Chaosforge Forum
DRL => Post Mortem => Nightmare! => Topic started by: Omega Tyrant on February 13, 2026, 15:50
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With 11 Angelics and all other badges won, there's very little left I can get; of the 6 remaining Angelics, there's only Everyman Angelic, Masochist Angelic, and the impossible 4. Everyman Angelic has been proven humanly possible before, but Masochist Angelic is in a grey area, as what it requires isn't as outrageous as what the impossible 4 demand, yet in the over 13 years since 0.9.9.7 released, that badge has never been verifiably won by anyone in that version. Vandam infamously claimed to have won every Angelic except for Centurial within a few months of 0.9.9.7's release in his absurd "N+" difficulty proposal (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,6576.0.html), so that would include Masochist Angelic alongside the impossible 4, yet he refused to even post mortems of any of his runs, let alone video proof (with him claiming he "only plays for joy" and "showing mortems is just a way of creating hierarchy"... yet that didn't stop him from boasting about his supposed 16 Angelics). Supposedly he posted a screenshot showing the 16/17 Angelics on his record in that thread before the screenshot got taken down for whatever reason, but that is shoddy proof, when he could have pulled a 2Dev using Cheat Engine to hack the game for them, or more charitably, with Vandam being a beta tester of 0.9.9.7, he could have abused game-breaking beta bugs to get all these Angelics in the betas and then copied his player.wad file over to keep the illegitimately-won Angelics on his record (as an example of such bugs, Tormuse found a bug in the ancient 0.9.9.8 beta that tricked the game into awarding him Speedrunner Angelic (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,7039.msg62477.html#msg62477) when immediately letting himself die on the first floor, while one of the 0.9.9.9 betas had two major bugs where your clips would underflow to give infinite ammo and certain traits would carry over to the next run after dying/quitting with no limit, which I had some fun with to win UAC and Demonic Angelic (https://discord.com/channels/372448815195619330/1307032080596865126/1378809768298287147), such glaring examples why any badges won in any beta versions shouldn't count). With his dearth of proof, and Vandam also having the 2Dev hallmark of not explaining how he actually got his badges, in addition to his sparse attempts at discussing strategy being dubious or even factually wrong (such as the very simple fact of not knowing that you don't need to kill the Cyberdemon to get past Babel in AoPc (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,6182.msg53617.html#msg53617)), we can conclude Vandam's claims are bullshit until proven otherwise. Now Masochist Angelic was legitimately won last year by micerang (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,9257.0.html) and he even had full video proof of his run... but it carries the big asterisk of being won in 0.9.9.8. For those that don't know, while an official version, 0.9.9.8 was an awfully buggy release, including a major dodging bug that essentially gave you a 95% dodge rate against everything regardless of HR levels, alongside having an OP Marine and the most broken mastery of all-time with its version of Vampyre that may as well as have been IDDQD. With these things, micerang avoided many more hits than he would have without the dodging bug (a particular moment being when he was repeatedly dodging Barons and Formers in Unchained Court without running nor having any HR levels), and when he did get hit was taking significantly less damage from the 0.9.9.8 Marine's +20% energy resistances, while by the time he reached Vampyre he had only 6 HP left and so his run just objectively doesn't win without the aid of these two factors, while by his admission it still took him hundreds of tries to reach that point even with said factors (I do hate to disparage provably legitimate runs, but the 0.9.9.8 asterisk just can't be ignored, it's even the reason why I started my 0.9.9.7 conquest when I wanted to show I could win the previously unwon-in-0.9.9.7 Eagerness (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,9273.0.html) and Inquisitor (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,9274.0.html) Angelics without the aid of 0.9.9.8). Of provable Masochist Angelic runs in 0.9.9.7, Icy did get an attempt up to the Cyberdemon (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,8781.0.html); if he didn't take so long to kill the Cyberdemon and avoided getting cornered, there's a legitimate chance the run could have went the distance even with only 3 HP left by that point as he would have just needed a lucky quickly-accessible Invulnerability, so it was a good proof-of-concept to show the badge was indeed possible, unlike with the impossible 4 that have no proof of anyone getting remotely close to achieving them or otherwise have a "proof of concept" that involved grotesque amounts of save scumming (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,6319.0.html) (which is also another reason why Vandam's screenshot of his badge collection isn't valid proof when you can't trust that he didn't save scum Pacifist Angelic). Another point of this badge being possible is my recent Demonic Diamond run (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,9301.0.html), where I finished the game with 61 damage taken, while 14 of that damage came from the completely optional Shambler fight and the Onyx mod reward made no real difference the rest of the run, so without fighting the Shambler, I could have finished that run with under 50 damage and thus could theoretically win without ever healing.
So Ultimately, what makes Masochist Angelic so difficult? At bare minimum, with no conventional healing available in Archangel of Masochism, you effectively must beat the game on Nightmare! taking no more than 49 damage as a Scout/Technician or no more than 59 damage as a Marine. Any Ironman levels would give you an additional +10 HP and so you can get up to a potential +50 more damage you can take from Ironman levels, while Vampyre can still heal you indefinitely (...if you can survive long enough to get it), and there are a couple other rare sources that can heal you, but this is basically a much harder version of Demonic Diamond, a Diamond that let you take up to 199 damage and was already known for being on par with the average Angelic in difficulty, while surviving long enough in ArchAoMs to get access to that extra health is much easier said than done. ArchAoMs has an additional wrinkle where without being able to heal to restore your Tactics, you essentially can only activate running once per floor without grabbing a Berserk Pack or Invulnerability, normally you shouldn't need to use running more than once per floor but this could cause you to take more damage that you would have avoided otherwise and does make special levels like Hell's Arena more difficult. This badge demands such an extreme amount of damage avoidance while giving the player no sort of help (you just have more bullets in your starting inventory, which doesn't matter even before considering you can farm infinite bullets from respawning Formers on N!, and you can get an early Red Armor + Plasteel Boots from Hell's Arena if you can clear it without taking a crippling amount of damage), and even if you play perfectly over several floors, it only takes a single bad hot start to instantly ruin the run when you're playing with such a slim margin of error.
With that said, what are the viable builds and strategies to win here? I think there's three viable ways that you could feasibly win Masochist Angelic with:
*The most obvious way is to go for Vampyre (which is what micerang used in his 0.9.9.8 Masochist Angelic run), as if you can survive long enough to get Vampyre, you can then indefinitely heal as much as you want, and so have the badge pretty much won from that point as long as you can get past Phobos Anomaly and avoid making any stupid overextensions, with the only real danger post-Phobos being Arachnotron Caves. However surviving long enough to get Vampyre in 0.9.9.7 is very very hard, as the Vampyre prereq path requires three traits in two Brute levels and Badass that are virtually worthless (you can't fight in melee when you can't heal and you can't get any boosted health yet for Badass to retain while the knockback reduction is more counterproductive if anything), and the Marine's 10 extra HP barely helps (in the early game where you likely have lackluster armor, it basically amounts to being able to take only one or two more hits, the Scout's +10% universal speed bonus is far more helpful as it'll let you completely avoid more hits than that). Vampyre does give you the option of a free trait to choose, but a single level of Finesse often won't be able to shotgun down Pinkies or corner shoot Hell Knights to death before they reach you, at which point you can't get away from them when you have no Hellrunner nor can tank them when you got only 60 HP total before Vampyre, so delaying Vampyre by detouring for the Finesse -> Juggler opener is direly necessary to have any real hope of surviving long enough for it. But any delay in getting Vampyre is painful, making that an extra floor or two you need to survive without Vampyre, and for any hot start that Juggler can't get you through, you won't be able to as effectively escape without Hellrunner, while you also can't get Intuition and so will have to play very very slowly, when you can't afford to step into any enemy's vision.
*The second option is to do a masterless Scout stairdive that guns for Int2 and then Dodgemaster to beat the Cyberdemon, which is what Icy was using and got his Masochist Angelic run that made it to Babel with. The main advantage of this strategy is it's the fastest in real time and so is more spammable to get more attempts in the time it would take you get a good attempt with the other options, but this strategy has a major problem in it leaves your combat woefully inept, so you're heavily reliant on getting very good Invuln/Berserk and stair luck, as well as avoiding any bad levels in mid-Phobos and onward when you can't realistically fight your way out of lethal hot starts, nor can do things in any of the special levels aside from Chained Court. A build so inept at combat isn't good for the Cyberdemon fight either even with Dodgemaster, as if you take too long to kill the Cyberdemon, his AI gets antsy and will start erratically approaching you between reloads, where he can then corner you in a position where you can't avoid his rocket splash, which is what did in Icy's best attempt. Of the three viable strats, I think this one is definitely the least viable, it's telling that Icy tried this strat in hundreds of attempts and still never succeeded with it, only getting that one run to the Cyberdemon and very few even getting past Anomaly, eventually giving up at it. It can work, but it will require a grotesque amount of luck and you can surely win in less real time if you're good enough with the other two options despite their individual attempts playing slower.
*The third option would be my Demonic Diamond build, damage-avoidant Shottyhead that opens with Fin -> Juggler for the immediate big combat boost, then detours for Int2 to aid damage avoidance and detect Invulns, then the rest of Shottyhead's prereqs. The big advantage of this build is you get very strong early game traits to most effectively mitigate damage in the Phobos portion of the run where you don't have Invulnerabilities, and upon reaching Shottyhead, you get your best chance at surviving later hot starts with Shottyhead's ability to kill entire groups of tough enemies before they wake up or at least knock them out of vision, while additionally granting near complete safety when corner shooting, notably being able to repeatedly shoot back multiple enemies approaching from different angles when having to corner shoot from imperfect cover. This build also lets you safely do some important special levels, most notably Hell's Arena at the start for the early Red Armor + Plasteel Boots + Rocket Launcher, and then City Of Skulls/Abyssal Plains (the importance of which will be covered later...). Compared to the Vampyre strat, you'll have a much less brutal time even getting to late Phobos, but you'll still be playing on a razor's edge post-Phobos and the run will probably still come down to getting Invulnerabilities to skip most of post-Phobos. I'm unsure what ultimately has the higher odds of success between it and Vampyre, however I think it is just strictly better than the Scout pure stairdive if you're skilled enough at the game; while it will play a lot slower and you might have to deal with runs that had over an hour put into them dying, it'll be so much less luck-dependent that it should still take you a lot less real time to eventually win with.
*For a possible fourth option, people might think Cateye, which is typically thought of as the damage avoidance trait, with it letting you be able to detect enemies from farther away than other builds and gives you a vision advantage over enemies to fire on them unimpeded without them being able to retaliate. The issue with Cateye is seeing enemies from farther away won't matter if they're already on top of you, and so Cateye doesn't help with the hot starts that are extra lethal in a challenge where you can't heal. Additionally, Cateye's SoB2 prereq doesn't help your Shotguns as much as Finesse/Reloader/Shottyman does, let alone remotely comparing to the power of early Juggler, and you really want faster firing speed when fighting crowds, while Triggerhappy isn't much better than a dead level. Cateye also doesn't have Hellrunner among its prereqs, a pretty crucial trait to avoiding damage; now you can get Hellrunner alongside Finesse and Juggler, but that will all delay Cateye, while you're gonna need Eagle Eye too to take strong advantage of rapid fire weapons that the SoB + TH levels support, delaying Cateye even farther. I wouldn't say Cateye is completely unviable here, but there is a reason why I didn't use Cateye for my Demonic Diamond, Masochist Diamond (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,9299.0.html), and even my Destroyer Diamond (https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,9304.0.html) runs, the prereqs just aren't that good for avoiding damage in the Phobos portion of the run where it can be most difficult to avoid damage and mitigating the threat of hot starts is so important, not to mention that Cateye and its prereqs don't help much for the major roadblock that is N! Anomaly.
When I first started Masochist Angelic attempts, I was trying Vampyre, as I do favor trading more early game luck/difficulty for much greater later game reliability; as I put it, I would much rather have several runs that die in 15 minutes or less than a lose a run that goes over an hour. However trying to get to level 7 as the Marine with no Hellrunner nor Intuition, while taking those dead Brute + Badass levels in their place, was brutal. Sure I could infinitely run -> wait camp behind any good camping spot, but finding said camping spot and being able to reach it without taking damage on any given floor is much easier said than done, and you do need a concealed camping spot to be fully safe, as one other detrimental factor with the Marine is that Imps outspeed you and so can potentially get a double move on you as you wait. Normally this hardly matters, when it's uncommon and Imps deal minor damage anyway even if they do get a free shot on you, but here where every single point of damage matters so much, those Imp double move cheap shots are painful. Not to mention that Hell Knights can get double moves when you wait as a non-Scout and they're more likely to than Imps while hitting harder, so you really can't afford to run-> wait behind imperfect cover when Hell Knights are around. You additionally can't clear Hell's Arena, well you can do so with Juggler but doing so means you get the Unchained Court, and Vampyre is going to really need that Chainsaw, but you won't hit level 7 before Unchained Court and so going in would be suicide without a Homing Phase (or playing on 0.9.9.8), while you also really want the Chained Court Berserks to power your way through the final Phobos floors to Military Base or a floor 7 Invuln or through Anomaly (though you should still go in to Hell's Arena to kill some enemies for the EXP and just leave after the first or second wave). Without clearing Hell's Arena, you won't have the Red Armor and so the Marine here can't take as many hits despite the extra HP, and you won't have an early Rocket Launcher for corpse disposal, wall busting, or emergency rocket jumping. The early game also plays dreadfully too, if you're not run -> wait spamming behind the first piece of usable cover you find, you'll be constantly radar shooting every few steps. Then even if you play through multiple floors near flawlessly, it just takes a single bad floor to completely fuck you; in one Vampyre attempt, I got through the first three floors and half of Hell's Arena taking only 5 points of damage, but then I got this awful Phobos 4 maze (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCFf_IbMAAfm27?format=jpg&name=large) that suddenly killed the run (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCFf-2bAAAnk0x?format=jpg&name=large) just like that, with virtually nothing I could have done to survive it even after choosing the right direction to run for the stairs. After 8 deaths and many other runs that I Q+Y'd on the first two floors, while not getting a single Marine past floor 5 nor even to level 5 despite delaying Vampyre for Juggler, I decided to give Demonic Shottyhead some tries before running more Vampyre attempts. Granted I was getting some very awful level generation luck in that Phobos 3-5 range (so...many...damn...mazes (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCOYlGbQAAB7i7?format=jpg&name=large)), so if I just got a run without early mazes or Cacodemon caves, I might have a shot, but I thought I should give Shottyhead some tries, when I came so close to finishing under 50 damage with it in my first Demonic Diamond attempt that didn't reset in Phobos Base Entry. With the Shottyhead build, in only the fourth attempt that didn't Q+Y in the first four floors, I get a run past Phobos 5 and actually managed to survive this Phobos 6 (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCQG0-XAAA9Rt0?format=jpg&name=large) that would have probably killed the Vampyre or stairdive Scout, and then reached a Phobos 7 Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCQG09WYAEQZU6?format=jpg&name=large) to get a run to Deimos, but it would end up dying in Deimos 3 (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCQdweWIAALHnY?format=jpg&name=large). On one hand it was disheartening to lose a run with nearly two hours put into it, but on the other hand, getting a run that far after not many attempts was promising, while altogether I wasn't resetting so much on Phobos 2, so I gave Demonic Shottyhead a few more tries before trying Vampyre again...
For the immediate start of the run, Phobos Base Entry is a crapshoot, can just employ my usual strategy and hope the Shotgunners don't come out early while also hoping the Former Humans decide to have Stormtrooper accuracy while I'm running to the safe corner. I might accept getting punched by a Former once or taking a minimum damage roll Pistol shot, but anything more than that and it's a reset, every damage point matters and it won't take that long until you get a damageless or near-damageless Phobos Entry. Also while the medkits don't do anything, you should still take one or two with you so you can gift drop with them. I open with Finesse -> Juggler, which means I won't have Intuition 2 for Phobos 2, but I need Juggler for clearing Hell's Arena as safely as possible, and Phobos 2 isn't too bad to do taking one hit or none without Int2 as a Scout, you can makedo with less ideal cover than the Marine as Imps won't outspeed you (well do to timing oddities, it is still possible for an Imp to get a double move on a waiting Scout, but it's quite uncommon). In this run, I nearly got through Phobos 2 damageless, until a charging Lost Soul surprised me out of a thin hallway and hit me for 5 damage, which was tempting to reset for but I just accepted it. Then comes Hell's Arena, clearing which is an even more painfully tedious affair when you can't intentionally take damage to destroy corpses, it can't be overstated how much I despise N! Hell's Arena and the corpse stacking minigame it forces, but it's a necessary evil here when the rewards are so valuable. First the Red Armor, which the -20% movespeed might make me take hits I could have avoided with less slow armor, but in the scenarios where damage is unavoidable, having Red Armor makes such a huge difference over Green and Blue Armor against the small fries, and while it's not great against Hell Knights and Cacodemons, it does at least reduce some damage from their plasma balls unlike Green Armor, so having Red Armor will significantly enhance the amount of hits I'm able to take. Then there is the Rocket Launcher that is a staple in nearly all my runs, having immediate access to corpse disposal is so important when a badly timed Hell Knight or Baron respawn can just absolutely ruin your run, and a rocket jumping is your best shot at getting past Anomaly with minimal damage if you don't get a Phobos 7 Invuln, as well as being crucial to extending your Invulns later or you might even get in a spot where raw rocket jumping will save your ass. The Plasteel Boots are also quite nice to have if you get a floor that forces you to run through acid or lava, that aforementioned run that made it to Deimos dies in that awful Phobos 6 without the Plasteel Boots to mitigate all the acid I had to run through. I will have to miss out on going into The Chained Court later on when the Unchained variant will be a death trap in a challenge you can't heal, but these items are far more valuable than the Chainsaw and free Berserks will be, while I also wouldn't even be able to get the mods in Chained Court without finding a Radsuit prior, since hitting the levers will be substantial unavoidable damage.
In this particular run, I managed to pull off another AoMC-less Hell's Arena Pwnage (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSJ94XEAEbQvf?format=jpg&name=large), and it's actually even harder to do here than in the standard game since I can only activate running once in the whole Arena. I won't be picking up the Cathedral's Dragonslayer later but getting a damageless Arena is still obviously nice when I can take so little damage, otherwise I would accept taking a couple hits in Hell's Arena just so the resets wouldn't get maddening. For the rest of Phobos, I hope I don't get mazes or too deadly of hot starts, and I do actively try to clear out floors when it's possible with minimal to no damage since I do really need the levels to survive tough floors later. Phobos 3 and 4 weren't so bad, and the latter even gave me a Double Shotgun that is very handy for this build, but Phobos 5 would give me a Pinky Cave (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBD-Yr8a4AA78bg?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) that I took a couple hits in, which the Red Armor mitigated a lot but still 7 of my total 50 HP just permanently lost and the total EXP yield for the floor is quite low. Then Phobos 6 started me in a room with a Hell Knight, and when I got into a position to corner shoot him, another Hell Knight came from an angle with LoS on me and he got hits in while I couldn't kill him before the other Hell Knight reached me, putting me in this very bad spot (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBD_W5vW0AAtiIz?format=jpg&name=4096x4096). With the stairs nearby, I decide my only hope to keep the run alive is to rocket jump out towards the stairs (after getting out of the nearby acid barrel's range), any self-inflicted damage is painful in this run and rocket jumping without a Fireproof or at least P-modded Red Armor sucks, but it's either that or take multiple plasma balls in the ass as I try to run away. The rocket jump does keep me alive in exchange for 5 more HP lost, but then I made the bone-headed move of seeing if I could finish off the mortally wounded Hell Knight and didn't notice I depleted all my Shotguns, leading me to try firing with an unloaded Shotgun and reloading instead. Fortunately the one Hell Knight didn't attack and the other was still out of vision, so I just took a melee hit from the nearby Imp for 1 damage, but it's still even more damage I should have avoided and I'm knocked below half my total health allotment (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBD_lWaaUAAc3LK?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) before even reaching the Anomaly. Also in retrospect I could have tried using that Phase Device I spawned near to escape the Hell Knight start, but I really wanted to try getting it to save for the Anomaly and it could have put me in a worse spot far away from the stairs, so it wouldn't have been an ideal gamble. It's not looking good, but the run gets much more serious when I get another coveted Phobos 7 Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSJ92WQAA07Vi?format=jpg&name=large); since the stairs were a bit far away and I didn't have many rockets, while the floor overall looked doable, I do clear it out first before grabbing the Invuln. I take 5 more damage as a result, but I do get the Agility Mods to build some much needed Tactical Boots, and a Power Mod to build a Tactical Shotgun later, as well as get a clean path to the stairs to ensure I can maximize that Invuln to get through Anomaly damageless, so it wasn't too bad. I also had the option of Military Base (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSJ-TawAAzO4H?format=jpg&name=large) for a safe two levels and all the other useful stuff there, which I would have taken if I didn't have the Invuln, but since I did and I wasn't playing Vampyre in this run, taking the guaranteed damageless Anomaly is the better play here, especially when I had only 19 HP left and so may not have been able to survive the Anomaly even with rocket jumping if I wasn't Invuln'd.
After effortlessly rocket jumping through Anomaly and the remaining Invuln letting me clear out a hot start in Deimos 1 with a potentially deadly Commando, I'm able to then clear out the rest of Deimos 1 damageless. It could have been argued to have took that Invuln and already try rushing through the rest of the game, but with my low rocket supply and still not having Shottyhead, it would be far riskier to try that, so I stay to clear out Deimos 1 and then head into Deimos Lab. Now fighting the Shamblers in Deimos Lab without Vampyre would be suicidal here, but if played very carefully, I can clear out the pre-Shambler portion of the run for EXP, some mods, a Shell Box I'm going to really need for a very important special level coming up, potentially one of the special shotguns in the weapon cache, and I can farm the Revenants here for a huge rocket stockup, which I will need to successfully Invuln rush the rest of the game with a later Invuln. Unfortunately the weapon cache had a Jackal and Combat Pistol (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSJ-SacAA9h1q?format=jpg&name=large), the Jackal could be used for corpse disposal whenever the Rocket Launcher's explosion would be too big but it isn't that helpful here and the Combat Pistol is worthless in this run, but fortunately the rest of the level goes to plan and I get through it damageless, while also being able to farm a Revenant for a half dozen rocket stacks.
All that effort nearly ended up being for nought though, as Deimos 2 was a terrible arena that started me surrounded (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEHmKhWMAAgmLQ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) with little for cover and near a Commando that can instantly kill me, while I don't have Shottyhead yet to reasonably to fight in this position. I decide now is a time to use a Phase, and it gets me in a better position, but then when fighting off a nearby Pinky horde, there was not one but two more Commandos coming right for me, one of which got a near full plasma burst on me when I shot a barrel near an X not knowing it was a Commando and launched him into vision (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEIEdcWYAEhABL?format=jpg&name=4096x4096), knocking me down to only 7 HP left. He ended up in acid, so my only play was to activate running and stay out of the other Commando's vision while hoping running keeps me from getting hit by the other Commando until the acid finished him off, and very fortunately that Commando doesn't get any more hits on me in his next two bursts before the acid kills him, where I'm then able to fight off the Pinkies and other Commando thanks to the Shell Box I just got from Deimos Lab. I try sticking around to see if I could fight my way to the two Berserks that spawned on the other side of the map, when the third Commando I saw at the start gets to me and quickly revives after killing him, at which point I decide just fuck off and book it to the next floor. I reach the same floor as my previous best but with only 7 HP left, I'm really wanting an Invuln... which the game then promptly blesses me with (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSO_MW4AATH4Q?format=jpg&name=large) and I'm able to immediately safely reach it (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSO_rboAE_3QH?format=png&name=large). I take this opportunity to book it to the Deimos 4 special level, which turns out to be City of Skulls (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSO_0awAAGPEC?format=jpg&name=large). I mention previously the Deimos 4 specials are important and are a major advantage for going the Shottyhead path, so why are they? Well I alluded to earlier that there are a couple other ways to heal outside of Vampyre, one such way being the Medical Armor and Medical Powerarmor, but with them only healing you up to 25% in this version, they won't get you out of hot start lethality range and would need the support of many Ironman levels to make a serious difference, which you'll be hard-pressed to fit in addition to the necessary combat traits, so they're not much a factor here even if you luck upon them. The other way to heal without Vampyre is with a Blood Skull, which normally are worse than a Large Medkit, but they can heal you much more than the aforementioned Medical Armors can, and well you have a very good chance of getting at least one if you kill the Agony Elemental, potentially two or even three, so any Blood Skull can essentially be an extra life in this challenge for non-Vampyre builds. I don't have Shottyhead yet to trivialize the Agony Elemental fight, and Shottyhead is also really needed to minimize damage in the rough openings of both levels, but with the Invuln to protect me, I can get through the opening of the Skull City without any damage, and then with Finesse + Tactical Shotgun + Reloader/Shottyman + the Shell Box, the Agony Elemental fight will still be pretty easy (hence why I said the Deimos Lab Shell Box was so important beyond just helping me survive hot starts). Indeed with those said things (and some Missile Launcher usage to save on shells, just making sure to not finish off the Agony Elemental with it since that would destroy the Skulls), I would kill the Agony Elemental and clear out the rest of the level without any damage, which rewarded me with two Blood Skulls (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSSefagAAN5FY?format=jpg&name=large)!
However I do still need to secure a decent corpse pile to get that health back and not get fucked over by the next floor start, which isn't looking good when Deimos 5 starts me with this (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBESDkjW0AAFmW5?format=jpg&name=4096x4096), while two of those Xs turned out to be Barons (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBESP6kWoAEmjes?format=jpg&name=4096x4096), and with not quite being at Shottyhead yet, I had to use the Missile Launcher to ensure the Baron died without getting a lethal hit on me, which blew up some corpses near the Baron that I really needed for the ASAP heal. I was going to see if I could draw out some of the Formers I heard near those few corpses to get more health back, but then out popped a Commando (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBETAm9XUAEly8P?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) into the nearby doorway, if he stepped out I would probably have to use the Missile Launcher to be absolutely sure that he doesn't get a shot in on me that will be absolutely lethal, which would then blow up the corpses, so I make the safe play of using my first Blood Skull there (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSSeAW0AAp7M0?format=jpg&name=large)... and he immediately walks back into his room. Regardless, while not an ideal Blood Skull I do get 25 HP back, so basically a half life, and with Shottyhead now being online, I'm in a much better spot. I do got the looming Cyberdemon fight though, and after having to skip out on too many floors along the way, it's not looking like I'll get the two more levels I need for Dodgemaster to guarantee getting past him, while I'm also in the bad position of not even having a Fireproof Red Armor that I was hoping to build, nor have I found any Radsuits either for more fire res. The third skull was a Hatred Skull, so as a backup I could use it to take some berserk with me into Babel if I don't get a Deimos 6 or 7 Invuln. Deimos 6 would be a Pain Elemental + Lost Soul Cave (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEVUp2bwAALYn5?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) with a nasty looking start, but thanks to the recently acquired Shottyhead, I get through it without damage, though this floor was very bad for EXP that I really need, ensuring that I won't get the two levels I need for Dodgemaster before Babel even if I went into Spider's Lair (which I considered since I had Shottyhead and the Missile Launcher, but if I wasn't going to get the levels for Dodgemaster anyway then it wasn't worth the risk), in addition to the floor not having any helpful items. Deimos 7 on the other hand does have the Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSSeabUAAPHnN?format=jpg&name=large) to guarantee getting past Babel... but it's a barrel level, and I get a nasty hot start with a Cacodemon in my face, an Arachnotron to the north, and the east + south doorways having more enemies behind them, all while there were lethal barrels around that will kill me or destroy cover. I immediately run for the west door for very dangerous cover near a Napalm Barrel and already get hit by the Arachnotron as I open the door, but it's my best-looking shot here, while it also turns out those east enemies are a group of Hell Nobles. At first it is working alright, the Cacodemon only gets one hit in on me before I kill him and with Shottyhead I'm able to keep the Arachnotron + Hell Nobles back, but unfortunately a group of enemies from the west approach, with a Shotgunner then walking into view (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEYQm2a0AAfS4t?format=jpg&name=4096x4096), putting me in a very bad spot; I can't shoot him without blowing up that nearby Napalm Barrel which will be invariably fatal and he'll blow it up instead to kill me if I don't get out of this spot, but then getting out puts me back in range of the Arachnotron + approaching Hell Nobles, while I already expended my tactics... But I have to take my chances with getting out instead of staying still to get killed by that barrel, and fortunately the Arachnotron doesn't immediately fire, so I can finish him off with the Missile Launcher (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEZEm-akAAU66N?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) before eating another plasma burst, but unfortunately the approaching Hell Knight gets a hit on me to knock me down to only 14 HP left. Thanks to Shottyhead I'm able to kill off the remaining Nobles and the approaching Former platoon without taking any more damage (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSWF1WgAAeQ8e?format=jpg&name=large), but with only 14 HP left and absolutely not wanting to die before I reach that Invuln, I make the decision to use my second Blood Skull (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSWF1XAAE8qlR?format=jpg&name=large) despite only having four corpses around for 20 more HP instead of a full heal, not how I wanted to use these Skulls but waiting for the perfect opportunity could kill such a promising run. Luckily whatever enemy was in the southern room wandered away and there were no barrels near the Invuln, giving me an uncontested path to it (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSWFqXMAAOZXF?format=jpg&name=large), where I then immediately book it to Babel.
I made a mistake when searching for the Cyberdemon, I completely missed him and he ended up being near the start to the south, so after rocket jumping across the entire map, I had to rocket jump all the way back to find him. Thanks to the P-modded Double Shotgun at point blank range, this mistake isn't costly as I'm still able to kill him before the Invuln runs out (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEbOykWwAAPmzj?format=jpg&name=4096x4096), surpassing Icy's best Masochist Angelic attempt and getting me to Hell with 34 HP remaining, so it's looking very good here if I can just find another Invuln or avoid any horrible hot starts that even Shottyhead can't handle... Well Hell 1 would be a maze, which are always very bad news and I used up most of my current Invuln killing the Cyberdemon... but it has an Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSYTDWAAAqkbB?format=jpg&name=large), and I reach it (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSYTra8AA-JOS?format=jpg&name=large) just as my current Invuln runs out! With so many rockets still in my inventory, I just go for it and try invincible rocket jumping the rest of the way. After blasting through Hell 1, 2, 3, and The Vaults, Hell 4 would have another Invuln to stack on my current Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSYTTWsAAADMC?format=jpg&name=large), basically securing the run. I accidentally went down the stairs to Mortuary, but with rocket jumping I can still get out without wasting too much Invuln and even nabbed the Nuclear BFG to ensure I win in case my Invuln runs out against the Mastermind, but that wouldn't be needed when Hell 6 had a double Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSYTfbgAEkTav?format=jpg&name=large) to extra secure the run. Hell 7 would have yet one more Invuln (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSaHFWoAAmayH?format=jpg&name=large) near Dis' stairs, but it's not needed when I have so much already, and so can kill the Mastermind (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBEdo_vWwAAgMus?format=jpg&name=4096x4096) with plenty of Invuln to spare.
At last, I get the first officially confirmed Masochist Angelic in 0.9.9.7, indeed proving mine and Icy's belief that the badge was possible, and with it I now have 12 Angelics (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSaHDXsAELHBn?format=jpg&name=large) to become the first person to have verifiably achieved the Chaos General rank (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSaHqa4AEGpQS?format=png&name=large) in any version. Altogether I took 13 deaths (8 with Marine for the Vampyre strat and 5 with Scout trying for the Shottyhead strat), alongside many resets on the first two floors when I took more than a single light hit on them, with my attempts being spread out over two days, which isn't as bad as it could have been, though this badge was certainly extremely extremely difficult, with a requirement of pristine play and needing a large amount of luck on top. Maybe it's not quite as brutal as Eagerness Angelic in this version, but I would say it was even harder than Inquisitor Angelic despite that badge also similarly being unwon until I got it recently, and would rate Masochist above Strongman and Berserker Angelic despite them being even more luck-based, since they have a laxer skill requirement (especially the latter). I understand why this badge went unwon for so long, you need to be at the absolute top of your game even with viable luck, and like Icy said, it's very tilting too when any single minor mistake or little unavoidable hit that could normally be brushed off is amplified by magnitudes in this challenge. In JHC-era DRL this badge will be affected by several of the major changes since, most notably you'll no longer be able to infinitely camp thanks to the newly added Enraged Timer, but I think that won't actually be as big of a deal here, since most of the damage you'll take and eventual deaths will be from hot starts before you reach viable cover, it doesn't matter if you can infinitely camp or not if you get spawned in a maze with dozens of enemies immediately surrounding you with no good cover to get behind. Meanwhile, respawns no longer happening in vision will be quite significant for this badge; aside from hot starts, a lot of damage will come from enemies respawning near you out of cover or when you're corner shooting another enemy at a different angle, which happens annoyingly often even early on in floors before the global respawn chance gets high. There's also other little things like Hell's Arena eventually getting changed to no longer require killing respawns and so being much less tedious to clear on N!, Marines having inherent +10% energy resistances to make surviving to Vampyre a bit less brutal, the Medical Armors getting buffed to heal to 50% and Blood Skulls getting buffed to heal 10 HP per corpse, powerups becoming time-based and so will last longer in the later game, Reloader getting buffed to help boost Shotgun combat, Ironman and TaN getting buffed to be more viable survival-extending options, and Technical Mods giving resistances to armors to farther help survivability. There are however going to be other things that make it harder, such as berserk and Vampyre being nerfed so surviving to Vampyre is no longer a win condition on its own, Finesse and Intuition 2 getting nerfed, Scout's stair sense no longer detecting red stairs so you're less able to use them for quicker escapes, powerups possibly getting changed to no longer stack duration, and I put in a proposal to make N! City Of Skulls much more difficult, which as a side effect would make retrieving Blood Skulls for this challenge a more daunting prospect. Overall I think it may become slightly easier, but it'll be hard to say until I go for this badge again in a later version.
Well my 0.9.9.7 journey is coming close to finishing, I won't be getting the three more Angelics needed for the Chaos Marshal rank (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBCSaHXbEAEVVn5?format=jpg&name=large), guess I'm not good enough to play Vandam's proposed "N+" difficulty that he wanted locked behind that rank, but there is one more Angelic I can get in Everyman Angelic to set what will probably be the closest anyone can verifiably get to 100% completion in 0.9.9.7 without outright cheating. With all this shit talking of Vandam and his unsubstantiated boasts though, it's only fair if I provide the video proof for this Masochist Angelic run here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACL5Q7_Vxn0) (I strongly recommend watching it sped up, lots of very slow playing and lots of pausing when I was live posting about the run in the Jupiter Hell Discord). Here is the mortem if you just want to see that, which are not only helpful for evidence but also for other people to learn things about your run that will help them possibly achieve these badges for themselves:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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invulnorbust, level 10 Apostle Chaos Lt. General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 238187 turns and scored 341623 points.
He played for 2 hours, 18 minutes and 6 seconds.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1009 out of 1517 hellspawn. (66%)
He was an Archangel of Masochism!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 7
Levels completed : 3
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
Mastermind's Brain
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Untouchable Medal
Chessmaster's Token
Chessmaster's Cross
Hell Arena Pwnage Medal
Masochist Angelic Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 34/50 Experience 40956/10
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)
Intuition (Level 2)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Shottyhead (Level 1)
Fin->Jug->Int->Int->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->MSh->HR->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [4/4] (89%)
[b] [ Weapon ] double shotgun (10d3)x2 [0/2] (P1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x80)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
[b] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
[c] missile launcher (6d6) [2/4]
[d] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [40/40]
[e] shotgun shell (x50)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] shotgun shell (x26)
[h] shotgun shell (x50)
[i] shotgun shell (x50)
[j] rocket (x10)
[k] rocket (x10)
[l] agility mod pack
[m] bulk mod pack
[n] hatred skull
[o] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
[p] shell box (x1)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
84 former humans
86 former sergeants
43 former captains
108 imps
100 demons
447 lost souls
37 cacodemons
9 hell knights
10 barons of hell
1 arachnotron
14 former commandos
34 pain elementals
31 revenants
2 mancubi
1 agony elemental
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 assembled a tactical boots!
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
On level 9 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
He fought hard, but decided the reward was not worth it.
On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
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.
He left level 19 as soon as possible.
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!
He left level 22 as soon as possible.
On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
He decided it was too dangerous.
On level 23 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
He left level 23 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You dodge! You dodge! You are hit! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind flinched! The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun. The Spider Mastermind hits you.
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You quickly reload the double shotgun.
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
430 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
211 of those were killed.
1 of those was killed by something unknown.
97 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 12 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
109 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
65 killed the bitch and survived.
37 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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