Weapon

A weapon is used by the player to attack opponents. It is displayed onscreen as part of the body of the player character to simulate a first person perspective. In Doom it is the main aspect of the game action.

Each appears in the form of an item that, when picked up, provides the player with an additional weapon with which to attack opponents, as well as a bit of ammo for the corresponding weapon. Normally weapons are either placed in levels by the designers or dropped by dying opponents (such as zombies in the Doom games). Once a weapon is picked up during a game any additional weapons of the same type will count only as ammunition.

Each weapon has advantages and disadvantages when used against a given monster. Broadly speaking, however, the larger weapons do more damage but are harder to find and harder to keep stocked with ammunition. In each game, one or two weak weapons require no ammo and are therefore always available.

Doom games
No matter which weapon a player is wielding, his sprite (in multiplayer games, or source ports with a "chasecam" mode) is perpetually shown to be armed with the same generic assault rifle as the former humans; a weapon similar to this, although presumably intended to be the chaingun, appears on the game's title screen.

Picking up a weapon plays the sound effect.

Early versions
Early alpha releases of Doom armed the player with a semi-automatic assault rifle, optionally equipped with a double-bladed as a melee weapon. This weapon was not included in the finished game. The rifle sprites revealed the player character to be wearing elbow pads, which can still be seen on the player character sprite along with the rifle itself. A few other weapons were also included in the alpha versions.

The Doom Bible mentions the Dark Claw and Unmaker that never made it to the finished game. The latter was reintroduced in Doom 64.

Doom

 * Fists: Extremely basic close-range weapon. Never runs out of ammo, but only about as powerful as a pistol shot; normally used only as a last resort or with a berserk powerup.
 * Chainsaw: Does damage like the normal fist, but four times faster.
 * Pistol: The default long-range weapon. Not too effective.
 * Shotgun: A good general-purpose weapon, especially at close range. Reload time is slightly longer than normal.
 * Chaingun: Very good against large crowds, but its rapid rate of fire can quickly deplete its ammo supply.
 * Rocket launcher: Fires explosive rockets. Does a lot of damage, but can also seriously hurt the player if used indiscriminately at close range.
 * Plasma gun: Shoots pulses of blue-hot plasma at high speed, which can take down groups of incoming enemies easily &mdash; if aimed properly.
 * BFG9000: The "Big Fucking Gun." Somewhat counter-intuitive to operate at first, but kills almost any monster in one shot.

The chaingun and pistol both use use same ammo (bullets), so using either will also affect the other in ammo. The shotgun and super shotgun (see below) also share their ammo pool (shells) as do the plasma gun and BFG9000, which both use cells.

Doom II
All of the above weapons, with the addition of:


 * Super shotgun: A double-barrelled, sawed-off shotgun which takes even longer to reload, but at close range is even more deadly than the regular shotgun.

Doom 64
All of the above weapons, with the addition of:


 * Unmaker: A demonic laser gun which is a plasma gun clone at first but can be upgraded in firepower by the collection of Demon Keys.

Doom RPG
Doom RPG includes versions of the pistol, shotgun, super shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher, plasma gun, and BFG9000, as well as two new weapons, the fire axe and fire extinguisher.

Doom 3
All of Doom's weapons are present in some form in Doom 3, with the addition of:


 * Flashlight: Not a weapon per se, but it doubles as a crude club.
 * Machine gun: Similar to the chaingun, but not as powerful (but more accurate).
 * Grenades: Standard thrown fragmentation grenades on a timer.
 * Soul cube: Charged by the killing of monsters, and then released as a powerful seeking weapon that transfers health from the monster it hits to the player.

Resurrection of Evil
The Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil expansion pack contains all of Doom 3's weapons except the Soul Cube and the Chainsaw, but introduces a version of the gravity gun called the Grabber, and includes the super shotgun (as in Doom II). It also introduces an artifact somewhat like the Soul Cube.

Doom (film)

 * See List of weapons in Doom (film).

Doom (2016)
The 2016 Doom reboot contains most of the Doom II weapons, with the exceptions of the pistol and classic shotgun, and with the additions of:


 * Combat shotgun: The starting weapon for the player, replacing the old shotguns. It has a higher rate of fire, upgrades, and a charged shot.
 * Heavy assault rifle: An assault rifle, possibly similar to Doom 3's machine gun. It has upgrades for mini missiles and a scope.

Heretic

 * Staff
 * Gauntlets of the Necromancer
 * Elven Wand
 * Ethereal Crossbow
 * Dragon Claw
 * Hellstaff
 * Phoenix Rod
 * Firemace

Fighter

 * Spiked Gauntlets
 * Timon's Axe
 * Hammer of Retribution
 * Quietus

Cleric

 * Mace of Contrition
 * Serpent Staff
 * Firestorm
 * Wraithverge

Mage

 * Sapphire Wand
 * Frost Shards
 * Arc of Death
 * Bloodscourge

Strife

 * Punch Dagger
 * Crossbow
 * Assault Gun
 * Mini-Missile Launcher
 * Flamethrower
 * Grenade Launcher
 * Mauler
 * The Sigil of the One God

Hacx

 * Kick
 * Hoig Reznator
 * Pistol
 * Tazer
 * Cryogun
 * Uzi
 * Photon 'Zooka
 * Stick
 * Nuker