Bullet Dance doesn't tend to get a lot of love, so I decided to YAAM a 666 game using it. Secret diamond in the rough? Correctly viewed as garbage? Maybe it's just mediocre?
Once fully decked out, Bullet Dance can yield some serious damage as it benefits from both Son of a Bitch and Son of a Gun, giving it a nice damage edge over Minigun. You can also fire in functionally the fastest speed possible, meaning that most enemies don't budge at all while you can take your time drilling them. Hot starts are never a concern because of their natural delay and the damage being outputted, you can clear everything before they can do anything back. Most enemies will die in one or two bursts, and even Cyberdemons only tend to take four.
Ammo is not too much of a concern since most of the shots tend to be ammo-efficient so long as you can make most of your hits. You can also use aimed shots to functionally "turn off" Bullet Dance, and also use single reload to keep one weapon empty. Grammaton Cleric Beretta, Anti-Freak Jackal, and Trigun are all decent options while working towards Nanomanufacture Combat Pistols, ideally finished with Sniper Packs.
And that's about the end of the good.
Bullet Dance is very viable end-game, but getting started is rough. Until you have several levels into Son of a Gun and ideally something better than regular Pistols, you're effectively playing with a slightly better Chaingun. Bullet damage also is one of the worst types as it has none of the benefits that Fire, Plasma, or Acid do, and is commonly resisted by some enemies, in particular Revenants, but also by anything picking up many different armors throughout each level. A few times, I had a Baron wearing a Gothic Armor who mostly shut down all of my damage. Fortunately, it's still trivial to kill everything.
Like other rapid-fires, Bullet Dance has significant disadvantages compared to Shotguns, BFGs, and explosives. To be able to hit enemies, you have to be aiming fairly bang-on to their positions, and they won't always be nicely aligned at a straight angle. After a few hits, you'll often knockback an enemy out of your line of fire and need to re-adjust. Rapid-fire is also awful at clearing groups since you have no area of effect damage and no piercing, meaning enemies clumped in the back have to get cut through to get to. Clearing floors can be extremely slow.
And what might make Bullet Dance terrible indirectly is all the traits it blocks. Eagle Eye blocked means that you can't pump up accuracy, which is a massive problem for a rapid-fire that is intended to be ammo efficient. Granted, most pistol weapons have decent accuracy, but even end-game setups tend to not reach maximum accuracy and hurts the damage potential and also the reliability. With Eagle Eye blocked, Intuition also is blocked, and holy shit was this awful to play without it. Clearing floors with having to hunt down enemies is a huge slog, especially with Archviles sneaking by, Nightmare Demons silently hiding, easily missing monsters that could have been detected, and firing blindly into the void after knocking back enemies out of line of fire. Not being able to beeline for Computer Maps that could be visible also slows down scouting floors significantly, and I also rarely ever used levers which may have been helpful at times.
Furthermore, Hellrunner and Dodgemaster are blocked, which grinds you down to a halt. Firing is ridiculously fast, but any other sort of action often results in enemies quickly shifting around and occasionally getting double attacks in. This also impacts trying to adjust positioning for firing after knockbacking for better angles, so generally I would just stay in place and fire blindly.
The worst floors were Agony Elemental caves, which would take forever because of such poor crowd control. I also think the floors starting with nukes would have been very difficult to fully clear if the difficulty was Ultra-Violence.
The act of needing to dual reload constantly, using aimed shot early on, and juggling ammo to control it effectively also slows down gameplay a lot. Bullet Dance is viable but has horrible quality of life.
I stuck with Inquisitor set, but Phaseshift set can be a decent alternative to compensate for lack of Hellrunner, but this will require 3 Nano Packs to max out the build. I also opted out of putting points into Reloader since I intended to use Nanomanufacture Combat Pistols and made better use of the trait points at the cost of a harder start.
---
On this particular game I had horrendously bad luck with Nano Packs, such that I didn't find my first one until floor 198, and then never found a second one, meaning I never properly completed my build. It didn't matter since I still melted everything and usually would be lazy and just fire one Nanomanufacture Combat Pistol so I didn't have to keep reloading. My general strategy was to find an open door and a camping spot, spam Run->Wait, and slowly pick off every enemy.
Throughout this game, I found a total of 10 Onyx Packs:
I also found a total of 7 BFGs / Nuclear BFGs. Simply using Biggest Fucking Gun would have been far better than Combat Pistols, which doesn't speak highly of Bullet Dance.
But only the one Nano Pack, which was also super late too:
Inventory also got interesting for ammo storage throughout the game:
I stopped the silliness at 8 Miniguns, but I did find 2 more later on. They were basically vanity items and literally never got used anyway. As much ammo as it was, it's still quite a long way off infinity and then instead filling my inventory with actually useful items.
Combat Pistols also came in fairly slow with floors 92, 171, and 218. Interestingly, Grammaton Cleric Beretta also showed up on floor 92:
---
And for some other interesting happenings now.
With high reliance on Run->Wait, most items would get picked up by enemies. This one in particular blew up like a pinata:
I found a Minigun, but it had a guardian:
What would be a fiery start:
Easy solution to a maze:
Cool layout for an island floor:
On a fresh continuation, I got one of each vault message:
Amongst the other trolling with Mod Packs, this floor had 4 Power Packs:
Pretty sweet supply room:
A little more trolling on the penultimate floor:
---
Here's the mortem:
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Icy, level 25 Cyberdemon Chaos Br. General Marine,
completed 100 levels of torture on level 666 of Hell.
He survived 34957348 turns and scored 10210581 points.
He played for 23 hours, 24 minutes and 3 seconds.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 22714 out of 22714 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Archangel of 666!
He saved himself 19 times.
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 0
Levels visited : 0
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Medal of Prejudice
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Experience Cross
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
############====###########################################
.%%..+...%#.====......................#|}...|...===........
.....###..=.====##..####..............#..|...}..=====......
.....###..==.====#..####...0..........#.=......=..#=#=.....
###.=#===.#=====##..####......X.....=.===##....==.##=.###..
###%===========###..####..........=======##..##======.###..
###.=====.=====.|...%..%.^...####.===.===##|.###=.===.###..
.....===..=====####...0....0.####..=..=.....%###..====.....
..###%....#====####....##==..####====.#.........|#==.=.|###
..###...../=====###....======.#.#====./..........#==.=..###
..###.....#=====###....=====..%.=====.#..###.....##==...###
.=.=......#======......#.===...|.=====#..###.###....=......
====......#====.=..||....==|..%..=====#..###.###.|.........
=====###..#====......====.====..#=====#......###.###.....##
=#===###..#.====...====#=======.##===.#.###..0...###.###.##
#=.=.###..#====.....===##.=====|####..#.###..!...###.###.##
##........#====......=#=#.=====.####..#.###..........###...
..........#====............===........#.^..................
...%......#====..|......|.............#%..................0
###########====############################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 160/80 Experience 7416908/25
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +5 ToDmg Melee +5
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Marine
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 2)
Tough as nails (Level 3)
Son of a bitch (Level 5)
Son of a gun (Level 5)
Dualgunner (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Badass (Level 2)
Triggerhappy (Level 2)
Bullet Dance (Level 1)
SoG->SoG->DG->SoB->SoB->TH->MBD->TH->SoG->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->SoG->SoG->SoB->SoB->SoB->TaN->TaN->TaN->Bad->Bad->Iro->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Malek's Armor [3/3] (100%)
[b] [ Weapon ] nanomachic combat pistol (3d3) (S1)
[c] [ Boots ] Nyarlaptotep's Boots [6/6] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] combat pistol (3d6) [26/26] (B2P3)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] combat pistol (3d3) [34/34] (B3)
[b] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[c] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[d] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[e] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[f] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[g] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[h] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[i] burst minigun (1d8)x10 [520/520] (B1)
[j] cerberus gothic armor [2/2] (200%) (P)
[k] 10mm ammo (x100)
[l] 10mm ammo (x100)
[m] 10mm ammo (x100)
[n] 10mm ammo (x100)
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] homing phase device
[r] homing phase device
[s] envirosuit pack
[t] sniper weapon pack
[u] Hell Staff
[v] cerberus plasteel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Acid - internal 0% torso 30% feet 30%
Fire - internal 0% torso 100% feet 100%
Plasma - internal 0% torso 30% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
695 former humans
1664 former sergeants
2478 former captains
87 imps
57 demons
1527 lost souls
213 cacodemons
1027 hell knights
3500 barons of hell
1115 arachnotrons
17 former commandos
225 pain elementals
1611 revenants
2279 mancubi
2580 arch-viles
83 nightmare imps
833 nightmare cacodemons
899 nightmare demons
487 nightmare arachnotrons
176 nightmare arch-viles
1 elite former human
4 elite former sergeants
68 elite former captains
65 elite former commandos
537 bruiser brothers
252 shamblers
68 lava elemental
104 agony elementals
62 Cyberdemons
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
On level 27 he found the Acid Spitter!
On level 33 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
He nuked level 34!
He nuked level 35!
On level 40 he assembled a cerberus boots!
On level 41 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He overloaded a nuclear plasma rifle on level 41!
He overloaded a nuclear plasma rifle on level 42!
Level 46 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 49 he found the Trigun!
Level 51 was a hard nut to crack!
Level 55 was a hard nut to crack!
Level 57 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 57!
He nuked level 58!
Level 61 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 61 he found the Mjollnir!
On level 65 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He nuked level 67!
Level 68 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 80, hell froze over!
Level 83 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 83 he found the Malek's Armor!
Level 87 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 88 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 92 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
On level 96 he found the Jackhammer!
Level 97 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 97 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
On level 99, hell froze over!
He sounded the alarm on level 100!
On level 101 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 102 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 103, hell froze over!
He nuked level 103!
He sounded the alarm on level 104!
On level 106 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 106 he found the Hell Staff!
On level 108 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He nuked level 108!
He left level 108 as soon as possible.
Level 109 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 110 he found the BFG 10K!
On level 111 he assembled a cerberus armor!
On level 118 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
On level 123 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 128 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 132 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 133 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 136 he found the Necroarmor!
Level 137 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 137 he assembled a burst cannon!
On level 138 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He sounded the alarm on level 139!
He sounded the alarm on level 140!
On level 144 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
Level 145 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 146!
Level 147 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He nuked level 147!
On level 148 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
Level 152 was a hard nut to crack!
Level 158 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 160 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 160 he assembled a burst cannon!
On level 161 he found the Railgun!
On level 162 he assembled a burst cannon!
On level 163 he found the Lava Armor!
He nuked level 165!
He nuked level 166!
On level 168 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 168 he found the Enviroboots!
On level 179 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 182, hell froze over!
On level 183 he found the Shielded Armor!
On level 185 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 192 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 194 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
Level 195 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 198 he assembled a nanomanufacture ammo!
On level 201 he found the Frag Shotgun!
Level 202 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 204 he assembled a burst cannon!
He sounded the alarm on level 205!
He nuked level 206!
On level 207 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 210 he assembled a burst cannon!
On level 212 he was bombarded!
Level 213 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 215 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 216 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
Level 222 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He nuked level 222!
On level 228 he found the Mega Buster!
On level 232 he encountered an armed nuke!
He nuked level 243!
Level 246 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 247 he assembled a burst cannon!
Level 249 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He nuked level 249!
Level 253 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
Level 255 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He nuked level 255!
On level 267 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
Level 273 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
Level 274 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 277 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
He nuked level 277!
He nuked level 278!
On level 279 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 279 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
On level 284 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 286 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 288 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
He sounded the alarm on level 291!
On level 292 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 293 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
Level 294 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 294!
On level 295 he was bombarded!
He nuked level 295!
On level 297 he found the Revenant's Launcher!
On level 298 he assembled a burst cannon!
On level 301 he assembled a burst cannon!
Level 303 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 305 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He sounded the alarm on level 312!
He nuked level 313!
On level 315 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
Level 315 was a hard nut to crack!
Level 319 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 320 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
Level 321 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 324!
He sounded the alarm on level 325!
He nuked level 329!
He sounded the alarm on level 330!
On level 331 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 332, hell froze over!
He sounded the alarm on level 333!
On level 333 he found the Hellwave Pack!
On level 334 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 336, hell froze over!
He sounded the alarm on level 341!
On level 354 he found the Cybernetic Armor!
He nuked level 358!
He left level 358 as soon as possible.
Level 359 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He nuked level 359!
He left level 359 as soon as possible.
He nuked level 361!
On level 365 he encountered an armed nuke!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 365!
He left level 365 as soon as possible.
Level 370 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 371 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 372 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 380, hell froze over!
On level 381 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 383 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 383 he found the Subtle Knife!
He sounded the alarm on level 385!
On level 388 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 389, hell froze over!
On level 391 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 395 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 397 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He nuked level 399!
On level 400, hell froze over!
He nuked level 400!
He nuked level 401!
On level 402 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 404 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 405 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 408 he was bombarded!
He nuked level 408!
Level 416 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 418 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 421, hell froze over!
Level 423 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 425!
He nuked level 430!
On level 438 he was bombarded!
On level 440 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 442 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 446 he encountered an armed nuke!
Level 448 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 448!
Level 454 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 455 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
Level 462 was a hard nut to crack!
Level 463 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He nuked level 463!
On level 472, hell froze over!
He nuked level 473!
On level 476 he ran for his life from acid!
He nuked level 479!
He nuked level 482!
On level 484 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 486 he was bombarded!
On level 489 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 492 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He nuked level 493!
On level 494, hell froze over!
Level 501 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 501!
He nuked level 502!
On level 507 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 509 he ran for his life from acid!
Level 516 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 518 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
Level 519 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 519!
He sounded the alarm on level 523!
On level 526 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 528 he encountered an armed nuke!
Level 534 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 535 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 537 he found the Berserker Armor!
On level 538 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 540 he encountered an armed nuke!
He sounded the alarm on level 546!
He sounded the alarm on level 552!
He sounded the alarm on level 553!
He sounded the alarm on level 556!
On level 572 he was bombarded!
On level 575 he encountered an armed nuke!
Level 577 was a hard nut to crack!
He nuked level 585!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 586!
He left level 586 as soon as possible.
On level 591 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 592 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He nuked level 593!
Level 594 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 595, hell froze over!
On level 597 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 599 he ran for his life from acid!
Level 605 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 610 he found the Charch's Null Pointer!
On level 612 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 613 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 616 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He sounded the alarm on level 621!
He nuked level 623!
On level 628 he stumbled into a lava elemental cave!
On level 630 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 633 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 639 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
On level 649 he was bombarded!
On level 651 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 652 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He nuked level 657!
On level 658 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
He nuked level 658!
On level 661 he encountered an armed nuke!
He nuked level 662!
He nuked level 663!
On level 665 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 666 he finally completed 100 levels of torture.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
The missile hits the arch-vile. The missile hits the arch-vile. The missile
hits the arch-vile. The arch-vile dies.
You dodge! Boom!
The missile hits the revenant. You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You dualreload your guns!
Boom! Boom! You are hit!
The missile hits the mancubus.
You hear the scream of a freed soul! You feel relatively safe now.
You dualreload your guns!
There is 10mm ammo (x100) lying here.
You found 38 of 10mm ammo. There is 10mm ammo (x62) lying here.
There are stairs leading downward here.
You're crazy, you know that, right? Hell, congratulations anyway! Press
<Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
1510 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
1170 of those were killed.
5 of those were killed by something unknown.
85 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 169 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
81 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
70 killed the bitch and survived.
5 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
---
In conclusion, I give Bullet Dance a solid "At least it's not Entrenchment" out of 10.
