Day 28:I went for a variety of badges and medals and actually got quite a few!
To start, my first target was Lightfoot Platinum Badge and figured the easiest way to go for it was Max Carnage+Light Travel. 20000 turns is quite a bit of leeway if you stairdive, and Max Carnage with Shotguns helps cover for a low experience level. It took a couple tries, but easily got it:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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gdfgh, level 6 Apostle Lt. General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 12313 turns and scored 53816 points.
He played for 17 minutes and 27 seconds.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 168 out of 423 hellspawn. (39%)
He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
He was also an Angel of Light Travel!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 3
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (bronze cluster)
Major Icarus Cross
Compet-n Gold Cross
Untouchable Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 26/50 Experience 15602/6
ToHit Ranged +12 ToHit Melee +12 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Fin->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] nothing
[b] [ Weapon ] tactical shotgun (8d3) [4/5]
[c] [ Boots ] steel boots [1/1] (41%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x42)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] chainsaw (4d7) (P)
[b] shotgun shell (x50)
[c] shotgun shell (x50)
[d] shotgun shell (x18)
[e] shell box (x100)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
None
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
31 former humans
22 former sergeants
6 former captains
39 imps
6 demons
39 lost souls
5 cacodemons
5 hell knights
4 barons of hell
1 arachnotron
2 former commandos
2 pain elementals
1 revenant
1 mancubus
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 cowardly fled the Arena.
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.
He left level 13 as soon as possible.
He sounded the alarm on level 15!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
On level 19 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
He left level 19 as soon as possible.
He left level 20 as soon as possible.
On level 21 he ran for his life from acid!
He left level 23 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
You are hit! You are hit! Boom! You are hit! You are hit! Boom!
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You hear the scream of a freed soul! Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
913 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
655 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
39 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 115 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
102 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
10 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
88 killed the bitch and survived.
4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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...or so I thought. I thought that maybe there was some additional restriction? I checked in-game and definitely completed what it says to do, so I checked the wiki, and it says the challenge must be done on Ultra-Violence, which I did not do. :/ A little annoyed by that, though it does make sense given it's a platinum badge. I'll go for it again on the correct difficulty in the future.
Next target was Chessmaster's Token which I got in one try!
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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hgfhgf, level 3 Apostle Lt. General Scout,
was gutted by a hell knight on level 3 of the Phobos base.
He survived 12026 turns and scored 13862 points.
He played for 6 minutes and 34 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 59 out of 83 hellspawn. (71%)
He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
He was also an Angel of Masochism!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 1
Levels completed : 1
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Chessmaster's Token
Hell Champion Medal
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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=Bi.#..........#.......................#..................#
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###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 0/50 Experience 3586/3
ToHit Ranged +12 ToHit Melee +12 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Int->Int->Fin->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] nothing
[b] [ Weapon ] shotgun (8d3) [1/1]
[c] [ Boots ] nothing
[d] [ Prepared ] chaingun (1d6)x4 [40/40]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] double shotgun (9d3)x2 [2/2]
[b] 10mm ammo (x88)
[c] 10mm ammo (x100)
[d] shotgun shell (x18)
[e] shotgun shell (x50)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
None
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
16 former humans
6 former sergeants
1 former captain
8 imps
14 demons
5 lost souls
7 cacodemons
2 barons of hell
-- 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 3 he finally was gutted by a hell knight.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
voice booms, "Congratulations mortal! A pity you came to destroy us, for you
would make a formidable Hell warrior!" "I grant you the title of Hell's Arena
Champion!" "And a promise is a promise... search the arena again..."
You reload the shotgun.
There is a plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) lying here.
There is a plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) lying here.
You picked up a plasteel boots [2/2] (100%).
There are stairs leading downward here.
The voice laughs, "Flee mortal, flee! There's no hiding in hell!"
You enter Phobos, level 3.
The hell knight hits you. The hell knight hits you.
The hell knight hits you.
The hell knight hits you. Your green armor is completely destroyed!
The hell knight hits you. You die!... Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
914 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
656 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
39 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 115 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
102 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
10 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
88 killed the bitch and survived.
4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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Easy stuff with Max Carnage, though I definitely had a little luck on my side as well.
Next were Untouchable Medal and Untouchable Cross. These I was pretty confident I could get without too much trouble since they work well with my playstyle, though I still had to deal with tricky situations. I made a few foolish mistakes in one run, so ended up with just the Untouchable Medal:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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jhjf, level 7 Apostle Lt. General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 19019 turns and scored 56864 points.
He played for 18 minutes and 43 seconds.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 177 out of 398 hellspawn. (44%)
He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
He was also an Angel of Light Travel!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 3
Levels completed : 1
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
Mastermind's Brain
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Major Icarus Cross
Compet-n Gold Cross
Untouchable Medal
Shambler's Head
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 50/50 Experience 17624/7
ToHit Ranged +12 ToHit Melee +12 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Fin->Fin->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [4/4] (100%) (N)
[b] [ Weapon ] tactical shotgun (8d3) [1/5]
[c] [ Boots ] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x31)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] shotgun shell (x50)
[b] shotgun shell (x50)
[c] shotgun shell (x50)
[d] shotgun shell (x50)
[e] shotgun shell (x50)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 50%
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 25%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
33 former humans
26 former sergeants
6 former captains
33 imps
19 demons
38 lost souls
7 cacodemons
2 barons of hell
3 arachnotrons
1 former commando
1 pain elemental
1 mancubus
2 arch-viles
2 bruiser brothers
1 shambler
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
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 invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
He fled the Unholy Cathedral seeing no chance to win.
On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
He came, he saw, but he left.
He left level 22 as soon as possible.
He left level 23 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
926 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
667 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
39 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 115 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
103 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
10 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
89 killed the bitch and survived.
4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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Max Carnage+Light Travel is one of absolute favorite ways to play the game however, and since I was fairly close, I gave it some more effort. This time I played far more cautiously than even I would normally do, which was actually a lot of fun! I only got hit by enemies twice, and was forced to cross two acid rivers, but other than that, it was a flawless run:
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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fdxsfg, level 7 Apostle Lt. General Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 19672 turns and scored 56310 points.
He played for 19 minutes and 49 seconds.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 175 out of 368 hellspawn. (47%)
He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
He was also an Angel of Light Travel!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 1
Levels completed : 0
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
Mastermind's Brain
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Major Icarus Cross
Compet-n Gold Cross
Untouchable Cross
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 50/50 Experience 17340/7
ToHit Ranged +12 ToHit Melee +12 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Intuition (Level 2)
Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Fin->Fin->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [4/4] (100%)
[b] [ Weapon ] tactical shotgun (8d3) [4/5]
[c] [ Boots ] protective boots [2/2] (92%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x29)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] shotgun shell (x33)
[b] shotgun shell (x50)
[c] shotgun shell (x50)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 25%
Fire - internal 0% torso 25% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
30 former humans
16 former sergeants
5 former captains
23 imps
23 demons
53 lost souls
8 cacodemons
2 hell knights
1 baron of hell
4 arachnotrons
2 pain elementals
4 mancubi
2 bruiser brothers
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
He left level 11 as soon as possible.
He left level 13 as soon as possible.
On level 14 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
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 --------------------------------------------------
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
You quickly reload the tactical shotgun.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
Your tactical shotgun is already loaded.
You hear the scream of a freed soul! Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
930 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
670 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
39 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 115 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
104 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
10 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
90 killed the bitch and survived.
4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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So with that, I got 3 more medals, now totalling 36/43! My next target is another medal: Apostle Insignia! Time to grind for another kind of Apostle. :P
Strategy discussion time!
Going for this will be tricky since I rely on getting both Dragonslayer, Berserker Armor, and also surviving until the end. The obvious way of doing this is Ao100 or Ao666, of which, I'm leaning on 666 since I'll likely need as many floors as possible. Last time I did Ao666, I got every unique except for the Apostle set and Subtle Knife, so I don't want to be spending time on Ao100.
I also need a solid melee build for this, and I'm not a huge fan of Vampyre for long games. Malicious Blades looks cool, but it doesn't work in full with Dragonslayer, so that leaves Blademaster and it seems wicked! Of the traits available, I'll be wanting: Blademaster x1, Brute x5, Berserker x1, Hellrunner x3, Dodgemaster x1, Finesse x3, Intuition x2, Whizkid x2, and Ironman x5. That leaves 2 extra slots. Since it's also easiest to go from Shotgun->Melee, I'm one trait shy of Reloader x2 and Shottyman x1. Eagle Eye is useless, Juggler isn't really necessary, and the rest are blocked. I'll probably opt to skip Shottyman or Ironman, not sure which yet. Shottyman also becomes obsolete when I get Nano Super Shotgun, so it'll probably be skipped, and I'll temporarily gain from Reloader. If I stumble upon a very early Dragonslayer, maybe I'll go for Eagle Eye over Reloader since it's very mildly less useless.
As for armor and boots, perma-Berserk covers a good chunk of resistances with 60% to all, so I'll likely be more focused on movement speed. Phaseshift Armor (AOP) and Antigrav Phaseshift Boots (A) give 40% + 60% movement speed with 4 protection, indestructibility, 90% total resistance to Melee/Bullet/Shrapnel, and immunity to fluids. Pretty awesome! Inquisitor set is also quite nice with 90% total resistance to the other damage types, with total fire immunity and good movement speed too. I recall acid fluid not being a huge deal late into my Ao666, so I can live without needing that. Early on, I'll likely be rocking Cerberus Boots (A) as usual, or possibly Enviroboots if I find them. It's interesting that Cerberus Boots (A) is -20% movement speed, Enviroboots are -25% and Cerberus Boots are -30%. :P (PPTA+A) is an expensive cost for 5% extra movement speed!
Berserker Armor is pretty cool, but is super slow and protects as much as Phaseshift Armor, though the increase of it is an interesting mechanic. I imagine with my massive resistances already though that I'll be reducing a lot of hits down to 1 anyway and the extra bump to Melee/Bullet/Shrapnel probably isn't worth the slow movement speed and the spawning Nightmare Demons. I'll likely leave it in my inventory until just the very end. When I do wear it, I'll definitely be ditching Inquisitor set for Cerberus Boots (A) and Antigrav Phaseshift Boots (A), since the boots when solo are outclassed.
As for weapon before finding Dragonslayer, I'll definitely be using Nano Super Shotgun, or if I can't find one, Nano Shotgun. The other Shotguns are weaker and/or have a worse shotgun blast type, funny enough. Tactical Shotgun (P) is definitely the way to go until finding the needed Nano Pack.
It'll be pretty fun to test out all 3 sets that I haven't used before! I'm definitely going to build around using Shotguns until I find Dragonslayer, but I want to make sure I have Berserker early to help with picking it up. Maybe a spare Rocket Launcher and some Hatred Skulls will come in handy too. Scouts are also great with their extra movement speed and stair sense, along with the speedy Phaseshift set that I'll be able to fly through the floors once my build is complete. I'll need to kill most of everything early on to get that experience, but later will just be trying to get to the end without dying. I imagine the Apostle himself is weak though. This will also be a decent warm-up and learning experience for the eventual Ao666 on Nightmare.
With any luck, I can also find Subtle Knife and BFG10K as well to work on finishing my badges around collecting Uniques. I intend to grind for Apostle Insignia until I get it, but I'm also going to repeat this challenge a couple times until I also get 3x of everything. Shottyhead helped a lot last time, but I think with some caution, I'll be just fine without it.
I'm sure most of this strategizing is known and/or obvious, but it's my favorite part about gaming and I can't help but gush about it! <3 I think this grind will be a blast to do!