Destructible demons

An arachnotron in one of the stages of destruction. Note the destroyed plasma turret.

Destructible demons is a new gore system featured in Doom Eternal, first featured in the QuakeCon keynote presentation on August 10, 2018. The system is slated to return in Doom: The Dark Ages.

Details

Destructible demons is a visual and mechanical system in which enemies dynamically reflect the amount and types of damage they receive from the Doom Slayer. A prototypical version of this system appeared in Doom (2016) with fewer amounts of damageable parts, and even fewer gameplay-affecting interactions.

Most of the damage reflected in this way is purely aesthetic (e.g. chunks of flesh blown off to expose gore and bone), but certain weak spots will both take extra damage and disable enemy attacks if targeted specifically. This changes how the game plays by adding the ability to cripple certain weapons available to enemies, making them useless to that particular demon and forcing them to adopt less threatening attack patterns.

The precision bolt mod for the heavy cannon, the shotgun's sticky bombs, and the ballista all do bonus damage to weak spots, allowing parts to be broken faster. Weak points in general are also vulnerable to the plasma rifle's heat blast mod and the blood punch.

Demons possessed by a spirit cannot have their weak points destroyed.

Doom: The Dark Ages would see the destructible demons system return in an overhauled form. Weak point targeting has been removed; however, a handful of enemies are able to be staggered twice. Performing a glory kill on the first stagger will typically disable or degrade one of the enemy's available offensive options, serving more or less the same purpose. The amount of visual damage demons can take has been amplified. According to id Software, this new system allows for more dynamic instances of visual damage, taking into account distance, angle and overall damage value of received attacks. Additionally, enemies can have limbs outright blown off from the player's attacks. Some enemies, such as the mancubus and Hell knight, are able to survive, but will be rendered unable to harm the player without their arms. Worth noting is that limbs could be blown off in Doom Eternal and 2016 to a lesser extent, but in both of these games this only occurs when the amount of damage dealt is lethal.

Notable destructible parts

Doom (2016)

• Pinky: The pinky's new cranial armor plates can be blown off via the usage of high-yield angled explosives (direct hits seem to be less effective), or a direct headshot with the Gauss cannon's siege mode mod. When the armor is destroyed, the pinky loses its frontal damage reduction. This interaction is not present on spectres and was removed altogether in Doom Eternal.
• Cacodemon: The cacodemon's eye can be destroyed via concentrated damage, such as that from the heavy assault rifle's tactical scope mod. When this is done, the demon will fire out a volley of plasma balls in random directions before finally dying. This interaction was removed in Doom Eternal.

Doom Eternal

• Arachnotron: The arachnotron's plasma turret can be destroyed, forcing it to rely only on its grenades and claw swipes.
• Cacodemon: Throwing a frag grenade or firing a sticky bomb into a Cacodemon's mouth when it is open causes the demon to eat the bomb, instantly leaving it open to a glory kill.
• Cyber-mancubus: Its cannons cannot be broken, but its armor can be destroyed by the blood punch or concentrated fire, causing it to take more damage from attacks.
• Icon of Sin: Defeating the Icon of Sin requires the destruction of its eight targetable body parts in two stages—the first stage breaks its armor while the second stage destroys its flesh to expose the gore and bones underneath.
• Mancubus: Breaking the mancubus's cannons prevents it from using its flamethrower attack and makes its fireballs smaller.
• Maykr drone: Headshots not only instantly kill them, but they also drop large amounts of health and ammo (as well as armor if set aflame before death).
• Pinky (Doom Eternal): While losing the frontal weakness of its 2016 counterpart, its backside takes double damage, meaning flanking is the best route. Alternatively, the blood punch instakills them.
• Revenant: Its rocket launchers can be shot off, depriving the revenant of its primary mode of attack and forcing it to fight on the ground.

The tyrant enemy was also intended to have a weakpoint located within its arm cannon; however, this was removed late into development, but late enough that it can be modded back in with relative ease. When destroyed, the tyrant's missile rain and laser attacks are disabled. The exact reason for its removal is unknown.

The Ancient Gods, Part One

• Blood Maykr: The Blood Maykr is completely invincible most of the time, protected by a gold energy shield. This shield goes down when the Maykr prepares special attacks; at that time, headshots can instakill it. A longer and more costly route involves using the BFG to cripple the shield, but given the rarity of BFG ammo it is not the best course.
• Spirit: While having no weak points on its own, it should be warned that enemies possessed by a spirit will have their weak points made indestructible, making them even more dangerous.

The DLC also adds the optional support rune called Break Blast, which generates a concussive blast that falters enemies when a weak point is taken out. This applies to the mancubus's arm cannons, the arachnotron's turret, and the revenant's shoulder launchers.

The Ancient Gods, Part Two

• Armored baron: The armored baron is completely impervious to damage while its armor is intact. When the baron prepares a long-range attack the morning star will flash green; shooting it at this point with a powerful weapon like the ballista will cause it to detonate, instantly destroying the armor; it will regenerate after some time. Additionally, sustained fire with the plasma rifle will whittle away the armor's durability.

Doom: The Dark Ages

• Hell knight: Both of its arms can be blasted off without killing it. Doing this will render the demon completely harmless. If left alive, it will follow the player around, occasionally stomping and snarling, but never attacking.
• Mancubus: Similarly to the Hell knight, it can survive having both of its arms blown off. Also like the Hell knight, doing so renders it harmless to the player.
• Pinky rider: After the initial stagger, performing a glory strike will kill the rider, disabling the unit's ranged capabilities. The pinky can only use melee attacks without its rider.
• Cyberdemon: Performing a glory strike on the first stagger will deal heavy damage to its mechanical arm, making its attacks weaker, without disabling them entirely.