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Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|74%|YAVP] - Winning the uncheesable Demonic Diamond
« on: Yesterday at 02:44 »
After the extreme damage tanking that Strongman Angelic required, it was time to go in the extreme opposite direction of taking very little damage with Demonic Diamond. This badge sits as perhaps the most imposing Diamond aside from Arena Diamond; completing standard N! with under 500 damage for the Untouchable Pin would already be an impressive achievement, winning with under 200 for the Untouchable Medal is going to make the vast majority of players nope out of even trying it. Additionally, while most of the Diamonds can be cheesed or made at least somewhat easier, Demonic Diamond uniquely sits as an uncheesable Diamond, as you can't mix it with any Angels to make it easier, and there is really nothing you can exploit in the game to win it aside from heavily utilizing general damage avoidance tactics and making the most of Invulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly, according to the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, Demonic Diamond was tied for the second least won Diamond/Angelic badge with only two players recorded winning it; papilio and Icy, i.e. the player who once held the record for most Diamonds in 0.9.9.7, and the player who broke his record and became the first to verifiably win every Diamond in any version. Two more players were also listed winning it in 0.9.9.6, 2DeviationsOut and Firstblood, and well, anyone reading this likely already knows the story behind 2Dev, while Firstblood's Demonic Diamond mortem is one of the most outlandish things I ever seen on this forum and makes most of 2Dev's mortems look believable in comparison (doing Demonic Diamond as a Conqueror, while playing a melee build that doesn't even get Intuition until late in the game, while hitting a ton of levers for Gambler's Shield without said Intuition, while getting Hell Arena Pwnage with no AoMC and no Juggler/Finesse/Intuition, while getting the luck needed for Shambler's Head without good ranged DPS, while also getting the luck needed for Gatekeeper Diamond on N!, while being melee-locked through nearly all of Hell from the guaranteed Dragonslayer and getting through N! Mortuary melee-locked without taking a ton of damage, while by his own admission not knowing how to properly corpse dispose with a melee weapon yet still managing to clear every special level of every respawn, while also also getting the luck for Scavenger Diamond with no Whisper Of Death cheese and being melee-locked so he had to get lucky with several Phase Devices to get in all three vaults, while it was only the second recorded run on his file that he treated like a casual N! run and is the last thing he ever posted? Come the fuck onnnnnnn). So yeah, only two players have verifiably won this badge legit (well Tormuse also won it in 0.9.9.4, but it had a completely different requirement prior to 0.9.9.5 of beating standard N! with only fist kills, so it isn't meaningful for comparison here).
So what to do for the build. Both papilio and Icy went masterless Scouts that opened with Int2 and then Dodgemaster, while papilio got general offense after Dodgemaster and Icy got TaN2 before getting Fin and SoB, and both had the same overarching strategy of playing through the game fast, not sticking around to clear levels and basically ignoring all the special levels besides Chained Court. I of course though don't like the masterless Scout stairdive, as I find it's too reliant on Invuln/Berserk and stair luck, and is lacking in the power to handle bad hot starts or other bad levels like mazes with stairs on the opposite side of the map; even if such a build could survive, it's sure to take a lot of damage doing so and under 200 damage doesn't give much room for error. Cateye is an option as the damage avoidance mastery, but without being backed by AoMC, Cateye similarly has a lack of power to cleanly get through hot starts or being suffocated by enemies with subpar cover. So I want good damage avoidance, and less reliance on powerups or good level generation luck? What do you know, it's gonna be another Shottyhead run for me! Compared to my typical Shottyhead builds, I do go for Int2 after by usual Fin -> Jug opener, as while the attrition damage from general exploration is something I usually can easily shrug off, I will quickly run out that 199 damage allowance by repeatedly walking into an enemy's vision and so Int2 is pretty necessary here, especially if I don't want to run->wait over a hundred thousand turns on every single floor. I also considered Berserker as damage assurance against the VMR and Cyberdemon, but ended up foregoing it as I won't get the levels to easily fit it in without sacrificing other important traits and I plan to not stick around in later levels where the VMR will be more prominent. With the overarching strategy compared to papilio and Icy, I also do plan to clear out earlier floors when I'm able to reasonably do so with little damage since the extra levels will make me less dependent on powerup luck later, but once I get Shottyhead, I'll be looking to just go for the Invuln stairdive the rest of the way when I see the opportunity to do so.
As always, you got Phobos Base Entry at the start, and it's annoying as avoiding damage here is entirely luck-based, but if you just spam my "run straight for the base and hope the Shotgunners don't immediately come out" strat, you should get a damageless Phobos Base Entry without wasting too much time, but you can settle for getting hit by a single Pistol bullet or some Former punches if resetting for the damageless Base Entry would be excessively annoying. One good thing is you don't need to worry about getting the medkits here, as a successful Demonic Diamond run won't need much healing, but they would be nice to have still, if just as a means to restore running. If you get a bad floor 2 generated that makes you take a lot of unavoidable damage early, you might just want to reset, though after my first damageless Phobos Base Entry, I got one of the best floor 2s I could ask for with a very safe camping spot and a vault with a Combat Shotgun, a Tech Mod to put on it, and a Red Armor (while you want to avoid giving enemies the chance to hit you at all, having very good armor is important because you won't play perfectly or will just get put in situations where damage is unavoidable and so minimizing how punishing any hits you take is important). It took a lot of camping, but I'm able to get through the first two floors damageless (and 100% kills too, so I actually briefly had Demonic Angelic online, but you can see from the turn counter there just how ridiculous it was to do that over just the first two floors...).
I then head into Hell's Arena and do actually intend to clear it unlike papilio and Icy in their runs. Giving up the easy Chained Court sucks (and I would indeed skip Unchained Court later on), but that guaranteed Rocket Launcher is just more important for two key reasons; one, you need rocket jumping to stretch Invulns far longer than they would last otherwise, and two, if I don't get a floor 7 Invuln nor can get lucky with a Phase Device, rocket jumping is needed to ensure I don't take a big amount of damage in Phobos Anomaly. Having access to a corpse disposing weapon early is also gonna be important, because you're not gonna be able to cleanly kill every enemy in a doorway or on fluids and a dangerous enemy respawning at a bad time can potentially result in you taking a lot of damage (and if you don't get this Rocket Launcher, you likely won't get one until early Deimos, and possibly won't get one until even later if the RNG isn't cooperative). The Blue Armor before Hell Knights start showing up will also be nice, less important when I already got a Red Armor but still, it's actually slightly better at reducing damage from Hell Knights and Cacodemons than the Red Armor. Clearing Hell's Arena is also why I open with Juggler instead of Intuition, since Juggler is the single best early game trait for clearing Hell's Arena and could save a reset if I get a bad starting wave spawns (not to mention its value in aiding precise corpse stacking when I can't eat projectiles on corpses to destroy them), while floor 2 is easy enough to avoid damage in without Int2 and I should hit level 4 by the end of Hell's Arena to have Int2 before floor 3. As for how Hell's Arena goes, I do immediately lose my damageless bid and would get hit by another Cacodemon shortly after, but the rest of the Arena went without a hitch thanks to having Juggler (the early EXP boost from that that floor 2 Cacodemon vault was also nice for letting me hit level 4 to get Int2 midway into the Arena instead of at the end). After an easy floor 3, my early strategy gets quickly justified with this floor 4 maze with the stairs on the complete opposite end of my starting point. Running through this level would not have been viable, I would have surely been screwed by respawning Hell Knights if I couldn't blow up their corpses with the Rocket Launcher, and even with my early offensive advantage, there were too many enemies to safely push through the maze and so I had to pull back. Fortunately I was able to set up a workable camping spot near an acid pool for corpse disposal, and while some enemies could pop up from the south, the Imps that largely did so I could safely shoot at a distance, so it took a while but I get through that floor with little damage. The next two Phobos floors would have me fight a disgusting amount of Hell Knights but I get through killing nearly everything in them (while also skipping Unchained Court, since I would likely take a large amount of damage in it), however Phobos 7 would be a very nice breather, not only being an easy safe floor but it also had the most important thing to find before the end of Phobos, an Invulnerability Globe. After clearing the floor I skip the Phobos 7 special level (which was Phobos Lab that was going to be an automatic skip anyway, would have done Military Base though if it spawned and I didn't get an Invuln), and then take the Invulnerability into Phobos Anomaly, allowing me to get through damageless. I finish Phobos with only 24 damage taken, considering avoiding damage is hardest in Phobos and a good Demonic Diamond attempt would finish it around 100, this is an incredible pace, but I can't get too complacent, it only takes a couple bad floors to lose Demonic Diamond.
Thanks to rocket jumping, I'm able to take the Invuln into Hell's Armory, allowing me to safely clean the starting area and set up camp to clear it out without taking damage. My plan was always to stop by Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab since the pre-Shambler portion of them could be safely cleared out with minimal damage and getting one of the Exotic shotguns or the Jackhammer from the weapon cache would be a huge help, while the two free mods and Shell Box are also nice, and then I could just leave without fighting the Shamblers. With me having a shot at the Shambler's Head for the guaranteed Nano Mod and being so far ahead of the damage pace, I do take the risk in releasing the Shambler. Unfortunately I don't get good teleportation luck and I don't have Shottyhead yet, so I do get hit a couple times, while the lab cache reward is an Onyx Mod, normally great but it's actually probably the least useful of the four rare mods here, since if I'm taking enough damage for infinite durability to matter in this sort of run, it's probably over anyway (I decide to hold onto it to make Lava Boots later since it could maybe save me more damage than indestructible Red Armor or a pre-buff Tower Shield would). The weapon cache also wasn't useful; it had a Blaster and GCB, amazing if this was a Pistol run but basically useless for Shottyhead... Coming into Armory was still worth it though for the mods (making a Tactical Shotgun and Boots) and the Shell Box. Deimos 2 would follow this up with an awkward starting room, and I would end up in a rather perilous position where I got pincered by a Baron and Commando while I didn't have Shottyhead online yet to fight them both. With running and getting closer to the Commando, it doesn't go as badly as it could have, but I do take a Plasma Rifle burst and lose my shot an Untouchable Cross (one of three medals I'm still missing, but I'm going to need to get it anyway when I go for pure Destroyer Diamond soon, so that doesn't matter as long as I stay under 200). Deimos 3 would give me this annoying warehouse level, where I had to keep luring enemies into this one door, and while I could have probably done The Wall damageless, I don't need the Backpack or Missile Launcher and so it would be a pointless risk. I also find a Bulk Mod to Fireproof one of my Red Armors, as since I won't be getting Berserker, getting hit by the VMR or Cyberdemon will do a lot of damage even in P-modded Red Armor. Speaking of the Cyberdemon, after getting Shottyhead, my plan was to get HR2 and Dodgemaster to ensure I could get through him damageless (as long as I didn't get bad luck with his starting spawn position), however Deimos 5 would have an Invuln on it, where I then pivot and do Invuln'd rocket jumping to skip through the last two Deimos floors to take that Invuln to the Cyberdemon, allowing me to skip getting Dodgemaster for more Finesse and Whizkid to better help me lategame. The Invuln lasts through the Cyberdemon fight, and I end up finishing Deimos with only 59 damage sustained, giving me a generous 140 damage buffer for Hell to work with. (On a side note, that aforementioned Deimos 5 had a second Blaster spawn, a reminder Blasters have a measly spawning weight of 2 in this version, shame I don't get this luck with the special shotguns instead...)
At this point, since the Mastermind will be easy, I'm ready to do a stair dive through Hell to Dis when I get more Invulnerability. Hell does give me a rough intro however, with Hell 1 being a maze that has both set of stairs far from the starting point, while my Invuln from Deimos runs out shortly in. Taking it very slowly and carefully though, I'm able to get through the maze taking no more than 2 points of damage, and then Hell 2 has the Invuln I need to finish this. After clearing out Hell 2, I take that Invuln, level up shortly into Hell 3 to get Whizkid and build myself a Tactical Rocket Launcher, at which point it's a wrap. I rocket jump invulnerable through the rest of Hell, while taking the opportunity to detour through Limbo after getting another Invuln on Hell 4 to get the Assault Shotgun and mod it up just in case the Invulns run out before Dis, but thanks to the Tactical Rocket Launcher letting me rocket jump several times between reloads, I'm able to Invuln skip the rest of Hell. The Invuln does run out shortly into Dis, but they last long enough to get me safely in the Mastermind's face, where I can hammer away with the Double Shotgun and effortlessly stunlock her to death with Shottyhead. I take just 2 points of damage through Hell, so I end up finishing the game with a mere 61 damage sustained.
And there it is, the Demonic Diamond is secured. Despite how scary this bad looks, after a few resets on Phobos Base Entry, my first run that got past Base Entry damageless ended up going all the way. Despite that first try, I wouldn't say this badge doesn't deserve its reputation, I did have to play extremely slowly and carefully before I got the Invulns to skip most of the second half, and that floor 2 vault with Red Armor + a T-modded Combat Shotgun really helped me mitigate damage in Phobos, but it's probably not the hardest Diamond. Aside from the even more infamous Arena Diamond, I think Inquisitor Diamond may have actually been harder, and I'm not looking forward to pure Destroyer Diamond, though you also have to consider that unlike those harder Diamonds, there's nothing you can do to try cheesing Demonic Diamond with its standard game restriction, other than spam quick runs until you get extremely good Invulnerability luck. An interesting thing to me about this run is that if you subtract the 14 damage I took from the Shambler that I could have not released (the Onyx mod I got from killing him did basically nothing anyway, as I made very little use of the Lava Boots I made from it), I actually would have finished with under 50 damage... which means theoretically this run would have won under Masochist Angelic's constraints even without getting any Ironman or Blood Skulls or Medical Armors to expand your health pool there. That gets me thinking, perhaps when I do eventually try to win the first 0.9.9.7 Masochist Angelic, rather than going Vampyre as I was planning, perhaps I should do this Shottyhead build again... We'll cross that bridge when I get there. Also getting this badge and many other Diamonds + Angelics with Shottyhead, perhaps that could convince people that I'm right about it being a top tier mastery? :p Anyway with Demonic Diamond, I'm at 22 Diamonds now and without cheesing any of them through Dual Angels, though Destroyer Diamond and especially Arena Diamond may test my resolve to not resort to Dual Angel abuse...
Now here is the mortem:
So what to do for the build. Both papilio and Icy went masterless Scouts that opened with Int2 and then Dodgemaster, while papilio got general offense after Dodgemaster and Icy got TaN2 before getting Fin and SoB, and both had the same overarching strategy of playing through the game fast, not sticking around to clear levels and basically ignoring all the special levels besides Chained Court. I of course though don't like the masterless Scout stairdive, as I find it's too reliant on Invuln/Berserk and stair luck, and is lacking in the power to handle bad hot starts or other bad levels like mazes with stairs on the opposite side of the map; even if such a build could survive, it's sure to take a lot of damage doing so and under 200 damage doesn't give much room for error. Cateye is an option as the damage avoidance mastery, but without being backed by AoMC, Cateye similarly has a lack of power to cleanly get through hot starts or being suffocated by enemies with subpar cover. So I want good damage avoidance, and less reliance on powerups or good level generation luck? What do you know, it's gonna be another Shottyhead run for me! Compared to my typical Shottyhead builds, I do go for Int2 after by usual Fin -> Jug opener, as while the attrition damage from general exploration is something I usually can easily shrug off, I will quickly run out that 199 damage allowance by repeatedly walking into an enemy's vision and so Int2 is pretty necessary here, especially if I don't want to run->wait over a hundred thousand turns on every single floor. I also considered Berserker as damage assurance against the VMR and Cyberdemon, but ended up foregoing it as I won't get the levels to easily fit it in without sacrificing other important traits and I plan to not stick around in later levels where the VMR will be more prominent. With the overarching strategy compared to papilio and Icy, I also do plan to clear out earlier floors when I'm able to reasonably do so with little damage since the extra levels will make me less dependent on powerup luck later, but once I get Shottyhead, I'll be looking to just go for the Invuln stairdive the rest of the way when I see the opportunity to do so.
As always, you got Phobos Base Entry at the start, and it's annoying as avoiding damage here is entirely luck-based, but if you just spam my "run straight for the base and hope the Shotgunners don't immediately come out" strat, you should get a damageless Phobos Base Entry without wasting too much time, but you can settle for getting hit by a single Pistol bullet or some Former punches if resetting for the damageless Base Entry would be excessively annoying. One good thing is you don't need to worry about getting the medkits here, as a successful Demonic Diamond run won't need much healing, but they would be nice to have still, if just as a means to restore running. If you get a bad floor 2 generated that makes you take a lot of unavoidable damage early, you might just want to reset, though after my first damageless Phobos Base Entry, I got one of the best floor 2s I could ask for with a very safe camping spot and a vault with a Combat Shotgun, a Tech Mod to put on it, and a Red Armor (while you want to avoid giving enemies the chance to hit you at all, having very good armor is important because you won't play perfectly or will just get put in situations where damage is unavoidable and so minimizing how punishing any hits you take is important). It took a lot of camping, but I'm able to get through the first two floors damageless (and 100% kills too, so I actually briefly had Demonic Angelic online, but you can see from the turn counter there just how ridiculous it was to do that over just the first two floors...).
I then head into Hell's Arena and do actually intend to clear it unlike papilio and Icy in their runs. Giving up the easy Chained Court sucks (and I would indeed skip Unchained Court later on), but that guaranteed Rocket Launcher is just more important for two key reasons; one, you need rocket jumping to stretch Invulns far longer than they would last otherwise, and two, if I don't get a floor 7 Invuln nor can get lucky with a Phase Device, rocket jumping is needed to ensure I don't take a big amount of damage in Phobos Anomaly. Having access to a corpse disposing weapon early is also gonna be important, because you're not gonna be able to cleanly kill every enemy in a doorway or on fluids and a dangerous enemy respawning at a bad time can potentially result in you taking a lot of damage (and if you don't get this Rocket Launcher, you likely won't get one until early Deimos, and possibly won't get one until even later if the RNG isn't cooperative). The Blue Armor before Hell Knights start showing up will also be nice, less important when I already got a Red Armor but still, it's actually slightly better at reducing damage from Hell Knights and Cacodemons than the Red Armor. Clearing Hell's Arena is also why I open with Juggler instead of Intuition, since Juggler is the single best early game trait for clearing Hell's Arena and could save a reset if I get a bad starting wave spawns (not to mention its value in aiding precise corpse stacking when I can't eat projectiles on corpses to destroy them), while floor 2 is easy enough to avoid damage in without Int2 and I should hit level 4 by the end of Hell's Arena to have Int2 before floor 3. As for how Hell's Arena goes, I do immediately lose my damageless bid and would get hit by another Cacodemon shortly after, but the rest of the Arena went without a hitch thanks to having Juggler (the early EXP boost from that that floor 2 Cacodemon vault was also nice for letting me hit level 4 to get Int2 midway into the Arena instead of at the end). After an easy floor 3, my early strategy gets quickly justified with this floor 4 maze with the stairs on the complete opposite end of my starting point. Running through this level would not have been viable, I would have surely been screwed by respawning Hell Knights if I couldn't blow up their corpses with the Rocket Launcher, and even with my early offensive advantage, there were too many enemies to safely push through the maze and so I had to pull back. Fortunately I was able to set up a workable camping spot near an acid pool for corpse disposal, and while some enemies could pop up from the south, the Imps that largely did so I could safely shoot at a distance, so it took a while but I get through that floor with little damage. The next two Phobos floors would have me fight a disgusting amount of Hell Knights but I get through killing nearly everything in them (while also skipping Unchained Court, since I would likely take a large amount of damage in it), however Phobos 7 would be a very nice breather, not only being an easy safe floor but it also had the most important thing to find before the end of Phobos, an Invulnerability Globe. After clearing the floor I skip the Phobos 7 special level (which was Phobos Lab that was going to be an automatic skip anyway, would have done Military Base though if it spawned and I didn't get an Invuln), and then take the Invulnerability into Phobos Anomaly, allowing me to get through damageless. I finish Phobos with only 24 damage taken, considering avoiding damage is hardest in Phobos and a good Demonic Diamond attempt would finish it around 100, this is an incredible pace, but I can't get too complacent, it only takes a couple bad floors to lose Demonic Diamond.
Thanks to rocket jumping, I'm able to take the Invuln into Hell's Armory, allowing me to safely clean the starting area and set up camp to clear it out without taking damage. My plan was always to stop by Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab since the pre-Shambler portion of them could be safely cleared out with minimal damage and getting one of the Exotic shotguns or the Jackhammer from the weapon cache would be a huge help, while the two free mods and Shell Box are also nice, and then I could just leave without fighting the Shamblers. With me having a shot at the Shambler's Head for the guaranteed Nano Mod and being so far ahead of the damage pace, I do take the risk in releasing the Shambler. Unfortunately I don't get good teleportation luck and I don't have Shottyhead yet, so I do get hit a couple times, while the lab cache reward is an Onyx Mod, normally great but it's actually probably the least useful of the four rare mods here, since if I'm taking enough damage for infinite durability to matter in this sort of run, it's probably over anyway (I decide to hold onto it to make Lava Boots later since it could maybe save me more damage than indestructible Red Armor or a pre-buff Tower Shield would). The weapon cache also wasn't useful; it had a Blaster and GCB, amazing if this was a Pistol run but basically useless for Shottyhead... Coming into Armory was still worth it though for the mods (making a Tactical Shotgun and Boots) and the Shell Box. Deimos 2 would follow this up with an awkward starting room, and I would end up in a rather perilous position where I got pincered by a Baron and Commando while I didn't have Shottyhead online yet to fight them both. With running and getting closer to the Commando, it doesn't go as badly as it could have, but I do take a Plasma Rifle burst and lose my shot an Untouchable Cross (one of three medals I'm still missing, but I'm going to need to get it anyway when I go for pure Destroyer Diamond soon, so that doesn't matter as long as I stay under 200). Deimos 3 would give me this annoying warehouse level, where I had to keep luring enemies into this one door, and while I could have probably done The Wall damageless, I don't need the Backpack or Missile Launcher and so it would be a pointless risk. I also find a Bulk Mod to Fireproof one of my Red Armors, as since I won't be getting Berserker, getting hit by the VMR or Cyberdemon will do a lot of damage even in P-modded Red Armor. Speaking of the Cyberdemon, after getting Shottyhead, my plan was to get HR2 and Dodgemaster to ensure I could get through him damageless (as long as I didn't get bad luck with his starting spawn position), however Deimos 5 would have an Invuln on it, where I then pivot and do Invuln'd rocket jumping to skip through the last two Deimos floors to take that Invuln to the Cyberdemon, allowing me to skip getting Dodgemaster for more Finesse and Whizkid to better help me lategame. The Invuln lasts through the Cyberdemon fight, and I end up finishing Deimos with only 59 damage sustained, giving me a generous 140 damage buffer for Hell to work with. (On a side note, that aforementioned Deimos 5 had a second Blaster spawn, a reminder Blasters have a measly spawning weight of 2 in this version, shame I don't get this luck with the special shotguns instead...)
At this point, since the Mastermind will be easy, I'm ready to do a stair dive through Hell to Dis when I get more Invulnerability. Hell does give me a rough intro however, with Hell 1 being a maze that has both set of stairs far from the starting point, while my Invuln from Deimos runs out shortly in. Taking it very slowly and carefully though, I'm able to get through the maze taking no more than 2 points of damage, and then Hell 2 has the Invuln I need to finish this. After clearing out Hell 2, I take that Invuln, level up shortly into Hell 3 to get Whizkid and build myself a Tactical Rocket Launcher, at which point it's a wrap. I rocket jump invulnerable through the rest of Hell, while taking the opportunity to detour through Limbo after getting another Invuln on Hell 4 to get the Assault Shotgun and mod it up just in case the Invulns run out before Dis, but thanks to the Tactical Rocket Launcher letting me rocket jump several times between reloads, I'm able to Invuln skip the rest of Hell. The Invuln does run out shortly into Dis, but they last long enough to get me safely in the Mastermind's face, where I can hammer away with the Double Shotgun and effortlessly stunlock her to death with Shottyhead. I take just 2 points of damage through Hell, so I end up finishing the game with a mere 61 damage sustained.
And there it is, the Demonic Diamond is secured. Despite how scary this bad looks, after a few resets on Phobos Base Entry, my first run that got past Base Entry damageless ended up going all the way. Despite that first try, I wouldn't say this badge doesn't deserve its reputation, I did have to play extremely slowly and carefully before I got the Invulns to skip most of the second half, and that floor 2 vault with Red Armor + a T-modded Combat Shotgun really helped me mitigate damage in Phobos, but it's probably not the hardest Diamond. Aside from the even more infamous Arena Diamond, I think Inquisitor Diamond may have actually been harder, and I'm not looking forward to pure Destroyer Diamond, though you also have to consider that unlike those harder Diamonds, there's nothing you can do to try cheesing Demonic Diamond with its standard game restriction, other than spam quick runs until you get extremely good Invulnerability luck. An interesting thing to me about this run is that if you subtract the 14 damage I took from the Shambler that I could have not released (the Onyx mod I got from killing him did basically nothing anyway, as I made very little use of the Lava Boots I made from it), I actually would have finished with under 50 damage... which means theoretically this run would have won under Masochist Angelic's constraints even without getting any Ironman or Blood Skulls or Medical Armors to expand your health pool there. That gets me thinking, perhaps when I do eventually try to win the first 0.9.9.7 Masochist Angelic, rather than going Vampyre as I was planning, perhaps I should do this Shottyhead build again... We'll cross that bridge when I get there. Also getting this badge and many other Diamonds + Angelics with Shottyhead, perhaps that could convince people that I'm right about it being a top tier mastery? :p Anyway with Demonic Diamond, I'm at 22 Diamonds now and without cheesing any of them through Dual Angels, though Destroyer Diamond and especially Arena Diamond may test my resolve to not resort to Dual Angel abuse...
Now here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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ONLY200?!, level 12 Cyberdemon Chaos Lt. General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 1227766 turns and scored 439960 points.
He played for 3 hours, 58 minutes and 56 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1078 out of 1455 hellspawn. (74%)
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 3
Levels completed : 2
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
Mastermind's Brain
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Untouchable Medal
Hell Armorer Badge
Hell Champion Medal
Demonic Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 83/50 Experience 62054/12
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 1)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Shottyhead (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->Int->Int->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->MSh->HR->Fin->WK->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [6/6] (99%) (P)
[b] [ Weapon ] double shotgun (10d3)x2 [0/2] (P1T1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x43)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
[b] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [3/5]
[c] assault shotgun (9d3) [6/6] (P2T1)
[d] fireproof red armor [4/4] (100%)
[e] shotgun shell (x14)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] shotgun shell (x50)
[h] shotgun shell (x50)
[i] shotgun shell (x50)
[j] shotgun shell (x50)
[k] shotgun shell (x50)
[l] rocket (x10)
[m] rocket (x2)
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] lava plasteel boots [2]
[r] shell box (x100)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
139 former humans
194 former sergeants
40 former captains
241 imps
121 demons
156 lost souls
59 cacodemons
34 hell knights
19 barons of hell
7 arachnotrons
30 former commandos
17 pain elementals
6 revenants
7 mancubi
5 arch-viles
1 shambler
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
On level 9 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 9 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he assembled a fireproof armor!
On level 13 he assembled a lava boots!
He left level 15 as soon as possible.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 19 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
He managed to escape from Limbo!
On level 21 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 22 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
332 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
133 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 8 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
94 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
50 killed the bitch and survived.
37 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
2
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|95%|YAFW] - Strongman Angelic and 2nd ever Chaos Lt. General rank
« on: January 12, 2026, 02:05 »
Next up in my 0.9.9.7 conquest, I decided it was time to get that 9th Angelic to tie Tormuse's record and become the second ever player to have verifiably gotten the Chaos Lt General rank. Among the dwindling options, I decided to go for Strongman Angelic, a badge with only one verifiable win in 0.9.9.7 by Tormuse (it was also won in 0.9.9.8 by micerang, though it was much easier in that version with the dodging bug, the overly buffed Marine, and that version's hideously broken Vampyre). This is a badge that certainly lives up to its Angelic billing and I'm not surprised only Tormuse got it in 0.9.9.7, even papilio apparently gave up on it after stating he was going for it. In Strongman runs, you don't actually need to only use your fists, you can use other weapons to weaken enemies, as long as all finishing blows are from punching enemies, but even with that reprieve doing this in Nightmare is still extremely difficult. The idea of "weaken enemy to near death with your Pistol/Shotgun, then punch them out in one hit when they get close" sounds nice in theory, but the sheer enemy density of N! means you often can't do this cleanly to enemies one at a time and having to fight several at once in the open like N! often forces will be a death sentence when you're slowly trying to punch out everything. You also need cover to do this, as with N!'s increased enemy aggression, any ranged-attacking enemy that sees you will keep firing on you, and if you weaken them from a distance, you'll still need to get in through their constant barrage to punch them, thus making you even more dependent on floors generating with good cover. Then you of course have N!'s trademark respawning on top, while being unable to kill with weapons that inflict knockback nor be able to use stronger melee weapons that can gib, and using rocket launchers or other large explosives to blow up corpses is very risky, when some Former or other weak enemy could inadvertently get caught in the explosion to end the run, thus making you also heavily dependent on floors generating with doors or fluids in spots with usable cover. Even if you get a perfect camping spot with a doorway or fluid tile, and so can perfectly funnel every enemy single file while being able to weaken each of them before they reach you, anything bigger than an Imp you often won't perfectly weaken to be killed in one punch and even Imps can get hits in annoyingly often, so attrition damage racks up fast in ideal scenarios.
The worst thing however hanging over your head is that if a single enemy dies to any weapon, you are immediately disqualified from earning this badge; an enemy wasn't quite in one-punch kill range but your Shotgun/Pistol shot rolled unexpectedly high and killed them, you tried shooting something with a Shotgun and some enemy behind them you didn't see gets killed by it, a Pistol misses and blows up a barrel behind the enemy you shot at that then kills them or another enemy, that's it run is over, Q+Y and try again. There's also the fucked indirect kill attribution of 0.9.9.7, where if an enemy dies by indirect means (e.g. from items, infighting, telefragging, or damaging fluids), the kill will be attributed to the weapon you had equipped at the time of their death. This means you must ardently limit the time you have a weapon equipped, so you can't run -> wait or move around a floor with a weapon equipped, else if an enemy attacks you and kills something else in the crossfire or Formers keep walking into a teleporter and telefrag each other or some Pinky on the other side of the map dies while running through acid, your run is over if you happened to have any weapon equipped when those things happen, and you might not even notice it if you don't pay good attention to the messages to notice the "You hear the scream of a freed soul" message. Being unable to have your weapon out at all times doesn't just make this run more annoying to play, it makes the attrition damage issue even worse, as without Juggler, the time it takes to swap to a weapon will allow an enemy to move back out of vision or to a tile where they get LoS on you, or it's a bigger enemy that moves closer and costs you a crucial additional shot you could have gotten on them before punching them. At least if you punch an enemy with a weapon equipped, the game will correctly attribute it as a fist kill, so you don't need to waste time swapping back to your fists to punch things (before attempting this I did a quick HNTR AoOC test to verify if I could still get Sunrise Iron Fist after punching enemies to death with a weapon equipped, doing a Strongman Angelic run and then not getting the badge if the kill attribution was fucked that way too would have been very deflating).
For the build, there is really only one viable option and that's Vampyre. As mentioned, you'll take a heavy amount of unavoidable attrition damage and so having the mastery that heals off that attrition damage is imperative, while trying to avoid the attrition damage with Blademaster won't work that well when you'll be unable to one-shot anything bigger than Imps even when berserked. When it comes to your opening traits, in a normal Vampyre run I would usually open with Finesse, or if in AoB, I would go straight for Berserker, but in a Strongman run, getting Brute 3 ASAP is non-negotiable; not only is increasing the damage of your punching vital when it's so weak, but since building up the Berserker counter requires hits to deal at least 10 damage, you can't even trigger Berserker with your fists without having Brute 3. Then you need to get Vampyre ASAP after that; picking up Finesse or TaN instead of Badass is tempting, but as established, you just won't survive if you don't heal off all the attrition damage and you'll probably be running low on medkits by the time you reach level 6, if you have any at all. After Vampyre you then get some differing options to build, Tormuse in his run went straight for TaN, however I go for Fin2 and then WK2 immediately; Finesse is not only a means for increasing DPS, but it'll also help you trigger Berserker faster, which is crucial to reducing the damage you take. For example, punching a full health Baron with no berserk is a very unfun time, as he'll get three hits in before you get four punches in to trigger Berserker, which each Baron swing will deal 9-11 damage that even a Red Armor will only reduce to 5-7 damage, so 15-21 total in said Red Armor (even greater in weaker armor), and he'll still get another hit or two in after Berserker kicks in, while you get 6 HP back for killing him. With Finesse, you can get a double hit or two in on him to reduce the hits he get in before Berserker triggers, significantly reducing the damage you take punching him, and this damage saving will be even more drastic when you're in a midst of a horde and triggering Berserker ASAP is your only hope of survival, thus it will save you more damage than TaN will (not to mention it'll also let you more effectively damage bigger enemies with other weapons before they reach you, so even more damage saving there). Then getting WK2 is important because the most crucial piece of equipment is getting yourself adequate indestructible or regenerating armor, as even with doubled-repairing shards, this run will make you chew through armor like Nightmare Demons chew through noobs, and TaN alone does not suffice, especially when TaN does not reduce the damage your armor takes (as it's applied in damage calculation after your armor). (Your different armor options are explained in the spoiler) After WK2 I go for Juggler, which can be surprising as at this point as I'm not so reliant on using weapons to weaken enemies and so Badass 2 or TaN would be more valuable, but if I make this far, when I do use weapons, I want to absolutely minimize the time I spend with it equipped to reduce the chance some random Pinky dies in lava or something else dies while I have a weapon equipped, which is probably a bigger risk to ending a run at this point than me actually dying. After that is level 12 and so I still don't get Badass nor TaN as I can get more Finesse and Brute; I go for Fin3 first, I already explained the importance of faster attacking speed and speed is something that gets even better the more of it you have (at this point I will be getting 2 punches for nearly every 1 attack from standard speed enemies, and even against Archviles I can now sneak extra punches in without berserk, while with berserk, I'll be getting nearly 3 punches for 1 from standard speed enemies and getting reliable double punches on fast enemies), and then it's maxing out Brute to make my damage less pitiful (with Brute 5, your punches now deal 16-18 damage, 32-36 when berserked, thus with berserk you can now two-shot any enemy below an Archvile, while also one-shotting Revenants and Arachnotrons). It's Badass 2 after that for extra insurance with carrying around more boosted health, and then I finally get TaN for my final two levels, though if I was relying on a Nanofiber Red Armor in this run, I may have gotten TaN sooner (but with the armor I had, I didn't need the farther damage reduction).
With the overarching strategy, there are two ways to approach Strongman Angelic; you either play it the intended way and actually clear out most floors punching everything to get 90+% kills, or you stair dive and pray you get lucky enough with Berserks/Invulns to survive and farm a Pain Elemental or safe respawn for hours later in the run to make up the 90+% kills needed. Tormuse did the latter, and ended up spending a whopping 7 and a half hours on his run, farming Pain Elementals for an absurd 12029 Lost Soul kills (granted he went that far to get Iron Skull and could have made do with half the Lost Souls, but having to kill 6K Lost souls is still a crazy time-consuming amount), Tormuse however doesn't state how many tries it took him, while stair diving seems extremely unreliable when you're playing a Marine (so no stair sense) and can't use any weapons to kill stuff nor can rocket jump with enemies around (as invariably something would get killed by it or infighting while you have the rocket launcher equipped). Considering how unappealling spamming stair dives until I get very lucky is to me and the extremely tedious lategame Lost Soul/respawn grinding needed if I skip most of the floors, I decided to play it the more "legit" way and actually kill most enemies along the way. Micerang in his Strongman Angelic actually pulled off a YAAM Conqueror, but again considering 0.9.9.8 gave you the cheat code that was the dodging bug and its overpowered Marine + its version of Vampyre that was essentially IDDQD, doing that in any other version would be ludicrous, so I won't be going that far and will leave any floor that is not worth staying on (especially in Phobos), while I will only be entering and clearing special levels that are still easily doable with the fist-only kills restriction.
When it comes to the run itself, it immediately gets annoying with Phobos Base Entry; if the Shotgunners come out early when you approach the building, that's it run is over, reset, even if you can run through their shotgun blasts without dying you'll take too much damage. If they don't come out early and you can get to the side of the building, the level is easy to clear as you can gift drop all the Formers to punching range and approaching an initial Former Human isn't hard as they'll have Storm Trooper accuracy when you're running. The next part of aggravation though comes in getting those Small Medkits that you really want when you need all the health you can get early on and getting them is a terrible luck-based ordeal; I found a trick where you can guarantee a double attack on a Shotgunner if he attacks on consecutive quick swaps you do, but with Brute 1 your punch does 4-6 damage, so if you roll 4 on one punch and then don't roll a 6 on the other punch, you won't kill him in two punches, and you only have 74% accuracy too with Brute 1 so your finishing punch will miss annoyingly frequently, where the Shotgunner will then use the medkit up. And unlike in a normal run where you can use the first Shotgunner's Shotgun to one-shot the second Shotgunner with a medkit, you can't do that here, so you will need roll the unreliable odds again. Calculating all the probabilities here would be annoying, but I would say you only have around 25% or less odds of getting a good Phobos Base Entry with both medkits and not taking too much damage, so aiming for that will make you quickly reset a lot, and even getting a good Phobos Base Entry will often be for naught as you get a floor 2 that isn't viable. I kept trying for the ideal Phobos Base Entry, but in retrospect you probably should just settle for the one medkit and not taking too much damage, the extra medkit won't save you getting a fucked early Phobos floor and any run that makes it to Chained Court can be viable (as you'll see), so all those resets that will be caused trying to get both medkits here won't be worth it.
Speaking of floor 2, it'll be the floor with the most deaths or resets if you don't aim for an ideal Phobos Base Entry. To start with, if you spawn near a bunch of enemies in the open without an immediate good escape path, your run is already over, Formers will shred you quickly in the open and you can forget about trying to punch out several Imps at once with only Brute 1. If you get forced to fight a Pinky before you get Brute 2, your run is also over; with only Brute 1 your fist will deal an appalling 2-4 damage to them while their bites deal 6-8 damage and they'll be getting a double attack in for every 2 or 3 punches you throw, so you absolutely need to avoid them before you at least get Brute 2 (ideally you'll want Brute 3, since with Brute 2 you're still dealing only 5-7 damage, but Brute 2 can be workable if you can at least weaken them significantly first). If you don't get an immediate run-ending start, first thing will be trying to find a workable camping spot with a door or water tile ASAP and then set up camp, as well as hoping you can punch out enough Formers before having to punch out Imps with Brute 1 (who are a lot more competent in melee than Formers and will often not die to two punches if not previously damaged, as you will need to roll two 6 damage rolls without missing either punch to do so). Once you got a camping spot, you can gift drop with one of your medkits to lure Formers into punching range, but you can safely shoot them once with your Pistol to aggro them into position or just weaken them into one-punch kill range since saving any damage you take helps (without damage boosts, the Pistol can't do more than 8 damage and so can never kill an undamaged Former in one shot, however the Pistol does frequently miss and so you shouldn't shoot if you can see a barrel behind the Former). Imps are trickier, as they can't be lured in by gifts, and with their just above-average speed, they can get a double move as you wait and so can get a surprise attack in, or immediately pop into melee range, while the math isn't in your favor if you try duking it out with several undamaged Imps (Imps deal 3-5 in melee, 2-4 if you got Green Armor on, and won't frequently miss like Formers will, while they can occasionally get double hits in without Finesse and you can't one-punch a full health Imp without Brute 3, which even then you'll only do so 33% of the time). You'll need to Pistol Imps from behind cover to safely get their attention, and you'll want to Pistol them to one-punch range; usually you can only get one safe Pistol shot on them but if their health is displayed as "lightly wounded" or "scratched", the Pistol low rolled and left them at 9/10 HP, so you can (and should) Pistol them again to ensure they're in one-punch range with Brute 2 or especially Brute 1 (but after you get Brute 3, you'll always one-punch them after any Pistol shot). If an Imp is at least 8 tiles away, a Shotgun will fail to one-shot them even with an incredibly unlikely max damage roll, but using a Shotgun is risky as barrels could be around just outside your vision that would get blown up, or there could be Formers or Lost Souls right outside your vision that get killed in the spread, so you shouldn't use Shotguns to aggro an Imp unless you're damn sure nothing is behind it.
Regarding Lost Souls, with their 50% bullet resistance you can safely get at least two Pistol shots off on them and you won't need to worry about them leaving a corpse, but don't Pistol a wandering Lost Soul that's less than 5 tiles away, as a shot Lost Soul will immediately charge and cover up to 4 tiles in a single move, while their charge hits harder than Imps with 5-7 damage (ideally after you Pistol a Lost Soul, it charges right into punching range for you to finish off). With Pinkies, ideally you have some acid on the level and can just wait for them to kill themselves in the acid or lure them over it, otherwise you are going to want to bust out the Shotgun to weaken them, as the Pistol likely won't get more than a few shots off before they reach you with over half their health intact, which is going to be a very unpleasant time with only Brute 2. If a Pinky's health is displayed as "wounded", they can die to any closish Shotgun blast (they can have as little as 13 HP left, which a very high damage roll can inflict to them even from a few tiles away), but this early it's a risk you have to take as a "wounded" Pinky can have as much as 18 HP and even a 13 HP Pinky will likely take up to three punches with Brute 2 to kill while you lose nearly half your health in the exchange (you should try getting them down to at least "severely wounded" before punching them, when you have Brute 2 I would even say you should probably risk another Shotgun blast on them at "heavily wounded"). For one more note with Pinkies, always check their health before shooting them, otherwise you might risk shooting a Pinky that's already nearly dead from running through acid offscreen (and I did lose a couple runs from shooting at Pinkies that happened to injure themselves to near death, you should also do the same with Imps since they can survive telefrags with 1 HP and I lost another run to shooting at an Imp without looking at its health that indeed survived a telefrag offscreen).
With vaults on Floor 2, they can be a mixed blessing; vaults can have very nice things inside, but on N! they'll be filled with over a half dozen Pinkies or Cacodemons, while you won't be able to get Brute 3 + Berserker this early to berserk through them. First thing is to try finding the vault and setting up camp near its entrance to make sure no enemies open it, you do not want the enemies inside getting out before you get Brute 3. If you can guard the vault and kill all other enemies on the floor, you can then try dealing with it. If there is a nearby Berserk Pack, you should utilize it to clear out the vault, but if not you'll need to approach it more carefully. If it's Pinkies and there's acid, you can try luring them over to it or push an acid barrel near the vault and blow it up, otherwise you'll have to break the door open from a distance and try isolating them once you get them out, while utilizing doors to block them off when needed. Cacodemons have a lot more HP and hit even harder in melee (doing 7-9 damage), while they'll fly over any acid, but they are a lot slower, so they might actually not be as bad if you can isolate them, as you can much more easily escape them and more easily weaken them before they reach you (you want to get them to "mortally wounded" before punching them, you can risk shotgunning a "heavily wounded" Caco this early but should switch to the Pistol if they're "severely wounded" but not yet in your face as a Shotgun has too high of a chance to kill them even near edge of vision, while they're guaranteed to survive at least one Pistol shot at that health range). If you get lucky with a vault and can clear it out, you could get a Red Armor early that will be extremely helpful, a Phase Device of either sort that will be crucial for a certain later level or a Rocket Launcher that will be even better for said level (and do emergency corpse disposal in the meantime), and early Large Medkits. Even just a Blue Armor would be useful for getting through the next few floors, and if there's nothing good inside, at least it'll be extra crucially needed early EXP. Whatever the floor layout is, you should fully clear floor 2 or reset/die trying if you're unable to, killing everything on floor 2 should get you enough EXP to hit level 3 to get the direly needed Brute 3, or it'll at least get you no more than a few kills away from hitting level 3, you do not want to be punching Hell Knights with Brute 2. In my winning run, I got a Massacre lever on floor 2; I got one in a few prior runs that I couldn't find in time before dying, but in this run I was able to escape that nasty looking start and find it. If you get a Massacre lever, you should try finding it and hit it ASAP; as it'll gib all Formers, kill all Imps, and significantly weaken Lost Souls and Pinkies (you'll lose any medkits or armors picked up by the Formers, but it's probably worth the tradeoff here). You could try going into Hell's Arena despite clearing it being out of the question, I usually go in even in runs where it's unviable just to get some kills for EXP, however I skipped it in nearly all my attempts here as it can go quickly awry and I typically already spent 15+ minutes just getting through floor 2 (the only time I went in was when I got a lucky early Shell Box from an ammo crate so I could weaken the Cacos and Pinkies much more safely, maybe if I got a Combat Shotgun from a floor 2 vault I would consider it too). Even if you get any Berserk Packs on floor 2, you shouldn't waste them going into Hell's Arena, as they'll help you survive the upcoming floor much more and you're not clearing Hell's Arena anyway.
After floor 2 is the ever dreaded floor 3-5 range, with the Hell Knights and more dangerous level types showing up. Hell Knights hit as hard as Cacodemons do, but they have even more HP, are faster than you with 110% speed, and can wear any armor they find as well as steal + use medkits. You'll rarely be able to cleanly shotgun down a Hell Knight to one-punch range, and unless you started shotgunning from far away, they'll probably get to you with over half their health remaining, where it'll take you at least three punches to kill them even with Brute 3. Hell Knights also often spawn heading a group of Imps, at which point you can't shotgun them down unless you can get the Hell Knight separated from the Imps. Whenever you find Berserk Packs, seeking and punching out any Hell Knights you see or hear while berserked should be your immediate kill priority, and you should eat an Imp fireball on top of their corpse to destroy it. You need to hit level 4 to get Berserker, as otherwise lethal hot starts and generally unviable floors can be survived with it, while the run's ultimate success still hinges on getting Vampyre, so you should try clearing floors in this range if you can do so. But if a floor is just too tough (such as a Cacodemon cave, Warehouse levels, or any maze), then you should leave upon finding the stairs, reaching The Chained Court is your top priority. In this run, I entered floor 3 with much needed berserk and had another immediately accessible Berserk Pack, so I could clear out the Hell Knights and a vault that spawned (as well as nabbed myself a Phase Device from inside it). The next two floors would be awful Warehouse levels with the mass barrel quasi-event, so clearing them out was unviable and I got brutalized fighting my way to the stairs. I was able to make it to The Chained Court but I thought the run was over as I had no armor and only a single Small Medkit (I didn't even bother taking screenshots because I thought the run was going to die in Chained Court or shortly after anyway).
If you make it to The Chained Court, it's tempting to grab all the Berserks and hightail it, but you should actually clear it, as if done correctly, you can come out of it without burning any medkits and you really want that Baron EXP, while you also want the mods (you can't mod your fists but you need A mods to move faster and P mods to buff your armor, as well as B mods for your armor if you don't get an Onyx nor Nano later). For clearing Chained Court, grab the Chainsaw (and immediately unequip it), then just immediately run to one of the exit rooms; punch out any Formers that are in the way but otherwise run past them until you get to the exit room and set up camp in there. You'll get shot up a lot and will probably be low on health, but you should make it (while a Berserk will fully heal you in a bit), and once you have the exit room secured, you can drop a medkit or armor in the doorway and camp it until all the non-caged Formers come to it (if there's a Chaingunner you had to punch out in the exit room, you'll have to keep punching him as he revives until you're sure no Former is right outside, then you can step out as he gets back up and wait for him to get in the doorway to put him out for good before resuming camping). Once all non-caged Formers are dead, it's onto the Barons; grab a Berserk and then go release the right Barons, punch one out and eat an acid ball on its corpse to destroy it, then immediately run back to the center, where you can then shotgun the Baron until it's sufficiently weakened for you to punch it out in the doorway. You then repeat the process for the Barons on the left side, except you instead lure the last Baron into the exit room instead of to the center room, and once the last Baron is killed in the doorway, you can camp with a gift there until the remaining Formers released in the center room come to you. Doing this I'm still able to clear The Chained Court despite the dire state I was in, and have two Berserks left to take with me to the next floor.
Phobos 6 was a maze that I would have no hope in if I stayed, but I find the stairs quickly enough and nab myself a battered Blue Armor for some armor as well as a Supercharge along the way, and then Phobos 7 is yet another Warehouse level with a hot start, but I survive just long enough to get Vampyre. I also find the red stairs quickly, which turned out to be Military Base! If it was Phobos Lab I would have kept looking for the normal stairs (I already lost my deepest run prior from Phobos Lab after being forced into it when rolling an Arachnotron Cave on floor 7, punching out Nightmare Demons just isn't viable and I didn't have the speed to safely lure out the cave Nightmare Demons nor a Rocket Launcher for preemptively triggering Berserker), but Military Base I could easily clear with Vampyre online regardless of my armor/health supply and it'll be a huge EXP dump alongside having lots of armor, potentially medkits from crates, and two mods, so I just go right in after my berserk runs out. Then it's Phobos Anomaly, you get a much needed Red Armor and two Large Medkits, but you have to get past the Nightmare enemy ambush. The simplest way to get past would be to get an Invuln on floor 7, the next safest way is rocket jump through if you found a Rocket Launcher (and you'll be safe from anything dying as you do so as the Nightmare enemies are so tanky), or if you have no Hellrunner, then you need to get lucky with a Phase Device. I'm unsure how to handle it without those things in this run, especially if you don't even got A-modded boots as I didn't yet in this run; your only shot might be P-modding the Red Armor, punch the Nightmare Demons and hope Berserker activates before you die, then run back to the starting room with berserk and hopefully Vampyre can keep you alive as you punch out everything in the doorway. Luckily that aforementioned Phase Device I got does get me past the ambush, I then pop the radsuit from Military Base as I punch out the Bruisers (should have used the Chainsaw to weaken them but I'm able to successfully punch them out without using my Red Armor), and at last I finally get a run to Deimos after dozens and dozens of attempts. This also serves as a good lesson that as long as you can make it to The Chained Court, Strongman Angelic is still viable, no matter how bad your armor and health situation is.
Deimos would immediately give me a big reprieve, with its first floor having not just One Invuln, two Invulns (plus a Hatred Skull that might be handy), but three Invulnerabilities! I'm able to take them all with me to Deimos Lab, where I just run straight to the Shamblers and punch them out with Invulnerability (the Invuln wasn't really needed when they would have been manageable enough with Berserker, but it was some much needed catharsis). I would have to retreat back to the teleporter room and wait for all the remaining enemies who didn't get their corpses destroyed to teleport in, after this bit of tedious cleanup, I can access the lab cache, and get a Sniper Mod... plus a Nano mod! I have my Red Armor already P-modded and so can make Powered Red Armor, however I'm still a level off from getting WK2 and I'll need it first or else I won't be able to mod it after (yet again I'll question why the hell this restriction with modding pre-WK2 assemblies existed, 0.9.9.8 getting rid of it was seriously one of its best changes). So I'm left at the conundrum of if to just make the Powered Red Armor now or wait until WK2; since my medkit supply is looking much better after Military Base and that good first Deimos floor, I make the decision to try holding out for one more level (and use the Sniper Mod to make a Plasmatic Combat Shotgun for easy anywhere corpse disposal + safe wall destruction, but I have to use it very sparingly as I do not want the run ruined at this point because of something dying while using it). I would get a pretty good Deimos 2 (as well as a stark reminder why you can't walk around with weapons equipped in this version, as I walked into a Mancubus' vision that then fired and killed enemies behind me, the run would have been over right there if I had anything equipped), and then on Deimos 3 I would reach level 10, where I promptly make the Powered Red Armor and P-mod it for a regenerating armor with 7 protection, 50% fire resist, 25% melee resist, and no movement penalty. If that wasn't enough, I find a Rocket Launcher (after having one blown up on the prior floor by the aforementioned Mancubus) that I immediately use all the Bulk mods I had to turn into a Tactical Rocket Launcher (which will let me take more Invulns with me at the end of a floor and the smaller radius can let me more safely rocket jump around enemies in a pinch), and finally an Agility mod for my boots (I somehow did not get a single one in the prior three special levels). At this point the run is mostly won, the Powered Red Armor will reduce all melee damage short of the Nightmare Demon and the biggest bosses down to 1 damage, VMR will be nearly harmless even without berserk, and with berserk basically everything will get reduced to 1 damage with no TaN needed (in this version, only plasma hits that deal over 11 damage won't get reduce to 1 damage, which among common enemies only a max damage roll from a Hell Knight or Cacodemon can do for a single extra point of damage, and the only other enemy I can encounter that can is Nightmare Cacodemon rolling for a maximum of 3 damage after my defenses). I would near exclusively use my fists at this point to be absolutely sure nothing inadvertently dies when I have a weapon out, as weakening enemies prior to punch them is no longer needed when I have achieved a near-IDDQD state, and I can even get more corpses destroyed by just tanking explosive projectiles on them if they're not already destroyed in the crossfire. I just need to be careful to not overextend against Arachnotrons (who can still rack up a lot of damage since their rapid fire bursts add up fast even after reducing each plasma bolt to 1 damage) and not take too many acid balls from Barons without berserk (they can still roll up to as high as 12 damage without berserk and a few acid balls in quick succession can damage my Powered Red Armor, putting me in a bad spot if I can't quickly get a breather for it to repair itself).
I skip Containment Area but head into Abyssal Plains for the Skulls that might be useful and a big easy kill pad, with it pushing me over the needed 90% kills threshold and so I won't need to do any respawn or Pain Elemental farming later as long as I clear out most of the remaining floors. Having a nuke on hand and an Invuln spawning on Deimos 6, I would use the opportunity to nuke Spider's Lair, which conveniently has all its rewards spawn in after the nuke goes off; unfortunately I can't use the BFG but the Plasteel Boots will be nice... yet are immediately rendered irrelevant when Deimos 7 has Enviroboots drop in my immediate vision. Deimos 7 is finished off easily and then I punch out the Cyberdemon effortlessly, not even needing to Chainsaw him down to near death first. Hell gives me an easy opener with a Pain Elemental + Lost Souls cave, and then Unholy Cathedral is free EXP, with me also punching out the Angel of Death without needing to weaken him with the Chainsaw. I find a Bulk in that cave after using all the ones I had prior on the Tactical Rocket Launcher, which I used to make a P-modded Nanofiber Red Armor out of a spare Red Armor I had just in case I got into a fight that damaged the Powered Red Armor... and that proved immediately necessary when Hell 2 gave me an Arena level with an Arachnotron group right near the start as well as a nearby Hell Noble group set to hunt me. Had my closest post-Phobos call here as my Powered Red Armor got damaged and I had to slip into that Nanofiber Red Armor, with one particular bad moment when my berserk ran out while waiting for enemies to approach me from behind the starting cover, a Hatred Skull would indeed prove useful here to get rid of the nearby corpses and get berserk back on to finish the remaining hunting enemies so I can put the Powered Red Armor back on to repair itself, after which I can finish off the remaining enemies. Hell 3 is much smoother and I then enter The Vaults, since it's free EXP and missing a handful of kills won't matter, while I also have two Phase Devices to try getting in the center vault without the Arena Master's Staff. The first one doesn't get me in, but the second Phase does! This turns out to not just be for EXP (and making up for cheesing Scavenger Diamond prior with Whisper Of Death in this version), but is materially worth it as well with the center vault having a Lava Armor, much better backup armor than the Nanofiber Red that I can also easily repair whenever with those Enviroboots (and I would make use of it a couple times, particularly against some Barons on an Island level who I carelessly face tanked too many berserk-less acid balls from). Hell 4 would have an Invuln right near Mortuary's stairs, and I had another nuke on hand, so I decided to nuke Mortuary as well. I would pop the other Hatred Skull I got from the Agony Elemental, then do a couple rocket jumps towards the Nuclear BFG before the Archviles start reviving enemies (immediately swapping off once there was too much risk of something dying while rocket jumping), and then run the rest of the way to get the Nuclear BFG before nuking Mortuary (this was completely unnecessary, but nuking Mortuary is fun). Thanks to Enviroboots, Mt. Erebus is a freebie and it would have Malek's Armor there, would have been much nicer to have this sooner, but it's nice to have for Carmack, who I opt to fight to continue inching closer to Apostle rank and I effortlessly punch Carmack out.
A really nasty thing about Strongman runs is that you don't know for sure if you succeed until you see the ending mortem or the rank up screen, since something may have died at some point while you had a weapon equipped that you didn't notice, and there's no way to see during the run if it's still valid for the Strongman badges, thus you could potentially slug through this ordeal after hours and hours just to not get the badge because you didn't see the message that a fucking Pinky you never even saw ran on lava for the single second you had a weapon out. So upon killing Carmack I sit in anticipation for the rank up screen to verify nothing went wrong..... and there it is! After 24 recorded deaths (the most brutal deaths being the previously alluded to death in Phobos Lab after being forced in by a terribly early Arachnotron cave, and this run immediately after where I made it to Phobos 7 with an Invuln near the Anomaly stairs, only to absolutely throw it by charging on a Revenant in the open backed by a Chaingunner instead of running behind some sort of cover or just using up the Large Medkit I had), probably around another dozen or so I quit out of when getting a fucked floor or something dying while I had a weapon out, and countless resets on Phobos Base Entry if you count those as real attempts, I get Strongman Angelic over two days of attempting it. That is additionally my 9th Angelic, officially tying Tormuse for the most recorded Angelics by any player in 0.9.9.7 and becoming the second player confirmed to have achieved the Chaos Lt. General Rank (this also knocks off the last badge that was only won by Tormuse, which leaves Icy's Arena Diamond as the only badge left exclusively won by a single player aside from my own Eagerness and Inquisitor Angelics). Overall, yeah this badge definitely deserves its Angelic status and I can see why only Tormuse won it in this version, as not only is it extremely difficult, but it also forces the worst of DRL gameplay and it's very frustrating to suddenly lose runs because of anything dying while you had a weapon out. I don't think it's harder than Eagerness Angelic and am not sure it's harder than Inquisitor Angelic either (the difficulty is incredibly front-loaded here and surviving to The Chained Court is heavily luck-based), but it certainly was a lot less fun to go for. Strongman Angelic will be one of the badges most affected by the changes since in 0.10 and beyond; there are lots of good things like respawns no longer counting towards the kill counter, enemies no longer reviving in vision without the aid of Archviles, Tech mods now giving resistances to armors (including +20% melee res), proper infighting being in the game, and best of all, indirect kills are now properly attributed as "other" kills instead of to your equipped weapon, so you can keep a weapon equipped at all times and don't need to waste so much time constantly swapping between armed/unarmed. There are however going to be drawbacks, such as more randomized enemy melee damage meaning enemies can potentially swing harder (notably Pinkies actually average slightly more damage now), berserk being nerfed to giving +50% resistances (the Marine getting an inherent +10% energy resistances will result in your berserked energy resistances being the same if you play the Marine, but you will feel the nerf on the melee side), Vampyre getting some significant but deserved nerfs (Vampyre's HP steal can no longer overheal and Vampyre is now blocked Ironman + TaN, which were buffed to give additional resistances, but as compensation Vampyre can get SoB now for extra punching damage or get EE for Intuition), and most significantly you now have the Enraged Timer that will invalidate excessive camping. I'm not sure if Strongman Angelic will be easier or even harder in 0.10-onward, but it'll certainly be less degenerate to actually play, which would make any grind for it more bearable regardless of if it turns out harder.
Well that was sure a doozy to write up, here is the mortem:
The worst thing however hanging over your head is that if a single enemy dies to any weapon, you are immediately disqualified from earning this badge; an enemy wasn't quite in one-punch kill range but your Shotgun/Pistol shot rolled unexpectedly high and killed them, you tried shooting something with a Shotgun and some enemy behind them you didn't see gets killed by it, a Pistol misses and blows up a barrel behind the enemy you shot at that then kills them or another enemy, that's it run is over, Q+Y and try again. There's also the fucked indirect kill attribution of 0.9.9.7, where if an enemy dies by indirect means (e.g. from items, infighting, telefragging, or damaging fluids), the kill will be attributed to the weapon you had equipped at the time of their death. This means you must ardently limit the time you have a weapon equipped, so you can't run -> wait or move around a floor with a weapon equipped, else if an enemy attacks you and kills something else in the crossfire or Formers keep walking into a teleporter and telefrag each other or some Pinky on the other side of the map dies while running through acid, your run is over if you happened to have any weapon equipped when those things happen, and you might not even notice it if you don't pay good attention to the messages to notice the "You hear the scream of a freed soul" message. Being unable to have your weapon out at all times doesn't just make this run more annoying to play, it makes the attrition damage issue even worse, as without Juggler, the time it takes to swap to a weapon will allow an enemy to move back out of vision or to a tile where they get LoS on you, or it's a bigger enemy that moves closer and costs you a crucial additional shot you could have gotten on them before punching them. At least if you punch an enemy with a weapon equipped, the game will correctly attribute it as a fist kill, so you don't need to waste time swapping back to your fists to punch things (before attempting this I did a quick HNTR AoOC test to verify if I could still get Sunrise Iron Fist after punching enemies to death with a weapon equipped, doing a Strongman Angelic run and then not getting the badge if the kill attribution was fucked that way too would have been very deflating).
For the build, there is really only one viable option and that's Vampyre. As mentioned, you'll take a heavy amount of unavoidable attrition damage and so having the mastery that heals off that attrition damage is imperative, while trying to avoid the attrition damage with Blademaster won't work that well when you'll be unable to one-shot anything bigger than Imps even when berserked. When it comes to your opening traits, in a normal Vampyre run I would usually open with Finesse, or if in AoB, I would go straight for Berserker, but in a Strongman run, getting Brute 3 ASAP is non-negotiable; not only is increasing the damage of your punching vital when it's so weak, but since building up the Berserker counter requires hits to deal at least 10 damage, you can't even trigger Berserker with your fists without having Brute 3. Then you need to get Vampyre ASAP after that; picking up Finesse or TaN instead of Badass is tempting, but as established, you just won't survive if you don't heal off all the attrition damage and you'll probably be running low on medkits by the time you reach level 6, if you have any at all. After Vampyre you then get some differing options to build, Tormuse in his run went straight for TaN, however I go for Fin2 and then WK2 immediately; Finesse is not only a means for increasing DPS, but it'll also help you trigger Berserker faster, which is crucial to reducing the damage you take. For example, punching a full health Baron with no berserk is a very unfun time, as he'll get three hits in before you get four punches in to trigger Berserker, which each Baron swing will deal 9-11 damage that even a Red Armor will only reduce to 5-7 damage, so 15-21 total in said Red Armor (even greater in weaker armor), and he'll still get another hit or two in after Berserker kicks in, while you get 6 HP back for killing him. With Finesse, you can get a double hit or two in on him to reduce the hits he get in before Berserker triggers, significantly reducing the damage you take punching him, and this damage saving will be even more drastic when you're in a midst of a horde and triggering Berserker ASAP is your only hope of survival, thus it will save you more damage than TaN will (not to mention it'll also let you more effectively damage bigger enemies with other weapons before they reach you, so even more damage saving there). Then getting WK2 is important because the most crucial piece of equipment is getting yourself adequate indestructible or regenerating armor, as even with doubled-repairing shards, this run will make you chew through armor like Nightmare Demons chew through noobs, and TaN alone does not suffice, especially when TaN does not reduce the damage your armor takes (as it's applied in damage calculation after your armor). (Your different armor options are explained in the spoiler)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With the overarching strategy, there are two ways to approach Strongman Angelic; you either play it the intended way and actually clear out most floors punching everything to get 90+% kills, or you stair dive and pray you get lucky enough with Berserks/Invulns to survive and farm a Pain Elemental or safe respawn for hours later in the run to make up the 90+% kills needed. Tormuse did the latter, and ended up spending a whopping 7 and a half hours on his run, farming Pain Elementals for an absurd 12029 Lost Soul kills (granted he went that far to get Iron Skull and could have made do with half the Lost Souls, but having to kill 6K Lost souls is still a crazy time-consuming amount), Tormuse however doesn't state how many tries it took him, while stair diving seems extremely unreliable when you're playing a Marine (so no stair sense) and can't use any weapons to kill stuff nor can rocket jump with enemies around (as invariably something would get killed by it or infighting while you have the rocket launcher equipped). Considering how unappealling spamming stair dives until I get very lucky is to me and the extremely tedious lategame Lost Soul/respawn grinding needed if I skip most of the floors, I decided to play it the more "legit" way and actually kill most enemies along the way. Micerang in his Strongman Angelic actually pulled off a YAAM Conqueror, but again considering 0.9.9.8 gave you the cheat code that was the dodging bug and its overpowered Marine + its version of Vampyre that was essentially IDDQD, doing that in any other version would be ludicrous, so I won't be going that far and will leave any floor that is not worth staying on (especially in Phobos), while I will only be entering and clearing special levels that are still easily doable with the fist-only kills restriction.
When it comes to the run itself, it immediately gets annoying with Phobos Base Entry; if the Shotgunners come out early when you approach the building, that's it run is over, reset, even if you can run through their shotgun blasts without dying you'll take too much damage. If they don't come out early and you can get to the side of the building, the level is easy to clear as you can gift drop all the Formers to punching range and approaching an initial Former Human isn't hard as they'll have Storm Trooper accuracy when you're running. The next part of aggravation though comes in getting those Small Medkits that you really want when you need all the health you can get early on and getting them is a terrible luck-based ordeal; I found a trick where you can guarantee a double attack on a Shotgunner if he attacks on consecutive quick swaps you do, but with Brute 1 your punch does 4-6 damage, so if you roll 4 on one punch and then don't roll a 6 on the other punch, you won't kill him in two punches, and you only have 74% accuracy too with Brute 1 so your finishing punch will miss annoyingly frequently, where the Shotgunner will then use the medkit up. And unlike in a normal run where you can use the first Shotgunner's Shotgun to one-shot the second Shotgunner with a medkit, you can't do that here, so you will need roll the unreliable odds again. Calculating all the probabilities here would be annoying, but I would say you only have around 25% or less odds of getting a good Phobos Base Entry with both medkits and not taking too much damage, so aiming for that will make you quickly reset a lot, and even getting a good Phobos Base Entry will often be for naught as you get a floor 2 that isn't viable. I kept trying for the ideal Phobos Base Entry, but in retrospect you probably should just settle for the one medkit and not taking too much damage, the extra medkit won't save you getting a fucked early Phobos floor and any run that makes it to Chained Court can be viable (as you'll see), so all those resets that will be caused trying to get both medkits here won't be worth it.
Speaking of floor 2, it'll be the floor with the most deaths or resets if you don't aim for an ideal Phobos Base Entry. To start with, if you spawn near a bunch of enemies in the open without an immediate good escape path, your run is already over, Formers will shred you quickly in the open and you can forget about trying to punch out several Imps at once with only Brute 1. If you get forced to fight a Pinky before you get Brute 2, your run is also over; with only Brute 1 your fist will deal an appalling 2-4 damage to them while their bites deal 6-8 damage and they'll be getting a double attack in for every 2 or 3 punches you throw, so you absolutely need to avoid them before you at least get Brute 2 (ideally you'll want Brute 3, since with Brute 2 you're still dealing only 5-7 damage, but Brute 2 can be workable if you can at least weaken them significantly first). If you don't get an immediate run-ending start, first thing will be trying to find a workable camping spot with a door or water tile ASAP and then set up camp, as well as hoping you can punch out enough Formers before having to punch out Imps with Brute 1 (who are a lot more competent in melee than Formers and will often not die to two punches if not previously damaged, as you will need to roll two 6 damage rolls without missing either punch to do so). Once you got a camping spot, you can gift drop with one of your medkits to lure Formers into punching range, but you can safely shoot them once with your Pistol to aggro them into position or just weaken them into one-punch kill range since saving any damage you take helps (without damage boosts, the Pistol can't do more than 8 damage and so can never kill an undamaged Former in one shot, however the Pistol does frequently miss and so you shouldn't shoot if you can see a barrel behind the Former). Imps are trickier, as they can't be lured in by gifts, and with their just above-average speed, they can get a double move as you wait and so can get a surprise attack in, or immediately pop into melee range, while the math isn't in your favor if you try duking it out with several undamaged Imps (Imps deal 3-5 in melee, 2-4 if you got Green Armor on, and won't frequently miss like Formers will, while they can occasionally get double hits in without Finesse and you can't one-punch a full health Imp without Brute 3, which even then you'll only do so 33% of the time). You'll need to Pistol Imps from behind cover to safely get their attention, and you'll want to Pistol them to one-punch range; usually you can only get one safe Pistol shot on them but if their health is displayed as "lightly wounded" or "scratched", the Pistol low rolled and left them at 9/10 HP, so you can (and should) Pistol them again to ensure they're in one-punch range with Brute 2 or especially Brute 1 (but after you get Brute 3, you'll always one-punch them after any Pistol shot). If an Imp is at least 8 tiles away, a Shotgun will fail to one-shot them even with an incredibly unlikely max damage roll, but using a Shotgun is risky as barrels could be around just outside your vision that would get blown up, or there could be Formers or Lost Souls right outside your vision that get killed in the spread, so you shouldn't use Shotguns to aggro an Imp unless you're damn sure nothing is behind it.
Regarding Lost Souls, with their 50% bullet resistance you can safely get at least two Pistol shots off on them and you won't need to worry about them leaving a corpse, but don't Pistol a wandering Lost Soul that's less than 5 tiles away, as a shot Lost Soul will immediately charge and cover up to 4 tiles in a single move, while their charge hits harder than Imps with 5-7 damage (ideally after you Pistol a Lost Soul, it charges right into punching range for you to finish off). With Pinkies, ideally you have some acid on the level and can just wait for them to kill themselves in the acid or lure them over it, otherwise you are going to want to bust out the Shotgun to weaken them, as the Pistol likely won't get more than a few shots off before they reach you with over half their health intact, which is going to be a very unpleasant time with only Brute 2. If a Pinky's health is displayed as "wounded", they can die to any closish Shotgun blast (they can have as little as 13 HP left, which a very high damage roll can inflict to them even from a few tiles away), but this early it's a risk you have to take as a "wounded" Pinky can have as much as 18 HP and even a 13 HP Pinky will likely take up to three punches with Brute 2 to kill while you lose nearly half your health in the exchange (you should try getting them down to at least "severely wounded" before punching them, when you have Brute 2 I would even say you should probably risk another Shotgun blast on them at "heavily wounded"). For one more note with Pinkies, always check their health before shooting them, otherwise you might risk shooting a Pinky that's already nearly dead from running through acid offscreen (and I did lose a couple runs from shooting at Pinkies that happened to injure themselves to near death, you should also do the same with Imps since they can survive telefrags with 1 HP and I lost another run to shooting at an Imp without looking at its health that indeed survived a telefrag offscreen).
With vaults on Floor 2, they can be a mixed blessing; vaults can have very nice things inside, but on N! they'll be filled with over a half dozen Pinkies or Cacodemons, while you won't be able to get Brute 3 + Berserker this early to berserk through them. First thing is to try finding the vault and setting up camp near its entrance to make sure no enemies open it, you do not want the enemies inside getting out before you get Brute 3. If you can guard the vault and kill all other enemies on the floor, you can then try dealing with it. If there is a nearby Berserk Pack, you should utilize it to clear out the vault, but if not you'll need to approach it more carefully. If it's Pinkies and there's acid, you can try luring them over to it or push an acid barrel near the vault and blow it up, otherwise you'll have to break the door open from a distance and try isolating them once you get them out, while utilizing doors to block them off when needed. Cacodemons have a lot more HP and hit even harder in melee (doing 7-9 damage), while they'll fly over any acid, but they are a lot slower, so they might actually not be as bad if you can isolate them, as you can much more easily escape them and more easily weaken them before they reach you (you want to get them to "mortally wounded" before punching them, you can risk shotgunning a "heavily wounded" Caco this early but should switch to the Pistol if they're "severely wounded" but not yet in your face as a Shotgun has too high of a chance to kill them even near edge of vision, while they're guaranteed to survive at least one Pistol shot at that health range). If you get lucky with a vault and can clear it out, you could get a Red Armor early that will be extremely helpful, a Phase Device of either sort that will be crucial for a certain later level or a Rocket Launcher that will be even better for said level (and do emergency corpse disposal in the meantime), and early Large Medkits. Even just a Blue Armor would be useful for getting through the next few floors, and if there's nothing good inside, at least it'll be extra crucially needed early EXP. Whatever the floor layout is, you should fully clear floor 2 or reset/die trying if you're unable to, killing everything on floor 2 should get you enough EXP to hit level 3 to get the direly needed Brute 3, or it'll at least get you no more than a few kills away from hitting level 3, you do not want to be punching Hell Knights with Brute 2. In my winning run, I got a Massacre lever on floor 2; I got one in a few prior runs that I couldn't find in time before dying, but in this run I was able to escape that nasty looking start and find it. If you get a Massacre lever, you should try finding it and hit it ASAP; as it'll gib all Formers, kill all Imps, and significantly weaken Lost Souls and Pinkies (you'll lose any medkits or armors picked up by the Formers, but it's probably worth the tradeoff here). You could try going into Hell's Arena despite clearing it being out of the question, I usually go in even in runs where it's unviable just to get some kills for EXP, however I skipped it in nearly all my attempts here as it can go quickly awry and I typically already spent 15+ minutes just getting through floor 2 (the only time I went in was when I got a lucky early Shell Box from an ammo crate so I could weaken the Cacos and Pinkies much more safely, maybe if I got a Combat Shotgun from a floor 2 vault I would consider it too). Even if you get any Berserk Packs on floor 2, you shouldn't waste them going into Hell's Arena, as they'll help you survive the upcoming floor much more and you're not clearing Hell's Arena anyway.
After floor 2 is the ever dreaded floor 3-5 range, with the Hell Knights and more dangerous level types showing up. Hell Knights hit as hard as Cacodemons do, but they have even more HP, are faster than you with 110% speed, and can wear any armor they find as well as steal + use medkits. You'll rarely be able to cleanly shotgun down a Hell Knight to one-punch range, and unless you started shotgunning from far away, they'll probably get to you with over half their health remaining, where it'll take you at least three punches to kill them even with Brute 3. Hell Knights also often spawn heading a group of Imps, at which point you can't shotgun them down unless you can get the Hell Knight separated from the Imps. Whenever you find Berserk Packs, seeking and punching out any Hell Knights you see or hear while berserked should be your immediate kill priority, and you should eat an Imp fireball on top of their corpse to destroy it. You need to hit level 4 to get Berserker, as otherwise lethal hot starts and generally unviable floors can be survived with it, while the run's ultimate success still hinges on getting Vampyre, so you should try clearing floors in this range if you can do so. But if a floor is just too tough (such as a Cacodemon cave, Warehouse levels, or any maze), then you should leave upon finding the stairs, reaching The Chained Court is your top priority. In this run, I entered floor 3 with much needed berserk and had another immediately accessible Berserk Pack, so I could clear out the Hell Knights and a vault that spawned (as well as nabbed myself a Phase Device from inside it). The next two floors would be awful Warehouse levels with the mass barrel quasi-event, so clearing them out was unviable and I got brutalized fighting my way to the stairs. I was able to make it to The Chained Court but I thought the run was over as I had no armor and only a single Small Medkit (I didn't even bother taking screenshots because I thought the run was going to die in Chained Court or shortly after anyway).
If you make it to The Chained Court, it's tempting to grab all the Berserks and hightail it, but you should actually clear it, as if done correctly, you can come out of it without burning any medkits and you really want that Baron EXP, while you also want the mods (you can't mod your fists but you need A mods to move faster and P mods to buff your armor, as well as B mods for your armor if you don't get an Onyx nor Nano later). For clearing Chained Court, grab the Chainsaw (and immediately unequip it), then just immediately run to one of the exit rooms; punch out any Formers that are in the way but otherwise run past them until you get to the exit room and set up camp in there. You'll get shot up a lot and will probably be low on health, but you should make it (while a Berserk will fully heal you in a bit), and once you have the exit room secured, you can drop a medkit or armor in the doorway and camp it until all the non-caged Formers come to it (if there's a Chaingunner you had to punch out in the exit room, you'll have to keep punching him as he revives until you're sure no Former is right outside, then you can step out as he gets back up and wait for him to get in the doorway to put him out for good before resuming camping). Once all non-caged Formers are dead, it's onto the Barons; grab a Berserk and then go release the right Barons, punch one out and eat an acid ball on its corpse to destroy it, then immediately run back to the center, where you can then shotgun the Baron until it's sufficiently weakened for you to punch it out in the doorway. You then repeat the process for the Barons on the left side, except you instead lure the last Baron into the exit room instead of to the center room, and once the last Baron is killed in the doorway, you can camp with a gift there until the remaining Formers released in the center room come to you. Doing this I'm still able to clear The Chained Court despite the dire state I was in, and have two Berserks left to take with me to the next floor.
Phobos 6 was a maze that I would have no hope in if I stayed, but I find the stairs quickly enough and nab myself a battered Blue Armor for some armor as well as a Supercharge along the way, and then Phobos 7 is yet another Warehouse level with a hot start, but I survive just long enough to get Vampyre. I also find the red stairs quickly, which turned out to be Military Base! If it was Phobos Lab I would have kept looking for the normal stairs (I already lost my deepest run prior from Phobos Lab after being forced into it when rolling an Arachnotron Cave on floor 7, punching out Nightmare Demons just isn't viable and I didn't have the speed to safely lure out the cave Nightmare Demons nor a Rocket Launcher for preemptively triggering Berserker), but Military Base I could easily clear with Vampyre online regardless of my armor/health supply and it'll be a huge EXP dump alongside having lots of armor, potentially medkits from crates, and two mods, so I just go right in after my berserk runs out. Then it's Phobos Anomaly, you get a much needed Red Armor and two Large Medkits, but you have to get past the Nightmare enemy ambush. The simplest way to get past would be to get an Invuln on floor 7, the next safest way is rocket jump through if you found a Rocket Launcher (and you'll be safe from anything dying as you do so as the Nightmare enemies are so tanky), or if you have no Hellrunner, then you need to get lucky with a Phase Device. I'm unsure how to handle it without those things in this run, especially if you don't even got A-modded boots as I didn't yet in this run; your only shot might be P-modding the Red Armor, punch the Nightmare Demons and hope Berserker activates before you die, then run back to the starting room with berserk and hopefully Vampyre can keep you alive as you punch out everything in the doorway. Luckily that aforementioned Phase Device I got does get me past the ambush, I then pop the radsuit from Military Base as I punch out the Bruisers (should have used the Chainsaw to weaken them but I'm able to successfully punch them out without using my Red Armor), and at last I finally get a run to Deimos after dozens and dozens of attempts. This also serves as a good lesson that as long as you can make it to The Chained Court, Strongman Angelic is still viable, no matter how bad your armor and health situation is.
Deimos would immediately give me a big reprieve, with its first floor having not just One Invuln, two Invulns (plus a Hatred Skull that might be handy), but three Invulnerabilities! I'm able to take them all with me to Deimos Lab, where I just run straight to the Shamblers and punch them out with Invulnerability (the Invuln wasn't really needed when they would have been manageable enough with Berserker, but it was some much needed catharsis). I would have to retreat back to the teleporter room and wait for all the remaining enemies who didn't get their corpses destroyed to teleport in, after this bit of tedious cleanup, I can access the lab cache, and get a Sniper Mod... plus a Nano mod! I have my Red Armor already P-modded and so can make Powered Red Armor, however I'm still a level off from getting WK2 and I'll need it first or else I won't be able to mod it after (yet again I'll question why the hell this restriction with modding pre-WK2 assemblies existed, 0.9.9.8 getting rid of it was seriously one of its best changes). So I'm left at the conundrum of if to just make the Powered Red Armor now or wait until WK2; since my medkit supply is looking much better after Military Base and that good first Deimos floor, I make the decision to try holding out for one more level (and use the Sniper Mod to make a Plasmatic Combat Shotgun for easy anywhere corpse disposal + safe wall destruction, but I have to use it very sparingly as I do not want the run ruined at this point because of something dying while using it). I would get a pretty good Deimos 2 (as well as a stark reminder why you can't walk around with weapons equipped in this version, as I walked into a Mancubus' vision that then fired and killed enemies behind me, the run would have been over right there if I had anything equipped), and then on Deimos 3 I would reach level 10, where I promptly make the Powered Red Armor and P-mod it for a regenerating armor with 7 protection, 50% fire resist, 25% melee resist, and no movement penalty. If that wasn't enough, I find a Rocket Launcher (after having one blown up on the prior floor by the aforementioned Mancubus) that I immediately use all the Bulk mods I had to turn into a Tactical Rocket Launcher (which will let me take more Invulns with me at the end of a floor and the smaller radius can let me more safely rocket jump around enemies in a pinch), and finally an Agility mod for my boots (I somehow did not get a single one in the prior three special levels). At this point the run is mostly won, the Powered Red Armor will reduce all melee damage short of the Nightmare Demon and the biggest bosses down to 1 damage, VMR will be nearly harmless even without berserk, and with berserk basically everything will get reduced to 1 damage with no TaN needed (in this version, only plasma hits that deal over 11 damage won't get reduce to 1 damage, which among common enemies only a max damage roll from a Hell Knight or Cacodemon can do for a single extra point of damage, and the only other enemy I can encounter that can is Nightmare Cacodemon rolling for a maximum of 3 damage after my defenses). I would near exclusively use my fists at this point to be absolutely sure nothing inadvertently dies when I have a weapon out, as weakening enemies prior to punch them is no longer needed when I have achieved a near-IDDQD state, and I can even get more corpses destroyed by just tanking explosive projectiles on them if they're not already destroyed in the crossfire. I just need to be careful to not overextend against Arachnotrons (who can still rack up a lot of damage since their rapid fire bursts add up fast even after reducing each plasma bolt to 1 damage) and not take too many acid balls from Barons without berserk (they can still roll up to as high as 12 damage without berserk and a few acid balls in quick succession can damage my Powered Red Armor, putting me in a bad spot if I can't quickly get a breather for it to repair itself).
I skip Containment Area but head into Abyssal Plains for the Skulls that might be useful and a big easy kill pad, with it pushing me over the needed 90% kills threshold and so I won't need to do any respawn or Pain Elemental farming later as long as I clear out most of the remaining floors. Having a nuke on hand and an Invuln spawning on Deimos 6, I would use the opportunity to nuke Spider's Lair, which conveniently has all its rewards spawn in after the nuke goes off; unfortunately I can't use the BFG but the Plasteel Boots will be nice... yet are immediately rendered irrelevant when Deimos 7 has Enviroboots drop in my immediate vision. Deimos 7 is finished off easily and then I punch out the Cyberdemon effortlessly, not even needing to Chainsaw him down to near death first. Hell gives me an easy opener with a Pain Elemental + Lost Souls cave, and then Unholy Cathedral is free EXP, with me also punching out the Angel of Death without needing to weaken him with the Chainsaw. I find a Bulk in that cave after using all the ones I had prior on the Tactical Rocket Launcher, which I used to make a P-modded Nanofiber Red Armor out of a spare Red Armor I had just in case I got into a fight that damaged the Powered Red Armor... and that proved immediately necessary when Hell 2 gave me an Arena level with an Arachnotron group right near the start as well as a nearby Hell Noble group set to hunt me. Had my closest post-Phobos call here as my Powered Red Armor got damaged and I had to slip into that Nanofiber Red Armor, with one particular bad moment when my berserk ran out while waiting for enemies to approach me from behind the starting cover, a Hatred Skull would indeed prove useful here to get rid of the nearby corpses and get berserk back on to finish the remaining hunting enemies so I can put the Powered Red Armor back on to repair itself, after which I can finish off the remaining enemies. Hell 3 is much smoother and I then enter The Vaults, since it's free EXP and missing a handful of kills won't matter, while I also have two Phase Devices to try getting in the center vault without the Arena Master's Staff. The first one doesn't get me in, but the second Phase does! This turns out to not just be for EXP (and making up for cheesing Scavenger Diamond prior with Whisper Of Death in this version), but is materially worth it as well with the center vault having a Lava Armor, much better backup armor than the Nanofiber Red that I can also easily repair whenever with those Enviroboots (and I would make use of it a couple times, particularly against some Barons on an Island level who I carelessly face tanked too many berserk-less acid balls from). Hell 4 would have an Invuln right near Mortuary's stairs, and I had another nuke on hand, so I decided to nuke Mortuary as well. I would pop the other Hatred Skull I got from the Agony Elemental, then do a couple rocket jumps towards the Nuclear BFG before the Archviles start reviving enemies (immediately swapping off once there was too much risk of something dying while rocket jumping), and then run the rest of the way to get the Nuclear BFG before nuking Mortuary (this was completely unnecessary, but nuking Mortuary is fun). Thanks to Enviroboots, Mt. Erebus is a freebie and it would have Malek's Armor there, would have been much nicer to have this sooner, but it's nice to have for Carmack, who I opt to fight to continue inching closer to Apostle rank and I effortlessly punch Carmack out.
A really nasty thing about Strongman runs is that you don't know for sure if you succeed until you see the ending mortem or the rank up screen, since something may have died at some point while you had a weapon equipped that you didn't notice, and there's no way to see during the run if it's still valid for the Strongman badges, thus you could potentially slug through this ordeal after hours and hours just to not get the badge because you didn't see the message that a fucking Pinky you never even saw ran on lava for the single second you had a weapon out. So upon killing Carmack I sit in anticipation for the rank up screen to verify nothing went wrong..... and there it is! After 24 recorded deaths (the most brutal deaths being the previously alluded to death in Phobos Lab after being forced in by a terribly early Arachnotron cave, and this run immediately after where I made it to Phobos 7 with an Invuln near the Anomaly stairs, only to absolutely throw it by charging on a Revenant in the open backed by a Chaingunner instead of running behind some sort of cover or just using up the Large Medkit I had), probably around another dozen or so I quit out of when getting a fucked floor or something dying while I had a weapon out, and countless resets on Phobos Base Entry if you count those as real attempts, I get Strongman Angelic over two days of attempting it. That is additionally my 9th Angelic, officially tying Tormuse for the most recorded Angelics by any player in 0.9.9.7 and becoming the second player confirmed to have achieved the Chaos Lt. General Rank (this also knocks off the last badge that was only won by Tormuse, which leaves Icy's Arena Diamond as the only badge left exclusively won by a single player aside from my own Eagerness and Inquisitor Angelics). Overall, yeah this badge definitely deserves its Angelic status and I can see why only Tormuse won it in this version, as not only is it extremely difficult, but it also forces the worst of DRL gameplay and it's very frustrating to suddenly lose runs because of anything dying while you had a weapon out. I don't think it's harder than Eagerness Angelic and am not sure it's harder than Inquisitor Angelic either (the difficulty is incredibly front-loaded here and surviving to The Chained Court is heavily luck-based), but it certainly was a lot less fun to go for. Strongman Angelic will be one of the badges most affected by the changes since in 0.10 and beyond; there are lots of good things like respawns no longer counting towards the kill counter, enemies no longer reviving in vision without the aid of Archviles, Tech mods now giving resistances to armors (including +20% melee res), proper infighting being in the game, and best of all, indirect kills are now properly attributed as "other" kills instead of to your equipped weapon, so you can keep a weapon equipped at all times and don't need to waste so much time constantly swapping between armed/unarmed. There are however going to be drawbacks, such as more randomized enemy melee damage meaning enemies can potentially swing harder (notably Pinkies actually average slightly more damage now), berserk being nerfed to giving +50% resistances (the Marine getting an inherent +10% energy resistances will result in your berserked energy resistances being the same if you play the Marine, but you will feel the nerf on the melee side), Vampyre getting some significant but deserved nerfs (Vampyre's HP steal can no longer overheal and Vampyre is now blocked Ironman + TaN, which were buffed to give additional resistances, but as compensation Vampyre can get SoB now for extra punching damage or get EE for Intuition), and most significantly you now have the Enraged Timer that will invalidate excessive camping. I'm not sure if Strongman Angelic will be easier or even harder in 0.10-onward, but it'll certainly be less degenerate to actually play, which would make any grind for it more bearable regardless of if it turns out harder.
Well that was sure a doozy to write up, here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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GRANDMASTERTYSON25,
level 17 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Marine,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 1459188 turns and scored 940230 points.
He played for 3 hours, 13 minutes and 29 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 2016 out of 2122 hellspawn. (95%)
He held his right to remain violent.
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 9
Levels completed : 9
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Sunrise Iron Fist
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Fallout Gold Cross
Grim Reaper's Badge
Hell Armorer Badge
Strongman Angelic Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 120/60 Experience 150112/17
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +10 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +15
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Marine
Finesse (Level 3)
Tough as nails (Level 2)
Brute (Level 5)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Badass (Level 2)
Vampyre (Level 1)
Bru->Bru->Bru->Ber->Bad->MVm->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->Jug->Fin->Bru->Bru->Bad->TaN->TaN->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Malek's Armor [3/3] (93%)
[b] [ Weapon ] nothing
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] tactical rocket launcher (6d7) [5/5] (P1)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] plasmatic combat shotgun (7d3) [5/5]
[b] powered red armor [7/7] (100%) (P)
[c] nanofiber red armor [4] (P)
[d] Lava Armor [4/4] (100%)
[e] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
[f] chainsaw (5d7) (BP)
[g] shotgun shell (x50)
[h] rocket (x2)
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] large med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] phase device
[q] envirosuit pack
[r] power mod pack
[s] Enviroboots [0]
[t] shell box (x100)
-- 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 90% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
204 former humans
175 former sergeants
182 former captains
275 imps
90 demons
563 lost souls
104 cacodemons
44 hell knights
58 barons of hell
38 arachnotrons
51 former commandos
44 pain elementals
68 revenants
42 mancubi
28 arch-viles
9 nightmare imps
12 nightmare demons
7 elite former humans
5 elite former sergeants
7 elite former commandos
2 bruiser brothers
2 shamblers
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
He purified his fellow comrades.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
On level 9 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he assembled a power armor!
On level 11 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
On level 11 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
He slaughtered the beasts living there.
On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
He nuked level 14!
He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
On level 15 he found the Enviroboots!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he found the Longinus Spear!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
On level 19 he found the Lava Armor!
He managed to clear the Vaults completely!
On level 20 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
He nuked level 20!
On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
On level 22 he found the Malek's Armor!
He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
Then at last he found Dis!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You are hit! You need to taste
blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! The lost soul hits you. The lost
soul hits you. John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher. You need to taste
blood!
You hit John Carmack. The lost soul hits you. The lost soul hits you. You
need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. The lost soul hits you. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You are hit! The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies.
The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
Carmack! Press <Enter>...
You're going berserk!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
331 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
133 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 8 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
93 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
49 killed the bitch and survived.
37 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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3
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoMs|96%|YAFW] - Masochist Diamond with Explorer and Reaper Pin
« on: January 05, 2026, 14:02 »
In the dwindling list of Diamonds I haven't gotten yet in 0.9.9.7, I decided to go for Masochist Diamond, yet another of the few big scary Diamonds that few have attempted and even fewer have won. On the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, only three people are recorded winning it; Gooselord1, Icy, and papilio, who was also the only one that did it purely. In versions prior to 0.9.9.7, you just have this supposed Masochist Diamond run in 0.9.9.5 by 2Dev (which would have actually been one of his more believable mortems... if not for his trademark unrealistically fast play time), and this 0.9.9.4 Masochist Diamond by Tormuse (unsurprising Tormuse won this before, though surprising he never got it back in 0.9.9.7). This isn't the Diamond with the worst track record, but still among the rarest and I imagine most Diamond-level players were too spooked to even try winning it.
So now time for the build. Looking over the prior Masochist Diamond runs, Icy used a Intuition stair dive Scout, but he also combined AoMs with AoMC, and without AoMC's massive offensive boost, that build would be far too weak to get through any difficult floor without powerups, so it would be exorbitantly luck-based to try in pure AoMs. Gooselord did it through a melee Scout stair dive while combining AoB with AoMs on his way to getting Berserker Angelic, and while combining AoB with AoMs could certainly be considered more impressive than winning AoMs purely, his strategy still relied on a great deal of luck and wouldn't be close to optimal without the constraints of AoB. Papilio did an extreme damage avoidance build similar to Icy's with the same five starting traits, but he would get some offense-boosting traits after, and while papilio doesn't say how many tries it took him, skimming through his video he did get very good level luck with a shocking lack of dangerous hot starts, alongside good Invuln luck (including a clutch Invuln in an Archvile hot start that may have killed him without it), I don't think his build would have the power to survive any bad hot starts and it can't manage most of the special levels either to get their rewards, so it seems overly luck-based for my liking as well (on another note, I was shocked at how inefficient papilio was with his Invulns, with no rocket jumping and other action-inefficient things like not taking advantage of full reload, he could have ran through Hell entirely with invulnerability with better usage of it). 2Dev supposedly did it with the standard Ammochain build, which with it being 2Dev it can be dismissed, and standard Ammochain doesn't make sense for AoMs anyway when it's going to have a hard time avoiding damage nor is it going to be tanky, especially when he got both Triggerhappy levels before any Reloader (and he supposedly did it without using Shotguns, just to add to it being usual 2Dev bullshit).
So I want a build with the power to survive hot starts and good damage avoidance in general? Seems like a good time for my favorite mastery Shottyhead again. As usual, I open with Finesse -> Juggler for the immediate firepower it grants and helping tremendously with beating Hell's Arena, but I deviate from Shottyhead for a few levels to get Berserker; getting Berserker in my Shottyhead runs is common but usually it's post-mastery, I delay Shottyhead for it here for two reasons. One, Berserker is the best defensive trait by a mile, it'll be critical to helping me survive bad hot starts with limited healing and is good defensive insurance against VMR, barrels, or Barons rolling high damage. Two, Brute+Berserker will make beating UnChained Court + Deimos Lab much easier when they're the two special levels that Shottyhead will have a very hard time surviving without any healing, and the rewards are too good to simply pass them up (while if I roll Hell's Armory instead of Deimos Lab, the sole Shambler could still mess me up without Berserker if I get bad teleporting luck). With this Shottyhead + Berserker combo, I'm in the best position to survive hot starts with minimal damage, and Shottyhead ensures I can cornershoot anything to death without it reaching me and not get boned if another enemy pops at a different angle while cornershooting something else, while I'll also be able to repeatedly knockback multiple enemies at edge of vision to avoid damage when cover is unavailable. Once Berserker is secured, it's back to the Shottyhead prereq path, with Hellrunner first for the extra damage avoidance, and after Shottyhead, you can go for Int2 if you plan to rush the rest of the game, but I go for Fin2 and then WK2 to get more power (I also had lots of mods doing nothing in my inventory and really wanted a Focused Double Shotgun + Tactical Rocket Launcher, while I got terrible Invuln luck anyway that would have hindered a late game rush). After WK2, it's then Int1 to see any useful Invulns and Int2 for extra lategame damage avoidance assurance, and then some HR and Finesse with my endgame levels. Coincidentally, when looking over the two pre-0.9.9.7 Masochist Diamond mortems after finishing my run, it seems Tormuse settled on Shottyhead too; it's hard to compare since his run was back in 0.9.9.4 (a version so old that the Mastermind didn't exist yet and the Cyberdemon was still the final boss), though our builds differed as he didn't go for early Berserker (or at all), and he went for Int2 immediately post-mastery with no Whizkid.
For the run, since the Small Medkits do nothing, you don't need to worry about getting the two on Phobos Base Entry, and you don't need to worry much about damage either unless you get really messed up since you'll level up very shortly after to get 200% health, so you shouldn't be resetting here. You should however hold onto a Small Medkit or two when you get them for gift dropping. After an easy Phobos 2, it's onto Hell's Arena; N! Hell's Arena with no immediate healing is scary, but it's not so bad with a good build for it as you'll be guaranteed a Supercharge level up during it, and it's too rewarding in AoMs to pass up, as aside from the Rocket Launcher (which is going to be especially handy for self-triggering Berserker), the Blue Armor gets replaced with early Red Armor (which is also especially handy for mitigating the damage of face rockets for Berserker and non-Invuln'd rocket jumps), and the Large Medkit gets replaced with Plasteel Boots to make any forced fluid traversal a lot less painful. Even if you're doing a build with no melee investment and so will struggle in UnChained Court, I think clearing Hell's Arena and then skipping Chained Court later would be better for your run's overall odds in AoMs than not finishing Hell's Arena to get the easy Chained Court later. Upon killing the last Baron to clear Hell's Arena, I levelled up and so could go into the next floor with boosted health despite being unable to use the Supercharge, I just had to be very quick with picking up everything. Completing Hell's Arena would prove its worth, as I immediately get a maze on Phobos 3 that I take an uncomfortable amount of damage in, and the game is seemingly determined to abort this run, as on Phobos 4 I get a second consecutive maze. If not for the Red Armor, I would have died on the second maze when I still came close to death with it. After surviving that second maze's hot start, the rest of it wasn't so bad, and I would get a reprieve with a Lost Soul cave on Phobos 5, while their low EXP yield I usually gripe about is actually beneficial here as it gives me a levelup Supercharge in UnChained Court. Speaking of which, the detour for Berserker pays off and I'm able to beat it without too much damage, though I unfortunately wasn't able to save any of the berserks this time. The run nearly ended right after this though as I got a horrible Phobos 6, with the floor starting me in the most bottom left corner of a big empty room with a bunch of Formers and Imps, a Pain Elemental, multiple Hell Knights, and a Baron. Going for Berserker gets validated here; sticking to Shottyhead's prereq path would have probably gotten me overwhelmed here with no Shottyhead yet, while the Intuition damage avoidant builds would have gotten their shit quickly pushed in with nowhere to run. Thanks to Berserker and a well-timed facerocket to trigger it, I survive the floor but just barely, I'm a single kill from levelling up however and the next floor's start can make or break this run... and it's a Pinky cave with a Pinky I'm able to immediately kill, the run lives! I roll Phobos Lab, which is going to be dangerous with no Shottyhead, no Double Shotty, and only being able to activate run once while barely outrunning Nightmare Demons when naked without run's speed boost, but with some well timed face rockets to trigger Berserker when I needed the extra speed or when I got a Nightmare Demon in my face, I get through it without taking much damage. When I reach the end I don't stay around to clear it though and give up my bid at a N! AoMs Conqueror, as I level up right near the exit and so left right there to get through the ever dreaded N! Anomaly with Supercharged health to ensure I enter Deimos in good shape, while also taking advantage of the boosted health to kill the Bruisers for EXP without sacrificing such precious health.
After an unremarkable Deimos 1 (aside from a GCB spawning there that I had no use for), I rolled Hell's Armory instead of Deimos Lab, and with good old camping the first north building + triggering Berserker with a facerocket after releasing the Shambler, I get through with little health lost, but unfortunately the rare mod is a Firestorm, the least useful mod for this build and I just slap it on a Plasma Rifle as I'm not sure I'll be getting the BFG later. The weapon cache also didn't have a Double Shotty and only a Missile Launcher for exotics, which was also disappointing, but I do take the Missile Launcher along and P-mod it to ensure the consistency of facerockets triggering Berserker (6d6 rockets have a 90.4% chance to roll the 16+ damage needed to trigger Berserker, mostly reliable but not completely safe and any low damage rolls that fail to trigger Berserker can do as much as 5 damage in P-modded Red Armor, 7 if not P-modded, which adds up really fast in AoMs and can be lethal if such low rolls happen with enemies around, while 6d7 rockets will have a 95.9% chance, not guaranteed but substantially less chance of failure and even a max roll will still deal only 1 damage in P Red Armor as Berserker triggers). Deimos 3 would tease me with another Missile Launcher, finding Missile Launchers randomly always leave a sour feeling when you got two guaranteed ones in the special levels (still anxiously awaiting for the completely redundant second Missile Launcher in City Of Skulls/Abyssal Plains to get replaced in the next DRL version). Speaking of guaranteed Missile Launchers, I would go into Containment Area, and while I think I could have beaten the ambush, I play it safe as I won't get a level up during it and so leave the Backpack behind, only going in to get some EXP and the Rocket Box (not that the Backpack is really needed when you can infinitely farm ammo on N!).
The succeeding Abyssal Plains on the other hand (or City Of Skulls if you roll it) is a must stop in AoMs; you know those Blood Skulls that are usually the most disappointing drop from the Agony Elemental? Something most people may not know is that Blood Skulls can actually still heal you in AoMs, being one of only three things in DRL that can do so outside of levelling up (the others being Vampyre and the Medical Armors, the latter being very limited before their big 0.9.9.8 buff as they can only heal up to 25% in this version), making them one of the most valuable things for this run, and luckily I get two of them from the Agony Elemental after I effortlessly kill it with Shottyhead (as well as a Hatred Skull, which I keep too in case I want to pop into Mortuary/Limbo later). I clear out the rest of Abyssal Plains after and get a levelup to get back to full health, but after that good Abyssal Plains, the game decides to give me a very annoying Deimos 5. Luckily with no Enraged Timer yet in this version, I can just camp it in that nice camping spot in the top right and actually clear that floor with no damage (before I was forced to run through lava to reach the stairs that is). Deimos 6 would give me a Cacodemon cave that I would have just immediately left with the stairs near me... but I finally get a Double Shotgun here, so I fight my way through it. With a Homing Phase and really wanting a Power Mod for my Double Shotgun, I go into Halls Of Carnage right after I level up from the Cacos, and I got this funny bug of starting in the wall that I got once before but only in 0.9.9.8, guess it's not 0.9.9.8-exclusive (explanation, the Formers have random starting spawns and can spawn where the player does, which then pushes you into the nearby wall, actually a slightly beneficial bug as you can just move out and thus escape the starting room faster without having to run around or blowing the wall up). I use the Homing Phase after reaching the first mod, pick up the BFG, and then fight my way to the second mod, but unfortunately neither mod was a Power mod and so I'm unable to build the Focused Double Shotgun. I probably could have stuck around and cleared out the maze enemies, as berserked Shottyhead is one of the best builds for it, but since I won't have a level up during it and have already lost the Conqueror, I play it safe and leave after getting the second mod. I get through Deimos 7 and finally finish my Tactical Rocket Launcher there (usually I would ditch the Missile Launcher at this point but hold onto it for the aforementioned extra reliability with triggering Berserker since it's P-modded) and Cybie goes down as easily as you would expect against any Berserker build (I tried shotgunning him down with Shottyhead first, but I wasn't reliably dodging him and I wasn't hitting as hard as I wanted to without a Focused Double, so I just went in and Chainsawed him down to save a few more points of damage plus time), while he gets me only a kill or two away from levelling up to start Hell in good shape.
The first floor of Hell would be a fairly unremarkable small rooms level, but it has an Invulnerability Globe spawn, finally the first one I find this whole run, any run that would have relied on them would have been long dead by now. I consider taking that Invuln and trying to Invuln rush through the remaining rest of the game, but maybe the bad Invuln luck will continue and do the safer play of using it to get through Unholy Cathedral with minimal attrition damage for the Longinus Spear to greatly enhance my melee prowess. After a swell Hell 2, I would get a brutal Hell 3, getting spawned in a room with only crates for cover while a ton of Barons and Archviles to revive them were around, and when I thought I was in a good spot, a Revenant popped out of a southern door and its subsequent rocket failed to trigger Berserker, while the level just had no good quickly accessible camping spot. After my health dropped into the 20ish% range and my P-modded Red Armor got damaged, while still hearing Barons around just outside my vision, I would resort to using one of the Blood Skulls despite only having two corpses around to just get 10 HP back. I do get through the floor, but with only 12 HP left and still some kills away from levelling up (imagine if I had to get through this floor without Shottyhead nor Berserker...). Thankfully N! Vaults in this version has only Archviles and Revenants instead of Nightmare Archviles, Nightmare Arachnotrons, and Red Armored Barons, so I'm able to go in, pop the Arena Master's Staff, and quickly kill a couple Archviles safely for the levelup Supercharge to get back in business. The Vaults also had Enviroboots spawn to invalidate any forced fluid traversal, so holding onto the Staff ended up paying off big time in this run.
Following that close call with a much laxer Hell 4, I make the gutsy move to go into N! Mortuary despite AoMs preventing me from healing on demand without using up my last Blood Skull and Hell 4 having no Invuln to take into it. I do the usual opener of immediately popping my Hatred Skull, and taking advantage of this version not limiting BFG firing range by shooting a couple blasts towards each side from the center, and then rocket jump to the Nuclear BFG. Once it's secured, I just camp the corner a bit and take advantage of the unlimited BFG range to repeatedly shoot it at far out-of-vision targets, while using the Tactical Rocket Launcher or Missile Launcher or Shottyhead-boosted Tactical Shotgun to repeatedly knock enemies back, and with my strong melee I can keep some Mancubi corpses around near me to farm rockets. It takes a bit, but after I suspect most enemies are dead, I make my way to the left, and level up upon killing the last Archvile, at which I point I use the boosted health to rush through the rest. I shortly finish it after said level up and did it taking only 12 damage. Going through Mortuary wasn't just for bragging rights though, as after not getting any Power mods since Hell's Armory, I can get the guaranteed one here to finally build the Focused Double Shotgun, which ended up proving its worth when I got a Hell 6 maze with a hot start and no cover that could have been nasty, but I'm able to blow away quickly thanks to the Focused Double (the Unique by the way was a useless Mega Buster, if the game was going to give me a useless Unique, why not the Subtle Knife I need for Armorer Diamond instead of the useless Unique I already gotten a dozen times somehow despite it having a spawning weight of 1?). With the Enviroboots and Shottyhead, The Lava Pits is free, then Hell 7 gives me a relaxing penultimate level with a Humid lever, and an actually useful Unique in Malek's Armor that I have to kill a Baron for (would have wanted this much earlier but still nice for the Mastermind or Carmack). I nuke the Mastermind and then go for the Carmack kill to get ever closer to Apostle rank, and upon reaching Carmack there was actually an opportunity to take advantage of intentionally having him spawn the penalty Barons for attacking him out of vision since they give EXP and I was pretty close to levelling up, but I wasn't sure if the Barons would be enough and so play it safe. With the Blood Skull still unused, I do it use to get some boosted health after killing some Cacodemons he spawn (one advantage of fighting Carmack instead of the Mastermind in AoMs is this allowing you a mid-fight heal and tactics restoration if needed), but it's unnecessary as berserked Shottyhead with the Focused Double Shotgun effortlessly kills him.
So that's Masochist Diamond now done, and with an Explorer + Grim Reaper Pin to boot (wasn't originally planning on that but it ended up working out that way). Also succeeding despite having to get through several nasty run-ending floors, not being able to get a critical weapon for this build until the run was nearly done, and having probably the worst Invulnerability luck I ever gotten with only that single Invuln the entire run (good thing I played safe with the one I found instead of trying to Invuln rush the rest of the game). I'm telling you, everyone else slept hard on Shottyhead, I'm pretty sure this run doesn't succeed without the combo of Berserker and Shottyhead, and nearly every other qualifying build would have died in those early Phobos mazes, that horrible Phobos 6 hot start, that very rough Hell 3, or even that Hell 6 maze, let alone manage all the special levels (8 of them cleared is more than even 2Dev supposedly did in his Masochist Diamond run, and I realistically could have finished the remaining three for the unprecedented N! AoMs Conqueror if I was willing to play a bit more ballsy, maybe another time...). This should have been a first try clear too, but the first attempt died mid-Deimos after a power outage and my new UPS apparently not having its battery connected to keep my computer on (that run had a Nano Mod too and an early Assault Shotgun, so it probably goes all the way without the run getting a catastrophically terrible second half), I have to settle for a technical second try. Despite the first/second try and having an ideal build for Masochist Diamond, the run did flirted with ending multiple times, including that close call in Hell that would have been especially devastating after expending around four hours into the run, so I do have to respect it as deserving its reputation as one of the toughest Diamonds. Not quite as bad as Inquisitor Diamond though (you might be able to heal on demand in AoP, but you don't get that much more health than AoMs' levelup Supercharges give you and in AoMs your armor won't be in perpetual tatters without an Onyx/Nano in addition to still being able to use Berserks + Invulns), and I'm certain I'm gonna prefer it to the five Diamonds I have left, which are gonna be either even more extreme "don't get hit" hell or grinding hell (for reference, I finished this run with a little over 500 damage taken, I would have to shave off over 60% of that damage taken just for Demonic Diamond without the aid of a guaranteed early Red Armor). All Diamonds is in sight, but it's probably not gonna be a fun time and this will likely be the last first or second try win...
Here is the mortem:
So now time for the build. Looking over the prior Masochist Diamond runs, Icy used a Intuition stair dive Scout, but he also combined AoMs with AoMC, and without AoMC's massive offensive boost, that build would be far too weak to get through any difficult floor without powerups, so it would be exorbitantly luck-based to try in pure AoMs. Gooselord did it through a melee Scout stair dive while combining AoB with AoMs on his way to getting Berserker Angelic, and while combining AoB with AoMs could certainly be considered more impressive than winning AoMs purely, his strategy still relied on a great deal of luck and wouldn't be close to optimal without the constraints of AoB. Papilio did an extreme damage avoidance build similar to Icy's with the same five starting traits, but he would get some offense-boosting traits after, and while papilio doesn't say how many tries it took him, skimming through his video he did get very good level luck with a shocking lack of dangerous hot starts, alongside good Invuln luck (including a clutch Invuln in an Archvile hot start that may have killed him without it), I don't think his build would have the power to survive any bad hot starts and it can't manage most of the special levels either to get their rewards, so it seems overly luck-based for my liking as well (on another note, I was shocked at how inefficient papilio was with his Invulns, with no rocket jumping and other action-inefficient things like not taking advantage of full reload, he could have ran through Hell entirely with invulnerability with better usage of it). 2Dev supposedly did it with the standard Ammochain build, which with it being 2Dev it can be dismissed, and standard Ammochain doesn't make sense for AoMs anyway when it's going to have a hard time avoiding damage nor is it going to be tanky, especially when he got both Triggerhappy levels before any Reloader (and he supposedly did it without using Shotguns, just to add to it being usual 2Dev bullshit).
So I want a build with the power to survive hot starts and good damage avoidance in general? Seems like a good time for my favorite mastery Shottyhead again. As usual, I open with Finesse -> Juggler for the immediate firepower it grants and helping tremendously with beating Hell's Arena, but I deviate from Shottyhead for a few levels to get Berserker; getting Berserker in my Shottyhead runs is common but usually it's post-mastery, I delay Shottyhead for it here for two reasons. One, Berserker is the best defensive trait by a mile, it'll be critical to helping me survive bad hot starts with limited healing and is good defensive insurance against VMR, barrels, or Barons rolling high damage. Two, Brute+Berserker will make beating UnChained Court + Deimos Lab much easier when they're the two special levels that Shottyhead will have a very hard time surviving without any healing, and the rewards are too good to simply pass them up (while if I roll Hell's Armory instead of Deimos Lab, the sole Shambler could still mess me up without Berserker if I get bad teleporting luck). With this Shottyhead + Berserker combo, I'm in the best position to survive hot starts with minimal damage, and Shottyhead ensures I can cornershoot anything to death without it reaching me and not get boned if another enemy pops at a different angle while cornershooting something else, while I'll also be able to repeatedly knockback multiple enemies at edge of vision to avoid damage when cover is unavailable. Once Berserker is secured, it's back to the Shottyhead prereq path, with Hellrunner first for the extra damage avoidance, and after Shottyhead, you can go for Int2 if you plan to rush the rest of the game, but I go for Fin2 and then WK2 to get more power (I also had lots of mods doing nothing in my inventory and really wanted a Focused Double Shotgun + Tactical Rocket Launcher, while I got terrible Invuln luck anyway that would have hindered a late game rush). After WK2, it's then Int1 to see any useful Invulns and Int2 for extra lategame damage avoidance assurance, and then some HR and Finesse with my endgame levels. Coincidentally, when looking over the two pre-0.9.9.7 Masochist Diamond mortems after finishing my run, it seems Tormuse settled on Shottyhead too; it's hard to compare since his run was back in 0.9.9.4 (a version so old that the Mastermind didn't exist yet and the Cyberdemon was still the final boss), though our builds differed as he didn't go for early Berserker (or at all), and he went for Int2 immediately post-mastery with no Whizkid.
For the run, since the Small Medkits do nothing, you don't need to worry about getting the two on Phobos Base Entry, and you don't need to worry much about damage either unless you get really messed up since you'll level up very shortly after to get 200% health, so you shouldn't be resetting here. You should however hold onto a Small Medkit or two when you get them for gift dropping. After an easy Phobos 2, it's onto Hell's Arena; N! Hell's Arena with no immediate healing is scary, but it's not so bad with a good build for it as you'll be guaranteed a Supercharge level up during it, and it's too rewarding in AoMs to pass up, as aside from the Rocket Launcher (which is going to be especially handy for self-triggering Berserker), the Blue Armor gets replaced with early Red Armor (which is also especially handy for mitigating the damage of face rockets for Berserker and non-Invuln'd rocket jumps), and the Large Medkit gets replaced with Plasteel Boots to make any forced fluid traversal a lot less painful. Even if you're doing a build with no melee investment and so will struggle in UnChained Court, I think clearing Hell's Arena and then skipping Chained Court later would be better for your run's overall odds in AoMs than not finishing Hell's Arena to get the easy Chained Court later. Upon killing the last Baron to clear Hell's Arena, I levelled up and so could go into the next floor with boosted health despite being unable to use the Supercharge, I just had to be very quick with picking up everything. Completing Hell's Arena would prove its worth, as I immediately get a maze on Phobos 3 that I take an uncomfortable amount of damage in, and the game is seemingly determined to abort this run, as on Phobos 4 I get a second consecutive maze. If not for the Red Armor, I would have died on the second maze when I still came close to death with it. After surviving that second maze's hot start, the rest of it wasn't so bad, and I would get a reprieve with a Lost Soul cave on Phobos 5, while their low EXP yield I usually gripe about is actually beneficial here as it gives me a levelup Supercharge in UnChained Court. Speaking of which, the detour for Berserker pays off and I'm able to beat it without too much damage, though I unfortunately wasn't able to save any of the berserks this time. The run nearly ended right after this though as I got a horrible Phobos 6, with the floor starting me in the most bottom left corner of a big empty room with a bunch of Formers and Imps, a Pain Elemental, multiple Hell Knights, and a Baron. Going for Berserker gets validated here; sticking to Shottyhead's prereq path would have probably gotten me overwhelmed here with no Shottyhead yet, while the Intuition damage avoidant builds would have gotten their shit quickly pushed in with nowhere to run. Thanks to Berserker and a well-timed facerocket to trigger it, I survive the floor but just barely, I'm a single kill from levelling up however and the next floor's start can make or break this run... and it's a Pinky cave with a Pinky I'm able to immediately kill, the run lives! I roll Phobos Lab, which is going to be dangerous with no Shottyhead, no Double Shotty, and only being able to activate run once while barely outrunning Nightmare Demons when naked without run's speed boost, but with some well timed face rockets to trigger Berserker when I needed the extra speed or when I got a Nightmare Demon in my face, I get through it without taking much damage. When I reach the end I don't stay around to clear it though and give up my bid at a N! AoMs Conqueror, as I level up right near the exit and so left right there to get through the ever dreaded N! Anomaly with Supercharged health to ensure I enter Deimos in good shape, while also taking advantage of the boosted health to kill the Bruisers for EXP without sacrificing such precious health.
After an unremarkable Deimos 1 (aside from a GCB spawning there that I had no use for), I rolled Hell's Armory instead of Deimos Lab, and with good old camping the first north building + triggering Berserker with a facerocket after releasing the Shambler, I get through with little health lost, but unfortunately the rare mod is a Firestorm, the least useful mod for this build and I just slap it on a Plasma Rifle as I'm not sure I'll be getting the BFG later. The weapon cache also didn't have a Double Shotty and only a Missile Launcher for exotics, which was also disappointing, but I do take the Missile Launcher along and P-mod it to ensure the consistency of facerockets triggering Berserker (6d6 rockets have a 90.4% chance to roll the 16+ damage needed to trigger Berserker, mostly reliable but not completely safe and any low damage rolls that fail to trigger Berserker can do as much as 5 damage in P-modded Red Armor, 7 if not P-modded, which adds up really fast in AoMs and can be lethal if such low rolls happen with enemies around, while 6d7 rockets will have a 95.9% chance, not guaranteed but substantially less chance of failure and even a max roll will still deal only 1 damage in P Red Armor as Berserker triggers). Deimos 3 would tease me with another Missile Launcher, finding Missile Launchers randomly always leave a sour feeling when you got two guaranteed ones in the special levels (still anxiously awaiting for the completely redundant second Missile Launcher in City Of Skulls/Abyssal Plains to get replaced in the next DRL version). Speaking of guaranteed Missile Launchers, I would go into Containment Area, and while I think I could have beaten the ambush, I play it safe as I won't get a level up during it and so leave the Backpack behind, only going in to get some EXP and the Rocket Box (not that the Backpack is really needed when you can infinitely farm ammo on N!).
The succeeding Abyssal Plains on the other hand (or City Of Skulls if you roll it) is a must stop in AoMs; you know those Blood Skulls that are usually the most disappointing drop from the Agony Elemental? Something most people may not know is that Blood Skulls can actually still heal you in AoMs, being one of only three things in DRL that can do so outside of levelling up (the others being Vampyre and the Medical Armors, the latter being very limited before their big 0.9.9.8 buff as they can only heal up to 25% in this version), making them one of the most valuable things for this run, and luckily I get two of them from the Agony Elemental after I effortlessly kill it with Shottyhead (as well as a Hatred Skull, which I keep too in case I want to pop into Mortuary/Limbo later). I clear out the rest of Abyssal Plains after and get a levelup to get back to full health, but after that good Abyssal Plains, the game decides to give me a very annoying Deimos 5. Luckily with no Enraged Timer yet in this version, I can just camp it in that nice camping spot in the top right and actually clear that floor with no damage (before I was forced to run through lava to reach the stairs that is). Deimos 6 would give me a Cacodemon cave that I would have just immediately left with the stairs near me... but I finally get a Double Shotgun here, so I fight my way through it. With a Homing Phase and really wanting a Power Mod for my Double Shotgun, I go into Halls Of Carnage right after I level up from the Cacos, and I got this funny bug of starting in the wall that I got once before but only in 0.9.9.8, guess it's not 0.9.9.8-exclusive (explanation, the Formers have random starting spawns and can spawn where the player does, which then pushes you into the nearby wall, actually a slightly beneficial bug as you can just move out and thus escape the starting room faster without having to run around or blowing the wall up). I use the Homing Phase after reaching the first mod, pick up the BFG, and then fight my way to the second mod, but unfortunately neither mod was a Power mod and so I'm unable to build the Focused Double Shotgun. I probably could have stuck around and cleared out the maze enemies, as berserked Shottyhead is one of the best builds for it, but since I won't have a level up during it and have already lost the Conqueror, I play it safe and leave after getting the second mod. I get through Deimos 7 and finally finish my Tactical Rocket Launcher there (usually I would ditch the Missile Launcher at this point but hold onto it for the aforementioned extra reliability with triggering Berserker since it's P-modded) and Cybie goes down as easily as you would expect against any Berserker build (I tried shotgunning him down with Shottyhead first, but I wasn't reliably dodging him and I wasn't hitting as hard as I wanted to without a Focused Double, so I just went in and Chainsawed him down to save a few more points of damage plus time), while he gets me only a kill or two away from levelling up to start Hell in good shape.
The first floor of Hell would be a fairly unremarkable small rooms level, but it has an Invulnerability Globe spawn, finally the first one I find this whole run, any run that would have relied on them would have been long dead by now. I consider taking that Invuln and trying to Invuln rush through the remaining rest of the game, but maybe the bad Invuln luck will continue and do the safer play of using it to get through Unholy Cathedral with minimal attrition damage for the Longinus Spear to greatly enhance my melee prowess. After a swell Hell 2, I would get a brutal Hell 3, getting spawned in a room with only crates for cover while a ton of Barons and Archviles to revive them were around, and when I thought I was in a good spot, a Revenant popped out of a southern door and its subsequent rocket failed to trigger Berserker, while the level just had no good quickly accessible camping spot. After my health dropped into the 20ish% range and my P-modded Red Armor got damaged, while still hearing Barons around just outside my vision, I would resort to using one of the Blood Skulls despite only having two corpses around to just get 10 HP back. I do get through the floor, but with only 12 HP left and still some kills away from levelling up (imagine if I had to get through this floor without Shottyhead nor Berserker...). Thankfully N! Vaults in this version has only Archviles and Revenants instead of Nightmare Archviles, Nightmare Arachnotrons, and Red Armored Barons, so I'm able to go in, pop the Arena Master's Staff, and quickly kill a couple Archviles safely for the levelup Supercharge to get back in business. The Vaults also had Enviroboots spawn to invalidate any forced fluid traversal, so holding onto the Staff ended up paying off big time in this run.
Following that close call with a much laxer Hell 4, I make the gutsy move to go into N! Mortuary despite AoMs preventing me from healing on demand without using up my last Blood Skull and Hell 4 having no Invuln to take into it. I do the usual opener of immediately popping my Hatred Skull, and taking advantage of this version not limiting BFG firing range by shooting a couple blasts towards each side from the center, and then rocket jump to the Nuclear BFG. Once it's secured, I just camp the corner a bit and take advantage of the unlimited BFG range to repeatedly shoot it at far out-of-vision targets, while using the Tactical Rocket Launcher or Missile Launcher or Shottyhead-boosted Tactical Shotgun to repeatedly knock enemies back, and with my strong melee I can keep some Mancubi corpses around near me to farm rockets. It takes a bit, but after I suspect most enemies are dead, I make my way to the left, and level up upon killing the last Archvile, at which I point I use the boosted health to rush through the rest. I shortly finish it after said level up and did it taking only 12 damage. Going through Mortuary wasn't just for bragging rights though, as after not getting any Power mods since Hell's Armory, I can get the guaranteed one here to finally build the Focused Double Shotgun, which ended up proving its worth when I got a Hell 6 maze with a hot start and no cover that could have been nasty, but I'm able to blow away quickly thanks to the Focused Double (the Unique by the way was a useless Mega Buster, if the game was going to give me a useless Unique, why not the Subtle Knife I need for Armorer Diamond instead of the useless Unique I already gotten a dozen times somehow despite it having a spawning weight of 1?). With the Enviroboots and Shottyhead, The Lava Pits is free, then Hell 7 gives me a relaxing penultimate level with a Humid lever, and an actually useful Unique in Malek's Armor that I have to kill a Baron for (would have wanted this much earlier but still nice for the Mastermind or Carmack). I nuke the Mastermind and then go for the Carmack kill to get ever closer to Apostle rank, and upon reaching Carmack there was actually an opportunity to take advantage of intentionally having him spawn the penalty Barons for attacking him out of vision since they give EXP and I was pretty close to levelling up, but I wasn't sure if the Barons would be enough and so play it safe. With the Blood Skull still unused, I do it use to get some boosted health after killing some Cacodemons he spawn (one advantage of fighting Carmack instead of the Mastermind in AoMs is this allowing you a mid-fight heal and tactics restoration if needed), but it's unnecessary as berserked Shottyhead with the Focused Double Shotgun effortlessly kills him.
So that's Masochist Diamond now done, and with an Explorer + Grim Reaper Pin to boot (wasn't originally planning on that but it ended up working out that way). Also succeeding despite having to get through several nasty run-ending floors, not being able to get a critical weapon for this build until the run was nearly done, and having probably the worst Invulnerability luck I ever gotten with only that single Invuln the entire run (good thing I played safe with the one I found instead of trying to Invuln rush the rest of the game). I'm telling you, everyone else slept hard on Shottyhead, I'm pretty sure this run doesn't succeed without the combo of Berserker and Shottyhead, and nearly every other qualifying build would have died in those early Phobos mazes, that horrible Phobos 6 hot start, that very rough Hell 3, or even that Hell 6 maze, let alone manage all the special levels (8 of them cleared is more than even 2Dev supposedly did in his Masochist Diamond run, and I realistically could have finished the remaining three for the unprecedented N! AoMs Conqueror if I was willing to play a bit more ballsy, maybe another time...). This should have been a first try clear too, but the first attempt died mid-Deimos after a power outage and my new UPS apparently not having its battery connected to keep my computer on (that run had a Nano Mod too and an early Assault Shotgun, so it probably goes all the way without the run getting a catastrophically terrible second half), I have to settle for a technical second try. Despite the first/second try and having an ideal build for Masochist Diamond, the run did flirted with ending multiple times, including that close call in Hell that would have been especially devastating after expending around four hours into the run, so I do have to respect it as deserving its reputation as one of the toughest Diamonds. Not quite as bad as Inquisitor Diamond though (you might be able to heal on demand in AoP, but you don't get that much more health than AoMs' levelup Supercharges give you and in AoMs your armor won't be in perpetual tatters without an Onyx/Nano in addition to still being able to use Berserks + Invulns), and I'm certain I'm gonna prefer it to the five Diamonds I have left, which are gonna be either even more extreme "don't get hit" hell or grinding hell (for reference, I finished this run with a little over 500 damage taken, I would have to shave off over 60% of that damage taken just for Demonic Diamond without the aid of a guaranteed early Red Armor). All Diamonds is in sight, but it's probably not gonna be a fun time and this will likely be the last first or second try win...
Here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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letmehealpls, level 17 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Scout,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 1410070 turns and scored 977071 points.
He played for 5 hours, 16 minutes and 34 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 2026 out of 2107 hellspawn. (96%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Masochism!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 11
Levels completed : 8
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Explorer Badge
Grim Reaper's Badge
Hell Armorer Badge
Chessmaster's Token
Chessmaster's Cross
Hell Champion Medal
Masochist Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 60/50 Experience 158362/17
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +4 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +6
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Brute (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Shottyhead (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->Bru->Bru->Ber->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->MSh->Fin->WK->WK->Int->Int->HR->Fin->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Malek's Armor [3/3] (100%)
[b] [ Weapon ] focused double shotgun (8d4)x2 [0/2] (T1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x52)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
[b] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [4/5]
[c] missile launcher (6d7) [4/4] (P1)
[d] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [52/52] (B1)
[e] BFG 9000 (10d6) [169/169] (B2)
[f] red armor [4/4] (100%)
[g] red armor [6/6] (90%) (AP)
[h] Angelic Armor [7/7] (96%)
[i] chainsaw (5d6) (BT)
[j] Longinus Spear (8d8)
[k] shotgun shell (x10)
[l] shotgun shell (x50)
[m] rocket (x10)
[n] rocket (x3)
[o] rocket (x10)
[p] power cell (x50)
[q] Enviroboots [0]
[r] shell box (x100)
[s] rocket box (x20)
-- 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 90% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
229 former humans
196 former sergeants
114 former captains
259 imps
110 demons
563 lost souls
80 cacodemons
46 hell knights
61 barons of hell
30 arachnotrons
48 former commandos
54 pain elementals
42 revenants
98 mancubi
43 arch-viles
16 nightmare imps
3 nightmare cacodemons
24 nightmare demons
2 bruiser brothers
1 shambler
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
He broke through the lab.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
He broke into the Containment Area, but gave up against the overwhelming forces.
On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
He slaughtered the beasts living there.
On level 13 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he found the Longinus Spear!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
On level 19 he found the Enviroboots!
He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
On level 20 he assembled a focused double shotgun!
He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
On level 22 he found the Mega Buster!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
On level 23 he found the Malek's Armor!
Then at last he found Dis!
He nuked level 24!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You dodge! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You quickly reload the focused double shotgun. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You quickly reload the focused double shotgun. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You quickly reload the focused double shotgun. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You quickly reload the focused double shotgun. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack! Press
<Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
305 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
110 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 7 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
91 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
48 killed the bitch and survived.
36 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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4
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoI|98%|YAFW] - Nuking Hell for Eagerness Diamond and Fallout Plat
« on: January 02, 2026, 16:20 »
Eagerness Diamond is another of those scary Diamonds that few people won and even fewer won without Dual Angel cheese; according to the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, only four people won it 0.9.9.7, which were Fanta Hege, papilio, Sereg, and Icy, of which only papilio did it without mixing AoI with AoOC, while even in 0.9.9.6 and 0.9.9.5 no one is listed winning it after its requirement got changed to the current one. AoI itself is a pretty scary challenge, as without the insurance of carrying medkits with you, any bad level spawn without nearby health can suddenly end the run, even late in the game. Then Eagerness Diamond makes it worse by requiring you to use the Technician, whose passive of near-instant item use is rendered nearly irrelevant, and the Technician is the worst class too in 0.9.9.7, as alongside the already weaker passives, all their masteries are heavily flawed or outright awful. But is it truly one of the top tier Diamonds? I did win the formerly believed-to-be-near-impossible Eagerness Angelic, so can it really be that bad?
For the build, when looking over the aforementioned Eagerness Diamond mortems, we can dismiss the Sereg'd runs that obviously relied on strategies that are not applicable to a full game, so that just leaves papilio's run to examine. He used Fireangel, which makes sense as explosion immunity will really help you survive a bad VMRB hot start when bad hot starts are incredibly dangerous in AoI and free rocket jumps can substitute nicely for no Phase Devices. However, Fireangel itself giving no sort of offensive boost and being blocked SoB makes it a hard sell; your offense will be dreadful without getting Berserker and sidearming melee, while Fireangel has anti-synergy with Berserker when explosions (whether from enemies, barrels, or intentionally face rocketing yourself) can no longer trigger it. Papilio didn't give an attempt count (and he was doing the weird thing of backing up his player.wad whenever he died so his mortem doesn't show how many times he died), but he did claim it was "extremely hard" and killed the Mastermind with only a single hit point remaining, so I don't think this was the optimal build choice. I decided to go with Scavenger; aside from thinking it's the best Technician mastery even before its 0.9.9.8 buff (more mods, especially rare mods, is nice and Scavenger is the only Technician mastery without a serious downside to it), Scavenger has the neat trick where it effectively lets you bypass AoI not letting you store mods, as any mod you come across you can just put on a random weapon and dissemble it later with Scavenger to get the mod back, instead of being forced to use the mod on sub-optimal equipment.
For trait order, I leadoff with Finesse -> Juggler. Scavenger is a mastery whose power manifests later, so I can comfortably delay it for immediately useful traits, and of course the aforementioned leadoff is probably the strongest opener, which is especially going to be needed as I take on Hell's Arena. Then it's a level of SoB since rapids will be the primary source of firepower for any generalist build and making the Chaingun less awful will help in the aforementioned Hell's Arena. It's two levels of EE after that to start building towards Scavenger's Intuition prereq while farther buffing rapids and making the Chainsaw a better sidearm, but I deviate again from the prereq path to get a level of Hellrunner in case I roll Phobos Lab for the Phobos 7 special level. I then get Intuition not only for fulfilling the prereq, but its powerup detection is very important in AoI when you'll be largely relying on powerups for healing and immediately knowing where they are on any given floor will save runs. I once more deviate from the prereq path to get SoB2 as my offense is still feeling lacking, before the two Whizkid levels needed and finally Scavenger. Post-mastery it's Int2 so I don't need to radar shoot or wait spam as much, more Finesse is obvious, as well as another level of HR to help me beat the Cyberdemon. Traits after that are irrelevant, as you'll see later...
After some resets on Phobos Base Entry, I get one of the best floor 2s I can ask for, with it having a horizontal water river for easy corpse disposal and an early obtainable Computer Map, I nearly did the floor damageless. But after that is N! Hell's Arena that is especially brutal in AoI as you can't heal during it whatsoever, which aside from the general difficulty of that, it also means your ability to intentionally eat plasma/acid balls to destroy corpses is very limited, and no medkits also means you can only activate run once. My first run I didn't reset on Phobos Base Entry did end up dying in the third wave after I get hit by two high roll acid balls from a badly spawned Baron. You may want to skip Hell's Arena altogether or only kill some enemies in the first for EXP before leaving, but beating N! Hell's Arena in AoI or AoMs is necessary for the Chessmaster's Cross, and while I could save that for AoMs where it will be slightly easier since you can get fully healed with a well-timed level up, I do want the Rocket Launcher so I keep at it. And in just my second attempt I managed to clear Hell's Arena; coming in at nearly 200% after the aforementioned great Hell 2 was nice, but that extra health proved unnecessary.
Phobos 3 would be another easy floor... aside from me accidentally swapping to the Rocket Launcher and face rocketing myself when juggling Shotguns four fucking times. I got pretty tilted from repeating such a stupid costly error, but I was able to recompose and got through Phobos 4 and 5 without any issue. Then came the Unchained Court, which was scary to attempt when the only healing in AoI are the three Berserks that could be easily blown up, but it went so well that I cleared it with two Berserks to spare (only grabbing the Chainsaw once I aggro'd the Arena Master); having a competent Chaingun thanks to SoB + EE makes plinking away at the Barons stuck behind in the lava pools from the doorways more effective, and makes one-shotting the Formers are long range a lot more reliable, while having EE also makes chainsawing the Arena Master down more effective when you aren't missing half your hits. Being able to save those Berserks to take with me to the next floor proved very useful too, as Phobos 6 was a Cacodemon+Arachnotron cave which could have easily killed the run without the Berserk. After an unremarkable Phobos 7, I rolled Military Base instead of the Phobos Lab I got that level of HR for, I actually may have preferred Phobos Lab as Military Base is quite risky in AoI without the ability to gift drop the Elite Formers (can't use armor to gift drop them since they all spawn in a Green or Blue Armor by default), but through very careful play I avoid eating a run-ending close range SSG blast or Napalm rocket and get through it. In N! Phobos Anomaly, I just rocket jump through the ambush and the Bruisers, not attempting to fight back as no Commandos spawn on Phobos 6/7 and so I had no Plasma Rifle (and I was going to need one to remotely entertain the idea of fighting here with no healing outside the opening room), though I didn't have much choice after rocket jumping past the Bruisers when one of them funnily hit me into the portal.
Deimos 1 would start off interesting with a Butcher's Cleaver spawning, unfortunately as this is before Scavenger's 0.9.9.8 buff, I'm unable to dissemble it for a rare mod and so it sits in my inventory. Deimos Lab however would prove to be extremely lucrative; first the weapon cache had a Nuclear Plasma Rifle, I consider just leaving the Shamblers behind to not fumble this reward, but I do decide to take them on, especially as a few of the armor crates did drop Small Medkits that I could heal mid-fight without needing to make a mad dash to the Supercharges. Through Juggling overcharged Plasma Rifles, I'm able to defeat the Shamblers, and I get the coveted Onyx + Nano mod reward from the lab cache. With the Onyx I just immediately slap it on my Red Armor, with the Nano I had some deliberation on what to do with it, thanks to Scavenger I could store it on a Plasma Rifle and get it back later, but I decide to just put it the on the Nuclear Plasma Rifle rather than try to build towards a Nanomachic weapon or Antigrav Boots or save to Nano a Hyperblaster; with the Nano'd Nuclear Plasma Rifle instantly charging 4 cells after every shot, I can fire 10 consecutive times before it'll fully deplete its clip, and even after that it can still indefinitely fire 4-shot bursts if I'm unable to hold off on firing for a couple seconds to let it fully recharge, so it's nearly as good as a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle while retaining 4 more mod slots. I get WK2 not long after and finally build Tactical Boots, Tactical Shotgun, and a Hyperblaster I was holding off on so I could mod them. With those, the Nano'd Nuclear Plasma Rifle, and PO Red Armor, I blow through Deimos and clear Containment Area + Abyssal Plains without a hitch, with Scavenger turning one of those Missile Launchers into a Firestorm that I then put on my Hyperblaster for when I want more DPS than the Nuclear Plasma Rifle can manage. I do skip Halls Of Carnage however to end the Conqueror streak, as N! Halls Of Carnage would have been too dangerous in AoI without an exceptionally fast build, when I would have been unable to heal in the deadly maze full of Nightmare enemies and Barons. Tower Of Babel would give me a terrible Cyberdemon spawn where damage was unavoidable, but after escaping the corner I defeat him without going below 100% health.
Hell 1 would greet me with a relaxing Pain Elemental cave, though it has the downside of not giving me much EXP and so I'm unable to get one more level for the Fin3 I would have needed to outspeed the Angel of Death, thus having to skip Unholy Cathedral. Hell 2 would be a much more interesting floor however... First it's a Hellish Magic level, something I often go entire A100 games without seeing, so that's neat (and also dangerous, all those Commandos makes it a lot more threatening than any of the VMR-only levels), and it has a flood too to spice it up farther. But a Unique spawned... which turned out to be the Trigun! First thought is, with Scavenger, I can turn this into a second Nano, but then I remember I still don't got the Fallout Platinum Cross that I missed out on the last two times I got a Trigun, and there's a handy Invuln nearby to nuke rush the rest of the game while I have about three dozen rockets in my inventory for rocket jumping... The game was probably won regardless at this point with the equipment I had, but I take advantage of this opportunity and nuked the rest of Hell, using the remaining levels I got on Ironman to keep my max HP from going too low (including popping into The Vaults to get the very rare AoI Vaults clear that is only possible with overcharging a Nuclear weapon or Angel Arm while Invuln'd, I would rocket jump to the Unique that spawned here and it turned out to be Enviroboots). The Invuln would run out on Hell 7, but another spawned, so after carefully getting to it with my depleted health, I nuke Hell 7, Dis, and Hell Fortress for the easy win.
With that is Eagerness Diamond, alongside the Chessmaster's Cross and Fallout Platinum Cross (with those two medals checked, I'm now only three medals shy from getting all medals and thus Heroic Diamond, leaving only Untouchable Cross, Hell Arena Pwnage Medal, and Gutts' Heart). Well it's hard to fully accurately gauge the difficulty of the badge when I got to nuke the last third of it, and having such good equipment in the second third, but still this only took two attempts that didn't Q+Y on Phobos Base Entry, and the run never pressured me like Inquisitor Diamond or even Marksman Diamond did. If you go Scavenger to not let AoI limit your equipment potential, while it remains one of the harder Diamonds, I don't think Eagerness Diamond matches up to the top level Diamonds let papilio claimed. After this run, I'm also now at 20 Diamonds, joining I believe only Icy and papilio as the only players to have verifiably reached the big 2-0 Diamond count in 0.9.9.7. I'm going to be entering "don't get hit" and RNG hell for the remaining Diamonds however...
Here is the mortem:
For the build, when looking over the aforementioned Eagerness Diamond mortems, we can dismiss the Sereg'd runs that obviously relied on strategies that are not applicable to a full game, so that just leaves papilio's run to examine. He used Fireangel, which makes sense as explosion immunity will really help you survive a bad VMRB hot start when bad hot starts are incredibly dangerous in AoI and free rocket jumps can substitute nicely for no Phase Devices. However, Fireangel itself giving no sort of offensive boost and being blocked SoB makes it a hard sell; your offense will be dreadful without getting Berserker and sidearming melee, while Fireangel has anti-synergy with Berserker when explosions (whether from enemies, barrels, or intentionally face rocketing yourself) can no longer trigger it. Papilio didn't give an attempt count (and he was doing the weird thing of backing up his player.wad whenever he died so his mortem doesn't show how many times he died), but he did claim it was "extremely hard" and killed the Mastermind with only a single hit point remaining, so I don't think this was the optimal build choice. I decided to go with Scavenger; aside from thinking it's the best Technician mastery even before its 0.9.9.8 buff (more mods, especially rare mods, is nice and Scavenger is the only Technician mastery without a serious downside to it), Scavenger has the neat trick where it effectively lets you bypass AoI not letting you store mods, as any mod you come across you can just put on a random weapon and dissemble it later with Scavenger to get the mod back, instead of being forced to use the mod on sub-optimal equipment.
For trait order, I leadoff with Finesse -> Juggler. Scavenger is a mastery whose power manifests later, so I can comfortably delay it for immediately useful traits, and of course the aforementioned leadoff is probably the strongest opener, which is especially going to be needed as I take on Hell's Arena. Then it's a level of SoB since rapids will be the primary source of firepower for any generalist build and making the Chaingun less awful will help in the aforementioned Hell's Arena. It's two levels of EE after that to start building towards Scavenger's Intuition prereq while farther buffing rapids and making the Chainsaw a better sidearm, but I deviate again from the prereq path to get a level of Hellrunner in case I roll Phobos Lab for the Phobos 7 special level. I then get Intuition not only for fulfilling the prereq, but its powerup detection is very important in AoI when you'll be largely relying on powerups for healing and immediately knowing where they are on any given floor will save runs. I once more deviate from the prereq path to get SoB2 as my offense is still feeling lacking, before the two Whizkid levels needed and finally Scavenger. Post-mastery it's Int2 so I don't need to radar shoot or wait spam as much, more Finesse is obvious, as well as another level of HR to help me beat the Cyberdemon. Traits after that are irrelevant, as you'll see later...
After some resets on Phobos Base Entry, I get one of the best floor 2s I can ask for, with it having a horizontal water river for easy corpse disposal and an early obtainable Computer Map, I nearly did the floor damageless. But after that is N! Hell's Arena that is especially brutal in AoI as you can't heal during it whatsoever, which aside from the general difficulty of that, it also means your ability to intentionally eat plasma/acid balls to destroy corpses is very limited, and no medkits also means you can only activate run once. My first run I didn't reset on Phobos Base Entry did end up dying in the third wave after I get hit by two high roll acid balls from a badly spawned Baron. You may want to skip Hell's Arena altogether or only kill some enemies in the first for EXP before leaving, but beating N! Hell's Arena in AoI or AoMs is necessary for the Chessmaster's Cross, and while I could save that for AoMs where it will be slightly easier since you can get fully healed with a well-timed level up, I do want the Rocket Launcher so I keep at it. And in just my second attempt I managed to clear Hell's Arena; coming in at nearly 200% after the aforementioned great Hell 2 was nice, but that extra health proved unnecessary.
Phobos 3 would be another easy floor... aside from me accidentally swapping to the Rocket Launcher and face rocketing myself when juggling Shotguns four fucking times. I got pretty tilted from repeating such a stupid costly error, but I was able to recompose and got through Phobos 4 and 5 without any issue. Then came the Unchained Court, which was scary to attempt when the only healing in AoI are the three Berserks that could be easily blown up, but it went so well that I cleared it with two Berserks to spare (only grabbing the Chainsaw once I aggro'd the Arena Master); having a competent Chaingun thanks to SoB + EE makes plinking away at the Barons stuck behind in the lava pools from the doorways more effective, and makes one-shotting the Formers are long range a lot more reliable, while having EE also makes chainsawing the Arena Master down more effective when you aren't missing half your hits. Being able to save those Berserks to take with me to the next floor proved very useful too, as Phobos 6 was a Cacodemon+Arachnotron cave which could have easily killed the run without the Berserk. After an unremarkable Phobos 7, I rolled Military Base instead of the Phobos Lab I got that level of HR for, I actually may have preferred Phobos Lab as Military Base is quite risky in AoI without the ability to gift drop the Elite Formers (can't use armor to gift drop them since they all spawn in a Green or Blue Armor by default), but through very careful play I avoid eating a run-ending close range SSG blast or Napalm rocket and get through it. In N! Phobos Anomaly, I just rocket jump through the ambush and the Bruisers, not attempting to fight back as no Commandos spawn on Phobos 6/7 and so I had no Plasma Rifle (and I was going to need one to remotely entertain the idea of fighting here with no healing outside the opening room), though I didn't have much choice after rocket jumping past the Bruisers when one of them funnily hit me into the portal.
Deimos 1 would start off interesting with a Butcher's Cleaver spawning, unfortunately as this is before Scavenger's 0.9.9.8 buff, I'm unable to dissemble it for a rare mod and so it sits in my inventory. Deimos Lab however would prove to be extremely lucrative; first the weapon cache had a Nuclear Plasma Rifle, I consider just leaving the Shamblers behind to not fumble this reward, but I do decide to take them on, especially as a few of the armor crates did drop Small Medkits that I could heal mid-fight without needing to make a mad dash to the Supercharges. Through Juggling overcharged Plasma Rifles, I'm able to defeat the Shamblers, and I get the coveted Onyx + Nano mod reward from the lab cache. With the Onyx I just immediately slap it on my Red Armor, with the Nano I had some deliberation on what to do with it, thanks to Scavenger I could store it on a Plasma Rifle and get it back later, but I decide to just put it the on the Nuclear Plasma Rifle rather than try to build towards a Nanomachic weapon or Antigrav Boots or save to Nano a Hyperblaster; with the Nano'd Nuclear Plasma Rifle instantly charging 4 cells after every shot, I can fire 10 consecutive times before it'll fully deplete its clip, and even after that it can still indefinitely fire 4-shot bursts if I'm unable to hold off on firing for a couple seconds to let it fully recharge, so it's nearly as good as a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle while retaining 4 more mod slots. I get WK2 not long after and finally build Tactical Boots, Tactical Shotgun, and a Hyperblaster I was holding off on so I could mod them. With those, the Nano'd Nuclear Plasma Rifle, and PO Red Armor, I blow through Deimos and clear Containment Area + Abyssal Plains without a hitch, with Scavenger turning one of those Missile Launchers into a Firestorm that I then put on my Hyperblaster for when I want more DPS than the Nuclear Plasma Rifle can manage. I do skip Halls Of Carnage however to end the Conqueror streak, as N! Halls Of Carnage would have been too dangerous in AoI without an exceptionally fast build, when I would have been unable to heal in the deadly maze full of Nightmare enemies and Barons. Tower Of Babel would give me a terrible Cyberdemon spawn where damage was unavoidable, but after escaping the corner I defeat him without going below 100% health.
Hell 1 would greet me with a relaxing Pain Elemental cave, though it has the downside of not giving me much EXP and so I'm unable to get one more level for the Fin3 I would have needed to outspeed the Angel of Death, thus having to skip Unholy Cathedral. Hell 2 would be a much more interesting floor however... First it's a Hellish Magic level, something I often go entire A100 games without seeing, so that's neat (and also dangerous, all those Commandos makes it a lot more threatening than any of the VMR-only levels), and it has a flood too to spice it up farther. But a Unique spawned... which turned out to be the Trigun! First thought is, with Scavenger, I can turn this into a second Nano, but then I remember I still don't got the Fallout Platinum Cross that I missed out on the last two times I got a Trigun, and there's a handy Invuln nearby to nuke rush the rest of the game while I have about three dozen rockets in my inventory for rocket jumping... The game was probably won regardless at this point with the equipment I had, but I take advantage of this opportunity and nuked the rest of Hell, using the remaining levels I got on Ironman to keep my max HP from going too low (including popping into The Vaults to get the very rare AoI Vaults clear that is only possible with overcharging a Nuclear weapon or Angel Arm while Invuln'd, I would rocket jump to the Unique that spawned here and it turned out to be Enviroboots). The Invuln would run out on Hell 7, but another spawned, so after carefully getting to it with my depleted health, I nuke Hell 7, Dis, and Hell Fortress for the easy win.
With that is Eagerness Diamond, alongside the Chessmaster's Cross and Fallout Platinum Cross (with those two medals checked, I'm now only three medals shy from getting all medals and thus Heroic Diamond, leaving only Untouchable Cross, Hell Arena Pwnage Medal, and Gutts' Heart). Well it's hard to fully accurately gauge the difficulty of the badge when I got to nuke the last third of it, and having such good equipment in the second third, but still this only took two attempts that didn't Q+Y on Phobos Base Entry, and the run never pressured me like Inquisitor Diamond or even Marksman Diamond did. If you go Scavenger to not let AoI limit your equipment potential, while it remains one of the harder Diamonds, I don't think Eagerness Diamond matches up to the top level Diamonds let papilio claimed. After this run, I'm also now at 20 Diamonds, joining I believe only Icy and papilio as the only players to have verifiably reached the big 2-0 Diamond count in 0.9.9.7. I'm going to be entering "don't get hit" and RNG hell for the remaining Diamonds however...
Here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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wherearemymedkits2?,
level 16 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Technician,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 740406 turns and scored 867932 points.
He played for 4 hours, 39 minutes and 43 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1752 out of 1775 hellspawn. (98%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Impatience!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 7
Levels completed : 7
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Fallout Platinum Cross
Hell Armorer Badge
Chessmaster's Token
Chessmaster's Cross
Hell Champion Medal
Eagerness Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 50/25 Experience 135818/16
ToHit Ranged +4 ToHit Melee +4 ToDmg Ranged +2 ToDmg Melee +2
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Technician
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Son of a bitch (Level 2)
Eagle Eye (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Scavenger (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->SoB->EE->EE->HR->Int->SoB->WK->WK->MSc->Int->Fin->HR->Iro->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [6] (OP)
[b] [ Weapon ] Trigun (3d6) [6/6]
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x35)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] shotgun (9d3) [1/1] (P1)
[b] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
[c] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (B2)
[d] hyperblaster (2d4)x5 [40/40] (F1)
[e] nuclear plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [24/24] (N1)
[f] Necroarmor [6/6] (100%)
[g] chainsaw (4d6)
[h] Butcher's Cleaver (5d6)
[i] shotgun shell (x70)
[j] shotgun shell (x70)
[k] shotgun shell (x70)
[l] shotgun shell (x70)
[m] rocket (x4)
[n] power cell (x70)
[o] power cell (x55)
[p] power cell (x70)
[q] power cell (x70)
[r] power cell (x70)
[s] Enviroboots [0]
[t] shell box (x100)
[u] shell box (x100)
[v] rocket box (x20)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Acid - internal 25% torso 25% feet 25%
Fire - internal 25% torso 50% feet 25%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
233 former humans
171 former sergeants
114 former captains
268 imps
79 demons
417 lost souls
71 cacodemons
38 hell knights
46 barons of hell
33 arachnotrons
100 former commandos
36 pain elementals
25 revenants
41 mancubi
28 arch-viles
8 nightmare imps
18 nightmare demons
7 elite former humans
5 elite former sergeants
7 elite former commandos
2 shamblers
1 agony elemental
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
He purified his fellow comrades.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
On level 11 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 11 he assembled a hyperblaster!
On level 11 he assembled a tactical boots!
He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
He slaughtered the beasts living there.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 18 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 18 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 18 he found the Trigun!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 18!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 19!
On level 19 he found the Necroarmor!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
He activated the Angel Arm on level 19!
On level 19 he found the Enviroboots!
He managed to clear the Vaults completely!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 20!
He left level 20 as soon as possible.
On level 21 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 21!
He left level 21 as soon as possible.
He activated the Angel Arm on level 22!
He left level 22 as soon as possible.
He activated the Angel Arm on level 23!
Then at last he found Dis!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 24!
He left level 24 as soon as possible.
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 25!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You prepare the rocket launcher instantly!
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
You reload the rocket launcher.
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
There are stairs leading downward here.
You reload the rocket launcher. There are stairs leading downward here.
This is it. This is the lair of all evil! What will you meet here?
Use scroll to choose weapon, left button to wield, right to cancel... You
wear/wield : a Trigun (3d6) [6/6]
Do you want to use the dangerous Angel Arm?? [y/n]
You activate the Angel Arm! Your life is drained! Congratulations! You
defeated John Carmack! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
304 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
110 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 7 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
90 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
48 killed the bitch and survived.
35 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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5
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|36%|YAVP] - UAC Diamond with Shotguns and no Berserker
« on: December 26, 2025, 23:48 »
I've been putting this off since I don't enjoy doing speedruns, but I don't got many Diamonds left in 0.9.9.7 and so it's time for UAC Diamond. According to the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, UAC Diamond was one of the more common Diamonds with 11 people recorded win it and that's without being able to cheese it with Angel challenges, so it must be pretty easy for a Diamond despite the sub-20 minute requirement looking imposing at first. With the build, basically everyone used a melee-centric Scout, with any deviation being if to get Blademaster or just Berserker and get other traits outside of Blademaster's prereqs. The only one with a more unique build was Icy's first UAC Diamond, being the only recorded UAC Diamond run that never got Berserker, but even then he still got a level of Brute to more quickly kill the bosses with Invuln. This makes sense as a melee Scout will be far and away the fastest way to beat the game, and I was just going to do that too, however after discussion on how feasible it would be to beat N! AoSh in under 20000 turns (with me proposing that as the new Shottyman Diamond requirement), I thought to give that a test run by getting UAC Diamond with a Shotgun build and no Berserker.
With trait order, I lead off with HR, partially to better outmaneuver enemies and build towards either Shottyhead or Gunrunner, and partially to help towards the secondary goal of finishing in under 20K turns. Then it's obviously gunning for Shottyman, after that is where things can diverge. I was initially aiming with sticking to Shottyhead's prereqs, but the two times I reached the Cyberdemon when doing that, I was only level six and so no Shottyhead, while only a single level of HR doesn't suffice to chip him down with the basic Shotgun or Combat Shotgun without farther offensive boost and much better defenses. You can reach level 7 before the Cyberdemon while remaining ahead of the time pace, and I did so to get Shottyhead a couple other times, but died each time before reaching him. This could work if I kept at it, but with the unreliability of reaching level 7 before the Cyberdemon and Shottyhead still not being RNG-proof to beat him using mediocre shotguns if I don't make it to Tower Of Babel in good shape, I decide the more reliable option would be to get the tried-and-true Dodgemaster to near-guarantee getting past the Cyberdemon as long as I had enough ammo, after which anything could happen. Finesse comes after for the obvious offensive boost and then Juggler despite not being very useful with how little weapon switching I can do on a real time limit, but that opens access to either Shottyhead or Gunrunner for a last big powerup.
After 12 attempts, I would get a victory, but it ended up just short of UAC Diamond and the Major Icarus Cross, with me finishing with a time of 21:01 and a turn count of 22070. A recurring issue in these attempts is not finding a Double Shotgun nor two Power mods to make an Elephant Gun (while not finding any of the special shotguns either), and shotgunning down the N! Cyberdemon with just a P-modded Shotgun will take a couple minutes at least, even longer with the Combat Shotgun or unmodded Shotgun, while the Mastermind took longer since I have to do a lot of careful safe plinking if I don't get Shottyhead or Gunrunner (another recurring problem is reaching level 9 before the Mastermind while remaining on pace is difficult). Even when making it to the Mastermind with some Invuln from rocket jumping and a Plasma Shield that enabled some more aggressive fighting after the Invuln ran out, I just did not have good enough offense to kill the bosses in time. If only when I accidentally went down the stairs to Limbo when Invuln'd and was able to get out, if I remembered to run towards the Nuclear BFG corner, I could have nuked the Mastermind... well that's the pressure the real time limit imposes. (Failed mortems will be put in spoilers)
On attempt 16, I get another good run to Hell 6 with a bunch of Medkits, a P-modded Double Shotgun, had a bunch of medkits, and a Phase Device, while well below the 20 minute and 20K turn barriers, but I then got a warehouse level that put me in a starting room with a ton of Barons and Archviles with the stairs on the other side of the map, while after getting overwhelmed when trying to corner shoot them all behind some crates, the Phase Device just plopped me in a different spot in the room, and when I got out of the room, I got met with more Hell Nobles and end up dying when trying to run through them. I once again did not reach level 9, having Shottyhead here would have allowed me to fight off the Baron/Vile horde in the first room, and then I could fought my way through the second room, but alas it wasn't mean to be.
In the attempt after that, the run didn't seem particularly special and I had to shotgun down the Cyberdemon with a T-modded Combat Shotgun, but I again accidentally went down to Limbo and without having Invuln nor even berserk. I am however able to rocket jump my way out, while this time remembering to go for the Nuclear BFG. After lots of rocket jumping with my healthy Fireproof Red Armor through Hell 5 and 6, I thought I got it when I still had a Homing Phase intact on Hell 7 to immediately get to Dis and nuke the Mastermind for the near-instant kill. The run did succeed in getting me a N! Major Icarus Cross as a primary shotgun build, but devastatingly, its real time clocked in at... 20:01, 2 seconds shy of UAC Diamond.
At this point, I was contemplating calling it with shotguns and just running the melee build, since I did back the theory of winning under 20K turns being feasible in DRL's N! AoSh, but I still wanted a UAC Diamond mortem with no Berserker nor even Brute to make it a bit more interesting, so I kept at it. On attempt 24, I again have a run with no Double Shotgun and have to shotgun down Cybie with only a P-modded Shotgun, but coming in with Invuln near Babel's stairs made the fight quite a bit quicker, as I could just spam the shotgun at point blank not only for a little extra damage with each shot, but it also saved a ton of time by not having to repeatedly dodge and not have the game repeatedly pause as the rockets fly past me. I can't kill him before the Invuln runs out, but I get his health down by about 75% before it does and so the fight ends up taking only about a minute. I still had no Rocket Launcher though to even rocket jump, so it wasn't looking too promising, but I get a Hell that goes surprisingly well with early Invuln luck and I amass a large amount of medkits. Mid Hell it starts getting rough and I'm having to shotgun down hordes of tough enemies, particularly a large Revenant + Vile group on Hell 6, but finally I get enough experience to hit level 9 in one of these attempts and get a mastery, with both Shottyhead and Gunrunner being available. Normally I would vastly prefer Shottyhead, and Shottyhead would have been made fighting my way out of more Revenant + Vile hordes the game kept throwing at me much easier, while Gunrunner in comparison couldn't really be safely utilized against them. However Gunrunner would be the faster real time option for killing the Mastermind, especially so with just a P-modded Shotgun and no Shell Box, so I decide to go with it. And it pays off as planned, Gunrunner + Shottyman lets me safely rush down the Mastermind and kill her much faster than usual despite it still taking roughly around 50 shots to kill her. Upon killing her, I get a time clocked in at 17:36, netting me UAC Diamond without any melee whatsoever, and the turn count finishes at 19592, while unlike the previous run where I made a lot of Rocket Launcher usage, I don't even get a Rocket Launcher here until Hell 7 that I didn't store any rockets to use it and so it's even more purely shotguns only (the only non-shotgun usage being shooting a couple Formers with the Pistol in Phobos Base Entry until I got my first Shotgun).
While very much doable, doing UAC Diamond with no melee certainly made it a lot tougher. To accurately access the difficulty of the badge when played more optimally, I ran it again with the standard Blademaster build... and got a time of 13:27 on my first try without even trying that hard to go fast nor ever getting a Rocket Launcher for rocket jumping (one highlight include going towards one side of a floor and clearing all the enemies within it, only to realize the stairs were on the complete opposite side of the map). Yeah UAC Diamond is one of the easiest Diamonds with a melee Scout (at least without Sereging factored), 20 minutes is surprisingly generous and the doubled powerups + healing of N! really boosts the dominant berserk rush strategy. Even more players would have won this badge for sure if many didn't just absolutely refuse to play any N! nor overestimated how strict the 20 minute time limit actually is.
(Here's the last mortem on the 13:27 melee run just in case anyone wants to see the proof of that)
With trait order, I lead off with HR, partially to better outmaneuver enemies and build towards either Shottyhead or Gunrunner, and partially to help towards the secondary goal of finishing in under 20K turns. Then it's obviously gunning for Shottyman, after that is where things can diverge. I was initially aiming with sticking to Shottyhead's prereqs, but the two times I reached the Cyberdemon when doing that, I was only level six and so no Shottyhead, while only a single level of HR doesn't suffice to chip him down with the basic Shotgun or Combat Shotgun without farther offensive boost and much better defenses. You can reach level 7 before the Cyberdemon while remaining ahead of the time pace, and I did so to get Shottyhead a couple other times, but died each time before reaching him. This could work if I kept at it, but with the unreliability of reaching level 7 before the Cyberdemon and Shottyhead still not being RNG-proof to beat him using mediocre shotguns if I don't make it to Tower Of Babel in good shape, I decide the more reliable option would be to get the tried-and-true Dodgemaster to near-guarantee getting past the Cyberdemon as long as I had enough ammo, after which anything could happen. Finesse comes after for the obvious offensive boost and then Juggler despite not being very useful with how little weapon switching I can do on a real time limit, but that opens access to either Shottyhead or Gunrunner for a last big powerup.
After 12 attempts, I would get a victory, but it ended up just short of UAC Diamond and the Major Icarus Cross, with me finishing with a time of 21:01 and a turn count of 22070. A recurring issue in these attempts is not finding a Double Shotgun nor two Power mods to make an Elephant Gun (while not finding any of the special shotguns either), and shotgunning down the N! Cyberdemon with just a P-modded Shotgun will take a couple minutes at least, even longer with the Combat Shotgun or unmodded Shotgun, while the Mastermind took longer since I have to do a lot of careful safe plinking if I don't get Shottyhead or Gunrunner (another recurring problem is reaching level 9 before the Mastermind while remaining on pace is difficult). Even when making it to the Mastermind with some Invuln from rocket jumping and a Plasma Shield that enabled some more aggressive fighting after the Invuln ran out, I just did not have good enough offense to kill the bosses in time. If only when I accidentally went down the stairs to Limbo when Invuln'd and was able to get out, if I remembered to run towards the Nuclear BFG corner, I could have nuked the Mastermind... well that's the pressure the real time limit imposes. (Failed mortems will be put in spoilers)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
On attempt 16, I get another good run to Hell 6 with a bunch of Medkits, a P-modded Double Shotgun, had a bunch of medkits, and a Phase Device, while well below the 20 minute and 20K turn barriers, but I then got a warehouse level that put me in a starting room with a ton of Barons and Archviles with the stairs on the other side of the map, while after getting overwhelmed when trying to corner shoot them all behind some crates, the Phase Device just plopped me in a different spot in the room, and when I got out of the room, I got met with more Hell Nobles and end up dying when trying to run through them. I once again did not reach level 9, having Shottyhead here would have allowed me to fight off the Baron/Vile horde in the first room, and then I could fought my way through the second room, but alas it wasn't mean to be.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the attempt after that, the run didn't seem particularly special and I had to shotgun down the Cyberdemon with a T-modded Combat Shotgun, but I again accidentally went down to Limbo and without having Invuln nor even berserk. I am however able to rocket jump my way out, while this time remembering to go for the Nuclear BFG. After lots of rocket jumping with my healthy Fireproof Red Armor through Hell 5 and 6, I thought I got it when I still had a Homing Phase intact on Hell 7 to immediately get to Dis and nuke the Mastermind for the near-instant kill. The run did succeed in getting me a N! Major Icarus Cross as a primary shotgun build, but devastatingly, its real time clocked in at... 20:01, 2 seconds shy of UAC Diamond.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At this point, I was contemplating calling it with shotguns and just running the melee build, since I did back the theory of winning under 20K turns being feasible in DRL's N! AoSh, but I still wanted a UAC Diamond mortem with no Berserker nor even Brute to make it a bit more interesting, so I kept at it. On attempt 24, I again have a run with no Double Shotgun and have to shotgun down Cybie with only a P-modded Shotgun, but coming in with Invuln near Babel's stairs made the fight quite a bit quicker, as I could just spam the shotgun at point blank not only for a little extra damage with each shot, but it also saved a ton of time by not having to repeatedly dodge and not have the game repeatedly pause as the rockets fly past me. I can't kill him before the Invuln runs out, but I get his health down by about 75% before it does and so the fight ends up taking only about a minute. I still had no Rocket Launcher though to even rocket jump, so it wasn't looking too promising, but I get a Hell that goes surprisingly well with early Invuln luck and I amass a large amount of medkits. Mid Hell it starts getting rough and I'm having to shotgun down hordes of tough enemies, particularly a large Revenant + Vile group on Hell 6, but finally I get enough experience to hit level 9 in one of these attempts and get a mastery, with both Shottyhead and Gunrunner being available. Normally I would vastly prefer Shottyhead, and Shottyhead would have been made fighting my way out of more Revenant + Vile hordes the game kept throwing at me much easier, while Gunrunner in comparison couldn't really be safely utilized against them. However Gunrunner would be the faster real time option for killing the Mastermind, especially so with just a P-modded Shotgun and no Shell Box, so I decide to go with it. And it pays off as planned, Gunrunner + Shottyman lets me safely rush down the Mastermind and kill her much faster than usual despite it still taking roughly around 50 shots to kill her. Upon killing her, I get a time clocked in at 17:36, netting me UAC Diamond without any melee whatsoever, and the turn count finishes at 19592, while unlike the previous run where I made a lot of Rocket Launcher usage, I don't even get a Rocket Launcher here until Hell 7 that I didn't store any rockets to use it and so it's even more purely shotguns only (the only non-shotgun usage being shooting a couple Formers with the Pistol in Phobos Base Entry until I got my first Shotgun).
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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speed24, level 9 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 19592 turns and scored 328880 points.
He played for 17 minutes and 36 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 366 out of 1006 hellspawn. (36%)
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 6
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (bronze cluster)
Major Icarus Cross
Compet-n Gold Cross
UAC Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 44/50 Experience 37888/9
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Gunrunner (Level 1)
HR->Rel->Rel->SM->HR->DM->Fin->Jug->MGr->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [4/4] (170%) (B)
[b] [ Weapon ] shotgun (9d3) [0/1] (P1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] combat shotgun (7d3) [5/5]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
[b] green armor [1/1] (100%)
[c] blue armor [2/2] (86%)
[d] shotgun shell (x50)
[e] shotgun shell (x7)
[f] small med-pack
[g] small med-pack
[h] large med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] phase device
[l] phase device
[m] bulk mod pack
[n] bulk mod pack
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
74 former humans
36 former sergeants
20 former captains
69 imps
49 demons
38 lost souls
16 cacodemons
5 hell knights
1 baron of hell
2 arachnotrons
3 former commandos
2 pain elementals
34 revenants
4 mancubi
11 arch-viles
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 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
He left the Deimos Lab without drawing too much attention.
He left level 11 as soon as possible.
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
Not knowing what to do, he left.
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.
On level 19 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He sounded the alarm on level 19!
He left level 19 as soon as possible.
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
He came, he saw, but he left.
On level 21 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
He decided it was too hot there.
He left level 23 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You dodge! You are hit! You are hit! You dodge! You are hit! You dodge!
The Spider Mastermind flinched! You stop running.
You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You are
hit! You dodge! Boom!
You dodge! You are hit! You dodge! You are hit! You dodge! You dodge!
You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You
dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom!
You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! Boom! You are hit! You are hit!
You use a small med-pack. You feel healed.
You start running!
You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! You dodge! Boom! Boom! You
dodge! Boom!
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
298 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
108 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 7 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
86 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
45 killed the bitch and survived.
34 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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While very much doable, doing UAC Diamond with no melee certainly made it a lot tougher. To accurately access the difficulty of the badge when played more optimally, I ran it again with the standard Blademaster build... and got a time of 13:27 on my first try without even trying that hard to go fast nor ever getting a Rocket Launcher for rocket jumping (one highlight include going towards one side of a floor and clearing all the enemies within it, only to realize the stairs were on the complete opposite side of the map). Yeah UAC Diamond is one of the easiest Diamonds with a melee Scout (at least without Sereging factored), 20 minutes is surprisingly generous and the doubled powerups + healing of N! really boosts the dominant berserk rush strategy. Even more players would have won this badge for sure if many didn't just absolutely refuse to play any N! nor overestimated how strict the 20 minute time limit actually is.
(Here's the last mortem on the 13:27 melee run just in case anyone wants to see the proof of that)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
6
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|ArchAoLT|77%|YAVP] - No pockets needed with infinite respawn ammo
« on: December 25, 2025, 17:07 »
While having 7 Angelics already, I still had one more relative "easy" Angelic remaining with Lightfoot Angelic and so decided to get that one now. According to the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, Lightfoot Angelic was one of the more common Angelics, being tied with Elite Angelic for the third most won Angelic (before I won Elite Angelic that is) with seven different players winning it. Compared to normal Angel Of Light Travel, Archangel Of Light Travel takes away three more of your inventory slots to leave you with just two, which does noticeably make things a lot tougher as you can't really afford to carry any medkits or any other items, so it is like playing on Angel Of Impatience too, while you also can't carry backup armors, additional weapons, and very little ammo. Which should really suck when the Angelic badge stipulates you beat Nightmare! in AAoLT with no melee kills, but you do get an even greater speed boost with 130%, and respawns on Nightmare still infinitely drop ammo to counteract the ammo limitations, so things aren't as bad as they seem at first glance.
For the build, I was thinking of going with Sereg's pseudo-melee stairdive build, but again since N! respawns give you infinite ammo, I decided to go with Shottyhead again like I did for my Lightfoot Diamond run; if any Shotgunners spawn around, I can go and clear the floor no problem, and if there are no Shotgunners, I can just leave to ensure I don't run out of ammo. Compared to that run's build, I do gun for Int2 immediately, since I'm not going to be able to store medkits and to save ammo or avoid enemies whenever ammo is running low or when I need to get to health ASAP. I gun for Shottyman after that, as it'll let me reload from my inventory shells rather than taking from my equipped Shell Box, which I don't want to deplete from unless I really need the faster reload or have entirely depleted my inventory shells. I deviate from Shottyhead's prereqs after that by going for Berserker for defensive insurance, as it'll help me survive bad encounters against VMR that I may not have good armor for and when I can't carry around health, but I ended up getting a level of HR before Berserker to minimize the damage taken in Phobos Anomaly. After that it's getting Shottyhead and anything after is nice but irrelevant.
For the run itself, Phobos Base Entry is super easy, and since you can't bring the medkits with you anyway, you don't need to worry about getting them, just one will be nice to heal up any damage you take. Phobos 2 is also easy as you should be assured lots of Shotgunners, and then I go into Hell's Arena; clearing it isn't realistic without exceptional luck since you don't start with a shell box unlike in normal AoLT and only 100 shells is probably not going to be enough to beat N! Hell's Arena, while I do want to keep the Chained Court easy for later, so I just clear the first wave and then some enemies in the second wave for the EXP, while trying to leave a couple dozen shells at least in case the next floor is a cave or a floor with Shotgunners not immediately accessible. The Chained Court is a mandatory stop, mainly because I really want a Power Mod ASAP for my Shotgun to build an Elephant Gun, as with the inventory limitations, I won't really be able to build a Focused Double Shotgun and I'm gonna want a shotgun that can hit a lot harder than the Tactical Shotgun, to give me more leeway on any bad shell stretch and to help ensure my shells aren't left cripplingly low after killing the Cyberdemon, when I could get unlucky with the first couple Hell floors having no Shotgunners. Unfortunately I don't get one and instead get a T mod I can't do much with, as well as an A mod without having any boots yet. Not wanting to resort to putting the A mod on a beaten up Green Armor I was wearing, I make the risky decision to carry only one stack of shells and carry the A mod with me until I find boots. This nearly costs me, as a bad warehouse level in Phobos 6 would have me enter Phobos 7 with no shells at all while a Pain Elemental is immediately in view. Luckily however, there was also some shells immediately available and some Shotgunners soon after, so I am able to recover the run, then Military Base has basically infinite shotgun shells which makes bringing the A mod into it a nonissue. And within Military Base I finally get Steel Boots from the crates as well as a second A mod, allowing me to build Tactical Boots, but unfortunately the other mod was another T mod and so I'm still stuck with a vanilla Shotgun heading into Phobos Anomaly and Deimos. With the level of HR I got before entering Anomaly and the Tac Boots, I get past the Anomaly ambush even with the Red Armor on without issue, but despite using up the Radsuit before entering, I do still take decent damage from the Bruisers that leaves my Red Armor beaten up (once I got behind the pillars I was able to corner shoot the Bruisers to death as payback however).
I'm able to replace the damaged Red Armor with a new one in Deimos 1 shortly after, and then go into Hell's Armory, which is easy enough, just need to use some Chainguns and Plasma Rifles to preserve shells. In yet more shitty luck, for the third straight time, two guaranteed mods in a special level are a T + A mod. With that and the weapon cache having no special shotguns, I opt to not release the Shambler, as I would be stuck fighting him with a shitty normal shotgun and having no healing available could screw me if the next floor has a rough start (the weapon cache did have a Blaster, shame this wasn't during a Pistol run). Speaking of rough starts, Deimos 2 would be an alarm event and start me right near a Baron in an awkward spot with another enemy not far away, but luckily a Homing Phase was in an immediate range and the stairs were relatively safe, so I could clear it after, and found a Bulk mod I could do nothing with as my Red Armor was already modded. Deimos 3 however gave me a much rougher start near a Baron, multiple Revenants, an Archvile, and an Arachnotron pincering me, while it was a warehouse level with shoddy cover that got quickly blown away. I thought I was going to die when I have to run to a Small Health Globe near the Arachnotron with less than 20% health and my Red Armor destroyed, but I luckily make it and don't eat too much damage healing up, and then kill the Arachnotron soon after, while most of the floor's nastiness was contained in that starting room, going into the halfway point naked with subpar health and a still vanilla Shotgun doesn't fill me with confidence however. Deimos 4 would be a much needed rebound, not only being a relatively easy small rooms level with a Blue Armor that's much better than nothing (ensures Formers don't shred me and that Arachnotrons + Commandos won't wipe out half my health) and an Invuln for the next floor, but it also finally has a Power mod (another funny moment is this Hell Knight trapped by lava around the stairs, he would get shot off soon after to his doom). I skip Abyssal Plains, and Deimos 5 would give me another easy small rooms level as well as a second Power mod to finally assemble the much needed Elephant Gun. After an uneventful Deimos 6 and skipping Halls Of Carnage, I would get a pretty nasty Cacodemon cave with a big horizontal acid river for Deimos 7, but it would have a Berserk at the start and two Invulns deeper into it, so with the Berserk + getting Shottyhead I'm able to fight them off and then cross the river to safely reach the Invulns. I was banking on Berserker + Shottyhead + Elephant Gun to kill the Cyberdemon without taking that much damage, but with the Invulns, he is rendered completely harmless.
Hell 1 would have a somewhat perilous start but enough of the invuln carries over to make it mostly a nonfactor, and all the Shotgunners provides a needed shell restock (though this is the sort of shit that solidifies for me how broken respawns infinitely dropping ammo was, if I wasn't in AAoLT this would have been way more than enough ammo to last the entirety of Hell, while you can just do this on any floor with formers). After an uneventful Hell 2, I did get this awful Hell 3 floor, where I would be forced to run across several tiles of fluid to reach most of the map. I could have just left, but I used up most of the shells on the Cacodemon vault to get to a potential Unique inside when something like Malek's Armor or Lava Armor would be huge (however the Unique wasn't inside the vault and it was just a GCB I had no use for), while there were a couple Shotgunners that dropped shells on the other side. After weeding out most of the enemies there from the other side, I do take the risk to run over the acid on the north side and make it, while also finding a wall destroying lever that will be handy in case I need to go back. A shining example of why I got Berserker happens though as when moving Napalm Barrels around, I accidentally moved one into acid and have two blow up on me, I very likely do not survive this without Berserker. I also find a Bulk mod to Fireproof my Blue Armor, making up for my lack of Red Armor and ensuring VMR or any other Napalm Barrels mishaps are of little danger the rest of the game, while that handy Invuln and Supercharge solidifies that going across the river was the right move here. Hell 4 gave me a potentially nasty maze, but thanks to the aforementioned Invuln, I can just safely run through it to the stairs. Hell 5 is another floor where basically all the enemies spawned on the opposite side of the floor and I have a clean path to the stairs, but it has an Invuln that I try getting, which I successfully retrieve. The game is a wrap, with Hell 6 being an easily ran through Pain Elemental Cave (just need to make sure I don't accidentally bump into and punch out a Lost Soul, I do got some Brute after all), and Hell 7 having quick stairs. The invuln runs out against the Mastermind, but with there being Berserks on Hell 7 I picked up along the way, I don't need to play safe to effortlessly beat her.
And there it is, my eighth Angelic badge, surpassing papilio for lone 2nd place among most verified Angelics in 0.9.9.7 and now only trailing Tormuse by one for most Angelics. This was my second attempt, the first run died when I got back-to-back mazes in Phobos 4-5 and way overextended in the latter floor instead of just taking the early accessible Chained Court stairs (was running low on shells looking for Shotgunners, which ended up being on the other size of the maze with several Hell Knights around), and overall this is of noticeably more difficult than Lightfoot Diamond despite the even greater speed boost (losing those three inventory slots does reduce your margin for error and limits options), but it's definitely not an Angelic-tier feat. I seen people say the speed boost ArchAoLT gives you is too high, but I think Lightfoot Angelic's difficulty gets largely compromised by respawns dropping ammo meaning you basically have infinite ammo whenever there is a Former or other easily killed enemy around, so you need to get a really bad stretch of floors where there are no such ammo-dropping enemies and have difficult-to-access stairs for ammo to be a real issue. People often criticize Shottyhead for having ammo issues and its lack of SoB in normal play, yet I got through Lightfoot Angelic with it without any real ammo trouble (aside from that early instance in Phobos of running out, which was only due to me sacrificing one of my inventory slots to carry an A mod for boots), you can take that as Shottyhead's ammo issues being overblown (and as the #1 Shottyhead advocate I would agree), but it can also demonstrate how one of the main intended challenges of this mode with limited ammo just does not apply due to respawns dropping ammo. With N! respawns no longer dropping ammo as of 0.10, this is a badge that should be more interesting in newer versions and may merit the Angelic designation (the berserk resistances nerf will also make the pseudo-melee stairdive strat more challenging too, as those couple extra points of damage you take from most hits when berserked are going to add up). When nu DRL gets more settled and I begin my 100% journey in it, we'll see then if Lightfoot Angelic got an appropriate difficulty bump (maybe pistols becoming even more ammo efficient with the SoG damage buff and better in general will counteract no more respawn ammo).
Now here is the mortem:
For the build, I was thinking of going with Sereg's pseudo-melee stairdive build, but again since N! respawns give you infinite ammo, I decided to go with Shottyhead again like I did for my Lightfoot Diamond run; if any Shotgunners spawn around, I can go and clear the floor no problem, and if there are no Shotgunners, I can just leave to ensure I don't run out of ammo. Compared to that run's build, I do gun for Int2 immediately, since I'm not going to be able to store medkits and to save ammo or avoid enemies whenever ammo is running low or when I need to get to health ASAP. I gun for Shottyman after that, as it'll let me reload from my inventory shells rather than taking from my equipped Shell Box, which I don't want to deplete from unless I really need the faster reload or have entirely depleted my inventory shells. I deviate from Shottyhead's prereqs after that by going for Berserker for defensive insurance, as it'll help me survive bad encounters against VMR that I may not have good armor for and when I can't carry around health, but I ended up getting a level of HR before Berserker to minimize the damage taken in Phobos Anomaly. After that it's getting Shottyhead and anything after is nice but irrelevant.
For the run itself, Phobos Base Entry is super easy, and since you can't bring the medkits with you anyway, you don't need to worry about getting them, just one will be nice to heal up any damage you take. Phobos 2 is also easy as you should be assured lots of Shotgunners, and then I go into Hell's Arena; clearing it isn't realistic without exceptional luck since you don't start with a shell box unlike in normal AoLT and only 100 shells is probably not going to be enough to beat N! Hell's Arena, while I do want to keep the Chained Court easy for later, so I just clear the first wave and then some enemies in the second wave for the EXP, while trying to leave a couple dozen shells at least in case the next floor is a cave or a floor with Shotgunners not immediately accessible. The Chained Court is a mandatory stop, mainly because I really want a Power Mod ASAP for my Shotgun to build an Elephant Gun, as with the inventory limitations, I won't really be able to build a Focused Double Shotgun and I'm gonna want a shotgun that can hit a lot harder than the Tactical Shotgun, to give me more leeway on any bad shell stretch and to help ensure my shells aren't left cripplingly low after killing the Cyberdemon, when I could get unlucky with the first couple Hell floors having no Shotgunners. Unfortunately I don't get one and instead get a T mod I can't do much with, as well as an A mod without having any boots yet. Not wanting to resort to putting the A mod on a beaten up Green Armor I was wearing, I make the risky decision to carry only one stack of shells and carry the A mod with me until I find boots. This nearly costs me, as a bad warehouse level in Phobos 6 would have me enter Phobos 7 with no shells at all while a Pain Elemental is immediately in view. Luckily however, there was also some shells immediately available and some Shotgunners soon after, so I am able to recover the run, then Military Base has basically infinite shotgun shells which makes bringing the A mod into it a nonissue. And within Military Base I finally get Steel Boots from the crates as well as a second A mod, allowing me to build Tactical Boots, but unfortunately the other mod was another T mod and so I'm still stuck with a vanilla Shotgun heading into Phobos Anomaly and Deimos. With the level of HR I got before entering Anomaly and the Tac Boots, I get past the Anomaly ambush even with the Red Armor on without issue, but despite using up the Radsuit before entering, I do still take decent damage from the Bruisers that leaves my Red Armor beaten up (once I got behind the pillars I was able to corner shoot the Bruisers to death as payback however).
I'm able to replace the damaged Red Armor with a new one in Deimos 1 shortly after, and then go into Hell's Armory, which is easy enough, just need to use some Chainguns and Plasma Rifles to preserve shells. In yet more shitty luck, for the third straight time, two guaranteed mods in a special level are a T + A mod. With that and the weapon cache having no special shotguns, I opt to not release the Shambler, as I would be stuck fighting him with a shitty normal shotgun and having no healing available could screw me if the next floor has a rough start (the weapon cache did have a Blaster, shame this wasn't during a Pistol run). Speaking of rough starts, Deimos 2 would be an alarm event and start me right near a Baron in an awkward spot with another enemy not far away, but luckily a Homing Phase was in an immediate range and the stairs were relatively safe, so I could clear it after, and found a Bulk mod I could do nothing with as my Red Armor was already modded. Deimos 3 however gave me a much rougher start near a Baron, multiple Revenants, an Archvile, and an Arachnotron pincering me, while it was a warehouse level with shoddy cover that got quickly blown away. I thought I was going to die when I have to run to a Small Health Globe near the Arachnotron with less than 20% health and my Red Armor destroyed, but I luckily make it and don't eat too much damage healing up, and then kill the Arachnotron soon after, while most of the floor's nastiness was contained in that starting room, going into the halfway point naked with subpar health and a still vanilla Shotgun doesn't fill me with confidence however. Deimos 4 would be a much needed rebound, not only being a relatively easy small rooms level with a Blue Armor that's much better than nothing (ensures Formers don't shred me and that Arachnotrons + Commandos won't wipe out half my health) and an Invuln for the next floor, but it also finally has a Power mod (another funny moment is this Hell Knight trapped by lava around the stairs, he would get shot off soon after to his doom). I skip Abyssal Plains, and Deimos 5 would give me another easy small rooms level as well as a second Power mod to finally assemble the much needed Elephant Gun. After an uneventful Deimos 6 and skipping Halls Of Carnage, I would get a pretty nasty Cacodemon cave with a big horizontal acid river for Deimos 7, but it would have a Berserk at the start and two Invulns deeper into it, so with the Berserk + getting Shottyhead I'm able to fight them off and then cross the river to safely reach the Invulns. I was banking on Berserker + Shottyhead + Elephant Gun to kill the Cyberdemon without taking that much damage, but with the Invulns, he is rendered completely harmless.
Hell 1 would have a somewhat perilous start but enough of the invuln carries over to make it mostly a nonfactor, and all the Shotgunners provides a needed shell restock (though this is the sort of shit that solidifies for me how broken respawns infinitely dropping ammo was, if I wasn't in AAoLT this would have been way more than enough ammo to last the entirety of Hell, while you can just do this on any floor with formers). After an uneventful Hell 2, I did get this awful Hell 3 floor, where I would be forced to run across several tiles of fluid to reach most of the map. I could have just left, but I used up most of the shells on the Cacodemon vault to get to a potential Unique inside when something like Malek's Armor or Lava Armor would be huge (however the Unique wasn't inside the vault and it was just a GCB I had no use for), while there were a couple Shotgunners that dropped shells on the other side. After weeding out most of the enemies there from the other side, I do take the risk to run over the acid on the north side and make it, while also finding a wall destroying lever that will be handy in case I need to go back. A shining example of why I got Berserker happens though as when moving Napalm Barrels around, I accidentally moved one into acid and have two blow up on me, I very likely do not survive this without Berserker. I also find a Bulk mod to Fireproof my Blue Armor, making up for my lack of Red Armor and ensuring VMR or any other Napalm Barrels mishaps are of little danger the rest of the game, while that handy Invuln and Supercharge solidifies that going across the river was the right move here. Hell 4 gave me a potentially nasty maze, but thanks to the aforementioned Invuln, I can just safely run through it to the stairs. Hell 5 is another floor where basically all the enemies spawned on the opposite side of the floor and I have a clean path to the stairs, but it has an Invuln that I try getting, which I successfully retrieve. The game is a wrap, with Hell 6 being an easily ran through Pain Elemental Cave (just need to make sure I don't accidentally bump into and punch out a Lost Soul, I do got some Brute after all), and Hell 7 having quick stairs. The invuln runs out against the Mastermind, but with there being Berserks on Hell 7 I picked up along the way, I don't need to play safe to effortlessly beat her.
And there it is, my eighth Angelic badge, surpassing papilio for lone 2nd place among most verified Angelics in 0.9.9.7 and now only trailing Tormuse by one for most Angelics. This was my second attempt, the first run died when I got back-to-back mazes in Phobos 4-5 and way overextended in the latter floor instead of just taking the early accessible Chained Court stairs (was running low on shells looking for Shotgunners, which ended up being on the other size of the maze with several Hell Knights around), and overall this is of noticeably more difficult than Lightfoot Diamond despite the even greater speed boost (losing those three inventory slots does reduce your margin for error and limits options), but it's definitely not an Angelic-tier feat. I seen people say the speed boost ArchAoLT gives you is too high, but I think Lightfoot Angelic's difficulty gets largely compromised by respawns dropping ammo meaning you basically have infinite ammo whenever there is a Former or other easily killed enemy around, so you need to get a really bad stretch of floors where there are no such ammo-dropping enemies and have difficult-to-access stairs for ammo to be a real issue. People often criticize Shottyhead for having ammo issues and its lack of SoB in normal play, yet I got through Lightfoot Angelic with it without any real ammo trouble (aside from that early instance in Phobos of running out, which was only due to me sacrificing one of my inventory slots to carry an A mod for boots), you can take that as Shottyhead's ammo issues being overblown (and as the #1 Shottyhead advocate I would agree), but it can also demonstrate how one of the main intended challenges of this mode with limited ammo just does not apply due to respawns dropping ammo. With N! respawns no longer dropping ammo as of 0.10, this is a badge that should be more interesting in newer versions and may merit the Angelic designation (the berserk resistances nerf will also make the pseudo-melee stairdive strat more challenging too, as those couple extra points of damage you take from most hits when berserked are going to add up). When nu DRL gets more settled and I begin my 100% journey in it, we'll see then if Lightfoot Angelic got an appropriate difficulty bump (maybe pistols becoming even more ammo efficient with the SoG damage buff and better in general will counteract no more respawn ammo).
Now here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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nopockets:(2, level 14 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 1040728 turns and scored 582340 points.
He played for 2 hours, 55 minutes and 39 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 999 out of 1283 hellspawn. (77%)
He was an Archangel of Travel!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 6
Levels completed : 1
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Lightfoot Angelic Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 66/50 Experience 88200/14
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +4 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +6
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Reloader (Level 2)
Brute (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Shottyhead (Level 1)
Int->Int->Rel->Rel->SM->Bru->Bru->HR->Ber->Fin->Jug->MSh->HR->HR->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] fireproof blue armor [2/2] (75%)
[b] [ Weapon ] elephant gun (12d3) [0/1]
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x78)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] shotgun shell (x22)
[b] shotgun shell (x50)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Melee - internal 60% torso 30% feet 60%
Shrapnel - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Acid - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 80% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
151 former humans
188 former sergeants
83 former captains
164 imps
77 demons
99 lost souls
74 cacodemons
14 hell knights
32 barons of hell
12 arachnotrons
21 former commandos
6 pain elementals
22 revenants
18 mancubi
15 arch-viles
7 elite former humans
5 elite former sergeants
7 elite former commandos
2 bruiser brothers
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena before it got too hot.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
On level 7 he assembled a tactical boots!
He purified his fellow comrades.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
He left the Armory without drawing too much attention.
He sounded the alarm on level 10!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
Not knowing what to do, he left.
On level 13 he assembled a elephant gun!
He nuked level 14!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
He nuked level 17!
On level 19 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
On level 19 he assembled a fireproof armor!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
He came, he saw, but he left.
He left level 20 as soon as possible.
On level 21 he found the Acid Spitter!
He left level 23 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
to taste blood!
The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
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 need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You need to
taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
275 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
88 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 7 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
83 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
43 killed the bitch and survived.
34 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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7
Post Mortem / (0.9.9.7) [U|AoH|100%|YAFW] Everyman Diamond done again, no dodging bug needed
« on: December 23, 2025, 03:23 »
In my ongoing quest to dominate both the "old standard" DRL and "modern" JHC-era DRL, it's time to get one of DRL's most infamous Diamond badges, Everyman Diamond. I got this badge in 0.9.9.8, but as I mentioned in my writeup for my 0.9.9.7 Eagerness Angelic run, I've come to feel the badges won in 0.9.9.8 to be undeserved even if one didn't abuse that version's utterly broken Vampyre, due to a myriad of significant player-helping bugs that don't exist in other versions. The most major of such balance-tilting bugs was a dodging bug where the player had a 95% dodge rate at all times regardless of HR levels nor the dodging stats of the enemy's projectile, which is especially huge in Angel Of Humanity when this bug neuters rapid-fire enemies that would normally be extremely deadly in AoH. Aside from that run in a dodgy version though, there aren't many recorded Everyman Diamond runs; according to the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, there have been only four recorded Everyman Diamond runs, of which two did it by AoOC and Whisper Of Death cheese (appuru and Icy), one by mixing it with A100 exploiting a programming oversight where Thomas's Medal and the Everyman Badges just required the amount of special "levels generated" and "levels completed" to be equal (done by Tormuse, which while not in the spirit of the badge, was still an extremely impressive run in its own right), and only one done purely (by papilio of course). Even in pre-.0.9.9.7 versions, no one did it other than this supposed one in 0.9.9.4 by 2DevisionsOut, which aside from Everyman Diamond having a different and easier requirement back then (beat AoH on N! without Badass), is one of 2Dev's more bullshit mortems (getting an Iron Skull in AoH without even having Vampyre? Come on, there's nowhere near enough healing available for that to be remotely believable). I seen a couple other people offhandedly mention getting Everyman Diamond... but it doesn't seem they posted any mortems of it as I never found any missed by the Badge Hunters thread when searching, so they can be dismissed until proven otherwise. So was Everyman Diamond really that difficult without a cheesy dodging bug to help you?
So for the build; in my 0.9.9.8 run I used Survivalist, but that version's Survivalist was drastically better even before considering all of 0.9.9.8's bugs, between it having lighter prereqs, Ironman getting buffed to give physical resistances in addition to more max HP, Survivalist getting a new perk to double the healing of medkits and Health Globes, and the Marine getting a massive 20% inherent energy resistances. 0.9.9.7 Survivalist is just awful, and while being able to reduce hits to 0 damage would be very helpful against the rapid fire enemies that are the biggest threat, you need very good armor to take advantage of that perk, which you won't be able to get WK2 to build Cerberus Armor and have Survivalist until level 11 at earliest, and until then you'll have to slug through most of the first half with no offense nor speed whatsoever nor even being all that tanky. Papilio in his run used a masterless Technician that relied on building several different modded armor assemblies to always have strong resistance available against the most immediate pressing threat and according to him it took "immensely many tries", while when he did it again after his file restart, he just admitted to cheating it with blatant save scumming (7 fucking saves.... at least he was honest?), so his strategy doesn't seem all that reliable if even a proven top tier player would rather resort to save scumming than winning legit with it again. I do think the concept behind my 0.9.9.8 Survivalist run of minimizing my margin of error is the way to go, so I'll just do what I did for my Everyman Platinum run so many years ago and use Vampyre again. With trait order, I open with and use my free trait on Finesse, to help buff my ability to corner shoot enemies to death and build to Whizkid later that's going to be very important. Then unusually compared to any other of my Vampyre runs, I get Badass for the second level, since Health Globes are basically mini-Supercharges in AoH and being able to retain 18 HP after picking one up instead of 12 makes me significantly less fragile. It's getting the rest of Vampyre's prereqs after that, Vampyre should absolutely not be delayed when Berserker triggering off of any hit that deals 10+ damage is a massive survivability boost once the bigger enemies start showing up and Vampyre's healing will keep me alive, as well as ensure I can keep running around with more than 12 HP without the aid of globes. With Vampyre achieved, it's Fin2 and getting WK2 ASAP for the all-around combat + speed + defensive boost it provides, then Juggler so I don't take any additional hits when switching to a melee weapon after rocket jumping into enemies, then Badass 2 to effectively increase my max HP to a not so fragile 24, then Ironman instead of TaN for farther survivability since I already reduce basically everything to 1 damage when wearing P-modded Cerberus Armor while berserked and even +2 HP (effectively +4 with Badass 2) helps a lot with keeping rapid fire enemies from grinding me down. Brute 3 comes when I got a Ripper and need the accuracy boost to hit with it, Fin3 for the always desired additional attack time eed reduction, Iro2 for farther lategame assurance, and finally Bru4 for one more offensive boost.
As for the run itself, we start with Phobos Base Entry of course, which is of little danger thanks to your starting Red Armor reducing most pistol and shotgun shots to 1 damage. Even with the Red Armor's -20% speed penalty, my usual strat of just immediately running to the building and get in a Former Human's face still works as long as the Shotgunners don't come out immediately. If you do get shot up a lot or eat some high damage rolls, and so your Red Armor takes decent damage as a result (say 10+%), you should just reset until you get a good Phobos Base Entry; you don't really need the Small Medkits since they heal so little in AoH and you start with two extra Large Medkits anyway, rather minimizing damage to your Red Armor is important as you'll need it for later and Armor Shards don't start spawning until floor 5, so you won't be able to repair it until then without getting lucky with armor repairing levers (and hitting levers without Intuition is an absolute nogo, when hitting a lava lever will instantly kill you without Berserker and an acid lever may as well be instant death without at least Protective Boots unless escape is only 1 tile away). Speaking of preserving the Red Armor, I repeat my 0.9.9.8 strat of taking it off on floor 2, since I need it to preserve it for Hell's Arena and dying on floor 2 doesn't matter anyway, fortunately though I don't lose any runs on floor 2 doing that this time, even with it having a Pinky vault I had to carefully approach to not get instantly mauled to death. Hell's Arena would give me a bad opening wave with a Cacodemon, two Pinkies, and a Lost Soul immediately in view, while floor 2 had no Berserks to bring in to it, but I am able to run behind a pillar to escape the Caco and the Red Armor protects me well enough from the Pinkies to shotgun them down, while the pillar formed a 1-tile wide pathway so the Pinkies couldn't double team me. The rest of Hell's Arena went smoothly, I'm able to corner shoot the Barons to death by gift dropping a Green Armor at the farthest point in vision from behind a pillar (I used up a Small Medkit to restore my Tactics just in case a Baron did get through my corner shooting but neither do), and then I get a Ballistic Vest for the AoH-exclusive reward; I would have preferred Phaseshift Armor since it's much better pre-assembly and berserk's +60% resistances on top of its 30% physical resistances would have been enough to reduce all physical hits to 1 damage (plus it has the potential for the Phaseshift set), but a Ballistic Vest is still acceptable as it helps for later special levels or when a big enemy gets in melee range without me being berserked and it'll be great for creating Cerberus Armor later, meanwhile if I got Acid-proof Boots I would have resetted (the armor is far more important than acid-immunity). I immediately slap on one of my starting P mods onto the Ballistic Vest, to start prepping it for Cerberizing and when it really needs that extra defense to do its job better (and to help prevent me from getting instantly killed if I get hit by a high roll Imp fireball in it while not berserked).
Phobos 3 through 5 go very well with no mazes nor Cacodemon caves nor terrible Hell Knight spawns, and I crucially get Berserker before the Unchained Court. Unusually it's not the Barons or Arena Master that are the major problems, as with Berserker and Red Armor, the Barons won't deal more than 1 in melee and will usually deal 1 or 2 with their acid balls, while the Arena Master will never deal more than 1, and I adequately preserved the Red Armor for Unchained Court. It is instead all the Chaingunners, who will deal 4 damage minimum (i.e. 33% of my health) no matter how strong my defenses are if they connect every shot with their chainguns, and I can't safely fight them in the open when long-range shotgun blasts will usually fail to one-shot them and can fail to knock them back at edge-of-vision if your damage roll is slightly below average, while Unchained Court offers lousy cover even if you avoid the bunker getting blown up when fighting the Barons and Arena Master. I get through it, but waiting for all the Chaingunners to come in the bunker after disposing of the Barons and Arena Master gets stressful, and I do end up burning several medkits from just taking a few Chaingunner bursts. I get A and T mods from the Unchained Court, I T-mod the Chainsaw as the attack speed boost is most useful, and A mod my Steel Boots but don't make Tactical Boots yet despite still having my starting A mod for two important reasons; one, if I get a Nano mod from Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab, I really want Antigrav Boots for a melee build that is blocked HR, and if I don't get a Nano mod, I don't want to build Tactical Boots until after I get WK2, as I really want to A-mod them after when I need all the speed I can get. Not making Tactical Boots now will make late Phobos and early Deimos a little harder, but I'm confident I can survive without until then. Also since I haven't mentioned it, I put my starting B mod on my Rocket Launcher to start prepping it towards assembling a Tactical Rocket Launcher and the faster reload could save me if I need to do multiple rocket jumps with enemies in view, which is especially probable with Badass nerfing my rocket jumps (one reason why I really don't like taking Badass normally, I hope DRL's Badass eventually swaps the permanent knockback resistance for powerup extension like JHC did).
Phobos 6 and 7 also go well, with Berserker + getting Vampyre in this range significantly nerfing the threat of Barons and a Revenant that spawned, while I avoid getting caught in the open by the lone Commando that spawned and no Arachnotrons spawned. Phobos 7 had a vault that apparently had an Onyx Armor in it as a Former dropped it after being killed, very lucky to get a repeat of what my 0.9.9.8 Everyman Diamond run got with a floor 7 Onyx Armor. Getting good indestructible armor as Vampyre is very powerful, but the Onyx Armor would give no physical resistances to Cerberus Armor, and I already started modding the Ballistic Vest... however if Cerberus Onyx Armor is P-modded, with berserk's +60% resistances, that will be enough to reduce nearly all physical damage to 1... That's enough of a dilemma to make me put off modding the Ballistic Vest farther until I see if I get an Onyx mod from Armory/Deimos Lab. Anyway, I rolled Phobos Lab for the floor 7 special level, normally a terrifying prospect for players but Nightmare Demon bites will always trigger Berserker in AoH and the Ballistic Vest will reduce them to 1 damage, while with Vampyre I get a hefty 8 HP back from killing them, so it was very easy. I get a P mod that I hold onto, and a T mod I put on the Combat Shotgun for the fire speed boost when I'm still shotgunning a lot + to prep towards a Tactical Shotgun. UV Anomaly is also such a breather when you're used to N! Anomaly. I actually leave Phobos on pace for an Untouchable Pin (though it won't last once I start leaning more into Vampyre), and I haven't mentioned it but I also got a couple Homing Phases, which is nice to secure these early as there are a few special levels where they can be potentially very handy.
After an unremarkable Deimos 1, I get disappointed with rolling Hell's Armory instead of Deimos Lab; normally you would want that in AoH when the dual Shamblers are so utterly terrifying, but Berserker of course frees them up like any boss and thus I miss out on my chance at two rare mods. However Deimos 1 does have an Invuln, and I got another Phase Device on this floor, which I could use to pull off a Shambler's Head if I can get to the Shambler lever and kill him then set up camp before the Invuln runs out. Unfortunately the Phase doesn't get me any farther than a single rocket jump would have. I do make it to the lever with Invuln intact thanks to rocket jumping, but unfortunately with the enemies along the way slowing me down enough, and the Shambler not being cooperative with its teleports, the Invuln runs out right when I finish off the Shambler on lava. So I don't get the guaranteed Nano mod, and the lab cache ends up being just a Firestorm mod, not terrible since larger BFG explosions does help for the crucial Mortuary/Limbo later and I might get a shot at building a Biggest Fucking Gun to completely invalidate them or any bad level if I come across a random Firestorm, but a Nano mod would have been much preferable. Also with no Onyx mod and finding enough additional P mods, I pivot to Cerberizing the Onyx Armor instead, but can't quite build it yet when I don't got WK2 (oh the weapon cache just had a Combat Pistol for any exotic weapons there, completely useless for this run).
Deimos 2 would more than make up for the disappointing Hell's Armory with giving me a... Butcher's Cleaver!. This is huge when one of the biggest worries for this run dying is killing something in a group and then getting rapidly chipped down by Arachnotrons or Commandos, and being able to get instant melee kills greatly reduces the threat of that. I don't ditch the Chainsaw though, as with it being T-modded, it can still attack faster and thus I can use it to trigger Berserker faster against a bigger enemy, or when fighting something I can't one-shot with the Cleaver once I get Juggler, I can hit them with the Chainsaw first and then swap to the Cleaver to finish them off for the instant kill. I similarly don't abandon building the Ripper for the same benefits of the much greater attack speed making it much better in situations where the Cleaver can't kill. I get WK2 on Deimos 2 and so can build that sweet P-modded Onyx Cerberus Armor at last, as well as build Tactical Boots and immediately A mod them for a much needed big speed boost (and clearing my inventory of the mod clutter is always nice). I rolled Containment Area for the Deimos 3 special, normally one of the scariest special levels even without factoring in AoH, but with this gear on Vampyre, I was outhealing the damage the Barons dealt, and so didn't need to resort to using one of my Homing Phases to camp them at the start. I get City Of Skulls for the Deimos 4 special, already free for Vampyre normally, is made super free for Vampyre with the Cleaver, but very unfortunately I don't get any Hatred Skulls, and will have to settle for a Fire Skull + Blood Skull for Mortuary/Limbo. Haven't been talking about the normal floors, but they have been of little threat, except for one instance in this range where I got overly cocky after building the Cerberus Armor and rushing down a Commando that got me down to 2 HP, just a stark reminder that with no dodging bug helping, I cannot safely approach these guys and Arachnotrons in the open. Would get the most unfortunate roll of all however when I got Halls Of Carnage instead of Spider's Lair for the Hell 6 special; this should be desired when Spider's Lair is one of the biggest threats to this run, but the Spider-Killer Cross is one of the six medals I'm missing after I didn't get Spider's Lair in my Everyman Platinum run, and so will need to play AoH again to get it (which AoH runs not being easily spammable is going to make this extra annoying to grind out). Well being able to make a Tactical Rocket Launcher on the prior floor makes Halls Of Carnage even easier when rocket jumps compensate for my lack of exceptional movement speed, but I would burn one of my Homing Phases after reaching the first mod just to make it extra free and make space for the BFG. It's also nice I got Plasteel Boots on Deimos 6, so I can step into lava for only 1 damage instead of 5 damage (I A-mod them and save a spare A mod, just in case I find a random Nano to Antigrav them later). As for the Cyberdemon, he is free as always for any Berserker build, just had to make sure to put on the Ballistic Vest once he moved into melee range, since he'll deal 4-5 melee damage to me in the Cerberus Onyx Armor and thus could actually kill me if I wore it when trading melee blows.
Upon entering Hell, I would get greeted with the last Power mod I need to finish the Ripper, and then when playing Vampyre equipped with a Ripper, Unholy Cathedral is completely free rather than the heart-stopper it is when doing the hit-and-run timing strategy with non-melee builds in AoH (just again needed to put on the Ballistic Vest to ensure the AoD did 1 damage instead of 4-5, but with the Ripper, he only got a couple hits in anyway). Armed with the ultimate trifecta of melee weapons (the Ripper for very fast attack speed and sheer DPS, Cleaver for no-time kills, and the Scythe for gibbing or if I really need to kill something in one hit), the Cerberus Onyx Armor, and the Tactical rocket Launcher, the only normal levels that could threaten me would be an Arachnotron cave, and I do finally get a cave on Hell 2... but it was a Pain Elemental cave that is just an all-you-can-eat buffet for Vampyre with this equipment. I do get this scenario on Hell 3 that should normally be at least a pickle in AoH, but again Vampyre with this equipment comes out of it with 200% health. I get more Power mods though that I can't do much else with it, so I finally build a Tactical Shotgun and then P-mod it, which can at least be nice for killing Formers at long range more reliably, Chaingunners can still be a threat after all. Then come The Vaults, which I don't need any strategy for when it's so laughably ineffectual above HNTR in this version, I even pop the Staff immediately instead of clearing out the side vaults individually first because why make this take any longer than it needs to. There's almost nothing exceptional Vaults could have for me at this point, but getting a second BFG is nice if I roll Mortuary, and I get a Trigun to have the option of just nuking Mortuary if I get a Hell 4 Invuln.
For the pivotal Hell 4 special level, I luckily end up rolling Limbo instead of Mortuary; aside from Limbo being much easier in general, Mortuary did scare me a bit since it has Commandos and Chaingunners in addition to the Arachnotrons, and will generally get much more enemies on you at once, while if things get hairy in Limbo, I can also cheese it by hitting the two levels and then using my other Homing Phase to camp the stairs that offer a perfectly concealed camping spot. With my equipment loadout and two BFGs, I was confident I could do Mortuary anyway, not even needing Hatred Skulls since I'm basically permanently berserked at this point of the game between most enemies triggering Berserker, my rocket jumps triggering Berserker, any steps into lava triggering Berserker, and coming across several Berserk Packs. I appreciate the breather for the special level I've been most prepping for, and I don't even need to cheese Limbo with the aforementioned stair camping to clear it near effortlessly; aside from my build being ridiculously strong and near immortal as long as I don't let Arachnotrons blast away at me, being able to shoot the BFG at out-of-vision tiles in this version is really busted and so I could blow up most of the island corpses without even needing to rocket jump over to them (coming in with a Radsuit was also helpful to make the lava a non-threat in Tactical Boots, with it not running out until right near the end).
With Limbo done, the run is basically a wrap. I did encounter a Hell Knight with a Gothic Armor on that I barely noticed as the Cleaver still took him out in only a few hits, and even getting my first maze of the run at Hell 6 was barely a speed bump. Lava Pits is a nonissue even without lava immune boots; I just use a Radsuit I had catching dust in my inventory, kill the Lost Soul and Pain Elementals near the start, then use a Phase Device that drops me on the long thin middle island with no care for all the enemies around with the Cleaver to kill them all while not losing any Radsuit duration on the kills, and I'm able to reach the overly plentiful three Radsuits on the other side before the one I used is even close to running out. I just use them up rather bothering to make inventory room and rationing them out, and they easily last the entire rest of the level and most of the next floor. The only thing of note with Lava Pits is that it had Malek's Armor spawn in, the one armor I would have preferred over the Cerberus Onyx Armor as they are nearly identical once the berserk resistances are added except I would have been way faster and the regeneration would have kept it from getting worn down, but oh well, nice to have it for the penultimate floor that was nothing of note. I end up going into Dis with 974 damage taken, nowhere close to the Untouchable Pin I was on pace for through Phobos but still remarkably low for a Vampyre run that would normally be over 2000 easily. Since I had the Trigun still and didn't get the Spider-Killer Cross, I thought I could use this opportunity to get one other annoying medal I'm missing with the Fallout Platinum Cross by spamming Angel Arm in Dis with the Lava Element's Invuln active. Unfortunately I forgot you need more than 10 max HP to trigger Angel Arm and so I could only activate it twice, while I set no other nukes off throughout the run... so no Fallout Platinum and I just wasted HP for nothing. Not that I needed the extra HP though, as against a berserk Ripper, Carmack went down without firing a single shot nor summoning any enemies.
So there's Everyman Diamond done in 0.9.9.7, and in one try too, not even needing to exclude any early Q+Ys. Overall yeah this is a tough Diamond, but certainly a tier or two below the hardest ones, and more people should have won it if they used Vampyre or some other defensive Berserker build, instead of playing a masterless Technician that relies on lucking upon a ton of mods early on to make the perfect armor for every situation and then hoping you don't get caught in a bad spot in the wrong armor, or playing a Cateye/masterless Scout that tries to avoid ever getting hit by anything that can deal 10+ damage. I think Inquisitor Diamond was harder even when accounting for me using a worse build in my run of it, as was Quartermaster Diamond without cheesing it with AoMC, and I think it's even arguable that Marksman Diamond was harder without Sereging, at least I would rather do Everyman Diamond again than doing another run locked to 0.9.9.7's shitty ass pistols with 0.9.9.7's N! mechanics (yet I'll need to for Marksman Angelic...). With this being UV, you don't need to worry about respawns and the whole corpse disposal minigame, and you can camp to your heart's content in any good camping spot, while with a Berserker build, there's only a few special levels you truly need to worry about (Unchained Court, maybe Containment Area if you don't do Vampyre and don't have a Homing Phase, maybe Abyssal Plains if you're also not Vampyre, Spider's Lair, and Mortuary, maybe Limbo if you're not good with your opener and also don't have a Homing Phase), so you just need to be able to survive rough floor starts and have some built-in margin of error to avoid dying in only a couple hits (no matter how good you are, trying to play near damageless is a fool's errand). Despite not being a badge that required N! and so it's one of the few Diamonds not affected by the major N! changes, Everyman Diamond should get more interesting in newer DRL versions, especially once the proposed special level rebalancing goes through; even in the current version you now have the Enraged Timer to invalidate camping strategies that neutered many special levels and countless normal floors, several defensive traits got buffed while Berserker and Vampyre got nerfed, several armors got rebalanced and Technical Mods now increase resistances on armor, some special levels have already been made much harder (The Vaults, Limbo, and The Lava Pits getting the biggest glow ups), and you got a whole new special level pair on floor 4 that are going to be tough on UV. It's probably going to be noticeably harder, but you would have more viable options.
Well if you read this far, here is the mortem:
EDIT: Ran a couple AoH + AoCn games on HNTR and was able to get Spider-Killer Cross, it wasn't that bad to survive with a melee build as long as you got an ok floor 1. You should be able to get this with nuking even without Invuln as the source code doesn't appear to have a no nuking exception for it, and I did find a nuke along the way, but after Deimos 6 gave me an Invuln + Berserk while I had plenty of rockets for rocket jumping, I go and beat it conventionally to be safe in case the nuke didn't work. I kill myself after as I had no interest in trying to finish the run, and with that I'm only five medals away from getting every medal for Heroic Diamond:
So for the build; in my 0.9.9.8 run I used Survivalist, but that version's Survivalist was drastically better even before considering all of 0.9.9.8's bugs, between it having lighter prereqs, Ironman getting buffed to give physical resistances in addition to more max HP, Survivalist getting a new perk to double the healing of medkits and Health Globes, and the Marine getting a massive 20% inherent energy resistances. 0.9.9.7 Survivalist is just awful, and while being able to reduce hits to 0 damage would be very helpful against the rapid fire enemies that are the biggest threat, you need very good armor to take advantage of that perk, which you won't be able to get WK2 to build Cerberus Armor and have Survivalist until level 11 at earliest, and until then you'll have to slug through most of the first half with no offense nor speed whatsoever nor even being all that tanky. Papilio in his run used a masterless Technician that relied on building several different modded armor assemblies to always have strong resistance available against the most immediate pressing threat and according to him it took "immensely many tries", while when he did it again after his file restart, he just admitted to cheating it with blatant save scumming (7 fucking saves.... at least he was honest?), so his strategy doesn't seem all that reliable if even a proven top tier player would rather resort to save scumming than winning legit with it again. I do think the concept behind my 0.9.9.8 Survivalist run of minimizing my margin of error is the way to go, so I'll just do what I did for my Everyman Platinum run so many years ago and use Vampyre again. With trait order, I open with and use my free trait on Finesse, to help buff my ability to corner shoot enemies to death and build to Whizkid later that's going to be very important. Then unusually compared to any other of my Vampyre runs, I get Badass for the second level, since Health Globes are basically mini-Supercharges in AoH and being able to retain 18 HP after picking one up instead of 12 makes me significantly less fragile. It's getting the rest of Vampyre's prereqs after that, Vampyre should absolutely not be delayed when Berserker triggering off of any hit that deals 10+ damage is a massive survivability boost once the bigger enemies start showing up and Vampyre's healing will keep me alive, as well as ensure I can keep running around with more than 12 HP without the aid of globes. With Vampyre achieved, it's Fin2 and getting WK2 ASAP for the all-around combat + speed + defensive boost it provides, then Juggler so I don't take any additional hits when switching to a melee weapon after rocket jumping into enemies, then Badass 2 to effectively increase my max HP to a not so fragile 24, then Ironman instead of TaN for farther survivability since I already reduce basically everything to 1 damage when wearing P-modded Cerberus Armor while berserked and even +2 HP (effectively +4 with Badass 2) helps a lot with keeping rapid fire enemies from grinding me down. Brute 3 comes when I got a Ripper and need the accuracy boost to hit with it, Fin3 for the always desired additional attack time eed reduction, Iro2 for farther lategame assurance, and finally Bru4 for one more offensive boost.
As for the run itself, we start with Phobos Base Entry of course, which is of little danger thanks to your starting Red Armor reducing most pistol and shotgun shots to 1 damage. Even with the Red Armor's -20% speed penalty, my usual strat of just immediately running to the building and get in a Former Human's face still works as long as the Shotgunners don't come out immediately. If you do get shot up a lot or eat some high damage rolls, and so your Red Armor takes decent damage as a result (say 10+%), you should just reset until you get a good Phobos Base Entry; you don't really need the Small Medkits since they heal so little in AoH and you start with two extra Large Medkits anyway, rather minimizing damage to your Red Armor is important as you'll need it for later and Armor Shards don't start spawning until floor 5, so you won't be able to repair it until then without getting lucky with armor repairing levers (and hitting levers without Intuition is an absolute nogo, when hitting a lava lever will instantly kill you without Berserker and an acid lever may as well be instant death without at least Protective Boots unless escape is only 1 tile away). Speaking of preserving the Red Armor, I repeat my 0.9.9.8 strat of taking it off on floor 2, since I need it to preserve it for Hell's Arena and dying on floor 2 doesn't matter anyway, fortunately though I don't lose any runs on floor 2 doing that this time, even with it having a Pinky vault I had to carefully approach to not get instantly mauled to death. Hell's Arena would give me a bad opening wave with a Cacodemon, two Pinkies, and a Lost Soul immediately in view, while floor 2 had no Berserks to bring in to it, but I am able to run behind a pillar to escape the Caco and the Red Armor protects me well enough from the Pinkies to shotgun them down, while the pillar formed a 1-tile wide pathway so the Pinkies couldn't double team me. The rest of Hell's Arena went smoothly, I'm able to corner shoot the Barons to death by gift dropping a Green Armor at the farthest point in vision from behind a pillar (I used up a Small Medkit to restore my Tactics just in case a Baron did get through my corner shooting but neither do), and then I get a Ballistic Vest for the AoH-exclusive reward; I would have preferred Phaseshift Armor since it's much better pre-assembly and berserk's +60% resistances on top of its 30% physical resistances would have been enough to reduce all physical hits to 1 damage (plus it has the potential for the Phaseshift set), but a Ballistic Vest is still acceptable as it helps for later special levels or when a big enemy gets in melee range without me being berserked and it'll be great for creating Cerberus Armor later, meanwhile if I got Acid-proof Boots I would have resetted (the armor is far more important than acid-immunity). I immediately slap on one of my starting P mods onto the Ballistic Vest, to start prepping it for Cerberizing and when it really needs that extra defense to do its job better (and to help prevent me from getting instantly killed if I get hit by a high roll Imp fireball in it while not berserked).
Phobos 3 through 5 go very well with no mazes nor Cacodemon caves nor terrible Hell Knight spawns, and I crucially get Berserker before the Unchained Court. Unusually it's not the Barons or Arena Master that are the major problems, as with Berserker and Red Armor, the Barons won't deal more than 1 in melee and will usually deal 1 or 2 with their acid balls, while the Arena Master will never deal more than 1, and I adequately preserved the Red Armor for Unchained Court. It is instead all the Chaingunners, who will deal 4 damage minimum (i.e. 33% of my health) no matter how strong my defenses are if they connect every shot with their chainguns, and I can't safely fight them in the open when long-range shotgun blasts will usually fail to one-shot them and can fail to knock them back at edge-of-vision if your damage roll is slightly below average, while Unchained Court offers lousy cover even if you avoid the bunker getting blown up when fighting the Barons and Arena Master. I get through it, but waiting for all the Chaingunners to come in the bunker after disposing of the Barons and Arena Master gets stressful, and I do end up burning several medkits from just taking a few Chaingunner bursts. I get A and T mods from the Unchained Court, I T-mod the Chainsaw as the attack speed boost is most useful, and A mod my Steel Boots but don't make Tactical Boots yet despite still having my starting A mod for two important reasons; one, if I get a Nano mod from Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab, I really want Antigrav Boots for a melee build that is blocked HR, and if I don't get a Nano mod, I don't want to build Tactical Boots until after I get WK2, as I really want to A-mod them after when I need all the speed I can get. Not making Tactical Boots now will make late Phobos and early Deimos a little harder, but I'm confident I can survive without until then. Also since I haven't mentioned it, I put my starting B mod on my Rocket Launcher to start prepping it towards assembling a Tactical Rocket Launcher and the faster reload could save me if I need to do multiple rocket jumps with enemies in view, which is especially probable with Badass nerfing my rocket jumps (one reason why I really don't like taking Badass normally, I hope DRL's Badass eventually swaps the permanent knockback resistance for powerup extension like JHC did).
Phobos 6 and 7 also go well, with Berserker + getting Vampyre in this range significantly nerfing the threat of Barons and a Revenant that spawned, while I avoid getting caught in the open by the lone Commando that spawned and no Arachnotrons spawned. Phobos 7 had a vault that apparently had an Onyx Armor in it as a Former dropped it after being killed, very lucky to get a repeat of what my 0.9.9.8 Everyman Diamond run got with a floor 7 Onyx Armor. Getting good indestructible armor as Vampyre is very powerful, but the Onyx Armor would give no physical resistances to Cerberus Armor, and I already started modding the Ballistic Vest... however if Cerberus Onyx Armor is P-modded, with berserk's +60% resistances, that will be enough to reduce nearly all physical damage to 1... That's enough of a dilemma to make me put off modding the Ballistic Vest farther until I see if I get an Onyx mod from Armory/Deimos Lab. Anyway, I rolled Phobos Lab for the floor 7 special level, normally a terrifying prospect for players but Nightmare Demon bites will always trigger Berserker in AoH and the Ballistic Vest will reduce them to 1 damage, while with Vampyre I get a hefty 8 HP back from killing them, so it was very easy. I get a P mod that I hold onto, and a T mod I put on the Combat Shotgun for the fire speed boost when I'm still shotgunning a lot + to prep towards a Tactical Shotgun. UV Anomaly is also such a breather when you're used to N! Anomaly. I actually leave Phobos on pace for an Untouchable Pin (though it won't last once I start leaning more into Vampyre), and I haven't mentioned it but I also got a couple Homing Phases, which is nice to secure these early as there are a few special levels where they can be potentially very handy.
After an unremarkable Deimos 1, I get disappointed with rolling Hell's Armory instead of Deimos Lab; normally you would want that in AoH when the dual Shamblers are so utterly terrifying, but Berserker of course frees them up like any boss and thus I miss out on my chance at two rare mods. However Deimos 1 does have an Invuln, and I got another Phase Device on this floor, which I could use to pull off a Shambler's Head if I can get to the Shambler lever and kill him then set up camp before the Invuln runs out. Unfortunately the Phase doesn't get me any farther than a single rocket jump would have. I do make it to the lever with Invuln intact thanks to rocket jumping, but unfortunately with the enemies along the way slowing me down enough, and the Shambler not being cooperative with its teleports, the Invuln runs out right when I finish off the Shambler on lava. So I don't get the guaranteed Nano mod, and the lab cache ends up being just a Firestorm mod, not terrible since larger BFG explosions does help for the crucial Mortuary/Limbo later and I might get a shot at building a Biggest Fucking Gun to completely invalidate them or any bad level if I come across a random Firestorm, but a Nano mod would have been much preferable. Also with no Onyx mod and finding enough additional P mods, I pivot to Cerberizing the Onyx Armor instead, but can't quite build it yet when I don't got WK2 (oh the weapon cache just had a Combat Pistol for any exotic weapons there, completely useless for this run).
Deimos 2 would more than make up for the disappointing Hell's Armory with giving me a... Butcher's Cleaver!. This is huge when one of the biggest worries for this run dying is killing something in a group and then getting rapidly chipped down by Arachnotrons or Commandos, and being able to get instant melee kills greatly reduces the threat of that. I don't ditch the Chainsaw though, as with it being T-modded, it can still attack faster and thus I can use it to trigger Berserker faster against a bigger enemy, or when fighting something I can't one-shot with the Cleaver once I get Juggler, I can hit them with the Chainsaw first and then swap to the Cleaver to finish them off for the instant kill. I similarly don't abandon building the Ripper for the same benefits of the much greater attack speed making it much better in situations where the Cleaver can't kill. I get WK2 on Deimos 2 and so can build that sweet P-modded Onyx Cerberus Armor at last, as well as build Tactical Boots and immediately A mod them for a much needed big speed boost (and clearing my inventory of the mod clutter is always nice). I rolled Containment Area for the Deimos 3 special, normally one of the scariest special levels even without factoring in AoH, but with this gear on Vampyre, I was outhealing the damage the Barons dealt, and so didn't need to resort to using one of my Homing Phases to camp them at the start. I get City Of Skulls for the Deimos 4 special, already free for Vampyre normally, is made super free for Vampyre with the Cleaver, but very unfortunately I don't get any Hatred Skulls, and will have to settle for a Fire Skull + Blood Skull for Mortuary/Limbo. Haven't been talking about the normal floors, but they have been of little threat, except for one instance in this range where I got overly cocky after building the Cerberus Armor and rushing down a Commando that got me down to 2 HP, just a stark reminder that with no dodging bug helping, I cannot safely approach these guys and Arachnotrons in the open. Would get the most unfortunate roll of all however when I got Halls Of Carnage instead of Spider's Lair for the Hell 6 special; this should be desired when Spider's Lair is one of the biggest threats to this run, but the Spider-Killer Cross is one of the six medals I'm missing after I didn't get Spider's Lair in my Everyman Platinum run, and so will need to play AoH again to get it (which AoH runs not being easily spammable is going to make this extra annoying to grind out). Well being able to make a Tactical Rocket Launcher on the prior floor makes Halls Of Carnage even easier when rocket jumps compensate for my lack of exceptional movement speed, but I would burn one of my Homing Phases after reaching the first mod just to make it extra free and make space for the BFG. It's also nice I got Plasteel Boots on Deimos 6, so I can step into lava for only 1 damage instead of 5 damage (I A-mod them and save a spare A mod, just in case I find a random Nano to Antigrav them later). As for the Cyberdemon, he is free as always for any Berserker build, just had to make sure to put on the Ballistic Vest once he moved into melee range, since he'll deal 4-5 melee damage to me in the Cerberus Onyx Armor and thus could actually kill me if I wore it when trading melee blows.
Upon entering Hell, I would get greeted with the last Power mod I need to finish the Ripper, and then when playing Vampyre equipped with a Ripper, Unholy Cathedral is completely free rather than the heart-stopper it is when doing the hit-and-run timing strategy with non-melee builds in AoH (just again needed to put on the Ballistic Vest to ensure the AoD did 1 damage instead of 4-5, but with the Ripper, he only got a couple hits in anyway). Armed with the ultimate trifecta of melee weapons (the Ripper for very fast attack speed and sheer DPS, Cleaver for no-time kills, and the Scythe for gibbing or if I really need to kill something in one hit), the Cerberus Onyx Armor, and the Tactical rocket Launcher, the only normal levels that could threaten me would be an Arachnotron cave, and I do finally get a cave on Hell 2... but it was a Pain Elemental cave that is just an all-you-can-eat buffet for Vampyre with this equipment. I do get this scenario on Hell 3 that should normally be at least a pickle in AoH, but again Vampyre with this equipment comes out of it with 200% health. I get more Power mods though that I can't do much else with it, so I finally build a Tactical Shotgun and then P-mod it, which can at least be nice for killing Formers at long range more reliably, Chaingunners can still be a threat after all. Then come The Vaults, which I don't need any strategy for when it's so laughably ineffectual above HNTR in this version, I even pop the Staff immediately instead of clearing out the side vaults individually first because why make this take any longer than it needs to. There's almost nothing exceptional Vaults could have for me at this point, but getting a second BFG is nice if I roll Mortuary, and I get a Trigun to have the option of just nuking Mortuary if I get a Hell 4 Invuln.
For the pivotal Hell 4 special level, I luckily end up rolling Limbo instead of Mortuary; aside from Limbo being much easier in general, Mortuary did scare me a bit since it has Commandos and Chaingunners in addition to the Arachnotrons, and will generally get much more enemies on you at once, while if things get hairy in Limbo, I can also cheese it by hitting the two levels and then using my other Homing Phase to camp the stairs that offer a perfectly concealed camping spot. With my equipment loadout and two BFGs, I was confident I could do Mortuary anyway, not even needing Hatred Skulls since I'm basically permanently berserked at this point of the game between most enemies triggering Berserker, my rocket jumps triggering Berserker, any steps into lava triggering Berserker, and coming across several Berserk Packs. I appreciate the breather for the special level I've been most prepping for, and I don't even need to cheese Limbo with the aforementioned stair camping to clear it near effortlessly; aside from my build being ridiculously strong and near immortal as long as I don't let Arachnotrons blast away at me, being able to shoot the BFG at out-of-vision tiles in this version is really busted and so I could blow up most of the island corpses without even needing to rocket jump over to them (coming in with a Radsuit was also helpful to make the lava a non-threat in Tactical Boots, with it not running out until right near the end).
With Limbo done, the run is basically a wrap. I did encounter a Hell Knight with a Gothic Armor on that I barely noticed as the Cleaver still took him out in only a few hits, and even getting my first maze of the run at Hell 6 was barely a speed bump. Lava Pits is a nonissue even without lava immune boots; I just use a Radsuit I had catching dust in my inventory, kill the Lost Soul and Pain Elementals near the start, then use a Phase Device that drops me on the long thin middle island with no care for all the enemies around with the Cleaver to kill them all while not losing any Radsuit duration on the kills, and I'm able to reach the overly plentiful three Radsuits on the other side before the one I used is even close to running out. I just use them up rather bothering to make inventory room and rationing them out, and they easily last the entire rest of the level and most of the next floor. The only thing of note with Lava Pits is that it had Malek's Armor spawn in, the one armor I would have preferred over the Cerberus Onyx Armor as they are nearly identical once the berserk resistances are added except I would have been way faster and the regeneration would have kept it from getting worn down, but oh well, nice to have it for the penultimate floor that was nothing of note. I end up going into Dis with 974 damage taken, nowhere close to the Untouchable Pin I was on pace for through Phobos but still remarkably low for a Vampyre run that would normally be over 2000 easily. Since I had the Trigun still and didn't get the Spider-Killer Cross, I thought I could use this opportunity to get one other annoying medal I'm missing with the Fallout Platinum Cross by spamming Angel Arm in Dis with the Lava Element's Invuln active. Unfortunately I forgot you need more than 10 max HP to trigger Angel Arm and so I could only activate it twice, while I set no other nukes off throughout the run... so no Fallout Platinum and I just wasted HP for nothing. Not that I needed the extra HP though, as against a berserk Ripper, Carmack went down without firing a single shot nor summoning any enemies.
So there's Everyman Diamond done in 0.9.9.7, and in one try too, not even needing to exclude any early Q+Ys. Overall yeah this is a tough Diamond, but certainly a tier or two below the hardest ones, and more people should have won it if they used Vampyre or some other defensive Berserker build, instead of playing a masterless Technician that relies on lucking upon a ton of mods early on to make the perfect armor for every situation and then hoping you don't get caught in a bad spot in the wrong armor, or playing a Cateye/masterless Scout that tries to avoid ever getting hit by anything that can deal 10+ damage. I think Inquisitor Diamond was harder even when accounting for me using a worse build in my run of it, as was Quartermaster Diamond without cheesing it with AoMC, and I think it's even arguable that Marksman Diamond was harder without Sereging, at least I would rather do Everyman Diamond again than doing another run locked to 0.9.9.7's shitty ass pistols with 0.9.9.7's N! mechanics (yet I'll need to for Marksman Angelic...). With this being UV, you don't need to worry about respawns and the whole corpse disposal minigame, and you can camp to your heart's content in any good camping spot, while with a Berserker build, there's only a few special levels you truly need to worry about (Unchained Court, maybe Containment Area if you don't do Vampyre and don't have a Homing Phase, maybe Abyssal Plains if you're also not Vampyre, Spider's Lair, and Mortuary, maybe Limbo if you're not good with your opener and also don't have a Homing Phase), so you just need to be able to survive rough floor starts and have some built-in margin of error to avoid dying in only a couple hits (no matter how good you are, trying to play near damageless is a fool's errand). Despite not being a badge that required N! and so it's one of the few Diamonds not affected by the major N! changes, Everyman Diamond should get more interesting in newer DRL versions, especially once the proposed special level rebalancing goes through; even in the current version you now have the Enraged Timer to invalidate camping strategies that neutered many special levels and countless normal floors, several defensive traits got buffed while Berserker and Vampyre got nerfed, several armors got rebalanced and Technical Mods now increase resistances on armor, some special levels have already been made much harder (The Vaults, Limbo, and The Lava Pits getting the biggest glow ups), and you got a whole new special level pair on floor 4 that are going to be tough on UV. It's probably going to be noticeably harder, but you would have more viable options.
Well if you read this far, here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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IDDQDVAMP, level 16 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Marine,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 1288039 turns and scored 445784 points.
He played for 3 hours, 1 minute and 57 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 1390 out of 1390 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Angel of Humanity!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 11
Levels completed : 11
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Medal of Prejudice
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Conqueror Badge
Grim Reaper's Badge
Hell Armorer Badge
Every Soldier's Medal
Thomas's Medal
Hell Champion Medal
Everyman Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 20/10 Experience 129213/16
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +8 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +12
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Marine
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 3)
Brute (Level 4)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Badass (Level 2)
Vampyre (Level 1)
Fin->Bad->Bru->Bru->Ber->MVm->Fin->WK->WK->Jug->Bad->Iro->Bru->Fin->Iro->Bru->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Malek's Armor [3/3] (98%)
[b] [ Weapon ] ripper (6d6)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x91)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (9d3) [3/5] (P1)
[b] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [3/5] (T1)
[c] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [40/40]
[d] BFG 9000 (10d6) [169/169] (B2F1)
[e] BFG 9000 (13d6) [130/130] (B1P3)
[f] Trigun (3d6) [6/6]
[g] cerberus onyx armor [2] (P)
[h] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
[i] Butcher's Cleaver (5d6)
[j] Azrael's Scythe (9d9)
[k] rocket (x14)
[l] rocket (x7)
[m] rocket (x14)
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] large med-pack
[r] phase device
[s] homing phase device
[t] agility mod pack
[u] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
-- 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 90% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
101 former humans
80 former sergeants
39 former captains
144 imps
92 demons
552 lost souls
56 cacodemons
35 hell knights
53 barons of hell
20 arachnotrons
13 former commandos
58 pain elementals
43 revenants
30 mancubi
40 arch-viles
7 nightmare imps
1 nightmare cacodemon
16 nightmare demons
2 bruiser brothers
1 shambler
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
He broke through the lab.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 10 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
On level 10 he assembled a cerberus armor!
On level 10 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
On level 13 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he assembled a ripper!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he found the Azrael's Scythe!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
On level 19 he found the Trigun!
He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
Level 20 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
Level 22 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
On level 22 he found the Malek's Armor!
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
Then at last he found Dis!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 24!
He activated the Angel Arm on level 24!
He left level 24 as soon as possible.
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You prepare the tactical rocket launcher instantly!
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : pool of blood
That hurt! You' going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You prepare the ripper instantly!
You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
Carmack! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
271 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
86 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
82 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
42 killed the bitch and survived.
34 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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EDIT: Ran a couple AoH + AoCn games on HNTR and was able to get Spider-Killer Cross, it wasn't that bad to survive with a melee build as long as you got an ok floor 1. You should be able to get this with nuking even without Invuln as the source code doesn't appear to have a no nuking exception for it, and I did find a nuke along the way, but after Deimos 6 gave me an Invuln + Berserk while I had plenty of rockets for rocket jumping, I go and beat it conventionally to be safe in case the nuke didn't work. I kill myself after as I had no interest in trying to finish the run, and with that I'm only five medals away from getting every medal for Heroic Diamond:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
8
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoP|91%|YAVP] - Inquisitor Diamond snatched from jaws of defeat
« on: December 19, 2025, 16:36 »
I managed to double up Inquisitor Diamond with Inquisitor Angelic in 0.9.9.8, but given the Marine is significantly worse in 0.9.9.7, I didn't even attempt to do that in my 0.9.9.7 Inquisitor Angelic run, so now it's time to get Inquisitor Diamond on its own. While I managed Inquisitor Angelic, the Diamond badge isn't that much more of a breather comparatively; Angel Of Purity is a deceptively nasty challenge in DRL as you not only aren't able to use Invulnerabilities and Berserk Packs, but being unable to use Health Globes and Supercharges severely reduces your effective health supply, while being unable to use Armor Shards and Megaspheres means you effectively cannot repair armor without getting lucky with levers or finding an Onyx or Nano mod. Then the majority of medkits and armors that do spawn will be nabbed by Formers and Hell Nobles, farther dwindling your health and armor supply, while all these problems get exacerbated significantly on Nightmare. On top of that, Inquisitor Diamond requires beating AoP on N! as a Marine, which invalidates the Marine's passive of extended powerups, leaving the Marine only with their measly 10 extra max HP passive (as this was before later versions gave them their inherent energy resistances bonus). As a testament to this badge's difficulty even when you try cheesing it in AoOC, only three people have verifiably won it according to the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread, of which only papilio did it purely (while Sereg and Icy got it through painfully running hundreds of attempts in AoOC), and no one is recorded winning it in any of the versions prior to 0.9.9.7 either.
So what to do for the build. I briefly considered Survivalist, but this is the awful 0.9.9.7 Survivalist with no inherent energy resistances, before Ironman's and TaN's buff, still has its awful prereqs, and before Survivalist got its doubled healing from medkits perk; any extra tankiness it adds will be too little to assuage its complete lack of offense and speed. Then Army Of The Dead and Bullet Dance are obviously out. So that leaves Vampyre, Ammochain, or masterless. papilio in his run used a masterless Marine that immediately gunned for Intuition 2 and then Dodgemaster, claiming they were essential, but I disagree with that assessment; Vampyre would be the clear way to go, as it solves the issue of not having enough health, and while Vampyre churns through armor at a ridiculous rate, with Berserker you'll be tanky enough to subsist on a Nanofiber Red Armor even if you don't get an Onyx/Nano mod to solve the armor problem. Its only real significant problem would be a rough early game, but given that AoP is a challenge that retains difficulty after Phobos, trading a harder start would be worth bolstering your lategame survival. However, given how much I have used melee builds in these 0.9.9.7 runs and will continue to do so in upcoming Diamond/Angelic badges, I wanted to try this first with Ammochain. Ammochain itself doesn't offer much to AoP other than just being one of the Marine's only two good masteries, though Ammochain letting me carry less ammo to make room for more medkits and armors gives it a little something extra for AoP... if you're able to gather up enough medkits and armors to really make use of that advantage.
I considered opening with Finesse -> Juggler, but given how strong Ammochain is and Reloader + SoB giving it a solid enough early game, I decided to just go straight with Ammochain's prereqs. I would reset quite a few times until I got both medkits on Phobos Base Entry and a floor 2 that didn't go badly. Once I did that, I would go and clear Hell's Arena; clearing it is a rough proposition in N! AoP as you won't come in with boosted health nor any berserk/light goggles and can't comfortably eat plasma/acid balls to destroy corpses with such a limited medkit supply, as well as when it carries the cost of making Chained Court much harder later on, but I found trading a couple Small Medkits worth getting two Large ones, a Blue Armor, and most importantly the Rocket Launcher. Aside from its general corpse disposal and wall busting utilities, the Rocket Launcher is going to be direly necessary to get past Phobos Anomaly without Hellrunner or Phase Device luck. After some so-so Phobos floors in the ever perilous 3 to 5 floor range (the worst being a Pinky cave that cost me a couple medkits), I decide to try Unchained Court, which sounds crazy when the Berserks no longer work, but I think I can make do with the single Chainsaw berserk and really want the mods + EXP. Unfortunately when I'm trying to pepper away at a Baron on the left side of the center building, a Baron the right side immediately storms in. I was going to try saving the Chainsaw's berserk for the Arena Master, but if I don't grab it now, it'll get destroyed and I'll surely die in this position. On my way to retrieve the Chainsaw I get lucky with the Baron's acid ball explosions not rolling high enough to destroy it before I can grab it. After sawing him down and the other Baron coming in, I get more bad lucky with the Arena Master quickly storming the center building instead of hanging out in the back as he usually does. Fortunately I'm able to Chaingun him down before the Berserk runs out, and then I'm able to slowly clean up the rest of the level, but I take a big beating overall and unfortunately the two mods were a Bulk + Power mod, what I wanted to see least. The late Phobos floors were surprisingly light on the nasties they normally have, but no Former Commando spawned and thus left me with no Plasma Rifle, so I ended up building a Gatling Gun with a second Bulk mod I found on floor 7. Luckily I rolled Military Base, if I got Phobos Lab I would have had to skip it when I got no sort of speed boost nor a Plasma Rifle and not a single Phase Device to save me if checkmated by the Nightmare Demons. Military Base goes easy, but I would only get a single Small Medkit from the crates, and again no Agility mod, hopefully that's not a bad omen... Then for the Anomaly, with the Red Armor equipped and using a radsuit 12 steps in the ambush room, I rocket jump through, and then I rocket jump past the Bruisers as well; with no Agility-modded Plasma Rifle and needing all the health + armor I can get, it wasn't worth trying to fight them. I would make it to Deimos with 4 Large Medkits, but the challenge ain't done yet, oh hell no...
Deimos 1 would be pretty rough, being a small room level where two Barons and a Revenant quickly besieged my starting location, nearly destroying my Red Armor, but I get through it. Then it comes the most important special level, either Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab, and unfortunately I rolled the former; the latter is a lot harder, but Ammochain won't have too much a problem with the Shamblers and I could get some Medkits there, while most importantly having much greater odds at getting an Onyx or Nano mod to solve the armor problem. Farther unfortunately, I get bad luck with the Cacodemon starting spawns on Hell's Armory and end up having to burn a medkit, but after securing the starting buildings, I can then camp and clear out the rest of the level without a problem, while the weapon cache would bless me with a Nuclear Plasma Rifle, which with Ammochain is basically a Nanomachic one. After killing the Shambler, I would get a Firestorm Mod from the lab cache, which while still very nice for Ammochain, is the rare mod I wanted least, and I also still don't got any Agility mods, so I'm still slow and can't fix Ammochain's accuracy issues. I also started getting Finesse to build towards Whizkid, but don't have enough levels for it yet, so I can't Firestorm the Nuclear Plasma Rifle that already has a Tech mod on it, and I also hold off on Nanofibering my Red Armor, as I'm really going to need to Power mod it after and I won't be able to do that if I build it before getting WK2. After the very mixed Armory, my luck take a sharp turn for the worst with a very nasty Cacodemon cave where I had to fight several of them with no good cover, burning two medkits from it. I rolled Containment Area for the Deimos 3 special level and went inside hoping to get medkits from the crates, but unfortunately don't get any, and while I could probably handle the Backpack ambush, I don't attempt it as I don't need the Backpack and the EXP isn't worthy burning any of my medkits. Deimos 4 was a pretty nice breather when I get a quick concealed camping spot on it, though something I didn't mention yet is when camping near acid/lava, I have to clear up all the weapons and ammo left behind by Formers, to ensure that any medkits or armor they do have doesn't get dropped in said acid/lava. I then go into City Of Skulls, which besides being free EXP, I hope to get Blood Skulls for extra health or even Hatred Skulls would be nice, but in yet more bad luck, I get the absolute worst outcome with three Fire Skulls, especially useless as I don't plan on trying to clear Mortuary/Limbo.
The bad luck continues when I get a terrible Deimos 5 start next to a Former Platoon, Baron, and Archvile near an acid river, where I have to rocket jump across the acid to escape and get shot up by an Arachnotron on the other side. I would find a Plasma Shotgun there to make corpse disposal a nonissue the rest of the run, but things get dire with a nasty maze on Deimos 6. I find what I thought was a workable camping spot, but end up nearly dying when a Mancubus pops up at a bad angle and chases me across the bridge to an Archvile + Baron. I survive the encounter and do secure a foothold on the maze with the help of some Napalm Barrels, but I end up running out of medkits and am down to 68% health. Deimos 7 would give me a breather with a Pain Elemental + Lost Soul cave, but unfortunately it would have no medkits that I desperately need. It did have a Laser Rifle, normally an amazing find for Ammochain and I would have actually preferred it over the Nuclear Plasma Rifle initially, but as the latter is already FT modded, it'll outperform the Laser Rifle in most cases even without EE. I get a level of HR at this point, as with no medkits, no fire-resistant armor better than a B-modded Red Armor, and no radsuit, my only hope against the Cyberdemon is getting several successful dodges. The Laser Rifle does come clutch here as its accuracy lets me effectively fight back while having Run active and I can dodge most of his rockets while killing him before it er... runs out, but I do still get hit a couple times, including a high roll that leaves me at 27% health as I go into Hell...
...And the run looked like it was over, as Hell greets me with an immediate maze. After taking a barrage from a Mancubus on the other side of the river and being on the verge of death, I thought that was it. But I fight off the urge to Q+Y and try this dodgy looking camping spot as I slowly wait for enemies to wander onto the red starts 1 by 1 and plasmae them down, it's not often you can utilize enemies leaving no corpses on stairs. I level up and get Ironman for some desperate HP, as the +10 max HP does get added to your current HP. That camping spot actually pulls through, but if any Former had medkits they got dropped into the lava, and there was still one enemy left that I had to seek while on the verge of death after it would not show up no matter how much I mashed run -> wait. It ended up being a trapped Baron and after it wouldn't show up when waiting after shooting it, I just hammered away from far out of vision until it died as I couldn't risk walking into its vision when one acid ball could kill me. Unfortunately there was no medkits left behind nor any other helpful items, so after surviving this floor by the skin of my teeth, I had to enter Hell 2 at 14% health... and I enter an Arachnotron cave immediately surrounded in the open. The stairs are in sight, but not close enough for me to reach them before the two Arachnotrons wake up, and there's a high chance another would be down where the stairs are, so I thought the run was surely dead there. I don't throw in the towel yet and try to kill the two Arachnotrons before they wake up, I unfortunately misclicked the wrong direction on the first burst and so wasted a free shot, which then allowed the second Arachnotron to wake up before I killed it, resulting in it knocking me down to 4% health. After killing it, all I could do then was activate Run and pray no other Arachnotrons were near the stairs. There was one across the river that tried shooting me, but luckily every shot miss and I made it to the stairs to stave off near-certain death for one more floor.
With only 2 HP remaining however, I needed a miraculous reversal of luck, and so I shambled into Hell 3 thinking if I should just go straight to Vampyre for my next attempt... when I then got exactly what I needed with an immediate uncontested Large Medkit. while the stairs are in view to boot. There was a Mancubus at the top, but he doesn't see me, and just like that I'm back in it. I briefly entertained sticking around on what seemed like a pretty easy island level, until I remembered that this floor had a deadly air event and I immediately get out of there, I can't throw away the lifeline given to me. Hell 4 would go well and I would finally get an Homing Phase, which I then use to get some good stuff from Limbo; unfortunately it teleported me to the Assault Shotgun corner, the corner I wanted least, but getting two fresh un-bulked Red Armors and a Large Medkit was still worth trading the Homing Phase for. Hell 5 would be another relative breather, but teases me with a Hatred Skull right after leaving Limbo, would have been nice to leave Limbo with a lot of berserk. The game decides I haven't had enough mazes and gives me yet one more on Hell 6. Taking it very carefully and with lots of camping, I do survive it with my last Medkit preserved, and I dip into Erebus to kill all the Pain Elementals + Lost souls to help me get one more Ironman level for more HP before the Mastermind. After getting through Hell 7 without getting any more medkits before fighting the Mastermind, I would find exactly the item I could ask most for at this point: a nuke to ensure a partial victory. The nuke would not be needed however, as the Nuclear Plasma Rifle I loaded up with the final few mods I found on the last couple floors would stunlock the Mastermind to death (20 damage is such a low flinching threshold... hopefully she gets the proposed difficulty-dependent flinching thresholds in future versions).
And there it is, perhaps the greatest comeback I pulled off in DRL to get Inquisitor Diamond purely. This was the first attempt that made it past a Q+Y on the first two floors, but that was a very hard fought attempt. Granted I got some horrible luck throughout it, with the awful level generation, and some terrible item luck aside from the Exotic plasma rifles, including getting only one medkit in all of Hell (aside from a guaranteed one in Limbo), and never finding a single Agility Mod while playing the rapid fire mastery that has EE blocked. Winning such a formidable badge with such unideal luck though does make the victory all the sweeter. The most nasty aspect of this badge is that unlike how most DRL runs go, it still remains very difficult past Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab and runs with hours poured into them can still easily end up failing late in the game, as this run shown with how close it skirted near death throughout much of its second half. If anyone else gets inspired to attempt this badge in 0.9.9.7... just go Vampyre, Ammochain can viably win but Vampyre will make it so much less stressful. I hardly even got to benefit from Ammochain letting me carry extra medkits and armors around, when I spent the entire last 2/3rds of the game perpetually short on medkits. Well with all that said, here is the mortem:
So what to do for the build. I briefly considered Survivalist, but this is the awful 0.9.9.7 Survivalist with no inherent energy resistances, before Ironman's and TaN's buff, still has its awful prereqs, and before Survivalist got its doubled healing from medkits perk; any extra tankiness it adds will be too little to assuage its complete lack of offense and speed. Then Army Of The Dead and Bullet Dance are obviously out. So that leaves Vampyre, Ammochain, or masterless. papilio in his run used a masterless Marine that immediately gunned for Intuition 2 and then Dodgemaster, claiming they were essential, but I disagree with that assessment; Vampyre would be the clear way to go, as it solves the issue of not having enough health, and while Vampyre churns through armor at a ridiculous rate, with Berserker you'll be tanky enough to subsist on a Nanofiber Red Armor even if you don't get an Onyx/Nano mod to solve the armor problem. Its only real significant problem would be a rough early game, but given that AoP is a challenge that retains difficulty after Phobos, trading a harder start would be worth bolstering your lategame survival. However, given how much I have used melee builds in these 0.9.9.7 runs and will continue to do so in upcoming Diamond/Angelic badges, I wanted to try this first with Ammochain. Ammochain itself doesn't offer much to AoP other than just being one of the Marine's only two good masteries, though Ammochain letting me carry less ammo to make room for more medkits and armors gives it a little something extra for AoP... if you're able to gather up enough medkits and armors to really make use of that advantage.
I considered opening with Finesse -> Juggler, but given how strong Ammochain is and Reloader + SoB giving it a solid enough early game, I decided to just go straight with Ammochain's prereqs. I would reset quite a few times until I got both medkits on Phobos Base Entry and a floor 2 that didn't go badly. Once I did that, I would go and clear Hell's Arena; clearing it is a rough proposition in N! AoP as you won't come in with boosted health nor any berserk/light goggles and can't comfortably eat plasma/acid balls to destroy corpses with such a limited medkit supply, as well as when it carries the cost of making Chained Court much harder later on, but I found trading a couple Small Medkits worth getting two Large ones, a Blue Armor, and most importantly the Rocket Launcher. Aside from its general corpse disposal and wall busting utilities, the Rocket Launcher is going to be direly necessary to get past Phobos Anomaly without Hellrunner or Phase Device luck. After some so-so Phobos floors in the ever perilous 3 to 5 floor range (the worst being a Pinky cave that cost me a couple medkits), I decide to try Unchained Court, which sounds crazy when the Berserks no longer work, but I think I can make do with the single Chainsaw berserk and really want the mods + EXP. Unfortunately when I'm trying to pepper away at a Baron on the left side of the center building, a Baron the right side immediately storms in. I was going to try saving the Chainsaw's berserk for the Arena Master, but if I don't grab it now, it'll get destroyed and I'll surely die in this position. On my way to retrieve the Chainsaw I get lucky with the Baron's acid ball explosions not rolling high enough to destroy it before I can grab it. After sawing him down and the other Baron coming in, I get more bad lucky with the Arena Master quickly storming the center building instead of hanging out in the back as he usually does. Fortunately I'm able to Chaingun him down before the Berserk runs out, and then I'm able to slowly clean up the rest of the level, but I take a big beating overall and unfortunately the two mods were a Bulk + Power mod, what I wanted to see least. The late Phobos floors were surprisingly light on the nasties they normally have, but no Former Commando spawned and thus left me with no Plasma Rifle, so I ended up building a Gatling Gun with a second Bulk mod I found on floor 7. Luckily I rolled Military Base, if I got Phobos Lab I would have had to skip it when I got no sort of speed boost nor a Plasma Rifle and not a single Phase Device to save me if checkmated by the Nightmare Demons. Military Base goes easy, but I would only get a single Small Medkit from the crates, and again no Agility mod, hopefully that's not a bad omen... Then for the Anomaly, with the Red Armor equipped and using a radsuit 12 steps in the ambush room, I rocket jump through, and then I rocket jump past the Bruisers as well; with no Agility-modded Plasma Rifle and needing all the health + armor I can get, it wasn't worth trying to fight them. I would make it to Deimos with 4 Large Medkits, but the challenge ain't done yet, oh hell no...
Deimos 1 would be pretty rough, being a small room level where two Barons and a Revenant quickly besieged my starting location, nearly destroying my Red Armor, but I get through it. Then it comes the most important special level, either Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab, and unfortunately I rolled the former; the latter is a lot harder, but Ammochain won't have too much a problem with the Shamblers and I could get some Medkits there, while most importantly having much greater odds at getting an Onyx or Nano mod to solve the armor problem. Farther unfortunately, I get bad luck with the Cacodemon starting spawns on Hell's Armory and end up having to burn a medkit, but after securing the starting buildings, I can then camp and clear out the rest of the level without a problem, while the weapon cache would bless me with a Nuclear Plasma Rifle, which with Ammochain is basically a Nanomachic one. After killing the Shambler, I would get a Firestorm Mod from the lab cache, which while still very nice for Ammochain, is the rare mod I wanted least, and I also still don't got any Agility mods, so I'm still slow and can't fix Ammochain's accuracy issues. I also started getting Finesse to build towards Whizkid, but don't have enough levels for it yet, so I can't Firestorm the Nuclear Plasma Rifle that already has a Tech mod on it, and I also hold off on Nanofibering my Red Armor, as I'm really going to need to Power mod it after and I won't be able to do that if I build it before getting WK2. After the very mixed Armory, my luck take a sharp turn for the worst with a very nasty Cacodemon cave where I had to fight several of them with no good cover, burning two medkits from it. I rolled Containment Area for the Deimos 3 special level and went inside hoping to get medkits from the crates, but unfortunately don't get any, and while I could probably handle the Backpack ambush, I don't attempt it as I don't need the Backpack and the EXP isn't worthy burning any of my medkits. Deimos 4 was a pretty nice breather when I get a quick concealed camping spot on it, though something I didn't mention yet is when camping near acid/lava, I have to clear up all the weapons and ammo left behind by Formers, to ensure that any medkits or armor they do have doesn't get dropped in said acid/lava. I then go into City Of Skulls, which besides being free EXP, I hope to get Blood Skulls for extra health or even Hatred Skulls would be nice, but in yet more bad luck, I get the absolute worst outcome with three Fire Skulls, especially useless as I don't plan on trying to clear Mortuary/Limbo.
The bad luck continues when I get a terrible Deimos 5 start next to a Former Platoon, Baron, and Archvile near an acid river, where I have to rocket jump across the acid to escape and get shot up by an Arachnotron on the other side. I would find a Plasma Shotgun there to make corpse disposal a nonissue the rest of the run, but things get dire with a nasty maze on Deimos 6. I find what I thought was a workable camping spot, but end up nearly dying when a Mancubus pops up at a bad angle and chases me across the bridge to an Archvile + Baron. I survive the encounter and do secure a foothold on the maze with the help of some Napalm Barrels, but I end up running out of medkits and am down to 68% health. Deimos 7 would give me a breather with a Pain Elemental + Lost Soul cave, but unfortunately it would have no medkits that I desperately need. It did have a Laser Rifle, normally an amazing find for Ammochain and I would have actually preferred it over the Nuclear Plasma Rifle initially, but as the latter is already FT modded, it'll outperform the Laser Rifle in most cases even without EE. I get a level of HR at this point, as with no medkits, no fire-resistant armor better than a B-modded Red Armor, and no radsuit, my only hope against the Cyberdemon is getting several successful dodges. The Laser Rifle does come clutch here as its accuracy lets me effectively fight back while having Run active and I can dodge most of his rockets while killing him before it er... runs out, but I do still get hit a couple times, including a high roll that leaves me at 27% health as I go into Hell...
...And the run looked like it was over, as Hell greets me with an immediate maze. After taking a barrage from a Mancubus on the other side of the river and being on the verge of death, I thought that was it. But I fight off the urge to Q+Y and try this dodgy looking camping spot as I slowly wait for enemies to wander onto the red starts 1 by 1 and plasmae them down, it's not often you can utilize enemies leaving no corpses on stairs. I level up and get Ironman for some desperate HP, as the +10 max HP does get added to your current HP. That camping spot actually pulls through, but if any Former had medkits they got dropped into the lava, and there was still one enemy left that I had to seek while on the verge of death after it would not show up no matter how much I mashed run -> wait. It ended up being a trapped Baron and after it wouldn't show up when waiting after shooting it, I just hammered away from far out of vision until it died as I couldn't risk walking into its vision when one acid ball could kill me. Unfortunately there was no medkits left behind nor any other helpful items, so after surviving this floor by the skin of my teeth, I had to enter Hell 2 at 14% health... and I enter an Arachnotron cave immediately surrounded in the open. The stairs are in sight, but not close enough for me to reach them before the two Arachnotrons wake up, and there's a high chance another would be down where the stairs are, so I thought the run was surely dead there. I don't throw in the towel yet and try to kill the two Arachnotrons before they wake up, I unfortunately misclicked the wrong direction on the first burst and so wasted a free shot, which then allowed the second Arachnotron to wake up before I killed it, resulting in it knocking me down to 4% health. After killing it, all I could do then was activate Run and pray no other Arachnotrons were near the stairs. There was one across the river that tried shooting me, but luckily every shot miss and I made it to the stairs to stave off near-certain death for one more floor.
With only 2 HP remaining however, I needed a miraculous reversal of luck, and so I shambled into Hell 3 thinking if I should just go straight to Vampyre for my next attempt... when I then got exactly what I needed with an immediate uncontested Large Medkit. while the stairs are in view to boot. There was a Mancubus at the top, but he doesn't see me, and just like that I'm back in it. I briefly entertained sticking around on what seemed like a pretty easy island level, until I remembered that this floor had a deadly air event and I immediately get out of there, I can't throw away the lifeline given to me. Hell 4 would go well and I would finally get an Homing Phase, which I then use to get some good stuff from Limbo; unfortunately it teleported me to the Assault Shotgun corner, the corner I wanted least, but getting two fresh un-bulked Red Armors and a Large Medkit was still worth trading the Homing Phase for. Hell 5 would be another relative breather, but teases me with a Hatred Skull right after leaving Limbo, would have been nice to leave Limbo with a lot of berserk. The game decides I haven't had enough mazes and gives me yet one more on Hell 6. Taking it very carefully and with lots of camping, I do survive it with my last Medkit preserved, and I dip into Erebus to kill all the Pain Elementals + Lost souls to help me get one more Ironman level for more HP before the Mastermind. After getting through Hell 7 without getting any more medkits before fighting the Mastermind, I would find exactly the item I could ask most for at this point: a nuke to ensure a partial victory. The nuke would not be needed however, as the Nuclear Plasma Rifle I loaded up with the final few mods I found on the last couple floors would stunlock the Mastermind to death (20 damage is such a low flinching threshold... hopefully she gets the proposed difficulty-dependent flinching thresholds in future versions).
And there it is, perhaps the greatest comeback I pulled off in DRL to get Inquisitor Diamond purely. This was the first attempt that made it past a Q+Y on the first two floors, but that was a very hard fought attempt. Granted I got some horrible luck throughout it, with the awful level generation, and some terrible item luck aside from the Exotic plasma rifles, including getting only one medkit in all of Hell (aside from a guaranteed one in Limbo), and never finding a single Agility Mod while playing the rapid fire mastery that has EE blocked. Winning such a formidable badge with such unideal luck though does make the victory all the sweeter. The most nasty aspect of this badge is that unlike how most DRL runs go, it still remains very difficult past Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab and runs with hours poured into them can still easily end up failing late in the game, as this run shown with how close it skirted near death throughout much of its second half. If anyone else gets inspired to attempt this badge in 0.9.9.7... just go Vampyre, Ammochain can viably win but Vampyre will make it so much less stressful. I hardly even got to benefit from Ammochain letting me carry extra medkits and armors around, when I spent the entire last 2/3rds of the game perpetually short on medkits. Well with all that said, here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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whatsaninquisitor,
level 16 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Marine,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 3240511 turns and scored 735800 points.
He played for 4 hours, 8 minutes and 43 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1675 out of 1827 hellspawn. (91%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Purity!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 8
Levels completed : 6
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Hell Armorer Badge
Hell Champion Medal
Inquisitor Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 24/80 Experience 125918/16
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +3 ToDmg Melee +3
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Marine
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 1)
Son of a bitch (Level 3)
Reloader (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Triggerhappy (Level 2)
Ammochain (Level 1)
SoB->SoB->Rel->Rel->TH->TH->MAc->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->Fin->HR->Iro->SoB->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] blue armor [4/4] (97%) (P)
[b] [ Weapon ] nuclear plasma rifle (1d8)x8 [5/24] (F1P1T3)
[c] [ Boots ] plasteel boots [2/2] (96%)
[d] [ Prepared ] laser rifle (1d7)x5 [40/40]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [2/5]
[b] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (B1)
[c] plasma shotgun (7d3) [30/30]
[d] red armor [4/4] (100%)
[e] red armor [6/6] (90%) (P)
[f] nanofiber red armor [4] (P)
[g] red armor [6/6] (86%) (BP)
[h] chainsaw (4d6)
[i] shotgun shell (x50)
[j] shotgun shell (x50)
[k] rocket (x10)
[l] power cell (x50)
[m] power cell (x50)
[n] power cell (x50)
[o] power cell (x50)
[p] large med-pack
[q] thermonuclear bomb
[r] shockwave pack
[s] hatred skull
[t] shell box (x100)
[u] shell box (x100)
[v] rocket box (x19)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 50%
Fire - internal 0% torso 0% feet 25%
Plasma - internal 0% torso 20% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
223 former humans
188 former sergeants
120 former captains
298 imps
104 demons
378 lost souls
63 cacodemons
28 hell knights
56 barons of hell
25 arachnotrons
43 former commandos
48 pain elementals
10 revenants
40 mancubi
27 arch-viles
7 elite former humans
5 elite former sergeants
7 elite former commandos
1 shambler
1 agony elemental
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 7 he assembled a gatling gun!
On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
On level 7 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
He purified his fellow comrades.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
He broke into the Containment Area, but gave up against the overwhelming forces.
Level 12 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
On level 12 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
He left level 18 as soon as possible.
Level 19 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
Entering level 19 he was almost dead...
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
He managed to escape from Limbo!
Level 21 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
He decided it was too dangerous.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. Boom! The missile hits the Spider
Mastermind. Boom! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The missile hits
the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! Boom!
Boom! Boom! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
flinched! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The missile hits the Spider
Mastermind. The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The missile hits the
Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies.
Congratulations! You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
270 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
86 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
81 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
42 killed the bitch and survived.
33 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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9
Century Lounge / (0.9.9.7) [N!|ArchA666|30%|YAFW] - No saving on Nightmare was so dumb
« on: December 15, 2025, 18:41 »
With three days off from work, I decided to now get the awful grind that is 0.9.9.7's Centurial Angelic out of the way. Centurial Angelic isn't that much harder than Centurial Diamond, but the inability to save on Nightmare in DRL versions prior to 0.9.9.8 makes it awfully prohibitive to try going for, even when rushing it 666 floors still takes a really fucking long time, especially when there are so many damn enemies on each floor. Having to leave DRL running on my computer over the past two nights was very annoying. I also want to get Armorer Diamond out of the way and so have a good chance to double it up with Centurial Angelic here.
Well for the build, I just repeat the same Blademaster strat I used in my Centurial Diamond run, I don't care about breaking new ground here when I'm just trying to get this over with as quickly as I can. The only difference is I do get a second level of Ironman at the end since I figure I can rely enough on Napalm Barrels and face-rocketing with a 3P Rocket Launcher or especially 3P Napalm Launcher to trigger Berserker while I plan to use the Dragonslayer when I found it, and in hindsight I should have gotten a third level when the 3P Napalm Launcher could have reliably triggered Berserker still to keep me near perma-berserked until I got the Dragonslayer. I'm not writing up a walkthrough on this, so some notes:
And that's the run. Frustratingly the Subtle Knife never spawned, so I'm still a Subtle Knife short of getting Armorer Diamond, I can just hope it finally spawns in one of my runs for the remaining badges and so I don't need to speedrun more A666 playthroughs to get it. Overall yeah this badge is much more imposing because of the no save restriction, a few more people certainly would have won it if not for said save restriction, will be interesting to see though if this badge becomes more actually challenging than tedious in the newer DRL versions with the revamp that later A100/666 got (as well as now actually being able to save and so people that can't comfortably leave DRL running on their computers over the course of multiple days aren't automatically prohibited from getting this badge). Now here is the big ass mortem:
Well for the build, I just repeat the same Blademaster strat I used in my Centurial Diamond run, I don't care about breaking new ground here when I'm just trying to get this over with as quickly as I can. The only difference is I do get a second level of Ironman at the end since I figure I can rely enough on Napalm Barrels and face-rocketing with a 3P Rocket Launcher or especially 3P Napalm Launcher to trigger Berserker while I plan to use the Dragonslayer when I found it, and in hindsight I should have gotten a third level when the 3P Napalm Launcher could have reliably triggered Berserker still to keep me near perma-berserked until I got the Dragonslayer. I'm not writing up a walkthrough on this, so some notes:
- I found an Energy-shielded Vest on floor 25, very nice to secure this early, though I wouldn't make much use of it until I got the Dragonslayer much later, as I instead opted to usually wear a Fireproof Phaseshift Armor for the extra speed + farther rocket jumps + Phaseshift Set or a Lava Armor for when the Phaseshift was damaged or I needed the extra defenses.
- Speaking of which, I found the Phaseshift Boots very early in the game before I even built Tactical Boots, and then found the Phaseshift Armor not that long after. I would Fireproof the latter as with Berserker, it would reduce any strong fire hits to 1 damage and would still reduce all relevant melee damage to 1.
- Had a weird shortage of Bulk Mods early on, so I wasn't able to build the Tactical Rocket Launcher until floor 36. I also P-modded it after rather than T-modding it as I usually do, to make it more reliable at triggering Berserker, especially after I got the second Ironman level. Farther rocket jumps was also nice.
- Got the Lava Armor on floor 75, letting me ditch all the spare PA Red Armors I was carrying around and more comfortably start stair diving as I now had a strong regenerating/indestructible armor.
- I found a Nuclear BFG shortly after, unfortunately I never found the Firestorms to make a Nuclear Biggest Fucking Gun, but it was still useful for blowing up a bunch of corpses or walls, or just to soften up a group of enemies before meleeing them down.
- Found a Napalm Launcher around the 90s, which was very helpful for triggering Berserker extremely reliably, much moreso than my P-modded Tactical Rocket Launcher could. After this I was almost never not berserked. Also was occasionally helpful to create lava pools on demand to repair the Lava Armor.
- I got the Hell Staff on floor 114, not the most exciting Unique to get, but I would hold onto it and it would prove to be one of most useful Uniques to find when getting a free phase at the start of every floor really helps stair diving through hundreds of floors, especially once I got the Dragonslayer and so could no longer rocket jump. Any floor start where the Staff was more likely to get me closer to the stairs than not, I would use it, and if it dropped me no closer but near a healing source, I could grab said healing and try again.
- Got the Laptop Boots on floor 135, getting Inquisitor Set would be obviously extremely helpful so I keep them, and they're also nice for when I don't want to get knocked around as much or may run into fluids but want to keep my movement speed up.
- Never found the Chainsaw, it having a generation weight of 3 prior to 0.9.9.8 fucking sucks, it probably spawned at some point but as it's not a Unique you won't get any notification about it and so I could just hope it happened to spawn in my path during the stair dives. I was stuck with a P-modded Chainsword until I got the Butcher's Cleaver on floor 185; the Cleaver loses a lot of its luster when you're already running Blademaster, but it's still an upgrade over the Chainsword and the knockback-halving while equipping it was much appreciated for when meleeing VMR groups.
- Had a particularly scary moment somewhere in the 200s when I was meleeing a Nightmare Cacodemon after my berserk worn off and it brought me down to 7%. It was almost dead and so I could have killed it then heal, but I wasn't going to risk the run this deep to the always present minimum 2% miss chance, especially when I still have bad memories of it costing me a Quartermaster Diamond run halfway through Deimos when I missed finishing off a nearly dead Baron before healing in a similar situation...
- Didn't find an Onyx mod until floor 346, which I proceed to put on the Energy-shielded Vest.
- Finally got the Dragonslayer on floor 385, which is also one of two Uniques I need for Armorer Diamond (the other being the Subtle Knife). I was concerned with losing the ability to rocket jump and other weapons could lead to me being attritioned down from the absolutely humongous hordes you can encounter this deep on N!, especially in the Nightmare Arachnotron Caves. But with no Ripper, being weapon-locked to the Dragonslayer still proved much better and I spent most of the remaining run above 100% health, as its sheer power allowed Blademaster to chop through everything at ridiculous speed, and even N! Cyberdemons took no more than a few slashes to kill. It also was much faster in real time to not fiddle around with other weapons anymore and not having to repeatedly facerocket myself to keep myself berserked, so this second half went much faster than the first half. I swap to mostly wearing the Energy-shielded Vest at this point, as I couldn't rocket jump anymore and so I couldn't get knocked around as much, running through lava berserked with Laptop Boots was barely an inconvenience anyway and so the Phaseshift Set fluid immunity hardly mattered.
- I would finally find a Nano Mod on floor 497 in an Agony Elemental Cave of all things, and so I could finally turn my Phaseshift boots into Antigrav Boots that I hoarded a couple A mods in my inventory for.
- I finally get Malek's Armor on floor 557, however since I'm so fast that attrition damage from VMR is not a concern and I no longer need to facerocket myself for berserk, I keep the Antigrav Boots on rather than wear the Inquisitor Set. I do swap the Energy Vest for Malek's Armor though to get even more movement speed.
- I got the Berserker Armor on floor 586, I already got the Apostle Insignia but hey why not get another one. I however forgot to pick it up... but it would spawn again 10 floors later (Uniques can spawn again if you don't pick them up, as they won't be recorded as being found if you don't, so keep that in mind to even pick up the lousy Uniques to make sure they don't spawn again and potentially cost a more useful Unique spawning).
- Found a second Nano mod also on floor 596, was nothing I could do with it though but slap it on my spare Phaseshift Armor that I never wore after this point anyway.
- The Apostle is such a laughably anticlimatic super secret boss, just look at the message log to see how the entire final floor went. The floor without the Apostle would have posed a greater threat.
- I found all the boss-only levels multiple times, except for a Shambler level that I never found at all. Won't complain though, Shambler levels are far worse than any other level type.
And that's the run. Frustratingly the Subtle Knife never spawned, so I'm still a Subtle Knife short of getting Armorer Diamond, I can just hope it finally spawns in one of my runs for the remaining badges and so I don't need to speedrun more A666 playthroughs to get it. Overall yeah this badge is much more imposing because of the no save restriction, a few more people certainly would have won it if not for said save restriction, will be interesting to see though if this badge becomes more actually challenging than tedious in the newer DRL versions with the revamp that later A100/666 got (as well as now actually being able to save and so people that can't comfortably leave DRL running on their computers over the course of multiple days aren't automatically prohibited from getting this badge). Now here is the big ass mortem:
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
no saves :((((((((((((((((,
level 25 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Scout,
completed 100 levels of torture on level 666 of Hell.
He survived 1249633 turns and scored 28492858 points.
He played for 1 day, 15 hours, 56 minutes and 45 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 17517 out of 56890 hellspawn. (30%)
He was an Archangel of 666!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 0
Levels visited : 0
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Experience Cross
Apostle Insignia
Centurial Angelic Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
###.#.......0.....#.+....#..0....#%%..+.#+|}}||.\..|}[#.+..
###.===...0.......#.#%.%%#.......#..}.#.#.0||}}|[..}||#.#..
###.=.==..........#|#...%+.......+....#%#...}|.!..|}|}#.#..
###.=#===##+#######%#....########=....#.#######+#######.#..
###..==.=..........|+....+|.=====+....+........[|.......+..
######+####+####+#######+####==###+#######+####+####+######
###.......#......===+..%||||#.=%...0..+....|%%.......%%%+.#
###....+..+.|..0.==.#..|}}}0+%.=.|....#...%%%%%......%.%#.#
###########|}%%..=..#########.==|}..+.#..=.%%%........^0#.=
###.......+.|%}|....#...|}}}+|.=|}%...#.===.............#.#
###.%...0.#.........+....0||#.=}|%%...+==%%.....|.....%.+.[
######+####+####/#######+####+####+#####===####+####+######
###.%%%.....%%X.....=....+|..|}%%+}|.|+====...#.#.......+..
###########+#######===...#########}}||#|.=....#.#.#########
###..|%|..\..%....=.=..|.+^%.}}%|+}||%#.^===..+.+.#.....#^.
###..|%|..........=.#....#..%|.|%#|||0####=####+#.#.....#..
###.......%......==.+....#.....|%#....+.%.==....#.+.....+..
###########################################################
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 138/70 Experience 4959306/25
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +10 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +15
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Ironman (Level 2)
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Reloader (Level 3)
Brute (Level 5)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Blademaster (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->HR->Bru->MBm->Fin->WK->WK->Int->Int->Bru->Fin->HR->Bru->DM->Iro->Rel->Rel->SM->Rel->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Berserker Armor [4]
[b] [ Weapon ] Dragonslayer (9d9)
[c] [ Boots ] antigrav phaseshift boots [4/4] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [68/68] (B2)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical rocket launcher (6d7) [5/5] (P1)
[b] napalm launcher (7d10) [1/1] (B1P3T1)
[c] phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (ANP)
[d] fireproof phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (P)
[e] energy-shielded vest [3] (AOP)
[f] Malek's Armor [3/3] (100%)
[g] Lava Armor [4/4] (100%)
[h] large med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] large med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] homing phase device
[r] blood skull
[s] Hell Staff
[t] cerberus gothic boots [0/0] (200%) (A)
[u] Nyarlaptotep's Boots [6/6] (100%)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 60% torso 95% feet 60%
Melee - internal 60% torso 95% feet 60%
Shrapnel - internal 60% torso 95% feet 60%
Acid - internal 85% torso 85% feet 85%
Fire - internal 85% torso 85% feet 85%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
648 former humans
1243 former sergeants
1675 former captains
252 imps
108 demons
3644 lost souls
209 cacodemons
538 hell knights
1817 barons of hell
708 arachnotrons
20 former commandos
566 pain elementals
908 revenants
1150 mancubi
1537 arch-viles
91 nightmare imps
390 nightmare cacodemons
798 nightmare demons
297 nightmare arachnotrons
107 nightmare arch-viles
11 elite former humans
5 elite former sergeants
28 elite former captains
39 elite former commandos
307 bruiser brothers
151 shamblers
90 lava elemental
72 agony elementals
107 Cyberdemons
1 Apostle
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
On level 19 he assembled a chainsword!
On level 20 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
On level 23 he was targeted for extermination!
On level 24 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 24 he assembled a hyperblaster!
On level 25 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 27 he assembled a cerberus boots!
On level 28 he assembled a focused double shotgun!
On level 36 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 40 he assembled a fireproof armor!
He sounded the alarm on level 48!
On level 50 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
On level 55 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 57 he found the Jackhammer!
On level 60 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 61 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 64 he was targeted for extermination!
Level 66 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 67 he was targeted for extermination!
On level 68 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 69 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 73 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 74 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
Level 75 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 75 he found the Lava Armor!
On level 79 he ran for his life from lava!
Level 83 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 94 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
He left level 96 as soon as possible.
He left level 98 as soon as possible.
On level 103 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
Level 103 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 105 he found the Mega Buster!
On level 106 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 107 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 110 as soon as possible.
He left level 111 as soon as possible.
On level 114 he found the Hell Staff!
He left level 118 as soon as possible.
On level 119 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 119 he found the Acid Spitter!
On level 120 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 121 he found the Railgun!
He left level 123 as soon as possible.
On level 124 he found the Frag Shotgun!
On level 126 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He left level 129 as soon as possible.
He flooded the entire level 133 with acid!
He left level 134 as soon as possible.
He nuked level 135!
On level 135 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
On level 138 he was targeted for extermination!
On level 141 he was walking in fire!
He left level 141 as soon as possible.
On level 144 he ran for his life from acid!
He left level 144 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 145!
On level 146 he found the Hellwave Pack!
He left level 148 as soon as possible.
He left level 157 as soon as possible.
On level 158 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
He left level 159 as soon as possible.
On level 161 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 161 as soon as possible.
He left level 162 as soon as possible.
He left level 163 as soon as possible.
He left level 164 as soon as possible.
On level 165 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 166 as soon as possible.
Level 167 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 170 as soon as possible.
He left level 171 as soon as possible.
Level 173 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 173 as soon as possible.
He left level 174 as soon as possible.
He left level 175 as soon as possible.
On level 176 he was bombarded!
He left level 176 as soon as possible.
He left level 177 as soon as possible.
He left level 178 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 179!
He left level 179 as soon as possible.
He left level 180 as soon as possible.
Level 182 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 182 as soon as possible.
He left level 184 as soon as possible.
On level 185 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
On level 189 he was bombarded!
He left level 189 as soon as possible.
He left level 192 as soon as possible.
On level 195 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
On level 197 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 200 as soon as possible.
On level 201 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 201 as soon as possible.
On level 203 he found the BFG 10K!
He left level 204 as soon as possible.
He left level 205 as soon as possible.
He left level 206 as soon as possible.
On level 207 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 207 as soon as possible.
He left level 208 as soon as possible.
Level 209 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 209 as soon as possible.
He left level 210 as soon as possible.
On level 211 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 212 as soon as possible.
He left level 213 as soon as possible.
He left level 214 as soon as possible.
He left level 216 as soon as possible.
He left level 217 as soon as possible.
On level 221 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
He left level 222 as soon as possible.
He left level 223 as soon as possible.
He left level 225 as soon as possible.
He left level 226 as soon as possible.
He left level 227 as soon as possible.
He left level 228 as soon as possible.
He left level 229 as soon as possible.
He left level 230 as soon as possible.
He left level 233 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 234!
He left level 234 as soon as possible.
On level 235 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 238 as soon as possible.
He left level 239 as soon as possible.
He left level 241 as soon as possible.
He left level 242 as soon as possible.
He left level 243 as soon as possible.
On level 244 he found the Cybernetic Armor!
He left level 245 as soon as possible.
Level 246 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 246 as soon as possible.
On level 248 he ran for his life from acid!
He left level 250 as soon as possible.
On level 251 he stumbled into a lava elemental cave!
On level 253 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 253 as soon as possible.
On level 254, hell froze over!
He sounded the alarm on level 255!
He left level 255 as soon as possible.
He left level 256 as soon as possible.
On level 257, hell froze over!
He left level 257 as soon as possible.
He left level 258 as soon as possible.
He left level 259 as soon as possible.
He left level 260 as soon as possible.
On level 261 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
He left level 261 as soon as possible.
On level 262 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 262 as soon as possible.
He left level 263 as soon as possible.
On level 264 he found the Trigun!
He left level 265 as soon as possible.
He left level 266 as soon as possible.
He left level 267 as soon as possible.
He left level 268 as soon as possible.
He left level 270 as soon as possible.
He left level 271 as soon as possible.
He left level 272 as soon as possible.
On level 273 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 273 as soon as possible.
He left level 274 as soon as possible.
On level 275 he was walking in fire!
On level 275 he found the Shielded Armor!
On level 276 he stumbled into a complex full of bruiser brothers!
Level 276 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 277 as soon as possible.
On level 278 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 280 as soon as possible.
He left level 281 as soon as possible.
He left level 282 as soon as possible.
He left level 283 as soon as possible.
He left level 284 as soon as possible.
He left level 285 as soon as possible.
He left level 286 as soon as possible.
On level 287 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 287 as soon as possible.
On level 289 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 289 as soon as possible.
He left level 290 as soon as possible.
He left level 291 as soon as possible.
He left level 292 as soon as possible.
He left level 293 as soon as possible.
He left level 294 as soon as possible.
He left level 295 as soon as possible.
He left level 299 as soon as possible.
On level 300 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 300 as soon as possible.
He left level 301 as soon as possible.
He left level 302 as soon as possible.
On level 303 he ran for his life from acid!
He left level 304 as soon as possible.
On level 305 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 305 as soon as possible.
On level 306 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 306 as soon as possible.
On level 307 he was walking in fire!
On level 307 he found the Necroarmor!
Level 309 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 309 he found the Mjollnir!
He left level 310 as soon as possible.
He left level 311 as soon as possible.
He left level 313 as soon as possible.
He left level 314 as soon as possible.
He left level 315 as soon as possible.
He left level 316 as soon as possible.
He left level 317 as soon as possible.
On level 318 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
Level 319 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 319 as soon as possible.
On level 320, hell froze over!
He left level 320 as soon as possible.
He left level 321 as soon as possible.
He left level 322 as soon as possible.
He left level 323 as soon as possible.
He left level 324 as soon as possible.
He left level 325 as soon as possible.
He left level 326 as soon as possible.
He left level 327 as soon as possible.
He left level 328 as soon as possible.
He left level 329 as soon as possible.
He left level 330 as soon as possible.
He left level 332 as soon as possible.
He left level 333 as soon as possible.
He left level 334 as soon as possible.
He left level 336 as soon as possible.
On level 337 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 337 as soon as possible.
He left level 338 as soon as possible.
He left level 339 as soon as possible.
He left level 340 as soon as possible.
He left level 341 as soon as possible.
He left level 342 as soon as possible.
He left level 343 as soon as possible.
He left level 344 as soon as possible.
He left level 345 as soon as possible.
He left level 346 as soon as possible.
He left level 347 as soon as possible.
On level 349 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 349 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 350 as soon as possible.
He left level 351 as soon as possible.
On level 352 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 352 as soon as possible.
He left level 354 as soon as possible.
He nuked level 356!
He left level 358 as soon as possible.
He left level 359 as soon as possible.
On level 360, hell froze over!
He left level 360 as soon as possible.
On level 361 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
On level 362 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 362 as soon as possible.
He left level 363 as soon as possible.
He left level 364 as soon as possible.
He left level 365 as soon as possible.
On level 366 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 366 as soon as possible.
He left level 367 as soon as possible.
He left level 368 as soon as possible.
On level 370 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 370 as soon as possible.
He left level 371 as soon as possible.
He left level 373 as soon as possible.
On level 374 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 374 as soon as possible.
He left level 375 as soon as possible.
On level 376 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 376 as soon as possible.
He left level 377 as soon as possible.
He left level 378 as soon as possible.
He left level 379 as soon as possible.
On level 380 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He left level 381 as soon as possible.
He left level 382 as soon as possible.
He left level 383 as soon as possible.
He left level 384 as soon as possible.
On level 385 he found the Dragonslayer!
On level 386, hell froze over!
He left level 388 as soon as possible.
Level 392 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 392 as soon as possible.
On level 393, hell froze over!
On level 395 he stumbled into a lava elemental cave!
He left level 395 as soon as possible.
He left level 396 as soon as possible.
He left level 398 as soon as possible.
On level 399 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 399 as soon as possible.
He left level 400 as soon as possible.
On level 401 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 401 as soon as possible.
He left level 402 as soon as possible.
He left level 403 as soon as possible.
He left level 404 as soon as possible.
He left level 405 as soon as possible.
On level 406 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 406 as soon as possible.
He left level 408 as soon as possible.
On level 409 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 409 as soon as possible.
On level 410 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
He left level 410 as soon as possible.
On level 411 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 413 as soon as possible.
He left level 416 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 417!
He left level 418 as soon as possible.
He left level 420 as soon as possible.
He left level 421 as soon as possible.
He left level 422 as soon as possible.
He left level 423 as soon as possible.
He left level 424 as soon as possible.
On level 425 he stumbled into a complex full of Cyberdemons!
On level 426 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 430 as soon as possible.
He left level 431 as soon as possible.
He left level 432 as soon as possible.
He left level 433 as soon as possible.
He left level 434 as soon as possible.
He left level 435 as soon as possible.
He left level 436 as soon as possible.
He left level 437 as soon as possible.
He left level 438 as soon as possible.
He left level 439 as soon as possible.
On level 441 he stumbled into a complex full of Cyberdemons!
On level 442 he found the Revenant's Launcher!
On level 443, hell froze over!
He left level 443 as soon as possible.
On level 444 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 446 as soon as possible.
On level 447 he was targeted for extermination!
On level 448 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 449 as soon as possible.
On level 450 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 450 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 451!
He left level 451 as soon as possible.
On level 453 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 453 as soon as possible.
He left level 454 as soon as possible.
On level 456 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 457 as soon as possible.
He left level 458 as soon as possible.
He left level 459 as soon as possible.
On level 460 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 460 as soon as possible.
Level 461 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 461 as soon as possible.
He left level 462 as soon as possible.
On level 463 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 463 as soon as possible.
He left level 464 as soon as possible.
He left level 465 as soon as possible.
On level 466 he was targeted for extermination!
He left level 466 as soon as possible.
On level 467 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 467 as soon as possible.
On level 469 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
On level 470 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
Level 470 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 470 as soon as possible.
He left level 471 as soon as possible.
On level 475 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 476 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 477!
He left level 479 as soon as possible.
He left level 480 as soon as possible.
He left level 481 as soon as possible.
He left level 482 as soon as possible.
On level 484 he stumbled into a complex full of bruiser brothers!
Level 484 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 485 as soon as possible.
On level 486 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
On level 487 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 487 as soon as possible.
He left level 488 as soon as possible.
He left level 489 as soon as possible.
He left level 490 as soon as possible.
Level 491 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 494 as soon as possible.
Level 495 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
On level 497 he stumbled into a agony elemental cave!
On level 497 he assembled a antigrav boots!
He left level 498 as soon as possible.
On level 501 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 501 as soon as possible.
He left level 502 as soon as possible.
He left level 503 as soon as possible.
On level 504 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 506 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 506 as soon as possible.
He left level 507 as soon as possible.
He left level 508 as soon as possible.
He left level 509 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 510!
He left level 510 as soon as possible.
He left level 511 as soon as possible.
He left level 512 as soon as possible.
On level 513 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 513 as soon as possible.
On level 514 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
He left level 514 as soon as possible.
He left level 515 as soon as possible.
He left level 516 as soon as possible.
He left level 517 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 518!
He left level 518 as soon as possible.
He left level 519 as soon as possible.
He left level 520 as soon as possible.
He left level 521 as soon as possible.
He left level 522 as soon as possible.
He left level 523 as soon as possible.
He left level 524 as soon as possible.
He left level 525 as soon as possible.
He left level 527 as soon as possible.
He left level 528 as soon as possible.
He left level 529 as soon as possible.
He left level 531 as soon as possible.
He left level 532 as soon as possible.
On level 534 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 534 as soon as possible.
He left level 536 as soon as possible.
On level 537 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
He left level 538 as soon as possible.
He left level 539 as soon as possible.
On level 540 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 542 as soon as possible.
On level 543 he stumbled into a lava elemental cave!
He left level 543 as soon as possible.
He left level 544 as soon as possible.
He left level 545 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 546!
He left level 546 as soon as possible.
On level 547 he was walking in fire!
He left level 547 as soon as possible.
On level 548 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 549 as soon as possible.
He left level 550 as soon as possible.
He left level 551 as soon as possible.
He left level 552 as soon as possible.
Level 553 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 553 as soon as possible.
On level 555 he ran for his life from acid!
He left level 555 as soon as possible.
He left level 556 as soon as possible.
On level 557 he found the Malek's Armor!
He left level 558 as soon as possible.
He left level 559 as soon as possible.
He left level 560 as soon as possible.
He left level 561 as soon as possible.
He left level 562 as soon as possible.
On level 563 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 563 as soon as possible.
On level 565 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 566 as soon as possible.
On level 567 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 567 as soon as possible.
On level 568 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 568 as soon as possible.
On level 569 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 569 as soon as possible.
He left level 570 as soon as possible.
He left level 571 as soon as possible.
He left level 572 as soon as possible.
On level 573 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 573 as soon as possible.
He left level 574 as soon as possible.
On level 575 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 575 as soon as possible.
He left level 576 as soon as possible.
On level 577 he ran for his life from lava!
He nuked level 578!
On level 579, hell froze over!
He left level 579 as soon as possible.
He left level 580 as soon as possible.
He left level 581 as soon as possible.
He left level 582 as soon as possible.
He left level 583 as soon as possible.
He left level 584 as soon as possible.
He left level 585 as soon as possible.
He left level 586 as soon as possible.
On level 587 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 587 as soon as possible.
He left level 588 as soon as possible.
He left level 589 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 590!
He left level 590 as soon as possible.
He left level 591 as soon as possible.
He left level 593 as soon as possible.
He left level 594 as soon as possible.
Level 595 was a hard nut to crack!
He left level 595 as soon as possible.
On level 596 he found the Berserker Armor!
He left level 597 as soon as possible.
He left level 598 as soon as possible.
On level 599 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 599 as soon as possible.
He left level 600 as soon as possible.
He left level 601 as soon as possible.
He left level 604 as soon as possible.
He left level 605 as soon as possible.
He left level 606 as soon as possible.
He left level 607 as soon as possible.
He left level 608 as soon as possible.
He left level 609 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 610!
He left level 610 as soon as possible.
He left level 611 as soon as possible.
On level 612 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He left level 612 as soon as possible.
He left level 613 as soon as possible.
On level 614 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 615 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 617!
He left level 617 as soon as possible.
He left level 618 as soon as possible.
On level 619 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 619 as soon as possible.
He left level 621 as soon as possible.
On level 622 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 622 as soon as possible.
He left level 623 as soon as possible.
On level 624 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 625 as soon as possible.
He left level 627 as soon as possible.
He left level 628 as soon as possible.
He left level 629 as soon as possible.
He left level 630 as soon as possible.
On level 631 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
He left level 631 as soon as possible.
He left level 632 as soon as possible.
He left level 633 as soon as possible.
He left level 634 as soon as possible.
He left level 635 as soon as possible.
He left level 636 as soon as possible.
Level 638 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
He left level 638 as soon as possible.
He left level 639 as soon as possible.
He left level 640 as soon as possible.
On level 641 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 641 as soon as possible.
On level 642 he stumbled into a nightmare cacodemon cave!
He left level 642 as soon as possible.
On level 643 he ran for his life from lava!
He left level 644 as soon as possible.
He left level 646 as soon as possible.
He left level 647 as soon as possible.
He left level 648 as soon as possible.
On level 649 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 650 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 652!
He left level 652 as soon as possible.
He left level 653 as soon as possible.
On level 654 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
He left level 654 as soon as possible.
He left level 655 as soon as possible.
He left level 656 as soon as possible.
On level 659 he encountered an armed nuke!
He left level 659 as soon as possible.
On level 660 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
He left level 660 as soon as possible.
He left level 662 as soon as possible.
He left level 663 as soon as possible.
He left level 664 as soon as possible.
On level 666 he finally completed 100 levels of torture.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You enter Hell, level 666. Something is wrong... Something is really wrong
here! Press <Enter>...
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You open the door. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You hit the Apostle. You need to taste blood!
You hit the Apostle. The Apostle hits you. You need to taste blood!
You hit the Apostle. The Apostle dies. Error: beings[apostle].OnDie -- Lua
error : lua\\beings.lua:1541: attempt to read undeclared variable
Error written to error.log, please report! Next!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
269 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
86 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
80 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
41 killed the bitch and survived.
33 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
10
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoLT|90%|YAVP] - If Kornel saw my firing speed he would be mad...
« on: December 13, 2025, 18:57 »
The next Diamond I decided to go for in 0.9.9.7 was Lightfoot Diamond, which is one of the more common Diamonds with 11 people recorded winning it in 0.9.9.7, 3 of which did it purely and another 5 doubled it up with Lightfoot Angelic. I considered just going straight for Lightfoot Angelic, surely if you could get that you deserve the Diamond anyway right? But Archangel Of Light Travel does give you an even bigger speed boost, so it's not exactly "Lightfoot Diamond but harder" and thus I decided to get it purely first. Also the few extra inventory space does give me more flexibility of which build to use.
Speaking of which, the build. Generally people went one of four builds for this badge; masterless shotgun-centric Scout, masterless melee Scout stairdive (which works by just avoiding finishing off any enemies in melee), Ammochain, or Sharpshooter (which AoLT's speed boost also really helps the brutal early game of). I decided to go with Shottyhead for fun though to get really crazy firing speeds; the thing is with infinite ammo farming on N!, ammo is just not that serious of a concern, I just need a single secured Shotgunner to ensure I have the ammo to clear out any floor and fill out my inventory, while shotguns are plenty ammo efficient without SoB (which relatively barely helps shotguns anyway). I could hit a rough spot in Hell with some bad luck, but I'm so fast I should be able to just leave levels if need be until I find more ammo, and Shottyhead will be so powerful with the AoLT boost that any combat will be trivial (speed is something that's more powerful the more of it you have, at least until you hit the speed cap that is). With trait order, I do delay Shottyhead for Int2, something I would normally strongly recommend against (and often I go without Int2 entirely in my non-A100 Shottyhead runs), but the AoLT speed boost compensates for the lost of combat power that getting Int2 normally entails, while detecting powerups is a lot more valuable when I can only carry one or two medkits at a time, and enemy detection to avoid attrition damage is similarly more valuable when I may not always have the medkits on hand to heal, as well as saves me ammo with radar shooting whenever I do hit one of the aforementioned rough ammo patches. And unlike my other Shottyhead runs, I don't get Brute + Berserker; I was planning to in the lategame, berserked AoLT Shottyhead's firing speed would be incredible, but I couldn't justify getting it in the end without sacrificing Whizkid (and it also gave me insurance anyway from accidentally punching out a weak enemy I bump into, which I already lost too many Lightfoot Diamond runs to when beta testing it in the versions the badge was broken and I lost a Lightfoot Diamond in JHC near the very end from that).
In the run itself, I got an incredible floor 2 for N! that gave me the perfect camping corpse disposal spot. Generally though, clearing floors wasn't really hard thanks to the AoLT speed boost, even a floor 4 maze was just more tedious than actually dangerous. Despite having to go in with limited ammo, I did Hell's Arena, which wasn't too bad, as with how fast you are you can limit most of the respawning and effortlessly kite enemies, while getting the Shell Box and Blue Armor were very nice. I would skip Unchained Court, as it would have been too tedious without the Rocket Launcher and I can't kill stuff in melee anyway, while it also has no Shotgunners and so I especially risk running out of ammo here if things went really badly. Military Base was an obvious stop and gave a much appreciated big EXP boost, though I could have easily done Phobos Lab too if I rolled it instead. Then came the Anomaly, which thanks to finding a Rocket Launcher on floor 7, I don't need to worry about outrunning the ambush, and with AoLT's speed boost, I'm able to effectively fight back and kill the Nightmare enemies in the open despite no Shottyhead yet.
After an unremarkable Deimos 1, I would go into Hell's Armory, and in its weapon cache I found the best thing I could ask for, a Super Shotgun!. I was contemplating whether to just build an Elephant Gun or try to hold for building a Focused Double Shotgun, but this find settled it for me, neither. Unfortunately I got an Onyx instead of a Nano mod in the lab cache, so no AoLT-boosted Shottyhead with a Nano-Shrapnel Super Shotgun to trivially win the rest of the game damageless, but an Onyx mod isn't bad when it means I won't need to worry about my inability to store backup armors (unfortunately I already A-modded my Red Armor, so I had to wait a few more floors before I got Whizkid to put it on). I would skip the rest of the Deimos special levels after this; I had a Rocket Launcher for The Wall but I temporarily stopped carrying rockets to make room for the aforementioned Onyx mod and Deimos 3 just so happened to not have a single rocket ammo drop nor Revenant/Mancubus on it, City Of Skulls would have risked putting me in a bad ammo spot for little reward, and Spider's Lair has no shells whatsoever on it.
After another free Cybie fight thanks for a Deimos 7 Invuln, Hell 1 would spawn another weapon that would be amazing for Shottyhead, the Jackhammer. Unfortunately with the inventory constraints and this being before 0.9.9.8 gave it a single-shot fire mode, I had to leave it behind; the Super Shotgun was more practical for being a lot more ammo efficient and no single-shot mode means it can't replace the Tactical Shotgun either. There was additionally a pair of Agility mods on this floor and a spare pair of Steel Boots, so I rebuilt Tactical Boots incase I found a third A mod to mod them (...but I forgot I didn't have WK2 yet and so was still unable to mod them farther, it didn't matter however as I never found any more A mods after this). Hell 2 gave me a funny floor, spawning me right next to a gasoline lever that would have been fun to hit, but I had no radsuits nor Homing Phase and so it would have been instant death if I hit it. This floor would also mark a point where I went through a drought of finding any Shotgunners nor a Shell box, and so by later Hell I finally faced a real ammo crunch that forced me to leave several floors early, which I couldn't always cleanly do, such as an island level spawning me in a room with a Hell Noble group and an Archvile + Mancubi group right outside it (though thankfully with Shottyhead I had no problem fighting my way out of it), while I got an Arachnotron cave immediately after I had to immediately flee (I could have also stayed and fought with Shottyhead, but it could have left me too crippled ammo-wise). I had to dip into Lava Pits too to escape, which put a big dent in my kill percent. Hell 7 would finally have a Shell Box, as well as a couple Shotgunners, I had enough ammo anyway to finish off the Mastermind and a clean path to the stairs, but I stayed to clear out one last level. It was then on my way to Dis, where the Mastermind was hopeless against a AoLT-boosted Shottyhead wielding a Super Shotgun.
I have to admit this wasn't technically a first try, the first one I lost when I overextended near a Cacodemon vault on floor 2 while getting pincer'd by respawns that I then quit out of, but this was a second try win that was a pretty relaxing run overall with very few moments that remotely pressured me. Lightfoot Diamond might be a bit overly easy for a Diamond, but respawns no longer dropping ammo in 0.10-onward should give it the needed difficulty buff; being able to carry limited ammo just does not matter if you can farm infinite ammo whenever you want off of any enemy that drops ammo, and the unlucky Hell shell drought I got wouldn't have mattered if I had a plasma weapon on hand (or could have finished building my Tactical Rocket Launcher to better utilize all the rockets from Revenants and Mancubi). Now here is the mortem:
Speaking of which, the build. Generally people went one of four builds for this badge; masterless shotgun-centric Scout, masterless melee Scout stairdive (which works by just avoiding finishing off any enemies in melee), Ammochain, or Sharpshooter (which AoLT's speed boost also really helps the brutal early game of). I decided to go with Shottyhead for fun though to get really crazy firing speeds; the thing is with infinite ammo farming on N!, ammo is just not that serious of a concern, I just need a single secured Shotgunner to ensure I have the ammo to clear out any floor and fill out my inventory, while shotguns are plenty ammo efficient without SoB (which relatively barely helps shotguns anyway). I could hit a rough spot in Hell with some bad luck, but I'm so fast I should be able to just leave levels if need be until I find more ammo, and Shottyhead will be so powerful with the AoLT boost that any combat will be trivial (speed is something that's more powerful the more of it you have, at least until you hit the speed cap that is). With trait order, I do delay Shottyhead for Int2, something I would normally strongly recommend against (and often I go without Int2 entirely in my non-A100 Shottyhead runs), but the AoLT speed boost compensates for the lost of combat power that getting Int2 normally entails, while detecting powerups is a lot more valuable when I can only carry one or two medkits at a time, and enemy detection to avoid attrition damage is similarly more valuable when I may not always have the medkits on hand to heal, as well as saves me ammo with radar shooting whenever I do hit one of the aforementioned rough ammo patches. And unlike my other Shottyhead runs, I don't get Brute + Berserker; I was planning to in the lategame, berserked AoLT Shottyhead's firing speed would be incredible, but I couldn't justify getting it in the end without sacrificing Whizkid (and it also gave me insurance anyway from accidentally punching out a weak enemy I bump into, which I already lost too many Lightfoot Diamond runs to when beta testing it in the versions the badge was broken and I lost a Lightfoot Diamond in JHC near the very end from that).
In the run itself, I got an incredible floor 2 for N! that gave me the perfect camping corpse disposal spot. Generally though, clearing floors wasn't really hard thanks to the AoLT speed boost, even a floor 4 maze was just more tedious than actually dangerous. Despite having to go in with limited ammo, I did Hell's Arena, which wasn't too bad, as with how fast you are you can limit most of the respawning and effortlessly kite enemies, while getting the Shell Box and Blue Armor were very nice. I would skip Unchained Court, as it would have been too tedious without the Rocket Launcher and I can't kill stuff in melee anyway, while it also has no Shotgunners and so I especially risk running out of ammo here if things went really badly. Military Base was an obvious stop and gave a much appreciated big EXP boost, though I could have easily done Phobos Lab too if I rolled it instead. Then came the Anomaly, which thanks to finding a Rocket Launcher on floor 7, I don't need to worry about outrunning the ambush, and with AoLT's speed boost, I'm able to effectively fight back and kill the Nightmare enemies in the open despite no Shottyhead yet.
After an unremarkable Deimos 1, I would go into Hell's Armory, and in its weapon cache I found the best thing I could ask for, a Super Shotgun!. I was contemplating whether to just build an Elephant Gun or try to hold for building a Focused Double Shotgun, but this find settled it for me, neither. Unfortunately I got an Onyx instead of a Nano mod in the lab cache, so no AoLT-boosted Shottyhead with a Nano-Shrapnel Super Shotgun to trivially win the rest of the game damageless, but an Onyx mod isn't bad when it means I won't need to worry about my inability to store backup armors (unfortunately I already A-modded my Red Armor, so I had to wait a few more floors before I got Whizkid to put it on). I would skip the rest of the Deimos special levels after this; I had a Rocket Launcher for The Wall but I temporarily stopped carrying rockets to make room for the aforementioned Onyx mod and Deimos 3 just so happened to not have a single rocket ammo drop nor Revenant/Mancubus on it, City Of Skulls would have risked putting me in a bad ammo spot for little reward, and Spider's Lair has no shells whatsoever on it.
After another free Cybie fight thanks for a Deimos 7 Invuln, Hell 1 would spawn another weapon that would be amazing for Shottyhead, the Jackhammer. Unfortunately with the inventory constraints and this being before 0.9.9.8 gave it a single-shot fire mode, I had to leave it behind; the Super Shotgun was more practical for being a lot more ammo efficient and no single-shot mode means it can't replace the Tactical Shotgun either. There was additionally a pair of Agility mods on this floor and a spare pair of Steel Boots, so I rebuilt Tactical Boots incase I found a third A mod to mod them (...but I forgot I didn't have WK2 yet and so was still unable to mod them farther, it didn't matter however as I never found any more A mods after this). Hell 2 gave me a funny floor, spawning me right next to a gasoline lever that would have been fun to hit, but I had no radsuits nor Homing Phase and so it would have been instant death if I hit it. This floor would also mark a point where I went through a drought of finding any Shotgunners nor a Shell box, and so by later Hell I finally faced a real ammo crunch that forced me to leave several floors early, which I couldn't always cleanly do, such as an island level spawning me in a room with a Hell Noble group and an Archvile + Mancubi group right outside it (though thankfully with Shottyhead I had no problem fighting my way out of it), while I got an Arachnotron cave immediately after I had to immediately flee (I could have also stayed and fought with Shottyhead, but it could have left me too crippled ammo-wise). I had to dip into Lava Pits too to escape, which put a big dent in my kill percent. Hell 7 would finally have a Shell Box, as well as a couple Shotgunners, I had enough ammo anyway to finish off the Mastermind and a clean path to the stairs, but I stayed to clear out one last level. It was then on my way to Dis, where the Mastermind was hopeless against a AoLT-boosted Shottyhead wielding a Super Shotgun.
I have to admit this wasn't technically a first try, the first one I lost when I overextended near a Cacodemon vault on floor 2 while getting pincer'd by respawns that I then quit out of, but this was a second try win that was a pretty relaxing run overall with very few moments that remotely pressured me. Lightfoot Diamond might be a bit overly easy for a Diamond, but respawns no longer dropping ammo in 0.10-onward should give it the needed difficulty buff; being able to carry limited ammo just does not matter if you can farm infinite ammo whenever you want off of any enemy that drops ammo, and the unlucky Hell shell drought I got wouldn't have mattered if I had a plasma weapon on hand (or could have finished building my Tactical Rocket Launcher to better utilize all the rockets from Revenants and Mancubi). Now here is the mortem:
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
DONTNERFMYFIRESPEEDKORNEL,
level 14 Cyberdemon Chaos Mjr General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 649155 turns and scored 629430 points.
He played for 3 hours, 2 minutes and 47 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1103 out of 1214 hellspawn. (90%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Light Travel!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 4
Levels completed : 3
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
Mastermind's Brain
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Hell Armorer Badge
Hell Champion Medal
Lightfoot Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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###########..........####.....%........####..........######
##########............................................#####
##########....####............X...............####....#####
##########....####............................####....#####
##########....####............................####&...#####
##########....####............................####....#####
##########............................................#####
###########..........####..............####..........######
############.........####.....####.....####.........#######
#############........####.....####.....####........########
##############.......####.....####.....####.......#########
###############...............####...............##########
################................................###########
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 62/50 Experience 99084/14
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Shottyhead (Level 1)
Fin->HR->Rel->Int->Int->Rel->SM->Jug->MSh->Fin->WK->HR->WK->Fin->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [4] (AO)
[b] [ Weapon ] super shotgun (10d4)x2 [0/2] (P2T1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x84)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
[b] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (B2)
[c] shotgun shell (x38)
[d] rocket (x8)
[e] large med-pack
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
131 former humans
204 former sergeants
67 former captains
196 imps
68 demons
166 lost souls
37 cacodemons
27 hell knights
40 barons of hell
14 arachnotrons
58 former commandos
13 pain elementals
19 revenants
8 mancubi
13 arch-viles
5 nightmare imps
4 nightmare cacodemons
9 nightmare demons
7 elite former humans
5 elite former sergeants
7 elite former commandos
2 bruiser brothers
1 shambler
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
On level 7 he assembled a tactical boots!
He purified his fellow comrades.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 17 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 17 he found the Jackhammer!
On level 20 he found the Acid Spitter!
He left level 22 as soon as possible.
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
He decided it was too hot there.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the super shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
268 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
86 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
96 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
79 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
40 killed the bitch and survived.
33 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
11
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|ArchAoRA|85%|YAFW] - Quartermaster Angelic obtained on Nightmare!
« on: December 12, 2025, 14:01 »
Since I've gotten pure Quartermaster Diamond over a year ago, and then the once-believed near-impossible in 0.9.9.7 Eagerness Anglic and Inquisitor Angelic, it was time I go for the last of the AoRA-related badges I don't have in 0.9.9.7, Quartermaster Angelic. Now this one gives a bit of a "reprieve" by allowing UV instead of only N!, and according to the Badge Hunters thread, three people won it in 0.9.9.7 (Tormuse, papilio, and lainuki), so it doesn't look exceedingly difficult by Angelic standards, there are several Diamonds that were won as or less frequently than this. 80% kills, while a lot, especially with a mere 2 and a half minutes on each floor, is still miles of leeway compared to 100%; unlike in Quartermaster Diamond attempts, you won't have runs ended because a single Imp or Lost Soul wandered off on the opposite side of the map. Still, that 2 and a half minute timer is strict, there's a very serious danger you don't find the stairs at all on every floor, especially when you spend time fighting enemies to rack up the kill count, so this is certainly an Angelic-level challenge.
For the build, I decided to go Blademaster yet again, especially as the prior three recorded runs were Gunrunner. Not getting Fin/Rel/SM will make Phobos a lot more difficult, but I'll be less dependent on Invulns in the later game to rack up the kills needed, and once I get Blademaster, I'll be able to do some safe kill farming on Pain Elementals to buff the kill count if needed, especially if I get it before City Of Skulls. However, the initial few attempts I tried went very rough; without Shotgun-boosting traits, and without HR2 (which I was putting off to try getting Berserker ASAP), I was forced to play much more aggressively with a strict time limit while being unable to adequately fight back, and the result was simply just repeatedly running out of armor and health, while I wasn't levelling up fast enough for my liking. This should work if I kept pushing through and eventually get a good run of luck, but after having a run that made to The Chained Court and still failed very quickly after, I got an idea that would maybe better facilitate this Blademaster strat; go for this badge on Nightmare! instead. This might sound crazy at first, especially in a version where respawns still count towards the kill counter, but with the doubled healing from Health Globes and Small Medkits, doubled armor repair from Armor Shards, crucially any Berserks I get lasting twice as long (as well as Invulns lasting twice as long for big Invuln rampages later), and levelling up significantly faster with the EXP boost + extra enemies, I figured Blademaster might actually have an easier time getting off the ground, and once it does, it can clear out floors even on N!, significantly buffing my kill count. Plus respawns hardly matter when you're spending only 2 and a half minutes on every floor, and any lucky Invulns I do get will eradicate respawns, so Invuln nuking will get me even bigger kill boosts than they would on UV. Plus again, 80% kills is not 100% or even 90%, so some respawns getting up as I exit a level won't matter all that much.
When trying N!, I was getting even more brutal deaths early on, as trying to shotgun down or just run past a bunch of enemies in the open with their 50% increased attack rate meant I got quickly shredded, while I was repeatedly running into several Hell Knights in that always perilous floor 3 to 5 range or mazes that had several enemies in every direction. But these attempts went fast, and I was noticing the much greater impact from just finding a early single Berserk, as well as getting a lot more health from Health Globes/Small Medkits and how much faster I was levelling, so I kept at it. And in less than a dozen attempts (four recorded deaths + several more I quit out on), I was able to make it to The Chained Court, where it went off from there.
At the start of the run, I of course open with HR, but I gun for Berserker after that; there's a case to be made that going for HR2 would be better, but you need to actually kill things very quickly, and Berserker is critical to doing that, especially with N! making it even more likely to spawn you next to large groups of enemies. There's also a case to be made to get a level of Finesse to get that critical early universal combat boost and when I'll want it later anyway, like I did in my Eagerness Angelic run, but any additional delay of Blademaster is painful when the rate you level up still isn't as great as you'll hope. Phobos Base Entry is mostly the same, except you can't run -> wait until the Formers come out and so if the Formers don't play nicely, I can take enough damage here to force a reset. Floor 2 I'll usually make it past, but it too can force a reset if I get a bunch of enemies on me without cover. I try to kill what I can but I'm not too fussed with kills here, just take your time to gather up shells since you can run out later when you won't have the time to gather up all ammo you see, and prioritize nabbing any armor or medkit you see since those are such a commodity early on. Getting a quickly accessible massacre lever here can be huge, you could reset until you get one since they aren't too uncommon, but I don't think it's worth doing so when the hardest floors are coming and your run will likely still end after all those resets to get a floor 2 massacre lever. You could also reset if you get any vaults on floor 2, normally a great thing but you have no hope you to clear them out at this point without a nearby Berserk, especially if they're Cacodemon vaults, and they'll put you in a big kill count hole early as vaults inflate the enemy count. You shouldn't be too fussed with your kill count this early though, and who knows, you might actually be able to get inside a vault for something good, or at least get more EXP than usual if you can kill some Cacodemons, which is more important than your kill count at this point. Speaking of which, I always went into Hell's Arena if I found its stairs in time; actually clearing Hell's Arena in AAoRA is just impossible without coming in with lots of berserk and getting extremely lucky wave spawns, but you can consistently clear out the first wave, getting you desperately needed EXP and fluffing your kill count a little (even if an enemy or two respawns, you can just ignore it and still come out positive in kill percentage).
Then comes floors 3 to 5, your objective is to just survive and make it to The Chained Court. Pick up any safe kills after finding the stairs or fight when it's absolutely necessary, but you really don't want to get bogged down fighting the Hell Knights here if you can avoid it, as corner shooting a single Hell Knight down with just the basic Shotgun + no Shotgun-boosting traits can take up to a dozen seconds, and potentially over twice that if they found any armor or medkits. Try fighting a couple Hell Knights, and you'll likely see the "Warning! Explosion in 60 seconds!" message with most of the floor still unexplored. Leaving behind the EXP of killing a Hell Knight does suck, but you could shotgun down a group of Imps or Formers in less time than it takes to kill a single Hell Knight, while that group gives equal or more EXP and helps your kill count much more, so avoid isolated undamaged Hell Knights if they're not blocking the only way forward. In this particular run, I got a Lost Soul cave in this range, which is a double-edged sword as they are awful for EXP, but in this run I gladly took it, as it meant an easy floor I could kill everything on and safely gather up whatever supplies spawned on it. Then it got followed up with a Pinky cave that had a horizontal acid river, again not good for EXP but it's another level I could actually fully clear without serious danger and safely gather up whatever I find. With these two breather floors, I reach The Chained Court, which is especially huge on N! when you get 500 actions of berserk here instead of 250, and you get more bang for your buck EXP-wise when taking the opportunity to safely kill the Barons. The time limit is too strict to try killing everything, and I also don't have time to get the mods, if I played more aggressively I could have probably gotten the mods but my armor + health supply wasn't too great even after the aforementioned caves and so I didn't risk it. I also pick up the first level of Intuition at this point; it delays Blademaster a level, but Invulns will be spawning soon, and immediately knowing where they are is critical, while detecting other powerups is also very useful, so the delay is worth it. Unfortunately I got no Invuln on Phobos 7, and the last two floors before Anomaly don't go too great, I survive but I'm going into the dreaded N! Phobos Anomaly at only level 5 and having only HR1. Anomaly going from what would have been a relative breather into a big run ender is one other serious drawback of doing this on N!, and without Blademaster or Vampyre, trying to actually fight the N! Anomaly ambush in melee would be suicide. Fortunately as a Scout, HR1 is enough to outrun the ambush, unfortunately it's not fast enough for me to be able to close the door after getting through it and not fast enough to break LoS with the Nightmare Demons before I tire out as I reach the Bruisers. I nearly died, but I'm able to make it through after burning more medkits, and I make it to Deimos with only a single medkit in store.
After that awful Anomaly, Deimos 1 would give me a big break by giving me a relatively close Invuln in a small rooms level, which I'm able to secure and safely camp out to nuke the level. Then the other big benefit of N! comes here as that Invuln not only lets me safely kill everything on the current floor, but the doubled duration means I can take a lot of it with me to the next floor to safely kill a bunch of enemies at the start there too, especially with Berserker. I get another Invuln a couple floors later for another easy floor clear + partial clear of the next floor. I unfortunately don't get Blademaster before City Of Skulls to get a big kill dump there, but I'm snowballing, and upon getting Blademaster + a rocket launcher by later Deimos, the run is nearly secured; I'm fast enough that I can actually clear floors within only 2 and a half minutes, I can stretch Invulns out very far, and Armor Shards repairing doubled on N! keep my Red Armors healthy so I can keep face rocketing to trigger Berserker and rocket jump around. For traits I get Juggler so I can rocket jump into enemies and immediately switch to a melee weapon, or occasionally to instantly swap to the Shotgun if there's an Imp or Former being annoying. Forgot to take a screenshot of my stats before entering of Tower Of Babel, but I had a kill rate of somewhere around ~75% going into Hell, not there yet but certainly within range for me to make up the kills needed for 80%.
Hell 1 would greet me with another Invuln in a small rooms level, this one was near a barrel with lots of Hell Nobles and a Mancubi near it, but I'm able to secure it, then take it with me into Unholy Cathedral after waiting out the nuke to get the Longinus Spear with minimal damage. After another Invuln on Hell 2, Hell 3 would greet me with a Pain Elemental + Lost Soul cave, exactly the level I wanted to see. I'm able to go through it fast enough to farm the last Pain Elemental a bit, he is uncooperative as he kept trying to move into melee range instead of spawning Souls, I'm thinking I should have left a couple Elementals alive to make the farming more efficient, but after this floor I am over 80% kills (I also find a Sniper mod here and so am able to make a Plasmatic Shotgun for easy corpse disposing, though I didn't really need it at this point). Hell 5 would then give me an Onyx mod, not a game changer at this point since I had several healthy Reds and as mentioned the doubled Armor Shards can keep up with repairing them, but still nice to have. Hell 6 would give me a double Invuln near the red stairs (plus a third offscreen on the other side of the map), and after clearing out Hell 6 normally, I take these invulns with me into Mt. Erebus, which the additional kills weren't needed but I still want the Lava Elemental to pad out my Carmack kills for the Apostle rank. The invulns last so long, that with Blademaster and rocket jumping around, I'm able to clear Mt. Erebus and exit before the invuln runs out. Hell 7 was nothing of note, and with a Ripper I built on Hell 6, Carmack dies without being able to put any real fight.
So overall, this took about a dozen attempts over the course of less than two hours, which is a pretty stark contrast to when pure Quartermaster Diamond took me over three times the amount of attempts over the course of several days. I wouldn't necessarily say this was easier than pure Quartermaster Diamond though, I would chalk up the difference to my improvement since then, not being as optimal with my trait selection (notably if I redid Quarter Diamond, I wouldn't have gotten Int2 and would have instead gotten Finesse, Reloader if playing a version after 0.9.9.8, or would have only delayed Blademaster for Int1), and some plain old lousy luck in those Quartermaster Diamond runs (I'll never forget how many attempts it took me to just find a Rocket Launcher by early Deimos...), so any aspiring players should definitely not skip getting Quartermaster Diamond before going for this badge. If anyone is going for Quartermaster Angelic though and are struggling with it on UV, perhaps try it on N!, especially if you're playing on 0.10-onward and so don't even need to worry about respawns negatively affecting the kill count. My sixth Angelic secured, I get the rank of Chaos Major General, joining Tormuse and papilio as the only players I believe to have verifiably achieved that rank. With that all said, here is the mortem:
For the build, I decided to go Blademaster yet again, especially as the prior three recorded runs were Gunrunner. Not getting Fin/Rel/SM will make Phobos a lot more difficult, but I'll be less dependent on Invulns in the later game to rack up the kills needed, and once I get Blademaster, I'll be able to do some safe kill farming on Pain Elementals to buff the kill count if needed, especially if I get it before City Of Skulls. However, the initial few attempts I tried went very rough; without Shotgun-boosting traits, and without HR2 (which I was putting off to try getting Berserker ASAP), I was forced to play much more aggressively with a strict time limit while being unable to adequately fight back, and the result was simply just repeatedly running out of armor and health, while I wasn't levelling up fast enough for my liking. This should work if I kept pushing through and eventually get a good run of luck, but after having a run that made to The Chained Court and still failed very quickly after, I got an idea that would maybe better facilitate this Blademaster strat; go for this badge on Nightmare! instead. This might sound crazy at first, especially in a version where respawns still count towards the kill counter, but with the doubled healing from Health Globes and Small Medkits, doubled armor repair from Armor Shards, crucially any Berserks I get lasting twice as long (as well as Invulns lasting twice as long for big Invuln rampages later), and levelling up significantly faster with the EXP boost + extra enemies, I figured Blademaster might actually have an easier time getting off the ground, and once it does, it can clear out floors even on N!, significantly buffing my kill count. Plus respawns hardly matter when you're spending only 2 and a half minutes on every floor, and any lucky Invulns I do get will eradicate respawns, so Invuln nuking will get me even bigger kill boosts than they would on UV. Plus again, 80% kills is not 100% or even 90%, so some respawns getting up as I exit a level won't matter all that much.
When trying N!, I was getting even more brutal deaths early on, as trying to shotgun down or just run past a bunch of enemies in the open with their 50% increased attack rate meant I got quickly shredded, while I was repeatedly running into several Hell Knights in that always perilous floor 3 to 5 range or mazes that had several enemies in every direction. But these attempts went fast, and I was noticing the much greater impact from just finding a early single Berserk, as well as getting a lot more health from Health Globes/Small Medkits and how much faster I was levelling, so I kept at it. And in less than a dozen attempts (four recorded deaths + several more I quit out on), I was able to make it to The Chained Court, where it went off from there.
At the start of the run, I of course open with HR, but I gun for Berserker after that; there's a case to be made that going for HR2 would be better, but you need to actually kill things very quickly, and Berserker is critical to doing that, especially with N! making it even more likely to spawn you next to large groups of enemies. There's also a case to be made to get a level of Finesse to get that critical early universal combat boost and when I'll want it later anyway, like I did in my Eagerness Angelic run, but any additional delay of Blademaster is painful when the rate you level up still isn't as great as you'll hope. Phobos Base Entry is mostly the same, except you can't run -> wait until the Formers come out and so if the Formers don't play nicely, I can take enough damage here to force a reset. Floor 2 I'll usually make it past, but it too can force a reset if I get a bunch of enemies on me without cover. I try to kill what I can but I'm not too fussed with kills here, just take your time to gather up shells since you can run out later when you won't have the time to gather up all ammo you see, and prioritize nabbing any armor or medkit you see since those are such a commodity early on. Getting a quickly accessible massacre lever here can be huge, you could reset until you get one since they aren't too uncommon, but I don't think it's worth doing so when the hardest floors are coming and your run will likely still end after all those resets to get a floor 2 massacre lever. You could also reset if you get any vaults on floor 2, normally a great thing but you have no hope you to clear them out at this point without a nearby Berserk, especially if they're Cacodemon vaults, and they'll put you in a big kill count hole early as vaults inflate the enemy count. You shouldn't be too fussed with your kill count this early though, and who knows, you might actually be able to get inside a vault for something good, or at least get more EXP than usual if you can kill some Cacodemons, which is more important than your kill count at this point. Speaking of which, I always went into Hell's Arena if I found its stairs in time; actually clearing Hell's Arena in AAoRA is just impossible without coming in with lots of berserk and getting extremely lucky wave spawns, but you can consistently clear out the first wave, getting you desperately needed EXP and fluffing your kill count a little (even if an enemy or two respawns, you can just ignore it and still come out positive in kill percentage).
Then comes floors 3 to 5, your objective is to just survive and make it to The Chained Court. Pick up any safe kills after finding the stairs or fight when it's absolutely necessary, but you really don't want to get bogged down fighting the Hell Knights here if you can avoid it, as corner shooting a single Hell Knight down with just the basic Shotgun + no Shotgun-boosting traits can take up to a dozen seconds, and potentially over twice that if they found any armor or medkits. Try fighting a couple Hell Knights, and you'll likely see the "Warning! Explosion in 60 seconds!" message with most of the floor still unexplored. Leaving behind the EXP of killing a Hell Knight does suck, but you could shotgun down a group of Imps or Formers in less time than it takes to kill a single Hell Knight, while that group gives equal or more EXP and helps your kill count much more, so avoid isolated undamaged Hell Knights if they're not blocking the only way forward. In this particular run, I got a Lost Soul cave in this range, which is a double-edged sword as they are awful for EXP, but in this run I gladly took it, as it meant an easy floor I could kill everything on and safely gather up whatever supplies spawned on it. Then it got followed up with a Pinky cave that had a horizontal acid river, again not good for EXP but it's another level I could actually fully clear without serious danger and safely gather up whatever I find. With these two breather floors, I reach The Chained Court, which is especially huge on N! when you get 500 actions of berserk here instead of 250, and you get more bang for your buck EXP-wise when taking the opportunity to safely kill the Barons. The time limit is too strict to try killing everything, and I also don't have time to get the mods, if I played more aggressively I could have probably gotten the mods but my armor + health supply wasn't too great even after the aforementioned caves and so I didn't risk it. I also pick up the first level of Intuition at this point; it delays Blademaster a level, but Invulns will be spawning soon, and immediately knowing where they are is critical, while detecting other powerups is also very useful, so the delay is worth it. Unfortunately I got no Invuln on Phobos 7, and the last two floors before Anomaly don't go too great, I survive but I'm going into the dreaded N! Phobos Anomaly at only level 5 and having only HR1. Anomaly going from what would have been a relative breather into a big run ender is one other serious drawback of doing this on N!, and without Blademaster or Vampyre, trying to actually fight the N! Anomaly ambush in melee would be suicide. Fortunately as a Scout, HR1 is enough to outrun the ambush, unfortunately it's not fast enough for me to be able to close the door after getting through it and not fast enough to break LoS with the Nightmare Demons before I tire out as I reach the Bruisers. I nearly died, but I'm able to make it through after burning more medkits, and I make it to Deimos with only a single medkit in store.
After that awful Anomaly, Deimos 1 would give me a big break by giving me a relatively close Invuln in a small rooms level, which I'm able to secure and safely camp out to nuke the level. Then the other big benefit of N! comes here as that Invuln not only lets me safely kill everything on the current floor, but the doubled duration means I can take a lot of it with me to the next floor to safely kill a bunch of enemies at the start there too, especially with Berserker. I get another Invuln a couple floors later for another easy floor clear + partial clear of the next floor. I unfortunately don't get Blademaster before City Of Skulls to get a big kill dump there, but I'm snowballing, and upon getting Blademaster + a rocket launcher by later Deimos, the run is nearly secured; I'm fast enough that I can actually clear floors within only 2 and a half minutes, I can stretch Invulns out very far, and Armor Shards repairing doubled on N! keep my Red Armors healthy so I can keep face rocketing to trigger Berserker and rocket jump around. For traits I get Juggler so I can rocket jump into enemies and immediately switch to a melee weapon, or occasionally to instantly swap to the Shotgun if there's an Imp or Former being annoying. Forgot to take a screenshot of my stats before entering of Tower Of Babel, but I had a kill rate of somewhere around ~75% going into Hell, not there yet but certainly within range for me to make up the kills needed for 80%.
Hell 1 would greet me with another Invuln in a small rooms level, this one was near a barrel with lots of Hell Nobles and a Mancubi near it, but I'm able to secure it, then take it with me into Unholy Cathedral after waiting out the nuke to get the Longinus Spear with minimal damage. After another Invuln on Hell 2, Hell 3 would greet me with a Pain Elemental + Lost Soul cave, exactly the level I wanted to see. I'm able to go through it fast enough to farm the last Pain Elemental a bit, he is uncooperative as he kept trying to move into melee range instead of spawning Souls, I'm thinking I should have left a couple Elementals alive to make the farming more efficient, but after this floor I am over 80% kills (I also find a Sniper mod here and so am able to make a Plasmatic Shotgun for easy corpse disposing, though I didn't really need it at this point). Hell 5 would then give me an Onyx mod, not a game changer at this point since I had several healthy Reds and as mentioned the doubled Armor Shards can keep up with repairing them, but still nice to have. Hell 6 would give me a double Invuln near the red stairs (plus a third offscreen on the other side of the map), and after clearing out Hell 6 normally, I take these invulns with me into Mt. Erebus, which the additional kills weren't needed but I still want the Lava Elemental to pad out my Carmack kills for the Apostle rank. The invulns last so long, that with Blademaster and rocket jumping around, I'm able to clear Mt. Erebus and exit before the invuln runs out. Hell 7 was nothing of note, and with a Ripper I built on Hell 6, Carmack dies without being able to put any real fight.
So overall, this took about a dozen attempts over the course of less than two hours, which is a pretty stark contrast to when pure Quartermaster Diamond took me over three times the amount of attempts over the course of several days. I wouldn't necessarily say this was easier than pure Quartermaster Diamond though, I would chalk up the difference to my improvement since then, not being as optimal with my trait selection (notably if I redid Quarter Diamond, I wouldn't have gotten Int2 and would have instead gotten Finesse, Reloader if playing a version after 0.9.9.8, or would have only delayed Blademaster for Int1), and some plain old lousy luck in those Quartermaster Diamond runs (I'll never forget how many attempts it took me to just find a Rocket Launcher by early Deimos...), so any aspiring players should definitely not skip getting Quartermaster Diamond before going for this badge. If anyone is going for Quartermaster Angelic though and are struggling with it on UV, perhaps try it on N!, especially if you're playing on 0.10-onward and so don't even need to worry about respawns negatively affecting the kill count. My sixth Angelic secured, I get the rank of Chaos Major General, joining Tormuse and papilio as the only players I believe to have verifiably achieved that rank. With that all said, here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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MASTEROFQUARTERS5,
level 15 Cyberdemon Chaos Br. General Scout,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 32811 turns and scored 811423 points.
He played for 59 minutes.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 875 out of 1028 hellspawn. (85%)
He was an Archangel of Red Alert!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 4
Levels completed : 2
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Minor Icarus Cross
Quartermaster Angelic Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 50/50 Experience 100422/15
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +8 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +12
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Brute (Level 4)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Blademaster (Level 1)
HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->Int->HR->Bru->MBm->Fin->Jug->Fin->HR->WK->WK->Bru->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [6] (OP)
[b] [ Weapon ] ripper (6d6)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] Longinus Spear (8d8)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] plasmatic shotgun (8d3) [1/1]
[b] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1] (B1)
[c] Cybernetic Armor [7/7] (100%)
[d] shotgun shell (x26)
[e] shotgun shell (x50)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] rocket (x7)
[h] small med-pack
[i] small med-pack
[j] small med-pack
[k] small med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] large med-pack
[r] large med-pack
[s] power mod pack
[t] plasteel boots [2/2] (98%)
-- 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 85% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
42 former humans
36 former sergeants
32 former captains
127 imps
74 demons
357 lost souls
7 cacodemons
24 hell knights
39 barons of hell
15 arachnotrons
13 former commandos
36 pain elementals
22 revenants
27 mancubi
19 arch-viles
1 lava elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He saw, left a present and left.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 14 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he found the Longinus Spear!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 20 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
On level 22 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 22 he assembled a ripper!
On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
On level 22 he found the Cybernetic Armor!
He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
Level 23 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
Then at last he found Dis!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You reload the rocket launcher. You need to taste blood!
You dodge! Boom! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher. You need to taste blood!
You prepare the ripper instantly!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
Carmack! Press <Enter>...
Next!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
266 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
86 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
95 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
78 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
39 killed the bitch and survived.
33 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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12
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoB|95%|YAFW] - Pure Berserker Diamond + Iron Skull
« on: December 11, 2025, 08:37 »
With Shottyman and Marksman Diamond done, I decided to go for the last of the weapon-locked Diamonds with Berserker Diamond. According to the Badge Hunters thread, Berserker was one of the rarer Diamonds in 0.9.9.7, with only six people recorded winning it, and just three of which did it without Sereging it (papilio of course, appuru, and surprisingly, the namesake of Sereging did it purely himself). This is surprising to me, as Berserker Diamond doesn't look that particularly difficult in this version; the easiest way to beat Nightmare! is to just rush through the game with a melee build, which will work mostly the same in AoB, surviving Phobos just becomes more luck-based but not exceedingly so, and you lose rocket launchers for rocket jumping or self-triggering Berserker, which sucks but isn't too bad a handicap with how strong lategame melee already is. There's a 60% minimum kill requirement, but that's so low you should reach it naturally unless you are just rushing to the stairs as fast as possible, and even if you do end up a bit short, it's trivial to farm a respawn or Pain Elemental for a bit to make up the kills needed before finishing the game. When looking at older versions, it does appear Berserker Diamond was won a lot more often, with over a dozen different players winning it prior to 0.9.9.7, so was there something in particular that made it more difficult in this version even with Sereging being able to easily cheese it?
For the build, it's nothing ground-breaking here, just good old Vampyre, which is near immortal on N! without you fucking up majorly. Maybe getting Fin2 and WK2 before Bru3, Badass 2, and any TaN might be seen as a little unusual, but that's my usual trait order for Vampyre regardless (Finesse does more for DPS than more Brute does after Brute 2 when you got the Chainsaw and is crucial to triggering Berserker faster from hitting enemies, while WK lets me buff my defenses more than TaN does while also buffing my offense and movement speed). The only other maybe unusual thing is not getting any Ironman, which is also the norm for me when playing any build that relies on Berserker, especially as the Marine when just a single level of it means Archvile zaps will no longer trigger it and Mancubi/Revenants almost never will.
As inferred earlier about the more luck-based Phobos, the early game is the hardest part of this badge by far. Phobos Base Entry is easy enough, but even floor 2 can be unsurvivable if you get spawned in an open level with little cover near a bunch of enemies, especially if you get plopped near Pinkies before you get Brute 2, and I indeed had a few resets on Phobos 2. This get exacerbated on N!, when the much more aggressive enemies means a squad of Imps or Formers will shred you fast in the open, and of course respawning is extra bad when health is a very finite resource at this point while you can't really kill enemies without avoiding damage. The natural inclination might be to just dive for the stairs, but you should reset until you get a floor 2 with a good corpse disposal spot that lets you clear it without depleting most of your resources, as you really want to hit level 3 for Berserker before advancing or at least get no more than a few kills away from it. When you get to the floor 3-5 range where Hell Knights and Cacodemons start showing up, and caves and the ever dreaded mazes can spawn, you should just dive as fast to The Chained Court as you can; even if you miss out on some levels you're much more likely to die in this level range trying to clear them out than you would be in later Phobos with the Chainsaw a couple levels lower. I did get a very fortunate floor 3 in this run though, not only spawning me in a room with only a single doorway that I could safely camp and kill everything in while also not having that many Hell Knights, but it also had a whopping three Berserks, allowing me to take a huge berserk stack with me into the next floor, that turned out to be a nasty warehouse level with the stairs on the complete opposite end of the map, something I probably would not have survived without going in with so much berserk. I reached The Chained Court in floor 5 not long after, and it is tempting to just grab the Chainsaw + all the berserks at once and make a dive for it, but I do kill everything here, since it's mostly safe EXP and those mods are very valuable (of which I get a Technical + Bulk mod, I immediately slap the T mod on the Chainsaw as the greater DPS boost and being able to trigger Berserker faster is more important than a bit more damage, while I put the B mod on a damaged Blue Armor to help me survive a bit longer to Vampyre). Reaching this point doesn't guarantee safety, my first attempt that made it this far did come extremely close to death on floor 6 until I hit the crucial level 6 for Vampyre right when I killed a Baron and was able to heal myself back up with a nearby Pain Elemental, but in this run I would reach Vampyre shortly after Chained Court without being in a serious danger, at which point you basically have the game won unless you do something catastrophically stupid (foreshadowing...). I rolled Phobos Lab for the floor 7 special level and decided to do it, meleeing Nightmare Demons is brutal but Berserker can allow me to do it as long as I don't have several in melee range before Berserker kicks in, and I can abuse a respawn to fully heal whenever. The level just takes a while but the mods, extra Large Medkit, and fresh Blue Armor are worth it (unfortunately I don't get the A mod I really wanted for a build with no HR...).
Then it's the Phobos Anomaly, a pivotal moment for any N! run. I mentioned earlier that you should never die with Vampyre on N! without doing something really fucking stupid, and well, I actually lost my first run that made it past Phobos 2 here, because I held off on grabbing the Large Health Globes and tried running back to the opening room to nab them after triggering the ambush, but doing that with no speed boosts is just not viable whatsoever and I died not even particularly close to the room. In this second attempt that made it this far, after already having a bit of berserk from the Large Health Globe at the end of Phobos Lab, I decide to immediately grab both Large Health Globes without grabbing the Medkits or Red Armor first, and then immediately run to the ambush; thanks to doubled powerups on N!, the berserk last long enough to make it to the ambush, and with Berserker + Vampyre, I am able to kill all the nightmare enemies, after which I go back to get the Red Armor and medkits left behind, quickly run to the Bruisers, kill them, and then leave. The rest of the run isn't too interesting to do this walkthrough style on, so I'll just recap some highlights:
And that's the run, with Hell 7 being nothing of note and then Carmack going down as easily as you would expect to an endgame melee build with a Ripper. Altogether this only took two attempts that didn't reset in Phobos 2, and if you count those than that just adds a few more. Yeah a lot more people should have won Berserker Diamond in 0.9.9.7, maybe most of the people that won it prior just kept transferring their player data forward and so never went for it again, and the new blood in 0.9.9.7 were too spooked by the thought of N! AoB? Can't think of any other reason for why so much more people won Marskman Diamond than Berserker Diamond, when the former is certainly a lot more difficult. I would also say getting the Gargulec Cross in UV is harder than getting Berserker Diamond, since in the former you have to kill everything in the early Phobos levels and can't just rush to Chained Court. Hell you might even be able to make a case that Berserker Platinum is harder if you just rush through them, since N!'s doubled powerups and doubled healing, as well as leveling you up faster, probably makes it easier to rush through the game, while Berserker Platinum's kill requirement is a little more relevant than Berserker Diamond's functionally irrelevant kill requirement. Anyway here is the mortem:
For the build, it's nothing ground-breaking here, just good old Vampyre, which is near immortal on N! without you fucking up majorly. Maybe getting Fin2 and WK2 before Bru3, Badass 2, and any TaN might be seen as a little unusual, but that's my usual trait order for Vampyre regardless (Finesse does more for DPS than more Brute does after Brute 2 when you got the Chainsaw and is crucial to triggering Berserker faster from hitting enemies, while WK lets me buff my defenses more than TaN does while also buffing my offense and movement speed). The only other maybe unusual thing is not getting any Ironman, which is also the norm for me when playing any build that relies on Berserker, especially as the Marine when just a single level of it means Archvile zaps will no longer trigger it and Mancubi/Revenants almost never will.
As inferred earlier about the more luck-based Phobos, the early game is the hardest part of this badge by far. Phobos Base Entry is easy enough, but even floor 2 can be unsurvivable if you get spawned in an open level with little cover near a bunch of enemies, especially if you get plopped near Pinkies before you get Brute 2, and I indeed had a few resets on Phobos 2. This get exacerbated on N!, when the much more aggressive enemies means a squad of Imps or Formers will shred you fast in the open, and of course respawning is extra bad when health is a very finite resource at this point while you can't really kill enemies without avoiding damage. The natural inclination might be to just dive for the stairs, but you should reset until you get a floor 2 with a good corpse disposal spot that lets you clear it without depleting most of your resources, as you really want to hit level 3 for Berserker before advancing or at least get no more than a few kills away from it. When you get to the floor 3-5 range where Hell Knights and Cacodemons start showing up, and caves and the ever dreaded mazes can spawn, you should just dive as fast to The Chained Court as you can; even if you miss out on some levels you're much more likely to die in this level range trying to clear them out than you would be in later Phobos with the Chainsaw a couple levels lower. I did get a very fortunate floor 3 in this run though, not only spawning me in a room with only a single doorway that I could safely camp and kill everything in while also not having that many Hell Knights, but it also had a whopping three Berserks, allowing me to take a huge berserk stack with me into the next floor, that turned out to be a nasty warehouse level with the stairs on the complete opposite end of the map, something I probably would not have survived without going in with so much berserk. I reached The Chained Court in floor 5 not long after, and it is tempting to just grab the Chainsaw + all the berserks at once and make a dive for it, but I do kill everything here, since it's mostly safe EXP and those mods are very valuable (of which I get a Technical + Bulk mod, I immediately slap the T mod on the Chainsaw as the greater DPS boost and being able to trigger Berserker faster is more important than a bit more damage, while I put the B mod on a damaged Blue Armor to help me survive a bit longer to Vampyre). Reaching this point doesn't guarantee safety, my first attempt that made it this far did come extremely close to death on floor 6 until I hit the crucial level 6 for Vampyre right when I killed a Baron and was able to heal myself back up with a nearby Pain Elemental, but in this run I would reach Vampyre shortly after Chained Court without being in a serious danger, at which point you basically have the game won unless you do something catastrophically stupid (foreshadowing...). I rolled Phobos Lab for the floor 7 special level and decided to do it, meleeing Nightmare Demons is brutal but Berserker can allow me to do it as long as I don't have several in melee range before Berserker kicks in, and I can abuse a respawn to fully heal whenever. The level just takes a while but the mods, extra Large Medkit, and fresh Blue Armor are worth it (unfortunately I don't get the A mod I really wanted for a build with no HR...).
Then it's the Phobos Anomaly, a pivotal moment for any N! run. I mentioned earlier that you should never die with Vampyre on N! without doing something really fucking stupid, and well, I actually lost my first run that made it past Phobos 2 here, because I held off on grabbing the Large Health Globes and tried running back to the opening room to nab them after triggering the ambush, but doing that with no speed boosts is just not viable whatsoever and I died not even particularly close to the room. In this second attempt that made it this far, after already having a bit of berserk from the Large Health Globe at the end of Phobos Lab, I decide to immediately grab both Large Health Globes without grabbing the Medkits or Red Armor first, and then immediately run to the ambush; thanks to doubled powerups on N!, the berserk last long enough to make it to the ambush, and with Berserker + Vampyre, I am able to kill all the nightmare enemies, after which I go back to get the Red Armor and medkits left behind, quickly run to the Bruisers, kill them, and then leave. The rest of the run isn't too interesting to do this walkthrough style on, so I'll just recap some highlights:
- I did Deimos Lab, since while normally one of the most difficult levels in the game, it is pretty free for a melee build, even having the Shamblers revive a couple times after accidentally finishing them off not on a doorway didn't matter when I had berserk and Vampyre. Unfortunately the lab cache reward was the worst thing I could get, being a Firestorm and Sniper mod I could do absolutely nothing with. I also didn't get a single Agility mod here (and I wouldn't get any until Deimos 7), so I remain slow as hell. I nanofiber my Red Armor here, and since I had WK2, I opt to put my spare Power mod on it to ensure I had solid indestructible armor from here on out, rather than build the Ripper, surely I'll get another Power mod for it soon right? Right??? (On that note, I don't get another Red Armor either until Mortuary...)
- With a Phase + Homing Phase, and playing Vampyre with indestructible armor on hand, I decide to try clearing the Wall, but unfortunately the Phase Device doesn't get me past it. The elusive N! Gargulec Cross was lost long ago in Phobos, so the meager hit to my kill percent doesn't matter. I also decided to try going for a N! AoB Explorer here... while forgetting I already completely skipped Hell's Arena earlier in the run.
- Abyssal Plains is easy enough, though tedious to clear in N! AoB as you have to lure all the non-Elemental/Soul enemies here onto the four doorways available or intentionally eat some plasma balls on corpses. I also did a bit of damage farming to build towards an Iron Skull, but I abandoned it pretty quickly as it was going so slow and I knew there would be a faster way later.
- I rolled Spider's Lair instead of Halls Of Carnage, which really sucks as I wanted the mods in the latter, and Spider's Lair seems awful to try clearing in N! AoB, with no way to dispose corpses other than the two stair tiles or corpse stacking, the latter of which can't get rid of the last Arachnotron corpse. However after getting a nice camping spot that I waited for all the Arachnotrons to get to and Vampyre keeping my health up from all the damage I took, I'm able to kill them, and then use a Blood Skull from Abyssal Plains to get rid of the last Arachnotron corpse.
- It must be shocking the first time to Doom players to see how hilariously easy it is to beat the Cyberdemon with a melee build here compared to trying to melee the Cyberdemon in actual Doom.
- Hell 1 had a Nano Mod and a Phaseshift Armor. I hold off on using the Nano though, as surely I would find a second Agility mod to make Antigrav Boots, right??? Also Unholy Cathedral is of course free, but no 100% kills so no Scythe, and I go into The Vaults but can't do anything there.
- I went into Mortuary thinking it would be easy even in AoB since I'm Vampyre and I had two Hatred Skulls... but with only A-modded Steel Boots, armor that slowed me down a lot (I Nano modded the Phaseshift after not getting any more A mods before Mortuary, but it was getting shredded too fast for me to keep it on), and not having the Ripper, I was too slow to do it in pure melee. I was able to clear out the right side after burning the Skulls, a lot of Medkits and a Hellwave Pack, but pushing back to the left side was hopeless, especially once my berserk worn off and Arachnotrons + Mancubi kept coming in that were dealing too much damage to approach in the open, so I had to flee after getting down to my last Large Medkit. I really should have went to the top left corner for the Power mod to build my Ripper first, I maybe could have avoided getting overwhelmed if I did, or at least left the level with something profitable. I didn't even need the Nuclear BFG as I already had a nuke in my inventory, guess I'm just so used to going for the Nuclear BFG first that went towards it without thinking. Oh well, at least I didn't pointlessly throw the run here.
- Speaking of Ripper, I would finally find a Power mod to complete my Ripper in Hell 5, a whole 12 floors after Deimos Lab. Hell 6 would also have a Butcher's Cleaver, another weapon that would have been extremely helpful to have a couple floors earlier for Mortuary.
- With Hell 6 being a Nightmare Demon cave with lava, I decide it's time to grind for Iron Skull. After killing a Nightmare Demon near lava, waiting in lava a half dozen times, repeatedly killing the respawned Nightmare Demon until I got back to 200%, and repeating, I am able to rack up the additional ~4200 damage I needed for Iron Skull's stupid 10000 damage requirement after only about 15-20ish minutes, which now sets me only 6 medals away from Heroic Diamond.
- Mt. Erebus had an Energy-shielded Vest, just to make my endgame inventory look much better than it actually was for most of the run.
And that's the run, with Hell 7 being nothing of note and then Carmack going down as easily as you would expect to an endgame melee build with a Ripper. Altogether this only took two attempts that didn't reset in Phobos 2, and if you count those than that just adds a few more. Yeah a lot more people should have won Berserker Diamond in 0.9.9.7, maybe most of the people that won it prior just kept transferring their player data forward and so never went for it again, and the new blood in 0.9.9.7 were too spooked by the thought of N! AoB? Can't think of any other reason for why so much more people won Marskman Diamond than Berserker Diamond, when the former is certainly a lot more difficult. I would also say getting the Gargulec Cross in UV is harder than getting Berserker Diamond, since in the former you have to kill everything in the early Phobos levels and can't just rush to Chained Court. Hell you might even be able to make a case that Berserker Platinum is harder if you just rush through them, since N!'s doubled powerups and doubled healing, as well as leveling you up faster, probably makes it easier to rush through the game, while Berserker Platinum's kill requirement is a little more relevant than Berserker Diamond's functionally irrelevant kill requirement. Anyway here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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GIVEMEURBLOOD,
level 17 Cyberdemon Chaos Lt. Colonel Marine,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 1784407 turns and scored 938291 points.
He played for 3 hours, 16 minutes and 20 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 2877 out of 3013 hellspawn. (95%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Berserk!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 10
Levels completed : 6
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Fallout Gold Cross
Iron Skull
Hell Armorer Badge
Berserker Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 110/60 Experience 148506/17
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +10 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +15
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Marine
Finesse (Level 3)
Tough as nails (Level 3)
Brute (Level 5)
Berserker (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Badass (Level 2)
Vampyre (Level 1)
Bru->Bru->Ber->Fin->Bad->MVm->Fin->WK->WK->Bru->TaN->Fin->TaN->Bru->Bad->TaN->Bru->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (NP)
[b] [ Weapon ] ripper (6d6) (T)
[c] [ Boots ] steel boots [1/1] (72%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] Butcher's Cleaver (5d6)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] red armor [2/4] (46%)
[b] nanofiber red armor [4] (P)
[c] energy-shielded vest [3/3] (100%) (P)
[d] Longinus Spear (8d8)
[e] small med-pack
[f] small med-pack
[g] small med-pack
[h] small med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] large med-pack
[l] phase device
[m] phase device
[n] homing phase device
[o] envirosuit pack
[p] technical mod pack
[q] bulk mod pack
[r] plasteel boots [4/4] (89%) (PT)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Melee - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Shrapnel - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
Acid - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Fire - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 60% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
110 former humans
263 former sergeants
96 former captains
186 imps
150 demons
759 lost souls
89 cacodemons
31 hell knights
44 barons of hell
87 arachnotrons
46 former commandos
42 pain elementals
98 revenants
203 mancubi
29 arch-viles
14 nightmare imps
4 nightmare cacodemons
614 nightmare demons
2 bruiser brothers
4 shamblers
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Angel of Death
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
He broke through the lab.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
On level 9 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
Not knowing what to do, he left.
On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
He slaughtered the beasts living there.
On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
Level 15 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 15 he found the Hellwave Pack!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he found the Charch's Null Pointer!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he found the Longinus Spear!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
He came, he saw, but he left.
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
He managed to escape from the Mortuary!
On level 21 he assembled a ripper!
On level 22 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 22 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
He nuked level 22!
He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
He nuked level 23!
Then at last he found Dis!
He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You dodge! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher. You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You miss John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
You miss John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
Carmack! Press <Enter>...
You're going berserk!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
261 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
86 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
91 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
77 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
39 killed the bitch and survived.
32 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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13
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoMr|93%|YAFW] - Pure Marksman Diamond + N! AoMr Explorer
« on: December 08, 2025, 05:07 »
Next up in my 0.9.9.7 completion, I decided to go for Marksman Diamond. This is one of the most straightforward Diamonds on the surface, you just simply have to make it to Dis and kill the Mastermind in Angel of Marksmanship, no kill percent or additional stipulations required. However, Pistols really suck in 0.9.9.7, between their extremely pitiful early game, lack of a guaranteed upgrade weapon, having masteries that all range from heavily flawed to outright horrendous, their big midway powerup trait (Dualgunner) tending to be counterproductive without certain rare infinite ammo pistols, being far more trait intensive than other builds, being especially weak against crowds until you at least get SoG4, getting less mileage out of powerups and running due to using more cumulative actions to kill enemies, and their supposed saving grace of an OP lategame not actually being all that much stronger than what most other builds offer (especially compared to melee builds, which have a similarly rough start but amp up way faster and are actually super dominant in the lategame). These problems get amplified on Nightmare, and N! exposes another problem of AoMr in your inability to effectively corpse dispose, since you won't be able to just blow up corpses unless you find a rare Firestorm mod to make a Demolition Pistol or find the even rarer Anti-Freak Jackal, and Pistols struggle to utilize corpse stacking or knocking enemies into fluids with their unreliable knockback unless you get Sharpshooter or several levels of SoG + SoB. As a result, Marksman Diamond is actually one of the harder Diamonds, and while the 0.9.9.7 Badge Hunters thread lists 11 players winning it, only four of them did it purely (Sylph, papilio, Tormuse, and llama of doom, the former three of which are revered as among DRL's most accomplished players, and llama in his mortem claims it took him nearly 100 attempts over the course of 3 months to get his win).
So first thing, deciding what build I'm going to actually use. As mentioned, the Pistol masteries all have serious cons to them; Sharpshooter is the easily the best of the lot and is actually one of the strongest mastery effects in the game when you get it, but the excessive requisite levels of EE and inability to pick up SoB gives it an abominably difficult Phobos, while Sharpshooter isn't so strong as to guarantee winning if you survive long enough to get it. You also are going to need a level of HR at least by Phobos Anomaly to get through it without getting lucky with a Phase Device or floor 7 Invuln, which Sharpshooter is going to have a very hard time getting (you're going to need to basically kill everything and do all the special levels to reach level 8 before Anomaly, which Sharpshooter's early game is going to make very difficult to do, and any delay of getting Sharpshooter to get HR sooner will seriously jeopardize your chances of surviving the brutal late Phobos and early Deimos floors). Then Gun Kata offers a slightly less brutal early game and has HR2 as part of its prereqs, but Gun Kata itself is a rather underwhelming and finicky mastery effect, and the pistols themselves are seriously lacking in power without Sharpshooter or SoB (which Gun Kata blocks) until you get SoG5, while Gun Kata additionally requires a lot more ancillary traits just for a lategame that is still not up to snuff. And last but certainly least is Bullet Dance, which writing down all the problems to would make this OP way too long, but I'll simply note that it blocks Hellrunner, and that alone makes it unviable, as with no access to rocket jumping, it is simply going to get walled hard by N! Phobos Anomaly without Phase Device or powerup luck.
With this all in mind, I go for the unconventional pick with Scavenger, even with this being the pre-buff 0.9.9.7 version that could only dissemble ranged weapons rather than being able to dissemble any equipment. The plan behind it is I play it like a pseudo-Sharpshooter build, but I don't need to pick up a third level of EE and I can pick up levels of SoB that make the early game less hellish, while I can also more easily fit in the aforementioned mandatory level of HR to escape the Anomaly, and then while I will have a much weaker midgame, I can close the gap lategame with the SoB levels and extra mods I get, particularly the rare mods, including giving me a much higher chance at procuring a Demolition Pistol for corpse disposal. With trait order, I immediately gun for SoG3 at the start, this is nonnegotiable as pistols are worth shit all without it. I then follow it up with a level of SoB, even just this one level of SoB makes a significant difference as the chance of knockback per hit with a P-modded pistol doubles from 12% to 24%, significantly increasing the chance of killing bigger enemies before they reach me and helping me knockback enemies into fluids, and it significantly increases the chance of me one-shotting Formers from 40% to 60%. The order of traits after this will then depend on the state of the run; I go for a level of EE after, as that first level of EE is very helpful when pistols do miss an annoyingly high amount without it and it'll make shooting while running a lot more viable, then it's the first level of WK to get more than one mod on my pistols (particularly to get a 2P pistol, which increases the aforementioned knockback chance to 41.7% and Former one-shot chance to 72.2%), then it's the mandatory HR a level earlier than I wanted since I rolled Phobos Lab and it'll be needed there if I want to actually complete it, and then it's SoB2, which aside from the farther DPS increase, now bumps up my knockback chance with a 2P Pistol to 58.3% (i.e. I'll now be knocking back an enemy more often than average between their moves) and the Former one-shot chance to 83.3%. After that, it's the second level of WK to start building assemblies without worrying about losing the inability to mod them later and finishing Scavenger with EE2 -> Int1 -> MSv, and immediately maxing out SoG once I get Scavenger. The traits beyond that aren't very important, but I get Int2 to make the lategame less of a slog, a third level of SoB, and finally a level of Reloader to help with the reloading bottleneck before Carmack.
For the beginning of the run, I simply reset until the bonus starting mod is an Agility mod. People usually do this so they can make a Speedloader Pistol immediately with the Technician's starting Technical mod, but I do this to guarantee I'll have A-modded Boots at least before Anomaly, since it's so important you have the running speed to comfortably outrun the Nightmare enemies there, while it's possible to find no Agility mods in Phobos, especially if you're unable to beat the special levels (one of which, Phobos Lab, you're probably not going to be able to beat without having A-modded Boots prior to it). With the starting Tech mod, I just immediately slap it on my starting Pistol and have no plans to turn it into a Speedloader; the greater firing speed is simply far more valuable at this point of the game and Ammochain boxes can fix the reloading issue in meaningful fights later, while before I get an Ammochain box, I can swap to another fully loaded Pistol in my prepared slot if needed, which takes only 0.2 seconds more than reloading the Speedloader would. I'll additionally be able to turn that T-modded Pistol into an Energy Pistol, Demolition Pistol, or a Storm Bolter if I wanted to later, so even if you don't have Scavenger and thus would be able to get that Tech mod back, you should immediately Tech mod your starting pistol without worrying about "wasting" it.
Strategy on Phobos Base Entry doesn't really change, though you're less likely to get both medkits as you can't use a Shotgun to nigh-guarantee one-shotting the other Shotgunner with a medkit. Floor 2 isn't too bad but the annoyance of being pistol-locked already starts, at least the EXP boost of N! means you'll just need to kill a few enemies to hit level 2, which you direly need ASAP before you try taking on any Pinkies or large enemy groups. Hopefully enough enemies spawn for you to hit level 3 before the end of it because you're gonna really need SoG3 before entering Hell's Arena or going to floor 3, in this run I finished just short but luckily only needed one more kill to hit level 3. I then go into Hell's Arena; even if you don't clear it you should almost always go in and do at least the first wave for the mostly safe EXP. I however do go for the Hell's Arena clear, it's very difficult and even more unbearably tedious in N! AoMr, but getting that guaranteed early Power Mod and Ammochain box is worth it if you're able to do it, even burning all your Small Medkits in the process won't be too bad as the Supercharge + Large Medkit + Blue Armor you get will compensate for that. I do take a big beating though, even when going in with a Berserk near the stairs. There's then the infamous difficulty spike upon entering floor 3 when Hell Knights start appearing and Cacodemons + Pain Elementals follow soon after; whenever I enter a new floor at this point I equip the Ammochain box, as it's crucial to surviving any rough level starts that plop me near these big enemies or the big Pinky group can start appearing on Floor 4. When I establish a foothold in a mostly safe spot, I then unequip the Ammochain to preserve it, you shouldn't waste it when shooting isolated enemies safely behind a corner. If running lowish on health, I'll also equip the Blue Armor when entering stairs, but will similarly unequip it when no longer threatened by Hell Knights or Cacodemons to preserve it, especially as Armor Shards don't start spawning until floor 5 and I may not get another healthy Blue Armor throughout Phobos.
I get a pretty fortunate floor 5 that had a big water river running through it to make corpse disposal less of a hassle, and it contained a little Cacodemon vault that was not only easy to clear out, but also had a Power Mod and Homing Phase. With that second Power mod, I go for WK1 instead of getting SoB2, since a P2 Pistol with SoG3 + SoB1 has a slightly higher knockback chance than a P1 Pistol with SoG3 + SoB2, while it also keeps the T-modded Pistol I have in my offhand less likely to knockback for when I want something to die on the spot it's standing, and that Homing Phase will give me a mulligan when I try the difficult special levels. Speaking of which, next up is the Unchained Court, which most would probably advise against trying in N! AoMr, but it is doable. You'll need to eat some acid balls while berserked to destroy the Baron corpses, or otherwise try to knock them into the lava as you kill them or finagle them into the doorways without getting hit too much. The Arena Master himself won't be too much of a problem if you can save at least one berserk for him, as you can win the damage race and kill him with a pistol before the berserk runs out (keep in mind it's better to fight him from a distance than up close, his attack rate will be much slower when he is zapping you and so he actually has a higher DPS in melee range, especially when his zap isn't as damaging as a typical Archvile zap). Cleanup of the Formers after though will be very annoying, especially if the Arena Master and Barons destroyed most of the center building, if you can't safely door camp you'll have to keep killing the Formers as they revive until you can knock them back into the lava, but if you still have your tactics intact you can use the Arena Master's Staff to gib a couple of them. Given the difficulty of eliminating the Barons and the sheer tedium with disposing the corpses in N! AoMr, I don't blame anyone if they rather only clear Hell's Arena or give up the guaranteed early Power mod + Ammochain from the Arena to get the easy Chained Court, even if it means they would have to do a few more resets to get through Phobos (this will be way more bearable in 0.10 and beyond though, where Pistols have reliable knockback and clearing special levels was changed to kill each distinct enemy once rather than needing everything dead simultaneously).
After some standard tough late Phobos floors, I rolled Phobos Lab for the floor 7 special level instead of Military Base. About anyone would probably advise that going into N! Phobos Lab in AoMr is suicide, especially not without HR2 and Tactical Boots, but with several Large Medkits and my running speed exceeding the crucial 0.71 seconds benchmark by a comfortable amount (the speed of Nightmare Demons), I decide to give it a shot, especially since I could always Homing Phase out if I truly got in an unsurviveable position, and no Invuln nor Berserk spawned on Phobos 7 anyway to use for Phobos Anomaly. I did get in a terrible spot early on when a respawned Sergeant opened the door I was trying to camp out some Nightmare Demons behind, I survived it but had to burn both Small Medkits when I wanted to save them for restoring running (fortunately the back Nightmare Demon was already almost dead and so immediately died in the acid). Phobos Lab ends up taking a while but I'm able to clear it, not without burning a lot of medkits and taking a whopping 280 damage on the level though. Then it's Phobos Anomaly, where with HR and A-modded Boots, I'm able to outrun the ambush, and then I simply run pass the Bruisers since even with a Radsuit on I can't quite beat them in an open damage race and getting pincer'd by the Nightmare enemies would end me, though I still take a large chunk of damage and lose my bid at 100% kills, which sucks but it's not worth trying to kill the N! Anomaly enemies in AoMr.
Deimos would very conveniently start me right next to a massacre lever, not as helpful as it would have been in Phobos but permanently eliminating a bunch of Formers and weakening the bigger enemies still gave me a nice breather of a floor. I rolled Hell's Armory for the Deimos 1 special level, which I don't mind for another relative breather, and I indeed clear it out without having to expend any medkits after using a radsuit to get the Supercharge. The weapon cache unfortunately didn't have an Exotic pistol, and the big reward of a Sniper mod is ok but was what I wanted least, I just put it on a spare Pistol while I turn my 2P pistol into an Energy Pistol and prime my T1 pistol with another T + P mod to eventually make it into a Demolition Pistol. With the P-modded Energy Pistol and sufficient levels of SoG + SoB, I'm able to go through The Wall, which I do by shooting a one-tile wide tunnel at the top, where I then wait until I see a Baron pop up near the end, shoot it, retreat behind the corner, make sure I finish off the Baron diagonally in front of me, and then stand on the Baron corpse while I wait for another Baron to pop up so it cannot get up. If one of the Archviles pop up, I shoot at it and then once I see it raise its arms, I move back behind the wall to avoid the zap and have it blow up the Baron corpse for me. Repeating this until I get the last Baron as a corpse, I then go retrieve the Backpack + the Missile Launcher for later Scavenging and wait for the respawned Baron to come near this area, where I can then finish it off in the doorway to get rid of the final Baron corpse. I would enter City Of Skulls after this to keep the Explorer Pin intact, but I don't release the Lost Souls, as I didn't want to have to risk burning my Homing Phase that I would need to not die in Halls Of Carnage. And indeed I would roll Halls Of Carnage on Deimos 6, where after retrieving the first mod with the aid of a berserk, I just Homing Phase to the stairs, grab the BFG to use a cell backpack, and then wait on the stairs until the lava catches up, but immediately descend once I saw a Baron in the lava staring me down and knowing the Nightmare Cacos were around to pop up at any moment.
While I didn't really need the Backpack from The Wall, getting the Missile Launcher there and my Scavenger strat would pay off, as upon finally getting Scavenger on Deimos 6 and dissembling a couple non-Pistol exotic weapons I had, dissembling the Missile Launcher would net me a Firestorm mod, that I immediately use to make a Demolition Pistol. The very next floor though would have a random Firestorm mod right next to a Unique, teasing me for getting Scavenger just to make a Demolition Pistol one floor early (unfortunately you can't put Firestorms on explosive weapons with a radius smaller than 3 for some asinine reason in this version, so I can just slap that second Firestorm on my BFG to maybe make a Biggest Fucking Gun later, or rather a Biggest Fucking Cellpack). That Unique was a Railgun though, so Scavenger does pay off definitively by getting me a second Sniper mod and thus allowing me to use a very useful 2S Pistol for unobstructed out-of-vision shooting. Hell 1 would have a Mega Buster that I then dissemble into... a third Sniper, which you can apply up to three Snipers on a single weapon, but in this version the third Sniper does nothing, so this was a useless drop.
Once I get the Demolition Pistol and 2S Pistol alongside SoG4 and 5, the run becomes much easier, though it still had heart-stopping moments like me accidentally stepping into a Commando's view and eating a full plasma volley that nearly kills me. I go into the Cathedral for Explorer but leave instantly, and then I go into the Vaults that is trivial to clear, while it too pays off with a Trigun. I have the dilemma to keep the Trigun as a much stronger pistol for in-vision enemies than the other pistols I have on or scavenge it for the guaranteed Nano mod; I decided to keep it, since I figure it's too late to build something with the Nano mod that would be better than having the Trigun itself. The game isn't going down easy after this, with Hell 4 being a Pain Elemental cave (it had a Hell Staff that I can't dissemble but bring along with me), Hell 6 being a maze with a lot of barrels, and Hell 7 being yet another barrel level. I would also venture into Limbo, and upon seeing a bunch of Archviles in vision at the start, I contemplate using the Hell Staff to try getting me out immediately... or stick around and try clearing it. And after successfully clearing out the starting island, I would use the Demolition Pistol to weed out the enemies on the other islands before raising the bridges (since the explosions would hurt several bunched up enemies and launch them into the lava), while then taking advantage of the 2S Pistol to shoot enemies out of vision off the bridge into the lava (or sometimes used the Energy Pistol to save ammo after farming an Arachnotron for cells). This process took a long time but eventually I'm able to kill every last one of them. Explorer is then secured by being able to freely enter The Lava Pits, though I clear it too even without a Radsuit or lava immune boots, taking advantage of the Hell Staff to get me across the lava where I then have the overabundance of Radsuits in this version of Lava Pits to get me back safely. Finally, Carmack, as usual in this version, is a pushover, as I can keep hammering away at him and his spawns with the Demolition Pistol after he knocks me out of vision.
Well damn, that was a big writeup, this was a long and pretty excruciating run, belying it only being my second attempt that didn't reset at Phobos Base Entry (the first made it to Deimos, but I fucked up in Unchained Court by trying to wait for an almost dead Arena Master to die in lava instead of finishing him off, forgetting that all Viles were bugged to be immune to fluids in this version, getting me hit with a zap without berserk and destroying most of the central building, a mistake that lost me two large medkits and put me in a hole I never recovered from that was followed by nasty mazes on Phobos 6 and Deimos 1, and me fruitlessly trying to fight the Bruisers instead of just running past them, with me ultimately throwing against the Revenants on Deimos Lab). Pistols are just so bad before 0.10... there are few Diamonds I think will end up being more unpleasant than this one, and even if several of the remaining Diamonds end up being harder, I'll probably enjoy the process of going for them more. I also kick myself for not taking the opportunity to Angel Arm a half dozen times at the end with the Lava Element active, could have gotten the Fallout Platinum Cross out of the way and get me one step closer to Heroic Diamond. Well here is the mortem:
So first thing, deciding what build I'm going to actually use. As mentioned, the Pistol masteries all have serious cons to them; Sharpshooter is the easily the best of the lot and is actually one of the strongest mastery effects in the game when you get it, but the excessive requisite levels of EE and inability to pick up SoB gives it an abominably difficult Phobos, while Sharpshooter isn't so strong as to guarantee winning if you survive long enough to get it. You also are going to need a level of HR at least by Phobos Anomaly to get through it without getting lucky with a Phase Device or floor 7 Invuln, which Sharpshooter is going to have a very hard time getting (you're going to need to basically kill everything and do all the special levels to reach level 8 before Anomaly, which Sharpshooter's early game is going to make very difficult to do, and any delay of getting Sharpshooter to get HR sooner will seriously jeopardize your chances of surviving the brutal late Phobos and early Deimos floors). Then Gun Kata offers a slightly less brutal early game and has HR2 as part of its prereqs, but Gun Kata itself is a rather underwhelming and finicky mastery effect, and the pistols themselves are seriously lacking in power without Sharpshooter or SoB (which Gun Kata blocks) until you get SoG5, while Gun Kata additionally requires a lot more ancillary traits just for a lategame that is still not up to snuff. And last but certainly least is Bullet Dance, which writing down all the problems to would make this OP way too long, but I'll simply note that it blocks Hellrunner, and that alone makes it unviable, as with no access to rocket jumping, it is simply going to get walled hard by N! Phobos Anomaly without Phase Device or powerup luck.
With this all in mind, I go for the unconventional pick with Scavenger, even with this being the pre-buff 0.9.9.7 version that could only dissemble ranged weapons rather than being able to dissemble any equipment. The plan behind it is I play it like a pseudo-Sharpshooter build, but I don't need to pick up a third level of EE and I can pick up levels of SoB that make the early game less hellish, while I can also more easily fit in the aforementioned mandatory level of HR to escape the Anomaly, and then while I will have a much weaker midgame, I can close the gap lategame with the SoB levels and extra mods I get, particularly the rare mods, including giving me a much higher chance at procuring a Demolition Pistol for corpse disposal. With trait order, I immediately gun for SoG3 at the start, this is nonnegotiable as pistols are worth shit all without it. I then follow it up with a level of SoB, even just this one level of SoB makes a significant difference as the chance of knockback per hit with a P-modded pistol doubles from 12% to 24%, significantly increasing the chance of killing bigger enemies before they reach me and helping me knockback enemies into fluids, and it significantly increases the chance of me one-shotting Formers from 40% to 60%. The order of traits after this will then depend on the state of the run; I go for a level of EE after, as that first level of EE is very helpful when pistols do miss an annoyingly high amount without it and it'll make shooting while running a lot more viable, then it's the first level of WK to get more than one mod on my pistols (particularly to get a 2P pistol, which increases the aforementioned knockback chance to 41.7% and Former one-shot chance to 72.2%), then it's the mandatory HR a level earlier than I wanted since I rolled Phobos Lab and it'll be needed there if I want to actually complete it, and then it's SoB2, which aside from the farther DPS increase, now bumps up my knockback chance with a 2P Pistol to 58.3% (i.e. I'll now be knocking back an enemy more often than average between their moves) and the Former one-shot chance to 83.3%. After that, it's the second level of WK to start building assemblies without worrying about losing the inability to mod them later and finishing Scavenger with EE2 -> Int1 -> MSv, and immediately maxing out SoG once I get Scavenger. The traits beyond that aren't very important, but I get Int2 to make the lategame less of a slog, a third level of SoB, and finally a level of Reloader to help with the reloading bottleneck before Carmack.
For the beginning of the run, I simply reset until the bonus starting mod is an Agility mod. People usually do this so they can make a Speedloader Pistol immediately with the Technician's starting Technical mod, but I do this to guarantee I'll have A-modded Boots at least before Anomaly, since it's so important you have the running speed to comfortably outrun the Nightmare enemies there, while it's possible to find no Agility mods in Phobos, especially if you're unable to beat the special levels (one of which, Phobos Lab, you're probably not going to be able to beat without having A-modded Boots prior to it). With the starting Tech mod, I just immediately slap it on my starting Pistol and have no plans to turn it into a Speedloader; the greater firing speed is simply far more valuable at this point of the game and Ammochain boxes can fix the reloading issue in meaningful fights later, while before I get an Ammochain box, I can swap to another fully loaded Pistol in my prepared slot if needed, which takes only 0.2 seconds more than reloading the Speedloader would. I'll additionally be able to turn that T-modded Pistol into an Energy Pistol, Demolition Pistol, or a Storm Bolter if I wanted to later, so even if you don't have Scavenger and thus would be able to get that Tech mod back, you should immediately Tech mod your starting pistol without worrying about "wasting" it.
Strategy on Phobos Base Entry doesn't really change, though you're less likely to get both medkits as you can't use a Shotgun to nigh-guarantee one-shotting the other Shotgunner with a medkit. Floor 2 isn't too bad but the annoyance of being pistol-locked already starts, at least the EXP boost of N! means you'll just need to kill a few enemies to hit level 2, which you direly need ASAP before you try taking on any Pinkies or large enemy groups. Hopefully enough enemies spawn for you to hit level 3 before the end of it because you're gonna really need SoG3 before entering Hell's Arena or going to floor 3, in this run I finished just short but luckily only needed one more kill to hit level 3. I then go into Hell's Arena; even if you don't clear it you should almost always go in and do at least the first wave for the mostly safe EXP. I however do go for the Hell's Arena clear, it's very difficult and even more unbearably tedious in N! AoMr, but getting that guaranteed early Power Mod and Ammochain box is worth it if you're able to do it, even burning all your Small Medkits in the process won't be too bad as the Supercharge + Large Medkit + Blue Armor you get will compensate for that. I do take a big beating though, even when going in with a Berserk near the stairs. There's then the infamous difficulty spike upon entering floor 3 when Hell Knights start appearing and Cacodemons + Pain Elementals follow soon after; whenever I enter a new floor at this point I equip the Ammochain box, as it's crucial to surviving any rough level starts that plop me near these big enemies or the big Pinky group can start appearing on Floor 4. When I establish a foothold in a mostly safe spot, I then unequip the Ammochain to preserve it, you shouldn't waste it when shooting isolated enemies safely behind a corner. If running lowish on health, I'll also equip the Blue Armor when entering stairs, but will similarly unequip it when no longer threatened by Hell Knights or Cacodemons to preserve it, especially as Armor Shards don't start spawning until floor 5 and I may not get another healthy Blue Armor throughout Phobos.
I get a pretty fortunate floor 5 that had a big water river running through it to make corpse disposal less of a hassle, and it contained a little Cacodemon vault that was not only easy to clear out, but also had a Power Mod and Homing Phase. With that second Power mod, I go for WK1 instead of getting SoB2, since a P2 Pistol with SoG3 + SoB1 has a slightly higher knockback chance than a P1 Pistol with SoG3 + SoB2, while it also keeps the T-modded Pistol I have in my offhand less likely to knockback for when I want something to die on the spot it's standing, and that Homing Phase will give me a mulligan when I try the difficult special levels. Speaking of which, next up is the Unchained Court, which most would probably advise against trying in N! AoMr, but it is doable. You'll need to eat some acid balls while berserked to destroy the Baron corpses, or otherwise try to knock them into the lava as you kill them or finagle them into the doorways without getting hit too much. The Arena Master himself won't be too much of a problem if you can save at least one berserk for him, as you can win the damage race and kill him with a pistol before the berserk runs out (keep in mind it's better to fight him from a distance than up close, his attack rate will be much slower when he is zapping you and so he actually has a higher DPS in melee range, especially when his zap isn't as damaging as a typical Archvile zap). Cleanup of the Formers after though will be very annoying, especially if the Arena Master and Barons destroyed most of the center building, if you can't safely door camp you'll have to keep killing the Formers as they revive until you can knock them back into the lava, but if you still have your tactics intact you can use the Arena Master's Staff to gib a couple of them. Given the difficulty of eliminating the Barons and the sheer tedium with disposing the corpses in N! AoMr, I don't blame anyone if they rather only clear Hell's Arena or give up the guaranteed early Power mod + Ammochain from the Arena to get the easy Chained Court, even if it means they would have to do a few more resets to get through Phobos (this will be way more bearable in 0.10 and beyond though, where Pistols have reliable knockback and clearing special levels was changed to kill each distinct enemy once rather than needing everything dead simultaneously).
After some standard tough late Phobos floors, I rolled Phobos Lab for the floor 7 special level instead of Military Base. About anyone would probably advise that going into N! Phobos Lab in AoMr is suicide, especially not without HR2 and Tactical Boots, but with several Large Medkits and my running speed exceeding the crucial 0.71 seconds benchmark by a comfortable amount (the speed of Nightmare Demons), I decide to give it a shot, especially since I could always Homing Phase out if I truly got in an unsurviveable position, and no Invuln nor Berserk spawned on Phobos 7 anyway to use for Phobos Anomaly. I did get in a terrible spot early on when a respawned Sergeant opened the door I was trying to camp out some Nightmare Demons behind, I survived it but had to burn both Small Medkits when I wanted to save them for restoring running (fortunately the back Nightmare Demon was already almost dead and so immediately died in the acid). Phobos Lab ends up taking a while but I'm able to clear it, not without burning a lot of medkits and taking a whopping 280 damage on the level though. Then it's Phobos Anomaly, where with HR and A-modded Boots, I'm able to outrun the ambush, and then I simply run pass the Bruisers since even with a Radsuit on I can't quite beat them in an open damage race and getting pincer'd by the Nightmare enemies would end me, though I still take a large chunk of damage and lose my bid at 100% kills, which sucks but it's not worth trying to kill the N! Anomaly enemies in AoMr.
Deimos would very conveniently start me right next to a massacre lever, not as helpful as it would have been in Phobos but permanently eliminating a bunch of Formers and weakening the bigger enemies still gave me a nice breather of a floor. I rolled Hell's Armory for the Deimos 1 special level, which I don't mind for another relative breather, and I indeed clear it out without having to expend any medkits after using a radsuit to get the Supercharge. The weapon cache unfortunately didn't have an Exotic pistol, and the big reward of a Sniper mod is ok but was what I wanted least, I just put it on a spare Pistol while I turn my 2P pistol into an Energy Pistol and prime my T1 pistol with another T + P mod to eventually make it into a Demolition Pistol. With the P-modded Energy Pistol and sufficient levels of SoG + SoB, I'm able to go through The Wall, which I do by shooting a one-tile wide tunnel at the top, where I then wait until I see a Baron pop up near the end, shoot it, retreat behind the corner, make sure I finish off the Baron diagonally in front of me, and then stand on the Baron corpse while I wait for another Baron to pop up so it cannot get up. If one of the Archviles pop up, I shoot at it and then once I see it raise its arms, I move back behind the wall to avoid the zap and have it blow up the Baron corpse for me. Repeating this until I get the last Baron as a corpse, I then go retrieve the Backpack + the Missile Launcher for later Scavenging and wait for the respawned Baron to come near this area, where I can then finish it off in the doorway to get rid of the final Baron corpse. I would enter City Of Skulls after this to keep the Explorer Pin intact, but I don't release the Lost Souls, as I didn't want to have to risk burning my Homing Phase that I would need to not die in Halls Of Carnage. And indeed I would roll Halls Of Carnage on Deimos 6, where after retrieving the first mod with the aid of a berserk, I just Homing Phase to the stairs, grab the BFG to use a cell backpack, and then wait on the stairs until the lava catches up, but immediately descend once I saw a Baron in the lava staring me down and knowing the Nightmare Cacos were around to pop up at any moment.
While I didn't really need the Backpack from The Wall, getting the Missile Launcher there and my Scavenger strat would pay off, as upon finally getting Scavenger on Deimos 6 and dissembling a couple non-Pistol exotic weapons I had, dissembling the Missile Launcher would net me a Firestorm mod, that I immediately use to make a Demolition Pistol. The very next floor though would have a random Firestorm mod right next to a Unique, teasing me for getting Scavenger just to make a Demolition Pistol one floor early (unfortunately you can't put Firestorms on explosive weapons with a radius smaller than 3 for some asinine reason in this version, so I can just slap that second Firestorm on my BFG to maybe make a Biggest Fucking Gun later, or rather a Biggest Fucking Cellpack). That Unique was a Railgun though, so Scavenger does pay off definitively by getting me a second Sniper mod and thus allowing me to use a very useful 2S Pistol for unobstructed out-of-vision shooting. Hell 1 would have a Mega Buster that I then dissemble into... a third Sniper, which you can apply up to three Snipers on a single weapon, but in this version the third Sniper does nothing, so this was a useless drop.
Once I get the Demolition Pistol and 2S Pistol alongside SoG4 and 5, the run becomes much easier, though it still had heart-stopping moments like me accidentally stepping into a Commando's view and eating a full plasma volley that nearly kills me. I go into the Cathedral for Explorer but leave instantly, and then I go into the Vaults that is trivial to clear, while it too pays off with a Trigun. I have the dilemma to keep the Trigun as a much stronger pistol for in-vision enemies than the other pistols I have on or scavenge it for the guaranteed Nano mod; I decided to keep it, since I figure it's too late to build something with the Nano mod that would be better than having the Trigun itself. The game isn't going down easy after this, with Hell 4 being a Pain Elemental cave (it had a Hell Staff that I can't dissemble but bring along with me), Hell 6 being a maze with a lot of barrels, and Hell 7 being yet another barrel level. I would also venture into Limbo, and upon seeing a bunch of Archviles in vision at the start, I contemplate using the Hell Staff to try getting me out immediately... or stick around and try clearing it. And after successfully clearing out the starting island, I would use the Demolition Pistol to weed out the enemies on the other islands before raising the bridges (since the explosions would hurt several bunched up enemies and launch them into the lava), while then taking advantage of the 2S Pistol to shoot enemies out of vision off the bridge into the lava (or sometimes used the Energy Pistol to save ammo after farming an Arachnotron for cells). This process took a long time but eventually I'm able to kill every last one of them. Explorer is then secured by being able to freely enter The Lava Pits, though I clear it too even without a Radsuit or lava immune boots, taking advantage of the Hell Staff to get me across the lava where I then have the overabundance of Radsuits in this version of Lava Pits to get me back safely. Finally, Carmack, as usual in this version, is a pushover, as I can keep hammering away at him and his spawns with the Demolition Pistol after he knocks me out of vision.
Well damn, that was a big writeup, this was a long and pretty excruciating run, belying it only being my second attempt that didn't reset at Phobos Base Entry (the first made it to Deimos, but I fucked up in Unchained Court by trying to wait for an almost dead Arena Master to die in lava instead of finishing him off, forgetting that all Viles were bugged to be immune to fluids in this version, getting me hit with a zap without berserk and destroying most of the central building, a mistake that lost me two large medkits and put me in a hole I never recovered from that was followed by nasty mazes on Phobos 6 and Deimos 1, and me fruitlessly trying to fight the Bruisers instead of just running past them, with me ultimately throwing against the Revenants on Deimos Lab). Pistols are just so bad before 0.10... there are few Diamonds I think will end up being more unpleasant than this one, and even if several of the remaining Diamonds end up being harder, I'll probably enjoy the process of going for them more. I also kick myself for not taking the opportunity to Angel Arm a half dozen times at the end with the Lava Element active, could have gotten the Fallout Platinum Cross out of the way and get me one step closer to Heroic Diamond. Well here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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pistols :((, level 17 Cyberdemon Chaos Lt. Colonel Technician,
nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 1898450 turns and scored 979564 points.
He played for 6 hours, 12 minutes and 18 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1878 out of 2009 hellspawn. (93%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Marksmanship!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 11
Levels completed : 8
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Aurora Medallion
Explorer Badge
Grim Reaper's Badge
Hell Armorer Badge
Hell Champion Medal
Marksman Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 75/50 Experience 159564/17
ToHit Ranged +4 ToHit Melee +4 ToDmg Ranged +3 ToDmg Melee +3
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Technician
Hellrunner (Level 1)
Son of a bitch (Level 3)
Son of a gun (Level 5)
Reloader (Level 1)
Eagle Eye (Level 2)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Scavenger (Level 1)
SoG->SoG->SoG->SoB->EE->WK->HR->SoB->WK->EE->Int->MSc->SoG->SoG->Int->SoB->Rel->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] fireproof red armor [4/4] (91%) (A)
[b] [ Weapon ] demolition pistol (4d2) [2/8] (B1)
[c] [ Boots ] Nyarlaptotep's Boots [6/6] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] 10mm ammo chain (x206)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] pistol (2d6) [8/8] (B1P2S2)
[b] energy pistol (2d6) [6/6] (P1)
[c] BFG 9000 (10d6) [220/220] (B3F1)
[d] Trigun (3d6) [2/6]
[e] red armor [4/4] (200%) (B)
[f] red armor [4/4] (190%) (B)
[g] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
[h] 10mm ammo (x140)
[i] 10mm ammo (x116)
[j] power cell (x70)
[k] power cell (x70)
[l] small med-pack
[m] small med-pack
[n] small med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] envirosuit pack
[r] Hell Staff
[s] tactical boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
[t] 10mm ammo chain (x250)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Melee - internal 0% torso -30% feet 0%
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 30%
Fire - internal 0% torso 55% feet 30%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
225 former humans
202 former sergeants
66 former captains
403 imps
86 demons
271 lost souls
65 cacodemons
61 hell knights
94 barons of hell
110 arachnotrons
19 former commandos
43 pain elementals
74 revenants
41 mancubi
49 arch-viles
4 nightmare imps
7 nightmare cacodemons
36 nightmare demons
16 nightmare arachnotrons
1 shambler
1 lava elemental
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
He broke through the lab.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 9 he assembled a energy pistol!
On level 9 he assembled a fireproof armor!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
He fled the City in terror!
Level 13 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 14 he assembled a demolition ammo!
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he found the Railgun!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 17 he found the Mega Buster!
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
He fled the Unholy Cathedral seeing no chance to win.
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
On level 19 he found the Trigun!
He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
On level 20 he found the Hell Staff!
On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
On level 22 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
Then at last he found Dis!
He nuked level 24!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
wear/wield : a demolition pistol (4d2) [8/8] (B1)
The missile hits John Carmack.
The missile hits John Carmack.
The missile hits John Carmack. The cacodemon dies. You are hit!
You hear the scream of a freed soul! You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You quickly reload the demolition pistol.
You quickly reload the demolition pistol.
You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You quickly reload the demolition pistol.
You quickly reload the demolition pistol.
You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You hear the scream of a freed soul! You hear the scream of a freed soul! You
hear the scream of a freed soul!
You hear the scream of a freed soul! Congratulations! You defeated John
Carmack! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
259 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
85 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
91 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
76 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
39 killed the bitch and survived.
31 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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14
Nightmare! / (0.9.9.7) [N!|AoCn|100%|YAFW] - Reaper Diamond, no melee build nor AoMC required
« on: December 05, 2025, 08:31 »
For my next 0.9.9.7 Diamond, I decided to go for Reaper Diamond, which according to the Badge Hunters thread, is one of the rarest Diamonds, with only three players recorded to have won it, being felttippen, Tormuse, and Icy (and papilio claimed to have won all Diamonds but Arena Diamond and the two grinding ones in Technician/Armorer, which I believe him though he never posted his Reaper Diamond mortem that I can find). None of these runs did it pure either, with felttippen and Icy mixing AoCn with AoMC to get it, and Tormuse mixed it with AoB, which notably starts you with a Chainsaw when mixed with AoCn. Now is this because Reaper Diamond was actually one of the hardest Diamonds? Ehhhhh....
Well the process of beating Mortuary or Limbo in Angel of Confidence isn't all that much harder, as you'll only be a couple levels weaker by the time you reach it if you kill most enemies along the way and you still get to access all the Deimos special levels that have the guaranteed rewards critical to beating Mortuary/Limbo. The difficulty of this badge comes however from getting said rewards from the Deimos special levels without all the levels and equipment you would have gotten from Phobos, most notably you only get a single floor of preparation now before Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab. This still won't be that big of a hurdle though if you just play a melee build; even with just a Combat Knife, you'll have little issue beating the Shamblers once you get Berserker, you just might need to reset a few times to get a floor 1 that can be cleared and not deplete all your medkits, then Vampyre or Blademaster will have a completely free time in City Of Skulls/Abyssal Plains, would be fast enough to easily handle N! Halls Of Carnage without a Homing Phase, and they'll of course have a free Unholy Cathedral as well to get the Spear or Scythe.
Given how much I have used melee builds in 0.9.9.7, and will continue to do so with 0.9.9.7's relative lack of compellingly viable options for most Diamond/Angelic badges, I wanted to try getting Reaper Diamond first without using a melee build. For this, I decided to go with Ammochain, since if I'm not going Berserker, my best shot at beating the Shambler(s) after a single floor would be with rapid fire, and I also don't see myself going with Ammochain for much if any of the remaining Diamonds/Angelics (maybe Inquisitor Diamond or the Lightfoot badges, and that's it). If I was forced to reset an annoying amount when trying to beat the Shambler(s) here without a melee build, I was ready to just go play melee and get it over with.
In the first attempt, I got a Deimos 1 with a convenient river and immediate accessible Berserk Pack but no good cover, and so I can kill everything on it but not without using up all my Medkits and not getting any back. Hell's Armory spawned and I was able to exploit the old "camp in the first north building" tactic to kill all the enemies with little damage, and then the weapon cache had a Laser Rifle, perhaps the best find for Ammochain and so I should have maybe just left the level here. With a Radsuit in stock from the prior floor that meant I could get the Supercharge, I decided to release the Shambler and try retreating back to the Supercharge, where I could then fight him in all that lava with Supercharged health. However I would get bad luck with the teleports, having to burn my running midway and getting brought near death as he got a good amount of hits on me, and then tragically he would end up killing me only one tile away from the Supercharge...
In the second attempt, I would get a Pinkies + Lost Souls cave for Deimos 1. This is very bad EXP wise, but the floor was really easy and so I didn't need to burn any Medkits, while I also got another Large Medkit on it with no Formers nor Nobles to steal it. I get Hell's Armoy again and after leading off with Fin -> SoB2, I decided to deviate farther from Ammochain's prereqs and get Juggler. This paid off, as after farming a Commando for a ton of Plasma Rifles, I exploit the Juggling Overcharged Plasma Rifles trick to kill the Shambler without getting hit. Unfortunately I did get hit quite a bit at the start of the level, so no Shambler's Head, and farther unfortunately the weapon cache had nothing useful in it. I get a Sniper Mod for the big reward, and rather than making a Plasma Shotgun, I decide to save it for a Hyperblaster, as that mostly fixes Ammochain's big flaw of no EE. While the weapon cache was a letdown, I ended up finding an Assault Shotgun on Deimos 2 anyway, so that's a great general find to helping me just survive through the game. With wanting to make the Hyperblaster ASAP, I decide to go for getting WK2, which would put Ammochain off all the way until level 12, but I need a more reliable rapid fire weapon when I have no EE and I don't want to hoard all the mods I have until then when I need inventory space for the upcoming Skulls and other useful stuff.
The next special level is The Wall, which with a Rocket Launcher found on Deimos 2, I'm able to go in and clear it easily. I reach WK2 there and so I'm able to build the Hyperblaster plus slap the Sniper Mod on it. It is then City Of Skulls, which with a PPT Assault Shotgun and still having the Shell Box from Armory intact, is also easily beaten, while I get one of each Skull; I obviously take the Hatred Skull, being the most useful item for Mortuary/Limbo by far, but I also take a Blood Skull, since it would allow me to gib the corpses around the Nuclear BFG without risking destroying it nor having to use the aforementioned Hatred Skull there (which I would much rather pop immediately). The normal Deimos floors weren't particularly remarkable up to this point, with me getting an unusual high amount of small rooms levels, but in Deimos 6 I would find a second Sniper mod. Unfortunately I'm not playing a Technician in 0.9.9.8 or later, where I then could have gotten WK3 and put a second Sniper on my Hyperblaster to blast away at out-of-vision enemies as much as I want, but it's still very nice to build a Plasmatic Shotgun with a spare Power Mod I had lying around in my inventory just to make corpse disposing in Nightmare less tedious. For the next special level, I was really hoping I got Spider's Lair, as aside from being much easier on N! than Halls Of Carnage, the latter level simply would have been way too dangerous for a build with no HR, only A-modded Steel Boots, no speed-boosting armor, and while I had no Homing Phase to just zip immediately to the BFG. I could have maybe done it with lots of rocket jumping, but even if that worked, I probably would have severely burned through my armors and medkits doing that + getting through the Nightmare enemies in the maze, so I was going to just skip it and accept doing Mortuary/Limbo without the BFG if Halls spawned. Fortunately it was Spider's Lair that spawned, which I was able to go in and clear for the easy BFG.
At this point, it's just making it to Mortuary/Limbo now. Cybie goes down without much of a fight, the first few Hell floors are unremarkable other than me finally getting Ammochain, and I skip Cathedral as I'm unable to beat it with what I have (an Invuln spawned on Hell 1 but no nuke), while I then skip the Vaults as I didn't even have a Phase Device to try gambling and I didn't want to throw the 100% kills I had going by only partially clearing it. In Hell 4 I would get a rather nasty frozen event in a maze, but thanks to the S-modded Hyperblaster and juiced up Assault Shotgun, I'm able to fight without good cover and kill everything without burning Medkits. In that maze I at last then find I get Mortuary, the much harder of it and Limbo in this version, and I'm thoroughly prepared for it. In Mortuary, I employ my usual opener of immediately popping a Hatred Skull, Hyperblaster down an Archvile blocking the way, then rocket jump to the eastern area, shoot some BFG blasts to blow up most of the corpses in the right area, rocket jump farther right, pop the Blood Skull to destroy the corpses around the Nuclear BFG and then rocket jump to the Nuclear BFG. With the Nuclear BFG secured, I then rocket jump back to the western side of the map, blow up most of the corpses there with the BFG that haven't gotten up yet while berserk + P-modded Red Armor lets me tank the hits from all the enemies around, and then rocket jump back out to the foothold I had set up on the eastern side. With this successful opening that takes out most of the corpses, Mortuary maxes out with no more than a few dozen enemies up at once, at which point it's a fairly easy mop up and I finish N! Mortuary with less than 100 damage taken. I could just kill myself at this point and get Reaper Diamond, but I finish out the run and go for the full win to kill Carmack for good measure (and to help build towards Apostle rank, which I'm not so far from now). With Reaper Diamond, I'm also halfway towards getting all the Diamonds in 0.9.9.7.
Overall, yeah Reaper Diamond doesn't seem it was really that hard, especially if you just do it with a melee build, cheese it by mixing AoCn with AoMC, or cheese it with Whisper Of Death spam. Is its rarity a matter of people just being overly spooked by the thought of taking on N! Mortuary with a bit less preparation? Way more people should have won this badge. Anyway here is the mortem:
Well the process of beating Mortuary or Limbo in Angel of Confidence isn't all that much harder, as you'll only be a couple levels weaker by the time you reach it if you kill most enemies along the way and you still get to access all the Deimos special levels that have the guaranteed rewards critical to beating Mortuary/Limbo. The difficulty of this badge comes however from getting said rewards from the Deimos special levels without all the levels and equipment you would have gotten from Phobos, most notably you only get a single floor of preparation now before Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab. This still won't be that big of a hurdle though if you just play a melee build; even with just a Combat Knife, you'll have little issue beating the Shamblers once you get Berserker, you just might need to reset a few times to get a floor 1 that can be cleared and not deplete all your medkits, then Vampyre or Blademaster will have a completely free time in City Of Skulls/Abyssal Plains, would be fast enough to easily handle N! Halls Of Carnage without a Homing Phase, and they'll of course have a free Unholy Cathedral as well to get the Spear or Scythe.
Given how much I have used melee builds in 0.9.9.7, and will continue to do so with 0.9.9.7's relative lack of compellingly viable options for most Diamond/Angelic badges, I wanted to try getting Reaper Diamond first without using a melee build. For this, I decided to go with Ammochain, since if I'm not going Berserker, my best shot at beating the Shambler(s) after a single floor would be with rapid fire, and I also don't see myself going with Ammochain for much if any of the remaining Diamonds/Angelics (maybe Inquisitor Diamond or the Lightfoot badges, and that's it). If I was forced to reset an annoying amount when trying to beat the Shambler(s) here without a melee build, I was ready to just go play melee and get it over with.
In the first attempt, I got a Deimos 1 with a convenient river and immediate accessible Berserk Pack but no good cover, and so I can kill everything on it but not without using up all my Medkits and not getting any back. Hell's Armory spawned and I was able to exploit the old "camp in the first north building" tactic to kill all the enemies with little damage, and then the weapon cache had a Laser Rifle, perhaps the best find for Ammochain and so I should have maybe just left the level here. With a Radsuit in stock from the prior floor that meant I could get the Supercharge, I decided to release the Shambler and try retreating back to the Supercharge, where I could then fight him in all that lava with Supercharged health. However I would get bad luck with the teleports, having to burn my running midway and getting brought near death as he got a good amount of hits on me, and then tragically he would end up killing me only one tile away from the Supercharge...
In the second attempt, I would get a Pinkies + Lost Souls cave for Deimos 1. This is very bad EXP wise, but the floor was really easy and so I didn't need to burn any Medkits, while I also got another Large Medkit on it with no Formers nor Nobles to steal it. I get Hell's Armoy again and after leading off with Fin -> SoB2, I decided to deviate farther from Ammochain's prereqs and get Juggler. This paid off, as after farming a Commando for a ton of Plasma Rifles, I exploit the Juggling Overcharged Plasma Rifles trick to kill the Shambler without getting hit. Unfortunately I did get hit quite a bit at the start of the level, so no Shambler's Head, and farther unfortunately the weapon cache had nothing useful in it. I get a Sniper Mod for the big reward, and rather than making a Plasma Shotgun, I decide to save it for a Hyperblaster, as that mostly fixes Ammochain's big flaw of no EE. While the weapon cache was a letdown, I ended up finding an Assault Shotgun on Deimos 2 anyway, so that's a great general find to helping me just survive through the game. With wanting to make the Hyperblaster ASAP, I decide to go for getting WK2, which would put Ammochain off all the way until level 12, but I need a more reliable rapid fire weapon when I have no EE and I don't want to hoard all the mods I have until then when I need inventory space for the upcoming Skulls and other useful stuff.
The next special level is The Wall, which with a Rocket Launcher found on Deimos 2, I'm able to go in and clear it easily. I reach WK2 there and so I'm able to build the Hyperblaster plus slap the Sniper Mod on it. It is then City Of Skulls, which with a PPT Assault Shotgun and still having the Shell Box from Armory intact, is also easily beaten, while I get one of each Skull; I obviously take the Hatred Skull, being the most useful item for Mortuary/Limbo by far, but I also take a Blood Skull, since it would allow me to gib the corpses around the Nuclear BFG without risking destroying it nor having to use the aforementioned Hatred Skull there (which I would much rather pop immediately). The normal Deimos floors weren't particularly remarkable up to this point, with me getting an unusual high amount of small rooms levels, but in Deimos 6 I would find a second Sniper mod. Unfortunately I'm not playing a Technician in 0.9.9.8 or later, where I then could have gotten WK3 and put a second Sniper on my Hyperblaster to blast away at out-of-vision enemies as much as I want, but it's still very nice to build a Plasmatic Shotgun with a spare Power Mod I had lying around in my inventory just to make corpse disposing in Nightmare less tedious. For the next special level, I was really hoping I got Spider's Lair, as aside from being much easier on N! than Halls Of Carnage, the latter level simply would have been way too dangerous for a build with no HR, only A-modded Steel Boots, no speed-boosting armor, and while I had no Homing Phase to just zip immediately to the BFG. I could have maybe done it with lots of rocket jumping, but even if that worked, I probably would have severely burned through my armors and medkits doing that + getting through the Nightmare enemies in the maze, so I was going to just skip it and accept doing Mortuary/Limbo without the BFG if Halls spawned. Fortunately it was Spider's Lair that spawned, which I was able to go in and clear for the easy BFG.
At this point, it's just making it to Mortuary/Limbo now. Cybie goes down without much of a fight, the first few Hell floors are unremarkable other than me finally getting Ammochain, and I skip Cathedral as I'm unable to beat it with what I have (an Invuln spawned on Hell 1 but no nuke), while I then skip the Vaults as I didn't even have a Phase Device to try gambling and I didn't want to throw the 100% kills I had going by only partially clearing it. In Hell 4 I would get a rather nasty frozen event in a maze, but thanks to the S-modded Hyperblaster and juiced up Assault Shotgun, I'm able to fight without good cover and kill everything without burning Medkits. In that maze I at last then find I get Mortuary, the much harder of it and Limbo in this version, and I'm thoroughly prepared for it. In Mortuary, I employ my usual opener of immediately popping a Hatred Skull, Hyperblaster down an Archvile blocking the way, then rocket jump to the eastern area, shoot some BFG blasts to blow up most of the corpses in the right area, rocket jump farther right, pop the Blood Skull to destroy the corpses around the Nuclear BFG and then rocket jump to the Nuclear BFG. With the Nuclear BFG secured, I then rocket jump back to the western side of the map, blow up most of the corpses there with the BFG that haven't gotten up yet while berserk + P-modded Red Armor lets me tank the hits from all the enemies around, and then rocket jump back out to the foothold I had set up on the eastern side. With this successful opening that takes out most of the corpses, Mortuary maxes out with no more than a few dozen enemies up at once, at which point it's a fairly easy mop up and I finish N! Mortuary with less than 100 damage taken. I could just kill myself at this point and get Reaper Diamond, but I finish out the run and go for the full win to kill Carmack for good measure (and to help build towards Apostle rank, which I'm not so far from now). With Reaper Diamond, I'm also halfway towards getting all the Diamonds in 0.9.9.7.
Overall, yeah Reaper Diamond doesn't seem it was really that hard, especially if you just do it with a melee build, cheese it by mixing AoCn with AoMC, or cheese it with Whisper Of Death spam. Is its rarity a matter of people just being overly spooked by the thought of taking on N! Mortuary with a bit less preparation? Way more people should have won this badge. Anyway here is the mortem:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
greg, level 16 Cyberdemon Chaos Lt. Colonel Marine,
defeated the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
He survived 871073 turns and scored 824973 points.
He played for 3 hours, 55 minutes and 19 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1545 out of 1545 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Angel of Confidence!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 8
Levels visited : 6
Levels completed : 6
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Medal of Prejudice
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Grim Reaper's Badge
Hell Armorer Badge
Reaper Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 76/60 Experience 135896/16
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +4 ToDmg Melee +4
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Marine
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 1)
Son of a bitch (Level 4)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Triggerhappy (Level 2)
Ammochain (Level 1)
Fin->SoB->SoB->Jug->TH->Fin->WK->WK->Rel->Rel->TH->MAc->SoB->Fin->HR->SoB->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [6/6] (97%) (P)
[b] [ Weapon ] hyperblaster (2d4)x3 [23/40] (S1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] power battery (x120)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] plasmatic shotgun (8d3) [1/1] (T1)
[b] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (B1)
[c] assault shotgun (10d3) [6/6] (P3T1)
[d] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [40/40]
[e] BFG 9000 (10d6) [100/100]
[f] fireproof red armor [4/4] (71%)
[g] duelist armor [4/4] (100%) (P)
[h] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
[i] shotgun shell (x70)
[j] rocket (x6)
[k] rocket (x14)
[l] power cell (x70)
[m] power cell (x70)
[n] power cell (x70)
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] large med-pack
[r] large med-pack
[s] plasteel boots [4/4] (93%) (PT)
[t] shell box (x100)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
60 former humans
144 former sergeants
53 former captains
155 imps
68 demons
484 lost souls
68 cacodemons
21 hell knights
70 barons of hell
105 arachnotrons
140 former commandos
48 pain elementals
33 revenants
52 mancubi
38 arch-viles
1 shambler
1 lava elemental
1 agony elemental
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
1 John Carmack
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
On level 1 he entered Hell's Armory.
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 3 he witnessed the Wall.
On level 3 he assembled a hyperblaster!
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
On level 4 he found the City of Skulls.
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
On level 6 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
On level 6 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
On level 8 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 10 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 12, hell froze over!
On level 12 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
On level 12 he found the Angelic Armor!
He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
On level 14 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 14 he assembled a fireproof armor!
On level 14 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
Then at last he found Dis!
He nuked level 16!
He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
Carmack. Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn!
The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
Carmack.
The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
Carmack.
The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
Carmack.
The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
Carmack.
The missile hits John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You
defeated John Carmack! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
257 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
84 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
91 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
75 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
39 killed the bitch and survived.
30 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------
15
Century Lounge / (0.9.9.7) [N!|A100|99%|YAVP] - 8 kills shy of a 100% Centurial Diamond
« on: December 01, 2025, 23:08 »
With having two days off from work, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get Centurial Diamond out of the way (as well as Dervis' Medallion to build towards Heroic Diamond, of which I'm now 7 medals shy from). It's not that hard by Diamond standards (this is before 0.10 greatly enhanced later game A100 and so lategame A100 here largely devolves into a nonstop barrage of VMRB hordes that are more tedious to get through than actually dangerous for a lategame A100 player), but since 0.9.9.7 still disallowed you from saving on Nightmare, you really want a good amount of time to set aside for it, lest you'll be leaving DRL running on your computer overnight or when you're away.
For the build, I just went with yet another Blademaster. I was thinking doing something more unique than the other recorded Centurial Diamond runs, but given the aforementioned inability to save and not wanting to leave the game on overnight, I just went with the build that would get me through the game fastest. When it came to trait order, I do lead off with getting Finesse -> Juggler and push Blademaster back in the process, since having Juggler really helps for an early game that is substantially harder without the guaranteed loot from the special levels, while the lack of a guaranteed Chainsaw means Blademaster won't be quite as strong until later anyway. Unlike in most of my other runs, I do often get two levels of Intuition in A100 mainly to speed the game pace up, but I don't pick it up here until halfway into my traits, as I wanted to get in a strong place combat-wise first before picking up the Intuition levels. And then as usual for my Berserker runs, I avoid getting Ironman to not mess with my Berserker procs.
When it comes to the run itself, I was planning to stair dive at some point as I wanted to get this done in a single sitting, and so in one of the Phobos floors I let two Pinkies go on a floor that would have been more annoying than it was worth to destroy their corpses. However I did get too tired and so did end up just leaving the game running overnight. I came to regret letting those early Pinkies go, as after returning back to the game I ended up getting in a groove that saw me killing nearly everything anyway and so narrowly missed out on getting the only 100% N! A100 run in 0.9.9.7 (the remaining six missed kills must have been enemies that got back up right when I went down stairs, there were some corpses I didn't bother destroying since the chance at 100% kills was already lost). Guess I'll just need to settle for the Centurial Diamond mortem that came closest to 100% :p
Some notes about the run:
* This run had an unusual shortage of Bulk mods for much of it, not being able to make the ever reliable Tactical Rocket Launcher until floor 43. Then when I decided to make a Nanofiber Red Armor not long after that when I had some stretches without Armor Shards that endangered my armor supply, I couldn't find another Bulk mod to make it until floor 68.
* No Uniques spawned at all until floor 44, where it was then just the lowly pre-buff Necroarmor. The second half of the run would have a large amount of Uniques though, including the Laptop Boots on floor 65 that I held onto just in case... which then paid off when I got Malek's armor on floor 79, and with this being pre-nerf Inquisitor Set, it was nearly IDDQD at that point. I didn't need the Inquisitor Set to win as I was mostly mindlessly rampaging through floors at this point, but still very nice for allowing me to get through the lategame even faster.
* After getting the Inquisitor Set I would finally pick up a level of Ironman for my last level, as I no longer needed Berserker for VMR insurance, and with facerockets no longer damaging, I didn't need to care about facerocketing to trigger Berserker sometimes taking a few more rockets.
* I was able to complete the Phaseshift Set too, but again since this is the version of Inquisitor Set before its speed nerf, before fluids in later A100 were more varied than "oops all lava!", before fluids slowed down non-flying entities, and before greater enemy variety was introduced, the Phaseshift Set was mostly obsolete. Still held onto it though just in case I ever found a Nano mod to make Antigrav Phaseshift Boots...
* ...Which I never did, nor did I find any other rare mods for that matter until a Firestorm right near the end of the game I could do nothing useful with.
* Also never found any of the special melee weapons, so I had to rely on a P-modded Chainsword for the whole run, which was adequate but it would have been nice to have something that would have let me get through the game even faster. The Dragonslayer as Blademaster would have been the dream of course, especially as the Dragonslayer is one of two uniques I need to find one more of for Armorer Diamond (the other is the Subtle Knife, which as trash as it is, was disappointing to not find, I really do not want to get to a point where I have to intentionally grind out A666 runs to finally get Armorer Diamond...)
* Got a Lava Elemental Cave only a few floors after getting the Inquisitor Set. Not that they would have been a real threat anyway though, as I had Cerberus Boots and 0.9.9.7 has the wimpy pre-buff Lava Elemental.
* I got a couple nuke levels late in the game, but by that point I was going through floors so fast that I would get everything dead and gibbed before a minute even passed.
* I remade a Tactical Shotgun after getting WK2 so I could put a Power Mod on it, but it didn't really matter as 99% of my weapon usage for the last three quarters of the game was meleeing or using the (Tactical) Rocket Launcher to rocket jump, trigger Berserker, break walls, and destroy corpses. I occasionally shotgunned a group of Formers that were being annoying but that was about it.
* Somehow avoided getting a single Nightmare Arachnotron Cave, which was appreciated as they're the only level type in 0.9.9.7 (alongside the rare yet very deadly Shambler levels) that could have really threatened me, especially after I got the Inquisitor Set.
* I encountered two Barons with a Ballistic Shield during this run, which both instances at least occurred late enough where it was more amusing rather than the potential run ender it could have been if it happened early in the game (and it allowed me to make use of a Laser Rifle I held onto for about 75% of the run but never actually used otherwise).
This overall only took me one attempt, a nice change of pace after those AoOC Diamonds that were much quicker but required a lot more resetting. Going back to 0.9.9.7 and its version of A100 after experiencing 0.9.9.9/0.10's vastly improved A100, I wonder how I ever enjoyed this mode as much as I did in 0.9.9.7's heyday; almost all the levels look the damn same after only floor 16, the difficulty curve is out of whack (A100's difficulty is even more front-loaded than most other challenges, and you get a big lull in new threats being introduced when you reach the floor 25+ range, until you get a sudden big spike at floor 44/47/50, and then it mostly flatlines again until you get one more big spike with most of the remaining enemies getting introduced at floor 74/77/80), and all those VMRB hordes you punch through for over three quarters of the game can get mind-numbing. I will probably go for Centurial Angelic, but after that I'll certainly be glad to not play A100 in 0.9.9.7 again, especially on N! when 0.10 or even 0.9.9.8 would actually let you save and take breaks without having to leave the game running. Anyway, here is the big mortem:
For the build, I just went with yet another Blademaster. I was thinking doing something more unique than the other recorded Centurial Diamond runs, but given the aforementioned inability to save and not wanting to leave the game on overnight, I just went with the build that would get me through the game fastest. When it came to trait order, I do lead off with getting Finesse -> Juggler and push Blademaster back in the process, since having Juggler really helps for an early game that is substantially harder without the guaranteed loot from the special levels, while the lack of a guaranteed Chainsaw means Blademaster won't be quite as strong until later anyway. Unlike in most of my other runs, I do often get two levels of Intuition in A100 mainly to speed the game pace up, but I don't pick it up here until halfway into my traits, as I wanted to get in a strong place combat-wise first before picking up the Intuition levels. And then as usual for my Berserker runs, I avoid getting Ironman to not mess with my Berserker procs.
When it comes to the run itself, I was planning to stair dive at some point as I wanted to get this done in a single sitting, and so in one of the Phobos floors I let two Pinkies go on a floor that would have been more annoying than it was worth to destroy their corpses. However I did get too tired and so did end up just leaving the game running overnight. I came to regret letting those early Pinkies go, as after returning back to the game I ended up getting in a groove that saw me killing nearly everything anyway and so narrowly missed out on getting the only 100% N! A100 run in 0.9.9.7 (the remaining six missed kills must have been enemies that got back up right when I went down stairs, there were some corpses I didn't bother destroying since the chance at 100% kills was already lost). Guess I'll just need to settle for the Centurial Diamond mortem that came closest to 100% :p
Some notes about the run:
* This run had an unusual shortage of Bulk mods for much of it, not being able to make the ever reliable Tactical Rocket Launcher until floor 43. Then when I decided to make a Nanofiber Red Armor not long after that when I had some stretches without Armor Shards that endangered my armor supply, I couldn't find another Bulk mod to make it until floor 68.
* No Uniques spawned at all until floor 44, where it was then just the lowly pre-buff Necroarmor. The second half of the run would have a large amount of Uniques though, including the Laptop Boots on floor 65 that I held onto just in case... which then paid off when I got Malek's armor on floor 79, and with this being pre-nerf Inquisitor Set, it was nearly IDDQD at that point. I didn't need the Inquisitor Set to win as I was mostly mindlessly rampaging through floors at this point, but still very nice for allowing me to get through the lategame even faster.
* After getting the Inquisitor Set I would finally pick up a level of Ironman for my last level, as I no longer needed Berserker for VMR insurance, and with facerockets no longer damaging, I didn't need to care about facerocketing to trigger Berserker sometimes taking a few more rockets.
* I was able to complete the Phaseshift Set too, but again since this is the version of Inquisitor Set before its speed nerf, before fluids in later A100 were more varied than "oops all lava!", before fluids slowed down non-flying entities, and before greater enemy variety was introduced, the Phaseshift Set was mostly obsolete. Still held onto it though just in case I ever found a Nano mod to make Antigrav Phaseshift Boots...
* ...Which I never did, nor did I find any other rare mods for that matter until a Firestorm right near the end of the game I could do nothing useful with.
* Also never found any of the special melee weapons, so I had to rely on a P-modded Chainsword for the whole run, which was adequate but it would have been nice to have something that would have let me get through the game even faster. The Dragonslayer as Blademaster would have been the dream of course, especially as the Dragonslayer is one of two uniques I need to find one more of for Armorer Diamond (the other is the Subtle Knife, which as trash as it is, was disappointing to not find, I really do not want to get to a point where I have to intentionally grind out A666 runs to finally get Armorer Diamond...)
* Got a Lava Elemental Cave only a few floors after getting the Inquisitor Set. Not that they would have been a real threat anyway though, as I had Cerberus Boots and 0.9.9.7 has the wimpy pre-buff Lava Elemental.
* I got a couple nuke levels late in the game, but by that point I was going through floors so fast that I would get everything dead and gibbed before a minute even passed.
* I remade a Tactical Shotgun after getting WK2 so I could put a Power Mod on it, but it didn't really matter as 99% of my weapon usage for the last three quarters of the game was meleeing or using the (Tactical) Rocket Launcher to rocket jump, trigger Berserker, break walls, and destroy corpses. I occasionally shotgunned a group of Formers that were being annoying but that was about it.
* Somehow avoided getting a single Nightmare Arachnotron Cave, which was appreciated as they're the only level type in 0.9.9.7 (alongside the rare yet very deadly Shambler levels) that could have really threatened me, especially after I got the Inquisitor Set.
* I encountered two Barons with a Ballistic Shield during this run, which both instances at least occurred late enough where it was more amusing rather than the potential run ender it could have been if it happened early in the game (and it allowed me to make use of a Laser Rifle I held onto for about 75% of the run but never actually used otherwise).
This overall only took me one attempt, a nice change of pace after those AoOC Diamonds that were much quicker but required a lot more resetting. Going back to 0.9.9.7 and its version of A100 after experiencing 0.9.9.9/0.10's vastly improved A100, I wonder how I ever enjoyed this mode as much as I did in 0.9.9.7's heyday; almost all the levels look the damn same after only floor 16, the difficulty curve is out of whack (A100's difficulty is even more front-loaded than most other challenges, and you get a big lull in new threats being introduced when you reach the floor 25+ range, until you get a sudden big spike at floor 44/47/50, and then it mostly flatlines again until you get one more big spike with most of the remaining enemies getting introduced at floor 74/77/80), and all those VMRB hordes you punch through for over three quarters of the game can get mind-numbing. I will probably go for Centurial Angelic, but after that I'll certainly be glad to not play A100 in 0.9.9.7 again, especially on N! when 0.10 or even 0.9.9.8 would actually let you save and take breaks without having to leave the game running. Anyway, here is the big mortem:
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
no saves :(, level 25 Cyberdemon Chaos Major Scout,
completed 100 levels of torture on level 100 of Hell.
He survived 1656317 turns and scored 6763834 points.
He played for 16 hours, 44 minutes and 3 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 4833 out of 4841 hellspawn. (99%)
He was a real killing machine...
He was an Angel of 100!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 0
Levels visited : 0
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Experience Cross
Dervis' Medallion
Centurial Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###############################====########################
====...........................=======..=====..............
====%..........................======.==.====..............
====....................}......====...=.=..==..............
....=..........................====.....=..................
...===.....|....!..............=====...=.......=.===.%.....
=======........................====.===...###====..===.....
.======........................====......=========#==......
=======...#######...#...#.....X====.....#=========#........
====.=...========..#...........====.....#=========#........
======...========#.#....#......====.....###.#/#####........
=======..========#.#....#....|.====....................%...
===..==./========#.#....#.......====.......................
...===...========#.#....#.......====..|....................
..=====..========#.#./.##.......====.........[.............
..=====......#####..........=..====........................
..=====....................=======..===....................
...===..........0..........=============...................
.......%...............00....===========...................
###############################====########################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 104/60 Experience 1241928/25
ToHit Ranged +2 ToHit Melee +12 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +15
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Ironman (Level 1)
Finesse (Level 3)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Reloader (Level 3)
Eagle Eye (Level 1)
Brute (Level 5)
Juggler (Level 1)
Berserker (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Blademaster (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->HR->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->Bru->MBm->Fin->WK->WK->Int->Int->HR->Fin->Bru->Bru->DM->Rel->Rel->SM->Rel->EE->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Malek's Armor [3/3] (100%)
[b] [ Weapon ] chainsword (8d3) (P)
[c] [ Boots ] Nyarlaptotep's Boots [6/6] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x100)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (9d3) [5/5] (P1)
[b] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [5/5] (T1)
[c] phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (AP)
[d] cerberus gothic armor [0/0] (200%) (A)
[e] rocket (x10)
[f] rocket (x10)
[g] large med-pack
[h] large med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] large med-pack
[k] homing phase device
[l] power mod pack
[m] power mod pack
[n] technical mod pack
[o] bulk mod pack
[p] Hell Staff
[q] cerberus plasteel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
[r] phaseshift boots [4/4] (100%) (A)
[s] rocket box (x20)
[t] rocket box (x20)
[u] rocket box (x20)
[v] rocket box (x20)
-- 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 90% feet 90%
Fire - internal 60% torso 100% feet 100%
Plasma - internal 60% torso 90% feet 60%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
234 former humans
418 former sergeants
410 former captains
327 imps
89 demons
635 lost souls
130 cacodemons
197 hell knights
559 barons of hell
193 arachnotrons
15 former commandos
86 pain elementals
302 revenants
340 mancubi
449 arch-viles
39 nightmare imps
105 nightmare cacodemons
116 nightmare demons
29 nightmare arachnotrons
5 nightmare arch-viles
5 elite former humans
2 elite former sergeants
6 elite former captains
5 elite former commandos
70 bruiser brothers
27 shamblers
30 lava elemental
6 agony elementals
4 Cyberdemons
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
On level 8 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 8 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 18 he assembled a chainsword!
On level 21 he assembled a cerberus boots!
On level 22 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 23, hell froze over!
On level 25 he assembled a cerberus armor!
On level 28, hell froze over!
On level 29 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 42 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 44 he found the Necroarmor!
On level 49 he was bombarded!
Level 51 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 51 he found the Cybernetic Armor!
On level 59 he found the Hellwave Pack!
Level 60 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 62 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
On level 63 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
On level 65 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
On level 68 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
On level 70 he was targeted for extermination!
On level 72, hell froze over!
On level 77 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 77 he found the Enviroboots!
On level 79 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 79 he found the Malek's Armor!
On level 82 he stumbled into a lava elemental cave!
On level 83 he encountered an armed nuke!
On level 85 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
On level 86 he encountered an armed nuke!
Level 91 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 92 he stumbled into a complex full of revenants!
On level 94 he found the Hell Staff!
On level 98 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 99 he was bombarded!
On level 100 he finally completed 100 levels of torture.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood! There is a Light-Amp Goggles lying here.
You see further! You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
You need to taste blood!
There are stairs leading downward here. You need to taste blood!
You did it! You completed 100 levels of DoomRL! You're the champion! Press
<Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
255 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
83 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
91 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
74 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
6 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
38 killed the bitch and survived.
30 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------