Tag: DOOM The Dark Age

Thank you to everyone who’s already voted in the early rounds to make DOOM: The Dark Ages a Steam Awards Finalist in the following category:

• Outstanding Visual Style

We’re honored and hope with one final vote from all of you we can win this thing!

Update 3 for DOOM: The Dark Ages introduces Ripatorium 2.0, offering additional Encounter Presets, deeper customization options, additional jukebox tracks and the ability to share your custom encounters on a per-round basis via Passcode sharing.  

This update also includes Campaign quality-of-life updates such as the Brink of Death feature now selectable between Normal and Hard settings via the Difficulty tab, plus player-requested updates including bindable inputs for your active Melee Weapon and Shield Rune. 

We’ve added even more ways to customize the Ripatorium arena mode, including the ability to share and load presets from each round via our Passcode sharing*. 

• The Ripatorium is now round-based, with players customizing a selection of enemies they will face for up to five rounds

• Each Ripatorium round can have unique settings and up to 10 respawn waves 

• In the Settings menu, we’ve added new options for Time Limit 

• Each round also features a unique Passcode (highlighted in the image below) that allows you to share your custom Ripatorium round and all its settings with other players 

  

*Please note Ripatorium Passcode sharing is in Beta 

• To play someone else’s Ripatorium encounter, select the corresponding round and press the newly added “Enter New Passcode” input at the bottom of the screen  

There are also new Encounter Presets to choose from: Medium, Challenging and Sadistic  

• Note: You can enable these Encounter Presets in conjunction with any Difficulty Level 

What are the “Preset Incoming” Encounters?

Update 2.2 includes general bug fixes and combat encounter adjustments for all platforms. It also introduces new handheld optimizations and quality of life updates including DOOM: The Dark Ages now being Steam Deck Verified.

• On first launch, the game will autodetect the optimal settings for handheld devices. Handheld First Launch Auto Detection is specific to handhelds. Players may further customize the settings based on personal preferences

• Settings are now stored per device so players may customize their play experience on a per device basis

• General performance improvements specific to handhelds

• Added advanced optimization settings specifically for handhelds

• Optimized SFX and VFX specifically for handhelds (Changes do not affect Consoles or PC)

• Handheld benchmark mode

Performance depends on selected power mode and whether the device is attached to a dedicated power source. Values detailed here assume the device is using the highest power setting in the OS and is not running from battery

• Steam Deck : 720p @ ~30FPS

• Z1 Devices : 720p @ ~30FPS (such as ASUS ROG Ally)

• Z1E Devices : 1080p @ ~30FPS (such as ASUS ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go)

• Z2A Devices : 720p @ ~30FPS (such as XBOX ROG Ally)

• Z2E Devices : 1080p @ ~60FPS (such as XBOX ROG Ally X)

*Results are based on testing with pre-release drivers. Personal results may vary with newer drivers and user selected power settings on a per device basis

• Added QOL input improvements when handhelds are docked to a stand

• Added controller detection on handhelds for wireless and wired external controllers

• Fixed an issue with Sentinel civilians‘ heads being out of place in Hebeth, Siege – Part 1, and Sentinel Command Station

• Resolved a rare crash if the player used the shield throw on the Plasma Shield Soldiers with the “Power Surge” shield upgrade

Final Battle

• Visuals for area denial when Prince Ahzrak blood pillars expire now render correctly

• Fixed a rare crash when using the BFC during the beginning of each phase of the enhanced Prince Ahzrak boss fight

• Fixed an issue where death and damage stats were not being registered properly in the case of multiple damage instances on the same frame as an entity death

  • This change also addressed a bug where the Accelerator mastery challenge wasn’t being incremented properly

• Cycler Plasma Gun will no longer glow white on firing with Berserker Power in Harbor of Souls and Resurrection

• Shield now accounts for melee stagger and correctly recovers from being staggered out of a melee strike while attempting to block/parry.

• Player’s selection of equipped guns, upgrades, melee weapon, and shield rune will now persist once adjusted

• Added ammo and health pickups to Ripatorium arenas

• Fixed the crash issue during combat with too many enemy AI present in the Ripatorium as well as in the campaign 

• Fixed the issue with the base Vagary not dying when executed while dazed 

• Fixed the issue where Champion Vagary had a chance to spawn when the base Vagary was selected 

• Fixed an issue where swapping any Shield Rune after starting the arena would cause some of the upgrades to no longer work, including Steadfast, Harvester, Blade Master, and Retaliation 

• The Steadfast Shield upgrade now functions when an unbroken shield is restoring health 

• Fixed an issue where multiple upgrades where being applied at the same time for Accelerator and Shredder 

General gameplay balance refinements (some of these were previously Active Tunables that have been removed from that article and committed to the game in Update 2.1 Hotfix 1). These are denoted below as: (*PT) for “Previous Tunable”

• Fixed the issue where Imp, Soldier, Zombie, and Arachnotron’s swipe melee attacks dealt no damage if passing through other demons first 

• Armored enemies will now falter when their armor is destroyed with Shotguns 

• Fixed an issue where the Vagary did not falter after taking damage from the Dreadmace direct damage or AOE damage once certain upgrades had been purchased 

• Fixed the issue where Pinky Rider Armor prevented falters from the Slayer’s landing impact 

• Fixed the issue where Whiplash did not perform a falter from the Slayer’s landing impact   

• Reverted the Cacodemon health buff applied in Update 2

• Reverted the Mancubus health and armor buffs applied in Update 2

• Reverted changes to Mancubus Flamethrower damage applied in Update 2

• Reverted changes to Mancubus Fireball speed and size applied in Update 2

• (*PT) Chaingunner increased cooldown between burst fire attacks & shortened duration of burst fire attacks

• Equipped Guns, upgrades, Melee weapon, and Shield Rune are now retained when reloading checkpoints during the campaign and when transitioning between missions

• Shield Charge AOE (Area of Effect) will now cause health to drop from killed enemies

• Fixed an issue where the Shield Saw could not be raised to perform a Block/Parry during the reload animation of the Super Shotgun 

• Added the ability to interrupt the Super Shotgun reload animation to melee at the same frame we allow a Block/Parry 

• Shortened the delay for the player to interrupt Rocket Launcher and Grenade Launcher firing animations to Shield Block/Parry or Melee 

• Fixed an issue introduced in Update 2 that allowed players to potentially switch weapons earlier than intended after firing certain guns including Super Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher 

• Fixed the brief slowdown experienced after Parrying or using a Melee combo when ‘Parry & Melee Slow Down’ is set to 0 

• Players will now be restored to a minimum of 75 health upon checkpoint reload if they hit the checkpoint with less health than that amount (this excludes Pandemonium and Ultra Nightmare which don’t have checkpoint reloading)

• Corrected an issue where the low ammo notice appears well before the Cycler Plasma Rifle should be notifying for a low ammo state 

• Fixed the issue where the player could briefly become locked out of swapping to the BFC while using the Chainshot 

• Fixed an issue where upgrading all melee weapons could prevent the Melee Expert and Berserker achievements from completing

Rail Spike Impaler

Developer Clarification: Impaler headshot damage was not universally increased in Update 2.

Today’s minor update for DOOM: The Dark Ages addresses the following:

• Fix for 1-frame jitter that can be caused by resolution scaling

• Fix for VRS (Variable Rate Shading) setting not changing when applying defaults

If you’re still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team here

This update adds the Ripatorium, an endless arena mode that lets players set up their own combat encounters within 3 unique arenas using a simple menu interface. Also included are two new DOOM Slayer skins (see below for unlock criteria), a loopable demo for Benchmark Mode on PC and a slew of other improvements and bug fixes

Includes a new Encounter Manager: 

• 

• Select type and quantity of demons to spawn 

• 

• Set a time limit to challenge yourself or turn on Endless mode 

• 

• Use the enemy respawn counter to craft your experience 

Includes 3 arenas: 

• Arena 1 – City of Ry’uul 

• Arena 2 – Village of Khalim

• Arena 3 – Harbor of Souls 

• 

• Lastly, a jukebox where you can select a DOOM: The Dark Ages music track for your custom encounter 

• 

• Added Demo Mode that lets you create a looping playlist sequence of benchmark mode flythroughs

Limited-Time Free QuakeCon 2025 DOOM Slayer skin* 

Earnable Perfection DOOM Slayer skin** 

*Requires linking the platform you play DOOM: The Dark Ages on to your Bethesda.net account and launching the game between August 7 and September 1, 2025. Please allow up to 48 hours for skin to appear in-game

** Complete an encounter in each Ripatorium arena (3 total)

• 

• Added a new difficulty slider for Max Life Sigils that allows players to set a Life Sigil capacity for their campaign run 

• 

• Added a new difficulty slider for Atlan Perfect Dodge Window 

  • Allows players to adjust how long the Perfect Dodge window is active when Dashing as the Atlan

• Updated the timing of the Life Sigil activation flow to smooth out the experience 

• Added a line to the Life Sigil activation screen that tells the player which enemy type delivered the killing blow 

• Added new sounds for when the player receives a killing blow to activate a Life Sigil, as well as a new sound when a Life Sigil is activated  

• Added new gameplay slider for Parry & Melee Slow Motion 

• Allows player to adjust the duration of the slow-motion feedback that occurs on a successful Shield parry or Melee strike when playing as the Slayer

• Added a new Game Setting for “Weapon Class Switch Style” 

• Standard [maintains current weapon swap behavior]

• Pressing a Weapon Class input in rapid succession will now always switch to the currently equipped weapon within a given Class

• Double Tap [NEW]

Pressing a Weapon Class input twice in quick succession at the beginning of a weapon switch will now automatically equip the other weapon in that class if available

• Global pass on combat music to ensure system is being triggered correctly for each encounter 

• Added ability to interrupt weapon bring-up and Shield Charge recovery animations sooner to perform a block or parry 

• Loading tip for melee being used to refill ammo will now appear more frequently 

• Increased speed of Weapon Swap animations 

Rail Spike Impaler

• Balance adjustments including:

• Reduced Impaler damage vs.

June 2025 PC Update Hotfix is now available. We’ve updated the required driver messaging in the launcher to match Nvidia + AMD’s latest recommended driver.

Nvidia example below:

ICYMI check out the full June 2025 PC Update Release Notes here

This June 2025 PC Update is exclusive to the PC versions of the game. It adds Path Tracing support with Ray Reconstruction for select NVIDIA GPUs. Also included in this update is a brand-new Benchmark Mode that lets PC gamers measure their system’s performance on a variety of settings. Additionally, this update resolves some known issues present in the previous version of the game. 

Path Tracing is officially supported on the range of NVIDIA GPUs, video settings and system requirements noted in the table below. Path Tracing, when combined with DLSS Ray Reconstruction adds accurate light bounce modeling, bringing new detail into view on material surfaces and reflections at a level previously not possible in a DOOM game. 

Required drivers: NVIDIA 576.75 or higher

To enable Path Tracing, go to the Video Settings menu, and scroll down to the Path Tracing section and set Path Tracing to On. To enable Ray Reconstruction, select it as the Denoiser in the Path Tracing section of the Video Settings menu. Make sure to apply your settings changes before returning to gameplay. 

While users on other supported GPU models are free to attempt to run the game with Path Tracing enabled at lower settings, 60 FPS, correct visuals and game stability are not assured when doing so. 

Click here for more information from NVIDIA regarding Path Tracing and the Ray Reconstruction in DOOM: The Dark Ages

Benchmark mode creates a consistent, nearly deterministic path through a section of select DOOM: The Dark Ages levels to that players can see how their systems perform under a variety of video settings.

Update 1 Hotfix is now available on all platforms and resolves degraded visuals appearing as increased graininess and/or blurriness in some video settings configurations. Shoutout to our community for helping identify the issue so we could quickly address it!

Note: Thanks for your patience while we continue to investigate why some PlayStation 5 users have been unable to unlock the Berserker Achievement/Trophy upon obtaining the necessary upgrades

ICYMI check out the full Update 1 Release Notes here

• Adjusted audio mix so music and sound effects are more balanced at Default levels (For best results we recommend you reset audio settings to Default)
• Reduced the amount of time health drops remain active during Atlan missions
• Sprint VFX are now disabled for auto-sprint

General gameplay balance refinements (some of these were previously Active Tunables that have been removed from that article and committed to the game in Update 1). These are denoted below as: (*PT) for “Previous Tunable”

• (*PT) Reduced how long health drops linger in the world when in the Atlan
• (*PT) Updated the Atlan combo system so that after using a Finisher, the player can still use the previous one
• ㄴPlayers were paying too much to use a Finisher, which led to holding on for the most powerful attacks and then cashing out. This creates a more dynamic combat experience that rewards building up multiple Finishers for extended combos and more strategic decision-making

• Dragon combat experience has been updated to allow players to move more swiftly through the experience
• ㄴMost enemies faced when on the Dragon will now only fire Hell Surge projectiles, allowing for more opportunities to empower the Autocannon
• ㄴThe Empowered state for the Dragon’s Autocannon now lasts longer
• ㄴ(*PT) Empowered shots from the Dragon’s Autocannon after a perfect dodge will go through projectile shields

• Resolved an issue in which some users could not unlock the Berserker Achievement/Trophy upon obtaining the necessary upgrades.

Tonight we are pushing an update for PC that addresses the following:

• Updated startup messaging.
• Fixed most instances of crashing at launch for some users.

We are currently pushing a small update for PC that includes the following change:

• Added new startup messaging for NVIDIA graphics card users.

For those of you who are unable to launch the game after purchasing the Premium Edition please know that the team is working on this. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Owners of the Premium Edition of DOOM: The Dark Ages should now be able to access the game. If you’re continuing to have issues, please reach out to our support team at http://help.bethesda.net.

DOOM: The Dark Ages supports voice and text in the following languages:

• English
• French
• Italian
• German
• Castilian Spanish
• LatAm Spanish
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Polish
• Japanese
• Russian

DOOM: The Dark Ages supports localized text and subtitles with English voice in the following languages:

• Korean
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Arabic
• Turkish

• On Steam, you can select language by right-clicking on DOOM: The Dark Ages in your Library, selecting properties and selecting language from the dropdown menu
  If the language is not supported by the application it will default to English.

• On PC, if supported, the Digital Artbook and Original Soundtrack application language is determined by local Windows language settings.

Enjoy the Official Launch Trailer for DOOM: The Dark Ages

Stand And Fight as the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw. Players will stand and fight on the demon-infested battlefields in the vicious, grounded combat the original DOOM is famous for. Take flight atop the new fierce Mecha Dragon, stand tall in a massive Atlan mech, and beat demons to a pulp with the newly enhanced glory kill system. Only the Slayer has the power to wield these devastating tools of mayhem. 

Coming May 15, 2025. Pre-order on Xbox Series X|S, PC or PlayStation 5. https://t.co/DCP5jMAfk4

For more information on all things DOOM: The Dark Ages and id Software, follow these channels and join the Slayers Club.

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/doom.com
Twitter: https://x.com/DOOM/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/doom/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@doom
Facebook: https://facebook.com/DOOM
Website: https://doom.bethesda.net/
Slayers Club: https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/

ESRB RATING: Mature for Blood and Gore and Intense Violence

Enjoy Official Trailer #2 for DOOM: The Dark Ages

Coming May 15, 2025. Pre-order now for up to 2-days Early Access!

For more information on all things DOOM: The Dark Ages and id Software, follow these channels and join the Slayers Club.

Twitter: https://x.com/DOOM/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doom/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/doom.com
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@doom
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DOOM
Website: https://doom.bethesda.net/
Slayers Club: https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/

ESRB RATING: Mature for Blood and Gore and Intense Violence.