A No-Death Run is a Beautiful Thing

Amadis001 · February 2018

This has become my favorite part of the game by far -- striving for the No Death achievement. It's like an elegantly cut diamond or a 300 game of bowling... a moment of perfection when everything comes together. You learn the minutia of a dungeon: not just the boss mechanics, but also all the places where mistakes are commonly made by the uninitiated, all the small things that reduce risks, what to expect from each group of adds and how to pull them to minimize errors, the risky jump or wrong turn that can lead to a death. In the end, when four experienced players come together in a vet dungeon, communicate well, share their best tactics and, ultimately, kill the final boss without a single loss of (non-NPC) life, it's the best moment in the game for me. And then to have the Survivor achievement pop up to permanently record the accomplishment makes it even better.

No question here for the forum. I just felt like sharing my favorite part of the game.

DeadlyRecluse · February 2018

Yep, feels good, even if you already have the achievement, just to get a nice clean run in.

So many dungeons, even easy ones, end up picking off a group member or two due to inattention. When everything goes perfectly it's pretty great.

Vermintide · February 2018

When it was ABOUT to be a no-death run of VoM...

Until you fumble your jump, slip off the ledge at a weird angle, and spend that ten-scond drop trying to assure yourself, "It's okay. Surely they designed this dungeon so that you CAN'T kill yourself here... Even though it looks like I'm heading for... Oh god damn. Why is it ALWAYS ME?! WHYYY-"

Splat.

Froil · February 2018

No... No whats?
No-breath runs...?
No-meth runs?

jaye63 · February 2018

I dont shoot for it because Im generally in a pug. But when it does happen... better than just right temp coffee and a dozen donuts for dinner.

Amadis001 · February 2018

Vermintide wrote: »

When it was ABOUT to be a no-death run of VoM...

Until you fumble your jump, slip off the ledge at a weird angle, and spend that ten-scond drop trying to assure yourself, "It's okay. Surely they designed this dungeon so that you CAN'T kill yourself here... Even though it looks like I'm heading for... Oh god damn. Why is it ALWAYS ME?! WHYYY-"

Splat.

My No-Death VoM run last night was exactly what motivated me to post. And I know _exactly_ which ledge you're talking about. As I was jumping down the broken pieces of ramp toward the final boss, I went right up on the wall of that ledge by mistake and ALMOST went over, just as my teammates were joking about a previous time that three of them had jumped to their deaths at that spot. In the brief instant before I knew that my mistake was recoverable, I was busy imagining the lifetime of ridicule from my guild that I was about to sign up for. So I suppose that this one was not the 'polished gem' of a run that I posted about, but we pulled it out in the end and got the achievement, so I'm not complaining.

Amadis001 · February 2018

jaye63 wrote: »

I dont shoot for it because Im generally in a pug. But when it does happen... better than just right temp coffee and a dozen donuts for dinner.

I've randomly had a few no-death runs in PUGs. But the trick to doing it in any but the simplest dungeon is running with guildmates. After more than a year of playing, I've finally started running trials with a great PvE guild. Some of those players eat vet dungeons for breakfast. If I can get a decent crew together, it might take as little as a run or two to sync up and have a clean run. I won't say that they are carrying me... after all, I have to also not die. But many of them are much more experienced than I am and have already gotten these achievements many times over, so I learn a lot from running with them. No matter how masterful I think I am at running a particular dungeon, I almost always learn new things from my guildmates.