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DoomRL: Angel of Darkness



Challenge #2 is another Very Hard one, Angel of Darkness. This one is kind of coy about what the actual effects are, but it must be fairly nasty if it comes with double XP to make up for it.



For this run I take a Scout, for reasons that will soon become obvious. Scouts have +10% global speed -- meaning they not only move but also fire, reload, and use and pick up items faster -- and also know the location of the stairs at all times.



Their advanced trait is Intuition. At level 1 you can tell where all powerups (anything denoted by a ^) are on the level and get some hints about what levers do. At level 2 it tells you exactly what levers do and also warns you about nearby monsters.

Their master traits are, as usual, listed at the bottom:

Blademaster gives you a free turn every time you kill something in melee;
Gun Kata gives you a free shot every time you dodge, and a free reload every time you kill something, as long as you're dual-wielding pistols;
Shottyhead makes shotguns fire at three times their normal rate;
Cateye increases your vision range by 2;
and Gunrunner gives you a free shot at the closest enemy every time you move, as long as you're running.



And here we see what Angel of Darkness is all about.

First of all, my vision range is reduced: 6 instead of the usual 8. Enemies, of course, can see in the dark, which means they still have a vision range of 8 and can shoot at me two tiles before I even see them.

Furthermore, there's no map memory. I walked over here from the east side of the map as usual, but none of that is retained. It displays only what you can see.

Finally, as a Scout, I should inherently know where the stairs are at all times. But Darkness, like some other challenges, disables this feature of the Scout class.



I don't even bother trying to clear out the level and rush down the stairs. Intuition, at least, is working properly: I can see all the powerups as soon as I enter the level.



The good news is that I level up almost as soon as I enter the level, thanks to the double XP. I take Intuition again for the enemy-sense. Shortly afterwards I find a Tracking Map, and here we see another nice surprise from Darkness: maps of any kind do nothing.



Here we see the value of Intuition 2. Any enemy within (vision range + 2) -- even through walls -- shows up as a purple *. It's based on your current vision range, too, so stuff like light-amp goggles will boost your intuition range as well as your actual sight.

There's a whole cluster of enemies in the southeast, probably a vault. I don't even bother investigating.



On Phobos 3 I hit level 3 and take Brute. Intuition makes things go a lot more smoothly, as I can now at least sense enemies at the same range they see me, and blind fire with the shotgun is still pretty effective this early in the game.

I can't really show a view of the whole level like I did in my previous runs, because there's no map memory.



Phobos 4 contains another vault. This one I actually loot, finding some armour and medical supplies, an agility pack, and a rocket launcher! I don't really have any ammo for it yet, but since I skipped the Arena and its guaranteed rocket launcher this is a welcome find.



Phobos 5 has a third vault (containing blue armour and nothing else), and I end up exploring pretty much the entire level (and taking another rank in Brute) before I find the stairs to the Chained Court. It's pretty obvious that I'll be hitting this level, since I've been investing so heavily in melee.



I clear out the Court as usual, grabbing a bulk and agility modpack and another level (Berserker) in addition to the chainsaw. The version of the Court you get is a lot easier if you haven't beaten the Arena, with no Arch-Vile and the enemies more broken up, but it's also hard to show off in Darkness mode.

On the way out, I run into these guys...who I had already killed.

That's the other nasty surprise of Darkess mode: enemies will randomly respawn when outside your vision range, just as though you were playing on Nightmare. Darkness with 100% kills is nearly impossible and it keeps you constantly on the run.



Phobos 6 is uneventful. Phobos 7 is much more exciting because it spawns a Supercharge and an Invulnerability both relatively close to the stairs down to the boss, as well as granting me another level, which goes into a third Brute rank.



It doesn't last long enough for the actual confrontation with the Bruiser Brothers, but it does give me invincibility for the first few turns of the ambush.



By the time I become mortal again, I'm berserking, and the ambush falls quickly. There is one mercy here: enemies will not respawn on the boss level.



A berserker frenzy with the chainsaw puts an end to the Bruiser Brothers in seconds. The double XP bonus means I get a second level-up immediately, which goes into a new trait, Hellrunner.

Hellrunner posted:

"Ohh, here it comes! Here comes the night train! Choo choo cha boogie!"

You're like a train on legs -- not only do you move 15% faster for every level of this trait, but you also get an extra 15% chance to dodge those pesky bullets coming your way.


More move speed is a very good thing to have, letting you reliably outrun enemies and dodge projectiles. It's also a prerequisite for some pretty nice skills, which is why I'm taking it here.



Deimos 1 contains two invulnerability globes, which give me a good head start on Hell's Armoury. Pictured here: my berserker frenzy wears off just after I summon the Shambler. Oops.



The Shambler's constant teleporting actually makes it a pain in the ass to deal with in melee. If you charge after it it gets free hits on you and then probably teleports away. If you try to back off and lure it in close it pounds you with lightning.

Eventually, I kill it, but...



...it comes back.

The modpacks you get as the final level reward don't spawn until everything is dead, including the Shambler, and running all over the level trying to get everything to be dead at the same time while it chases you is a great way to end up dead yourself.



I flee.

The good news is, it wasn't a complete writeoff. In particular, I got the Plasma Shotgun; this Exotic weapon uses 3 energy cells per shot but does plasma rather than shrapnel damage, meaning nothing really resists it and protection is halved instead of doubled. I still like having a ranged backup for my chainsaw, so I ditch the combat shotgun in exchange for the plasma shotgun and as many energy cells as I can carry.



Deimos 2 has an invulnerability globe near where I arrive; I grab it and start diving for the stairs. It wears off on Deimos 4 just in time for me to find another one and ride it down to Deimos 5. Deimos 5 has nothing to recommend it except a second rank in Hellrunner -- Barons of Hell and Revenants are starting to spawn at this depth -- and before long I'm on Deimos 6 looking at this armour.

The Plasma Shield has an amazing 95% plasma resistance, reducing damage from all plasma attacks to 1. Unfortunately, it can't be repaired or modded and has no other resistances to speak of. If you have a spare inventory slot it's sometimes worth hanging onto for a certain Arachnotron-infested special level, but apart from that it has nothing to recommend it.



The Halls of Carnage are a level I'll often visit even if I'm skipping most other secret levels, as I am on this run: it's fast, it's easy, you can reliably get 100% kills on it just by letting everything drown in lava, and it contains guaranteed modpacks and a BFG.

As usual, I just charge through the level at top speed, not stopping to fight enemies unless they get in my way, until I hit level 9.



This is what I've been putting those ranks into Brute and Hellrunner for: Blademaster. This gives you a free turn every time you kill something in melee, and because of this strongly encourages charging into the middle of enemy swarms so that you can murder your way from one enemy to the next without having to spend that free turn moving.

Vampyre is probably better, but Blademaster is my favourite melee master skill.

Apart from that, there's nothing you haven't seen before. The modpacks turn out to be power and agility, so I immediately upgrade my chainsaw to a Piercing Chainsaw.



Phobos 7 provides me with the Onyx Armour. Again. It seems to be showing up a lot lately, but I'm not complaining; indestructable, fully moddable armour is a welcome gift on any run. Later on the level I find a power pack and apply it to the armour, making it even better.



The Cyberdemon fight goes about as you might expect. I hide behind a pillar to get it to waste a rocket...



...and then charge into melee and shove the chainsaw down its throat until it chokes.

I also level up. At this point I've maxed out all the really obvious skills like Brute, so I put it into Finesse; faster attacks means more attacks per turn, which means Berserk activates sooner, which means more bloodshed and less damage taken.



At this point I'm berserking more or less constantly. I'm also trying even less than I was to clear entire levels; I have everything I need for the final showdown at this point. Almost.



Ok, now I have everything I need. My goal at this point is just to get to the bottom as fast as possible.



Here we see Intuition at work. At level 1 it would just rank a lever as "beneficial", "neutral", or "dangerous", but there are some gotchas there -- for example, "all barrels on the level explode" is "neutral". At level 2 it tells you exactly what the lever does.

If you're trying for the Gambler's Shield medal (pull a shitload of levers in one game), Intuition is practically mandatory.



Hell 4 is divided by a river of lava. See that single tile of bridge to the north? That's all that remains of the guaranteed bridge after a lava barrel exploded on it.

I was hanging on to an envirosuit in the hopes of maybe doing the Lava Pits this game, but apparently that is not happening.



Hell 5 has a similar problem, but with a river of acid. The bridge is intact, but takes me to a dead end.



It takes me several attempts to shoot a hole in the wall that isn't immediately filled with lava, but eventually I pull it off and gain access to the rest of the level.



A Megasphere! We haven't seen one of these yet; it's a Supercharge that also completely repairs your armour -- including armour that can't normally be repaired like the Plasma Shield.

Of course, all of my armour is indestructable at this point, but the full heal is welcome.



This is an example of where Intuition 2 doesn't give you the whole story. There's actually two kinds of "destroys walls" levers; one destroys the walls surrounding the lever, the other destroys all walls on the level. This is the latter.



Hell 6 is, again, a fairly cool setup I can't show off in Darkness mode. It consists of several large islands with buildings on them floating in a sea of lava, connected by catwalks. I stay just long enough to grab that invulnerability globe to the northwest.



Hell 7 decides to repeat the fun times of my Impatience run with an Arch-Vile/Revenant ambush, but this time I'm immortal and move twice as fast as anything else on the level, and give zero fucks. Killing them brings me to level 13, and I take a third rank in Hellrunner; this is impossible at lower levels, but at level 12 all the max-2 traits, Hellrunner among them, become max-3. (I put level 12 into Whizkid but never found any use for it.)



As before, level 7 gives me an invulnerability globe near the stairs. Sadly, I have no nukes this time.



The fight consists of the Mastermind trying to run away and me chasing after it and stabbing it until it falls over. Unlike most enemies, the Mastermind will make an effort to get out of melee so it can bring its plasma scattergun to bear.

There was also a lot of "flinching" going on. This isn't something that other enemies do, but the Mastermind seems to have a chance to skip a turn if you hit it really hard. At 8d8+9 damage -- or 16d8+18 once I start berserking -- that happens a lot.



My invulnerability wears off before the Mastermind dies, but that doesn't matter.

The ending text is the same as in my Overconfidence run, so I'll just skip straight to the interesting parts of the postmortem; there's no special text for winning the challenge modes.

Three awards this time. The Mastermind's Brain is awarded for killing the Mastermind without taking damage, which can be done by being very clever and skillful, or by doing it the way I did it and being invincible for most of the fight. The Hunter badges are awarded for making to Deimos (Bronze) and winning the game (Silver) in Angel of Darkness mode. (Gold requires winning AoD on Hurt Me Plenty difficulty with at least 80% kills, and it gets harder from there.)

See you next time!

code:

 ToxicFrog, level 13 Hell Baron 2nd Lieutenant Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 48606 turns and scored 123350 points.
 He played for 1 hour, 10 minutes and 41 seconds.
 He didn't like it too rough.

 He killed 380 out of 550 hellspawn. (69%)
 He was an Angel of Darkness!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 4
  Levels completed : 1

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  Mastermind's Brain
  Hunter Bronze Badge
  Hunter Silver Badge

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 1)
    Blademaster      (Level 1)

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   onyx armor [4] (AP)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Longinus Spear (8d8)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   plasma shotgun (7d3) [30/30]

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (A1B1T1)
    [b] BFG 9000 (10d6) [130/130] (B1)

-- 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 assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He fled being chased by a nightmare!
  Level 13 was a hard nut to crack!
  On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
  On level 14 he assembled a piercing blade!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 17 he found the Longinus Spear!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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