Energy cell (Doom)

For the Strife item, see Energy cells.

A cell pickup in a secret area in Doom E2M1: Deimos Anomaly.

The cell is the unit of ammo used by the plasma rifle and BFG 9000. Each BFG shot consumes 40 cells, while the plasma rifle can be fired one cell at a time (although this takes some concentration, as its rate of fire is very high).

Perhaps confusingly, the games' instruction manuals show "Cell" as an ammo pickup. This pickup actually contains 20 cells (40 on the I'm Too Young To Die and Nightmare! skill levels), and the game calls it an energy cell. Other sources call this pickup a cell charge.

Each cell fired from the plasma rifle does 5-40 hit points of damage, determined using Doom's pseudorandom number generator. BFG damage calculations are more complex, but a direct hit inflicts 100-800 points, and a nonstandard form of blast damage may also occur (which affects even bosses normally immune to blast damage).

Energy cell data
Thing type	2047 (decimal), 7FF (hex)
Appears in	Registered Doom Ultimate Doom Doom II/Final Doom Doom 64
Radius	20
Sprite	CELL
Class	Ammo Pickup

Appearance statistics

The IWADs contain the following numbers of cell charge pickups:

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
Ultimate Doom	67	67	65
Doom II	120	122	123
TNT: Evilution	48	46	46
Plutonia	154	154	153

Doom RPG

In Doom RPG, the energy cell pickup is called a plasma box. It gives the player either 4 or 10 cells.