Doom Eternal is arguably a great sequel: it improves the core combat, gives your character the Doomslayer more moves and weapons to fight with, and ups the challenge. And oh boy, it can be a challenge!

Whether you’re a casual or an expert at FPS games, Doom Eternal needs a beginner’s guide. Between balancing your resources and playing ping pong with enemy heads & carcasses, this FPS is a wild ride that escalates quick.

Fortunately, we’re here to sort you out. Let’s start off with…

Some Basic Tips To Stay Alive

Use The Entire Arena

Rule number 1 in Doom: keep on’ moving. Doom Eternal lays out monkey bars, teleporters, and jump pads in an arena for a reason: so that you’re on the move. Use your dash and double jump to stay airborne and relatively safe.

A nice vantage of the arena also gives you a sense of what you’re up against, and with sneaky, thin demons like the Whiplash with a liquid profile, knowing what you’re up against is incredibly important information if you want to make it out alive.

Make It A Habit To Flame Belch Every Single Time

If you’d notice after an hour or two of play, armour collectables are few and far between. That’s where the Flame Belch comes into play.

This new Doom Eternal equipment sets enemies on fire and makes them spit up tiny green armour shards over time. When things are popping off, it’s easy to forget the flame belch is there, but do your best to make a strong habit of using it as much as possible early on, and don’t always use it with the intention of scooping up that armour right away.

Set it (on fire) and forget it. Find a group of enemies, give a big fire burp, and let them generate that good-good while you bounce around and shoot things. Chances are you’ll run over the armour again, on accident or on purpose. But if you need armour now, follow up a belch on some smaller demons with a nice grenade. If you have to, map it to a mouse button you use just as much as Mouse Button 1 and 2. Our choice? Mouse Button 4 or 5, next to your melee button if you have a mice with two extra buttons on the left side. 

Invest In Ammo Upgrades

Those Sentinel Crystals you’ve been getting during the campaign? You should use them for ammo upgrades. While getting health via Glory Kills is easy, getting chainsaw fuel for ammo kills can be taxing since they’re limited across all arena maps.

As an aside, put your crystals into slots that affect your Belcher and armour-for-health trade-ins. Short cooldown, longer effects on enemies; as long as they have an ammo upgrade node, go for it.

Focus On Barrel Regen & Invincibility For Suit Upgrades

See the light purple nodes on the pic above? Focus on those when you’re upgrading your suit via the Praetor tokens. Having a red barrel on standby for ammo and max AoE damage while being impervious to it is always handy during arena fights. Especially when they regenerate a few seconds after.

Fight The Marauders Using The Super Shotgun, Ballista, & Circle Strafing

Marauders, like Dark Souls bosses, are designed to mess with your ebb and flow when it comes to this particular arena shooters. They can nullify whatever you throw at them, and can only be hurt when they’re flashing green, ready to swing at you with their axe.

First up: stick to the mid-range when dealing with this guy. He can blast you with a shotgun if you’re up-close and fire a fast red plasma axe shot when you’re far away. Also, he summons a yellow dog midway that hounds you (heh) until you’re dead. Deal with that first if the Marauder summons it.

Weapons-wise, the super shotgun and ballista are ideal here; just aim and fire when they’re flashing green. You may need to be a tad precise with the ballista but it’s essential if you’re out of shotgun ammo. When the dog appears, change to a different weapon like a plasma gun or heavy cannon to deal with it.

When you hit the Marauder, you can even get a quick meat hook via your super shotgun for an extra hit. Speaking of ammo, Marauder fights are usually filled with an enemy fodder or two; chainsaw them when you get a chance.

Just be patient, circle-strafe them, grab health from nearby fodder, and outlast this guy before he outmanoeuvres you. Remember: “green” means “go”!

NEXT: Cheats