Doom: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Stay On the Move

The enemies in Doom are relentless. Not only will they come in pretty hefty waves, using their numbers as a means of swarming you to your death, but they also don’t know when to quit. On a number of occasions during your playthrough, you’ll find yourselves in larger open areas with a ton of enemies all waiting to tear you limb from limb. Their weapons are powerful and they have a tendency to follow your around, too. Therefore, you’ll need to stay on the move in order to prevent yourself from getting swarmed out, and also to stop yourself from any incoming fire from any enemies repping long-ranged weapons.

Keep looking around you and never stop moving. Doom will punish anyone who thinks they’re strong enough to battle their way out of a circle of demons, so it’s best to not even get into that position. Combo running with jumping to help you evade any incoming fire. Just make sure you don’t accidentally walk backward off a cliff.

Check Your Health and Armor

As we just mentioned, Doom’s enemies aren’t gonna play nice. Not only are they ruthless in their methods of trying to kill you but they’ve also got some pretty powerful attacks and weaponry to help them do so. Therefore, it may seem obvious but always keep an eye on your health. It’s easy to lose track of your health and ammo count when you’re blasting the heads off of demons, finding yourself stranded with no means to defend yourself or just plain dead.

If you find yourself coming under a bit of fire, give your health a glance. If you see some armor lying in a slightly difficult place to reach, take the time to go and grab it. You may not think you need it now when your health is on 100, but when you next jump into a crowded battle it may be the difference between life and death.

Glory Kills

Glory Kills are not only a visually impressive attack in your arsenal but a pretty handy one too. As you crush the head of a demon, rip its arm off, or whatever other Glory Kill execution you perform finishes, you’ll be rewarded with health drops. No matter how many times you perform Glory Kills you’ll always get a health drop. This means you can shoot a number of demons into the staggering phase, and chain your Glory Kills to earn a substantial boost in your health.

Chaining Glory Kills like this can be particularly useful when you’re running low on health, so if there is no health lying around in the open, always use your Glory Kills to thin out the opposing forces and make your health bar look a little less concerning.

Use Your Chainsaw Tactically

Your chainsaw is another pretty handy item, but you need to use it sparingly. While it’s certainly fun to use it on every demon you see from the moment you get it, you’ll soon find yourself regretting your decisions because of its fuel limitation. The chainsaw can only be used as long as you have fuel. The fuel gauge is displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen and is made up of three sections. Using the chainsaw on a small enemy in Doom will use up one section. The larger the enemy, the more sections of your fuel gauge the chainsaw will eat up. Therefore, you need to use it only when you really need to get rid of an enemy that’s all up in your face.

The chainsaw, like Glory Kills, also gives you a little bonus for using it. Once you’ve dismembered whatever enemy lay in your path, yellow blobs of ammo will spill out all over the floor. Pick ’em up and your ammo levels will be resupplied. Therefore, the best time to use your chainsaw is when you’re running out of ammo and still have enemies heading straight for you. Always keep one section of your fuel gauge spare for these kinds of emergency situations.

Use the Right Weapon For the Job

Doom offers you a ton of different weapons to obliterate the forces from Hell. But because of this, it’s easy to find yourself just using whatever gun you can frantically select during the action. While it can be difficult to switch between weapons and monitor ammo levels in the middle of a swarm of demons, taking the time to think about what gun will suit the job at hand will not only save you a ton of wasted ammo in some cases but help you clear the area much faster.

Got a ton of enemies running toward you from far away? The Heavy Assault Rifle is what you’re after. Want to deal serious damage to close-range enemies? Your shotgun beckons. While these may seem obvious to some, using your pistol to cause a lone enemy to stagger so you can Glory Kill it, or using a grenade to deal serious damage to a group can often be overlooked when engrossed in the action. Think before you shoot on your journey to the depths of Hell!

For more on Doom, including guides, tips, tricks, and information, be sure to check out our wiki.