Doom Eternal is an intense game, so you can be forgiven for feeling a little overwhelmed by the demon horde, especially on higher difficulties. Compared to its predecessor, it’s a far more fast-paced experience because of its emphasis on mobility and demand for even twitchier shooting reflexes.
To make sure you’re ripping and tearing in the most efficient way possible, we’ve got a few tips to get your slaying started ahead of the game’s release on Friday, March 20. Once you get your hands on the game, be sure to leave your own tips in the comments section below, and we’ll update this feature with even more hints to keep you all ripping and tearing.
For more Doom Eternal, be sure to read our review in progress. Otherwise, be on the lookout for more guides in the coming days.
Never Stop Chainsawing
The chainsaw works a little differently in Eternal than it did in DOOM 2016: in fact it’s essential for obtaining the valuable ammunition you need to mulch enemies. You should be revving it more often than in the first game, as it will automatically recharge to one pip pretty quickly, which is all that is needed to shred apart basic imps and soldiers. However, you’ll still need to find fuel out in the world if you want to bisect larger enemies like cacodemons and revenants.
It took me a little while to break the 2016 habit of saving the chainsaw for larger foes, but in Eternal, get yourself in the mentality of cleaving demons every damn opportunity you get. It’s an essential tool for refilling your ammo, as those minor demons you tear asunder should drop plenty of shells and bullets for the rest of your arsenal. **Play Rocking Heavy Metal Guitar Solo**
Be ‘nade Happy
Both your frag and ice grenades exist on their own cooldowns, so you should not be afraid to spam throwing both and detonating carnage and freezing blasts. This can be super useful in moments where you need to freeze a bunch of demons to give you some space, so that you can blow them apart with frags. Though be sure to save some spares so you can deal with those pesky cacodemons: jam a grenade into their mouth and blow them apart with a subsequent shot. After a few upgrades, you’ll also be able to fire grenades out more rapidly, as well as bonuses that allow you to turn Imps into ice cubes or zombies into a thin red paste.
Never Stop Moving
Doom Eternal comes with a whole host of new movement options available to you from the outset, so be sure to utilise them! It’s weird that it feels like you’re barely on the ground while playing this game, but movement is key to staying alive in Eternal. With enemies firing rockets, whipping energy blasts, or mobbing you with their numbers, you can get overwhelmed very easily.
As bad-ass as the Doom Slayer is, he’s far from invincible, so agility is the best defence from fireballs and rocket blasts. Keep an eye out for things like monkey bars, try to keep dashing as soon as you’re able, and don’t be afraid to use the super shotgun’s meathook to drag you out of the fray and towards a lone enemy.
Barrels and Ammo
Another way to get ammo if you’re short between battles and need a few extra shells and rockets is to take advantage of the exploding barrels around you. Not only are they great to help you gib enemies that wander too close to them, but with the right upgrades, they can also be a means to resupply.
If you use a combination of the Thicker Skin, Environment, and Generating Barrels upgrades, not only do the big red barrels drop munitions, but they also respawn. And with immunity to their blasts you can go around shooting and punching them point-blank to your heart’s content until your pockets are brimming with bullets.
Linking Upgrades
As you progress, you’ll start to find Sentinel Crystals that can be used to upgrade basic stats, like your health, armour, and ammunition levels. While you can use the standard tree on the top left corner to get exactly what you want, you can slot them into the special perks below it, which require you to invest into two basic stat upgrades to unlock.
An essential perk to get is Loot Magnet, which brings all those sweet item and weapon drops to you; it also gets you every piece of armour possible, and since you’re battling through a demon infested earth, you’re going to need that constant protection. Quickdraw Belch and Belch Armor Boost are also wonderful, as they make the most of every fiery shot you unleash from the shoulder cannons.
Optimising Your Runes
Runes offer valuable passive upgrades, but which runes you’ll find helpful depends on your playstyle. Based on my experiences, there’s a few stand out ones I can heartily recommend.
Seek And Destroy allows you to launch into a glory kill from further away, which is not only great for regaining health, but also grants some valuable invincibility during the animation to get you out of a sticky spot if you’re cornered. Punch and Reave lets you throw your Blood Punch much more safely, as you’re guaranteed to get a good chunk of health back with each meaty right hook.
On the other hand, Dazed and Confused increases the enemy stagger state, which may not seem that valuable at first, but later on when arenas get really hectic, you’ll be glad that the demons you didn’t get to tear in half are still kindly waiting for you to finish them off.
I’m also a fan of Chrono Strike. With this handy Rune, using your weapon mods mid-air allows you to slow down time, which is great for assessing the situation you’re about to shortly land into, or just for maximum cool points when you land an in-air slow motion headshot on whatever soldier is below you.
Prison Yard Practice
You’ll visit the Doom Fortress Prison once in the story, but remember you can always go back there anytime you want to warm up your shooting skills, try out a new weapon build, or just practice things like movement and weapon switching without consequence. All those imps are locked up down there in the bowels of your fortress, so you may as well use them for something…
Useful Praetor Perks To Get
Not all Praetor Suit perks are created equal,and some will serve you much better in the early game, especially when praetor points are harder to come by. Thicker Skin and Frag Stock Ups will allow you to shrug off barrel explosions and fling your own munitions more frequently. Getting Item Finder as early as possible will make it much easier to find future upgrades and collectables, as long as you keep one eye focused on your map, that is. It’ll help you find more tokens, as well as Sentinel Batteries, which will then allow you to unlock more items and secrets back in your fortress.
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