Gaming
Thinking about getting the latest installment of the Doom franchise? Here are eight essential tips to give you a helping hand before you dive into the game.
Doom Eternal, Id Software’s latest masterpiece of a shooter, is hard. A lot harder than their previous effort, 2016’s semi-reboot, DOOM (referred to as DOOM 2016, to avoid confusion with the original title). There’s a lot of systems in play, an almost overwhelming amount of options in any combat situation once you’re fully tooled up and sometimes, deaths can occur simply because you’re overthinking things or because you’re not using the entirety of the Doomslayers considerable arsenal. There are, however, plenty of things you can do to even the odds against the hordes of the damned...
1. Get the Precision Bolt upgrade as soon as you can
In a game so fast-paced and aggressive as Doom Eternal, you would think that a considered, accuracy focused upgrade like this scope that turns the Heavy Cannon into a mid-range sniper rifle, would have little place. Hell, in DOOM 2016 it was, for the most part, fairly useless. In Eternal, it’s absolutely essential. You see, most enemies now have specific weak spots - the Arachnotron’s turret, or the Mancubus’ huge gun arms, for instance - and one well placed bolt can ping these clean off, limiting their means of attack, and in some cases, causing the Glory Kill state. Being able to accurately target these with a strong, single attack is an important part of survival on the harder difficulties, so grab this as soon as it becomes available for a slightly easier life.
2. It’s a struggle to survive early on
More so than the 2016 release, Doom Eternal’s combat demands that you’re constantly switching weapons and throwing yourself into the combat loop - glory kills for health top ups, the chainsaw for ammo and the new flamethrower for armour - ensuring you’re always in the thick of the action. This does mean, especially when you don’t have the entire arsenal at your disposal, that you will find yourself running out of ammo a lot.
Remember, the chainsaw constantly refills to at least one point automatically now and during a firefight, there will be constantly respawning fodder demons to saw in half if you find yourself in an ammunition pinch. Once you’ve got more guns and a few ammo upgrades under your belt, this stops being such a problem but is absolutely worth keeping in mind during the first couple of levels.
3. Don’t play favourites with the weapons
If the weak spots weren’t a total giveaway, Doom Eternal wants you to constantly switch weapons when in a hectic firefight. As well as the weak spots, enemies take more damage, can be staggered instantly and some other unique quirks can be triggered by specific ammo types. Now, this is Doom and no one wants to spend their time reading when they could be ripping and tearing through demons, but take a look at the codex to find out what works best for each enemy/situation. Learn the most effective way to deal the most possible damage and you’ll have a lot more success in the harder, bigger battles.
4. Pay attention to the enemy types
The various enemies in Doom Eternal are now split up into different categories - Fodder, Heavy and Super Heavy - and for the most part, this is how much damage they can take before dying. Fodder will be dispatched in a couple of well-placed shots, while a Super Heavy is essentially a boss-type, tanking loads of damage and resources before they are taken out. There’s information whenever you first encounter a new enemy which tells you not only what type they are, but the way that they will act and attack.
For instance, the Cacodemon is a ‘pressure’ demon, who will constantly move towards you and fire off attacks, harassing you and forcing movement and actions from you that you may not want to do. This information on the enemies will help make informed decisions as to the priority these should be engaged with and killed - it’s usually best to take out all of the Heavy demons first, leaving some Fodder kicking around for some easy ammo/health/armour kills while you take on any Super Heavy that requires all of your attention.
5. ‘Farm’ the low level minions for armour
In the areas between the big battle arenas and, usually, just after a big firefight, there will be a bunch of fairly harmless Fodder demons pottering about. Sure, you can ignore them or despatch them with ease, but you’re better off using them to restock your depleted resources. Hit them with the fire belch to grab some armour shards, chainsaw one to refill your ammo and then glory kill any that you can to replenish your health. Waste not, want not!
6. Fast-Travel works in a unique way
So, Doom Eternal has a fast-travel mechanic, but it’s a bit odd and used in quite a specific way. When you get right to the end of every level you will see an alert telling you that fast-travel is unlocked. However, if you finish the level and re-enter it, you will no longer be able to fast-travel. Strange, huh? Essentially, fast-travel is used for going back through an near-finished level to clean up any secrets you may have missed. Keep this in mind if you’re going for 100%.
7. Keep on moving
Much like every other Doom game (outside of Doom 3, of course), running and gunning is the name of the game here in Doom Eternal. To further facilitate this, you start out with the ability to double jump this time around and you pick up a double dash that can be used to evade attacks or close distance on the second level. Standing still means death, so stay on your front foot the entire time.
Having these movement options from so early in the game means that Doom Eternal has much more varied levels and arenas that have a lot more verticality to them, so be aware of your position and where you can head next. Keep an eye out for horizontal beams that can be launched off to reach higher platforms and make sure that you always have an escape plan if things get a bit too hectic.
8. In Battlemode, configure your favourite weapon mods beforehand
‘Battlemode’ is the asymmetrical multiplayer mode that has one Doom Slayer taking on two player-controlled demons. The Doom Slayer starts with everything but the BFG at his disposal, with every weapon having both mods ready to go. If you have a preferred mod, go into the loadout menu and you can set which mod the weapon will start on, so you don’t have to switch mid-match, potentially costing you your life.
