Strategy:Angel of Red Alert

In this challenge, every single floor will have a five-minute nuke set, including special levels and boss levels. This challenge is unique in how you must approach it, as while most other challenges more strongly encourage careful and even outright campy play, here in Angel of Red Alert it's the complete opposite; with only five minutes of in-game actions to work with on each floor, you must be proactive and play aggressively, you'll have no time to run -> wait behind a safe corner for all the enemies come to you. You also have to be very mindful of all the actions you take and waste as few of them as you can, especially so if you're trying to go for the Quartermaster badges that require 100% kills. For example, normally whenever you get a safe opportunity you probably have it in habit to immediately reload your Chaingun even if your clip has most of its bullets left, but considering reloading takes a whopping 2.5 seconds before modifiers, here in AoRA you instead may want to put off reloading it and try to kill a couple more enemies to stretch that clip out more before reloading, as it'll save you time for several other actions that can be critical to surviving the time limit.

Now for the full guide:

Contents 1 Class 2 Traits 2.1 Intuition 2.2 Hellrunner 2.3 Finesse 2.4 Reloader, Son of a Bitch, and Brute 2.5 Juggler and Whizkid 2.6 Everything else 3 Masteries 3.1 Gun Kata 3.2 Shottyhead 3.3 Cateye 3.4 Gunrunner 3.5 Blademaster 3.6 Masterless 4 Special levels 4.1 Hell's Arena 4.2 The Chained Court 4.3 Phobos Lab and Military Base 4.4 Hell's Armory 4.5 Deimos Lab 4.6 The Wall 4.7 Containment Area 4.8 City of Skulls 4.9 Abyssal Plains 4.10 Halls of Carnage 4.11 Spider's Lair 4.12 Unholy Cathedral 4.13 The Vaults 4.14 The Mortuary and Limbo 4.15 The Lava Pits and Mt. Erebus 5 Miscellaneous tips

Class

Your first choice you make in any run, which class to pick. Here in Angel of Red Alert, the obvious choice is the Scout, even with this challenge disabling their stair sense. When it comes to Scouts being 10% faster, that isn't just their movement speed, they perform all actions 10% faster, whether it being firing speed, reloading speed, using/equipping/dropping items, opening doors, or even waiting in place. Aside from the significant advantages that speed bonus grants in general, in AoRA that results in Scouts getting many more actions every floor to work with, and when going for 100% kills as the Quartermaster Gold and Diamond badges require, those extra actions will frequently be what allows you to clear out a floor within the time limit. The Marine getting extended powerups and the Technician's near-instant item use can certainly be handy in this challenge, and it's not impossible to win with them, but you're just handicapping yourself if you don't play a Scout.

Traits

The next choice will be what traits to go for, and another bonus of the Scout is that their speed-based masteries are even more well suited for this challenge than what the Marine and Technician masteries offer. This section will go over what non-mastery traits you should be prioritizing:

Intuition

The most important trait you immediately want to gun for is Intuition. Just the first level of Intuition is incredibly helpful, as knowing where powerups are without wasting any time looking for them can be a life saver, especially when Berserk Packs and Invulnerability Globes are critical in this challenge. The second level of Intuition to reveal enemy locations slightly beyond your line of sight is what we really want however, which has two important implications for this challenge. One, when going for 100% kills, just failing to find all the enemies in time will often be what ends AoRA runs, so an ability that lets you find them easier is invaluable. Two, as you have to play aggressively and can't waste any time waiting for the enemies to come to you, knowing where they are outside your vision is critical to avoid repeatedly running into enemies' attacks as your step into their vision. Otherwise with no Intuition, you'll need to keep radar shooting to avoid eating all that enemy fire you can't tank, yet you don't have any time to methodically radar shoot down every unvisited corridor. It's not impossible to win AoRA without Intuition, but not gunning for it immediately is just going to kneecap you in your Quartermaster badges attempts.

Hellrunner

The majority of your actions will be spent just moving throughout any given floor, so the next important trait is obviously going to be the one that makes each step of movement take less time, which is Hellrunner. With +15% movement speed per action, each level of Hellrunner will give you significantly more effective total actions you can make on each floor before the timer runs out. That would be reason enough to prioritize Hellrunner, but all the general advantages covered on its linked strategy page still apply in AoRA, so Hellrunner should absolutely be your next most prioritized trait unless you really need something else. For one last note, two levels of Hellrunner grants you access to Dodgemaster, but considering multiple levels of Hellrunner already gives you a very high dodging chance and Dodgemaster does nothing else to get you through levels faster, you shouldn't bother getting it unless it's a prerequisite for your desired mastery.

Finesse

Another big bulk of your actions will be spent attacking enemies, so the trait that makes every attack of yours take less time is course going to be highly sought after, which is Finesse. Finesse isn't just useful for increasing your DPS and letting you get extra shots in before enemies can move or retaliate, it's also making all your killing blows take less time, and considering how many enemies can spawn on UV difficulty, each level of Finesse will net many more actions of leeway, especially so on enemy-dense floors. Investing in Finesse will also let you later get Juggler and Whizkid, two advanced traits we'll cover later that can also be useful.

Reloader, Son of a Bitch, and Brute

This sub-section covers the next tier of basic traits, that can all be sought after but their prioritization (or availability at all) depends on what build you're going for. First up is Reloader; a trait that lets you reload faster is of obvious benefit in AoRA, especially so in the early game when you'll be relying on Shotguns for offense, while Reloader will save you more cumulative time with the single-shot-reload nature of Shotguns than Fineses will (with each level of Reloader reducing reloading time by 20% rather than Finesse's 15% for firing time, and in the upcoming 0.9.9.8, each level of Reloader is going to be buffed to reduce reloading by 30%). Two levels of Reloader is additionally required to get Shottyman, which is an absolute necessity here if you're planning to run a Shotgun build. However, if you're not using Shotguns, you'll be spending much less actions reloading than you'll be firing, or not reloading at all if using melee weapons, while one of the Scout masteries grant instant reloads as a perk (Gun Kata), while another blocks it entirely (Cateye).

Then there's Son of a Bitch, which for each level makes every attack of your deals 1 more point of damage. Anything that helps you kill enemies faster is of course going to be very useful in AoRA, but the problem is every Scout mastery but one blocks it, so it won't be an option unless you run Cateye or go masterless. Even then, any given level of Son of a Bitch has to actually result in you killing an enemy in at least one less action for it to actually help, which can vary greatly with the randomized damage of DRL, whereas each level in the aforementioned Hellrunner and Finesse are guaranteed to save you substantial time on each step of movement and each attack respectively, so it's still of lower priority when available. Also the advanced trait it grants access to, Triggerhappy, isn't especially useful for AoRA (getting an extra shot on rapid fire weapons can be nice if it results in killing an enemy in one less shot, but it also frequently wastes ammo and depletes your clips faster, which means more time wasted having to reload).

Then there's Brute, that is an obvious necessity if you're going for a melee build, as every level makes your melee attacks deal 3 more points of damage and you get +2 accuracy to your melee attacks. Investing in Brute additionally gives you access to Berserker, which can be incredibly useful when being berserked not only makes your melee attacks deal double damage, but also makes all of your actions 50% faster. However if you're not running Blademaster, investing in melee isn't particularly useful if you're not going to be actually using melee attacks much, and while Berserker could still be useful for non-melee builds, it's hard to fit in 2 levels of Brute + Berserker on top of everything else if you're not running Blademaster. Not to mention that Cateye, Gun Kata, and Gunrunner (as of 0.9.9.8) block it, so Brute isn't even an option for them.

Juggler and Whizkid

The last tier to cover is Juggler and Whizkid. The former allows you to swap between weapons instantly, which if you're going to be utilizing more than a single weapon as you probably will be, is obviously beneficial for AoRA, as quickswapping still takes a Scout 0.72 seconds. Considering you'll probably be swapping your weapons much less though than moving and firing, it's of lesser priority if it's not required for your mastery. Then there's Whizkid, that allows you to move even faster, make your weapons stronger, and make your weapons fire/reload even faster than what can be achieved through just other traits. But you need to have sufficient mod packs for Whizkid to do anything, and unless you're particularly lucky, you probably won't have the mods to make Whizkid useful until late into the game, as in AoRA you won't always be able to explore every inch of each floor and some special levels that have mods in them might not be beatable (as will be covered later). So until you have the mods to justify it, Whizkid will have to be a trait you put on the backburner and likely won't pick up until much later.

Everything else

The rest of the traits not already mentioned have little value in AoRA and are of low priority if they're not required for your master. Son of a Gun is obviously necessary if you're running a Pistol build, but is worthless otherwise (and Pistols aren't a particularly good build either for AoRA as will be covered shortly). Eagle Eye increasing your accuracy can save you actions when it allows you to kill an enemy in less total shots, but it does nothing for Shotguns and melee weapons don't need it if you're getting Brute, and overall you still rather be investing in the prior mentioned prioritized traits, so it's only really needed if you're running a rapid fire build with Cateye or are making heavy usage of rapid fire weapons with a masterless build. Then Ironman and Tough as Nails can be useful as the required aggressive play will result in you taking a lot more hits, but a nuke is still instaggibbing you no matter how tanky you are, so all the aforementioned traits to beat the nuke's timer are far more valuable (not to mention every Scout mastery blocks TaN anyway).

Masteries

As part of picking your traits, you'll want to be building towards a specific build, and this section covers how each Scout mastery fares in AoRA. It won't go over Marine and Technician masteries, as again if you really want the Quartermaster badges, you're causing yourself needless pain if you don't pick a Scout.

Gun Kata

On paper, a fully online Gun Kata build excels at this challenge; pistols boast incredible DPS when you max out your pistol traits, pistols fire so fast that you'll get much more economical usage of your actions, you don't need to waste any time reloading as Gun Kata instantly reloads your pistols upon killing any enemy, and Gun Kata requires Hellrunner, the basic trait you want most for this challenge. The keywords however are "fully online"; Gun Kata sure sounds sweet but even in normal play it requires so many ancillary traits beyond Gun Kata's prerequisites before it really gets going, while in AoRA you not only need the two levels of Intuition that will already push everything else Gun Kata needs two levels back, but since many special levels become unfeasible, you also will be missing out on that desperately needed EXP, hurting such a late blooming build even more (you wouldn't even be getting Gun Kata itself until about halfway into the game). Not to mention how much pistols suck in the early game, so all that necessary SoG investment does nothing to help the shotguns and other weapons you'll be relying on in the first half of the game as you slowly build your SoG levels up, while the necessary Dodgemaster also isn't a particularly good trait as covered prior. And then the endgame payoff still isn't even any better than what the other masteries offer. Gun Kata is easily the worst of the Scout masteries for AoRA, and probably verges on the edge of being unviable for the higher tier Quartermaster badges.

Shottyhead

Shottyhead is the Scout's shotgun mastery, which makes all their shotguns fire at a third of the their usual firing time. A simple but very useful effect for AoRA, as it has been well-established now how reducing the time of your essential actions is so important. Its prerequisites also cover Hellrunner and Finesse, and the necessary Reloader + Shottyman ain't bad either (especially in 0.9.9.8). Shottyhead falters in that its prereqs doesn't cover HR2 and Fin2 nor Intuition, but that isn't too bad when Rel + SM are still nice to have and delaying Shottyhead until level 9 to gun for Int2 at the start isn't a dealbreaker. The bigger problem with Shottyhead is that AoRA forces you fight in the open at long ranges frequently, and Shottyhead's shotguns will have serious damage output issues against armored enemies, while you can't wait behind a safe corner for them to get closer nor is approaching VMR and Arachnotrons in the open going to be viable until you get very good armor, seriously fast movement speed, and/or the aid of Berserker (which you won't be able to fit in here). Whizkid can help shore up this problem with allowing Shottyheads to apply more Power mods to their shotguns, and build a Focused double shotgun and Tactical rocket launcher, or even build Nano-shrapnel, but as covered in the Whizkid section, you'll struggle to get the mods for Whizkid until late into the game. Then assuming you get Int2 + Shottyhead as soon as possible (which means putting off HR2), you can't get WK1 until level 11 at minimum, which might take until the end of Deimos or Hell to get if you end up having to skip a lot of special levels. Shottyhead may also run into ammo issues if you're not lucky enough to find a Nano mod, especially if you end up burning a lot more shells to kill enemies from a distance, and since you're on a timer, you won't be able to farm Sergeants near Arch-viles to help shell shortages.

Overall, Shottyhead can work for AoRA and is a hell of a lot more viable than Gun Kata, especially if you happen upon the right equipment, but the reliance on Whizkid and potential ammo problems doesn't make it the most ideal. If you go with Shottyhead, the recommended order to pick your traits would be:

Int1 -> Int2 -> HR1 -> Rel1 -> Rel2 -> SM -> Fin1 -> Jug -> MSh -> Fin2 -> WK1 -> WK2 -> HR2 (but pick HR2 earlier if you don't got the mods for WK yet) -> HR3 -> Fin3 -> Iro for assurance if you get any more levels at this point

Cateye

For the Scout's rapid fire mastery, you get Cateye, which increases your vision range by 2 tiles. As mentioned early on in this guide, one of the biggest challenges of AoRA is simply finding all the enemies in time, so increasing your vision range, which Intuition 2 stacks on, makes finding all enemies substantially easier. It also allows you to start firing on enemies without the out-of-sight accuracy penalty before they can see you, saving you from taking a lot of damage that's otherwise unavoidable in this challenge. It's also the only Scout mastery that you can build to with Intuition, being the only Scout mastery you can get in Phobos while gunning for Int2, and the only one that doesn't block Son of a Bitch. Cateye has its share of serious cons however, that makes it not the clear best choice. First, rapid fire weapons are the worst weapon type for clearing hordes, and the Quartermaster badges are all about killing hordes of enemies as fast as possible. Second, Cateye is the only Scout mastery that has neither of Hellrunner and Finesse as prerequisites, so you can't get them until Deimos if you don't put off Cateye, and it's very difficult to get past Phobos in AoRA without them. Third, if you're using rapid fire weapons, you're going to need a couple levels in Eagle Eye unless you happen upon a Laser rifle or else they miss way too many shots, at which point we're getting into the problem of being able to fit in all those traits (Cateye and its prereqs + HR2 + Fin2 + EE2 means level 12 at minimum, and there's still WK, HR3 and Fin3, and more SoB...). Fourth, you are required to pick up a level of Triggerhappy, and you really rather have about anything else but it in AoRA...

What keeps Cateye viable is that its effect can benefit any weapon type, not just rapid fire weapons, so you don't need to depend entirely on them and could try skipping out on Eagle Eye. But as covered with Shottyhead, shotguns are going to be dealing low damage at such far ranges while Cateye doesn't get triple speed shotguns to compensate and has an even harder time fitting in Whizkid, and you sure as hell can't use pistols instead. Doing a dual-angel challenge that combines Red Alert with Angel of Max Carnage makes Cateye much better, as you no longer need Eagle Eye to hit stuff with your rapid fire weapons, but if you want to get the Quartermaster badges with Cateye the pure way (or because 0.9.9.8 removes the ability to cheese badges with dual-angel challenges), you have to really hope there's a Laser rifle in Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab. It's hard to make a recommended trait order aside from gunning for Int2 immediately, as getting Cateye ASAP has serious merit, as does putting it off to get Hellrunner and Finesse first, and there's the whole conundrum on if to get Eagle Eye or try gambling with finding a Laser Rifle.

Gunrunner

Gunrunner is an often neglected mastery in standard play, but is built for AoRA. Its first effect is it gives 15 more actions of running, something you'll be utilizing a lot as you try to clear out floors as fast as possible or to just get back to the stairs before the nuke goes off. So those extra actions of running are obviously a big boon here. Its other effect is when running, you'll automatically shoot at the closest enemy in your vision with each move as long as you don't have a rapid fire weapon equipped. Normally the second effect isn't that useful and can be quite finicky to utilize, but if you also have Shottyman with a shotgun or rocket launcher equipped, you'll be able to also reload with each move. Moving, firing, and reloading, all in one action... you should be able to very clearly see why this makes Gunrunner such a favored pick for AoRA. Get your movement speed really fast, and you can be getting all three actions done in less than a fifth of a second, just run at hordes of enemies and blow them away while spending little time doing so.

This should make Gunrunner the unquestioned best choice right? Unfortunately, there are some big caveats here. If you looked over Gunrunner's prereqs, you'll notice that Shottyman is not one, while Shottyman is absolutely necessary for Gunrunner to function. Getting Shottyman + Gunrunner takes until level 9 at minimum, but then you also need Intuition, and if you gun for Int2 first as has been recommended over and over, you won't get Gunrunner until level 11. By going the Gunrunner route, your Deimos is going to be very rough, and considering how hard it can be to get past Phobos when going for the higher tier Quartermaster badges, you don't want to be failing runs in Deimos. For other lesser problems, you will become quite reliant on powerups and extra medkits spawning to restore your running (even with Gunrunner, running doesn't last that long), and since you can't run while berserked, Berserk Packs are much less useful for Gunrunner than they are for other builds. Still, unlike Gun Kata the payoff can be actually worth it, and once you get Int2 + SM + MGr, you don't need much else to win the game (Whizkid would be very nice, but you have to wait until 0.9.9.8 removes it from Gunrunner's blocks, and even then you won't be getting until near the end of the game). If you go with Gunrunner, the recommended trait order would be:

Int1 -> Int2 -> HR1 -> HR2 -> Fin1 -> Rel1 -> Rel2 -> SM -> Jug -> DM -> MGr -> HR3 -> whatever

You could try putting off Intuition until after you complete Gunrunner if you really want to not wait so long to complete it, but without Intuition you will be losing many runs throughout Phobos and early Deimos from missing enemies or just dying from getting hit too many times. You could also try going for Gunrunner before Shottyman if you really want the extended running bonus ASAP, but Reloader and Shottyman are more helpful early on than Juggler and especially Dodgemaster will be, and arguably even more than Gunrunner is without having Shottyman first.

Blademaster

The final Scout mastery to cover is its melee mastery, Blademaster. With Blademaster, any killing blow on an enemy with a melee weapon will register as an instant action that takes no time at all. What's the absolute best thing you can want when you got a time limit? Being able to kill enemies without depleting it. Additionally, this is the only Scout mastery that you can get Berserker along the way to, and being able to get berserked without the need for Berserk Packs is incredibly useful itself for the reasons covered prior. Once you get a rocket launcher, you can easily activate Berserker at will by just blowing yourself up in exchange for some health (which can be barely any if you got Red armor or any other fire resistant armor), letting you do everything much faster. A fully online Blademaster can trivialize the second half of the game as you blitz through every floor in a minute or two, carving up every enemy along the way.

As with every other mastery though, there are problems that keep it from being the clear best. First, neither Intuition nor Finesse are prerequisites, so taking Int2 at the start means no Blademaster until level 9, which can take until halfway into Deimos to get, and no Finesse not only hurts your ranged weapons you'll be relying on as you build up melee, but also hurt melee itself when the slower attacking speed makes it more difficult to activate Berserker by hitting enemies and enemies will be getting much more unavoidable hits in. Second, it takes a while before you can depend entirely on melee and Brute does nothing for your shotguns. The requirement of Brute 3 especially sucks, as you could make do with only Brute 2 and you would much rather invest in Finesse, so going the Blademaster route will make later Phobos and early Deimos harder than all the non-Gun Kata masteries here. Melee fighting also means more damage you take, and AoRA can already stretch your health sources and armors thin when you can't do safe tactics to avoid getting hit. For one more issue, you really need a Rocket launcher so you can easily activate Berserker (and for the ever valuable rocket jumping), but if you don't beat Hell's Arena (which you probably won't), the game can be rather finicky with spawning them and kneecap this build if it holds on spawning one until well into Deimos. But, once you get Blademaster at level 9, you are pretty set. Finesse, Whizkid, and more Hellrunner are all very appreciated, but unlike the other masteries covered, you don't direly need anything more to win the game. Not to mention the guaranteed artifact weapon from Unholy Cathedral will give you immense lategame power without the need for any lucky drops. So ultimately with Blademaster, you'll trade a harder Phobos and early Deimos, for a much easier second half, and considering how much time you'll be losing by failing in later Deimos or Hell than failing several runs in Phobos, it can be worth the tradeoff. If you choose Blademaster, the recommended trait order is:

Int1 -> Int2 -> HR1 -> Bru1 -> Bru2 -> Ber -> HR2 -> Bru3 -> MBm -> Fin1 -> Fin2 -> WK1 and 2 if you got the mods, otherwise get Jug and/or HR3 first -> whatever

After Intuition 2, you want to get Hellrunner first, as Brute isn't doing anything until you get the Chainsaw from The Chained Court, and you need Hellrunner. However, you will want to gun for Berserker before HR2, as you'll be coming upon the Chained Court by the time you reach level 4 and 5, while you'll need Brute to take advantage of the Chainsaw, and you want Berserker ASAP for all the benefits touted prior. Once you get Berserker, you then want HR2 before Bru3, as again Bru3 is providing diminished returns in melee power while HR2 has been put off long enough. If you survive this long, then its Blademaster and you should win.

Masterless

One last option is going with no mastery at all. On the positive side, there are no annoying prerequisites you have to fulfill, you can just gun for Int2, HR2, and Fin2 immediately without worry of delaying a mastery too much. There are also no blocks, so if you want Son of a Bitch but don't want Cateye, this allows you to get it, and if you really want Tough as Nails and by extension Badass, well this would be your only option too. Being able to max out the big three traits immediately gives this path the easiest Phobos of any of the build options, and having the flexibility to adapt with your trait choices to whatever the game hands you is valuable in itself (such as if you come across plenty of mods rather early, you'll have a much smoother time speccing into Whizkid). However, the perks of the Scout masteries are especially valuable in AoRA, and so surviving beyond Phobos with the masterless build won't be able to clinch games like the masteries can, while failing runs in Deimos and especially Hell are so much more painful than losing several times in Phobos.

Ultimately, other than avoiding Gun Kata, I would say go with whichever of these builds you think you'll like best for this challenge. I personally went with Blademaster for my successful pure Quartermaster Diamond badge run and do think it's the best option, but the other options presented here should be viable as well with the right luck.

Special levels

This next section covers the special levels and how viable they are to complete in AoRA.

Hell's Arena

First there's the good old Hell's Arena. Actually beating Hell's Arena in AoRA on UV difficulty is often impossible unless you do a dual-angel run with AoMC; given your lack of power and speed at this point, the random enemy spawns, and how much ground there is to cover, you need to get very lucky with the enemy spawns and your damage rolls to beat it. The good news is after clearing a wave, you can just decline to continue and keep your 100% kill rate intact for the Quartermaster Gold and Diamond badges, and clearing the second wave even still gives you some reward with a small and large medkit. If you actually do successfully clear all three waves, the game is nice enough to spawn the rewards right at the stairs instead of randomly through the level, as you then rush to the stairs in the very little time you probably have left. While the rewards are good, especially the guaranteed rocket launcher, beating Hell's Arena does make The Chained Court much more difficult, which when combined with how luck-based clearing Hell's Arena is, I would recommend against trying to beat it. In my Quartermaster Diamond attempts, I would aim for clearing two waves and then dipping; clearing two waves gives a much needed early EXP boost and nabbing a large medkit for the trouble isn't shabby, while clearing two waves isn't too difficult and if I failed, very little progress is lost since this is only after the second floor in the game.

If you're going for the Quartermaster Platinum badge and are thus playing on Nightmare, don't even bother attempting Hell's Arena, you would be very lucky to clear even one wave.

The Chained Court

If there's any special level you visit, it's absolutely going to be The Chained Court. First, it has the Chainsaw, that is a necessity if you're running Blademaster and is still nice to have otherwise. Second, it has two guaranteed mods. As long as you didn't complete Hell's Arena, it's also a very easy level regardless of difficulty that you should beat every time, and come out of without expending any medkits thanks to the four Berserk Packs you have available. Plus it's again extra EXP, which considering all the special levels you're going to be skipping later, you're absolutely going to need.

If you beat Hell's Arena and got The Unchained Court... well it's gonna suck. It's still very doable on HNTR and HMP as rushing the Arena Master with berserk is viable, but on UV/N! where the Former captains make the rush strat much less viable and waiting for the Arena Master in the central building is the strat instead, you'll almost certainly run out of time unless the Arena Master's AI has him gun for the building. If you get The Unchained Court on UV/N!, you can try the rush strat still and hope for the best, just try to clear out the Captains too instead of ignoring them as you rush to the Arena Master.

Phobos Lab and Military Base

Absolutely skip these levels; both levels have you going back and forth across large levels, have tons of enemies that get lost within the level easily, and the former level has Nightmare demons on UV/N! that take a lot of hits to kill and will maul you if not handled carefully, while the latter level has the Elite Formers that are actually very dangerous when you can't just camp and lure them into melee range. The Combat shotgun and two more guaranteed mods are rewards you really want, but these levels are just not feasible to clear in AoRA. If you have a Homing phase device and you're going for one of the Quartermaster badges that don't require 100% kills though, or are just doing a casual AoRA run, you can just use your Homing phase in Phobos lab to nab the Combat shotgun + mods and then get out, but trying this in Military Base will bring you right in the middle of Elite Formers who will probably then quickly annihilate you.

Hell's Armory

While normally one of the easiest special levels, part of that is how easy it is to camp in it. In AoRA you can't camp, so you must rush through it, and eat a lot of damage that you then must burn medkits to recover as there is no health in the level (other than a secret Supercharge in the lava that you'll need to have brought an Envirosuit to get). Then there's the Shambler too, but unless you get really bad luck with his teleportation, he is not too bad to handle with a strict time limit. Considering the high chance for an exotic or even unique weapon to spawn here and having five guaranteed mods, one of which being a rare mod, the potential rewards are very tantalizing. Getting a Nano mod or Onyx mod in particular can be game-changing, and while you have significant progress to lose if you die here, it can be worth it. Having a Homing phase will be very handy to ensure you can get back to the stairs and get the mods in the vault in time after killing the Shambler.

Deimos Lab

Deimos Lab is of course even worse than Hell's Armory. Unlike with Hell's Armory that's a rather straight run through, Deimos Lab is a large open level with teleporters, that will result in enemies getting easily lost here. Additionally, the dual Shamblers are easily the hardest boss fight of DRL, and so trying to fight them in AoRA is an arduous proposition. It is possible to kill them within the time limit, at least if you're running a melee builds like I was, and getting two rare mods instead of just one is an immense reward. But even if you do kill them, you'll likely miss an enemy, and you need to kill all of them to open the vault, not just the Shamblers, in which case even if you find the straggler in time, you almost certainly won't have the time to go back to the vault to get the mods. If you attempt this level, it's probably best to not bother releasing the Shamblers (not releasing them won't count against your kill counter) and just take the take two mods outside the vault + whatever weapons that spawn. If you do want to try for the chance at two rare mods, absolutely have a Homing phase on you, otherwise you probably won't be able to get back to the stairs in time even if you do successfully kill everything and get the vault's contents.

The Wall

Unless you're running Blademaster and thus have the aid of Berserker, just skip The Wall. It not only takes some time getting to and breaking through the titular wall, but since this is AoRA, you can't utilize the safe camping strategy to lure Barons out, and rushing all those Barons (and two Arch-viles on UV/N!) will likely get you killed or brutalize you, while there is no means of health recovery on the level, and the rewards of the Backpack and Missile launcher + rockets isn't especially worth all the medkits and armors you'll likely burn through.

Containment Area

Containment Area on the other hand can be better to enter, as the Barons and Arch-vile are instead spawned by a trap you can avoid triggering by not trying to pick up the Backpack. Missing out on the Backpack sucks, but you can easily clear out the Imps and Demons for a bit of extra EXP, get the Missile Launcher and ammo boxes, and hope the crates drop some stuff, while not triggering the trap will not have it count towards you kill counter. If you want to try getting the Backpack and even more EXP from the Barons, I would again recommend against it unless you're running Blademaster, as you'll probably take too much of a beating and not be able to kill everything fast enough, while you also risk an enemy getting lost in the crate maze.

City of Skulls

Beating this level in AoRA is necessary for the Skull Silver badge, and it certainly sounds tough to do at first. If you have Blademaster though, it is actually pretty easy, and Shottyhead should be able to do it within the time limit without too much issue as long as you can afford the ammo expenditure. Other builds shouldn't bother attempting on UV/N!, as builds that can't blow through hordes so quickly will have a much more gnarly time, and the rewards of this level are very lackluster (you normally come here for the skulls, which you probably won't be using anyway as you'll probably skip that one pair of special levels we'll cover later).

Abyssal Plains

Even if you do got Blademaster, I strongly recommend skipping. Unlike City of Skulls, you have to go around a big circle killing a bunch of enemies much tankier than Lost Souls, and it's very easy to miss an enemy that gets lost wandering around. Then when fighting the Agony Elemental in the central building, Lost Souls will often end up getting spawned outside the building from Pain elementals dying near the walls, which you'll then need to dash outside and try to find any that did before the timer runs out (not to mention that even if you kill everything in the central building really fast, you're hard locked in there by walls that don't go away until 40 seconds have passed, 40 seconds you may not have to wait). While there is a couple ammo boxes and a Supercharge unlike with City of Skulls, the rewards still aren't remotely worth it.

Halls of Carnage

Since this is a special level you have to always beat fast anyway with its lava flood, it's the one special level that doesn't really play any differently on AoRA. And with the guaranteed mods and BFG 9000, you should be entering it if you're already able to handle it normally. Just be sure that every Lost Soul in the center room is killed before leaving it; you can easily ruin your 100% kill rate here if you let a Lost Soul escape the center room, as unlike with the other enemies you can't depend on the lava flood to kill them, and you won't have the time to wait on the stairs for them to pop back up before descending.

Spider's Lair

In comparison, Spider's Lair is a dicier proposition, as fighting a bunch of Arachnotrons in the open is something you don't want to do when it can get you shredded so quickly, and the camping strats you would normally employ here aren't viable in AoRA. Being able to come in to the level invulnerable would make it much more feasible, as you could then safely wipe out a bunch of the Arachnotrons in a swift manner at the start, and then cleanup of the rest is substantially easier. Otherwise this far into the game, I probably wouldn't risk it without invulnerability, as a BFG isn't really necessary to finish the rest of the game, but if you got the medkits to burn and think you can handle it, or otherwise really want the BFG, it's far from the most difficult special level in AoRA. Hopefully you get Halls of Carnage instead in any AoRA run that makes it this far.

Unholy Cathedral

This is simple. Are you running anything but Blademaster? Then skip it, you won't beat it in time and the reward won't matter to you anyway. You do got Blademaster? Then of course you run in, steamroll everything, nab the Longinus Spear or Azrael's Scythe and get out to essentially have the game won.

The Vaults

As you almost certainly won't have the Arena Master's Staff, this is an obvious skip if you're trying to maintain a 100% killrate for the Quartermaster Gold and Diamond badges. If you don't care about the kill rate, you could peak in trying to raid the left and/or right vaults on the chance something nice spawns in them and get a little EXP. If you do actually got the Staff, well this level is pretty easy on the harder difficulties in its current state, so you can try it without much risk (though it will be getting a serious difficulty buff in the upcoming 0.9.9.8, so be warned).

The Mortuary and Limbo

Yeah no, you're not going into these two levels in AoRA. If you got Blademaster, it should actually be quite possible to clear them, but this far into the game, why risk it? You don't even need the Nuclear BFG 9000 to nuke the Spider Mastermind if you want a full win, as you can just wait out the AoRA nuke and pop the Lava element in the last few seconds to nuke her.

The Lava Pits and Mt. Erebus

There's no reason to risk an AoRA run that's so close to the end of the game, but if you really want the Lava element for the full win, these levels aren't that difficult to beat with how strong and fast your build should be at this point, as long as you brought along a couple radsuits or got lava immune boots. Absolutely don't risk it though if you don't have those, and also make sure no Lost Soul gets lost flying around, this is a big open level that's easy to lose track of one in and you won't have the time to wait around for it to show back up. Also the Lava elemental can take a while to teleport to you, so that could be a potential problem too. (For one more note, these levels will also be getting made much more difficult in 0.9.9.8, so again be warned if you're reading this by then.)

Miscellaneous tips

Well that covers all the traits and special levels. The boss levels all basically play the same, as something is seriously wrong if five ingame minutes passes without the bosses or you dying, so they weren't covered (the only thing is note is thanks to the nuke, making it to Dis guarantees victory as you'll still at least get a partial win even if the Mastermind kills you). The rest are just miscellaneous tidbits for Angel of Red Alert that you can find helpful.

• Invulnerability Globes are mulligans

The nuke that spawns in each level during AoRA works just like any nuke, which means you're able to survive it if you're invulnerable when it goes off. So on any given floor with an Invulnerability (which you should be able to see immediately if you got Intuition), don't grab it immediately, clear out the enemies around them ASAP, and be very careful to not let them get destroyed. If the floor gets awry or you otherwise you can't find the final few enemies as the timer clicks down, you can simply retreat to the Invuln when the timer is about to run out, grab it, and then the nuke will wipe out everything, while everything killed by the nuke will still be attributed to you. You could wait out the timer once you secure the Invuln instead of trying to explore the rest of the floor, but the nuke will also wipe out any non-Unique item that spawned that you may have really wanted, and if you wait around, an enemy may wander near the Invuln and then you risk it getting destroyed when you have to fight the enemy off.

• When you have to make a mad dash to the stairs, remove your armor.

Aside from some rare armors, your armor will slow you down if they don't have an Agility mod and sometimes still even then, with even basic Green armor slightly slowing you down. While wearing armor normally is a necessity just to survive, once every enemy is dead your armor doesn't matter anymore, but you could be far away while time is nearly out. In these situations, take your armor off if it slows you down before you run to the stairs; it takes a second to unequip, but the cumulative time you'll save from the faster movement speed can be what saves your ass in these down-to-the-wire escapes.

• Don't get stingy with ammo boxes.

When equipped, ammo boxes will reduce your reloading time all the way down to one fifth of the usual reloading time. So for example with a Shotgun, instead of the 1 second it would usually take, with a Shell box equipped it'll get reduced all the way to 0.2 seconds without any need for Reloader (and 0.18 seconds with the Scout's 10% speed bonus factored). This is useful for any point of the game, but finding early shell boxes are especially valuable, when you'll be spending so much time reloading the Shotgun. Normally you would want to hold on to a Shell box for when you get into a situation where you really need the much faster reloading, but when the early levels can be some of the hardest to get through with your lack of traits and overall speed, a Shell box can be the difference between surviving and running out of time from spending too much time reloading.

• If you get an early power mod, use it on your Shotgun, don't save it.

Normally you would want to save a power mod for a Combat shotgun on the way to building a Tactical shotgun. Considering how you'll be skipping Phobos Lab/Military Base however, there's no more guaranteed Combat shotgun, and it can take a long time to find a randomly spawned one. Meanwhile, applying the power mod to your basic Shotgun makes an immediate difference, as it'll substantially increase the chance of killing formers, Lost souls, and Imps in one shot, while also killing bigger enemies in one or two less shots, saving you crucial time in these tough Phobos levels. Saving the power mod won't do you any good if you end up running out of time because you couldn't kill stuff fast enough with an unmodified Shotgun. Of course if you're lucky enough to find an early Combat shotgun, or even better an Assault shotgun, then obviously ignore this and slap the power mod on it.

• Use a technical mod first on your Chainsaw, not a bulk mod.

Generally people's first instinct when modding their Chainsaw is to immediately slap a bulk mod on it; it grants a substantial power increase, and bulk mods are generally less valued on other equipment. However, remember what we been saying about speed being king in AoRA? Decreasing your Chainsaw's firing time with a technical mod will save you so much more cumulative time than occasionally killing an enemy one hit faster with a bulk mod will, and getting an extra hit on an enemy without them being able to hit you will also save you crucial damage. It additionally allows you to activate Berserker faster from hitting enemies, which can be a lifesaver when trying to fight a Baron in melee. Once you finally have Whizkid, you can put other mods on your Chainsaw then (if you still have it by then that is).

• You need a Rocket launcher.

Even if you're not running Blademaster and so won't be using a Rocket launcher to blow yourself up for on-demand Berserker procs, a Rocket launcher is still valuable. The big reason why is rocket jumping; by far the fastest way to move throughout a level is to rocket jump, letting you clear many tiles in a single action. Since it additionally lets you move several tiles in one action, rocket jumping is crucial to extending the effective duration of action-based powerups, including those crucial Invulnerabilities and Berserks. Then often the fastest path through a level will be blowing up a hole through the wall, which a rocket launcher will be far the easiest and quickest means to blow up walls.

• If you get a Nano mod, consider the Powered red armor assembly.

Normally when you get a Nano mod, your mind immediately darts to making a Nanomachic weapon, some sort of Nano-shrapnel shotgun, or Antigrav boots, which would all be the same game changers in AoRA that they are normally. However, when reading the build overviews, you should have noticed the recurring trend of Whizkid being a trait you often can't get until very late or at all, and a Nano mod won't help you if you die with it stashed away in your inventory. One problem that will become very apparent when playing AoRA is how difficult it is to keep healthy armor as you have to play so aggressively, and armor will also slow you down unless you find certain rare armors. Power Red Armor solves these issues; it not only gets you a regenerating armor with strong all-around protection, but you also get a very good 50% fire resistance (aside from the big value of this against VMR, it means you'll be taking scratch damage from rocket jumps and facerockets when trying to proc Berserker), a very handy 25% melee resistance if you're running Blademaster, and it removes the movement penalty from Red armor entirely, so your armor will no longer slow you down. Unless you happen upon a very good exotic armor like an Energy-shielded vest early on to use the Nano mod raw on, you'll be very hard pressed to find a more valuable and more immediate usage of a Nano mod for AoRA.

Well that sure is a lot, I hope this helps someone reading this in their attempts to obtain the Quartermaster badges. Angel of Red Alert can be an intimidating challenge, but I do recommend even just playing it casually, as the forced aggro play can be quite exciting and force you out of your comfort zone if you're otherwise content to hit run -> wait behind a safe corner all day, such as myself before I made my attempts to obtain the Quartermaster Diamond badge. Omega Tyrant (talk) 01:13, 11 July 2024 (UTC)