Strategy:Hellrunner

0.9.9.7

Hellrunner is an amazing trait that new players don't even realize the value of, but veterans eventually learn all the reasons to love. One of the biggest and most underrated reasons is that with two levels of Hellrunner, you're faster than Demons even while tired or cautious, but without Hellrunner, you have to start Running and then expend almost all your moves in order to gain even one tile of space, and on UV, you better not be wearing armor or you're too slow to even do that while running. Hellrunner 2 makes Running speed your base speed, and makes you even better at dodging.

Another big reason to love it is that without its increase to dodge chance, you might as well not even bother trying to use the Dodging mechanic. Without any Hellrunner levels, dodging is essentially a coin flip against any fireball, and it's basically useless against Formers. With just Hellrunner 2 though, not even Dodgemaster, your base chance to dodge fireballs jumps up to 80% before distance is factored in. That's a big difference! With Dodgemaster added in, you can dodge even the first bullet fired at you for free, and once you can actually use the dodging mechanic, getting caught out in the open surrounded by monsters is no longer a surefire death sentence. You can actually use dodging while zig-zag running to safety and the monsters chasing you will kill each other with attacks meant for you. Dodging is also one of the only ways to defeat the Cyberdemon on higher difficulty.

Being able to actually run away from things without chugging all your medkits or gambling on a phase device will let you survive so many difficult moments it's not even funny. I'll let Omega Tyrant go into detail about that though.

Ya Girl Juniper (talk) 11:48, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Hellrunner increases your base movement speed by 15% for each level you take in it, as well as gives you an additional 15% bonus to your dodging rate. You can take up to 2 levels in Hellrunner normally for +30% movement speed and dodging rate, while upon hitting level 12 you can take a third level, for a maximum increase of +45%.

Movement speed is extremely important in DoomRL, for offensive, defensive, and general purposes. The better you're able to outmaneuver your enemies, the more favorable position you can manipulate them into and better confront them on your terms. The faster you can move and better you can dodge, the easier it will be to approach and fight enemies in the open. When needing to escape from a bad situation like being surrounded by enemies, nothing else will help you as much as movement speed and your dodging rate. When it comes to damage reduction, nothing reduces damage more than avoiding taking damage in the first place, so levels in Hellrunner can do a better job at keeping you alive than investment in Tough as Nails and Ironman, especially when boosting your movement and dodging through equipment is harder than simply getting better protecting armor. Then you can run into level events like acid/lava floods, armed nukes, and deadly air, where being able to escape/finish the level as soon as possible is imperative to avoid dying, and the less time you spend with each move, the greater leeway you get in being able to complete and thus survive these levels. Then when you're stair diving, the better you're able to evade enemies the easier and quicker you'll be able to get to the stairs. Another thing is when your health is boosted above 100% and you don't have the necessary levels of Badass to retain it, its decay rate is based on time (5.0 seconds to be exact). So the faster you move, the more actions you get to retain the boosted health, and if you gather up any remaining health globes/Supercharges/Megaspheres at the end of the level, the more boosted health you'll get to carry with you to the next level, especially if those powerups were spreadout and/or located far away from the stairs.

Two levels in Hellrunner will additionally give you access to Dodgemaster, which allows you to dodge the first projectile thrown at you between moves with a 100% dodging rate, a very handy trait to reduce the damage you sustain farther, as well as give you a free win against the Cyberdemon and make John Carmack's rockets a nonissue.

So Hellrunner by itself is a very helpful trait to invest in regardless of your build, and is probably the most helpful basic trait independent of other factors. Fortunately many master traits have Hellrunner investment as a prerequisite; Blademaster, Malicious Blades, Gun Kata, Shottyhead, Fireangel, and Gunrunner. You'll never feel constricted or as if you could have gotten something more useful when having to take Hellrunner to get your master. Quite a few masters block Hellrunner however; Vampyre, Bullet Dance, Army of the Dead, and Survivalist. Vampyre though is the only master trait of those considered to be a worthwhile pick over their competitors, and not being able to get Hellrunner plays a part in those other masters being considered underwhelming.

If your master doesn't require Hellrunner, Hellrunner is a great trait to invest in after you get your master for any build that doesn't block it, and it will often be the most useful trait to invest in after your master, with Finesse, Whizkid and Intuition being its only strong competition. If your master doesn't require it but doesn't block it, it may even be a decent idea to take a level in Hellrunner before getting your master, as delaying your master a level to get Hellrunner could mean the difference between death and being able to live long enough to get your master at all. Omega Tyrant (talk) 20:04, 28 April 2017 (UTC)