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21
on: November 07, 2022, 22:09
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| Started by Sockthot - Last post by Sockthot | ||
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Not sure where else to ask - but I can't login to any of the wikis. I have this forum account and a mediawiki login, neither are working. Any advice?
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22
on: November 07, 2022, 20:42
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| Started by Icy - Last post by Icy | ||
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Today's been my first day of grinding for Everyman Angelic Badge and on my first run up to and past the Cyberdemon, I managed to push all the way to Hell 5. Unfortunately, I rolled some very unfortunate luck and couldn't escape out of the situation.
Despite praising Reloader in my study, I've ultimately switched to Hellrunner realizing just how little shooting there really is and given that, speed is absolutely necessary. One trick I accidentally found while playing out games was that if an enemy is killed on the edge of Phobos Base Entry, they are unable to respawn, which has made getting starts easier and a fair bit faster. Getting to The Chained Court is the hard part and every run so far that has made it there has also made it to Deimos. Given that, if I can string together enough good fortune with close stairs, Berserk Packs, and Invulnerabilities, this challenge is absolutely doable. Onto the run itself, the first several floors were standard, and then I got an excellent Phobos floor 7. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Deimos floor 2 was also absolutely fantastic. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Here, I was heavily split on what to do. City of Skulls is perfectly safe to run through, but it would have burned a lot of Berserk. On the other hand, if there were a swarm of enemies to the right, I might have taken heavy damage. I opted to go for the normal stairs and fortunately only had to kill a Former Human. Spoiler (click to show/hide) This floor was very tempting, but ultimately went immediately for the stairs and still had to burn through 2 Med Packs anyway. Spoiler (click to show/hide) This was an excellent floor and I was ready to fight the Cyberdemon with some heavy Berserk duration and still some Med Packs. With the math I did in my study thread, Chainsaw (B) was ready to go! Spoiler (click to show/hide) I got a bit greedy, but was forced to immediately take the stairs. Spoiler (click to show/hide) I had a fortunate Cyberdemon fight and tore it apart! Hell 1 was overall pretty nice. Spoiler (click to show/hide) EEP! Spoiler (click to show/hide) Because of the position of the barrel and all the fluids, I had no realistic option but to run to the right and blast away. Unfortunately though, I could hear Archvile noises. Spoiler (click to show/hide) When turning the corner, I just about got blasted to almost certain death into the acid, but dodged! Praise Hellrunner! Spoiler (click to show/hide) Going around the corner, there was a Computer Map that revealed a lot of goodies, but unfortunately I just couldn't go for them. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Wishing I had Reloader! Spoiler (click to show/hide) Even with running, fluids are brutal on this challenge and they cut off everything. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Scary start, but it was home free. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Things are starting to get really serious here. I did a pot shot down left and heard a bunch of Mancubi and was forced to run upwards. I found an Envirosuit! Spoiler (click to show/hide) From here, I charged between the boxes to draw as little attention as possible, and have a ton of defense against fire. Spoiler (click to show/hide) This was a brutal call. While I did have a Phase Device, The Mortuary was simply way too risky and I opted to charge through the maze, with the backup plan of heading back if it was too packed. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Fortunate entry into the maze. Spoiler (click to show/hide) I was very lucky it was only Lost Souls and Pain Elementals, and had an easy escape. Spoiler (click to show/hide) This is finally where things started to look grim, despite only 3 floors from the Spider Mastermind, who I was absolutely confident I would destroy if I could get there. Given that this is a maze level and the stairs are literally on the complete opposite side, I dashed for the Phase Device and hoped for the best. Spoiler (click to show/hide) lmao Spoiler (click to show/hide) Using Chainsaw (B), I was lucky to get mostly hits, especially without Berserk. But I turned the corner and had this mess. Spoiler (click to show/hide) I could hear a Mancubus directly to the left, so I figured with my fire resistance that I would charge at the Archvile and hopefully be able to get around. Spoiler (click to show/hide) omfg Spoiler (click to show/hide) I was on the verge of getting eaten, but a Revenant blew up most of the Demons and I survived with 1 HP left! Spoiler (click to show/hide) Unfortunately, the corner had a clog of Demons that I couldn't use Shotgun knockback through, so I had no choice but to run back down. Spoiler (click to show/hide) And unfortunately, I got blown up. Spoiler (click to show/hide) Here's the mortem: Spoiler (click to show/hide) Pretty dang good for my first day of trying for this, 18 serious attempts for the badge, 3 runs past Phobos, and 1 run past Deimos. I'm going to commit to grinding for this badge and I'm going to get it! |
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23
on: November 06, 2022, 17:23
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| Started by Icy - Last post by Icy | ||
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EDIT: I've updated many parts of this post as I've gone from theorycrafting to actually playing runs and also achieving the badge. A lot of information is improved.
Everyman Angelic Badge is an extremely difficult challenge and it's very unique in many ways that I find really interesting and exciting. As hard of a badge it is to earn, the initial build selection and planning is very simplified compared to normal gameplay because of the lack of traits. With Nightmare difficulty, 10 base maximum HP, and only one trait, you are very limited in what you can do and what you're capable of, which also makes it much easier to optimize, or at least hypothetically. With this in mind, the one trait you do select and how it impacts every part of the game is very critical, so it's worthwhile analyzing all of the possibilities. Class Choice Between the 3 classes who each have 10 traits, there are effectively only 30 builds, compared to the functionally infinite ways to make a build for normal games. Since the traits are all the same across the classes except the starting advanced trait available, the first part is to analyze each class. Hypothetically, most traits could be used to get a completion, and very hypothetically, all of them could, but the focus is on which is the best for the purposes of human realism on getting a completion. Scout Scout has 10% more speed than other classes inherently, which negates the speed loss from Nightmare difficulty, overall still being faster than other builds and also helping simplify some calculations. Of course, the main perk out of a Scout is stair sense. Given that your character will be a complete wimp, any sort of attempt of clearing out floors would be pretty much impossible, and it's ideal to be diving to the stairs, only detouring for items such as Invulnerabilities. Since level-ups have no effect, killing enemies offer no benefit besides their drops, so clearing out everything is unnecessary and dangerous. This makes stair sense incredibly important for success by reducing the exploration time down to a fraction compared to those without stair sense. Marine On Nightmare difficulty, each Invulnerability and Berserk offers 100 actions of duration, and a Marine has 125 instead. While the extra turns are certainly helpful, it's not as strong of a boost on Nightmare difficulty, and compared to stair sense, those 25 extra turns will likely just get burned through trying to find the stairs. The Marine also has 12 HP as opposed to 10, but unless your total damage taken is hitting 10 or 11, it's likely not significant enough of a benefit. The Marine's Badass trait helps preserve more HP up to 18, but that's an expensive trade-off for the boosts in speed and power. You can't be taking too much damage in general, so having extra health to burn won't be saving you from too much extra in the late game, and you can probably reduce damage taken by stopping enemies easier with other traits. The Marine doesn't seem to offer anything to be worth choosing over Scout. Technician The Technician comes with many various perks, but most will not significantly help survive through this challenge. Computer Maps functioning as Tracking Maps can help you avoid enemies, but you likely won't find too many while specifically not finding a Tracking Map per game, and they may simply just provide you with confirmation that you're about to die. They do offer the only way to see enemies since Intuition 2 is unavailable, but any class can likewise find Tracking Maps. Modifying a few unique items is pretty useless as they're all very rare, the perk only slightly improves them, and you have to first get far enough into the game for them to even be able to appear. Instant item use is a very good perk however as you're able to immediately heal without being instantly attacked and having your health brought back down. This helps a lot with reducing burning through Med Packs, but is likely still not outclassing stair sense. With Whizkid 1, it opens up quite a few useful assemblies such as Focused Double Shotgun and Hyperblaster, and it's possible to farm ammo for both, so I wouldn't write-off using it, especially starting off with plenty of Mod Packs to immediately make either if you find the corresponding base, but using a Hyperblaster is arguably not better than a much faster Scout using a Plasma Rifle and diving for the stairs. With no supportive traits, Focused Double Shotgun is still fairly dangerous to use with its slow reload time, and Hyperblaster will still be burning through ammo and needs a support weapon. Even with them, you likely won't be able to reasonably fend off the huge numbers of enemies. Likely unsurprising, Scout is the class of choice, but I do think a Technician or Marine could possibly get through too if they find correspondingly beneficial items. Stair sense is just far too useful and the speed boosts help allow you to reduce damage and clear paths by simply being able to kill enemies easier as they approach. Trait Choice Next is to break down the Scout's trait to select. Ironman Ironman adds 20% of your base maximum health, which in the case of Archcangel of Humanity is only 2. As is often the case in normal games, it's a bit of a filler trait and the negligible increase in health likely won't make a significant difference in your survivability. It's much more beneficial to simply be faster and reduce the possibilities of taking damage in the first place, rather than having extra health as a crutch. The only niche it's useful for is that Trigun's Angel Arm can't be used unless you have at least 11 maximum health, but finding it, burning off those extra 2, and not having another trait is all not worth having a free nuke. Finesse Finesse gives you a nice boost to firing speed, which can greatly help support the Shotgun's slowish speed and give you much more opportunity to keep enemies away. If you start in an open area with multiple fronts, it also helps a lot with pushing back more enemies in at a faster rate. This all said, 15% is only on average saving you an action for every 7 shots and doesn't help with reloading, so the speed increase isn't gigantic. It does also help with using the Chainsaw on the Cyberdemon if you don't have Invulnerability because you will get hit back slightly less often. If you like to throw in the starting Bulk Pack into a Shotgun for faster reloading speed, naturally having faster firing speed also helps smooth out your overall speed with using a Shotgun, instead of a small spike and large spike between firing and reloading. Overall, it helps a fair bit throughout the whole game and is one of the better choices. Hellrunner Providing 15% movement speed is very helpful for a game that will be focused on stair diving, and the dodge bonus is also helpful, both for regular levels, and often the Cyberdemon as well. To nitpick, compared to other traits, it won't help at all when standing in place and firing at enemies, and because Invulnerability and Berserk are based on movement actions, Hellrunner results in burning more turns to get to the Cyberdemon since it will be moving less often as you charge it. The other critiques against it is that because a completion of this challenge will likely be the result of stacks of Berserk and Invulnerability, Hellrunner isn't really helping under optimal situations, but of course is much more helpful when you have worse luck and have to run through without power-ups. Hellrunner is likely one of the choices, since traits that help combat are a bit irrelevant with how fruitless fighting back often is, but because of the dynamics and infinite possibilities, there may be many cases where others are better. Tough as Nails Tough is Nails isn't honestly terrible, since even reducing damage from 2 to 1 effectively doubles your lifespan, but it's a rather passive trait instead of something proactive. In order for it to save you from death, the sum of damage reduction has to equal the damage of an attack that would have otherwise killed you, which often is only giving you a couple extra hits across multiple floors if even that. It does help a lot more in the early game where damage is a lot lower, so I wouldn't completely write it off, but it's certainly not the most beneficial trait. Son of a Bitch Adding on an extra bit of damage to everything is nice, but it only helps if the 1 point difference saves you a shot or more per kill. Granted, this amount could be a lot, but would be hard to determine just how much Son of a Bitch is helping. Shotguns are fairly weak from a distance, which you may find yourself doing a lot, so that extra bit could be reducing the required shots by a lot in some situations, especially for tough enemies. The main comparison is if the faster kills are reducing the number of hits to simply being able to fire back faster with Finesse. More knockback with Son of a Bitch can also help slightly. Overall, I think it could be decent, but I don't think it's a top pick overall. Son of a Gun Given the nature of this challenge, you don't want to be using pistols. Pistols are only good with a full build dedicated to them, and a single trait is nowhere near enough to justify using them. Reloader Reloader is normally a pretty underwhelming trait, but because of the huge reliance on Shotguns and the better speed improvement compared to Finesse, it helps save a bit extra time, although is less helpful for other weapons. Reloader with the Bulk Pack in Shotgun gives the fastest speed for the beginning of the game, but is a bit spiky as firing speed isn't improved, and the Technical Pack helps smooth out shooting better. Reloader is definitely the best trait in terms of attacking in place with a Shotgun, but is a fair bit worse than other traits in most other situations. A lucky Shell Box also negates most of the benefits of Reloader, as opposed to Finesse which doesn't have a simple replacement. Eagle Eye Given that Shotguns are the most effective weapon without traits boosting them, Eagle Eye is likely not a great pick since they don't help them. The main appeal is it does somewhat open up using other weapons such as a Chaingun that goes from 74% accuracy to 91% accuracy at point blank. With the huge onslaught of enemies though, Shotguns are more helpful with groups and are also more ammo efficient, but a Chaingun could help with single targets or if you need to use several bursts without the risk of using reload repeatedly with a Shotgun. The Chainsaw and Plasma Rifle also enjoy increases to accuracy, which would help a lot for the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind. I think Eagle Eye could be usable, but I don't think it's the best choice with how much Shotgun should be used and that running through floors to the stairs tends to be a more effective strategy anyway. Brute It should go without saying that melee is not the way through this challenge. The main perk out of Brute is it can help speed up the Cyberdemon fight while Invulernable and/or Berserk, moreso because of the accuracy increase, but it's not really helpful at all for the rest of the game. Even with a miraculous Dragonslayer or Butcher's Cleaver, the hits you'll be taking even while camping are way too much for your tiny health amount. Intuition Intuition is a bit gimmicky in that it doesn't directly improve your character at all and simply informs you of where useful power-ups are, but because Invulnerabilities are essentially critical for success, I personally believe Intuition is the best build to use. The slight perk of knowing what levers may do isn't a huge deal, but can be slightly helpful for quick heals and armor repair. For Intuition to be beneficial, it has to influence your decision-making on where you go in a positive way, such as showing you that an Invulnerability or Berserk is a little further past the stairs, or nearby the opposite direction at the start. Knowing where healing power-ups is also helpful as you will likely need to rely on them to survive. However, the big setback is that Invulnerabilities only appear starting on floor 7 of Phobos, which makes Intuition a lot less useful early on. It's still great for Berserk Packs and Health Globes, but other traits are definitely better with getting through Phobos. Under ideal situations with lots of helpful power-ups, Intuition is the best, but Hellrunner is generally better in less than ideal scenarios. While getting through Phobos is hard, a player can definitely grind out runs through it and then hopefully find stacks of Invulnerabilities for an easy walk through the rest of the game. With all of these choices and widely varying circumstances, it's difficult to determine which one is the best overall, but I would argue Intuition is the best choice by a fair-sized gap. Getting through Phobos will require more skill and more luck, but the potential to make the rest of the game as easy as possible with this challenge is such a huge benefit. Hellrunner is definitely the second best choice by providing the very helpful movement speed and dodging bonus to escape each floor, and will always be beneficial, instead of Intuition which is not as consistent. The next tier down by a fair gap would likely be Finesse and Reloader, followed by Son of a Bitch and Eagle Eye. The other 4 traits definitely are outclassed, and using a Marine or Technician is definitely also outclassed. This overall leaves 6 build choices that are at least somewhat viable, but I would strongly recommend Intuition. Mod Pack Usage Next is some planning for the run itself. As you start with one of each Mod Pack, good use of them is important. The Bulk Pack could contribute to either reducing Shotgun reloading time by 25%, or giving the Chainsaw a damage buff. Damage calculations later will show that Piercing Blade isn't often worth using and Chainsaw (B) is very strong. High Power Weapon and Gatling Gun are generally outclassed by Shotgun, unless you're using an Eagle Eye build, so I think the best use of the Bulk Pack is the Chainsaw and using the Technical Pack for the Shotgun instead. The Agility Pack can be immediately used in your starting Red Armor as it offers a 15% increase in speed compared to 10% in boots that you may not find right away. The Power Pack on the other hand gives 2 extra protection to Red Armor, and since you don't have much health to begin with, the durability of the armor should last a long while to make good use of it. Below are some damage calculations (I believe I have the rounding calculated correctly): Former Human pistol shot vs Red Armor: 2d4 - 4 6.25% for 4 damage 12.5% for 3 damage 18.75% for 2 damage 62.5% for 1 damage Former Human pistol shot vs Red Armor (P): 2d4 - 6 6.25% for 2 damage 93.75% for 1 damage Former Sergeant shotgun blast (1 tile distance) vs Red Armor: (8d3 - 14%) - 8 2.39% for 10 damage (dead without health boost) 4.05% for 9 damage 7.68% for 8 damage 27.44% for 7 damage 16.87% for 6 damage 15.49% for 5 damage 11.95% for 4 damage 7.68% for 3 damage 4.05% for 2 damage 2.39% for 1 damage Former Sergeant shotgun blast (1 tile distance) vs Red Armor (P): (8d3 - 14%) - 12 0.02% for 9 damage 0.12% for 8 damage 0.55% for 7 damage 1.71% for 6 damage 4.05% for 5 damage 7.68% for 4 damage 27.44% for 3 damage 16.87% for 2 damage 41.56% for 1 damage Imp fireball vs Red Armor: (2d5 - 25%) - 4 4% for 4 damage 8% for 3 damage 12% for 2 damage 76% for 1 damage Imp fireball vs Red Armor (P): (2d5 - 25%) - 6 4% for 2 damage 96% for 1 damage Demon melee attack vs Red Armor: 1d3 + 5 - 4 33.33% for 4 damage 33.33% for 3 damage 33.33% for 2 damage Demon melee attack vs Red Armor (P): 1d3 + 5 - 6 33.33% for 2 damage 66.67% for 1 damage As you can see at a glance, Red Armor (P) significantly helps reducing damage in the early game. Whether or not that it makes up for the 15% speed increase with Red Armor (A) is far too complex of a question to answer, but given that you can find Steel Boots early and still come with 10% speed, I think it's most reasonable to use the Power Pack for Red Armor. If you find a second Agility Pack, it may be better to put into the Phobos Anomaly Red Armor as Tactical Boots only gets 5% extra speed as opposed to 15% for armor. The Technical Pack is best used for a weapon, which can be either Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, or possibly Plasma Rifle, although I would suggest Shotgun. If you want to use the Bulk Pack for Chainsaw for more damage, then the Technical Pack fits well into the Shotgun. You could also use the Technical Pack for the Chainsaw to increase attacking speed, although this only gives about 1 extra hit per 5 against the Cyberdemon and is not terribly beneficial compared to more damage. The best use may instead be simply holding onto it in the case you find a Combat Shotgun. To summarize, I think the best application is: Shotgun (T), Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun, Chainsaw (B) Alternatives include: Shotgun, Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun (T), Chainsaw (B) Shotgun, Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Tactical Shotgun, Chainsaw (B) Shotgun (T), Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Combat Shotgun (P), Chainsaw (B) Shotgun (B), Red Armor (P), Steel Boots (A), Combat Shotgun (T), Chainsaw Shotgun (B), Red Armor (A), Steel Boots, Combat Shotgun, Chainsaw (P) Which is best will highly vary based on what Mod Packs you find, how early you find boots and a Combat Shotgun, playstyle, and also what trait you picked. Phobos Phobos Base Entry is best played by taking cover at one of the corners of the building, grabbing a Shotgun as safely as possible, and then preventing corpses from respawning. This can be done by stacking them on top of each other, shooting enemies into the outer edges, or simply standing on them while clearing out others. Keep health as high as possible, try to one shot kill enemies in order to get the extra Small Med Packs, and be sure to exit with large stacks of shells. Keep a few open slots as you may find items worth grabbing later and don't want to spend time dropping garbage. Because most enemies will make quick work of you in Deimos and Hell, you don't have time to heal later, and Phobos Anomaly itself has two Large Med Packs, it's important to not be stingy with using them throughout the floors of Phobos. It's much better to have a below average run than to risk dying, since both a good or bad run essentially need the same type of luck in Deimos and Hell anyway. Work your way to the stairs as safely as you can on each floor and be sure to take shots into open, dark areas to scout for enemies. Phobos 3, 4, and 5 get dangerous fast with Hell Knights and other enemies, and The Chained Court is essential for success because of Berserk Packs and the Chainsaw. It can be a bit demotivating to spend time getting a good start through Phobos Base Entry only to die quickly after, so you'll need to tough things out and keep grinding for runs. For multi-hit enemies such as Former Captains, Former Commandos, and Arachnatrons, who all can quickly melt your health, it's often safer to lure them in around cover and attack with Chainsaw. Damage reduction does bring their shots down in power, but the quantity of them is too high to survive for long. Phobos Anomaly Next is analyzing how to get through Phobos Anomaly. Phobos Anomaly gives a fresh Red Armor, two Large Med Packs, and enough health to be at a maxed 20% as you enter the trap. The easiest way to get through is a fortunate floor 7 Invulnerability, which is the first floor it can spawn on. Otherwise, using either type of phase device to hopefully get past the trap or rocket jumping through with a Rocket Launcher. Even with any kind of support, Hellrunner helps significantly with the faster movement speed and the extra dodge bonus chance. Intuition is useless for this floor. There aren't really too many safe ways to be killing any enemies, so any of the other possible traits to pick aren't helpful here. Ultimately, this level will be a barrier for many games. Nightmare Demons will uniformly do damage in the range of 11-13, so even with 200% HP and Red Armor, you can only survive 2 hits, but you can definitely be killed in just 2 after health decay and high damage rolls. Nightmare Cacodemons will do an average of 6 damage after considering Red Armor protection per plasma ball, which also can't be tanked for very long. Finally, while Nightmare Imps do an average of 5 damage after protection per plasma ball, they more importantly can open doors so you aren't able to camp in the first or third room. Because of all this, you'll have to simply run through, and you are essentially forced to grab all of the Berserk Packs from The Chained Court. With all 4 and the Chainsaw, you'll have 500 turns of Berserk, which functionally guarantees you Berserk at Phobos Anomaly and significantly reducing all the damage, almost entirely down to just 1. Unless you have a horrendous floor 6 and 7, or have no choice but to spend time firing at enemies, you should be able to be Berserk every run through Phobos Anomaly. There is just no other way to get through Phobos Anomaly with any amount of consistency. For the Bruiser Brothers, rocket jumping between them is the fastest way through and helps avoid damage the most, but otherwise pick a side and run by. Being near them will increase the chance of being hit, but being near the wall will lead to getting caught in the splash damage. Take a note of where the plasma balls will hit in the case of a miss for each movement, and move in such a way to avoid the splash damage. Depending on the angle and positioning, you could attempt to get hit by the end radius and use the damage to be knocked back further ahead, but this needs to be done precisely. You may prefer just getting hit by melee attacks, which will keep your armor's durability higher, and will only do 1 damage assuming you have Red Armor. Regardless of what support you have, always get to the teleporter as fast and safely as possible. You'll likely get destroyed many games on this level if you don't have Berserk Packs. Tower of Babel The Cyberdemon has 450 health, its melee damage ranges 16-18 uniformly before reductions, and rockets will do huge chunks of damage if not outright kill you without protection through Red Armor and/or Berserk. Ideally, you'll have had more opportunities to be Invulnerable and/or Berserk and be able to be powered up for Tower of Babel. Hellrunner is a bit disadvantageous for charging to the Cyberdemon as the duration for power-ups is turn-based and the Cyberdemon will be moving a bit less each turn. Even with Hellrunner's dodge bonus and with max distance away, the Cyberdemon's health is far too high to chip away at with a Shotgun without eventually getting hit, so using the Chainsaw is the only way to go, but if you're not Invulnerable, you must absolutely be Berserk as the melee damage back is way too high. In the case you have a nuke and are Invulnerable, immediately blowing up the level is the best use as the Spider Mastermind can be killed much easier. Given 450 health and 4 armor, the following are some damage calculations for different types of Chainsaw. All calculations assume being Berserk. Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average of 37.5 attacks to kill. Chainsaw (A): 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average 30.24 attacks to kill. Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 31, average of 14.5 hits to kill, average of 29.03 attacks to kill. Chainsaw (P): 4d7 x2, average damage of 28, average of 16.07 hits to kill, average of 32.14 attacks to kill. Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 14.06 hits to kill, average of 28.13 attacks to kill. Eagle Eye + Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 24, average of 18.75 hits to kill, average of 25.34 attacks to kill. Eagle Eye + Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 31, average of 14.5 hits to kill, average of 19.59 attacks to kill. Eagle Eye + Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 14.06 hits to kill, average of 19 attacks to kill. At a quick glance, Eagle Eye significantly improves the fight, requiring far less hits. With Invulnerability, this saves an average of about 10 turns, helping you be sure you have enough entering, and more likely to have some duration after the kill. That said, I would argue it's not enough to justify using Eagle Eye over Intuition, Hellrunner, or other good traits for the game up to this point. The other notable point is that Piercing Chainsaw is very overrated while Berserk, and doesn't reduce the fight by much. Because Berserk doubles damage before armor reduction, the piercing doesn't add too much extra damage compared to a simple Bulk Pack. When not Berserk, the 4 damage boost is a more significant percentage of damage, but you likely won't survive long without Berserk anyway. However, Piercing Chainsaw is certainly helpful if you have Invulnerability and no Berserk: Chainsaw (B): 5d6, average damage of 13.5, average of 33.3 hits to kill, average of 66.6 attacks to kill. Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7, average damage of 16, average of 28.13 hits to kill, average of 56.25 attacks to kill. Because of this, it could be argued that Chainsaw (B) and Shotgun (T) is a much better initial setup, and that likewise gives extra viability to using Reloader for getting starts. Using both an Agility Pack and Power Pack for Chainsaw is a large investment and likely doesn't help as much as using them for other items. In any case, Tower of Babel is very simple to play optimally in, but requires good luck to realistically survive. Dis To start, if you have a nuke, immediately use it and win the game. If you have enough Invulnerability and Berserk, it's possible to simply charge at the Spider Mastermind and attack until you get the kill. Flinching is a bit uncommon due to missing half the hits and needing a high damage roll, so if you have no power-ups, do not go for melee attacks. While the Spider Mastermind's melee damage is puny, its AI is fairly unpredictable and if it moves too far away and fires, your health will get destroyed. Berserk and Red Armor can reduce many shots down to 1, but bursts of 4 are still dangerous. Without Invulnerability, it may be wise to go for getting the Spider Mastermind stuck at one of the middle pillars. Below are various damage calculations using Chainsaw, assuming Berserk: Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average of 38.46 attacks to kill. Chainsaw (A): 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average 31.02 attacks to kill. Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 33, average of 15.15 hits to kill, average of 30.30 attacks to kill. Chainsaw (P): 4d7 x2, average damage of 30, average of 16.67 hits to kill, average of 33.33 attacks to kill. Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 15.63 hits to kill, average of 31.25 attacks to kill. Eagle Eye + Chainsaw: 4d6 x2, average damage of 26, average of 19.23 hits to kill, average of 25.99 attacks to kill. Eagle Eye + Chainsaw (B): 5d6 x2, average damage of 33, average of 15.15 hits to kill, average of 20.48 attacks to kill. Eagle Eye + Piercing Chainsaw: 4d7 x2, average damage of 32, average of 15.63 hits to kill, average of 21.11 attacks to kill. Once again, Piercing Chainsaw is very overrated, and in fact worse than Chainsaw (B). Eagle Eye also helps save many turns, but it's still likely too much of a disadvantage for the rest of the game to be worth getting an advantage for the fight here. With Berserk, so long as you hit, there's a good chance of getting a flinch, so if you have enough Med Packs, Red Armor, and Berserk, charging into the Spider Mastermind can be fine even without Invulnerability. If you don't have any power-ups but plenty of ammo, the best strategy is to go to the corner of one of the pillars, watch where the Spider Mastermind goes, and slowly and safely have it go around so that you can run to one of the middle pillars. Once in place, stand at one of the spots that is one space away from the pillar and one space away from the wall. If the Spider Mastermind becomes visible on the other side, fire, and depending on how it tries to move, may get stuck and only be able to move vertically in a space of 3 tiles permanently so long as you stay in place. If so, you can simply shoot it to death without any danger of it going anywhere else or being able to hit you. If it doesn't get stuck and charges through, run around the other way. If the Spider Mastermind went back, you won't be able to distinguish whether it got stuck or just moved away due to lack of Intuition 2. Hellrunner is very helpful for going for this setup. If you're unfamiliar with this technique, practice it in an easier game first because it helps trivialize the fight, but requires some technical knowledge. If you're unfortunate with the setup, the Spider Mastermind can get dangerous, which is where Hellrunner helps a lot, but is possibly more unsafe than charging with a Chainsaw while Berserk. Even with perfect play, some bad luck and not getting it stuck can result in an unfortunate death. Conclusion Having achieved this badge and spending some time theorycrafting and testing things, I highly suggest using Intuition and grind runs past Phobos Anomaly until you eventually get the Invulnerabilities you need to make it through. Another key thing is Bulk Pack in Chainsaw is cheaper, and against the Spider Mastermind, actually better than Piercing Chainsaw. Not using Piercing Chainsaw also opens up use of any extra Power Packs or Agility Packs you find. This means the Technical Pack can go into the Shotgun instead. Agility Pack can go into either boots or armor, but I would argue that Red Armor (P) reducing damage is incredibly helpful with reducing early game damage. Alternatively though, Red Armor (A), also opens up Tactical Shotgun if you find Combat Shotgun. Scout with Intuition seems to be the best choice overall, but Hellrunner is more consistently good with lower peaks. Reloader helps smooth out Shotgun attacking speed if it has a Technical Pack, but Finesse is more helpful for starting floors and Chainsaw usage, as well as if you find a Shell Box. There are some potential niche uses out of Eagle Eye and Son of a Bitch, but are definitely outclassed. |
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24
on: November 05, 2022, 14:35
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| Started by Brickman - Last post by Brickman | ||
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My very first first attempted Nightmare run in the new game, and I won it! Granted, Angel of Carnage is kinda training wheels for Nightmare mode, at least for the first two moons (that's why I picked it), but it's still a victory. And since I made a point of clearing Callisto Anomaly, I managed to snag THREE platinums with this run.
Biggest bit of good fortune was that one of the two relics in the Anomaly was Fiendish sight, the one which lets you detect enemies. Detecting enemies = free rocket sniping, easier setup for hitting multiple enemies in one blast, marginally easier avoiding of revived enemies, and of course greatly reduced risk of opening a door to a pack of reavers while your only close range weapon is a vanilla grenade launcher. I would not have won without it. I went to The Pit thinking that the extra inventory capacity would let me stock up on ammo before the portion of AoC where ammo becomes scarce. But silly me, since The Pit contains no ammo and lots of enemies with more than 70 HP, the dividing line between "enough ammo that I'm always leaving some behind" and "little enough ammo that I'm always struggling" was that level. I spent much of IO in single digit rockets, dropped to 0 several times (with some on the ground), and ultimately killed the final boss with 3 rockets left. That said I did still have some grenade launcher ammo to fall back on. In hindsight, I should have traded some medkits for extra stacks of rockets in early Europa, and should have only bothered with one stack of grenades. And I shouldn't have bothered with the red keycards. One funny bit of luck was that the last level of Europa spawned a toxic grenade and a plasma grenade, both of which I was able to lob at the boss despite not being able to pick them up. Though luring her over to the plasma grenade put me in danger from cryoreavers so it was a wash HP-wise. Lack of ammo made Io really dicey. I went out of my way to visit Cri Laboratories since the game had handed me 3 red keycards early on, hoping to use the big gun and the crafting stations. And ideally to find a plasma launcher. But the last level of Cri Labs was such a nightmare I had to just flee, and for some reason the branch ended one level earlier than I was expecting so I was dumped back out with no special level. In hindsight I would have been much better off aiming for Infernal Lock and hoping for a sustain mod. Dante was short but very eventful. With an AMP that boosted stealth in two different ways, I just skipped as much of it as possible after stocking up on rockets on L1 (though I didn't stock up enough--I foolishly let myself get chased away from the second ammo station thinking I already had enough stacks). I got a pretty nasty scare right at the end of Dante 3. A warlock+fiend pack AND a ravager pack were camping directly in front of the exit, bodyblocking it even in stealth, while there was an overhealed Medusa and an overhealed pack of Kerberos in the room behind me. If I'd fought all those guys I would have run out of ammo on the boss, and that's ignoring the Hunt countdown. Solution: Chug both my small stimpacks to get enough energy for a second stealth, back up enough that I could detonate the explosive barrels safely, stealth again, and run for it. Through sheer luck none of the enemies who survived the explosion stood in front of the elevator. I tried to get a screenshot both before and after but it looks like it only took the after screenshot, but the before image was a sight to behold. Final boss was scary for ammo reasons, and pretty tricky manouvering-wise, but I had healing items to spare. It helps that somewhere in the final stretch of the game a random chest dropped a Cold mod pack. This was the first time I really made use of those pillars behind the boss (I only noticed them a couple runs ago), and if I hadn't forced all the reavers to walk past him to reach me (and thus close enough for rocket splash damage) I may have lost. David, level 12 Scout, |
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25
on: November 05, 2022, 06:33
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| Started by Icy - Last post by Icy | ||
While this sentence is technically true, Sharpshooter is in fact well covered for accuracy by it's prerequisite EE3 and generally high accuracy of pistol-type weapons.. In fact, this means that unless you are running, you have already reached the hit chance cap for any pistol with +2 accuracy or better at maximum range. The only pistol with lesser accuracy is GCB on full-auto and storm bolter blaster (both at+1), which has it's hit chance still capped at up to five tiles, and even at greater distances then the hit chance is 95% compared to 98%. In case of the storm bolter blaster, this effect can be negated by slapping an agility mod on it, but there are much better options. Ahh you're right, I got the pre-requisites mixed up with Bullet Dance, which blocks Eagle Eye. I've edited the guide correspondingly with all the new information. |
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26
on: November 05, 2022, 05:33
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| Started by Icy - Last post by ZicherCZ | ||
Thanks for the response, the feedback is much appreciated! You're welcome, and thanks for your response too. Sharpshooter helps with damage, but unlike Angel of Max Carnage, does not cover for accuracy. While this sentence is technically true, Sharpshooter is in fact well covered for accuracy by it's prerequisite EE3 and generally high accuracy of pistol-type weapons.. In fact, this means that unless you are running, you have already reached the hit chance cap for any pistol with +2 accuracy or better at maximum range. The only pistol with lesser accuracy is GCB on full-auto and storm bolter blaster (both at+1), which has it's hit chance still capped at up to five tiles, and even at greater distances then the hit chance is 95% compared to 98%. In case of the storm bolter blaster, this effect can be negated by slapping an agility mod on it, but there are much better options. Running imposes an accuracy penalty of -2. This means that with EE3, running and at 6+ tiles distance, even these worst-accuracy pistols stand at 84% hit chance, storm bolter pistol (+2) would be at 91% and storm bolter combat pistol and GCB on semi-auto (+3) would stand at 95% percent. Every pistol of +4 base accuracy is still capped. It's anyone's call, whether they would consider taking EE4 or EE5 to alleviate these minor penalties. I personally would not consider them even on AAo666. Technical Packs likely don't belong on end-game pistols, that's true, but depending on the base, I'm not entirely sure what would be best to go on. Blasters definitely should have Nano because it eliminates the recharge delay and restores ammo just as you fire (unless you're using Bullet Dance). For other weapons, Agility Packs might likewise be obsolete, depending on how much Eagle Eye is used, and Technical Packs are likely not improving speed due to the in-game cap as mentioned. However, for non-assemblies, a pair of Nano Packs would first allow for restoring 1 ammo at a 5 action delay, and the second would remove the delay, so Combat Pistol (PPPNN) must surely be better than (PPPBB), as it would not need to reload and it would free up lots of inventory space. It would be very expensive though, for sure. I'm really not sure what the optimal pistol is when also considering assemblies. I agree with pretty much everything here. With SoG3, a technical mod would bring firing speed from 0.40s to 0.34s, and with SoG4 the decrease would be from 0.20s to 0.17s. Considering that as a Sharpshooter you probably want to have SoG5 by player level 14, the earliest possible, they are all but completely obsolete. The same goes for agility mods due to the breakdown above - their effects are marginal, and even then only for certain weapons and/or running. Note that SoG5 also completely obsoletes Finesse (unless you want Fin1 for Juggler). I also very much agree on P3N2 combat pistol being a straight upgrade over P3B2. In fact, this covers the only weak point of combat pistol, the 1.8s reloading time. However, this lengthy time can also be alleviated by picking Reloader (0.72s at Rel3), and good luck finding two nano mods in a normal game. Even in a full AAo666 playthrough, I believe I found only four or five of them. Edit: As a Sharpshooter, you are unlikely to use pistols to the point of completely excluding other weapons, mostly for corpse disposal and dealing with very large groups. However, these other weapons benefit from EE3 as well, rocket launchers and BFGs are very accurate themselves (starting at +4 for the vanilla rocket launcher), and even in the worst case scenario I could find, you would still be at 62% hit chance. That worst case scenario would be firing a burst cannon minigun (-1 accuracy) at 6+ tiles while running. |
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27
on: November 04, 2022, 20:47
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| Started by Icy - Last post by Icy | ||
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To build further on your post and to explore pistols more in-depth because of how there isn't a clear winner at a quick glance, below is some calculations and details for various end-game pistols for all of masterless, Bullet Dance, and Sharpshooter builds.
Masterless Dualgunner x1, Finesse x3, Son of a Gun x5, Son of a Bitch x5, Eagle Eye x5 Energy Pistol in Combat Pistol (P): 3d5, 15 Clip, Plasma Damage, uses Cells. 3d5 = 9 average + 10 bonus damage = 19 average Plasma damage with 13-25 range per shot. =38 average Plasma damage with Dualgunner. Storm Bolter Pistol in Combat Pistol (P): 1d10x2, 23 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 1d10 = 5.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 15.5 average Bullet Damage with 11-20 range per shot. =31 average Bullet Damage with 22-40 range per burst. =62 average Bullet Damage with Dualgunner. Storm Bolter Pistol in Blaster (N): 1d8x2, Plasma Damage, infinite ammo. 1d8 = 4.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 14.5 average Plasma Damage with 11-18 range per shot. =29 average Plasma Damage with 22-36 range per burst. =58 average Plasma damage with Dualgunner. Nanomanufacture Ammo in Combat Pistol (P): 3d4, Bullet Damage, infinite ammo. 3d4 = 7.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 17.5 average Bullet Damage with 13-22 range per shot. =35 average Bullet damage with Dualgunner. Demolition Ammo in Combat Pistol (F): 5d3, 15 Clip, Fire Damage, 3 Radius, uses Bullets. 5d3 = 10 average + 10 bonus damage = 20 average Fire Damage with 15-25 range per shot. =40 average Fire Damage with Dualgunner. Combat Pistol (PPPNN): 3d6, Bullet Damage, infinite ammo. 3d6 = 10.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 20.5 average Bullet Damage with 13-28 range per shot. =41 average Bullet Damage with Dualgunner. Blaster (PPPAN): 2d7, Plasma Damage, infinite ammo. 2d7 = 8 average + 10 bonus damage = 18 average Plasma Damage with 12-24 range per shot. =36 average Plasma Damage with Dualgunner. Trigun: 3d6, 6 Clip, Bullet Damage, used Bullets. 3d6 = 10.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 20.5 average Bullet Damage with 13-28 range per shot. Anti-Freak Jackal: 5d3, 6 Clip, Fire Damage, 1 Radius, uses Bullets. 5d3 = 10 average + 10 bonus damage = 20 average Fire Damage with 15-25 range per shot. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (single): 2d6, 18 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 2d6 = 7 average + 10 bonus damage = 17 average Bullet Damage with 12-22 range per shot. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (semi-auto): 1d8x3, 18 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 1d8 = 4.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 14.5 average Bullet Damage with 11-18 range per shot. =43.5 average Bullet Damage per burst. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (full-auto): 1d7x6, 18 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 1d7 = 4 average + 10 bonus damage = 14 average Bullet Damage with 11-17 range per shot. =84 average Bullet Damage per burst. If you can afford the bullets required and can avoid knocking enemies out of fire, Grammaton Cleric Beretta yields very high damage, but you'll also be reloading constantly, and on a per bullet basis, it's not very impressive. It's good if you need to unleash a large amount of ammo in a short time. For more general use, non-assembly Combat Pistol gives the highest damage per shot so there are no concerns of knockback. Blaster isn't too much weaker and has a better damage type while also only requiring one Nano Pack. Storm Bolter Pistol is also very powerful if you can be certain both shots are hitting, although a Blaster is much better as a base because of infinite ammo, or at worst, semi-infinite ammo. In my opinion, non-assembly Combat Pistol seems to be the way to go, but it's also a very expensive option. Bullet Dance Dualgunner x1, Finesse x3, Triggerhappy x2, Son of a Gun x5, Son of a Bitch x5 Note: Triggerhappy with Bullet Dance for semi-auto/full-auto Grammaton Cleric Beretta only adds 2 extra shots. Energy Pistol in Combat Pistol (P): 3d5x3, +5 Accuracy (95% point blank), 15 Clip, Plasma Damage, uses Cells. 3d5 = 9 average + 10 bonus damage = 19 average Plasma damage with 13-25 range per shot. =57 average Plasma Damage with 39-75 range per burst. =54.15 average Plasma Damage when accuracy-factored. =108.30 average Plasma Damage with Dualgunner. Storm Bolter Pistol in Combat Pistol (P): 1d10x4, +3 Accuracy (84% point blank), 23 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 1d10 = 5.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 15.5 average Bullet Damage with 11-20 range per shot. =62 average Bullet Damage with 44-80 range per burst. =52.08 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. =104.16 average Bullet Damage with Dualgunner. Storm Bolter Pistol in Blaster (N): 1d8x4, +1 Accuracy (62% point blank), 15 Clip, Plasma Damage, semi-infinite ammo. 1d8 = 4.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 14.5 average Plasma Damage with 11-18 range per shot. =58 average Plasma Damage with 44-72 range per burst. =35.96 average Plasma Damage when accuracy-factored. =71.92 average Plasma Damage with Dualgunner. Nanomanufacture in Combat Pistol (P): 3d4x3, +5 Accuracy (95% point blank), Bullet Damage, infinite ammo. 3d4 = 7.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 17.5 average Bullet Damage with 13-22 range per shot. =52.5 average Bullet Damage with 39-66 range per burst. =49.875 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. =99.75 average Bullet Damage with Dualgunner. Demolition Ammo in Combat Pistol (F): 5d3x3, +5 Accuracy (95% point blank), 15 Clip, Fire Damage, 3 Radius, uses Bullets. 5d3 = 10 average + 10 bonus damage = 20 average Fire Damage with 15-25 range per shot. =60 average Fire Damage with 45-75 range per burst. =57 average Fire Damage when accuracy-factored. =114 average Fire Damage with Dualgunner. Combat Pistol (PPPNN): 3d6x3, +5 Accuracy (95% point blank), 15 Clip, Bullet Damage, semi-infinite ammo. 3d6 = 10.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 20.5 average Bullet Damage with 13-28 range per shot. =61.5 average Bullet Damage with 39-84 range per burst. =58.425 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. =116.85 average Bullet Damage with Dualgunner. Blaster (PPPNN): 2d7x3, +3 Accuracy (84% point blank), 10 Clip, Plasma Damage, semi-infinite ammo. 2d7 = 8 average + 10 bonus damage = 18 average Plasma Damage with 12-24 range per shot. =54 average Plasma Damage with 36-72 range per burst. =45.36 average Plasma Damage when accuracy-factored. =90.72 average Plasma Damage with Dualgunner. Trigun: 3d6x3, +6 Accuracy (98% point blank), 6 Clip, Bullet Damage, used Bullets. 3d6 = 10.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 20.5 average Bullet Damage with 13-28 range per shot. =61.5 average Bullet Damage with 39-84 range per burst. =60.27 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. Anti-Freak Jackal: 5d3x3, +4 Accuracy (91% point blank), 6 Clip, Fire Damage, 1 Radius, uses Bullets. 5d3 = 10 average + 10 bonus damage = 20 average Fire Damage with 15-25 range per shot. =60 average Fire Damage with 45-75 range per burst. =54.6 average Fire Damage when accuracy-factored. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (single): 2d6x3, +5 Accuracy (95% point blank), 18 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 2d6 = 7 average + 10 bonus damage = 17 average Bullet Damage with 12-22 range per shot. =51 average Bullet Damage with 36-66 range per burst. =48.35 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (semi-auto): 1d8x5, +3 Accuracy (84% point blank), 18 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 1d8 = 4.5 average + 10 bonus damage = 14.5 average Bullet Damage with 11-18 range per shot. =72.5 average Bullet Damage with 55-90 per burst. =60.9 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (full-auto): 1d7x8, +1 Accuracy (62% point blank, 18 Clip, Bullet Damage, uses Bullets. 1d7 = 4 average + 10 bonus damage = 14 average Bullet Damage with 11-17 range per shot. =112 average Bullet Damage with 88-136 range per burst. =69.44 average Bullet Damage when accuracy-factored. Because Bullet Dance blocks Eagle Eye, the inherent accuracy of each weapon becomes important. At a quick glance, Grammaton Cleric Beretta does the most damage per weapon, but will be constantly reloading and out of sync with your other gun. The other unique weapons are all outclassed. Non-assembly Combat Pistol yields the most damage, although it will be somewhat limited in firing since even with double Nano Pack, it only recharge 1 ammo per action, while you'll be bursting 3 with Bullet Dance. Non-assembly Blaster recharges 2 ammo per action and has a much better damage type, but has higher variance with its less reliable accuracy. In my opinion, I would go with Nanomanufacture Combat Pistol as you will be able to constantly burst without any ammo concerns at all, also freeing up inventory space, and because of the high accuracy, its damage is still one of the highest too. Furthermore, BBBN+P is quite a bit cheaper than some other choices. I believe it is the best pistol for Bullet Dance. Sharpshooter Finesse x3, Son of a Gun x5, Eagle Eye x5 Energy Pistol in Combat Pistol (P): 17 Plasma Damage, 15 Clip, uses Cells. Storm Bolter Pistol in Combat Pistol (P): 25 Bullet Damage, 23 Clip, uses Bullets. Storm Bolter Pistol in Blaster (N): 23 Plasma Damage, 15 Clip, semi-infinite ammo. Nanomanufacture Ammo in Combat Pistol (P): 17 Bullet Damage, infinute ammo. Demolition Ammo in Combat Pistol (F): 20 Fire Damage, 15 Clip, 3 Radius, uses Bullets. Combat Pistol (PPPNN): 23 Bullet Damage, infinite ammo. Blaster (PPPAN): 19 Plasma Damage, infinite ammo. Blaster (PPSSN): 17 Plasma Damage, infinite ammo, no visiblity penalty. Trigun: 23 Bullet Damage, 6 Clip, uses Bullets. Anti-Freak Jackal: 20 Fire Damage, 6 Clip, 1 Radius, uses Bullets. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (single): 17 Bullet Damage, 18 Clip, uses Bullets. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (semi-auto): 39 Bullet Damage per burst, 18 Clip, uses Bullets. Grammaton Cleric Beretta (full-auto): 72 Bullet Damage per burst, 18 Clip, uses Bullets. Because Sharpshooter removes all damage variance and all the other traits provide enough speed and accuracy to max out any gun, the only differences is total damage, damage type, and ammo. Grammaton Cleric Beretta does huge damage in a burst, but can distort some of the shots if the enemy is knocked back outside of range, and it also requires a lot of ammo. It's still excellent if you have to very quickly dispose of an enemy. For general use, a non-assembly of Combat Pistol can provide infinite ammo and no need to reload or fill up your inventory space, while also providing very solid damage. Blaster can alternatively be used for a fairly big decrease in damage in order to have Plasma Damage instead, or even go with nicely fitting in no visibility penalty for far sniping. Storm Bolter Pistol in a Blaster is also very high damage for semi-infinite ammo (as you fire 2 and recharge 1 per action), although it also has the knockback concern as Grammaton Cleric Beretta. There isn't a quite clear winner, but I would say that the non-assembly Combat Pistol is the best for general use, although it comes at the expensive price of two Nano Packs. --- tl;dr: Combat Pistol (PPPNN) if you're rich, Combat Pistol (PPPBB) is you want something cheap, Nanomanufacture Ammo Combat Pistol (P) if you're using Bullet Dance. |
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28
on: November 04, 2022, 15:10
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| Started by Icy - Last post by Icy | ||
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Thanks for the response, the feedback is much appreciated!
Given the vast amount of possibilities, I have definitely done some theorycrafting for a few weapons and builds, as opposed to actual testing, so that's nice to hear from someone who has used pistols a fair bit. I definitely overlooked that Grammaton Cleric Beretta would be causing knockback, and even with firing in a straight line, additional shots would become less likely to hit. Sharpshooter helps with damage, but unlike Angel of Max Carnage, does not cover for accuracy. Technical Packs likely don't belong on end-game pistols, that's true, but depending on the base, I'm not entirely sure what would be best to go on. Blasters definitely should have Nano because it eliminates the recharge delay and restores ammo just as you fire (unless you're using Bullet Dance). For other weapons, Agility Packs might likewise be obsolete, depending on how much Eagle Eye is used, and Technical Packs are likely not improving speed due to the in-game cap as mentioned. However, for non-assemblies, a pair of Nano Packs would first allow for restoring 1 ammo at a 5 action delay, and the second would remove the delay, so Combat Pistol (PPPNN) must surely be better than (PPPBB), as it would not need to reload and it would free up lots of inventory space. It would be very expensive though, for sure. I'm really not sure what the optimal pistol is when also considering assemblies. I'll periodically make edits as I thoroughly learn more or if anyone gives any objectively better advice. |
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29
on: November 03, 2022, 04:16
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| Started by Icy - Last post by ZicherCZ | ||
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Very solid guide again, great work.
I would have a little nitpick with the endgame sharpshooter build weapons, though. GCB is a solid weapon, of course, but it is utterly outmatched by a P3B2-combat pistol (White Death, as I call it). With single shots, GCB's 2d6 can't compare to White Death's 3d6, and you don't want to use GCB's semi-auto or auto modes due to automatic knockback on every shot, unless you can avoid it by precise positioning. It may be niche, but if you have Sharpshooter, SoG5 and White Death, and so happen to start a floor with a Cyberdemon in range, you can kill it in the 4s grace period without it being able to fire a single shot. Priceless. Even a P3B2-vanilla pistol outdamages GCB with 2d7 damage. The same goes for the Storm Bolter, firing two shots at once. And finally, once you have SoG5, you have already reached the absolute firing speed cap of 0.1s, making technical mods on non-assemblies obsolete. The extra clip capacity from bulk mods is very useful here. |
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30
on: October 31, 2022, 18:37
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| Started by Icy - Last post by Icy | ||
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(Reserved post if ever needed in the future.)
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