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DRL => Post Mortem => Nightmare! => Topic started by: Omega Tyrant on December 26, 2025, 23:48

Title: (0.9.9.7) [N!|36%|YAVP] - UAC Diamond with Shotguns and no Berserker
Post by: Omega Tyrant 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 (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,4621.0.html), 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 (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,8171.msg68419.html#msg68419), being the only 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)

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).

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

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

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

-- 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.

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

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)