Somebody asked me to post a Post Mortem,
so here we go.
In 0.8.6' patch notes there were something like «We were only able to beat this challenge on Easy». Well, challenge accepted.
I knew that the only viable choice for this challenge was Scout, even with the introduction of hacking, for one simple reason: there are almost no weapons in lategame, so the only way to succeed is to run. And Scout can not only run, he can run directly to the exit, because you can always see it on the minimap. Armed with some intuition about map generation, I decided to go on.
He knew that the beginning won't be that hard. There were a lot of enemies with guns you can pick up and use, so he prepared his .44 revolver and started picking up guards one by one in the doorway. Ammunition is more valuable than health, so he was firing slowly, one by one, carefully aiming each shot to achieve maximum possible hit rate. He had to trade his health for the entire run, because «Steady Shot» would be out of his reach this time. .44 revolver ran out of bullets quickly, so he picked up two 9mm pistols, leaving his beloved Golden Gun behind until he killed everybody on this floor.
Golden Gun was a precious resource, too precious to use: only six bullets. Actually though, it is only five, because the last one should remain in this gun for the final showdown. Wait, it is four, because he discharged first bullet into former guard on Callisto L2 by accident. Oh, crap.
Two weapon slots, one of which are used for carrying the Golden Gun, is a real bottleneck. However, on level two he picked up Hellrunner L1 in hopes of beelining to Running; at least here, on Callisto, you can always find a gun or two to spare, right? Right? Well, Callisto L4 had proven him wrong: security bots and fiends everywhere, and not a single soldier on sight. He almost ran out of bullets for 9mm and was forced to spend one bullet from Golden Gun to finish off fire fiend. The plan was to find an assault rifle here and get to the Military Barracks to get some sweet, sweet experience, but he had to bail out to Callisto L5 in desperation instead. The run was over at this point, but wait, what is this? Two soldiers were standing right next to the acid barrels, that's cool!
By the way, the real trick is to not forget to pick up the Golden Gun before you get to the next level. I lost one of my runs due to this
Valhalla Spaceport was quite generous in terms of weapons, so he decided to finish off everything that moves here to get maximum possible experience. Hellrunner L1+L2, Running and Skilled L1 were all in his pockets, and he was only level 5, playing a very risky game of «I only have one full chaingun to finish off everybody in Europa L1», one fully loaded auto shotgun for Europa L2 and so on. Level 6 gifted him with so much desired Gun Hoarder, which made everything a little bit easier. A ton of multitools and a bit of luck = hacked turrets and cluttered inventory (yes, I was still able to clutter 10 slots without having a single bullet). Luring ravagers into hacked turrets proved to be a great idea to get some more experience.
Europa Central Dig was the first level to employ the technique known as run, Io L1 was the last level to not employ it. Golddigger was the last skill he picked just to make sure not to skip any of the loot boxes on the way: even useless ammo boxes restore 10 points of class power each. Stealth + Running proved to be a great combo too. Somewhere on Io, he got into trouble: a couple of exalted ravagers blocked the exit elevator room, but he lured them out and used CRI phase kit to try again. Gateway almost killed him, but technique known as «medkits hoarding» helped a lot. Also, somewhere on Io he found a red armor thanks to Golddigger trait.
He entered Beyond with only two bullets in his Golden Gun, an empty chaingun, an empty shotgun and a couple of grenades. Luckily, the elevator to the next level is close, just go! Beyond L2, a couple of ravagers, exit is, again, very close, just run through their bullets. Beyond L3, a ton of enemies around, smoke grenades got to the rescue and, again, running. Two hellish soldiers blocked the narrow hallway: stealth, some maneuvering and the last remaining krak grenade solved this problem. One stimpack to get class bar from 15 to 25 points, stealth again and straight to the exit, trying not to hug stray siege ravager on the way.
Precipice of Defeat.
Two bullets in his Golden Gun.
Boom.
Flynn Taggart, level 7 Scout, defeated
The Summoner against all odds.
He survived for 6435 turns.
The run time was 58m 57s.
He scored 3351 points.
He took MEDIUM risks.
He was an Angel of New York Reload!
Awards
Untouchable Ribbon (+50)
* Won taking less than 1000 damage
New York Bronze Badge
* Reach Io on Angel of New York Reload
New York Silver Badge
* Complete Angel of New York Reload
He killed 201 out of 366 enemies.
4 former CRI grunts
3 corrupted sergeants
20 former grunts
2 corrupted heavys
11 fire fiends
5 turrets
7 archreavers
2 hellish soldiers
1 siege ravager
5 ravagers
13 former guards
2 former CRI sergeants
3 former CRI soldiers
1 summoner
2 former CRI guards
19 fiends
4 corrupted soldiers
1 plasma ravager
2 rocket turrets
8 security bots
7 CRI marines
9 CRI bots
3 exalted soldiers
2 corrupted guards
4 former sergeants
3 corrupted commandos
2 reavers
14 former soldiers
2 armored ravagers
8 combat drones
2 former commandos
2 cryoreavers
31 security drones
Traits
Skilled L1
Hellrunner L2
Gun hoarder
Golddigger
Running
Equipment
Slot #1 : Golden Gun
Slot #2 : chaingun
Slot #3 : 12ga auto-shotgun
Body : red armor P
Utility : - NONE -
Inventory
smoke grenade (x2)
multitool (x5)
large medkit
large medkit
UV New York Reload? No wai
I wanted to write a long essay about why I think running anything other than Scout is too luck dependent even on Easy and is not worth it for me unless I am a complete masochist.
Then I just got to the game to test something and, well, this happened
on my first try
Flynn Taggart, level 7 Marine, defeated
The Summoner against all odds.
He survived for 7159 turns.
The run time was 57m 52s.
He scored 2554 points.
He wanted to take it EASY.
He was an Angel of New York Reload!
CALLISTO L4 -> Military Barracks
Military Barracks - cleared
He killed 206 out of 329 enemies.
4 former CRI grunts
3 corrupted sergeants
22 former grunts
1 corrupted heavy
16 fire fiends
7 turrets
4 archreavers
4 ravagers
2 hellish soldiers
16 former guards
2 former CRI sergeants
2 former CRI soldiers
1 summoner
3 kerbeross
1 hellish sergeant
20 fiends
2 former CRI commandos
4 corrupted soldiers
4 CRI guards
3 military drones
4 plasma ravagers
4 rocket turrets
1 former CRI heavy
11 hellish grunts
1 security bot
4 CRI bots
11 CRI marines
7 former sergeants
4 corrupted commandos
9 corrupted grunts
2 reavers
12 former soldiers
2 armored ravagers
2 cryoreavers
11 security drones
Traits
Hellrunner L2
Ironman L2
Field Medic
Incoming!
Equipment
Slot #1 : Golden Gun
Slot #2 : CRI plasma shotgun
Slot #3 : chaingun P
Body : red armor P
Utility : ADV pistol damage amp
Inventory
krak grenade (x1)
frag grenade (x3)
multitool (x1)
military stimpack
small medkit (x3)
small medkit (x1)
large medkit
Yeah, I figured that out the hard way~
Angel of Doom and Angel of New York Reload are both tricky as hell.
Probably that's the reason why they are not in the achievements list.
and that's great, because I have no idea how to clear NY Reload on Hard to get the gold badge.
Finally wrapped this challenge up, after approximately three failed runs
Tech is doable, as it turns out, but, in my opinion, it is easier to do as the Marine than the Technician: at least you can tank hits and run as the Marine, while as Technician you can do neither of those.
Found an ADV green powered armor with +20% move speed at the beginning, kept it till the final boss.
Also, inventory cluttering is real even without the ammunition! I've had to pick Packrat L1 and was still unable to carry everything I wanted!
Dez, level 9 Technician, defeated
The Summoner against all odds.
He survived for 10624 turns.
The run time was 1h 32m 36s.
He scored 2496 points.
He wanted to take it EASY.
He was an Angel of New York Reload!
CALLISTO L2 -> Valhalla Terminal L1
He killed 229 out of 296 enemies.
1 former CRI grunt
4 corrupted sergeants
31 former grunts
5 corrupted heavys
16 fire fiends
1 turret
8 archreavers
7 ravagers
15 former guards
1 former CRI sergeant
11 former CRI soldiers
1 summoner
1 hellish sergeant
18 fiends
4 former CRI commandos
12 corrupted soldiers
2 hellish commandos
5 rocket turrets
7 security bots
9 CRI marines
5 CRI bots
2 cryobeross
3 exalted soldiers
10 corrupted guards
7 former sergeants
8 corrupted commandos
6 reavers
10 former soldiers
2 armored ravagers
4 combat drones
1 exalted fiend
1 cyberos
1 toxic reaver
4 cryoreavers
14 security drones
Traits
Skilled L1
Juggler
Packrat L1
Gun hoarder
Hacker L2
Networker
Remote Hack
Equipment
Slot #1 : - NONE -
Slot #2 : chaingun PA
Slot #3 : chaingun
Slot #4 : Golden Gun
Body : ADV green armor PB
Utility : ADV accuracy amp
Inventory
gas grenade (x1)
krak grenade (x1)
smoke grenade (x1)
multitool (x5)
multitool (x3)
military stimpack
stimpack (x3)
stimpack (x1)
large medkit