Screenshot: Doom Eternal
Doom Eternal came out just over a month ago, and it's already at a twenty five percent discount across all platforms for the week. Now is a great time to pick up this sequel our staff had mixed feelings about. (
Doom is so nice, we reviewed it twice, check them out
here and
here.) I, for one, have been playing the hell out of it. In that time, I’ve picked up a few things that have helped me immensely, and I thought that people picking up the game at its newly discounted price would benefit with a few hard-earned pointers.
Here are four tricks and strategies that will get you ripping and tearing like never before.
Damage Thresholds
One of the most important things you can learn in
Doom Eternal is the difference between how much damage you need to stagger a demon--that's the state in which they flash orange and can be glory killed. Here are three couple examples: the Mecha Zombie can be instantly staggered with a single hit from the Combat Shotgun’s Sticky Bomb mod. The Prowler, those purple, teleporting, three eyed demons that try to flank you from behind? You can instantly stagger these demons with a single hit from your badass energy ballista or a single blood punch; finally, the Arachnotron, those creepy brain-spiders decked out with a weaponized exoskeleton. One Blood Punch, a blast from the super shotgun and then a hit from the Ballista will consistently stagger them. These are just three examples, but there are plenty more. Knowing exactly how much damage you need to stagger an enemy is crucial on Nightmare and Ultra-Violence, because the health from that glory kill might be all that stands between you and death.
Screenshot: Doom Eternal
Faltering
A falter in
Doom Eternal refers to when a demon is briefly stunned, halting their offensive and opening them up to attack. You can falter demons in a variety of ways, including frags, the Rocket Launcher’s remote detonation mod, exploding a demon with the Plasma Gun’s Microwave Beam, etc. In my experience, players don’t utilize faltering nearly enough, as it allows you to get close to demons that would otherwise absolutely obliterate you. A perfect example is the Cyber Mancubus--getting too close to these bloated sacks of flesh and guns will cause them to create a large shock wave around them, which on Nightmare may deplete nearly all your health. However, if you lob a frag grenade at them, it will falter them, preventing them from creating the shock wave, allowing you get in close and Blood Punch them to remove all their armor. This trivializes what is usually one of the tankiest non-boss enemies in the game, allowing you to quickly take them out.
Screenshot: Doom Eternal
Mastering Meathook Movement
The Super Shotgun’s Meathook mod might be one of my favorite grappling hooks in any game. Grappling on to demons and swinging around like a bat out of hell is just pure bliss, but it isn’t as simple as it might look. Knowing exactly when and where to detach from a demon can allow you to go flying at speeds that would make even the Haste power up blush, and combined with the Air Control rune, you can transform yourself into an agile human missile, flinging yourself out of harm's way or right into Super Shotgun range. More importantly, you can use it to circumvent parts of combat encounters by destroying those hard to reach totems that buff enemies.
Think Outside The Box
One complaint that I’ve seen directed at
Doom Eternal is that it sometimes seems like it’s holding your hand. Before every boss fight you get a pop-up telling you the bosses weaknesses, when you can attack them and when you can’t; the codex entry for a demon will tell you what weapons are most effective and/or if they have an exploitable weak point. It can seem like it removes the need for the player to learn these strategies organically through experience. However, this isn’t always the case. Let’s look at the Marauder, the most infamous addition to
Doom Eternal’s roster of demons. They’ll attack you with an energy wave from long range, blast you with their super shotgun at close range, can summon a spectral wolf to attack and stun you, and also have an impenetrable shield. Normally, you can only attack them when they close the distance to strike you with their axe at close range, telegraphed by their eyes glowing green. Many, many people have said Marauders ruin the flow of combat by forcing you to stand still and wait out their axe attack, but this isn’t your only chance to hit them. You can shoot sticky bombs or grenades at his feet, detonate rockets behind him, fire the BFG 9000 near him, and when he turns around to block the energy tendrils coming from the projectile you can blast him in the back. You can even grapple him with the Meathook and swing behind him, and if your timing is good enough you can hit him with a blast from your Super Shotgun before he has time to block it with his shield, faltering him and letting you dump Ballista and Super Shotgun rounds into him before he can recover.
These are just a few things I picked up along the way. If you have any tips or tricks, feel free to comment below and share them.
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