading, or repeatedly killing Arachnotrons for Cells. The other big challenge is you can't save the game, so you'll have to make sure you're ready for a session before playing. If you haven't already, take the time to develop the skill of killing enemies in fluids, door frames, and on other corpses. Chainguns kill in place, while Shotguns can knockback, so use them both where appropriate. Weapons that destroy corpses are also important, which often will be Rocket Launchers. You also can always rush through games if you have a nasty floor or can rely on Invulnerability to get you through. Don't take too long on most floors or use Run->Wait too excessively because enemy respawning increases in probability as time goes on.

Veteran Platinum Badge

Fully win on Ultra-Violence or harder.

The easiest way to get a full win on Ultra-Violence is to play Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence, get the Nuclear BFG from Limbo/The Mortuary, and get the Lava Element from Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits. You can also of course find your own nukes and Invulnerability, although it's a bit more luck-based. Remember that a full win involves surviving, so you can't simply nuke JC unless you're still Invulnerable. Make use of the Assault Shotgun and Minigun to clear through the regular floors. If you find the bonus levels to be too hard, you can attempt a full game instead for better chances of finding a nuke, as well as Envirosuits and Phase Devices to help with getting the Lava Element. For JC, have Dodgemaster for his rockets, and try to attack him as directly as you can to quickly kill him.

Strongman Platinum Badge

Win a standard game on Hurt Me Plenty or harder with only fist kills.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Since you're limited to only fists, the easiest way to get through this challenge is to rush through the game, grab the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court, and try to avoid enemies as best you can. A few levels in Brute and Berserker will give you some power, but you'll be losing health as you get your kills. Other weapons can be used so long as you don't wield anything when anything dies, but it can be risky and ruin an attempt. My suggestion is to use a Scout with Brute->Brute->Berserker and try to gather some Invulnerabilities and Berserk Paks to get to the end. Use the Chainsaw to weaken the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, but be sure to switch back to nothing before killing.

Elite Platinum Badge

Win a standard game on Ultra-Violence or harder, completing all bonus levels that are generated.

Given that all bonus levels must be completed, you'll need strategies for all of the hard version of The Chained Court, The Wall/Containment Area, Unholy Cathedral, Limbo/The Mortuary and more. You'll need your build to be fairly multi-purposed with levels in Brute, Hellrunner, and Juggler to help. One strategy that helps is you're able to nuke any level to have it considered clear, so a lucky Invulnerability can help a lot for some of the dangerous and gimmicky bonus levels. Deimos Lab also only need you to activate 2 levers instead of needing to clear everything. Most classes and builds can work for this challenge, but I would suggest a Cateye Scout build or otherwise a masterless Scout for the most versatility.

Demonic Platinum Badge

Win a standard game on Nightmare, Visiting all bonus levels that are generated.

(Note: Not personally achieved.)

Visiting a level is simply entering and exiting, which can help with effectively skipping most of the content of bonus levels. Save Homing Phase Devices for Abyssal Plains, Halls of Carnage, and Limbo/The Mortuary if you're able to. Most of the others are not too hard to just run to the exit. That said, the game is still on Nightmare, so you'll need to be a strong player in general to work your way through the game. Scout's stair sense is very helpful for this challenge.

Reaper Platinum Badge

Kill everything in Limbo or The Mortuary and exit on Nightmare, without nuking.

Play on Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence and get yourself to the Nuclear BFG. Limbo is significantly easier, but if you're lucky, The Mortuary can work too. If you can't find Envirosuits or Phase Devices, rocket jumping can also quickly get you to the top right corner, but be sure you have a few Med Paks to survive running back later. Once you have the Nuclear BFG, clear the island of all corpses which can naturally respawn due to Nightmare, even if you have to destroy the walls. Let the Nuclear BFG charge, then fire off to all the other nearby islands. Watch out for Cacodemons and Nightmare Cacodemons, which you should take out with the Minigun. Be patient, and once you stop seeing enemies dying to all your shots, move your way back to the centre and then clear out the other side in the same way. It takes some time, but it's pretty easy once you have the Nuclear BFG.

Berserker Platinum Badge

Win the game on Angel of Berserk on Ultra-Violence or harder, with 75% kills or more.

Functionally, this challenge is just an easier version of Gargulec Cross, so refer to the strategies for that and Gargulec Medal. Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence is the fastest way to get yourself to the end of the game, and if you're willing to just go for this badge instead of also trying to get 100% kills, you can simply rush towards the end and create a setup where you can safely and repeatedly kill a weak enemy such as Lost Souls from a Pain Elemental, or something an Archvile is repeatedly reviving. It may also be the case where Nightmare is easier so that creating a setup itself is easier and you can just repeatedly kill a respawning enemy, as well as having Invulnerability and Berserk Paks provide double duration.

Marksman Platinum Badge

Win with 100% kills on Angel of Marksmanship on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Pistols start off being very weak, but after getting some traits, they can become very deadly, so it's generally easiest to play from the start of the game. Angel of Overconfidence or Angel of Light Travel could be used, but I would recommend a pure Angel of Marksmanship game. Focus first on building up power with Son of a Gun and Dualgunner, then build it up indirectly with Eagle Eye. Gun Kata or Sharpshooter both work very well, but I wouldn't recommend Bullet Dance as much since it blocks Eagle Eye as well as Dodgemaster, which is helpful for trivializing the Cyberdemon fight, who is otherwise very tough for pistol builds. Find safe spots to camp and slowly pick away at enemies, while avoiding crowds as much as you can. The game gets easier once your Pistols start dealing faster and stronger damage, but it takes some time to complete.

Shottyman Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Shotgunnery on Nightmare.

When combining this with Angel of Overconfidence, you should be able to get to the end without too much difficulty as the Assault Shotgun is very powerful and useful. It may take some attempts if you get bad luck with floors, but rushing to the end works pretty well. Grab a little extra ammo to be sure you don't run out, and then corner shoot the Spider Mastermind. I recommend using a Scout and Intuition 2.

Lightfoot Platinum Badge

Win with 20000 turns or less on Angel of Light Travel or Archangel of Light Travel, on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Note: Although the in-game description doesn't say, the difficulty must be Ultra-Violence or Nightmare. Since Angel of Light Travel provides you with a speed boost, getting under 20000 turns is a little less difficult than it may sound. You'll naturally need to rush, so a Scout's stair sense makes this the easiest. You won't be able to really use Run->Wait, so Intuition 2 is also helpful to get around enemies as effectively as possible. Grab the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court and hope you find at least a few Berserk Paks and Invulnerabilities to reduce the amount of turns you need to spend fighting. Remember that real time is not a factor, so you can still plan out how you play. I also would recommend Angel of Max Carnage so that you can kill much faster, but it will be more dangerous as you need to rush.

Eagerness Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Impatience on Ultra-Violence or harder, as a Scout or Technician class.

Angel of Impatience + Angel of Overconfidence as a Scout is the most efficient way to earn this badge. Get Intuition 2, navigate your way around enemies to get to Dis, and slowly chip away at the Spider Mastermind's health. Since you can't bring Med Paks or other helpful consumables, you'll need to be cautious with your health. Overall, it's not too difficult, but you may need a bit of fortunate luck if you're more of an intermediate player.

Daredevil Platinum Badge

Win with 100% kills on Angel of Confidence on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence helps make this more efficient and arguably easier. Be sure to get Dodgemaster before reaching the Cyberdemon for a safe and easy kill. I would suggest detouring to Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab for some good early items and supplies, but skip all the other bonus levels. Juggler is also helpful since you likely won't have a chance to get the strongest weapons possible or build up your traits enough, but being able to swap weapons for each situation is good use of ammo and helps reduce your hits.

Inquisitor Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Purity on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Purity + Angel of Overconfidence helps get you to the end, but you'll likely have to clear out a good number of enemies as you can't simply rely on Invulnerabilities or Berserk Paks. Scout is the best with stair sense and I would also recommend Intuition 2. Use the Assault Shotgun for the first few floors and as you rush to the stairs, and use the Combat Pistol for the Spider Mastermind to efficiently make use of your ammo. You may want a point or two into Eagle Eye to help.

Quartermaster Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Red Alert or Archangel of Red Alert on Nightmare.

If you use Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Red Alert, this challenge isn't too much different than most Nightmare games. Clear out all the enemies that come along your way and try to find the stairs as soon as you can. If you find them early, you can make use of the time limit to gather other items or build some experience. Angel of Max Carnage makes the game more dangerous, but it significantly helps with handling the time limit for each floor. If you find any Invulnerabilities, you can also hide around it before the floor explodes and then use it for easy clears. I'd suggest going out of your way for Homing Phase Devices as they are excellent for getting you out of difficult situations.

Hunter Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Darkness on Nightmare.

Angel of Darkness + Angel of Overconfidence gets you to the end quickly, but you'll still need to be wandering through each floor to find the stairs. Intuition 2 helps your vision significantly, so I highly recommend getting it. You can also detour a bit for some huge experience points to get early levels, but stay focused on finding the end of each floor and avoiding enemies as best as you can.

Destroyer Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Max Carnage with less than 200 damage on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Naturally, Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence makes this much easier since not only are you already near the end of the game, but you also have less of a game to be taking damage in. Go with a Scout and rush to the stairs. So long as you make it to the end without dying, you most likely are under the damage requirement.

Masochist Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Masochism or Archangel of Masochism, on Hurt Me Plenty or harder, with 0 skill points in Badass.

The lack of Badass functionally just means you can't store the health you receive from each level up. If you play with Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Masochism, you can carefully walk your way through levels and clear out enemies without taking too much damage. If you're defensive and avoid getting hit, you can effectively nullify the challenge of Angel of Masochism. Try to time your level ups so that you're full before the Cyberdemon and the later floors of Hell.

Centurial Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666 on Ultra-Violence or harder.

For the most part, this is just a test of how good you are at DoomRL as it's quite rare to find a floor so significantly difficult that it ruins a run. If you're confident in your abilities, Angel of Max Carnage helps speed up the game significantly and makes the start much easier with the Chaingun being stronger, but any mistake you make can be a quick death. Try to get all of the best items as you can, have a plan for your build, and try to use multiple ammo types so you're not reliant on just one and risk running out. Nano Paks are often critical, but they're quite rare and don't need to be entirely depended on if you're versatile enough. If you plan on skipping floors, using a Scout may be your best choice.

Everyman Platinum Badge

Win on Angel of Humanity or Archangel of Humanity, completing all bonus levels that are generated.

Note: 0 levels are generated on Angel of 100, so you can earn this by just completing it. That said, Angel of Humanity + Angel of 100 may be quite difficult for most players, even though it can be played on Hey Not Too Rough. If you attempt this, simply play it like normal but play extremely defensively and always put yourself into a safe position before progressing. Scout with early Intuition and stair sense helps a lot, but isn't completely necessary.

The other strategy that I suggest is Angel of Humanity + Angel of Overconfidence on Hurt Me Plenty. Start the first floor killing everything using Assault Shotgun and keeping damage taken as close to 0 as possible. Save all the Mod Paks until the floor is clear, and select Brute->Brute->Berserker. Enter Unholy Cathedral with Ballistic Red Armor and Chainsword and clear everything out, which shouldn't be too excessively difficult. With Azrael's Scythe and 2 Med Paks, The Vaults can be cleared with spamming Whisper of Death, but you will have only 5 maximum HP for the rest of the game. The big obstacle if Limbo/The Mortuary where you'll most likely need a Phase Device to get yourself into the top right corner to grab the Nuclear BFG and then slowly clear out the level. Try to avoid destroying the Med Paks if possible. Then in Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits, use Whisper of Death 3 more times and melee attack the Lava Elemental, assuming your Ballistic Red Armor is still intact. The remainder of the game is simply careful play. It's a fairly specific strategy, but it works fairly well if you can handle playing without taking a hit and can get a bit of fortunate luck.

Arena Platinum Badge

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, then exit, on Nightmare.

As this is an easier version of Hell Arena Pwnage Medal, refer to some of the strategies there. Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Light Travel helps make you fast and powerful, and I highly recommend using Intuition 2 and then Hellrunner for the best control over the enemies. Try to lure enemies all into the same area for easier corpse destroying, and use the Chaingun to finish them off as they stand on top of other corpses. Avoid using Run->Wait so that time isn't passing and increasing the chance of enemy respawns.

Longinus Platinum Badge

Kill everything in Unholy Cathedral without nuking, then exit, on Nightmare.

Fortunately, Nightmare difficulty isn't too much harder for Unholy Cathedral since Lost Souls can't respawn and you can kill the Demons in the door frame. Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence is generally the easiest way to clear this, but you may need a bit of luck with the first floor. I suggest using a Marine and going with Brute->Brute->Berserker so that you can functionally play as Berserk the whole time. Use the Chainsaw boost at the beginning of Unholy Cathedral and rely on Berserker to keep you Berserk when fighting the Angel of Death.

Scavenger Platinum Badge

Kill everything in The Vaults without nuking or using Arena Master's Staff, then exit.

Since you can't use the Arena Master's Staff, your only choices are Phase Devices or Azrael's Scythe. I recommend the Azrael's Scythe strategy, so play on Angel of Overconfidence on Hurt Me Plenty or harder, clear out everything on the first floor, then clear out Unholy Cathedral. You can combine Angel of Overconfidence with Angel of Max Carnage for more power, Angel of Berserk to start with a Chainsaw, Angel of Humanity to effectively start with Ballistic Armor and Chainsword, or go with none of them if you prefer as all of these can work. On Hurt Me Plenty, you'll need at least two Med Paks as you enter The Vaults in order to use Whisper of Death enough times to kill everything, so try to use them a bit sparingly for the other floors.

84

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:49 »

Gold Badges

Technician Gold Badge

Discover every basic Assembly.

Most of these are easy to get, but some require the Exotic Mod Paks. Because you don't want this badge distracting your other games, I suggest grinding out Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence and going through Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab to win Schematics. For Hell's Armory, clear out the initial enemies, and go into the door frame of the first upper building and spam Run->Wait followed by destroying the enemies. For the Shambler, stand one tile down and one tile left of the upper left building of the group near the lever. This position gives you the best coverage for all of its teleporting locations.

On Deimos Lab, Run->Wait at the top left concave part outside of the teleporter room, then activate the second lever once the Arachnatrons are spread out and away. Try to get to the bridge before them and corner shoot them to death. For the Shamblers, save the bottom left lever for last and position yourself at the bottom middle of the pillar and blast them as they appear in your vision. This spot is unfortunately a bit dangerous, but there's not much better you can do. Repeat these runs until you have every basic Assembly discovered.

Armorer Gold Badge

Discover all exotics/uniques.

While it's quite lengthy, the best way to find them all is going through a game of Archangel of 666 because as you progress and find some of the Uniques, the pool to select from in future floors gets smaller and smaller, leading you to finding almost everything. You can use any build you want for the most part, but I suggest not using something that blocks Berserker so that you have an easy way to pick up the Dragonslayer when it appears. You could of course also just find everything through normal gameplay instead of target farming this badge. The Uniques with the lowest chance of spawning are Berserker Armor, BFG 10K, Charch's Null Pointer, Dragonslayer, Frag Shotgun, Mega Buster, Mjollnir, and Subtle Knife.

Heroic Gold Badge

Achieve 24 or more different medals across all games.

Likewise with other badges that rely on medal counts, treat this as a bonus badge. Use the medals section of this guide for help.

Gatekeeper Gold Badge

Kill everything in Tower of Babel without taking damage on Hey Not Too Rough or harder, without nuking, and not being invincible at the time of killing.

The easiest way to kill the Cyberdemon without taking damage is using Dodgemaster and chipping away at its health as it reloads. Invulnerability can still help like normal, but if you still have it active when it dies, you don't receive the badge. Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence is the fastest and most efficient way to earn this badge. You may want to grab some extra items in Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab, but otherwise rush to the end once you have Dodgemaster.

UAC Gold Badge

Win a standard game on Ultra-Violence or harder.

As with other UAC badges, there's nothing fancy here, just you and the game. Ultra-Violence is pretty tough and you'll have to really start sharpening your abilities as a player to survive. Phobos Base Entry can be a bit rough for any build, but once you get going, it gets a bit easier. Good luck is always helpful, but as expert players can consistently beat Ultra-Violence games without a problem, fortune is not necessary to win.

Veteran Gold Badge

Win with 100% kills on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence greatly reduces the length of the game and provides you with enough supplies that you can still kill everything without ammo concerns. Take appropriate cover and slowly clear out every floor and skip all of the bonus ones. You might have a floor or two that start you off in a very poor position, but it should be somewhat uncommon enough that it's not a huge concern. If being put too far ahead makes the game too difficult, you can go for a full run from the start to gain some experience levels and more helpful items, but gameplay will take quite a lot longer.

Strongman Gold Badge

Win a standard game on Hurt Me Plenty or harder with only fist and knife kills.

Combat Knife and mods to it will be your main killing weapon, while you can still use other weapons for damaging so long as nothing dies while wielding it. Because you'll usually be gradually losing health as you fight back, it helps to rush through the game, so I recommend using a Scout to get stair sense, but still focus your build around other weapons. Dodgemaster is helpful for the Cyberdemon while you kill it using a Shotgun or other good weapon that doesn't involve investing traits. You'll want to pick up basically every Berserk Pak and Invulnerability you find. It's a tough challenge, but if you can evade most enemies, the weapon restriction isn't too difficult to deal with.

Speedrunner Gold Badge

Win a standard game on Hurt Me Plenty or harder in 20 minutes or faster.

As with other speedrun badges, you don't have too much time to be killing enemies and need to evade your way through. Scout with faster speed and stair sense is easily the best class choice. Grab any Invulnerabilities you find, grab the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court, and try to only kill the enemies directly in your way. Take a bit more time with Phobos as it's the most dangerous part of the game with you having little gear and no Invulnerabilities until floor 7. I suggest aiming for 8 minutes, 6 minutes, and 6 minutes across the episodes.

Reaper Gold Badge

Kill everything in Limbo or The Mortuary and exit, without nuking.

Generally speaking, Limbo is much easier than The Mortuary as you can isolate yourself from enemies with the various islands. The best general strategy is to use Phase Devices and preferably Homing Phase Devices to get yourself to the top right corner and grab the Nuclear BFG. Once you have this, you can slowly spam it forever, destroy corpses, and create enough knockback to keep most enemies away. It also helps to have an Envirosuit or extra Phase Devices on Limbo so you can return to the middle of the map, but activating a lever is still fine. I definitely suggest using Angel of Overconfidence, but playing it pure or combining it with Angel of Max Carnage has very strong pros and cons.

Berserker Gold Badge

Win the game on Angel of Berserk on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence sets you up with a Chainsaw and with a bit of luck, you can rush to the end of the game without too much trouble. Save the Chainsaw boost for the Spider Mastermind if you can for an easier and safer kill. You might find yourself a bit defenseless in certain situations, so this may take a few tries to get a good run going. Playing as a Scout for stair sense is particularly helpful.

Marksman Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Marksmanship on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Marksmanship + Angel of Overconfidence like many other challenges gets you to the end of the game much faster. However, Pistols deep into Ultra-Violence are very weak, so you'll generally want to simply rush to the end. Use a Scout, get Intuition 2 and then Eagle Eye, try to grab a little extra ammo, and patiently take out the Spider Mastermind with corner shooting. When leveling up on the floors before the end, try your best to isolate weak enemies and pick them off as most stronger enemies will be difficult to kill. You might need to rely on some luck with Invulnerabilities.

Shottyman Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Shotgunnery on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Shotgunnery + Angel of Overconfidence brings you to the end of the game quickly, and the Assault Shotgun works very well even with no traits. Select a Scout, use Intuition 2, try to find a bit of extra ammo, then simply rush to the Spider Mastermind and corner shoot it to death. Ultra-Violence comes packed with enemies, but you should be able to kill most of them if you can't avoid them. Try to stay out of open spaces so you don't get surrounded or lose control.

Lightfoot Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Light Travel or Archangel of Light Travel, on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

Like other Lightfoot Badges, Angel of Max Carnage helps your ammo supplies significantly with your inventory restriction, as well as making it easier to kill enemies. The speed bonus also helps keep you alive by firing and running much faster. As always, be cautious around dangerous enemies and you should be able to get through.

Eagerness Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Impatience on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

The main challenge on Angel of Impatience is not being able to bring useful items with you, in particular, Med Paks. Each floor upon entry can be dangerous when no enemies have died and you don't necessarily have a fast way to heal or get out of harm's way. You may still want to use up any Med Paks you find though so that enemies don't steal them, who are still able to hold them. I recommend Angel of Max Carnage to help with early clearing of floors so you can reduce the chance of finding yourself in bad situations, but the extra damage can be deadly if you can't find cover immediately. Overall though, this challenge isn't too exceptionally difficult, just plan out your item usage more carefully.

Inquisitor Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Purity.

Lack of powerups prevents a lot of healing and no way to abuse Invulnerability, so you'll have to hoard Med Paks and fight your way through enemies without simply running through them all. You can earn this badge on Hey Not Too Rough which helps reduce the difficulty, and Angel of Max Carnage can help take out enemies faster before they can hit you. I don't recommend using melee builds because of not being able to use Berserk Paks. Angel of Purity + Angel of Overconfidence is easiest if you can handle the hard floors without Invulnerability and Berserk Paks.

Quartermaster Gold Badge

Win with 100% kills on Angel of Red Alert or Archangel of Red Alert.

As time is precious and you need to kill everything, I suggest using a Scout with its faster speed, and going for a Cateye build to help you scan where enemies are quickly. Angel of Max Carnage is also very helpful as you don't want to waste time merely chipping away at enemy health. For each floor, try to find the stairs as quickly as you can, and then clear out enemies in the opposite direction, leaving those by the stairs for last as you prepare to exit. If you find an Invulnerability, you can also camp near it and wait for the timer to run out for an easy clear. The two challenges of this badge are being smart with minimizing the distance traveled, and knowing how to aggressively clear out rooms of enemies. If you find your offense is strong but the time is a bit too tight, play without heavy armors so you have less speed reduction.

Hunter Gold Badge

Win with 80% kills or more on Angel of Darkness, on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

Because enemies respawn on Angel of Darkness, you can endlessly farm a respawning enemy for easy kills until you reach 80%. I recommend doing this with a Former Human or Former Sergeant as they're very weak and drop ammo, but they might be hard to find near the end of the game. If you go for a setup early on, try to buffer your kill count to make up for any remaining levels, and always try to isolate the respawning enemy from others so you don't get interrupted. Angel of Overconfidence helps a lot for this challenge, but it can be fairly dangerous and may require a bit of grinding to avoid bad luck.

Destroyer Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Max Carnage with less than 500 damage on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

With combining Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence, there isn't much of a game to even take 500 damage, so this badge isn't too bad and you essentially just need to win it like normal. Use the Assault Shotgun for groups, Minigun for individual enemies, and rush to the end without too much detouring.

Masochist Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Masochism or Archangel of Masochism.

One of the main strategies that helps a lot for this challenge is timing your level ups so that you're at full just before entering levels such as Phobos Anomaly and Tower of Babel. You can't otherwise heal, so you need to keep hits as low as possible, so playing defensively and cautiously is important. Angel of Max Carnage helps your power with quickly killing enemies, but you may also be inclined to try Angel of Pacifism + Angel of Masochism so that you have more control of the timing of your level ups. I would recommend the former, but both can work.

Centurial Gold Badge

Win on Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666.

Angel of 100 can get pretty tough near the end of the game, so make sure you have a long-term plan for your build. You need to make sure you're powerful enough to handle enemies like Shamblers, Lava Elementals, Nightmare Arachnotrons, and even Cyberdemons. Nanomanufacture Ammo, Nano Shrapnel, Biggest Fucking Gun, and Dragonslayer are some of the top weapons to make your build around. You'll also want to try and get armors such as Shielded Armor, Lava Armor, Cerberus Duelist Armor/Gothic Armor/Ballistic Vest, Enviroboots/Cerberus Boots, Inquisitor Set, and others. Angel of 100 tests your consistency and how well you can handle any situation that can come up. Most levels will be fairly easy overall, but if you find yourself making bad mistakes, you'll get killed quickly. Angel of Max Carnage and Scout with stair sense both speed up the game significantly if you prefer.

Pacifist Gold Badge

Win in 10 minutes or less on Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

Since you have less time to plan out your decisions and you have to look for the stairs on every floor, a lot of this badge comes down to luck. Try to grab Invulnerabilities, avoid enemies as much as possible, and stretch out your Large Med Paks as best as you can. The easiest way to complete this under the time constraint is to play with Angel of Overconfidence, but you will have to find your own nuke or grab the Nuclear BFG in Limbo/The Mortuary.

Everyman Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Humanity or Archangel of Humanity.

Angel of Humanity + Angel of Overconfidence puts you up against dangerous enemies without much health, but the supplies you start with are generally more than enough. Use the Power Pak in your Red Armor, Technical Pak in your Assault Shotgun, and Agility Pak in your Minigun for a simple setup that allows you to use everything. Scout with Intuition 2 gives you the opportunity to rush to the Spider Mastermind and corner shoot it to death pretty easily.

Daredevil Gold Badge

Win on Angel of Overconfidence.

Angel of Overconfidence is a bit tough since you are at the end of the game with no experience, but you start with a lot of items and the game itself is very short to spam attempts. I recommend combining it with Angel of Max Carnage to make up a bit for your lack of power, but you might find yourself getting killed instantly sometimes. Use a Scout and rush to the end for the most efficient way to get this badge.

Arena Gold Badge

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, then exit, on Angel of Marksmanship, on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Clear out the first two floors to get as much experience and supplies as possible, then enter Hell's Arena and take cover. You may want to use Angel of Light Travel so that you can outspeed enemies and can use the pillars more effectively, and you can also choose to be picky and retry until you start with a Technical Pak to speed up your shooting more. I suggest using a Scout with Intuition 2 so that you can easily run around the pillars with Cacodemons, Demons, and Barons. Avoid being out in the open as each wave ends, and try to isolate enemies as much as possible so that you can safely outspeed them and pick away at their health. This badge is very easy if you take every advantage you can have.

Longinus Gold Badge

Kill everything in Unholy Cathedral without nuking, then exit.

Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence starts you right before the level and with a Chainsaw, so you should have enough power to fight through and survive. Regardless of class, I recommend going with Brute->Brute->Berserker, and using the Chainsaw boost for the Lost Souls and Demons in Unholy Cathedral, then relying on Berserker to keep you Berserk. You might need to grab an extra item or two on the first floor before entering Unholy Cathedral, but the Angel of Death isn't too tough if you use your starting supplies well.

Scavenger Gold Badge

Kill everything in The Vaults without nuking, then exit.

The easiest way to get this is using the Arena Master's Staff to open up the vaults and go about killing everything like a normal level. If so, I suggest using a wall destroying weapon to manually clear the two side vaults so that you have lower enemy density at any given time. The other strategy is to play on Hurt Me Plenty on Angel of Overconfidence, clear out everything on floor 1, then clear Unholy Cathedral to win Azrael's Scythe. Once you enter The Vaults, use Whisper of Death, then a Med Pak to restore your tactics and repeat until everything is dead. The third strategy is to rely on regular Phase Devices, but this is very luck-based, dangerous, and not very consistent at all. Go with either Arena Master's Staff or Azrael's Scythe strategies.

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Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:48 »

Silver Badges

Technician Silver Badge

Discover any advanced or master Assembly.

Pick Whizkid during one of your games and put together the pieces for an advanced Assembly. You can also try collecting Schematics from Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab. The absolute fastest way to get this is to choose Angel of Humanity + Angel of Overconfidence, select Technician and Whizkid, and then simply find Boots or a Double Shotgun to make either Environmental Boots or Focused Double Shotgun, which don't require additional Mod Paks than what you start with.

Armorer Silver Badge

Discover 30 or more different exotics/uniques.

Simply play enough of the game and pick up some Exotics and Uniques along the way. Angel of Overconfidence can help you find new ones since you start near the end of the game right away.

Heroic Silver Badge

Achieve 16 or more different medals across all games.

Like other badges that rely on collecting medals, treat this badge as a bonus and don't worry too much about specifically going for it. Use the medals section of this guide to help you.

Gatekeeper Silver Badge

Kill everything in Phobos Anomaly without taking damage or nuking.

Because of the trap on almost any difficulty, this is easiest to achieve on I'm Too Young To Die. Reach Phobos Anomaly with a strong Shotgun and some movement speed, run up to one tile before the wall that falls, then run back to the previous room and corner shoot at the Bruiser Brothers. Intuition 2 can help you with where to aim, as well as offensive traits such as Finesse and Son of a Bitch. Try to move a bit up and down to bunch them up together so you can fire at both simultaneously, but if you're not faimilar with herding enemies. You can instead close the door and retreat to the starting room to help as they'll bunch up trying to get through the other door. It's not too hard if you know where to shoot.

UAC Silver Badge

Win a standard game on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

There's nothing too fancy with this badge, just that it can be a bit challenging for intermediate players. Improve upon your tactics, plan out your build, and learn as much as you can about the game. For expert players, it may be more efficient to score this alongside other badges by winning a game on Ultra-Violence or Nightmare instead.

Veteran Silver Badge

Win with 100% kills on Hurt Me Plenty or harder.

Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence is the most efficient way to earn this badge, but you'll need to be a bit cautious around many dangerous enemies. Because you simply need 100% kills and should have enough supplies for the fairly low number of floors, there's no need to be entering any bonus levels. You could also play through an entire standard game if you prefer, but the power of the suggested strategy is fine enough even without the early game experience levels.

Strongman Silver Badge

Win a standard game with only fist and knife kills.

Naturally, this is easiest on I'm Too Young To Die, and because of the power disadvantage for the most part, you may want to play a Scout and skip most levels. Get Berserker as early as you can for the power and resistance boosts, visit the easy version of The Chained Court for the Berserk Paks and Chainsaw to help soften up the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, and otherwise rush your way through the game. If you need to play a bit slower to help ensure you survive, try to get a Piercing Combat Knife for the much more desireable damage type and power.

Speedrunner Silver Badge

Win a standard game on Hey Not Too Rough or harder in 25 minutes or faster.

Scout is the obvious class choice because of stair sense, and you may want to get Intuition 2 early on so that you know which areas to avoid as you rush through the levels. Take a little time to kill some enemies as having Dodgemaster is an effective way to take out the Cyberdemon without needing to rely on Invulnerability luck. Taking a quick detour to get the Chainsaw is also recommended. You'll have to be a bit speedy, but the longest portion of the game tends to be Phobos, so don't get too concerned if that segment is fairly slow.

Lava Silver Badge

Kill everything in Mt. Erebus or The Lava Pits, including the Lava Elemental, and exit, on Angel of Impatience.

This badge isn't too difficult, but it can be annoying to achieve. With Angel of Impatience, you're unable to bring Envirosuits, Phase Devices, or Thermonuclear Bombs to the level, and will essentially have to run across the lava taking damage. Angel of Overconfidence is nice to get you to the level quickly, but Angel of Max Carnage is also nice so that you can effectively attack enemies as you try to gain space after running across. One strategy you can also attempt is overcharging a Nuclear Plasma Rifle or Nuclear BFG over the lava for a quick nuke while Invulnerable, but it requires a fair bit of luck and grabbing the Nuclear BFG from Limbo/The Mortuary is difficult on Angel of Impatience. Pick which strategy you prefer playing and keep trying until it works out. This is one of the harder Silver Badges.

Reaper Silver Badge

Exit Limbo or The Mortuary.

The easiest ways to earn this is using a Homing Phase Device and exiting immediately, or finding yourself an Invulnerability before entering and rushing for the stairs. Both of these are dangerous levels, so if you aren't a strong player yet, just escape as fast as you can.

Brick Silver Badge

Kill everything in Containment Area after triggering the trap, or The Wall, and exit, on Angel of Berserk, Angel of Marksmanship, or Angel of Shotgunnery.

There are a couple of methods of achieving this. Because you can't destroy the wall under normal circumstances, you either need a special weapon that can such as Plasma Shotgun, Blaster, or Shockwave Paks, or you need to rely on a Phase Device to get you in and then a Phase Device to get you out. The Wall is particularly dangerous with the latter strategy because of no cover, so I generally recommend the first. Angel of Shotgunnery + Angel of Confidence and then entering Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab to get some supplies is generally the fastest and most consistent strategy if you can handle it, such as a Sniper Pak to make Plasmatic Shrapnel. And of course if you're lucky, you could also simply nuke the level while using Invulnerability. If so and you get Containment Area, run to the bottom and then to the right as the trap enemies will spawn up higher.

Skull Silver Badge

Kill everything in The City of Skulls or Abyssal Plains, and exit, on Angel of Red Alert or Archangel of Red Alert

With there being many enemies spread out and only so much time available, this is naturally easiest to do using Angel of Max Carnage. Shotguns also work excellently with being able to wipe out several targets at a time. Spend the first part of the game building a bit of experience levels to gain Finesse and to gather some supplies, and then enter. Having a regular Phase Device can also be helpful if you get Abyssal Plains and want to escape the trap. City of Skulls is generally much easier so long as you can handle the initial swarm.

Berserker Silver Badge

Win the game on Angel of Berserk.

Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence quickly gets you to the end of the game and with a Chainsaw that you can use to give yourself Berserk anytime. If you want to really rush it, Scout's stair sense works well, but still be putting your points into Brute. Try to save your Chainsaw boost for the Spider Mastermind so that you can easily cause flinches and make the fight very easy.

Marksman Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Marksmanship.

Angel of Marksmanship + Angel of Overconfidence speeds up this challenge, but you'll be very weak against tough enemies. The most efficient strategy is to use Scout with Intuition 2, rush to the Spider Mastermind, and patiently corner shoot it to death. If you find this too hard, play through a normal game to be able to build up your experience level. Angel of Light Travel can be helpful in this case for the speed boost as Pistols are very ammo efficient and don't take up much space.

Shottyman Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Shotgunnery.

Angel of Shotgunnery + Angel of Overconfidence like for the other challenges is the fastest way to earn this badge. Assault Shotgun is very powerful, so you won't necessarily need much more if you're cautious with your gameplay. Simply rush to the Spider Mastermind, safely corner shoot it to death, and you'll earn an easy win. Be sure to collect a bit of ammo though so you don't risk running out.

Lightfoot Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Light Travel or Archangel of Light Travel.

Angel of Max Carnage pairs well with Angel of Light Travel as it speeds up your gameplay like normal, but also helps you with your lack of inventory space. With these two, you'll be powerful and fast, so just play a bit carefully and you shouldn't have many issues getting through the game. Always use cover and keep your ammo supplies high. The Chainsaw is also helpful to use even without focusing on a melee build if you happen to find Invulnerability just before the Cyberdemon or Spider Mastermind.

Eagerness Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Impatience.

Angel of Impatience + Angel of Overconfidence is as always the fastest way to get to the end of the game, but you'll need to be extra careful as you can't bring Med Paks and other helpful items. You'll also need to ensure you have a consistent way to take out the Spider Mastermind as you won't be able to use a nuke in most cases. Scout with Intuition 2 is a good method to help you through.

Daredevil Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Confidence.

Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence helps a lot for this challenge since you'll otherwise be quite wimpy and simply rushing to the end is not as viable as an option compared to Angel of Overconfidence as you must have a way to handle the Cyberdemon. The easy solution is to get Dodgemaster, so take the time to gain some experience levels to help. You may want to visit some of the bonus levels to help as well, in particular, Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab to give you some needed supplies. Once you reach Hell, you can play a bit more efficiently and rush to the end, but be a bit cautious of strong enemies.

Quartermaster Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Red Alert or Archangel of Red Alert.

Since each level has a timer, Angel of Max Carnage helps you clear out enemies much faster, and also save you time with needing to be a bit defensive and manage your ammo supplies. Whenever you find Invulnerability, stay near it until the timer almost runs out and then grab it to get an easy and safe clear. Try to put some points into Hellrunner and Finesse so that you have more time to work with as you go through the levels.

Hunter Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Darkness.

Angel of Darkness + Angel of Overconfidence is the fast way to get to the end, but this gameplay mode is very challenging and rushing to the end may be suicidal for intermediate players. I recommend using a Scout and immediately going for Intuition 2 as a way to help your vision. Try not to spend too much time in any level as enemies respawn and the rate at which they do increases as time passes. If you find Angel of Overconfidence to be too much, start from the beginning of the game and go for a Cateye build with Scout to further help your lack of vision. It makes Angel of Darkness much more manageable.

Destroyer Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Max Carnage.

Angel of Max Carnage often makes the game easier instead of harder, so you can play for this badge in any way of your preferences. For maximum efficiency, play Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence and simply rush your way to the end of the game. Take some cover as you approach enemies, but you'll be able to quickly dispose of all of them. If you play such that you don't get hit, Angel of Max Carnage is extremely beneficial.

Centurial Silver Badge

Reach a depth of level 51 or greater on Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666.

Angel of 100 is mostly an endurance and tests how consistently well you're playing. So long as you can keep playing without making mistakes, you shouldn't have an issue getting to depth level 51 and beyond. Angel of Max Carnage helps as always with giving you more power, consistency, and real-time speed, but you'll have to play through 50 floors with making little to no mistakes. It can be a bit of an ask for intermediate players, but as you get better, it becomes quite trivial.

Pacifist Silver Badge

Win on Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

While you can combine Angel of Pacifism with Angel of Overconfidence, the nuke you start with is removed and you'll have no way to defeat the Spider Mastermind unless you find another one. You could attempt to grab the Nuclear BFG in Limbo/The Mortuary, but this can be fairly uncommon to achieve. I suggest playing pure Angel of Pacifism and getting some defensive traits like Hellrunner, Tough as Nails, and Ironman. Intuition can also be helpful for searching for Invulnerabilities and Berserk Paks. This challenge will require some luck and test the less commonly used skillset of evasion over offense, but if you're careful and plan out your moves, it's not too exceptionally difficult. Try to get some knockback reduction as well so that you can get yourself onto the stairs when there are enemies pushing you all around.

Arena Silver Badge

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, then exit, on Ultra-Violence or harder.

Angel of Max Carnage helps a lot with providing you power that you otherwise won't really have, as well as making Chaingun far more viable to use. Use the first two floors to gather some supplies and experience, then position yourself safely in Hell's Arena and take out the enemies as they approach. If you can, try to finish off the last enemy of each wave as you're closer to the sides to avoid putting yourself out in the open of danger. If you need extra help, Angel of Light Travel is also useful to provide you a speed bonus, but it's usually not needed and the inventory space to support spamming attacks tends to be more useful.

Arachno Silver Badge

Kill everything in Spider's Lair on Angel of Darkness, then exit.

Angel of Darkness means that all of the Arachnotrons can respawn as you kill them, you lack some vision in the already dangerous floor, and half the time the game will give you Halls of Carnage instead. Angel of Darkness + Angel of Confidence can help speed up the game, but you may prefer Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Darkness to build up some experience levels and to collect some corpse destroying weapons like Rocket Launcher. I'd recommend using Angel of Confidence because of the coin flip for Spider's Lair to appear. As always, if you're fortunate enough, you can also simply use a nuke with Invulnerability to get an easy win.

Scavenger Silver Badge

Get at least 1 kill, or use the Arena Master's Staff in The Vaults, then exit.

The easiest way to get this badge is to use a weapon that can destroy walls and blow up the weak sections of the two side vaults and kill at least 1 enemy. Angel of Overconfidence can get you there fast, and you may want to combine it with Angel of Max Carnage as well. Of course, if you don't mind playing through a full game, simply using the Arena Master's Staff is very easy.

86

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:47 »

Bronze Badges

Technician Bronze Badge

Discover any Assembly.

This can easily be obtained through normal gameplay, but for the easiest method, simply complete the easy version of The Chained Court and collect the Mod Paks. Of the 6 possibilities, only Bulk Pak and Agility Pak can't form an Assembly. You can also choose Technician to start with a Technical Pak if you want.

Armorer Bronze Badge

Discover 10 or more different Exotics/Uniques.

I wouldn't really recommend focusing specifically on this badge and letting it happen naturally through normal gameplay. You can also use Angel of Overconfidence to start with various Exotics to drop and pickup to add to your collection.

Heroic Bronze Badge

Achieve 8 or more different medals across all games.

I generally wouldn't recommend focusing on this and simply treating it as a bonus reward for when you're instead focusing specifically on medals. That said, if you really want to get this badge, the easiest way is to play various I'm Too Young To Die runs with different specific goals, particularly the ones that come in trios such as kills without taking damage, finishing the game fast, and completing bonus levels.

Gatekeeper Bronze Badge

Kill everything in Phobos Anomaly.

Play on I'm Too Young To Die, have some decent gear on you, and run to the right until you're one tile from the wall that explodes. Simply run back to the door you came through and blast away at the Bruiser Brothers as they approach. They're tough, but it's fairly trivial.

UAC Bronze Badge

Win a standard game.

Play on I'm Too Young To Die and be on your way. As this guide is intended for intermediate and above players, this badge should be trivial.

Veteran Bronze Badge

Win with 100% kills.

I'm Too Young To Die is very easy to get this if you skip most if not all of the bonus levels, but Angel of Overconfidence is also a quick way to earn this badge. However, as many of the Angel games need to be unlocked, this badge will likely be earned before that.

Strongman Bronze Badge

Win a standard game with only melee kills.

Since melee can be tough to get through without taking excessive damage, I suggest using playing I'm Too Young To Die as a Scout with Brute->Brute->Berserker, boosting up in the easy version of The Chained Court with the Chainsaw, and mostly diving to the stairs on most levels.

Speedrunner Bronze Badge

Win a standard game in 30 minutes or faster.

Graphics mode will help speed you up with mouse support, but is not necessary if you prefer. I'm Too Young To Die, grabbing the Chainsaw and stacks of Berserk Paks, and rushing through each level with a Scout will make for a quick game. While in The Chained Court, take out the Cacodemons for some big early experience, as well as the Bruiser Brothers. Get Berserker trait early on, but have a Shotgun on the side if you need to quickly snipe anything from far away.

Lava Bronze Badge

Kill everything in Mt. Erebus or The Lava Pits, including the Lava Elemental, and exit.

I'm Too Young To Die is the easiest way to earn this as Envirosuits have double duration, and the Lava Elemental has less health. Envirosuits are good both for getting across the level, as well as improving Fire Resistance. The level isn't too tough if you have the supplies beforehand. If you skipped getting the badge earlier, Angel of Overconfidence helps speed up getting it.

Reaper Bronze Badge

Enter Limbo or The Mortuary.

Simply click on the red stairs leading here and you've got the badge. Angel of Overconfidence is a fast way to get here, or otherwise play through a game on Hey Not Too Rough. Ideally you'll survive and get to make more out of your game.

Brick Bronze Badge

Kill everything in Containment Area after triggering the trap, or The Wall, and exit.

Bring a Rocket Launcher or another weapon that can destroy walls and pick off all the enemies. Angel of Confidence can be a shortcut, but otherwise use I'm Too Young To Die. Nuking the level is fine so long as you can survive it.

Skull Bronze Badge

Kill everything in The City of Skulls or Abyssal Plains, and exit.

On I'm Too Young To Die, City of Skulls has no Agony Elemental, making it much easier. For the Abyssal Plains, it's helpful to have a regular Phase Device once the doors shut so that you can escape the trap and clear the enemies in a more controlled manner once the doors reopen. Spraying with Shotguns helps handle the large groups of enemies.

Berserker Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 9 or greater on Angel of Berserk.

Play on Hey Not Too Rough and run through a bit aggressively to The Chained Court to get all the Berserk Paks and Chainsaw. Use a Combat Knife until then, and playing as a Scout helps with seeing where the stairs are. From there, you likely have enough Berserk duration to simply run through to the end of Phobos Anomaly. Killing enemies aren't necessary.

Marksman Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 16 or greater on Angel of Marksmanship.

Play on Hey Not Too Rough and I would suggest combining with Angel of Light Travel for the helpful speed boost since pistols are already very ammo efficient. Kill most of the enemies in the early floors to get some safe experience as pistols lack a lot of power without helpful traits. For the rest of the game, you can effectively stair dive as you only need to reach the Cyberdemon and not actually need to kill it. Scout with stair sense is the most recommended class.

Shottyman Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 16 or greater on Angel of Shotgunnery.

Shotguns are quite strong, so reaching this far into the game isn't too difficult. Play on Hey Not Too Rough, use a Scout with Intuition 2, and simply fire away at enemies that you come across as you run for the stairs. Shotguns are very effective even without supportive traits, so you can focus on Hellrunner and Dodgemaster to rush through. If you have difficulties evading everything, simply play a slower and more offensive game with Finesse instead.

Lightfoot Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 9 or greater on Angel of Light Travel or Archangel of Light Travel.

Combine this with Angel of Carnage and you'll have both power and speed to quickly get through the game. Go with Scout and Intuition 2, and simply dive through the stairs to Phobos Anomaly. It's very easy so long as you take a little bit of caution approaching enemies. For the Phobos Anomaly trap, head back after triggering it, clear out the room from the starting area, then do the same thing for the Bruiser Brothers. If you have enough health and armor, you can also simply just run past them.

Eagerness Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 9 or greater on Angel of Impatience.

For this challenge, you need to be a little cautious as you can't bring Med Paks with you. Despite that, Angel of Max Carnage helps speed up the game, and Angel of Impatience isn't too significant of a hindrance for just making it past Phobos Anomaly. When you reach it, save most of the health items in the first room for after the trap and you should be fine. Scout's stair sense also helps speed up this challenge, but any class is fine.

Daredevil Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 9 or greater on Angel of Confidence.

Since you start at Deimos, you'll need to be killing the Cyberdemon and surviving. The easiest way to clear it is to get Dodgemaster and simply step out of its rockets as it fires. Because of this though, you'll need to build up a bit of experience, especially if you want other traits. As always, Angel of Max Carnage can speed up the process if your combat and tactics are good, and it also speeds up the Cyberdemon fight.

Quartermaster Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 16 or greater on Angel of Red Alert or Archangel of Red Alert.

Functionally, this is like a normal game except each floor has a time limit and you can't use Run->Wait or stair sense. Since you're in a rush, Angel of Max Carnage can help clear your path so that you don't need to spend time chipping away at enemies. If you stumble upon any Invulnerabilities, you may want to camp at it until the timer nearly runs out in order to get an easy clear for easy experience.

Hunter Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 9 or greater on Angel of Darkness.

Angel of Darkness is fairly challenging with low vision, respawning enemies, and no stair sense, but you do gain double experience. Intuition 2 is very helpful in making up for weaker vision. Try to kill corpses in fluids, door frames, or on other corpses to help prevent respawning. You can also destroy them with some weapons such as Rocket Launchers. You also want to avoid using Run->Wait in many cases as you will sometimes get attacked from outisde your vision. Angel of Max Carnage can be helpful, but you may not want to use it for this challenge.

Destroyer Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 16 or greater on Angel of Max Carnage.

Angel of Max Carnage generally makes the game easier if you're playing well, but much harder if you're playing poorly. This can be beneficial as it forces you to playing in an effective manner. It also speeds up the gameplay as everything is dying much faster than normal. Play conservatively, but attack liberally. If you'd like, you can also use Angel of Light Travel to give yourself a speed boost, but you may not like the restricted inventory space.

Centurial Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 16 or greater on Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666.

Generally speaking, this plays like normal, so no specific strategies are needed compared to a normal game. The major differences are you don't need a plan for Phobos Base Entry, Phobos Anomaly, etc, but you do miss out on some useful bonus levels. Combine this challenge with Angel of Max Carnage if you want a faster game, but otherwise play as you always do.

Pacifist Bronze Badge

Reach a depth of level 16 or greater on Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

Angel of Pacifism is generally about enemy avoidance. Make sure you aren't getting chased by enemies, or running into areas where you can get trapped as you can't fight back. For floors where you gain a level-up bonus, you can get a second one by going to the bonus level, which you should do in most cases. For Tower of Babel, the staircase appears at the bottom right if you plan on pushing further. If you run into a difficult level but find Invulnerability, you could use your Thermonuclear Bomb intended for the Spider Mastermind on that floor instead. Scouts are good with their speed bonus, but Marines with extra powerup duration is also very helpful.

Arena Bronze Badge

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, then exit.

If you're an expert player, the fastest way to do this is to use Angel of Carnage + Angel of Light Travel and blast away with Shotgun and Chaingun and taking appropriate cover. If you're newer, I'd recommend earning this badge on I'm Too Young To Die as there will be far less enemies, and easier ones too. Stock up on supplies in the first two floors, then find some cover to take in the arena and attack away.

Arachno Bronze Badge

Kill everything in Spider's Lair, then exit.

This challenge can be slightly annoying as the level only appears half the time. I'm Too Young To Die makes for a much easier challenge, but going through half the game is a fair bit of effort just trying to get the level to appear. I suggest Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence if you're able to handle the extra power. Regardless, as soon as you enter the level, use a teleporter and take cover at one of the far sides of the level to try and kill the Arachnotrons one at a time. If possible, let them get close up as their melee attacks are much weaker than their Plasma, and they also take double damage to your own melee attacks. If you can avoid getting surrounded, it's not too hard.

Scavenger Bronze Badge

Exit The Vaults.

Simply enter and exit The Vaults. Use Angel of Overconfidence to quickly get to the level, or otherwise make a quick visit on Hey Not Too Rough during a standard game.

87

Discussion / Re: Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:46 »

Medals

Cyberdemon's Head

Kill the Cyberdemon on Tower of Babel without taking damage or nuking.

The easiest way is to get Dodgemaster and a modestly fast firing and reloading weapon. Approach the Cyberdemon, keep a fair number of tiles between you two, make sure you're not too close to a wall or pillar, and then move back and forth, only attacking after it does. It takes a bit of time and care, but is very easy. Alternatively, you can also just find yourself a lucky Invulnerability and charge at it. I suggest using Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence on Hey Not Too Rough.

Mastermind's Brain

Kill the Spider Mastermind on Dis without taking damage or nuking.

With Intuition 2, which is easily obtained from Scout, you can hide behind the pillars and corner shoot the Spider Mastermind to death. Since you can't take damage anyway, take off any armor that makes your movement slower so that you're able to wrap around the pillar as it chases you. Alternatively, get a lucky Invulnerability and attack. Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence allows for very quick attempts, as well as an easy way of reaching 20 damage per hit, causing the Spider Mastermind to flinch and not immediately attack back.

Medal of Prejudice

Win with 100% kills.

This is easiest with Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence as games are short and you are powerful, just being a bit cautious with large groups of enemies. If you're more of an intermediate player, you can either play I'm Too Young To Die and more easily, but slowly, walk your way through the game. For either case, skipping bonus levels improves efficiency. The only one I would really recommend is the easy version of The Chained Court if you're using a melee build.

UAC Star (bronze cluster)

Have a kill streak of 25 or more.

Play very cautiously and corner shoot your way to kills. Intuition 2 helps a lot with scouting out where enemies are to avoid hits. You could also repeatedly kill a respawning enemy due to an Archvile, Angel of Darkness, or Nightmare difficulty. A really silly but fast way to earn this is also to play with Angel of Red Alert on Nightmare and then let yourself die on the first level with 25 enemies.

UAC Star (silver cluster)

Have a kill streak of 50 or more.

As with above, play defensively and kill off all enemies, or repeatedly kill a respawning enemy due to an Archvile, Angel of Darkness or Nightmare difficulty.

UAC Star (gold cluster)

Have a kill streak of 100 or more.

Again, repeat one of the above strategies. 100 is quite a few kills though, but generally speaking it's just extending the method of play.

Minor Icarus Cross

Win in less than 40000 turns, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

Make your choice between I'm Too Young To Die, Angel of Max Carnage, or Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Light Travel, and use a melee Scout build. The detour for the Chainsaw at The Chained Court is definitely worth it as it provides a ton of Berserk power, a powerful weapon, and avoids inventory management. Angel of Light Travel may be a bit extreme, but the large overall speed boost allows you to do more within the 40000 turns available. Remember not to use Run->Wait or you'll waste turns.

Major Icarus Cross

Win in less than 20000 turns, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

Likewise with the above, perform the same strategy, but cut out some more fluff in your run. Take your time to plan out your play if needed as the restriction is not based on real-time.

Gambler's Shield

Pull 26 or more levers, without Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666.

Play on Hey Not Too Rough and put points into Intuition so you know what random levers will do (I would recommend a Scout and starting with it). Simply activate any levers you find around the levels, and try to not skip any, even if they're a bit dangerous. Bonus levels such as the easy version of The Chained Court, Deimos Lab, Limbo, and Mt Erebus are all great as they have many levers to increase your count, but I wouldn't suggest too many of the others as they're large, unnecessary detours. Otherwise, there's a lot of versatility possible and you can play in any manner you want to. Reaching 26 isn't too uncommon, but does take a bit of luck to find enough. For levers with up to 3 charges, each pull counts as a pull, so getting some luck with levers with 2 or 3 charges also helps.

Aurora Medallion

Pickup 4 or more Uniques, without Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666.

Randomly finding enough uniques is fairly rare, but most of the special items in bonus levels count such as Arena Master's Staff, Longinus Spear, and Angelic Armor (but not Backpack). Using the Arena Master's Staff in The Vaults is also effective as it's common for a unique item to appear there. The rest is simply playing the game, and it can be in any manner you want. A melee build may be preferred so you can clear Unholy Cathedral, but isn't necessary. I suggest playing on Hey Not Too Rough on Angel of Max Carnage.

Explorer Badge

Visit all bonus levels that are generated, without Angel of Confidence, Angel of Overconfidence, Angel of 100, or Archangel of 666.

Simply enter and exit all bonus levels. Playing through a game on I'm Too Young To Die allows you to skip many of the tough levels and is very easy since most of them allow you to exit immediately.

Conqueror Badge

Complete all bonus levels that are generated, without Angel of Confidence, Angel of Overconfidence, Angel of 100, or Archangel of 666.

Playing through on I'm Too Young To Die lets you skip tough levels like Unholy Cathedral and The Mortuary, and of course greatly reduces the difficulty. Try to hang onto an Envirosuit for Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits, and be prepared to possibly face an Agony Elemental in the Abyssal Plains. I recommend using a melee build to help boost power and resistance with Berserk.

Compet-n Silver Cross

Win in less than 30 minutes, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

Graphics mode will help speed you up with mouse support, but is not necessary if you prefer. I'm Too Young To Die, grabbing the Chainsaw and stacks of Berserk Paks, and rushing through each level with a Scout will make for a quick game. While in The Chained Court, take out the Cacodemons for some big early experience, as well as the Bruiser Brothers. Get Berserker trait early on, but have a Shotgun on the side if you need to quickly snipe anything from far away.

Compet-n Gold Cross

Win in less than 20 minutes, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

Use the same general strategy above, but cut the fluff out of your run and be quick with your decision-making.

Compet-n Platinum Cross

Win in less than 10 minutes, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

The same strategy as above should be used, but 10 minutes is fairly tight for intermediate players. You may need some favorable luck to complete in 10 minutes, so it might take a few tries.

Untouchable Badge

Win with less than 500 damage, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

While it may seem counterintuitive, Angel of Max Carnage can be very beneficial. As you need to be avoiding hits in general and playing defensively, being rewarded with higher, consistent damage will make the gameplay much easier. You can also add in Angel of Light Travel for additional speed if you're fine with a smaller inventory. Try to have Dodgemaster before reaching the Cyberdemon so that you can easily dodge the rockets. Fortunate luck is helpful, but not necessary.

Experience Medal

Reach experience level 20, without Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

The two ways to significantly increase experience is playing on Nightmare and playing on Angel of Darkness, both of which are pretty difficult. Naturally, the best way to earn this is to play Archangel of 666 on Hey Not Too Rough. Any build and playstyle works, but be sure you're capable of killing the bulk of everything. Go for 100% kills in the early levels so you can progress with the game's difficulty increasing.

Experience Cross

Reach experience level 25, without Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

Like above, playing Archangel of 666 on Hey Not Too Rough is the easiest way to reach experience level 25. It's a long grind, but so long as you play well, it's not too excessively difficult. As the later levels get very dense, make sure you're appropriately upgrading all your gear to the most powerful in the game, such as Nano Shrapnel, Inquisitor Set, Cerberus Boots, Nanomanufacture Ammo, and others.

Grammaton Cleric Cross

Kill a Spider Mastermind while wielding Grammaton Cleric Beretta, without nuking.

Note: Having Grammaton Cleric Beretta in your prepared slot satisfies this challenge. This medal is mostly just about the luck of finding the weapon. Grammaton can first spawn on floor 6, but you may not be inclined to play full games repeatedly until it appears. While harder and a bit more of a slog, I suggest using Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence, and simply play through runs until it appears. More realistically, I don't really recommend grinding specifically for this medal and only obtaining it as Grammaton happens to appear. For the best odds overall, although a bit less efficient, play on Hey Not Too Rough, and preferably on Angel of Max Carnage. This gives extra floors and bonus levels for more chances to spawn, as well as more opportunity for other Uniques to spawn to help clear our the unique spawn pool.

Malicious Knives Cross

Win with only knife and fist kills, without Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

Note: 100% kills is unnecessary. Play Angel of Overconfidence on Hey Not Too Rough so you're already near the end and start with a Combat Knife, and simply grind out runs with a Scout until you can get yourself to the end and kill the Spider Mastermind. A nuke is very helpful, but not absolutely necessary. If you find it to be too difficult, switch to I'm Too Young To Die, find an early Combat Knife, get Berserker trait at experience level 3, collect all the Berserk Paks and Chainsaw in The Chained Court, and try to focus on diving for the stairs instead of engaging in too much fighting. Remember that you can use the Chainsaw on enemies to weaken them, so long as you are wielding a Combat Knife or your fists whenever anything dies from either you or any other source. This trick is very helpful for the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind.

Sunrise Iron Fist

Win with only fist kills, without Angel of Pacifism or Archangel of Pacifism.

Note: 100% kills is unnecessary. Use the same strategies above for Malicious Knives Cross. Fists only is a fair bit more difficult, but not exponentially so. Try to minimize all combat and charge for the stairs on each floor, whether you play with Angel of Overconfidence or I'm Too Young To Die.

Fallout Gold Cross

Nuke 3 or more times, without Angel of Red Alert, Archangel of Red Alert, Angel of 100, or Archangel of 666.

Note: This does not have to be 3 separate levels. Even with the guaranteed nuke through Limbo, finding an additional 2 and the supporting Invulnerability can be uncommon. Instead the best way to earn this medal, as well as Fallout Platinum Cross, is to find the Trigun, find an Invulnerability, and then spam Angel Arm. Angel Arm costs 5 maximum HP, but doesn't require you to not be tired or any other restrictions. As mentioned, you can nuke the same level repeatedly, so once you're setup, it's trivial. The challenge of course is actually finding the Trigun. Trigun first appears at depth level 8, so spamming attempts of Angel of Confidence in hopes it appears is the best way to specifically earn this medal.

Fallout Platinum Cross

Nuke 6 or more times, without Angel of Red Alert, Archangel of Red Alert, Angel of 100, or Archangel of 666.

Note: This does not have to be 6 separate levels. See the strategy above. Once you find the Trigun and Invulnerability, you'll earn both Fallout Gold Cross and Fallout Platinum Cross easily.

Iron Skull

Take 10000 or more damage, without Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666.

Note: Dying to a nuke does 200 damage at most. The main obstacle with this is to take 10000 damage, you need to recover 10000 damage. Medical Powerarmor and even Medical Armor (O) will burn through durability and won't heal you, but Medical Armor (N) along with a pool of acid or lava can work. However, this strategy is horribly slow as you can only heal up to 25% of your maximum HP at a time. The better method, which is also very grindy, is to use Vampyre. First, choose Marine and level up to get Vampyre, Brute 3, Badass 2, Berserker, and if you have extra traits, Ironman. Tough as Nails is also good because despite reducing the damage you take, it will help you control damage much better.

The most common setup is to clear out a level and then trap a Pain Elemental between a barrel and then another barrel, door, or walls. With this, the Pain Elemental can't escape or attack, but can see you and create Lost Souls. From here, let the Lost Souls attack you, kill them to heal with Vampyre, and then repeat. Be cautious not to let your health get too low or to get surrounded, and then prepare yourself for the grind. It's not hard, but it may take you well over an hour to take the needed damage. Repeatedly killing a respawning enemy and letting it attack you on Angel of Darkness or Nightmare can also work, but this can be more dangerous and difficult to setup.

Untouchable Medal

Win with less than 200 damage, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

See: Untouchable Badge above. Play defensively and take advantage of Angel of Max Carnage to support it. Even if you take harder hits, the faster kills are generally a net benefit for you. If you want additional speed, also use Angel of Light Travel. I suggest using a Scout with Intuition 2 early and focusing on Shotguns.

Untouchable Cross

Win with less than 50 damage, without Angel of Confidence or Angel of Overconfidence.

Like Untouchable Badge and Untouchable Medal, play defensively, be cautious about any sort of danger, and crawl your way through the levels to avoid all damage possible.

Grim Reaper's Badge

Kill everything and exit Limbo or The Mortuary, taking at least 1 damage if you didn't nuke the level.

The easiest way to earn this medal is to enter with a nuke and Invulnerability, but it can be uncommon to do so. My suggestion for an easy clear is to play Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence, collect some Phase Devices and Homing Phase Devices, and then being able to grab the Nuclear BFG. Once you have that, you'll be able to infinitely fire away at all enemies, as well as clear out corpses. Limbo is significantly easier because of this, but The Mortuary is doable. Hide in the corner of the top right island and clear out all the Cacodemons before you start firing Nuclear BFG shots so you don't get sniped. It's a bit of a slow task, but it's fairly easy to do.

Angelic Badge

Kill everything and exit Limbo or The Mortuary, without taking damage or nuking.

Use the same strategy as above, but be more cautious to avoid taking a hit. Use the Minigun to take down any wandering Cacodemons, and then slowly blow up the level. If you don't have an Envirosuit, you'll need to use one of the right levers, which is not only dangerous to reach, but also allows enemies to approach you, and creates more undesirable landing spots with Phase Devices. A lot of this medal is luck, but once you're comfortably setup, it's not too hard if you're patient and careful.

Hell Armorer Badge

Kill everything in Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab, including Shamblers, taking at least 1 damage.

The easiest way to earn this medal is to play on Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Confidence on Hey Not Too Rough, roll Hell's Armory, clear out the nearby Lost Souls at the start, and then work your way towards the first two buildings. Once you kill the weak enemies around, stand in the doorframe of the upper building and Run->Wait for an enemy to appear and repeatedly fire your Shotgun. With Max Carnage, the knockback will keep anything away from approaching you. Don't use the lower building or you might get sniped from the upper left open area.

For the Shambler, put on one of the Blue Armors, and use the heaviest hitting weapon available. Activate the lever and position yourself nearby the doorframe of the upper-left building, ideally in the tile down 1 and left 1 from it. The other two openings are too close together, giving the Shambler more locations to hit you from. Even in this position, you may still get an unfortunate teleportation and get hit hard. Attack the Shambler until it dies, take appropriate cover, and watch your health.

Shambler's Head

Kill everything in Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab, including Shamblers, without taking damage.

Use the same strategy above, but be more cautious at the start. Deimos Lab is much harder to clear damageless, but is doable if you're a strong player. Otheriwse, I would suggest restarting if you don't get Hell's Armory. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to start an attempt, so you can spam runs until you're successful.

Every Soldier's Medal

Kill everything in Containment Area after triggering the trap, or The Wall, on Angel of Humanity.

Angel of Humanity + Angel of Confidence can help speed up the attempts, but you'll need a little luck to find a weapon that can destroy the wall. Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab can be helpful to find some weapons and ammunition to clear all the enemies. If you're good at low health combat and want a guarantee, use Angel of Humanity + Angel of Red Alert, work your way to the level, and simply let the timer expire when you enter.

Gargulec Medal

Win with 100% kills on Hurt Me Plenty or easier, on Angel of Berserk.

To survive all of the hits you'll inevitably need to take, and since you can't stair dive, Vampyre is very helpful, so I recommend using a Marine. Angel of Berserk + Angel of Light Travel gives you the speed boost to help you react and attack quickly as you wait for enemies, reducing the hits you take. Alternatively, you could go with Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence and wait out a bit of enemy luck to tank your way through. If you use the latter, save the Chainsaw boost for when you need both health recovery and are ready to attack as you'll need to make use of all your resources. You also can go for Unholy Cathedral pretty easily since you'll need to kill everything anyway, and get yourself Azrael's Scythe. If you commit to using Chainsaw with either strategy, try to get Piercing Blade as soon as you can.

Gargulec Cross

Win with 100% kills on Ultra-Violence or harder, on Angel of Berserk.

Use the same strategies as above, but you'll likely need at least some good fortune to survive all of the melee fights. Try to place yourself in safe positions where you can use Run->Wait and clear out levels slowly. I would lean more towards using Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence for faster games, but the experience build up from playing from the start can help significantly for the later levels with more useful traits. Get to Vampyre, then I suggest Tough as Nails for more damage reduction.

Dervis' Medallion

Win on Nightmare on Angel of 100.

100 floors of Nightmare generally will give you at least a few really rough floors, so I suggest going with pure Angel of 100 and not mixing with Angel of Max Carnage. Scout is also the recommended class because of stair sense so you can quickly escape any bad levels. Use the early levels to repeatedly kill a respawning Former Sergeant to gather a large supplies of Shotgun Shells, and take the time to clear everything out. The early experience will help build up some important traits like Intuition, Hellrunner, and Dodgemaster. Ideally, you'll be fortunate to find some corspe destroying weapons, Inquisitor Set, and useful Mod Paks.

Thomas's Medal

Win on Angel of Humanity or Archangel of Humanity, completing all bonus levels that are generated.

Note: 0 levels are generated on Angel of 100, so you can earn this by just completing it. That said, Angel of Humanity + Angel of 100 may be quite difficult for most players, even though it can be played on Hey Not Too Rough. If you attempt this, simply play it like normal but play extremely defensively and always put yourself into a safe position before progressing. Scout with early Intuition and stair sense helps a lot, but isn't completely necessary.

The other strategy that I suggest is Angel of Humanity + Angel of Overconfidence on Hurt Me Plenty. Start the first floor killing everything using Assault Shotgun and keeping damage taken as close to 0 as possible. Save all the Mod Paks until the floor is clear, and select Brute->Brute->Berserker. Enter Unholy Cathedral with Ballistic Red Armor and Chainsword and clear everything out, which shouldn't be too excessively difficult. With Azrael's Scythe and 2 Med Paks, The Vaults can be cleared with spamming Whisper of Death, but you will have only 5 maximum HP for the rest of the game. The big obstacle is Limbo/The Mortuary where you'll most likely need a Phase Device to get yourself into the top right corner to grab the Nuclear BFG and then slowly clear out the level. Try to avoid destroying the Med Paks if possible. Then in Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits, use Whisper of Death 3 more times and melee attack the Lava Elemental, assuming your Ballistic Red Armor is still intact. The remainder of the game is simply careful play. It's a fairly specific strategy, but it works fairly well if you can handle playing without taking a hit and can get a bit of fortunate luck.

Chessmaster's Token

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, on Ultra-Violence or harder, on Angel of Impatience or Angel of Masochism.

Between Angel of Impatience and Angel of Masochism, Impatience is usually the better choice so you can heal during the first two floors as needed. You can also then combine it with either Angel of Light Travel or Angel of Max Carnage, both of which have advantages and disadvantages. I would suggest Angel of Impatience + Angel of Max Carnage. Clear out both floors beforehand to gain experience, use any Med Paks around to heal, then enter Hell's Arena. Take cover at one of the pillars and slowly take out all the enemies, and try to position yourself favorably before you kill the last enemy of each wave. If you play cautiously, the medal is fairly easy, just avoid hits as best you can.

Chessmaster's Cross

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, on Nightmare, on Angel of Impatience or Angel of Masochism.

Use the same strategy as above, but you'll have to make some adjustments due to respawning enemies in Hell's Arena. Use a Shotgun to get the bulk of your damage in, and try to lure enemies onto the corpses of others, finishing them off with Chaingun. You can also lure Demons onto the stairs to destroy those corpses as well. It can be helpful to farm enemies on the first two floors to make sure you have enough ammo if Hell's Arena goes long.

Hell Champion Medal

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, taking at least 1 damage.

Hell's Arena can be played on either I'm Too Young To Die, or on Hey Not Too Rough with combining Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Light Travel. Gather supplies beforehand, take cover around Hell's Arena, and fire away at all the enemies

Hell Arena Key

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, without taking damage, on Ultra-Violence or easier.

Since you can't be getting hit, Hey Not Too Rough with Angel of Max Carnage is very useful, and it's also suggested to make use of Angel of Light Travel for faster firing and moving to cover. You may have an unfortunate starting position and have to restart, but once you're into position with cover, cautiously take out all the enemies. I recommend using Scout and Intuition 2 to give you significant help with avoiding getting hit.

Hell Arena Pwnage Medal

Kill everything in all 3 waves in Hell's Arena, without taking damage, on Nightmare.

Angel of Max Carnage is extremely helpful to control against the respawning enemies, but Angel of Light Travel is also very useful to give you the speed to avoid hits. You'll likely need lots of ammo, so stock up on both Shotgun Shells and 10mm Ammo in all slots along with a Chaingun and Shotgun. As you can't be getting hit, Armor is useless and only slows you down. If you can, take out the Cacodemons first and stand on the corpse while waiting for another enemy to be lured in, and try to kill the lure on the same tile for corpse destroying. As with above, I highly recommend using a Scout with Intuition 2, and then putting additional trait points into Hellrunner or Finesse. The medal is a bit tough and luck can be a factor, but if you're good with herding enemies, it's not too excessively difficult.

Spider Killer's Cross

Kill everything in Spider's Lair on Angel of Humanity.

Like Every Soldier's Medal, the easiest way to earn this is to simply nuke the level, especially if you can handle going through the game with Angel of Humanity + Angel of Red Alert. Otherwise, Angel of Humanity + Angel of Confidence is a good choice to speed up the attempts, especially since half the games won't have Spider's Lair appear anyway. Because the level doesn't provide perfect cover from any location, it helps to rush for a teleporter and take semi-safe cover at the far sides to reduce how many Arachnotrons you face at a time. It's also ideal if you let them approach in your face because their melee attacks are very weak, so Shotguns with their high knockback can be dangerous to use. Play defensively and patiently.

Gutts' Heart

Kill a Spider Mastermind while wielding Dragonslayer, without nuking.

As the Dragonslayer is rare to spawn and you need Berserk to pick it up, I recommend using Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence so that you have a short game if it spawns, and you can always use your Chainsaw boost to get Berserk. Spam runs and dive for the stairs until it works, or otherwise take a detour to get it if you happen to see it in a random game.

Apostle Insignia

Kill an Apostle.

Note: Thermonuclear Bombs do not work when an Apostle is alive, but Nuclear Plasma Rifle and Nuclear BFG can be triggered. The Apostle appears at the end of Angel of 100, Archangel of 666, or replacing JC, but only if you wield both Dragonslayer and Berserker Armor before entering Hell Fortress. While it is a slog, I recommend going for this with Archangel of 666 for the most chances to find both items and because JC is hard to get to when you're forced to wield Dragonslayer and require a Thermonuclear Bomb. Play through with any build you will find yourself enjoying through all the floors, but try to get yourself Berserker trait so you have an easy source of Berserk when you find Dragonslayer. Once wielded, any set of traits should keep you alive, so specifically using a melee build isn't necessary. The Apostle itself is nothing special, but the grind to get it takes some effort. Don't use Berserker Armor until the end of floor 665 because it's not a particularly good one, you can't take it off, and it causes infinitely spawning Nightmare Demons.

88

Discussion / Icy's Guide to Ranks, Medals, and Badges

« on: October 15, 2022, 14:45 »

Hello friends! I've written this guide to help players achieve all of the ranks, medals, and badges in the game from Bronze to Angelic. I'd like to think I'm a fairly strong player, though certainly not the best, but I do believe I have exceptional talent with efficiently collecting the achievements in the game, and I wanted to share some knowledge, strategies, and general guidance for these. The primary approach with these is efficiency and ease, which in many cases will involve strategies that have unusual gameplay, spammy grinds, sometimes boring ideas, and using every advantage possible. In particular, there will be heavy suggestions with dual-angel games with Angel of Confidence, Overconfidence, Max Carnage, Light Travel, and others. Some players prefer to earn their achievements in a more "pure" way, which is respectable and noble, but that is not the purpose of this guide. I aim to achieve everything as efficiently and strategically as possible within the game. Of course though, there is a difference between cheesy strategy usage compared to undesirable decisions such as "savescumming", modifying the game, hacking, all the way to straight up cheating and lying. This guide is of course only focused on legitimate play.

This guide also assumes you are at least an intermediate player and have a solid, standard base of knowledge already. If you're newer to DoomRL, you may find other guides and the wiki to be more helpful sources. With the rich depth of possibilities in DoomRL, I also can't thoroughly cover every situation, but only provide general guidance, so a lot of success will still fall on the players themselves.

This guide is also extensive and I want it to be as best and precise as possible. If you happen to notice any errors, even nitpicks, or have better strategy ideas that make anything easier or faster, please share and I'll edit it in. If something I've written is also not clear in the language used, please critique that too. Some of my strategies for my unachieved awards may also be too speculative, but I'll always be updating this guide with new ideas.

The first major section will cover some niche and lesser known ideas and strategies that can be generally used, as well as some details on important mechanics. Next will be some strategies on improving efficiency with the rankings of killing the required number of enemies. Finally will be a thorough coverage of every medal and badge with source code details of the exact requirements to earn them, followed with the best strategies to achieve each one.

Miscellaneous Tips and Knowledge

-If you play with graphic mode, I highly recommend using the mini-map as a way for faster scanning of the level, as well as being able to see where enemies via Intuition 2 are while you have Berserk or Envirosuit active.

-Pistol kills, knife kills, fist kills, etc are based on what weapon you have at the time of kill. Attacking an enemy with anything and dealing the final blow with your fists is considered a fist kill for example. An enemy dying due to infighting, explosions, fluids, etc, will count as a kill based on whatever weapon you are wielding. Nuking a level and dying will still count all kills based on what weapon you had as you died.

-For some medals and badges that require "knife kills", this specifically means Combat Knife and any modifications. Other melee weapons, even including Subtle Knife do not count as "knife kills" (I'm pretty certain). Knives are a subset of "blades"

-Weapons that are considered a "pistol" are: Pistol, Combat Pistol, Blaster, Trigun, Anti-Freak Jackal, and Grammaton Cleric Beretta.

-Weapons that are considered a "blade" are: Combat Knife, Butcher's Cleaver, Subtle Knife, and Dragonslayer.

-Weapons that are considered a "shotgun" are: Shotgun, Double Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Assault Shotgun, Plasma Shotgun, Super Shotgun, Jackhammer, and Frag Shotgun.

-Weapons that are considered a "rocket launcher" are: Rocket Launcher, Missile Launcher, Napalm Launcher, and Revenant's Launcher.

-When a powerup effect is close to ending, the text colour for it on your status screen will change.

-Powerup duration is based on the number of actions, not speed, turns, time, or anything else. Taking a step uses up the same amount of duration as fully reloading a Combat Shotgun. Switching tactics to running only wastes one action.

-The definition of visiting bonus levels is simply entering them.

-The definition of clearing bonus levels is by exiting when there are 0 enemies alive. This can be done by any means necessary, including nukes, and the trap for Containment Area can even be skipped so long as all other enemies are dead. Exceptions to this are Hell's Armory where the Shambler must be killed, Hell's Arena where all 3 waves must be cleared, and Deimos Lab due to a programming oversight where all you need to do is activate both levers to open the middle area and exit, no kills necessary.

-Using the Run command followed by the Wait command will quickly and repeatedly use Wait until an enemy appears in your vision, which is helpful for speeding up the real-time of play.

-Thermonuclear Bombs and overcharging a Nuclear Plasma Rifle or Nuclear BFG can be done instantly when you stand over a tile of acid or lava. This can be helpful to save some invulnerability time, or to just make it before it runs out. Overcharging can also be done on Angel of Red Alert and special floors with starting nukes.

-Arachnotrons are unable to destroy Napalm Barrels and you can safely use them for cover. This is not true for Nightmare Arachnotrons or Former Commandos, and also not true for other barrels.

-Hell's Arena rewards for clearing all 3 waves will vary depending on what challenge you are playing. The most notable ones are a Homing Phase Device for Angel of Berserk, Power Pak for Angel of Marksmanship, Red Armor and Platsteel Boots for Angel of Masochism, and randomly 1 of Phaseshift Armor/Ballistic Vest/Acid-Proof Boots on Angel of Humanity.

-Completing Hell's Armory (not Deimos Lab) with taking 0 damage guarantees you either a Nano Pak or Onyx Pak.

-The Vaults generates weapons before armor, so if a Unique item appeared, it is more likely to be a weapon.

-Mt Erebus and The Lava Pits have a higher chance to give Lava Armor over other Uniques.

-With the Juggler trait, you can use the mouse wheel to scroll through all the weapons in your inventory, instead of just your main and prepared slots, which significantly improves the trait. It can also be useful to have multiple weapons of the same kind so that you can switch through them instead of needing to reload, such as with Shotguns.

-Berserker trait when hit makes you Berserk based on what percentage of damage you take, so Ironman trait makes this required value much higher. Because of this, Ironman may be undesireable to pair with Berserker.

-The Trigun's Angel Arm is an instant nuke, does not require any particular tactics, does not make you tired, and decreases your maximum HP by 5 to a minimum of 10 maximum HP. If you have 10 or less maximum HP, you cannot activate Angel Arm. Angel Arm can be activated repeatedly even on the same level. It can be activated even on Angel of Berserk, Marksmanship, Shotgunnery, and Pacifism.

-Azrael's Scythe spawns in place of Longinus Spear if 1) upon entering the level, you have 100% kills, and 2) difficulty is Hurt Me Plenty of Harder. Note that if you cleared Hell's Arena on Nightmare without being hit, you'll get Dragonslayer instead. Azrael's Scythe's Whisper of Death does 20 plasma damage to all enemies on the level, makes you tired, cannot be used when tired, and decreases your maximum HP by 5, to a minimum of 5 maximum HP. However, even with 5 maximum HP, you can still continually use Whisper of Death.

-Picking up the Dragonslayer requires you to be Berserk and to have nothing in all 4 equipment slots. To wield Berserker Armor, you must have Dragonslayer in your weapon slot and have at least half of your maximum HP. Simply picking up Berserker Armor has no restrictions, although enemies are unable to.

-For badges that require depth levels, this considers the difference in depth from when you started to when you finished. That is, bonus levels are ignored, and you still need to go deep enough on Angel of Confidence and Angel of Overconfidence.

-Ammo crates (pinkish) have the following possible drops when destroyed: 30/40 nothing, 4/40 10mm Ammo, 4/40 Shells, 1/40 Ammo Chain, 1/40 Shell Box.

-Armor crates (yellowish) have the following possible drops when destroyed: 45/60 nothing, 4/60 Green Armor, 4/60 Steel Boots, 4/60 Small Med Pack, 1/60 Blue Armor, 1/60 Large Med Pack, 1/60 Protective Boots

-With Intuition 1, levers will give you a hint whether they are beneficial, neutral, or dangerous. Beneficial means it is either harms creatures, armor depot, or meditech. Neutral means it is either floods with water or forces explosions. Dangerous means it is either floods with acid, floods with lava, destroys walls, or summons enemies.

-Regular levers have the following type chances: 1/17 floods with water, 1/17 floods with acid, 1/17 floods with lava, 2/17 forces explosions, 2/17 summons enemies, 2/17 armor depot, 2/17 meditech, 3/17 destroys walls, 3/17 harms creatures.

-For any level that can have barrels, there is a 1 in 22 chance that there are a large number of them and you get the level feeling message "Khe, he, he, this will be a mess...".

-For ammo rooms, a random number from 1 to 3 is added onto the level's danger level. For values 1-4, the ammo room will have 10mm ammo, values 5-10 have shells, values 11-13 have rockets, and values 14 or higher have cells. This means that after you're far enough into a game, ammo rooms will only ever have cells.

-In arena type levels, every enemy has a 50% chance to permanently directly hunt for you, and a 50% chance to be normal.

-Closing doors behind you can be helpful to inform you when an enemy goes through them as you can see when they open from anywhere on the map.

-Nightmare gives double duration for powerups, notably Invulnerability, so in cases where you're relying on good luck and a stack of Invulnerabilities, Nightmare may be easier than Ultra-Violence.

-Nightmare and Angel of Darkness respawn chances increase as time goes on, so it is beneficial to clear through levels quickly, and using Run->Wait can be detrimental.

-On Phobos Base Entry, if an enemy is killed on the furthest edges of the level, it can't respawn.

-When combining Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence, you begin the game with a Chainsaw. However, you still can get the Chainsaw boost by simply dropping it and picking it back up, effectively giving you a free Berserk Pak whenever needed.

-When combining the Inquisitor Set, a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher, and Berserker trait, you can effectively blow yourself up repeatedly to give yourself a large amount of Berserk.

-A full win is defined as a game with at least 1 JC kill and you having at least 1 HP remaining. Apostle does not count regarding medals and badges for full wins. Any other kind of win is defined as a normal win (regarding badges and medals), including sacrificing yourself against the Spider Mastermind.

-JC once activated can spawn enemies at any time, however, he can only teleport once each time you hit him. Because of this, it's highly recommended not to run away once the fight starts.

-Because the Spider Mastermind has unique AI and tries to take a certain movement path when hit, it is possible to get it stuck in a way that will still appear in your vision, but be in a position where you cannot get hit. First, reach either the top or bottom middle pillars in Dis that are nearby the walls, either on the left or right sides of them, then try to get the Spider Mastermind adjacent to the wall on the opposite side of you at the pillar. Don't be touching the pillar yourself, and be sure to take your time reaching the spot so you don't get killed along the way. If you fire at the Spider Mastermind, it may attempt to move vertically into the wall and will be unable to, and will get stuck if performed from the correct position and with a bit of pathing luck. Once setup, the Spider Mastermind will only be able to move either against the wall or one of the two tiles vertically away from it. From here, you cannot get hit and can even Run->Wait for it to appear in your vision as you chip away at its health. Be cautious not to cause flinching by doing 20 or more damage, or it may break free or even run through the opening. For some visual guidance and proof of Run->Wait safety, see below:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-When you equip the Berserker Armor, Nightmare Demons begin endlessly spawning. This is generally dangerous, but if you create a setup where you are unreachable and surrounded by tiles that they can't spawn on, you can instead let them roam around outside and ideally die while running through acid or lava. This trick can lead to very easy kills and greatly improve your kill percentage. See below for some example images:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-Some players have reported seemingly playing for Strongman Badges correctly, but not earning the corresponding badges. In the coding, the way kills are handled is that there are 4 category counts for "Chainsaw", "Knife", "Melee" (fists), and "Other" kills. For badges that require using only fists, the sum of "Melee" and "Other" kills is compared to total kills. My assumption is there is some strange type of kill that is not captured by either "Melee" or "Other", despite wielding nothing, but I haven't been able to determine if this is true or what it could be. It's possible this was only a bug in previous versions and has since been corrected.

-While it can be tempting at time, going for too many goals simultaneously can be risky and lead to earning none of them. In particular, collecting Assemblies, Exotics, and Uniques that aren't important to your game but needed for various badges, can be distracting. This is different than going for a Silver Badge that would also earn you a Bronze Badge if you create yourself a singular goal, which I recommend if you're confident. It helps to chip away at the medals and badges you want instead of overextending yourself, and it means you also won't need to overextend yourself in future games. Of course though, players who love a more high-risk/high-reward playstyle may want to go for it all.

Ranks

Below is the list of requirements to achieve each ranking. They are all based on simply killing enemies, and so with enough time into the game, any player of any skill level should be able to get most of these. However, there are definitely efficient ways of doing so, which is what this section of the guide will cover.

Former Human

Kill 50 Former Humans

Simply playing a bit of the game will get you the 50 needed kills. Run around on I'm Too Young To Die and kill every Former Human you find.

Imp

Kill 100 Imps / Kill 10 enemies in melee

Similarly, 100 Imps is just a matter of playing the game a bit. For melee kills, use a Combat Knife, or the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court, or even just your fists. A couple points in Brute will make it easy to get kills.

Demon

Kill 100 Demons / Kill 100 enemies in melee / Kill 10 Demons in melee

For some easy melee kills, play a game on I'm Too Young To Die, put points into Brute and Berserker, and get the Chainsaw from the easy version of The Chained Court. Running around a few games of this should get you all the needed melee kills quickly.

Cacodemon

Kill 100 Cacodemons / Kill 10 Cacodemons with the pistol / Kill 2500 enemies

For easier pistol kills, use Angel of Overconfidence and also Angel of Max Carnage if preferred, and roam around with Assault Shotgun to damage up Cacodemons and finish them off with Combat Pistol. The Chained Court can also help with some controlled setups for Cacodemons if you want easier gameplay.

Mancubus

Kill 20 Mancubi / Kill 5 Mancubi with the pistol / Kill 5 Mancubi in melee

Angel of Overconfidence helps a lot with speeding up finding Mancubi. Corner shoot them to lure them in, and as they approach, finish them off with the Combat Pistol and Combat Knife for easy kills. Only needing 5 each doesn't take long, even if you have to do it safely and slowly.

Hell Knight

Kill 200 Hell Knights / Kill 50 Hell Knights with the pistol / Kill 20 Hell Knights in melee

Hell Knights are a bit tricky to farm kills because they don't appear in great numbers early on, but also disappear for the most part in late games. I would suggest collecting your kills as a part of an Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666 game. Pistol kills tend to be the most awkward to claim, so you could attempt Angel of Confidence with Angel of Max Carnage to give yourself some Hell Knights to take out and decent power to your Pistol. If you want a lazier approach, play with Angel of Red Alert on Nightmare, enter level 3 or 4 of Phobos, wield your Pistol, and simply let the nuke kill everything. It's probably one of the most annoying requirements, but 50 isn't too massive of a number.

Baron of Hell

Kill 500 Barons of Hell / Kill 1000 enemies in melee / Kill 10000 enemies

These numbers will all come naturally simply through playing enough. If you want to quickly buff your kills, play Archangel of 666, aim to use a melee build in the later game with Dragonslayer, and attack away. Barons are very common and don't require target farming.

Arch-Vile

Kill 500 Archviles / Kill 2000 enemies in melee / Kill 25000 enemies

As with Baron of Hell ranks, Archangel of 666 and going for the Dragonslayer is the most efficient way to score large number of melee kills and kills in general. Archviles are likewise also pretty common and don't require target farming.

Cyberdemon

Kill 100 Cyberdemons / Kill 50000 enemies

While there are various strategies with farming Cyberdemons from Tower of Babel, 100 is a large number of kills, and it is much more efficient to get 100 from playing Archangel of 666. If you obtain the Inquisitor Set and carefully avoid their melee damage, Cyberdemons are very easy to kill. Ripper Chainsaw (B) is generally the best alternative until you find Dragonslayer, or Butcher's Cleaver if you're playing in high-density areas. All this said, unless you're playing on Ultra-Violence or Nightmare, you may need a few of these long runs to find enough Cyberdemons, as well as getting 50000 kills, but once you're at full power and far into the game with high enemy density, you can achieve the most efficient kills by clearing entire floors fairly quickly. If you're feeling particularly lazy, you can also use the Berserker Armor strategy and let Nightmare Demons repeatedly spawn and die until you have all the kills you need.

Apostle

Kill 50 JCs

There are many strategy possibilities for farming JC kills with different pros and cons, which I will cover, but I'll start with what I believe is most efficient overall, and briefly touch on others.

Strategy 1) Angel of Berserk + Angel of Overconfidence. Select Scout and go with Brute->Brute->Berserker->Brute->Intuition/Hellrunner/Finesse to increase damage, allow Berserk, and allowing you to scout out Invulnerabilities. The first levels can be rough, but Run->Wait at a door can help give you some quick kills somewhat safely. Save the Chainsaw boost for JC later, but don't be afraid to use the Large Medpacks. Agility Packs go into the Chainsaw, and then Boots, a pair of Technical Packs can also go into Boots to reduce JC's knockback later, and Power Packs first go into Chainsaw, then Red Armor. Being Berserk with Red Armor (P) minimizes most damage.

Collect Phase Devices, Envirosuits, skip Unholy Cathedral and The Vaults, and enter ideally Limbo, but The Mortuary can work too. Use any Phase Devices available first, then Homing Phase Devices to try to get to the top-right corner where the Nuclear BFG is, but the bottom-right corner can also work. Be cautious of fireballs that can destroy it.

Use floors 5, 6, and 7 to try and find Invulnerabilities, and if possible, then use Homing Phase Devices where needed to get to Dis as quickly as possible. Nuke the Spider Mastermind, head towards JC, and stop a bit past the "d" of the "id" in blood. Use Envirosuits if available, use the Chainsaw boost, and aggressively run at JC in a zig-zag pattern. If you happen to have found an extra nuke, immediately use that once you entered the level for a fast kill as win type is irrelevant.

This strategy is reliant on a bit of luck and is a bit tough for intermediate players, but it's the most efficient way to farm JC kills, even if some runs aren't successful. The keys to this is Berserk keeping you easily alive, the power of Chainsaw, especially while Berserk, and not needing to spend real time with inventory management or most levels.

Strategy 2) Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Overconfidence. This strategy will involve playing more of the game, and grabbing both the Nuclear BFG and Lava Element, although certainly a regular nuke and Invulnerabilities also works. Any build can also work well. Clear your way through the first 4 floors, saving any Phase Devices and Envirosuits you find. Grab the Nuclear BFG and slowly clear out the other floors and Mt Erebus/The Lava Pits to get the Lava Element. The Nuclear BFG is great for easily clearing most enemies. Nuke Dis, use the Lava Element, and then blast JC with your best weapons available.

This is decently efficient and is less reliant on luck, but requires more time getting through the game. The one big plus is players may find it more fun of a grind to play as there's a lot more versatility.

Strategy 3) Angel of Max Carnage + Angel of Red Alert. This strategy is very slow because you have to play all the way through from the start of the game, and you also have to be cautious to keep mistakes minimal with both game settings being potentially deadly. However, consistency is excellent as all you need is the Lava Element, enter Dis, use it as it gets nuked, and then let the timer expire against JC without needing to actually fight him. Use this strategy if you have no issues with taking your time to collect 50 kills, or simply prefer a fuller experience.

89

Discussion / Re: Another Journey to 100%

« on: July 23, 2020, 13:18 »

Thanks, although I have to say, you chose an amusing time to pop in.

Day 21

I decided to start with Veteran Angelic Badge, which isn't too bad once you get through the first half of the game. If you can get to Mortuary/Limbo and grab the Nuclear BFG, it solves a good amount of problems for the run.

Last time, I got a golden run and was able to get this badge on my first try, and with that, I took this run very carefully to see if I could do it again.

To start, I found a great armor on floor 1:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also found a much needed weapon:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There were also a few Mancubi and Shotgun Guys who I farmed up a bit for ammunition. 100% kills on Nightmare can be a bit of an obstacle since everything needs to be killed and then destroyed, which is very ammo-expensive.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 2 was a bit messy, but a fair challenge, and I was able to scoop up more ammo:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 3 was a maze with a vertical lava river, and I accidentally blew up the bridge, which I actually did not want because crossing over later is dangerous:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Once again, I had tons of ammo to grab:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Overall, a very strong start:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 4 had a horizontal lava river and was very nasty. I also almost died pretty quickly:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After clearing the floor, I was at a tough decision as I rolled Limbo, but didn't have any of the needed supplies to take it on, in particular, Med-Paks and Phase Devices:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I decided I would push my luck and hope I could find a nuke by chance. Floor 5 was a decent start:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At one point, I was getting attacked by a Mancubus with few options to go from here. I decided to use my Homing Phase Device, despite it being at an angle relative to where it was firing from, hoping it wouldn't kill me:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But it unfortunately didn't work out:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

No first try this time! This run took almost an hour though and it's pretty draining to do all that only to not get the desired luck regarding Limbo. This is the kind of thing where you can only get a few runs a day, even if you play a lot.

So I decided to try something more sprinty and a bit crazy.

I was theorycrafting a bit with Pacifist Angelic Badge and perhaps most people go with Hellrunner, but I am pretty convinced that Intuition is the optimal choice. While Hellrunner does give you more movement speed and dodging, Intuition provides you with the locations of Computer/Tracking Maps, which are invaluable, as well as Invulnerabilities and other useful powerups. While it's obviously necessary to prevent any monsters killing each other, you yourself must also survive. I would argue the movement speed difference from Hellrunner is made up for by having access to maps as well.

I also looked into the coding and the badge requires exactly 1 kill and a completed run, so no silly business here. However, it's worth noting that if a player makes it to Dis while Invulnerable, they should let it run out before nuking the Spider Mastermind, in the off-chance that JC accidentally kills something it spawns.

On my tenth attempt, with my previous best being Phobos floor 5 with no deaths, I had this happen.

To start, I had a very interesting room:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also found a pretty useful armor early on, which is nice for better damage reduction and movement speed compared to Blue Armor:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 4 gave me a nearby map:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 5 also gave me a Phase Device! As you need to get through Phobos Anomaly with 0 monster deaths, it's essentially mandatory to have at least one of these. Invulnerability also likely won't cut it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also found both the main exit and the Chained Court and was undecided of where to go. I think the Berserks could be helpful, but I was concerned with monsters all killing themselves and decided I would look into it on a future run where I only found Chained Court. With this, I have now surpassed my previous best!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 6 gave another excellent example of the power of maps:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I took a chance with the nearby teleporter, but it was unfortunately mostly useless:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Things were getting dicey:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But I managed to make it to floor 7!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I really wanted the map if not the stairs, but I couldn't reasonably approach it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Even from another angle:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But I found the stairs!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So after all this, I still have to get very lucky with a Phase Device to skip all the early monsters. I used it and...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I got past! I ran around the Bruisers and rolled an amazing Deimos floor 1, that also had no risk of monster kills with a Lost Soul cave!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It got better too:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 2 also had very nearby stairs!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And again on floor 3!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 4 was looking bad though:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or not! I even rolled City of Skulls, whereas Abyssal Plains would have to be skipped:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 5 was another cave, and it had Invulnerability too!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This was getting pretty insane.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 6 didn't look too promising, but Invulnerability helps. However, I heard a Demon yell in pain and got worried:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After exploring the starting rooms and having nowhere else to go, I had to go left and had a room of Demons with a bunch of damaging fluids. And just like that, it was all over:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I did go the correct direction too, so there weren't really mistakes on my part:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This was an absolutely crazy run that had ridiculous luck in it, but ultimately, I was barely half way done, getting low on supplies, and lost it due to monsters being dumb. It would honestly take me hundreds of more attempts to get another run like this, and some ungodly amount to actually complete it. I did genuinely think that this was something a player could realistically get if they played out enough runs, but after having been given everything I could have realistically imagined, I've been thoroughly convinced that this is not feasible at all.

Anyway, I've been getting struck by the same feelings I had before where the game is slowly turning from fun into a slog, despite me clearly capable of a lot more, so I'm going to take another break. For reference, I have played 150 hours in the last 3 weeks, which is more than most full-time jobs! If it wasn't obvious already, I'm generally very on/off type of person.

Hopefully the burnout is just temporary, but I have everything up to this point backed up so I won't have to redo everything again. Maybe it will be 3 days, maybe it will be 3 years, but I'm going to do some other stuff for awhile. Perhaps maintaining a daily blogging style is not the best way to approach since I unnecessarily put pressure on myself to perform, though it does get some fast results. Maybe I'll simply post in the post-mortem board section for future rewards and create an additional separate thread if I discover any more relevant strategy ideas like the Humanity Azrael strategy or JC farming, etc. We'll see!

[--------------------------------------------------------------]

90

Discussion / Re: Another Journey to 100%

« on: July 22, 2020, 14:22 »

Day 20

After a bit of struggling the last couple days, today was a huge success! On my first run of the day, I got Everyman Platinum Badge and Thomas's Medal with the Humanity + Overconfidence strategies!

The first floor had two Homing Phase Devices, which meant I could later skip floors 5 and 7, but I didn't want to get too excited since the hardest parts are at the beginning. After getting Azrael's Scythe, wiping The Vaults, and clearing out Limbo with some luck and more Whispers of Death, I was well set to complete. The stack of items leaving Limbo means there's enough Med-Paks for Lava Pits/Mt Erebus, Red Armor (P) for tanking the Lava Elemental, Nuclear BFG where needed, even if just for the ending, and a Soulsphere to reach a whopping 10 HP.

I had Invulnerability for Lava Pits, which ran out, but I also had an Envirosuit and killed the Lava Elemental in 2 hits:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then with the Homing Phase Device for floor 7 and Nuclear BFG for Dis, it was all done.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Icy, level 9 Apostle Chaos Colonel Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 193408 turns and scored 75100 points.
 He played for 24 minutes and 42 seconds.
 He wasn't afraid to be hurt plenty.

 He killed 190 out of 278 hellspawn. (68%)
 He was an Angel of Humanity!
 He was also an Angel of Overconfidence!

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

  Levels generated : 4
  Levels visited   : 4
  Levels completed : 4

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

  UAC Star (silver cluster)
  Angelic Badge
  Thomas's Medal
  Everyman Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  #>.........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #...................&......................................
  #.................X......................................&.
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #>.........................................................
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 0/5   Experience 30781/9
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +6

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 1)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 2)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)

  Bru->Bru->Ber->Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Fin->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [6/6] (98%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   nothing
    [c] [ Boots      ]   steel boots [2/2] (100%) (P)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   shell box (x93)

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

    [a] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
    [b] plasma rifle (1d8)x6 [40/40] (P1)
    [c] combat pistol (3d3) [15/15]
    [d] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6] (T1)
    [e] minigun (1d6)x8 [200/200] (T1)
    [f] Angelic Armor [7/7] (99%)
    [g] Azrael's Scythe (9d9)
    [h] rocket (x10)
    [i] power cell (x20)
    [j] power cell (x50)
    [k] power cell (x50)
    [l] power cell (x50)
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] large med-pack
    [o] large med-pack
    [p] phase device
    [q] lava element
    [r] 10mm ammo chain (x250)

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 85%   torso 85%   feet 85% 
    Fire       - internal 85%   torso 95%   feet 85% 
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

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

    4 former humans
    12 former sergeants
    7 former captains
    14 imps
    17 demons
    53 lost souls
    23 cacodemons
    4 hell knights
    4 barons of hell
    3 arachnotrons
    4 former commandos
    1 pain elemental
    9 revenants
    22 mancubi
    10 arch-viles
    1 lava elemental
    1 Angel of Death
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  On level 1 he assembled a chainsword!
  On level 1 he assembled a ballistic armor!
  On level 1 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 1 he found the Azrael's Scythe!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 3 he entered the Vaults.
  He managed to clear the Vaults completely!
  On level 4 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  On level 4 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
  He left level 5 as soon as possible.
  On level 6 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
  He left level 7 as soon as possible.
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 8!
  On level 8 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 Warning! Explosion in 9 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 8 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 7 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 6 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 5 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 4 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 3 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 2 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 Warning! Explosion in 1 seconds! You need to taste blood!
 Congratulations! You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now. That hurt! You' going berserk!

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

 2633 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 2018 of those were killed.
 7 of those were killed by something unknown.
 109 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 374 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 125 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 4 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 120 killed the bitch and survived.
 1 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Next, I tried for Quartermaster Platinum Badge and got that in just a few tries too! My general strategy was to use Max Carnage, kill a handful of monsters along the way to get Dodgemaster for the Cyberdemon, and stairdive for most of the whole way through.

On Deimos floor 4, I had a nice double Invulnerability:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On floor 7, I found a Homing Phase Device while still Invulnerable and opted to use it then.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hell floor 1 was a bit rough:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But I found another Homing Phase Device:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And decided after searching through most of the level which has two staircases to hold onto it, which was a bit risky with some of the monsters that were around:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On floor 2, while this weapon is basically useless, it's a nice source of Cells:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Funny enough, it was good that I went to grab it or I may have had a very long level:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 3 was also a mess and while I wanted to hang onto my Homing Phase Device, I think it was the right call to use it there:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And it was for sure:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 4 was nicer:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And looking even better with yet another Homing Phase Device. I was a little worried about all the Archviles and Revenants though so I tried to stay above to direct their fire away from it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Which also revealed the stairs!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After killing them, it seems that it was destroyed unfortunately:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or not:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 5 was fair, and I was lucky to have ran in the right direction:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And with this floor 6, I had the game won!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I did Run->Wait at Dis to end the game after.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Icy, level 9 Apostle Chaos Colonel Scout,
 sacrificed himself to kill the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 24942 turns and scored 416412 points.
 He played for 32 minutes and 13 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 494 out of 978 hellspawn. (50%)
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Red Alert!

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 2
  Levels completed : 0

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

  Cyberdemon's Head
  UAC Star (silver cluster)
  Minor Icarus Cross
  Quartermaster Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  .........................................................>#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  .&......................................X.................#
  ......................................&...................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  .........................................................>#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 0/50   Experience 31708/9
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +1  ToDmg Melee +1

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 1)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)

  Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Fin->Jug->Fin->SoB->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [4/4] (58%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
    [c] [ Boots      ]   plasteel boots [2/2] (94%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   10mm ammo chain (x162)

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

    [a] chaingun (1d6)x4 [40/40]
    [b] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [40/40]
    [c] blue armor [1/2] (39%)
    [d] chainsaw (4d6)
    [e] 10mm ammo (x88)
    [f] 10mm ammo (x100)
    [g] 10mm ammo (x100)
    [h] shotgun shell (x50)
    [i] shotgun shell (x50)
    [j] shotgun shell (x50)
    [k] power cell (x48)
    [l] small med-pack
    [m] small med-pack
    [n] small med-pack
    [o] small med-pack
    [p] large med-pack
    [q] large med-pack
    [r] large med-pack
    [s] 10mm ammo chain (x250)
    [t] 10mm ammo chain (x250)

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

    Acid       - internal 0%    torso 0%    feet 50% 
    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 25%   feet 25% 

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

    65 former humans
    20 former sergeants
    17 former captains
    77 imps
    73 demons
    182 lost souls
    3 cacodemons
    16 hell knights
    4 barons of hell
    2 former commandos
    18 pain elementals
    6 revenants
    2 mancubi
    4 arch-viles
    3 nightmare imps
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 12 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  He left level 15 as soon as possible.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  He fled the Unholy Cathedral seeing no chance to win.
  He left level 18 as soon as possible.
  He left level 19 as soon as possible.
  He left level 22 as soon as possible.
  He left level 23 as soon as possible.
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally sacrificed himself to kill the Mastermind.

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

 Warning! Explosion in 60 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 50 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 40 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 30 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 20 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 10 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 9 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 8 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 7 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 6 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 5 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 4 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 3 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 2 seconds!
 Warning! Explosion in 1 seconds!
 Congratulations! You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...

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

 2638 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 2018 of those were killed.
 7 of those were killed by something unknown.
 113 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 374 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 126 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 5 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 120 killed the bitch and survived.
 1 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


My next pick was Berserk + Overconfidence on Ultra-Violence with 100% kills to get me both Gargulec Cross and Berserker Platinum Badge. My general strategy for this is to get a strong floor 1, grab Azrael's Scythe, and then Run->Wait camp to kill everything on the rest of the floors. So long as you can kill basically everything in one hit, door camping is very safe, especially once getting Vampyre.

This challenge took a number of tries unlike earlier, and I had some interesting games along the way.

I had a really odd island level with intersecting bridges:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On one run, I rolled a lever that would floor the whole level with lava, and also found a Homing Phase Device:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My plan was to pull it, warp onto the stairs, and get an easy clear, although I wouldn't be getting Azrael's Scythe on this particular attempt:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately, there were a number of flying enemies, and a nearby Chaingunner who was safe on an opened door:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I couldn't do a whole lot from here:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On another run, I found a Trigun on floor 1!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also with an Invulnerability near the stairs to Unholy Cathedral:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately though, there were Barons hanging around there, it was a flooding level, and I had just slightly too little health to grab it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On another good run, I had a Revenant level, which is excellent for experience and easy kills. I left with a giant stack of Med-Packs:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was able to get Azrael's Scythe and not long after floor 2, got Vampyre. Getting runs up to this point can be rare, so I had to take things a bit more seriously from here. Floor 3 was nice and I was able to start door camping:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 4 was also nice:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The entire right side of the level only had one entrance, which made camping very powerful:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was very helpful too since the other side was a mess:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Because of the Tracking Map, Run->Wait was only so fast, so I slowly approached and cleared out the level. I had a pretty solid stack of items:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 5 gave me another Computer Map and revealed lots of useful items:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was also able to isolate very well:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 6 once again gave me a Computer Map:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I had to play a bit aggressively as there were a ton of Archviles and Mancubi to the right, with barrels littered everywhere. Envirosuit helped a lot, but I had a few sketchy moments:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After that side was empty, I was able to do more door camping:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 7 was a big mess of a level, but at least I found yet another Computer Map:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Because of the angle of a vault towards a rough spot below, I decided to charge in. It's not as dangerous as it looks since the Cacodemons end up meat-shielding each other and they all get killed easily:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was considering using some Whispers of Death, but wasn't sure if it would be the best call to approach the Spider Mastermind with less HP. I decided not to and was able to clear the bottom without as much trouble as I expected:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And with that, it was an easy finish!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Icy, level 9 Apostle Chaos Colonel Marine,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 853391 turns and scored 119974 points.
 He played for 44 minutes and 55 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 298 out of 298 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Berserk!
 He was also an Angel of Overconfidence!

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

  Levels generated : 4
  Levels visited   : 1
  Levels completed : 1

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

  Medal of Prejudice
  Gargulec Cross
  Berserker Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ##########................................#################
  #########...............####...............################
  ########.......####.....####.....####.......###############
  #######........####.....####.....####........##############
  ######.........####.....####.....####.........#############
  #####..........####..............####..........############
  ####............................................###########
  ####....####............................####....###########
  ####...&####............................####....###########
  ####....####............................####....###########
  ####....####............................####....###########
  ####............................................###########
  #####..........####..............####..........############
  ######.........####.....####...%.####.........#############
  #######........####.....####..X..####........##############
  ########.......####.....####.....####.......###############
  #########...............####...............################
  ##########................................#################
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 81/60   Experience 37348/9
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +6  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +9

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

  Class : Marine

    Tough as nails   (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Badass           (Level 2)
    Vampyre          (Level 1)

  Bru->Bru->Bru->Ber->Bad->MVm->Bad->TaN->TaN->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nothing
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Azrael's Scythe (9d9)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   fireproof steel boots [1/1] (97%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   nothing

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

    [a] green armor [1/1] (47%)
    [b] blue armor [2/2] (100%)
    [c] blue armor [1/2] (22%)
    [d] large med-pack
    [e] large med-pack
    [f] large med-pack
    [g] large med-pack
    [h] large med-pack
    [i] phase device
    [j] phase device
    [k] protective boots [2/2] (100%)
    [l] gothic boots [10/10] (200%)

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 85%   torso 85%   feet 85% 
    Fire       - internal 85%   torso 85%   feet 95% 
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

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

    18 former sergeants
    12 former captains
    28 imps
    39 demons
    97 lost souls
    21 cacodemons
    9 hell knights
    22 barons of hell
    9 arachnotrons
    2 former commandos
    9 pain elementals
    14 revenants
    10 mancubi
    6 arch-viles
    1 Angel of Death
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  On level 1 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
  On level 1 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 1 he found the Azrael's Scythe!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 3 he assembled a fireproof boots!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 8 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit!
 You need to taste blood!
 You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You miss the Spider Mastermind. You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now. You're going berserk!

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

 2663 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 2038 of those were killed.
 7 of those were killed by something unknown.
 114 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 377 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 127 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 5 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 121 killed the bitch and survived.
 1 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Next up, Berserker Diamond Badge. Like other Nightmare challenges with kill requirements, my strategy was to rush to the end, isolate an enemy, and repeatedly kill it until I'm set to finish.

This start didn't look very promising:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On a much better run, I got to floor 4 and accidentally went to The Mortuary, thinking it was The Vaults. Lucky me, the upper-right area was pretty empty!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And on floor 5, I found an Invulnerability to go with my Nuclear BFG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I decided to nuke floor 5 for the experience, get Intuition, and hopefully find some useful power-ups in the next floors. And it worked out really well!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 7 was the main floor that mattered and it had two lava rivers!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The left side was already cut off!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For the right side, I was going to make use of a few barrels to help. Combat Knives are really helpful for this on Berserk challenges:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the right side though and there was a pile of Hell Knights and Barons over there. I had most of the bodies destroyed, except one Hell Knight and hoped I could push the last barrel close enough to it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not quite:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So instead, I let the Hell Knight destroy the Mancubus corpse I was saving and went for repeated Hell Knight kills instead, which was slightly riskier:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In any case, the setup was complete, but I had quite a few kills to get:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I still had to fight the Spider Mastermind without dying, but I had the Chainsaw boost to help:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And after just a small handful of runs, I got the badge!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Icy, level 6 Apostle Chaos Colonel Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 109631 turns and scored 100304 points.
 He played for 22 minutes and 30 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 486 out of 790 hellspawn. (61%)
 He was an Angel of Berserk!
 He was also an Angel of Overconfidence!

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

  Levels generated : 4
  Levels visited   : 1
  Levels completed : 0

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

  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Berserker Diamond Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ####################................................#######
  ###################...............####...............######
  ##################.......####.....####.....####.......#####
  #################........####.....####.....####........####
  ################.........####.....####.....####.........###
  ###############..........####..............####..........##
  ##############............................................#
  ##############....####............................####....#
  ##############....####............................####....#
  ##############....####........X%..................####&...#
  ##############....####............................####....#
  ##############............................................#
  ###############..........####..............####..........##
  ################.........####.....####.....####.........###
  #################........####.....####.....####........####
  ##################.......####.....####.....####.......#####
  ###################...............####...............######
  ####################................................#######
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 15/50   Experience 11054/6
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +6  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +9

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 1)
    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 1)

  Bru->Bru->Ber->Bru->Int->Fin->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nothing
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   chainsaw (4d6) (A)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   steel boots [1/1] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   nothing

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

    [a] large med-pack

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Fire       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

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

    1 former sergeant
    2 former captains
    1 cacodemon
    454 hell knights
    3 barons of hell
    14 arachnotrons
    1 former commando
    1 pain elemental
    3 revenants
    2 mancubi
    3 arch-viles
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  On level 4 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  He managed to escape from the Mortuary!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 5!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 8 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You are hit! You are hit! You dodge! You dodge! You are hit! You are hit! You
 need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 You're going berserk!

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

 2674 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 2047 of those were killed.
 7 of those were killed by something unknown.
 114 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 378 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 128 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 5 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 122 killed the bitch and survived.
 1 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


I now have earned all the Medals and Platinum Badges I previously got and decided to get around to the last Gold Badge, which was Strongman. I'm not sure if my strategy or playstyle is weak, but I've always felt relatively weak on challenges that require Knives and Fists only. Despite that, I got a complete luckbox run and got the badge after just a couple tries!

After an average start with some door camping, I had a bad floor 5 and had no choice but to skip Chained Court:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 7 was where things started to look really good though:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Most of Deimos was me running around with Invulnerability and stairdiving, however, I realized my run was basically finished at the Cyberdemon with little experience and no Chainsaw. Perhaps related to my weakness on these challenges, I clearly had a major misunderstanding of how powerful Berserk really is. I started off with blasting the Cyberdemon with Plasma, took a couple hits which triggered Berserker, and charged at him with a basic Combat Knife. To my surprise, I actually managed to kill him, and with lots of health and a couple Med-Paks too!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hell floor 2 was a terrible start, but a Phase Device dropped me off right at the stairs!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 3 had the stairs one tile over!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 4 had an Invulnerability near the stairs, but I did have to work a little for this one at least:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also found this, but it was destroyed before I could grab it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 5 put me by the stairs again!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Floor 6 was good too!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And floor 7 too!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And suddenly, I was at the end of the game. I was still slightly worried about dying, but with Berserk and lots of Brute, I was still strong enough to make the Spider Mastermind flinch and took her out without too much trouble!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Icy, level 5 Apostle Chaos Colonel Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 288365 turns and scored 68219 points.
 He played for 16 minutes and 30 seconds.
 He wasn't afraid to be hurt plenty.

 He killed 121 out of 509 hellspawn. (23%)
 Who gave him the ticket to Hell, anyway?

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 1
  Levels completed : 0

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

  Malicious Knives Cross
  Compet-n Gold Cross
  Strongman Gold Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ############................................###############
  ###########...............####...............##############
  ##########.......####.....####.....####.......#############
  #########........####.....####.....####........############
  ########.........####.....####.....####.........###########
  #######..........####..............####..........##########
  ######............................................#########
  ######....####............................####....#########
  ######...&####................%...........####....#########
  ######....####................X...........####....#########
  ######....####............................####....#########
  ######............................................#########
  #######..........####..............####..........##########
  ########.........####.....####.....####.........###########
  #########........####.....####.....####........############
  ##########.......####.....####.....####.......#############
  ###########...............####...............##############
  ############................................###############
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 34/50   Experience 9135/5
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +6  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +9

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

  Class : Scout

    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 1)

  Bru->Bru->Ber->Int->Bru->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   blue armor [1/2] (49%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   combat knife (2d5) (T)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   nothing
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   shotgun (8d3) [1/1]

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

    [a] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [4/40]
    [b] green armor [1/1] (36%)
    [c] green armor [1/1] (39%)
    [d] green armor [1/1] (100%)
    [e] green armor [1/1] (10%)
    [f] combat knife (2d5)
    [g] combat knife (2d5)
    [h] shotgun shell (x50)
    [i] shotgun shell (x41)
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] large med-pack

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Fire       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 70%   feet 60% 

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

    29 former humans
    18 former sergeants
    7 former captains
    43 imps
    4 demons
    7 lost souls
    4 hell knights
    3 barons of hell
    2 former commandos
    1 revenant
    1 arch-vile
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  He left level 10 as soon as possible.
  He sounded the alarm on level 11!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  He fled the Unholy Cathedral seeing no chance to win.
  He left level 18 as soon as possible.
  He left level 19 as soon as possible.
  He left level 21 as soon as possible.
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! Your blue armor is
 damaged! You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 2678 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 2050 of those were killed.
 7 of those were killed by something unknown.
 114 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 378 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 129 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 5 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 123 killed the bitch and survived.
 1 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Slightly insulting to be given all this merely for a Gold Badge, but I'm certainly not complaining!

I now am only missing 3 rewards that I had previously obtained: Quartermaster Diamond Badge, Veteran Angelic Badge, and Lightfoot Angelic Badge. These are all tough challenges, but I think I can get them without too much trouble. I'm definitely at the point now where I don't think I will be getting new things every day, especially since I just cleared out a lot of what I was missing just today.

My other main targets are Everyman Diamond Badge using the Azrael strategy, which isn't too much harder than doing so on HMP, and completing an Angel of 100 game on Nightmare will give me all of Dervis' Medallion, Heroic Diamond Badge, and Centurial Diamond Badge, completing my Medal count and really upping my Diamond Badge count. I've been a bit frustrated with myself for not having done it before since it's so many rewards for one run, especially since I'm a huge fan of Angel of 100, so it will be some good redemption for sure. There's lots more unfinished business ahead, and there are a lot of non-reward challenges I intend to do too once the remaining rewards start becoming more and more infeasible.