Looking forward to your second compilation post.
Regarding my proposed Cyberdemon Cross medal, it is a good point that it could be very luck-based since they're very rare and it's common to go through Archangel of 666 without finding any. However, expanding it to various bosses does make it a bit too easy I think. It's also worth noting that there are no special level feeling messages for Agony Elementals and Lava Elementals (although this could be another feature to add). How about instead we have "Boss Slayer Medal - Clear a boss complex on Angel of 100 / Archangel of 666 on Ultra-Violence"?
I would disagree on it being too easy, since you can still go an entire A100 run on UV without finding any of the boss levels, and you still need to clear them if you do get lucky enough to find one. I would agree with adding special level feeling messages for Agony Elemental and Lava Elemental caves, as well as the proposed name, but maybe "Boss Slayer Cross" instead to make it sound a bit more special?
We can scrap Purity Medal and Shottyman Medal as proposed. How about "Gambler's Star - Pull 100 levers or more in Angel of 100 / Archangel of 666", and "Vash's Cross - Kill the Spider Mastermind using Trigun's Angel Arm"?
Those sound alright if no better ideas are proposed. One alternative idea I just thought of is a medal for beating the game without entering
any of the special levels; considering there should always be at least one special level, if not quite a few, that are easy for your build, not entering any of them is going to make the game harder without that extra EXP and guaranteed loot. Even stair divers would have to miss out on the Chainsaw + berserk stack from The Chained Court and being able to take shortcuts through certain special levels to exit floors faster. If this medal is added, perhaps you could also change Berserker Diamond to beating N! with this medal, as winning without the early guaranteed Chainsaw nor Spear/Scythe would make things a lot harder, but you will no longer need to grind kills (but would it become too hard for a Diamond?).
For Brick Silver Badge, what if it were instead "Clear The Wall/Containment Area on Angel of Light Travel"? It would make it appropriately challenging by forcing the player to bring a Rocket Launcher and some Rockets, taking up a couple of precious inventory slots, followed by still needing room to clear it after.
If it were to remain a Silver badge, I would be fine with this, but if it's turned into a Gold badge, I would be fine with it remaining as is.
Part of my personal vision with Angelic Badges would be that top players should be able to achieve a large number of them if they have enough grit and committment to go for them, but it would most likely be too time-consuming to attempt all 25. It keeps the upper limit of the game open without being impossibly hard as it currently is. It could be really cool to see a dedicated god to the game chip away and get into the 20s. Alongside that, many different players could have different combinations in their collection, instead of right now devolving into getting Shotgunnery, then Lightfoot, then branching off a tiny bit from there, and then getting stuck.
I agree with this philosophy; true 100% completion should be an extremely lofty goal, but still achievable to anyone that really wants it or after a very long time, rather than being outright impossible as it is now. Also badge collections should definitely be more unique among players as you stated.
Regarding Gatekeeper Platinum and Diamond Badges, I disagree with swapping them. Platinum with passing Phobos Anomaly without damage on Nightmare is basically just finding Invulnerability nearby on floor 7 and zipping through. Diamond with clearing it on Ultra-Violence and then also Tower of Babel is generally harder to do. However, it could be more canonical if Gatekeeper Badges didn't include Tower of Babel. What if Gatekeeper Diamond Badge was clearing Phobos Anomaly on Nightmare without taking damage?
I overlooked that current Gatekeeper Diamond requires actually clearing Anomaly, while Gatekeeper Platinum doesn't, my mistake. If they were swapped around, then yes the new Gatekeeper Diamond would have to require clearing it in addition to no damage. However, after thinking it through, I would be fine leaving them as is; having a few easier Diamonds isn't necessarily a bad thing, and there should be a decent amount of Diamonds that are obtainable without playing N!, given a lot of players prefer playing UV.
Building off this, perhaps we could make a "Gatekeeper Angelic", that requires clearing all of Anomaly, Babel, and Dis without any damage on N!? While nuking any of them wouldn't count.
I like your suggestion for Hunter Platinum Badge, although it likely will just turn into cheesing a respawn near the end of the game, but that's on the player if they decide to do that.
I can see wanting to discourage grinding respawns, mainly suggested it to build of of Hunter Gold that has a kill requirement. I would be fine with a different secondary condition (maybe beating it under 40,000 turns to encourage rushing through a challenge that otherwise encourages slow play, if it's not too hard for a Platinum?), or just leaving it at beating AoD on UV.
Regarding the Apostle, I do agree he's cake, but it would be pretty frustrating to grind through Angel of 100 / Archangel of 666 and then die to him. Especially with the suggested proposal of creating a guaranteed method of getting Dragonslayer and Berserker Armor in those games, players would become even more likely to fight the Apostle in that game type. Additionally, the architecture of the level stays in one piece, so him teleporting around means you can just camp until he finds you again, killing the Nightmare Demons and other enemies while waiting. I'd have to think about this suggestion more.
I do get it could be frustrating to die to him, but you do have to go out of your way to encounter him (you certainly have no reason to ever wear Berserker Armor unless you want the Apostle Insignia or a full win in A100/666), and there should be
some risk to encountering him. I also don't think camping would be too effective; aside from the fact you'll get gradually worn down by the reviving enemies and eternally spawning Nightmare Demons, his health also regenerates, so wait around too long and he'll just get most or even all of his health back.
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Heroic Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum/Diamond Badges - Change these values to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, if we change the medal count to 50.
I also overlooked this one from before, perhaps add Heroic Angelic, and set the split for each of the badges at 5/15/25/35/45/50? Would be a little weird to have the Heroic series skip the Angelic tier, and according to the Badge Hunters thread, Heroic Diamond is currently one of the rarest Diamond badges (with only papilio and Tormuse having it, as well as you I think?), so I don't think it would be out of place in the Angelic tier (you could add a new especially hard medal if you think it would be too easy for an Angelic). With these proposed splits, you would also get Gold at the halfway point, which makes intuitive sense to me, and while you only have five medals left after getting Diamond, those remaining five are also probably going to be the hardest and most annoying to get.
